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Don Sawyer’s Harlem upbringing is shaping his role as VP for equity and inclusion — a role he never envisioned for himself. Watch related episodes of “The Cut.”
Also in this issue: President Olian’s conversations with industry leaders, COVID-19 vaccine research, working as a trainer in the NFL, and the Q-5’s 50th anniversary.
Inside cover: Nearly 60 students put their skills, strength and endurance to the test at the Quinnipiac Mountain Clash in October. The Tough Mudder-style event featured more than a dozen challenges across the Mount Carmel Campus. Even listing a few will make you tired. Student teams stepped in and out of tires, carried logs, jumped from hay bale to hay bale, leaped over hurdles and crawled on their bellies under a matrix of string. Winners earned gift cards to Eli’s restaurants.
Page 4: Khalilah Brown-Dean has been a coveted radio guest for years. So when Connecticut Public Radio asked her to host a new show about social disruption in America, Brown-Dean saw a chance to effect change from a bully pulpit. Or at least, a bully microphone.
Page 14: Jared Mazzola ’21, a criminal justice major and a member of the MAAC’s All-Academic Team, hasn’t played a game in more than a year. His last outing was Nov. 14, 2019. As one of the top goalkeepers in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Mazzola was eager to compete for a championship with the Quinnipiac men’s soccer team, and just maybe, score a professional contract. But when a global pandemic shut down everything last March, Mazzola was forced to divert his dream.
Page 18: Esau Greene ‘21, center, makes a point to Don C. Sawyer III during a taping of ”The Cut,” a new video series that gives Black students a safe place to have candid conversations.
Page 31: Tom Ellett chats with undergraduate students on the quad early in the fall semester. Helping them adjust to COVID-19 policies was a vital part of his role.
Page 38: Phil Buzzerio ’14, an assistant athletic trainer for the New York Giants, checks the knee of wide receiver Kalif Raymond during a preseason NFL game in 2018. Also shown is wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. Neither athlete plays for the Giants anymore.
Page 44: The Q-Five and their wives at a holiday party. Front row, from left: Melissa Barasch, Linda Antonino, Holly Camerota, Susan Greenfeld and Karen Testa. Back row: Jeff Barasch, John Antonino, Lou Camerota, Joe Greenfeld and Dan Testa.
The corner of 132nd Street and Madison Avenue in East Harlem will always be a crossroads for Don Sawyer. There’s no special street sign or bronze plaque embedded in the sidewalk, but that doesn’t change anything.
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After earning her BS in clinical lab science, Kristin (Kourie) Tompkins ’00 donned a lab coat at Pfizer and went right to work as an assistant researcher. Twenty years later, she is a senior research scientist and part of the team that worked on the COVID-19 vaccine in Pfizer’s research and development group at its Pearl River, New York, facility.
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Khalilah Brown-Dean has been a coveted radio guest for years. So when Connecticut Public Radio asked her to host a new show about social disruption in America, Brown-Dean saw a chance to effect change from a bully pulpit. Or at least, a bully microphone.
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The fictional Marcus Welby, MD, made house calls to patients too sick to see him in the office in the popular ’60s TV show by the same name. House calls are making a comeback — owing to the intersection of COVID-19 and technology — but patients are clicking video links rather than answering doorbells to see their doctors and other health care providers.
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President Judy Olian thanked students for their diligence and efforts in helping to fight COVID-19 at the annual State of the QUnion on March 2 — and reassured them that their efforts are making a tangible, positive difference.
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When Tom Ellett heard that Quinnipiac was looking for a chief student experience officer, he was intrigued. It was the first advertised job of its kind he’d seen, and he could visualize himself in that role. Enhancing the college experience for students is what he’s done for more than 35 years at four different universities.
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