News
Redhawks Who Soar May 2023
Heather Williams ‘16 (Mod RN), a Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, recently joined UR Medicine Thompson Health’s Shortsville Family Practice. Williams has an extensive background in both acute and outpatient care following nearly three decades as a registered nurse. The past ten years of her RN career have been with F.F. Thompson Hospital’s Cardiac Rehabilitation and Pulmonary Disease Management Program. Williams is board certified by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.
Read more: NP Heather Williams joins Shortsville Family Practice
James Muscatella ‘15 (Childhood & Special Education, Minor in History) will be ordained transitional deacon in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Sept. 28. “I get to serve at Mass. I get to proclaim the Gospel, the words from God that struck my heart. I will be able to preach,” said Muscatella. “I’ll be there at the altar and looking forward to one day being the priest whose hands hold the host as consecrated by Christ. Approaching all these very beautiful things that called me (to the priesthood) now I’m going to be a part of that, like an instrument in God’s hands. It’s unreal.”
Muscatella previously worked for Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES for three years. He answered the call to a priestly vocation and attended St. John’s Seminary in Boston then continued at North American College in Rome.
Read the story: Gates native to be ordained transitional deacon in Rome
Marc-Anthony Blackburn ‘23, ‘22 (Strategic Leadership M.S., Business Administration) has started a new venture recently opening Visions Hair Studio in Canada. He opened the hair studio with his brother and is excited to pursue a career he loves.
Marc-Anthony is on the right.
Congratulations to Julieann Bechtold ‘89 ‘95 (Music Education, Education M.Ed.) on her recent Golden Apple award. She is a music teacher at Greece Athena Middle School who leads the 125 member chorus. Bechtold has been teaching for 34 years and will be retiring at the end of the school year. Greece Athena Middle School Principal Jason Fulkerson said, “She is the ultimate team player. She’s got a heart and is in it for our students. She has done so much for our community in the several years she has been here in Greece.”
Read the story: Congratulations to Julieann Bechtold
Isaiah Lewis ‘20 ‘22 (Business Administration, Strategic Leadership M.S.) completed two years playing professional basketball, as a guard, in Europe for team Iverioni. He was promoted to the Georgian Superleague in their first season. Read more.
Olga Mendez ‘89 (Management of Human Resources) is the Director of Human Resources at American Packaging Corporation. Mendez began in Human Resources twenty-five years ago. She shared that the field has changed considerably and she attributes much of that to HR professionals rising to challenges, like the pandemic, with agility, creativity and empathy.
She was recently featured in the Rochester Business Journal’s special report on HR and employee benefits. “My ultimate goal was to lead an HR team and make a difference in the lives of employees,” Mendez said. “For me personally as a Latina female, being able to report to the COO of a company means a lot.”
“Most people used to think of HR as the people who hire and fire,” Mendez said. “I like to think the pandemic helped people see HR differently. We showed up as the voice of the employee.”
