Ingrid Katarina Shockey, MA’91, PhD’96, has been promoted to associate teaching professor in the interdisciplinary and global studies division at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. An environmental sociologist whose work focuses on natural literacy and the interplay of human-wilderness boundaries, she coordinates WPI project centers focused on environmental issues in New Zealand and India. She has been a member of the WPI faculty since 2008 and an assistant teaching professor since 2012. After 25 years of teaching, researching and working at National Chung Cheng University, Lisa Wang, Heller PhD’91, retired in July 2016. She plans to write about her role in helping people with disabilities work together to bring changes to Taiwan. Elizabeth Hodgson, PhD’92, was promoted to full professor at the University of British Columbia. Her second monograph, “Grief and Women Writers in the English Renaissance,” was published last year. Joseph Omansky, IBS MA’95, created Clover Options Fund, a volatility arbitrage hedge fund based in New York City. Mohammad Mamdudur Rashid, MA’95, was promoted to the position of additional managing director of BRAC Bank Limited in Bangladesh. The L’viv Chamber Orchestra premiered Symphony No. 2 (“Sinfonia Brevis”), a piece by Scott Thomas Brickman, PhD’96, at the Philharmonic Hall in L’viv, Ukraine. Since Aashish Kalra, IBS MA’96, became chair of Cambridge Technology Enterprises in January 2015, the company has emerged as one of the leading names in the convergence of cloud and big-data space, specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Thai Pham, IBS MA’96, is vice president at Swiss Reinsurance Co. Everett Lilly, Heller PhD’97, was named director of East Tennessee State University’s bachelor of social work program. Larissa Matzek, Heller MM’99, and her husband, Matthew Ross Klun, celebrated their first wedding anniversary in August 2016. Larissa recently became project manager at MassDevelopment.
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