Alumni Profiles
- Floris Wilma Ortiz-Marrero '97MEd, '09EdD, was named Massachusetts Teacher of the Year for 2011 by Governor Patrick in June. She has taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at Amherst Regional Middle School since 1993 and also teaches a graduate course in language literacy and culture at UMass Amherst.
- Cosmo Macero ’90, senior vice president at the communications and public relations firm O’Neill and Associates in Boston and veteran political, business, and public policy journalist, shares his insights on the 2010 elections.
- If there is one message that John Jacobs ’90 wants to get across, it's this: do what you like and like what you do. The motto represents a core belief for Jacobs, the Chief Creative Optimist of Life is good®, a $100 million apparel and accessory business based in Boston, MA. “It represents the importance of discovering your true passion and translating that passion for a greater good.”
- Bill Gallagher ’05 always knew that he wanted to tell stories. An associate producer on the recently released documentary, Racing Dreams, Gallagher is putting his journalism degree and UMass Amherst experience to good use. The documentary follows three pre-teens competing in the World Karting Association’s National Series.
“My relationship with radio began at age thirteen,” says Peter Thomson ’85 (STPEC), environment editor for The World, a daily one-hour public radio news program produced at WGBH, Boston by Public Radio International and the BBC. The result of his esteem, his talent for lyrical storytelling, and “luck intersecting with and maybe even trumping initiative” is an award-winning career that has helped set the standard for environmental journalists across the county.
Whitney Lamy '80 never saw herself doing just one thing for her entire career. An artist at heart, she has always gravitated toward jobs that provided a creative outlet. Through her latest venture, Castleton Crackers, Lamy is applying her creative energies and love of baking to develop her product line of hand-made artisan crackers and market it around the country.
When Kendra Porter ’00, ’05G traveled to West Africa in 2005, her intention was to help a friend fulfull her dream of starting a school in Ghana. Five years later, she is now the Interim Head Mistress of the Youth Institute of Science and Technology (YIST) in Agogo, Ghana, overseeing close to 250 elementary students with a high school to open this fall. 
For Charles D. Hadley ’64, ’67G; Bill Knecht ’65; and Keith Liederman ’84, life in the Big Easy hasn’t been so easy since Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005. Longtime residents of New Orleans and leaders in their community, they anticipate that it will take 10 to 15 years for the city and neighboring parishes to truly recover. Still, they are seeing signs of progress, especially with the help of groups like our alumni volunteers that recently spent a week in New Orleans rebuilding homes.
Spiritual, captivating, and haunting are words that come to mind as you take in “Icons of the Civil Rights Movement,” a series of paintings by Pamela Chatterton-Purdy ’66 MFA. The twenty oil paintings are a tribute to the people whose tremendous sacrifice influenced the history of this country. “Every time I see someone tear-up as they look at the show I have a real sense of accomplishment,” she says, “because I’ve succeeded in honoring these people and all they accomplished through non-violence.”
Kalekeni Banda ’75, or Coach Banda as he prefers to be called, is crossing continents to help a country one child at a time. He is the founder/president of the Banda Bola Sports Foundation - Chituka Village Project, a non-profit charity that promotes education, health and welfare through sports activities for the children of Chituka, a farming village in the African country of Malawi. 
Rebekah (Somes) Crampton Kamukala ’59 never thought that her degree in home economics would take her to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, or to Mongolia and China as an exchange judge, or even a 23-year career in Juvenile Court, but she’s very glad that it did. “Each chapter of my life has offered new opportunities, and I’ve always had a zeal for new adventures,” said Kamukala. 
Just like a plot for one of his movies, Michael Haley '65's 40-year career in the film industry has taken many twists and turns. The Emmy Award-winning producer, director and actor shared his experiences behind and in front of the camera as the Alumni Association's Eleanor Bateman Scholar in Residence in October. Haley's career started in the late 60s after graduating from UMass Amherst with a degree in speech therapy.
Beth Feldman ’90 is the creator and president of Role Mommy.com. The site is an online community for today’s busy mom with a mission to inspire, entertain and inform. Through blogs, book and product reviews, news posts and events, the company helps moms stay connected and in touch with their personal and professional aspirations.
