Stacie Starr ’06

Wins Top Teacher Search

Stacie Starr ’06 (Master of Education) is the recipient of the “LIVE with Kelly and Michael Top Teacher Search.” Starr works at Elyria High School in Elyria, Ohio. Maryann Verlotti, parent of one of Starr’s former students, Dominic, nominated Starr for the award. Verlotti credits Starr for bringing Dominic, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at age 3, out of his shell and developing him into a strong young man. The Top Teacher Search honors teachers from across the country for making their schools better, and for their service and commitment to their students and communities.

Alumni team up for winning political campaign

For more than a decade, Jim Fogarty ’98 has directed TV commercials for Ohio political candidates. But there’s one campaign very close to his heart — a 2002 congressional race where Tim Ryan ’95, then 29, claimed victory.

Ryan was just a first-term state senator when he decided to run for U.S. Congress. His win was no surprise to Fogarty, a fellow BGSU alumnus and a friend of Ryan’s since the two attended John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio.

Ryan first enlisted Fogarty to prepare a modest media campaign during his state senate run in 2000. Fogarty had just launched his Warren-based film production company, 2 Ticks & The Dog. He spent his days shooting commercials for local businesses and his nights making a feature film, “Waxing Gibbous.”

Two years later, Ryan set his sights on Congress. Again, he sought Fogarty’s input.

In that primary election, Ryan first had to defeat Rep. Tom Sawyer — an eight-term Congressman whose hometown, Akron, was redrawn into the 17th District. Then, in the general election, he was up against 17th District Rep. Jim Traficant, who had been indicted on corruption charges and ran as an independent from his prison cell.

Helping a friend succeed wasn’t Fogarty’s only motivation. He was eager to support the Youngstown/Warren area’s prosperity and development.

Today, Ryan is serving his sixth term in Congress and is co-chairman of the Congressional Manufacturing Caucus. He’ll be up for re-election this fall and continues to work with Fogarty.

“He was involved in my first campaign and he’ll be involved in my last campaign,” Ryan said.

Fogarty continues to direct political media campaigns, sometimes juggling as many as five races at a time. In addition, he recently wrapped “Operation Resurrection,” a documentary examining struggles of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. Another upcoming project, “This Is Titletown,” focuses on five boxing world title holders who all hail from Youngstown.

Fitz-Edward Otis II ’67

spreads smiles across the world

   

Fitz-Edward Otis II is doing what he does best – selling smiles. The 1967 graduate has traveled to 75 countries in a long career that has focused on spreading pure entertainment across the globe.

Otis is involved in the marketing, sales and distribution of cinematic and animatronic attractions, and dark rides – indoor experiences that use guided vehicles to take guests through scenes filled with animatronics, computer-generated imagery, music, sound and special effects. His customers are theme and amusement parks, attractions, and museums, but it’s the oohs and ahhs of children and their parents that really close the deals.

“I sell fun – that’s what I do,” said Otis, the international sales manager for Jacksonville-based Sally Corporation. “This is one of the most challenging, exciting and wonderful businesses in the world.”

 Otis has made his way to his current position, and around the world and back many times, with a passion for every endeavor.

He went from serving as president of his BGSU freshman and sophomore classes, to an active role in the SICSIC spirit group, and a leadership post in ROTC. He was a highly decorated Army Ranger in Vietnam, and then sold pre-engineered buildings for a company owned by the father of distinguished alumnus Dick Seaman ‘67, who had been a roommate of Otis at BG.

That position led to connections in the entertainment and amusement park business, where Otis has flourished over the past 35 years.

Kathleen A. Frankart ’76

credits BGSU for her start in leadership and communications

Retired Verizon communications executive Kathleen A. Frankart ’76 of Sarasota, Fla., is a rock star example of a woman in leadership. The native of Alvada, Ohio, says BGSU was the perfect place to transition from a “small town farm girl” and embark on a career in communications.

Frankart held active roles with UAO and worked in what was then called the campus Office of Public Information, writing press releases and feature stories about students. Upon graduation, the journalism major used her degree to hone her writing chops at The (Findlay) Courier.

Later she worked in the nonprofit industry, including at The University of Akron and the National Association for Campus Activities in Columbia, S.C. In 1989 she made the leap into corporate America and took a communications position with GTE Corp. She saw the company through its 2001 merger with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon.

It was in the midst of her transition to the Manhattan, N.Y., office that 9/11 happened. Frankart played an integral role with communication restoration following the tragedy, and gave a talk on campus in 2004 about her experience.

“It was months of grueling and sometimes extremely sad work. You are grieving and working at the same time,” she said.

After more than two decades at Verizon, Frankart retired in 2011 as senior vice president of employee communications for the company’s wire line division. Today she plays an active role on the BGSU College of Arts and Sciences Advocates Board.

“My Bowling Green experience was front and center in my career,” she said.

NFL career a springboard for higher calling for

Steve Sanders ’06

He’s best known now as a former NFL wide receiver, but when Steve Sanders ’06 arrived at BGSU in 2001 on a football scholarship, he wasn’t sure what the future held and was worried as he quickly found himself lagging behind in class.
“I didn’t know how to ask for help — I never wanted people to think of me as the dumb jock,” Sanders said.

His life changed the day Sanders summoned the courage to tell his coach about his school struggles. His coach’s wife was a high school English teacher and began tutoring Sanders. Over time, he became a confident reader, graduated cum laude with a degree in political science, and then played for the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions and Arizona Cardinals.

The passion he developed for books proved to be the foundation for his post-football career as a life coach for young athletes. Sanders’ self-published book, “Training Camp for Life: Developing Champions in Sports and Life,” was released in May. The book explores setting goals, adopting a positive attitude and what it means to “go pro”
in sports.

The book shares its name with Sanders’ Cleveland-based nonprofit organization where he helps young athletes to define their own purpose and legacy — something Sanders struggled with himself following his retirement from the NFL in 2011. It was during this difficult time that he began writing “Training Camp for Life.”
In spring 2014, Sanders returned to BGSU, kicking off his book tour at Olscamp Hall.

The feedback he receives from students, coaches and parents reminds Sanders that leaving the NFL was the right choice, he said.

“Playing football was something I did for me and for my family. What I’m doing now is so much bigger than me, so much greater than anything I could ever do with a ball.”

Anthony Doerr ’99

captures war and wonder

“All the Light We Cannot See,” written by Anthony Doerr ’99, has gained critical acclaim since debuting on the New York Times best-seller list in May 2014.

“The story is about radio and the way it was used as a tool both of control and resistance in World War II,” Doerr said. “But it’s also about the lives of children, about color and light, and about wonder.”

The novel was a decade in the making due to the intricate historical detail Doerr had to uncover, such as what sort of meals German orphans would be eating in 1937, or what a blind French girl’s schooling situation might be like, or if there were refrigerators in Parisian kitchens in 1940, or electric lamps on the streets of a mining town in Germany. Additionally, the subject matter of the Nazi regime was so disturbing to Doerr that he “… wrote two whole books (“Memory Wall” and “Four Seasons in Rome”) just as procrastination from writing this novel, really as a way to take a breath and step away from the material.”

Doerr received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from BGSU and in 2010 was named one of the University’s 100 Most Prominent Alumni. Author of five acclaimed books, he has won numerous literary awards, including: four O. Henry Prizes; three Pushcart Prizes; the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize; a Guggenheim Fellowship; a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship; the 2010 Story Prize, which is considered the most prestigious prize in the United States for a collection of short stories; and the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, which is the largest prize in the world for a single short story. His books have twice been named a New York Times Notable Book and an American Library Association Book of the Year.

Kathleen A. Frankart ’76

credits BGSU for her start in leadership and communications

Retired Verizon communications executive Kathleen A. Frankart ’76 of Sarasota, Fla., is a rock star example of a woman in leadership. The native of Alvada, Ohio, says BGSU was the perfect place to transition from a “small town farm girl” and embark on a career in communications.

Frankart held active roles with UAO and worked in what was then called the campus Office of Public Information, writing press releases and feature stories about students. Upon graduation, the journalism major used her degree to hone her writing chops at The (Findlay) Courier.

Later she worked in the nonprofit industry, including at The University of Akron and the National Association for Campus Activities in Columbia, S.C. In 1989 she made the leap into corporate America and took a communications position with GTE Corp. She saw the company through its 2001 merger with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon.

It was in the midst of her transition to the Manhattan, N.Y., office that 9/11 happened. Frankart played an integral role with communication restoration following the tragedy, and gave a talk on campus in 2004 about her experience.

“It was months of grueling and sometimes extremely sad work. You are grieving and working at the same time,” she said.

After more than two decades at Verizon, Frankart retired in 2011 as senior vice president of employee communications for the company’s wire line division. Today she plays an active role on the BGSU College of Arts and Sciences Advocates Board.

“My Bowling Green experience was front and center in my career,” she said.