 
| Selected alumni profiles. Bruce Barrett ‘73, M.B.A. ’82Deborah Norman ’73Madelyn Noe-Schlentz ’83Shantia Anderheggen ’84Regen Jamieson ’97Keith Aubin ’99Amber van Eeghen ’03 | |||||||||||||
Class Acts Profiles
Bruce Barrett ‘73, M.B.A. ’82 Everyone can surf the Internet, but few can piece it together. Bruce Barrett is renowned for such work. The director of networking and telecommunication for CCRI, Barrett worked at URI in the mid-’80s when he connected to Princeton’s high-speed regional research network to provide the University with access to the Internet. This preceded a federal grant that brought the high-performance, research-only Internet 2 network to campus in the late ’90s. Because of high expenses, URI and Brown worked together when the I-2 grant ran out, a collaboration that led to the Ocean State Higher Education Economic Development and Administrative Network (OSHEAN.org) non-profit consortium. Barrett helped merge the state’s higher education institutions and government, CLAN library systems, and others to one Internet network. “OSHEAN had a big impact on the physical infrastructure that allowed members to add I-1 and I-2,” said Barrett, who credits executive director George Loftus for forming OSHEAN. “It adds value added features like network security. For all members there was a common need for high-speed, reliable and cost-effective infrastructure.” Barrett, an OSHEAN board member and treasurer, was honored for his work with distance learning in a 2001 Yahoo.com survey of most-wired institutions, which ranked CCRI seventh nationally among two-year colleges. Barrett recently was elected to a post on the Programming Committee of the Association for Communication Technology Professionals in Higher Education (ACUTA.org), an international association for higher education. He is the lone community college representative. The appointment came after Barrett presented an IP video at the annual conference in 2002 and co-presented last year with OSHEAN on the construction of dark fiber networks. “The demand is up for bandwidth, but budgets stay the same,” Barrett explained. “By leasing dark fiber, we can cap costs for networking without capping bandwidth. It’s like driving down Route 95 during rush hour. If there are two lanes, everything is congested. If you add eight lanes, everyone can drive.” —Shane Donaldson ’99
Deborah Norman ’73 As a recent college graduate with a double degree in psychology and music, Deb Norman went looking for a job in her field that paid well. In the meantime, she took a job as a cocktail waitress in Providence. For Norman, that job became a career steppingstone. “I absolutely loved it—the people, the energy. It was great fun.” And it more than paid the bills Norman moved on and up and began managing the wait staff at a local restaurant. From wait staff to kitchen to bartending, she learned every aspect of the business, “I can even fix a dishwasher.” Her varied experience gave her the confidence to start her own business in 1976, a restaurant with French flair. Why French? “Back in those days Providence was filled with spaghetti joints, steak houses, and Chinese restaurants. French was a niche that was not tapped, so I learned how to cook quiche and crepes.” Rue de L’Espoir has since become one of Providence’s finest restaurants. Many restaurants have come and gone—some lasting only as long as a fashion trend. Through it all, Rue has prevailed and, by design, morphed into an American bistro. “We’ve reinvented ourselves several times to keep up with culinary trends and Providence’s bustling restaurant scene. Providence has become a dining Mecca with stiff competition and discerning customers. We thrive on the competition.” Consistency and service are Rue’s mainstay. The menu changes seasonally, yet there are old favorites that never change. And one restaurant reviewer recently referred to the staff as a “well-trained sisterhood of waitresses.” Says Norman, “The food and atmosphere can be great, but if service is bad, people won’t come back.” Rue also separates itself from the pack with its style. Norman points out that “we are the only white tablecloth restaurant in town offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” To discover the Rue—named a restaurant destination by national magazines—go to www.therue.com. —Maria V. Caliri, ‘86, M.B.A. ’92
Madelyn Noe-Schlentz ’83 Madelyn Noe-Schlentz is a runner—a fast runner. In fact, she’s faster than any other American woman over 40 in the outdoor 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) with a time of 34:58, and in the indoor 3000 meters, with a time of 9:58.88. She also became the first master’s runner to run a sub-5 minute mile, posting a 4:59. Combined with her speed and long distance running regime, Noe-Schlentz qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials with a time of 2:47.28, a feat that only 140 women in the country achieved before the Olympic Trials were held in St. Louis in April. But there will be no Olympic glory for her this time: Noe-Schlentz was diagnosed with a pubic bone inflammation before the Trials and attended as a spectator. Even so, her enthusiasm for the sport continues unabated. Her collegiate running—cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field, all coached by Lauren Anderson, now URI’s senior associate director of athletics—taught her discipline. “Running for Lauren Anderson was a major learning experience for me,” says Noe-Schlentz, who recalls cold, windy training runs from campus to the hills of Yawgoo. “The work-outs were challenging, but we always laughed,” she says. After graduating with a degree in food science, Noe-Schlentz returned to her native New Jersey and began competing in weekend road races at the Jersey Shore. In the mid-1990s, she took a fateful step. A group of women runners who routinely finished ahead of her introduced her to their coach, Jim Schlentz. “He became my coach, and six years later we were married!” She is philosophical about her injury, focusing on strength training and a gradual return to running. In August, when the Women’s Marathon event of the 2004 Olympic Games is held in Athens, Greece, Noe-Schlentz says, “I’ll be home watching it on television. And I hope to go out for a 10-mile run before watching.” — Jill Connors
Shantia Anderheggen ’84 The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities is dedicated to collecting and preserving buildings, landscapes, and objects from the 17th century to the present. SPNEA is the answer to preserving historic homes, such as the 1664 Jackson House, the oldest house in New Hampshire; or for homes of architectural interest, such as the house that Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius designed and built for his own family in Lincoln, Mass., in 1938. SPNEA’s Stewardship Program also protects private homes in perpetuity through preservation restrictions—legally binding agreements that shield the houses from alterations, demolition, and neglect. In the case of the Gropius house and 22 other house museums, SPNEA preserves the contents. Shantia Anderheggen, who oversees SPNEA’s preservation program, reports that the recent past has been exceptionally busy. “Development and sprawl worries people. Our biggest challenge is keeping up with interest. Many homeowners’ biggest fear is that their house will be razed and replaced with a McMansion.” Anderheggen works with homeowners to assure that their historic New England properties will be preserved. SPNEA is one of the first organization in America to use easements to protect physical structures. “We’re the Cadillac model, offering the most comprehensive protection—right down to the hardware and nails,” she says. Anderheggen delights in her role and marvels at how well her URI education prepared her for work in historic preservation. “The faculty, especially Ron Onorato, was skilled at putting art history in a socio-historical context and looking at art history in 3-D. During my graduate school interview at Boston University, the director said, ‘URI—great school.’ I knew then that BU had the right program for me.” Anderheggen protects the past, yet is looking to the future to grow SPNEA’s reach. Recently promoted to the position of director of historic preservation, her responsibilities have expanded beyond the stewardship function to include public outreach and education. —Maria V. Caliri ‘86, M.B.A. ’92.
Regen Jamieson ’97 If you’ve ever wanted to get up close and personal with a rhino, whale, cheetah, or other wild creature, call Regen Jamieson. She can arrange for you to spend two weeks helping biologists study carnivores in Argentina, birds in the Baltic archipelago, butterflies in Vietnam, or crocodiles in Cuba, among many others. The Medford, Mass., resident works for Earthwatch Institute, which engages people worldwide in hands-on scientific field research. A 1997 URI graduate with a degree in environmental management, Jamieson worked for three years serving as a liaison between scientists and volunteers, ensuring that researchers get the assistance they need while helping volunteers enjoy a fulfilling experience. To do that job effectively, Jamieson visited a variety of sites to make sure the projects were running smoothly. “Since I was a staff member on the project, that meant that I got the lumpiest bed and the worst seat in the car,” she said laughing. It also meant that she experienced some remarkable close encounters of her own, from hearing the “thud, thud, thud” of a bull elephant seal trying to sneak up on her on a beach in the Falkland Islands, to searching for bats in a Malaysian forest at midnight and not knowing what creature was rustling the trees nearby. “The Falklands were the most remote place I’ve ever been,” she said. “I walked through a field of penguins to get to a beach full of seals with orcas surfacing just off the coast. It was amazing!” She recently took on an expanded role at Earthwatch coordinating events, outreach, and a network of 200 volunteer field representatives throughout North America. Jamieson credits her URI advisor, Josef Gorres, with leading her into the world of environmental research. “He helped get me into my major and was always willing to talk,” she said. “And I just loved the hands-on learning and the labs. It was long hours, but I really miss it.” —Todd McLeish
Keith Aubin ’99 In Keith Aubin’s world, thinking small reaps big rewards. The 1999 math and physics major, now an applied physics graduate student at Cornell University, recently won an international research competition for an invention that involved materials at the nanoscale (systems so small they approach the molecular level). With two other Cornell colleagues, Aubin won the graduate category in the Collegiate Inventors Competition for a micromechanical device for telecommunications that the trio built. “It’s a dome-shaped oscillator that looks like a very tiny head of a drum. It’s made of silicon with a circular width that is 1/3 the width of a human hair,” explains Aubin. The oscillator resonates and is small enough to be built right on a silicon chip, making it ideal for use in cell phones, watches, and other devices that currently rely on a much larger quartz and chip combination. The team was awarded a $25,000 prize in a ceremony in Manhattan last fall. They’ve already patented their dome and are negotiating with licensing partners from the world of nanotechnology, an emerging industry covering products that operate on the molecular scale. (The term nanotechnology is derived from nanometer, one-billionth of a meter.) Aubin says the uses for the micromechanical dome include medical applications: “We could put the dome in a pill that a person takes, enabling information to be transferred from inside the human body. We’ve literally shrunk the elements down to a size that you can swallow.” The fourth year graduate student hopes to finish his thesis—on microelectrical mechanical systems—by December 2004, then go into research and development in the nanotechnology industry. It’s an exciting time for the Coventry native, who attended college on a merit scholarship. Says Aubin, who was married last summer: “I’m dying to get back and visit the University, but I just don’t have time.” —Jill Connors
Amber van Eeghen ’03 This past year has been a whirlwind for Amber van Eeghen. Amber, who graduated last year with a degree from the College of Human Science and Services, decided in April 2003 to tryout to become a New England Patriots’ cheerleader. She described the experience as “a long process with over 400 girls, and of those, only 24 made it last year.” Amber’s father, Mark van Eeghen, had been a player with the Oakland Raiders and the New England Patriots, so football was in her blood. “I was brought up as a huge football fan and as a Patriots’ fan,” said Amber, whose Dad retired from football when she was 3 years old. “I thought it would be exciting to actually be there on the sidelines.” At URI, Amber had performed at men’s basketball games as a member of the Ramettes dance team. She saw cheerleading as the perfect opportunity to continue doing something she enjoyed. Becoming a Patriots’ cheerleader has taken Amber all the way to Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston. “It was amazing,” Amber said. “We were so busy. We had no time at all. Even though we didn’t get much sleep the night before, we were all so pumped on Sunday! It was indescribable and surreal to be in the middle of all that.” In addition to practicing with the Patriots’ cheerleaders twice a week during football season and once a week during the off-season, Amber substitute teaches at elementary schools in Rhode Island. “I’m putting in my time before getting a real job teaching,” said Amber, who is certified to teach kindergarten through second grade. After trying out again in April 2004, Amber was once more selected to be a Patriots’ cheerleader. In May, right after the tryouts, the Patriots’ cheerleaders performed for U.S. troops in such far flung areas as Fort Hood, Texas; Hawaii; Japan; and South Korea. Now they are honing their skills for what they hope might be another Super Bowl appearance. —Hannah Wistey |
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