North Allegheny graduates honored with 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award

Following are the recipients of North the Allegheny Foundation’s 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award.

The annual honor recognizes graduates in 10 categories who have made significant contributions to society or outstanding professional accomplishments.

This year’s award winners were recognized during a virtual ceremony in late January.

Arts

Greg Joseph, Class of 1981

Rob Hertweck, Class of 1984

The Clarks

Early on, The Clarks were once described as a bunch of out of tune country hicks. The band took irreverent offense to the comments, saying they were never country hicks.

Eleven studio albums and a couple of guitar tuners later, The Clarks have struck again with “Madly In Love At The End Of The World,” a lively ride down a rural lane, laced with love, mourning and questions about where it all goes from here.

The band recorded the eleven-song album in a converted A-frame church, which helped highlight a series of warm, rock, and alt-country tunes.

The four original members, Scott Blasey (vocals, acoustic guitar), Rob James (6 and 12-string electric guitars, vocals), Greg Joseph (bass, vocals) and David Minarik (drums, vocals) are joined by fellow touring mates Gary Jacob, Skip Sanders, and Noah Minarik, tossing out some spanking pedal steel, Hammond organ, and tasty guitar.

“We’ve never had more fun composing and recording songs,” said bass player Greg Joseph. “With our storied recording history, it’s really heartening to know that music can still captivate the band as much as it has on this album.”

With a highlight reel that includes the “Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Simpsons,” and others, The Clarks are enjoying their stage time together now more than ever.

“It’s one big extended family,” says guitarist Rob James. “Dave’s son Noah plays on this album, and with us live, so saying that isn’t just a metaphor, it’s fact!” Singing and playing the songs of “Madly In Love At The End Of The World” has rekindled a fire in The Clarks’ sometimes broken, sometimes mended hearts.

Business

Patti Hays

Class of 1973

CEO, AWS Foundation

Patti Hays is the chief executive officer of AWS Foundation and responsible for leading the strategic plans necessary to achieve the foundation’s mission and make its vision for Northeast Indiana into a reality. Patti is always actively seeking to create new and innovative opportunities that are inclusive of all members of a community.

The AWS Foundation envisions a community in which people with enduring intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities are engaged fully and meaningfully in all aspects of community life.

With her medical background, support of numerous community initiatives, and previous service as a long-time AWS Foundation board member, Patti’s strength is being able to see the big picture while still focusing on the details needed to realize success. She is as much at ease meeting with community leaders as spending an afternoon with individuals, their families and caregivers to learn more about their dreams and the much-needed support to make those dreams come true.

Born in Ohio and raised in Pittsburgh, she has worked throughout the southeastern US before returning to the Midwest and calling Fort Wayne home.

With undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing, her work history spans education, direct patient care, hospital administration, and strategic consulting.

Her three children live outside of Indiana but are Hoosiers at heart, with degrees from Ball State, Purdue, IU and IPFW. Besides the Foundation’s mission, Patti is a passionate advocate for the region and has served on various boards throughout the years representing issues of health, the arts, and regional development.

Community Service

Wayne Atwell

Class of 1965

Managing Director, Ascendiant Capital

Wayne Atwell serves Ascendiant Capital Markets as a managing director in the firm’s investment banking and advisory practice, specializing in natural resources.

Atwell has more than 40 years of experience in the mining and minerals sector, during which he has visited more than 230 mines and 300 steel mills.

As a senior equity research analyst, he covered a large number of intermediate and junior mining companies in the steel and non-ferrous metal industries and was recognized in the Institutional Investor rankings numerous times over 20 years.

Atwell conceptualized and started a STEM exploration program for sixth graders in the PEARLS Hawthorne School in Yonkers. The program introduces the students to scientific and mathematic topics to encourage them to pursue a career in these fields.

Atwell also serves on the board of directors for Rising Hope, which provides one year of college-level courses to people incarcerated in New York state prisons.

Education

Daniel M. Gurtner, Ph.D.

Class of 1992

External Affiliate of the Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible. St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London, UK.

Dr. Daniel M. Gurtner is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of Biblical Studies and Second Temple Judaism. He holds an endowed chair at one of the largest and oldest theological seminaries in the world.

His numerous publications, including 12 books in print, three more in press and dozens of scholarly articles, have been recognized by his admission to the Studiorum Novi Testamentum Societus. This organization is an international scholarly association, whose some 300 members are admitted only by invitation.

He is also an invited speaker at an international conference for the study of Second Temple Judaism (Enoch Seminar), held annually in Italy.

He has acquired proficiency in many research languages, including modern German and French, and ancient languages Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Coptic (Sahidic), and Ethiopic (Ge‘ez). These accomplishments have facilitated the further achievement of publishing 12 scholarly books.

Government

Brigadier General (ret) Gregory J. Touhill

Class of 1979

President of AppGate Federal

Greg Touhill is one of the nation’s premier cybersecurity and information technology senior executives. Selected by President Obama as the US government’s first Chief Information Security Officer, he previously served as DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary and director of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center.

He is an experienced board director including at ISACA International, where he serves on the Audit and Risk Committee. He serves on the advisory boards of Intel, Splunk, CSFI and the Military Cyber Professional Association.

Touhill is a retired Air Force general officer, a highly decorated combat leader, an adjunct professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, an accomplished author and public speaker, a former American diplomat, and a senior executive with documented high levels of success on the battlefield and in the boardroom.

Law

Paul F. McTighe Jr, J.D.

Class of 1966

Attorney At Law

Since April 1973, McTighe has been in the private practice of law. Since 1980, he has limited his work to the representation of claimants for Social Security Disability and represented approximately 6,500 clients.

McTighe is a member of the Oklahoma Bar, Tulsa County Bar association and is also admitted in all Federal Courts in Oklahoma and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Medicine

Amanda J. McCoy, MD MPH FCS (ECSA)

Class of 2004

Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon at Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya

Program Director, Tenwek PAACS/COSECSA Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program

Dr. McCoy graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 2008, concentrating in chemistry and physics with a certificate in health policy.

She subsequently pursued a combined MD-MPH degree, completing her MPH at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2011 and graduating as a member of AOA from Duke University School of Medicine in 2012.

McCoy then returned to Boston, where she completed her orthopaedic surgery residency in 2017 at the Harvard Combined Orthopaedics Residency Program, severing as the educational chief resident in her final year. She completed a fellowship in pediatric orthopaedic surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in 2018.

Feeling called to care for and serve under-resourced children, McCoy moved to Bomet, Kenya in 2018. Shortly after her arrival, she became the program director of the Pan-African Association of Christian Surgeons and College of Surgeons of Eastern Southern and Central Africa Tenwek Orthopaedics Residency Program, where she works at present.

McCoy was admitted as a Fellow of the College of Surgeons of COSECSA by examination in 2019 and qualified as a diplomate of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery in 2020.

She is a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America, Orthopaedic Trauma Association, and the J. Robert Gladden Orthopaedic Society, a society dedicated to increasing the diversity and inclusivity of the orthopaedic surgery workforce.

Science

Anne Milasincic Andrews, Ph.D.

Class of 1980

Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles

Andrews is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a member of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, the Hatos Center for Neuropharmacology and the California NanoSystems Institute.

Andrews received her B.S. in chemistry from the Pennsylvania State University and earned her Ph.D. in chemistry as a U.S. Department of Education Fellow working at the National Institute of Mental Health, where she was later a postdoctoral fellow and senior staff fellow. At the NIMH, Andrews and her mentor, Dr. Dennis Murphy, discovered and characterized a novel serotonin neurotoxin, 2’-NH2-MPTP. Andrews was also instrumental in early studies on serotonin transporter-deficient mice.

Andrews is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, American Chemical Society and Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry. She has been the recipient of an NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence, an Eli Lilly Outstanding Young Analytical Chemist Award, an American Parkinson’s Disease Association Research Award and a Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Independent Investigator Award.

She is a fellow of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum and a Serotonin Club elected councilor. Recently, Andrews became associate editor for ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

­At UCLA, Andrews leads efforts in basic and translational research on anxiety and depression, and at the nexus of nanoscience and neuroscience. Andrews’ interdisciplinary research team of neuroscientists, biologists, chemists and engineers focuses on understanding how the serotonin system and particularly, the serotonin transporter, modulate neurotransmission to influence complex behaviors including anxiety, mood, stress responsiveness and learning and memory.

Genetic and pharmacologic mouse models and human genetic variants are studied to understand the molecular basis of serotonin system function associated with the etiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. Key proteins (e.g., brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and neuronal architectures regulated by serotonin are also investigated.

Nanomaterials are designed for fundamental studies on neurotransmitter recognition by native and nonnative binding partners (aptamers) and for the development of in vivo nanobiosensors and functionally directed proteomics.

Spirit of NA

Eric Kofmehl, Ph.D.

Class of 1970

Early Education Program Manager, II-VI Foundation

As a retired healthcare executive, Kofmehl has translated his leadership experience, his Lutheran faith as well as his commitment to serving the community into several positions that have made a tremendous difference in the lives of his immediate community.

He serves as a board member for North Hills Community Outreach and 10 years ago he founded the International Student Outreach Program which has benefited more than 100 LaRoche Students. During his employment with the II-VI Foundation, he has secured over $450,000 in scholarship funds to benefit 26 North Allegheny graduates.

In 2019, Eric was recognized with the Bob Miller Award for Outstanding Support of NA Athletics.

40 & Under

Michael Semanchik

Class of 2003

Managing Attorney, California Innocence Project

Michael Semanchik has been an attorney with the project since 2011. In his earlier years, Semanchik graduated cum laude from California Western School of Law, where he was a student in the California Innocence Project.

After passing the California State Bar, Semanchik first worked as an investigator for the California Innocence Project and later became a staff attorney. He has spoken at a number of conferences related to investigations and innocence work including the Defense Investigators Association Conference, the Innocence Network Conference and SDSU School of Public Affairs.

Over the course of his career, Semanchik has lent his investigatory skills to break open many cases that have led to exonerations. He currently authors petitions filed on behalf of the project’s clients, as well as directs and supervises clinic student casework.

In 2012, California Lawyer Magazine recognized his work with the California Lawyer of the Year award. In 2014, the San Diego Daily Transcript recognized Mike as a “Top Attorney.”

As part of his work with CIP, he has lead or been involved in at least 10 cases leading to the exoneration of wrongfully convicted prisoners.

His most prominent has received national recognition and been made into the feature film “Brian Banks,” about the 2002 conviction of All Star linebacker Brian Banks on false charges of rape and kidnapping, and was dismissed in 2012 due to Semanchik’s efforts with the CIP.

Most recently in October of 2020, he was able to secure a full reversal and finding of factual innocence for California Innocence Project client Derrick Harris, who spent six years in prison for an armed robbery he did not commit.