Jerry K. Smith, MSMOT Sp06, is presenting a paper in Edmonton, Canada, at the 2006 SIGUCCS Conference “Expanding The Boundaries”.  SIGUCCS is Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services which is under ACM (the Association for Computing Machinery).  The paper, Assessing and Conquering Burnout, was written with co-author, Almond D. Dillard (UTSA).

James Arps, MSMOT Sum03, has accepted a position as Director of Commercial Drug Delivery at SurModics (http://www.surmodics.com/home.aspx) in Eden Prairie, MN starting December 2006. The company makes a drug eluting coating (among several other things) for J&J which prevents the artery from re-clogging when inserting a stent.  Jim has been working as a Senior Research Scientist at Southwest Research Institute.

Amelia Kardocus Badders, MSMOT Fall 2004,was recently promoted to the Director of the Strategic Services for Energy Delivery Services (EDS) at CPS. In her new position she heads budgeting and financial reporting, strategic planning, and certain administrative functions. Write-up of her promotion appeared in the San Antonio Business Journal, January 27, 2006.  Amelia was  featured as one of San Antonio’s 2006 Rising Stars, “40 under 40” in the San Antonio Business Journal. Of over 250 people nominated, Amelia was honored with this prestigious acclamation due to her persistence in achieving her goals and moving up the ladder at CPS.

Amelia and her husband, Barry, had their first child, a little girl, on August 1, 2007.  She weighed 7 pounds and three ounces.  Congratulations!

Pramod Buravalli, MSMOT Fall 2003, and his lovely wife, Buravalli Sree Lakshmi, stopped by the MOT office January 13, 2006. Pramod is now based out of Nashville TN, with the IT Company TechRP Inc. He is currently the Senior Director of Technology Operations and overall in charge of the Asia Pacific Region. The company has Offices in India and China. The company's website is www.techrp.com

John Franecek, PE, MSMOT Sp 04, has a new position as a Project Manager/Mechanical Engineer for Goetting & Associates a consulting engineering firm. At home, John and his wife are looking for a bigger house for their twins, Sealey and Field.

John Fritz, MSMOT Fall 01, formerly at KCI has accepted a position at the UTSA Small Business Development Center as a Business Development Specialist. John now helps people in the community develop their own businesses through the use of business plans, market research and tools that sound familiar to students of MSMOT. He is enjoying the challenges and the interaction with creative people.

Lori Grubish, MSMOT Fall 1998, has been name director, IT, International Commercial Operations, Abbott Vascular, effective March 1, 2007, and will relocate to Brussels in the near future.  Kathy Klitzner, divisional vice president, in the February 28, 2007, Abbott Vascular press release said, “Lori has 16 years of IT experience, and most recently completed two very successful rotational assignments in Operations and Facilities. With these experiences, Lori will bring the insight, passion, leadership and change expertise that will be needed to deliver sustained IT value for the International Commercial organization”. Congratulations, Lori!

Bessie M. Irizarry, P.E. - MSMOT 2005, has accepted a position with the Texas Center for Applied Technology (TCAT), a member of the Texas A&M University System (http://tcat.tamu.edu/ <http://tcat.tamu.edu/> ). Bessie manages the Manufacturing Operations Laboratory with offices in Corpus Christi, College Station and San Antonio. The Manufacturing Operations Lab applies state-of- the art technology and best business practices to provide a multitude of services in production support and management solutions to the DoD and industry based organizations.

Michael Madison, MSMOT Fall 03, has accepted a position with Futaba Sangyo, a vendor of admission parts and specialize components for the new Toyota plant. Hired as a translator and IT support, he will support the start-up company which is located in “Trailer City” with 22 other vendor who are in the process of building their new facilities to support Toyota. Futaba Sangyo presently has 12 employees, but is expected to have 200 employees by the time the Toyota plant starts production.

Michelle O’Campo has had lots of changes in her life since her graduation with her MS MOT Fall 2005.  She earned her PMP Certification on 3/2006 and then accepted a job offer from USAA as a Business Project Manager.  She recently married Manuel Mejia-Pascual.  Congratulations, Michelle O’Campo Mejia!

Michael E. Rodriguez, MS MOT Sp 03, has accepted a position at Valero's in the Refining, Marketing, Crude Supply & Transportation Division. His title is Project Development and Cost Analyst.

Renè San Miguel, MS MOT Sp 02, received a promotion at Valero's effective November 1, 2005. Renè is now the Supply & Shipping Project Coordinator of the Refining, Marketing, Crude Supply & Transportation Division at Valero – San Antonio. Did you notice that he and Mike Rodriguez are in the same division? Renê is pictured with Dr. Spivey at the Texas Open which was sponsored by Valero.

Alberto Vasques, MSMOT Sp 06, is now teaching Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) at Palo Alto College.  PLC is a program started between ACCD and Toyota.  Alberto is also applying to the PhD Program in Biomedical Engineering.  Currently he is working as a Clinical Engineer at the Texas Center for Infectious Disease.