Bitonte College honors outstanding alumni at annual recognition dinner
The Bitonte College of Health and Human Services hosts the 8th annual Alumni Recognition Dinner Friday, March 31, in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center on the YSU campus.
This year’s honorees include:
William Romine Jr., Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences
William “Bill” Romine began his career in law enforcement in the Army Military Police. He was honorably discharged in 1967 at the rank of E-5 Sergeant. Romine is an honors graduate from the Deputy Sheriff ’s Training Academy and is also a graduate of the Pennsylvania State Police Academy. Romine graduated from YSU with an associate degree in Criminal Justice in 1971, followed by a bachelor of science in Applied Science in 1975.
While attending YSU, he held a full-time job with the Hickory Township Police Department in Hermitage, Pa., serving in the patrol division and as a juvenile officer. In 1976, Romine became the chief of police for the Hempfield Township Police Department, serving until 1982 when he became a deputy in the Mercer County Sheriff ’s Department. He was promoted to chief deputy in 1984 and elected sheriff in 1988. Romine retired in 2012. During his career, he served on the Mercer County Prison Board, member and officer of the Mercer County Drug Task Force, the Criminal Justice Advisory Board, Chiefs of Police Association, National Sheriff ’s Association, Mercer County Critical Incident Response Team Board, Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Task Force to Protect the Aging and is currently a member and officer in the Pennsylvania Sheriff ’s Association.
Romine is active in his retirement serving the community as a member of the board of directors of the Mercer County Association for the Retarded, the Honor Guard of the Camp Reynolds VFW Post and the Sharon American Legion Post.
Daniel Carrocce, Health Professions
Daniel Carrocce earned a BSAS degree from YSU with a major in Medical Technology in 1989 and completed his internship at St. Elizabeth Medical Center. He worked as a medical technologist from 1989 to 2003, serving as a lead technologist. He held the positions of reagent sales specialist and capital equipment consultant with Beckman Coulter Inc. from 2003 to 2012, when he joined Instrument Laboratories. Currently, Carrocce is a senior account manager at IL. He achieved Inner Circle membership while at Beckman Coulter and was #1 in hemostasis sales in 2011. He is a member of IL President’s Council and was Account Manager of the Year in 2012.
Carrocce is a member of the YSU Medical Laboratory Program’s Advisory Committee. He has donated clinical analyzers, reagents and supplies to the medical laboratory programs and lectured on current topics in the hemostasis field.
He is a life-long member of the YSU Alumni Society and active in the community as a Struthers Little League baseball coach and as an Inter-County League football coach.
Jeanine Mincher, Human Ecology
Jeanine L. Mincher, associate professor of Human Ecology at YSU, earned a bachelor’s degree in Food and Nutrition in 1985 and a master’s degree in Health Education in 1989 from YSU. Mincher went on to further her education at Kent State University, where she earned a PhD in Education in 2010. During her academic career, Mincher was inducted into the Honorary Society of Phi Kappa Phi and was the recipient of the Alice Elgin Fenn Outstanding Doctoral Student Award, the Florence Hellman Graduate Student Award and the Francis Carr Parker Award from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Mincher worked as a renal dietitian for 11 years with Fresenius Medical Care, where she received the President’s Award for Performance and Commitment in 2000, while teaching part-time for YSU prior to accepting a full-time position with the Department of Human Ecology back in 2000. For the last 15 years, Mincher has directed at least one of three accredited dietetics programs.
Mincher has enjoyed developing the Community Nutrition and Wellness Course and Laboratory and connecting with the surrounding community by providing nutrition education to at-risk groups. In 2012, she was the lead awardee on a $10,000 diversity grant from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics aimed at recruiting more males into the dietetics profession. In 2016, she was awarded the YSU Campus Leadership Diversity Award and the Outstanding Dietetic Educator for the state of Ohio by the Ohio Dietetic Association.
Hannah Lawther, Human Performance and Exercise Science
Hannah Lawther was a forward on the YSU soccer team while majoring in Exercise Science and Biology. After graduation, Lawther was with the New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, NY. She was a clinical research study coordinator for the Phase I clinical trial entitled “Administration of a replication-deficient adeno-associated virus gene transfer vector expressing the human CLN2 cDNA to the brain of children with late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis.”
Lawther received an MD from West Virginia University School of Medicine. During this time she was elected to the Alpha Omega Honorary Medical Society and was in the top quartile of her medical school classes all four years. Lawther interned at West Virginia University Hospitals, followed by a residency in Diagnostic Radiology at Ohio State University. She is currently doing a fellowship in Women’s Imaging at the Mayo Clinic Arizona in Scottsdale.
Lawther is actively engaged in clinical research. She has presented her findings at national meetings and also published her findings in the journal, Clinical Imaging. Lawther is a member of the American College of Radiology, the Society of Breast Imaging, and the Radiological Society of North America.
Robert L. Talbott Jr., Military Science
Robert L. Talbott Jr. serves as senior intelligence analyst, Combat Incident Analysis Division, Weapons and Systems Directorate, National Ground Intelligence Center. He is recognized as the premier expert in the analysis of anti-vehicle attacks.
Talbott was instrumental in the formation of the Anti-Armor Analysis Program and Combat Incident Analysis, providing real-time attack information and providing analysis on attacks on U.S. armored vehicles. Talbott was key in establishing the Anti-Armor Analysis Program, which includes the Attack Scene Investigation and Battlefield Vehicle Forensics. These efforts have contributed to future armor vehicle development, mitigating the threat to U.S. vehicles serving in combat today and in the future.
Starting in 2010, Talbott has overseen the establishment of the Forensic Encyclopedia Program, a multi-million dollar, ground-breaking effort to categorize the forensic signature of weapons and provide a ready, scientifically valid base document for the determination of what type of weapon system struck a vehicle during an incident. The effort has been recognized for pushing the scientific boundaries of the possible and is the only program of its type worldwide.
Talbott has deployed six times to Iraq, Afghanistan twice, and over 12 times to other “hot spots” in support of ground combat commanders as well as other U.S. government agencies.
Anna Klejka, Nursing
Anna Klejka’s 30-year nursing career began upon graduation from Trumbull Memorial Hospital’s School of Nursing in 1987. Her first position was in the Critical Care float pool. She attended YSU and earned a bachelor's degree in Nursing in 1993.
Throughout Klejka’s career at Trumbull Memorial, she worked in various positions, including the pediatric unit, OB/Pediatric coordinator and nurse clinician. At St. Joseph’s Hospital in Warren, she worked as manager of labor and delivery and post-partum for 14 years while furthering her education at YSU, earning a master's in Nursing in Adult Health in 2013 and becoming board certified as a clinical nurse specialist. As director of Mercy's Women Services, Klejka spearhead the move of all OB services from St. Elizabeth's Youngstown hospital to the Boardman location.
She is currently vice president of Women’s Services for Mercy Health–Youngstown, including St. Elizabeth Boardman and St. Joseph Warren hospitals, and two maternal fetal locations.
Sarah Dalton Ortlieb, Physical Therapy
Sarah Dalton Ortlieb was a member of the charter class of Physical Therapists at YSU and graduated in 1998 with her bachelor’s degree in PT. Since then ,she has built a career around a practice of rehabilitation services to the geriatric population. Ortlieb is currently a vice president of rehabilitation services for National Church Residencies. She has served in this capacity for the last 10 years.
During this time she has been involved in rehabilitation staff management of over 100 team members, in the areas of skilled nursing, independent and assisted living and home health. She contributed to the planning and development of the rehabilitation services area for 10 new locations for the company. She facilitated a Geriatric Physical Therapy Residency Program partnership with Ohio State University.
Ortlieb is an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association. In the last 10 years, she has been a member of three specialty sections Home Health, Health Policy and Administration and the Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy. She has served in the Ohio Physical Therapy Association as state affairs chair for the Central District since 2015, and treasurer of that district for the two years prior to that.
Rebecca Soldan, Social Work
Rebecca Soldan graduated summa cum laude in 2013 from YSU, after receiving multiple honors including the Athena Scholarship and the Doris Burdman Memorial Scholarship. During her time at YSU, she was involved with several student organizations, including United Purpose II, Ohio Lady Advocates and the Student Social Work Association.
As a community organizer with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, she created campaign strategies, designed and facilitated leadership trainings and engaged hundreds of local residents. In 2013, she organized a team of formerly incarcerated people and their supporters to demand changes to unfair hiring procedures in the city of Youngstown, which led to the adoption of a new, more equitable hiring policy for returning citizens.
As a nonprofit consultant, Soldan has created evidence-based programs while helping local organizations pursue strategies that will enable them to achieve their goals. She is particularly interested in assisting those emerging community groups that do fantastic work but often lack the operational capacity to reach their true potential.
Most recently, Soldan has helped to create a new place-based, resident-led community development project called the Taft Promise Neighborhood which has built a strong coalition to create plans and implement programs on Youngstown’s South Side. The project has aligned more than 40 partners, including residents, businesses, churches and community organizations in an effort to stabilize and revitalize the neighborhood.
Sally A. Kenney, Dean’s Appreciation Award
Sally Kenney earned a bachelor’s in Education from YSU and taught secondary Social Studies at Frank Ohl Middle and Austintown-Fitch High School. After taking time off to be a stay-at-home mom, she began her career at YSU as a part-time advisor in the College of Applied Science and Technology. Shortly after that, she began advising full-time and went on to receive a master’s in Higher Education Counseling.
During her career at YSU, she was the recipient of three Distinguished Service Awards and co-authored the YSU Academic Advising Handbook, “The Advisor as Co-Navigator,” which won a first-place publishing award from the National Academic Advising Association.
Active in the local and state Ohio Education Association, Kenney served as president of the YSU Association of Professional and Administrative Staff for 12 years. She was also a member of the YSU Athletic Compliance Committee for seven years.
Since retiring in 2015 after 30 years at YSU, Kenney is now enjoying retirement while continuing her hobby of genealogical research. She and her husband of almost 46 years, Jack, belong to the Ashtabula Yacht Club and enjoy cruising Lake Erie ports in their boat “Stairway to Heaven.”