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The IIT Alumni Association Board of Directors believes that engagement with alumni is crucial to the growth of the university, and the board works to strengthen the university's ties to alumni by striving to reach and inspire everyone who calls IIT their alma mater. Numerous programs and initiatives exist in order to reach this goal:
Are you interested in joining the Alumni Association Board of Directors? Email alumni@iit.edu and share your background and interests. Read the official position description.
Andrea L. Berry (CS '84), TrusteeCEO • G.A.P. Media Group
Andrea Berry is CEO at G.A.P Media Group. Formerly she was the senior vice president of media services at Fox Network Engineering and Operations where she oversaw all aspects of digital media management for Fox, the Fox Sports Media Group, Fox Networks Group, Twentieth Television, and MyNetworkTV. Her career has also included stints at CBS and NBC. Berry’s honors include several Emmy Awards for outstanding technical team remote in sports. In 2016, she was inducted to the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. She is also the recipient of the 2012 Women in Technology Leadership Award, presented by TVNewsCheck.
Berry is chair of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, a member of Illinois Tech’s Board of Trustees, and a member of the Board of Overseers for the College of Science. For her outstanding work, Berry was honored with Illinois Tech’s Professional Achievement Award in 2010.
Sherrie Littlejohn (M.S. CS ’82), Trustee Executive Vice President, Internal Innovation Strategies, Innovation Group • Wells Fargo
Sherrie Littlejohn is a recognized expert in leading successful large-scale, technology-based transformation initiatives in regulated industries. She brings over 30 years of experience in strategy, architecture, development, and operations, enabling business opportunities in financial services and telecommunications industries with a keen eye to culture shifts and change management. She is a catalyst for designing and implementing innovative technology solutions with a customer and end-user focus. She is valued for her expertise in assessing overall IT technology programs for manageability and capability to improve customer service for the enterprise and its customers.
Littlejohn joined Wells Fargo in July 2002 and currently leads the innovation labs, technology business development, and enterprise patent office teams within the innovation group. Her key responsibilities include driving enterprise technology idea generation as a catalyst for transformative change across the company as well as steering technology business development to grow and manage relationships with IT industry leaders, universities, venture capitalists, and private equity firms. Additionally, she leads the team that guides the company’s patent strategy, which includes developing, licensing, and buying patents. Littlejohn sits on the Illinois Institute of Technology Board of Trustees, Audit & Compliance Committee, Academic Affairs Committee, and Computer Science Advisory Council. She chairs the Alumni Associaton Board of Directors Admissions Committee. She received her B.S. in mathematics from Xavier University of Louisiana and her M.S. in computer science from Illinois Institute of Technology. She completed the Executive Business Program at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. and is a 2017 recipient of the Alumni Association’s Professional Achievement Award.
Elizabeth Bilitz (MSE '07, M.S. '08)Technical Project Manager • Finkl Steel
Elizabeth Bilitz is the Technical Product Manager for the Finkl Steel group, traveling to support customers and sales throughout the world. She is passionate about Illinois Tech, STEM, and the steel industry, and takes every opportunity and Uber ride to spread the word. As the dean of Finkl's Forging Forum, Elizabeth organizes content and teaches on basic metallurgical principles related to steel making. She is involved in Corporate Communications for Finkl's parent company, Schmolz + Bickenbach and serves as an editor for their semiannual employee publication, Steel Talk.Elizabeth is the President of the Kappa Phi Delta Alumnae group as well as chair of Alumni Association Board of Directors the Nominating Committee. She was the convocation speaker for the incoming class of 2016 and was a panelist for Women's History Month, a speaker at SAAC events, an IPRO representative, and also a tour guide for the Finkl for the Material Advantage group.
Fred Dew (CE ’70) Retired
Fred Dew is a retired corporate business leader, professional engineer, international volunteer, and avid water conserving gardener. He is originally from Alabama and studied at University of Maryland, Michigan, and the National War College in Washington, D.C., where he received advance degrees in engineering and business and studied the effectiveness of sanctions on South Africa. Fred is a retired U.S. Navy Captain. During his second career, he ran global engineering performance for Jacobs Engineering and eSolar, Inc., overseeing the planning, design, construction, and operation of the world’s first small mirror 5 MW full-scale Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project that was named 2009 Project of the Year by Power Engineering Magazine. Fred is now retired in Pasadena, California, where he continues to promote renewable energy and waterwise planting as solutions to the effects of global climate change.
Dew is chair of the Alumni Associations Board of Directors Admissions Committee.
Brian Ippolito (AE '92)President and CEO • Orbis Technologies, Inc.
Brian Ippolito has served as president and chief executive officer of Orbis since 2006. Under his leadership, Orbis has established itself as a leader in delivering semantic applications and cloud analytics to the Department of Defense and select Fortune 50 companies. Prior to Orbis, he was director of advanced programs and products, C4ISR, and Networked Systems at Northrop Grumman, where he directed a number of advanced technology programs and business operations. A recipient of the 2012 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, a 2013 Influential Marylander Award, and a host of other honors, Orbis is regarded as a respected leader in the IT industry.
Ippolito is chair of the Alumni Association Board of Directors Career and Professional Development Committee
Perri I. Irmer (ARCH ’81) President and CEO • DuSable Museum of African American History
Perri Irmer earned her juris doctorate from the University of Chicago Law School in 1991. Irmer currently serves as the president and chief executive officer of Chicago’s DuSable Museum of African American History, the oldest institution of its kind in the United States. Prior to joining DuSable in September of 2015, Irmer ran her own company, Intellectual Resource Management Group, Inc., a global management consulting and strategic planning firm with a mission of promoting economic development through the integration of advanced technology, sustainable design, and public policy.
Irmer has also enjoyed a distinguished tenure in government, having served as the chief executive officer of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority; assistant general counsel for Chicago Public Schools and administrator of CPS’s multi-billion dollar Capital Improvement Program; director of construction services for the Public Building Commission of Chicago; and deputy commissioner of the City of Chicago Department of Buildings. As a private sector real estate professional, Irmer served as senior vice president for Mesirow Financial and as vice president of development for Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. To date, Irmer has administered well over $7 billion in public and private construction projects.
Irmer was honored with the Illinois Tech Professional Achievement Award in 2007. She co-chairs the Alumni Association Board of Directors International Committee. In addition to the Illinois Institute of Technology African American Alumni Association, Irmer also sits on the boards of numerous civic and charitable organizations, including World Chicago and the Catholic Theological Union. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau and was a founding member of the Chicago Sports Commission (now known as Choose Chicago). Irmer is the recipient of numerous awards and honors for her involvement in community and youth services, her longstanding support and advocacy of minority and woman-owned businesses, and her promotion of international business relationships within Illinois.
Emmanuel Klu (CS '13)Software Engineer • Google Inc. Emmanuel Klu is a software engineer at Google. He joined Google in 2013 and is currently the technical lead of an engineering team building a data management platform. He is very involved in diversity and college recruiting at Google and is passionate about mentoring the next generation of engineers.
Joseph A. Koblich (BA ’88)Director of Information Technology • American Nuclear Society
Since 1998, Joseph Koblich has been the director of information technology for the American Nuclear Society, where he was honored with a Special Recognition Award for rapid response to nuclear-related events caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, Japan in 2011, as well as having received the organization's Octave J. DuTemple Award in 2007. He has been quoted in industry publications such as Computerworld and Biztech Magazine on topics such as open source software and project financing, and he is currently serving on the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council's Manufacturing & Supply Chain Working Group. Previously, he was a systems analyst for five years at Arthur Andersen, including two years with their Management Foresight Group, where he was the lead developer for the U.S. Machine Tool Orders program currently administered by the Association for Manufacturing Technology. He was also a database administrator at Mesirow Financial earlier in his career.
More recently, he has been serving as member communications chair for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Chicago Section, where he was honored in 2015 for his involvement in organizing IEEE's first annual Hack Challenge, for which several awardees have been Illinois Tech students or alumni.
Bruce Meier (MATH ’76)Director • Illinois Tech Chicagoland Alumni Chapter – Northwest Branch
Meier has held various information system and data analytics positions in the consumer packaged goods industry at Kraft Foods, Mondelez International, SC Johnson, Ralston Purina, and Miller Brewing. Meier most recently was the director of global and NA financial systems at Mondelez International (formerly Kraft Foods). During his 17-year tenure at Kraft Foods, he was most recently the director of finance systems, and prior to that, the director of marketing systems. Meier graduated from Illinois Tech with a B.S. in math in 1976 and obtained an M.S. in statistics in 1979 from Marquette University. Meier retired from Mondelez in 2014 and is currently serving as director of the Illinois Tech Chicagoland Alumni Chapter – Northwest Branch and is also active in several volunteer positions in his church. Meier is looking forward to leading a cross-functional leadership seminar at Illinois Tech, utilizing his experience leading and participating in cross-functional teams, such as marketing, finance, sales, and legal/HR services.
George Mui (CS '76, M.S. '80)Market Access Team Lead • U.S. Department of Commerce
George Mui is the market access team lead for the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. As a global strategist, he provides business consulting services for minority businesses in the area of international business development and strategy with a keen focus on domestic and international partnerships that provide access to global markets. Leveraging his extensive background, Mui also facilitates several industry-specific networking groups and serves as the Asian American business liaison. He is also currently serving on the White House Initiative for AAPI Inter-Agency Working Group and the President’s National Export Initiative Small Business Working Group. He serves on the advisory committee for the Office of New Americans for the City of Chicago and the Advisory Board for the Chicago Association for Corporate Growth (ACG Chicago).
He is a community advocate with a special focus on Asian American business advocacy. He serves on the OCA-Chicago Board as vice president of programming. He recently completed two successful years as the OCA-Chicago chapter president. Under his leadership, he created the OCA-Scholarship Fund, OCA-Chicago Mentoring for Asian American Professionals, and the Asian American Business Expo. He also coordinates the Asian American Executive Network—a nationwide advocacy group for Asian American professionals and entrepreneurs.
In addition to a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Illinois Tech, he also completed two executive education programs at Stanford University.
Steve Nargang (ME ’96) Vice President • Gage Consulting Engineers
Steve Nargang is vice president at Gage Consulting Engineers, an MEP engineering firm based in Oak Brook, Illinois. He leads the development of projects and partnerships for architectural renovations and new construction. Nargang has 20 years of combined experience in design, engineering, project management, technical sales, and business development. He has a background in mechanical engineering and technical consulting across a range of industries and applications. Prior to joining Gage in 2010, he worked as a project manager focused on design engineering and then as regional manager at Simpson Technologies Corporation for over 17 years. Nargang has been a licensed professional engineer in Illinois since 2000.
Nargang is chair of the Illinois Tech Chicagoland Alumni Chapter and has been a speaker at the “Introduction to the Profession” class for first-year civil engineering students.
Angela Ng (CE '11)Product Designer • EFK Moen
Angela Ng is a project designer at EFK Moen in Chicago where she works on local tollway projects in northern Illinois. She volunteers for various organizations in the Chicago area throughout the year and is on the executive board for Transport Chicago.
Ng is the current chair of Illinois Tech’s Young Alumni Council as well as acting liaison. She has helped plan various alumni events.
Vasudevan “Raj” Rajaram (LAW ’91) Senior Project Manager • CCJM Engineers
Vasudevan “Raj” Rajaram spent 41 years in the geotechnical and environmental engineering field and worked for five major companies in the United States and Canada. In 1986 he founded Midwest Engineers in Chicago and he then decided to act on his interest in environmental law and earned his juris doctorate. He elected to remain in the engineering field and founded Tetra Tech, an environmental management company, in India in 1997. Rajaram has contributed to more than 40 publications and has written four books; he is currently working on his fifth.
Rajaram co-chairs the Alumni Association Board of Directors International Committee. He has received numerous Illinois Tech awards, including the Alumni Service Award (2016), the International Award of Merit (2002), and the International Leadership Award (2000).
Alexander Rasmussen (EE ’00)Program Director, Joint Friendly Forces Tracking Testbed • U.S. Army, Space & Missiles Defense Command
Major Alexander Rasmussen is program director for the U.S. Army Space and Missiles Defense Command. Over the course of his career, he has deployed twice on combat tours to Iraq, served in South Korea, and led product development for combat vehicles. The U.S. Army recognized his service with two Bronze Stars, and he has been selected for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. Most recently, Rassmussen completed his M.B.A. at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Outside the U.S. Army, he has also served his community by leading the Illinois Tech Detroit Alumni Chapter, coaching youth football in Detroit, and working with Junior Achievement.
Stephanie Salem (BA '11)Financial Analyst • Target Corporation
Stephanie Salem is a financial analyst for Target Corporation. She joined Target in 2011 as part of the Finance and Accounting Development Program post-graduation and has held three different roles since. She currently sits on the Supply Chain Finance team supporting the Food Distribution Network. Outside of Target, she serves on the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF) Young Leadership Committee, serves as a JDRF mentor, and as a mentor in the Next Generation youth group at Church of the Open Door.
Salem has served as a panelist in support of Women's History Month at Illinois Tech.
Dawn Schuette (ARCH CRP ’92, M.A.S. CRP ’93) Partner • Threshold Acoustics, LLC
Dawn Schuette’s interest in music and training in architecture led her to the acoustic consulting field, where she has been working for more than 20 years. She assists end users and design professionals with the enhancement of the aural experience in performance and education facilities, worship spaces, cultural buildings, and other places of public assembly. She was recently elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Schuette also works to improve awareness of urban noise, provide suitable learning environments for all students, and bring attention to the needs of the hearing impaired in the built environment.
Schuette chairs the Alumni Association Board of Directors Nominating Committee and has been an adjunct professor at Illinois Tech College of Architecture.
Michael Siem (CHE '96)Share Holder • Farney Daniels, P.C.
Michael Siem is partner and head of the New York office of Farney Daniels, P.C. Siem’s practice includes intellectual property litigation with a focus on patents. He has litigated cases in many technological areas including pharmaceuticals, chemical processes, and biotechnology. He also has extensive experience representing death row inmates pro bono. He was a recipient of the 2008 Thurgood Marshall Award for Capital Representation given by the Committee on Capital Punishment of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and a member of the team that won the 2012 Death Penalty Representation Project Exceptional Service Award presented by the American Bar Association.
Siem is former chair of the Illinois Tech New York City Alumni Chapter. Siem chairs the Alumni Associaton Board of Directors Alumni Engagement Committee.
Scott Ternovits (DSGN ’92) Senior Director Strategic Innovation • Salesforce
Scott Ternovits is senior director of strategic innovation at Salesforce. Formerly, he was founding partner and led the design practice at gravitytank, a 70-person innovation consulting firm based in Chicago. During his 20-year career, he has helped develop marquee offerings for blue chip leaders in consumer package goods, retail services, and consumer electronics for clients such as Samsung, Microsoft, Goodyear, and FedEx.
Ternovits is former chair of the Alumni Association Board of Directors Nominating Committee. He received the Illinois Tech Outstanding Young Alumnus Award in 2000 for his accomplishments as a designer, teacher, and entrepreneur. He has been a speaker for first year civil engineering students in their Introduction to the Profession class.
Maria V. Vasos (PPPS ’06, LAW ’08)Attorney-At-Law • Law Office of Maria V. Vasos, LLC
Maria Vasos is a business and transactions attorney counseling clients who have overlapping legal issues in the areas of business and contracts, tax and estate planning, estate and trust administration, and related real estate transactions. She is the managing member of the Law Office of Maria V. Vasos, LLC in Oak Brook, Illinois. Prior to starting her own firm, Maria worked with notable law firms in the greater Chicago area in the same practice areas. Vasos was an Illinois Tech Honors Law Scholarship recipient. She graduated from Illinois Tech with a bachelor of science in political science and a minor in law, and then she earned her juris doctorate from Illinois Tech's Chicago-Kent College of Law. She also returned to Chicago-Kent to take courses in the master of laws program in taxation, with a special focus on estate planning.
Michael J. Wayte (ME ’61) Retired
Michael Wayte retired in 2003 after a 41-year career with the Boeing Company. His assignments gave him the opportunity to live in places as diverse as California; Washington, D.C.; and Warton, England, in addition to many years in Seattle, Washington. Wayte is the former chair of the Illinois Tech Seattle Alumni Chapter and has been involved in various activities with the university. He keeps busy skiing in the winter and riding his bike in the drier weather. He also volunteers as an AARP Driver Safety instructor.
Steven F. Weiss, FAIA (ARCH ’73)Principal and Founder • Weiss Architects, LLC
Steve Weiss is the principal and founder of Weiss Architects, LLC, where he serves as principal designer of all projects and provides oversight management for all endeavors. Weiss’s designs incorporate functional pragmatism with a particular emphasis on structure and materiality. Weiss Architects is a generalist practice with significant experience in residential, retail, hospitality, and sports/recreation architecture. Prior to establishing Weiss Architects, he was a principal of Solomon Cordwell Buenz and a senior associate at Booth Hansen Architects.Weiss was elected a fellow in the American Institute of Architects in 1995 and has received many awards for both his architectural design work and his service to the profession. In addition to his design practice, he speaks regularly around the country on the workings of the construction industry and the practice of architecture.
Mae Cheri Whiteside (CE ’99) Principal • Cheri K. Lewis Engineers LLC
Mae Whiteside is principal of Cheri K. Lewis Engineers LLC, a civil engineering consultant firm providing roadway and airport construction engineering, sustainable transportation design, and erosion control engineering design for inspection projects. She developed her career as a roadway design project manager at the Chicago Department of Transportation.
Whiteside has been a speaker at the Introduction to the Profession class for first-year civil engineering students and the alumnae panel for Women’s History Month.