Five new members join Alumni Association's board

May 09, 2011

Five new members join Alumni Association's board

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The SIU Alumni Association National Board of Directors has announced the addition of five new board members for the upcoming year.

The newest Association board members are:

For more than a decade, Barbara Leavitt Brown ’76, M.A. ’77, Ph. D. ’85 taught American government and democracy classes to international students through a federally funded summer program at SIU. The life member is currently the circuit clerk for Randolph County, where her husband, Judge Richard A. Brown ’74, J.D. ’77, also serves on the Circuit Court. She is president for the Randolph County Chapter.

Steve Brown ’71 has been recognized throughout the years for his award-winning political writing, as well as his work in public relations. Before directing his public relations firm and representing figures such as Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, he worked as an acclaimed investigative reporter for the Daily Herald newspapers in suburban Chicago. A St. Louis native, Brown and his wife, Marilyn, have two sons.

Marion native Larry Mieldezis ’86 came back to Southern via New York, Seattle, and Atlanta, where he is now chief operating officer for the Atlanta-based Liaison Corp., a company that specializes in integration and data management services and allows companies to connect electronically with business partners. In 2011, as an alternative to offshore outsourcing, Liaison set up shop in Carbondale at the Dunn-Richmond Center as a customer service center, and that office continues to grow. He is a life member of the SIU Alumni Association the father of five children.

Ravi Tammana M.S. ’89, Ph. D. ’94, worked at Motorola Corp. for 10 years, and during that time made several presentations to the SIU College of Engineering students. He also made recruitment visits to career fairs on behalf of the company. Tammana presently works as a consultant and is the president of TREK Systems, Inc. An annual member of the Association, Tammana and wife, Sobha, reside in Hawthorn Woods, Ill, and are the parents of two children.

Susanne Taylor ‘94 works in Charlotte, N.C., for Bank of America. The West Frankfort, Ill., native is a business support and integration executive with Mortgage Default Servicing-Customer Advocacy and Collections. She has been with Bank of America for 10 years and manages 160 associates as well as the global mortgage operations in India and Costa Rica. She is heavily involved in community mentoring programs. Susanne and her husband, George ’95, a senior vice president at Bank of America, are life members of the SIU Alumni Association.

Re-elected board members are:

Steve Falat ’87 is the market manager for River Radio, a six-station group in southern Illinois, and the official public address announcer for SIU athletics and the Southern Illinois Miners, an independent professional baseball team in Marion. The life member is on the SIU Alumni Association’s Executive Board. He and his wife, Jolene, have three daughters, and reside near Murphysboro, Ill.

Howard Spiegel ’75 is account manager for Arrow Electronics in Itasca, Ill., and is a member of the select Arrow Pacesetter Team, an honor given to less than one percent of all Arrow employees worldwide. The life member is on the SIU Alumni Association’s Executive Board. Spiegel attended SIU as a Presidential Scholar and graduated with honors. He and his wife, Karri, have three children.

Sandra Williams-Smith ’72 is a billing and collections specialist for CNA Insurance Co. in Chicago. She previously served as secretary of the SIU Black Alumni Group and on the Hayes Park Advisory Board. Smith volunteers for Christ Advocate Hospital and serves as secretary for her church club and treasurer for Nubian Connections. She has two children.

The SIU Alumni Association’s National Board of Directors meet two times annually in Carbondale and governs the largest organization that serves SIU. The directors play a key role in connecting more than 235,000 SIU alumni, family, and friends through the Association’s not-for-profit events and services. For more information about the SIU Alumni Association, visit www.siualumni.com or call 618-453-2408.