Alumni Engagement

Karin graduated from Eckerd with a B.S. in chemistry and obtained her Ph.D. from Cornell University. She was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota as an assistant professor of chemistry in 1992. She was named Merck Professor of Chemistry in 2003 and Distinguished McKnight University Professor in 2006. In 2007, she moved to her current position at Ohio State University, where she is the Ohio Eminent Scholar in Biological Macromolecular Structure and professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

Karin has pushed the sciences forward at her alma mater as well as in her academic career: She was instrumental in the push to build Eckerd’s James Center for Molecular and Life Sciences, which opened in 2013, and was a featured speaker at Eckerd’s first Science Symposium. In 2014, she was awarded Eckerd’s William H. Kadel Alumni Medal for Outstanding Career Achievement and, in 2020, Ohio State’s Diversity Enhancement Faculty Award from the College of Arts and Sciences. Karin has published 210 peer-reviewed research articles, book chapters and reviews and has served as an associate editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry since 2018. In her independent faculty position, she has supervised 115 undergraduate researchers (including Eckerd students), 65 graduate students and 42 postdoctoral researchers.

When Stephanie arrived at Eckerd as a 16-year-old first-year student, she already had a long history with the College. She is the daughter of two Florida Presbyterian College (now Eckerd College) founding first-years; the granddaughter of the College’s founding president, William H. Kadel; and a relative of numerous other Eckerd grads. At her 1989 Commencement, she received the Philip Lee Honor Award for her many scholarly achievements. After Eckerd, she earned a master’s degree at the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. at Syracuse University, focusing on educational foundations and qualitative research. She then started her own business, TimePieces Personal Biographies, to write people’s life stories and institutional histories. Working out of her home in Ann Arbor, she has written more than 60 full-length, privately published books for clients across North America.

In 2008, Stephanie combined her background in education with her skill in storytelling to write about FPC/Eckerd’s founding history in On Solid Rock, published for the College’s 50th Anniversary. She followed that up with Swimming Lessons, a collection of stories from 60 years of Eckerd history, and she is currently finishing a book on the architectural history of our midcentury modern campus. Stephanie has presented her alma mater’s story to new Eckerd students and their families, OLLI and ASPEC members, and the Board of Trustees—and through countless College materials. She is a member of Eckerd’s National Advisory Council, Kadel Society and 1958 Society, and a proud supporter of the Eastman Citizenship and Leadership Program and the Kathryn J. Watson Endowed Fund for Faculty Development.

Barbara received her B.A. in creative arts from Eckerd and then was awarded her MFA in metal design from East Carolina University in 2017. She has worked as a metalsmith and enamelist designing jewelry in gold, silver and enamel for nearly five decades. In 1978, she discovered enameling at Kulicke-Stark Academy in New York City and has continued her in-depth studies with notable enamelists such as Bill Helwig. A summer of 1981 immersion in Japan with Parsons School of Design birthed her affinity for Japanese art and its profound aesthetic shibusa. Her vision of nature is filtered and transformed by her awareness of diverse cultural traditions..

Barbara’s award-winning work has been recognized through numerous exhibitions and can be found in the collections of The Enamel Arts Foundation, the Mint Museum, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Art, the Crocker Museum, and the Yale University Art Gallery. She also finds inspiration through sharing her knowledge and has led numerous workshops nationally and internationally at fine craft schools and universities. Currently, she serves as vice president for The Enamelist Society and is on the Board of Directors of The Grable Foundation. Her newly built dream studio is located on a farm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she continues to pursue her studio practice with one-of-a-kind commissions and limited-edition production work. She enjoys spending time with her four children and six grandchildren and enthusiastically shares the practice of beekeeping and raising chickens with her husband, Douglass Phillips.

Juarlyn “Wally” Gaiter graduated from Eckerd with a degree in psychology and went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees in experimental child psychology from Brown University. She then moved to the Washington, D.C., area to work at the National Institutes of Health and conducted research studies in child health and development. Her first job was director of infant development and research in the neonatal nursery at The Children’s Hospital National Medical Center, where she monitored, and reported about, the growth and development of premature infants. Juarlyn organized a monthly infant developmental clinic and helped design an eco-friendly outdoor playground for hospitalized children. During her nine-year tenure at the Medical Center, she served as director of child life and was a member of the hospital’s Ethics and Review Board.

Juarlyn moved to Atlanta in 1989 to work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She researched a wide range of public health issues, from minority health to cocaine effects on infants and mothers to HIV/AIDS prevention. She retired from the CDC in 2011 with the legacy of having institutionalized HIV/AIDS prevention for men in jails and prisons (Project START) across the U.S. She co-authored numerous scholarly papers, and her final research tackled HIV/AIDS prevention for those who are aging and for Black women. She recently studied spiritual direction at the Interdenominational Theological Center and has attended silent retreats for over 35 years. She enjoys spending time with her friends and rescue dog, Benji, as well as gardening, wine tasting and traveling.

When Terri graduated from Eckerd’s Program for Experienced Learners with a degree in business, community engagement was central to what she loved about the PEL program. Today, she is one of many PEL graduates to hold high-profile jobs in the St. Petersburg community, serving as executive director of The Woodson African American Museum of Florida. No stranger to making history herself, in 1987, she was the first African American employed in the St. Petersburg Office of the Mayor and City Council, where she served four mayors’ administrations and more than 50 members of City Council over her nearly 30-year career as a city administrative officer.

Since retiring from city administration, she has pursued a passion for elevating African American history not only in St. Petersburg but in Florida. After serving as chair of The Woodson Museum’s Board since 2008, she became executive director in 2017 and made it her mission to secure another jewel among St. Petersburg’s vast array of museums. Terri’s dream of creating Florida’s first African American Museum built for that intended purpose—not housed in a repurposed community center—is near fruition, thanks in no small part to her advocacy. In its 2023 redevelopment plan for a new ballpark, the Tampa Bay Rays allotted 50,000 square feet of civic space and $10 million for The Woodson. The redevelopment project is expected to break ground this year.

Eve graduated from Eckerd with a bachelor’s degree in political science and went on to earn a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was an editor of the Columbia Law Review. She now serves as general counsel for the global streaming platform Spotify, overseeing a global team of legal professionals and responsible for the full range of legal issues—including content licensing, business development, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, employment, and compliance. Since joining Spotify in 2020, she has helped launch it into new markets and overseen service expansion in existing markets; expanded the company’s reach to new audiences via original content, podcasts and audiobooks; and worked to combat fraudulent behavior on the platform.

Before joining Spotify, Eve was executive vice president and general counsel of WarnerMedia Entertainment and was responsible for all legal matters for WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct to Consumer. She was named to this role in March 2019, after having served as executive vice president and general counsel of HBO for five years. As general counsel, she oversaw all of the company’s legal matters worldwide—including production and clearance of HBO’s original programming, negotiating and drafting HBO’s global distribution agreements, litigation and employment matters, protection of the company’s intellectual property, and antitrust matters. She is a member of the Board of Counselors of Equal Justice Works and previously served on the Eckerd College Board of Trustees and National Advisory Council. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, Jonathan Mothner, who is the general counsel of Synchrony Financial.

Anjali graduated from Eckerd with a degree in marine science. A mere five years later, she is a marine ecologist, an educator, an entrepreneur and an elected official, as well as a Ph.D. candidate and Dean’s Graduate Fellow at Duke University in the Nicholas School of the Environment. She is fiercely committed to increasing the representation of women and ethnic minorities in ocean science fields (including through an Eckerd scholarship) and elevating the voices and contributions of students and early-career scientists. Anjali has served as an early-career liaison to the U.S. National Committee for the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development; a member of the Board of Directors for Black Women in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Science; and an appointee to numerous committees and task forces at Duke, Eckerd and the Ecological Society of America. As the director of iNviTECH, she works to combat the underrepresentation of women and ethnic minorities in STEM fields through educational entrepreneurial programs to engage children ages 0–5 and K–12 students.

In addition, she is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Ford Fellow and National Geographic Explorer. Her ongoing research focuses on developing more efficient and cost-effective restoration and management practices to restore and conserve vulnerable marine ecosystems. Anjali has published multiple scientific papers and reports, and her work has been recognized by the Smithsonian, NOAA, National Academy of Sciences, Aspen Institute and others. She also serves as an elected official in her hometown of Durham, North Carolina, as a Durham County Soil and Water Conservation district supervisor.

John graduated from Eckerd with a degree in management and was a member of the Eckerd College Search and Rescue Team. After graduating, he worked in fundraising at the Waterfront and also served as a divemaster for EC-SAR. Since 1990, he has served the American Heart Association in various roles. Currently, as chief of mission-aligned businesses and healthcare solutions, he leads the development and expansion of the Association’s businesses that support its global mission to be a relentless force for longer, healthier lives. John leads the development and expansion of the American Heart Association’s healthcare quality and professional education programs, which train more than 22 million people each year in 105 countries.

In 2020, John’s division delivered just-in-time oxygenation and ventilation training for healthcare professionals engaged in the COVID-19 pandemic response and compiled interim CPR guidelines to help rescuers treat victims of cardiac arrest with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Through his leadership, the Association developed the first cardiovascular disease–focused COVID-19 registry, available to health care systems in the U.S. and internationally. In his previous position as executive vice president for the Emergency Cardiovascular Care Department, John revolutionized business operations to increase revenue and deliver lifesaving programs, seeing the program grow by an average of 30% each year from 2010–2016. Additionally, he oversaw the Association’s activity outside of the U.S. and the development of the organization’s global science and health improvement programs. This included the establishment of seven international American Heart Association offices and staff to support the organization’s emerging collaborative work in science, professional education, advocacy and health improvement.

Tim graduated from Eckerd with a degree in anthropology and quickly left for Nagoya, Japan, on a one-year Eckerd exchange program. He later earned a master’s degree in education administration from the University of Oregon and an Ed.D. from the University of Minnesota. With the exception of a brief stint as Eckerd’s assistant basketball coach, he lived and worked in Nagoya, Kobe and Tokyo for a cumulative 41 years, retiring to southwest England with his wife, Jo, in 2017. He initially taught English and coached basketball at a Japanese high school and ended up as the deputy head of school at the American School in Japan, Tokyo’s leading international school.

While a school administrator, he experienced the 1995 Hanshin Earthquake and the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and subsequent tsunami. His involvement in local relief and recovery following those events showed him the generosity and overall kindness of people engaged in grassroots volunteer activities. Tim had first gained an appreciation for volunteering during his first-year Winter Term when Professor Dudley DeGroot, now deceased, offered a class that involved assisting at a local center for autistic children, and he has never forgotten the experience. Tim and Jo enjoy volunteering in their rural Devon community and keeping up with their four children: Michael, an associate professor of Japanese history at Northeastern University; Catherine, an elementary school teacher at an international school in Frankfurt, Germany; Gwendolyn, a veterinarian in Melbourne, Australia; and Liz, a Nike human resource officer in Oregon.

Nancy earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Eckerd, followed by a master’s in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Central Florida. During a 40-year career with the Federal Aviation Administration, she directed national programs for air traffic control systems operations and personnel management, retiring as vice president for FAA Air Traffic Organization Management Services. In that role, she directed the development and execution of a $7.5 billion operations budget and provided direction for human-resource management.

As ATO’s vice president of systems operations, Nancy led six operational directorates to ensure a safe, efficient and secure National Airspace System. She directed a redesign of the nation’s airspace in collaboration with the National Air Traffic Control Association and made major advances in traffic-flow-management technology, international aviation data management, and flight services delivery. In 2001, when Nancy was deputy director of air traffic airspace management, her work ensured the FAA’s response to the attacks of September 11 and the national airspace’s recovery to normal operations. She is a two-time recipient of the Secretary of Transportation’s Gold Medal. She also was recognized by the FAA’s military partners and major aviation organizations for service rendered during 9/11 and for subsequent support of deployments during the War on Terror. Nancy’s greatest joys in life stem from her 43 years of marriage to Keith Kalinowski, an astronomer who spent his career with the Hubble Space Telescope Program, and their family: son Christopher, son Ryan, daughter-in-law Mandy and grandson Alexander Orion.