"We had the opportunity to take our skills and create new and exciting ways to do human-factors work in the entertainment space, which had never been done before in the games industry. Over the next few years, our team of 'applied psychologists' grew to be the second largest at Microsoft (second only to the Windows team) and has become known as the leader in entertainment research in the entire games industry.

"For me, this has been a dream job because it combines all of the hard work and education I have endured through the years with my love of video games and fun. It also has been a dream job because it’s been extremely challenging, and it’s provided the opportunity to innovate and go places that others haven’t been before. And finally, this has been a dream job because it’s given me the chance to touch millions of people throughout the world and add to their enjoyment."
       -- submitted 2008

Mark Boudreaux, DAAP '78

"This year was my 30th anniversary at Kenner/Hasbro, and my title is senior principal designer of Boy's Toys. In 1977, I was Kenner's first co-op in its newly formed Preliminary Design Department, working with Jim Swearingen [DAAP '72, featured in the February 2007 magazine] as one of the lead designers. I guess I did OK; the program is still going strong."

[Hasbro bought Kenner in the '90s, closed the Cincinnati office in 2000 and moved employees to Rhode Island.]

"I did the preliminary design development on Kenner's original Millennium Falcon toy. Jack Farrah [DAAP '69], also still working at Hasbro, did the production development. I was fortunate to be able to work on all six 'Star Wars' films, and now we are getting ready to work with LFL [LucasFilm Ltd.] on their new animated 'Star Wars' TV series.

"And yes, that is my face on the Rebel Trooper, the Rebel Blockade Runner Trooper and an exclusive AT-ST driver ['Star Wars' action figures]. LFL allowed portraits of members of the team to be used on 'background' characters -- a little perk for us. It's a strange thing being mass produced in plastic.

"Over the years I have worked on a variety of figures and vehicles. I developed the Star Wars Micro World line, and I am currently the designer of Galactic Heroes -- a fun line to work on.

"We have a lot of passionate designers here at Hasbro and a lot who are UC grads. Most of our core Boy's Toys designers made the move to Rhode Island like I did, and I would like to think that both long-time Hasbro designers and Kenner transplants have had a positive impact on the success of the 'Boy's' brands, not only 'Star Wars,' but Transformers, Spider-Man/Marvel, Batman, G.I. Joe and countless others.

"It certainly has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be involved with the 'Star Wars' line for the last 30 years, not to mention working with all the folks over the years -- Swearingen, Farrah, Tom Osborne and Tim Effler being the first. Not a bad group for a 21-year-old to start out with. I couldn't imagine doing anything else."
       -- submitted 2007

Debbie Denise, CCM '73

Debbie is in Hollywood, the executive vice president of production infrastructure and executive producer at Sony Pictures Imageworks. She was previously at Industrial Light and Magic.

In 2007, she had most recently been the visual effects executive producer on the newly released "Beowulf." The movie uses Imagemotion, Imageworks' proprietary performance-capture technology, which digitally records actors' movements to be computer animated for the screen.

She also worked on the films "Monster House" (also in 3-D), "Superman Returns," "Click," "Open Season" in 3-D, "The Polar Express" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

Prior to joining Imageworks, Denise was the head of production at Industrial Light and Magic. While there, she had been visual effects producer on two Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects -- "Forrest Gump" in 1994 and "Death Becomes Her" in 1992. She had joined ILM in 1991 as digital department coordinator on the film "Hook."

Preceding her work in visual effects, she had produced audio-visual presentations for the Norwegian and Cunard cruise lines and been an on-air writer and producer for the ABC network in Los Angeles. She began her entertainment career producing live shows for the Ohio-based theme park Kings Island.

(View a longer list of her projects on the Famous Alumni Movie page.)
      -- submitted 2007

Diana Maria Riva (Uhlenbrock), CCM '91, M (CCM) '95

"This is the kind of stuff most people don't hear about when it comes to Hollywood. I was originally cast in a series-regular role in the Lifetime Channel's 'Side Order of Life' and was very happy with the part.

"After landing the role, my first meeting was for a table-read of the script, where the cast semi-performs the show while seated, our faces buried in our scripts in a sterile conference room filled with the producers and the heads of both the studio and the network.

"This is almost like another audition, even though contracts have been signed and you've already had a costume fitting or two. Yet perhaps this is the worst audition of its kind, because although they loved you when they tested you, this is now about chemistry with all the characters coming to life.

"You see, they could have loved the way you did the character in the audition room, but when you're opposite another character, it's different. Maybe it's not quite right, now. Indeed, that was what happened this time.

"Immediately after the read-through, the cast was dismissed. The powers-that-be stayed behind to go down their list of the cast's strengths and weaknesses.

"It was October, so I went with my husband, Mike, and my daughter, Sofie, to the store to get Halloween decor. While I was browsing through screaming doorknockers, my cell phone rang. In a very formal tone, an assistant told me that all four executive producers were on the line for me.

"My heart stopped. All the annoying screaming witches, howling ghouls and maniacal theme songs were instantly drowned out. Mike stared at me from the checkout line with a panicked look on his face, having seen the lack of color in mine.

"All I could think was, 'These idiots are placing a conference call to fire me. Strength in numbers, I guess.'

"Before the party of four on the other end could get a word out, I said, 'I just want you to know that I'm in the middle of Halloween hell. And if you called to fire me, I'm going to scare the daylights out of this crowded store with my reaction.'

"'Are you sitting down?' they asked. I couldn't believe it; they were really setting me up for the fall.

"'No, I'm not sitting down,' I replied in a slightly elevated voice. 'I'm standing here with a basket of spider webs, Sofie on my hip and the theme to the Addams Family playing obnoxiously loud!'

"'Then we'll get right to it. We are not firing you. We are firing the second lead and want to move you up to that role.'

"Then they promptly started cheering and screaming, 'Congratulations. Woo-hoo!!' Between them and speakers blaring, 'They're creepy and they're kooky,' I couldn't hear a thing.

"They finally stopped and explained that after the table-read, they had all agreed that the way I had been playing my original character was the way they wanted the role of the best friend, Vivy, to be played. So they fired the other actress and replaced her with me.

"Of course, the spectacle now became about me and Sofie jumping up and down in the aisle, setting off all the motion-sensored Halloween ghouls while Mike looked relieved and confused at the same time.

"That's a common example of how unpredictable and unglamorous this job can be with its ups and downs. Fortunately, in this case, it's an 'up' for me. Not so much for the fired actress.

"Although I have been saying it for years, I'll say it again: This business has been great to me. I've had steady work for 10 years.

"But this role is the one I have been waiting for. The one I trained for. The one I fought for. The one I have longed for. It has been absolutely fulfilling to dive into this character.

"The new series 'Side Order of Life,' on the Lifetime Channel, is a one-hour drama/comedy about a women who gets a jolting wakeup call from the universe when her best friend — me — makes a pretty astounding announcement one week before she is to marry her fiancé, Jason Priestly.

"So now I have one question: 'Does anyone have, or know anyone who has, a Nielson Ratings box connected to their TV?'"
      -- submitted in 2007

Update: In 2010, Riva starred in Fox's "The Good Guys," playing a lead recurring role of Lt. Ana Ruiz with Bradley Whitford. In 2012, she starred in the CBS comedy "Rob," playing Rosa, opposite Cheech Marin and Rob Schneider.

Links:

• See Diana's TV credits and movie credits.
• Read the lengthy story UC Magazine did on her in 2007.
• Riva talks about working on “The Good Guys.”

Jim Mariol, att. DAAP '40s

Like many born during the Great Depression, Jim Mariol rarely rode in a car as a child.

His father, trying to make ends meet, had to sell the family vehicle before Jim was even born. Still, the youngster was so fascinated by the cars motoring past his home in Canton, Ohio, that he knew he wanted to design them someday. Little did he know, that his car design would one day be in millions of driveways around the world.

Mariol, a retired toy designer who received his only formal training at UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning in the late '40s, became best known for Little Tikes' Cozy Coupe, the bright red and yellow foot-powered kid car that last year outsold both the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

On June 6, 2009, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Mariol's car, the first Cozy Coupe off of the line from 1979 will be accompanied by a special 30th Anniversary Edition and inducted into the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland.

Read the full article on Jim Mariol, written in 2009.

Christopher Harris, CAS '87 & '89

In 2007, Christopher Harris, was the project director leading the team responsible for managing the design and construction of the Burj Khalifa Tower (formerly called the Dubai Tower) in the United Arab Emirates. At 2,717 feet tall and more than 160 floors, the tower opened in January '10 as the tallest building in the world. Harris was based at the site, where his team had worked six days a week since 2004.

After graduating from the College of Applied Science with a degree in construction management and related co-op experience, Harris landed a job with Turner Construction in New York City, where he worked for two years before heading abroad.

Living in Taiwan, Kuwait, Malaysia, China, Korea, Oman, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, Harris has been involved in construction of the last two tallest-building record-holders, the Petronas Towers project in Malaysia and the Taipei Financial Center in Taiwan.

The Khalifa Tower contains 55 elevators, 899 residences, one of the first Armani-designed hotels in the world with 160 guest rooms and 144 hotel-serviced apartments, a 168,000-square-foot spa complex, an observatory, 37 whole-floor suites for boutique offices and 3,045 parking spaces. The exact height and number of floors has not yet been released to the public.
      -- submitted in 2007

John McCullough, Eng '89

John McCullough is reaching for the stars -- literally.

NASA just named McCullough as its new chief flight director. He will be in charge of the Flight Director Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where he has been working since 2000. He also will be overseeing 28 active flight directors, who run space shuttle and International Space Station missions.

"Throughout my career at NASA," McCullough says, "I have strived to make a significant and positive difference in the space program. I look forward to the opportunity to have a greater influence in the ongoing shuttle and station missions and laying the groundwork for future exploration flights."

McCullough graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering in 1989. His first job was at NASA as a manager of shuttle astronaut training facilities. In 1992, McCullough moved into Mission Control, where he supported 14 space shuttle missions as a payload officer and assembly checkout officer. He also was the NASA mission manager for the Imax project, which produced the Space Station Imax film.

McCullough was selected to join the ranks of flight directors in 2000. Since then, he has led more than 620 shifts for the flight control team, served as the first chief of the Spaceflight Training Management Office and played an integral role in the restoration of the original Flight Control Room 1.
       -- submitted in 2008

Read entire story about McCullough at NASA.

John Brombaugh, Eng '60

"The article on my work ['Building Pipe Organs Like Old World Masters Did,' July 2007] was very well done -- so much better than almost anything I've ever seen in print describing my work.

"Since the interview, I've been chosen to design a new organ for the Hochschule für Musik in Bremen, the equivalent in north Germany to the College-Conservatory of Music, which has made Cincinnati and UC so famous. And I just had a phone call from Austria to participate in the restoration of a historic instrument in Linz.

"An even more important project, however, is one I will be working on with two European experts to do a thorough documentation of the organ built in 1551 for the Johanniskirche [St. Johannis Church] in Lüneburg, Germany. I absolutely consider this the most significant organ still partially extant in northern Europe.

"I will help document the organ's present condition so it can be restored as much as possible to its premier condition following alterations of 1714. You could put this in a category similar to the recent "improvements" made to restore the original appearance of Michelangelo's unbelievable frescoes in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.

"This great organ, I dare say, is not exceeded in magnificence for its time in all of northern Europe, and this project is important to what great organs will be into the future. It is also important because Johann Sebastian Bach lived in Lüneburg for three of his teenage years, between 1700 and 1703, and studied with the organist, Georg Böhm, who was the organist on the Lüneburg Johanniskirche organ.

"I am happy that retirement is nothing but a joke and that I still get to work every day on the things my study at UC helped me do so well. Best wishes to UC, a great place to learn."
      -- submitted in 2007

Read the entire UC Magazine feature on Brombaugh.

Chris Hartzler, CAS '97

After three years of development and two years of construction, the Pentagon Memorial was scheduled for dedication on Sept. 11, '08, the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks, says senior project manager Chris Hartzler, CAS '97.

"Knowing that this project will be opened for the families who lost loved ones and for everyone to come and experience it gives me a great sense of pride," Hartzler says. The two-acre outdoor memorial project consists of 184 stainless steel, granite-topped benches, each inscribed with the name of a victim of the Pentagon attack. Under each bench will be an illuminated pool, and the benches will be arranged according to the victims' ages, from 3 to 71.

Groundbreaking for the project took place in June 2006, and Hartzler and his team have been working hard to finish by Sept. 11, 2008. "Our entire Balfour Beatty team has been extremely dedicated to ensure the project will be completed on time and completed to a high level of quality," he says. The project has been featured numerous times in The Washington Post, as well as on National Public Radio.

Hartzler has been working with Balfour Beatty since his college co-op stint and contributed to such projects as Harrah's Casino in New Orleans, Quincy Tower in Arlington, Va., and the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse Annex at the Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C.
       -- submitted in 2008

Cara Hannah Sullivan, Cler '97, MFA (CCM) '02

It took a Sarah Palin wig for Cara Hannah Sullivan to get into actress Tina Fey's hair.

The UC alumna is a wigmaker and hairdresser for NBC's Saturday Night Live, where she creates hairstyles in their Emmy Award-winning hair studio. For this small-town girl, though, it was one college class that began her journey from Bethel, Ohio, to the bright lights of New York City.

While a student at UC Clermont, Sullivan thought she wanted to study business. She signed up for a theater class as an elective, though, and "I knew this was the world I wanted to live in," she says.

After receiving her associate's degree from Clermont in 1997, Sullivan went on to earn a bachelor's degree in theater design and production from Northern Kentucky University before returning to UC to complete a master's in theatrical hair and makeup design in the College-Conservatory of Music.

From there, she designed wigs and hair for Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and the Utah Shakespearean Festival. However, it wasn't too long before she got the itch to head for a larger stage. She applied to be an NBC intern, but instead landed a gig as the assistant wig supervisor for the Tony Award-winning musical "The Producers" -- a job she interviewed for over the phone in a U-Hahl, en route to New York.

Since then, Sullivan has worked several Broadway shows, including "The Phantom of the Opera," "Les Miserables" and "Spamalot." Her work also was featured in Will Ferrell's latest comedy special, "You're Welcome, America: A Final Evening with George W. Bush."

It's the high-energy environment of SNL, though, that she thrives on. In one day, she can go from fitting the Obama wig for actor Fred Armisen to fashioning a mohawk for comedian Rachel Dratch in a skit mocking "America's Next Top Model." In fact, the controlled chaos began her very first day on the job.

"It was a quick-change between scenes, and I had to get (comedian) Andy Sandberg out of an alien costume and into an impersonation of actress Juliette Lewis. The costume got stuck, and he's yelling, 'get it off, get if off,'" Sullivan laughs.

Her days are long -- upwards of 40 hours and 100 wigs in just four days each week -- but for Sullivan, it is a dream job.

"Working in TV, it's instant gratification, and your work lasts forever," she says. "I never thought I'd be where I am today coming from Bethel, Ohio, but like my husband says, I was 'a country girl with a big-city heart.'"
      -- written by Amanda Hughes in 2009

See her Broadway credits, her TV credits and the story the New Yorker did on her during strikes by writers and stagehands.

F. Richard "Dick" Folkerth, Eng '57

"In June 1957, my co-op employer, Chance Vought Aircraft, offered me a dream job when I graduated with my new degree as an aeronautical engineer. I accepted the offer to work on designs of advanced aircraft.

"In October 1957, the Soviet Union orbited the first artificial Earth satellite, which introduced the space age. Shortly after, Chance Vought started work on the proposal for the NASA Scout orbital launch vehicle. I joined that team, and we won the contract. Over a 33-year service-life, Scout launched more than 100 satellites.

"I continued to work on advanced concepts, 'new stuff.' This was certainly my dream job.

"We briefly investigated lunar and interplanetary missions, but the company finally found a niche in the related mission areas of satellite intercept and ballistic missile defense.

"In the late 1970s, I was the project engineer for LTV Aerospace (same place, same job, new company name) on the Air Force program called Air-Launched Anti-Satellite, during the conceptual design phase. We successfully flew ASAT for one intercept mission in 1985, but the program was put in limbo due to political issues.

"Our ballisti-missile defense efforts culminated in the Army PAC-3 missile program. We have produced hundreds of PAC-3s and they are deployed worldwide today, offering protection to United States and Allied forces. These carry a Lockheed Martin nameplate, but it is a branch of the company that is directly traceable to Chance Vought.

"I retired from my dream job in 1998 as director of system engineering for that branch -- same place, same job, new company name!"
     -- submitted in 2011

Dale Flesher, PhD (Bus) '75

Selected as one of the nation’s outstanding accounting educators, Dale Flesher received the American Institute of CPAs' 2011 Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award. A professor at the University of Mississippi, Flesher has authored 47 books (in 87 editions) and more than 300 articles for more than 100 different professional journals throughout the world.

The award recognizes full-time college accounting professors who excel as educators and who have achieved national prominence in the accounting profession.  It is a lifetime achievement award.  Flesher is known for his many publications and for successfully moving the AICPA library, a voluminous history of the accounting profession containing thousands of books, pamphlets and periodicals, from New York to the J. D. Williams Library at Ole Miss.

Flesher has served as a member of the AICPA’s Governing Council from 2005-2008, of the AICPA Foundation Board from 2002-05 and on numerous AICPA committees. He also served a two-year term as president of the Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Section of the American Accounting Association.

In his acceptance speech, Flesher acknowledged the role that his UC accounting professors had played in his career. "At the University of Cincinnati," he said, "my dissertation co-chairs were Wayne Overmyer and Dale Kiefer, but the professor who most influenced me at Cincinnati was Dr. Clara Lelievre.  Clara was the first female CPA in the state of Alabama, and being a historical figure herself, it is appropriate that it was she who introduced me to the study of accounting history. I have achieved a modicum of success as an accounting historian, and that has been because Clara Lelievre gave me an appreciation for our profession’s forebearers." (Many of Flesher’s books dealt with aspects of accounting history.)

Flesher's wife, Tonya, also attended the University of Cincinnati.
    — submitted in 2011

Dick "That Yo-Yo Guy" Stohr, DAAP '65

"I think I have a dream job. For the past 10 years I have been 'That Yo-Yo Guy.'

"I graduated from Western Hills High School and studied architecture at UC. I had 10 years as a naval flight officer flying in P-3 and S-3 aircraft and in the USS Ticonderoga antisubmarine aircraft carrier, then 16 years in the Navy Reserve, plus duties in the Pentagon. After I retired as a captain, I became a Department of Defense contractor with positions of increasing responsibility to include corporate officer and president of a small company.

"In '97, I quit my day job because I was told that if I practiced a lot I could make a living playing with my yo-yos and other people's kids. This is for sure a dream job.

"I do an all-day teaching program -- Yo-Yo Fun and Science of Spin -- at elementary schools in the mid-Atlantic states. I also go to libraries, camps, festivals, fairs, parties, Cub Scouts, trade shows and other fun events all year 'round.

"I have been written about in the Washington Post and filmed for a TV news program. I have been elected to the board of directors for the American Yo-Yo Association continuously since 1998 and have judged yo-yo and spin-top contests nationally and internationally. As my wife says, I 'just enjoy acting like a big kid.'"
     -- submitted in 2007

View video of Stohr's yo-yo skills.

Bob Kelley, DAAP '58

"I have a movie credit on screen as a tech advisor in 'My Little Pony, The Movie,' circa 1990. I also have a speaking role in Universal's 'Rollercoaster,' starring Richard Widmark, Helen Hunt and Henry Fonda, circa 1976, as Virg, an FBI agent on the Tower.

"Unfortunately, all of my mementoes of those things were swept into the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricane Katrina during our brief attempt at living in Ocean Springs, Miss. We moved there in June, and two months and six days later, our house was gone.

"We're back in Michigan now. Living near large areas of warm water is a very dumb idea."
      -- submitted in 2007

Matthew Schreiber, DAAP '93

"I, along with many other younger alumni who fit the criteria for inclusion into this story ['Alumni Executives Oversee Corporations with Revenues Exceeding $100 Million,' June 2007], were obviously omitted based on the large volume of potential candidates. Many of us -- loyal, enthusiastic and career-focused alumni -- are progressing towards, or have obtained, senior and executive-level positions at various organizations. Therefore, it would be nice to see some of us included in future editorials.

"Hopefully each of us can help with generous donations at some point in the future, but more importantly, many of us continue to push friends, family and others to the university that made us who we are today.

"In speaking for many alumni, I’m sure they would agree that we all are so very proud to say we are part of such a great school, and the academics and experiences we gained at the University of Cincinnati have helped us land our 'Dream Jobs.'

"Matt Schreiber is now vice president of marketing at myMatrixx and president of the Solutions Team, a small strategy and marketing consulting firm."
       -- submitted in 2010

Kumad "Kim" Singh, MBA '72

"It has been great going through the contents of 'UC Magazine.' I would be happy to report my professional inventions (achievements) of a global relevance, one from 1983 when I was a director and vice president of the German Gerling Konzern, and the second one in 1997 as chairman and CEO of a unique educational company based in India, operating in Germany and, now in 2008, starting in Switzerland.
      -- submitted in 2008

Lori Shepherd Richards, Ed '83

"I truly enjoy 'UC Magazine' and have been very interested in reading about fellow alumni and their dream jobs. I, too, have my dream job. Many people may not think it is glamorous or exciting, but I would not want to do anything else. I am a teacher and have taught every grade from second through eighth.

"At this time, I am teaching fourth-grade language arts and science. I received an excellent education and teacher training from UC and have fond memories of sitting in the classes of Dr. Linda Amspaugh, Dr. Alfred Ciani, Dr. Lanthan Camblin, Dr. Pat Patterson and Dr. Sardar Tanveer. They showed us what a rewarding and exciting profession we were entering and how to hold our students' interest, just as they held ours. I love my job, and seeing a child get excited about learning is the best thing in the world!"
      -- submitted in 2008

Colette Whitaker, CCM '87

"I just wanted to say I really enjoyed Deborah Rieselman's 'Rising Stars' article. I, too, am a UC graduate living in Los Angeles, an alum from the electronic media department -- only waaaay back then we called it 'radio/television broadcasting.' I am happy to report that I am a successful voice-over actress working in Hollywood. I've been the voice for several national TV campaigns, including the California Cheese Cows campaign, as well as radio, animation and CD-ROM games. In any case, it was nice to see fellow UC grads out here in this crazy town who are making it in a very challenging medium."
        -- submitted in 2007

Scott Weinhold, MM '95

"I enjoyed the article on the Army Band [June '07] since I'm a member of the Army Band and an alumnus. It seems, however, that you forgot an alum in the article -- me!"
      -- submitted in 2007