Dr. Bonnie Sandman ’78

provides leadership and
$500,000 gift to Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Many Americans spend the majority of each day — around 1,700 hours per year — at work.

For Dr. Bonnie Sandman, a 1978 graduate of BGSU’s doctoral program in industrial and organizational psychology, this big piece of the pie presents the best opportunity for improving people’s lives and helping companies succeed.

“With the majority of people’s lives spent at work, job satisfaction clearly has an enormous impact on quality of life. Numerous studies demonstrate a positive link between job satisfaction and overall life satisfaction, well-being and even improved health outcomes. Furthermore, it has also been found that companies with satisfied employees report lower turnover rates, helping the bottom line and the attraction of new hires,” Sandman said.

As a practitioner in the field of industrial and organizational psychology, Sandman is passionate about matching people’s interests, abilities and values with career choices that benefit both the individual and the employer. She has used many of the systems that govern employee selection and promotion, performance management and supervisory training. Sandman has served as a consultant to organizations in manufacturing, steel, industrial casting, transportation, telecommunications, child protective services, electric utilities, health care and public safety.

She also is the co-founder of uSooth.com, a company specializing in the field of career match services. Through the integration of numerous interest assessments, inventories and interviews, uSooth’s career selection engineers promise customers a future that fits.

Sandman discovered her passion for what she calls “career sweet spots” during her first post-undergraduate job as a writer for an oil company. She found herself more interested in how people performed in their jobs and how the company and employees interacted and affected one another than writing about the oil industry. Her curiosity led her to first graduate and then doctoral studies in industrial and organizational psychology at BGSU.

Now she is poised to further shape the field with a generous gift to BGSU’s industrial and organizational psychology program, which earned the number three position in U.S. News and World Report’s 2014 listing of best graduate programs in the discipline.

“BGSU has a longstanding reputation in the area of industrial and organizational psychology established by leaders in the field, Patricia C. Smith and Robert Guion. I had the privilege of being a student in the program when they were teaching,” Sandman said. “My husband and I have been so very fortunate in our careers, in great part due to our excellent educations, so we have made gifts to our respective universities.”

The couple previously supported the Industrial and Organizational Psychology program through the annual Sandman Award to a fourth-year doctoral student based on his or her overall excellence. A transformational gift of $500,000 made in November 2013 will have a significant and lasting impact on the industrial and organizational psychology doctoral program by providing an endowment for the existing Sandman Award and the new Sandman Professorship in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. The couple will also sponsor the annual Industrial and Organizational Psychology “Best Practices” conferences at BGSU.

“Bonnie and Dan’s gift will ensure that the industrial and organizational psychology program will continue to recruit, retain and recognize exceptional faculty members and graduate students, who will share their expertise to improve the effectiveness of businesses and organizations,” said Dr. William Balzer, vice president for faculty affairs and strategic initiatives and Firelands dean and former chair of the psychology department.

“It is a transformative gift that will strengthen the accomplishments and reputation of our nationally ranked doctoral program, and have a positive impact
on employee well-being and the success of the places they work.”

Reiter earns Director Emeritus status

At the October 2013 meeting of the BGSU Foundation, Inc. Board, Director Emeritus status was conferred upon Edward Reiter ’62. His 11 years of Foundation service included chair from 2004-06.
 
When presenting the honor, Theresa Popp Braun, ’80, ’85, current Foundation chair, said, “Through Ed’s own personal philanthropy and his many leadership positions, including his tenure as the CEO of Mid-American Bank and senior chairman of Sky Financial, he has continuously demonstrated incredibly strong and selfless service to this Foundation and Bowling Green State University.”

Reiter was recognized as instrumental in the success of the Building Dreams Campaign as a donor and campaign committee member and for cultivating and securing high levels of individual and corporate support.  His involvement in procuring the University House, which the Foundation purchased in 2005 and subsequently gifted to the University, was also noted.

Reiter received an original glass sculpture by BGSU graduates Bill ‘84 and Michelle ‘81 McKinney of West Unity, Ohio, to commemorate the honor.

Carl Sandifer ’05

is out of this world

When he was a child, stars fascinated Carl Sandifer ’05, and he often wondered how big they must be to be seen from Earth. He dreamed of exploring what lies throughout our solar system. Through hard work and motivation, Sandifer is doing exactly that.

“I’ve always had an interest in space and exploration but never imagined that I would have the opportunity to work for NASA,” he said. “The idea of supporting space missions at any capacity for our nation is a dream.”

Currently the planning lead for the Program Planning and Assessment area of the Radioisotope Power Systems Program Office, Sandifer supports the office management team in leading a multi-agency program that delivers radioisotope power systems to NASA missions. Before his current position, he served as an aerospace engineer, mission designer and system integration engineer for the GRC COMPASS conceptual spacecraft design team.

Sandifer’s project list at NASA might seem daunting, but he is no stranger to tough assignments. After becoming a father as a teenager, he worked three jobs in addition to being a full-time student at BGSU. He traveled to Cleveland nearly every weekend to spend time with his daughter and complete his internship hours at NASA.

A scholarship through the Office of Multicultural Affairs assisted Sandifer in making his dreams of both a college education and working for NASA come true. He also met his Falcon Flame, Victoria, and while Sandifer’s career at NASA is a dream come true, the title of father is still his favorite.

Gloria Evangelista ’73

From BGSU to Hollywood and beyond

“An artist? Is that even a real job?” Gloria Evangelista’s father asked when his 21-year-old daughter told him she was switching majors. After spending her first two years at BGSU studying biology, she decided instead to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

It turned out her father didn’t need to worry. Evangelista’s creativity has served her well. The former film studio executive has published several children’s books, including “Ignacio’s Chair” and “In Search of the Perfect Pumpkin,” garnering numerous awards and allowing Evangelista, ‘73 to turn writing into a full-time profession.
It’s a career she may not have pursued without the encouragement of BGSU faculty, she said.

Evangelista’s first published work was a poem she wrote while attending the University, one of her first assignments for a literature class during her sophomore year. The professor read the poem, “A World of Amazement,” aloud in class and began working one-on-one with her to improve her craft.

Following graduation, Evangelista continued writing. After a stretch serving as marketing director for Paramount Pictures in California, she decided to turn her true passion into a career.

Of all her publications, Evangelista’s favorite is “Ignacio’s Chair,” which traces a monk’s hand-made piece of furniture as it is passed down through generations. The book received ForeWord’s Silver Medal for Book of the Year, PubWest’s Best Picture Book award and was named a Notable Book by the national independent bookseller program BookSense.

In addition to the acclaim for her children’s books, Evangelista’s poetry also earned her the Editor’s Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry and a Hackney Literary Award for works such as 1996’s “Frost at Midnight” and 1997’s “Wind of Memories Past.”

Evangelista is currently working on her first adult fiction novel and developing a TV show. In 2013, she returned to BGSU to speak to students about her path to professional success.

“It forced me to revisit my career and myself as a youth, a struggling young adult and, finally, a grown woman who refused to be stagnant or settle for a white cube existence,” she said. “I’m grateful that I have come far enough to have something to contribute.”

Bob Filipucci ’08

Co-owner of Firehouse Subs

Bob Filipucci ’08, who received his bachelor’s degree in business administration with a specialization in supply-chain management, is responsible for bringing the Firehouse Subs restaurant chain to Fort Wayne, Ind., and also runs a real-estate business.

After graduating, Filipucci received job offers from Marathon Petroleum Corp. and Pak Mail of Perrysburg, but he chose the entrepreneurial path, returning to his hometown of Fort Wayne as a partner in a real-estate company.

By 2009 he had his own business – Pooch Properties LLC. – and was managing about 100 rental properties in the Fort Wayne area.  

A year later, Filipucci came across Firehouse Subs while on a trip to Florida with a business partner. Filipucci was impressed by the quality of the food and the restaurant’s unique firefighter theme and opened Fort Wayne’s first Firehouse Subs in November 2011. The franchise was so successful that, within a year, Filipucci had opened a second restaurant, and is now preparing to open a third. He continues to run Pooch Properties.

Filipucci is passionate about developing his staff for leadership positions. He is also proud of his franchises’ fundraising contributions to the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, which has resulted in grant awards totaling $40,000 to the Fort Wayne police and fire departments to purchase safety equipment.