UMass Lowell Honors Outstanding Alumni

04/14/2014

Contacts for media:  Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu

LOWELL, Mass. – UMass Lowell will present its annual University Alumni Awards this week to seven graduates who have gone on to distinguish not only themselves but also the institution with their exceptional leadership, professional success and service to the campus and community.

The event, set for Wednesday, April 16 at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center, will honor a graduate of each of the university’s six schools and colleges, as well as a recent alum who is already making their mark in their profession and the community. The celebration is also a fundraiser for student scholarships. 

Alumni award recipients are nominated by faculty and staff, members of the community and fellow graduates. Since 1998, more than 100 alumni of UMass Lowell and its predecessor institutions have been recognized. 

“The alumni honored each year come from different backgrounds, degree programs and hometowns. What they have in common is how they have put their UMass Lowell education to work to build successful careers, to further the mission of the university and to better their communities,” said UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan. 

The 2014 honorees are:

• James J. Barry, Ph.D., ’88 of Marlborough (College of Sciences) has been in the medical devices field for more than 20 years, the last decade as a senior executive. He is principal at the Convergent Biomedical Group and was previously president and CEO at Arsenal Medical Inc. Barry also spent 18 years at Boston Scientific Corp. as senior vice president of corporate technology development. While at Boston Scientific, he started and led the company’s drug-eluting stent programs. Under his leadership, the TAXUS drug-eluting coronary stent was developed and became the most successful medical device ever launched, attaining first-year sales in excess of $3 billion. Barry holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from what was then the University of Lowell and a B.S. in chemistry from Saint Anselm College. He serves as chairman of UMass Lowell’s College of Sciences Advisory Board, of which he has been a member since 2006. He also serves as an adviser to the university’s Office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property and the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2). Additionally, he has been a member of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Advisory Board since its inception. 
• Mark Cocozza ’71 of Boston (Manning School of Business) has spent more than 40 years in the shoe business and is chairman of the board of Grandview International, a global distributor of footwear and accessories. Previously, he spent 17 years at the helm of what began as a small privately held company, Maxwell Shoes. He led Maxwell through several years of growth, a successful IPO and its acquisition by Jones Apparel Group in 2004. Cocozza’s career began at the Stride Rite Corp., which he joined not long after his graduation from Lowell Technological Institute with a degree in business administration. In the 16 years that followed, he ascended the company’s organizational chart, departing in 1987 as president of the Sperry Topsider line and executive vice president of corporate merchandising. He is a key supporter of the Manning School of Business and was among the earliest contributors to its building campaign and is a member of its advisory board. He has also been a major contributor to his other alma mater, Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, as well as Lawrence General Hospital, Boston’s Children’s Hospital and several other institutions and causes.
• Louis B. Coiro ’82 of Andover (College of Health Sciences) is the owner and founder of Tewksbury Physical Therapy in Tewksbury and Drum Hill Physical and Sports Therapy in Chelmsford. He launched the companies in the late 1980s after working several years as a physical therapist in Boston. Both practices have flourished to include 28 staff members who offer physical and occupational therapy. The team addresses a wide range of patient needs in areas including orthopedic and neurological, pre- and post- surgical, adult and pediatric care. Coiro, who earned a bachelor of science in physical therapy from the University of Lowell, is the chairman of UMass Lowell’s Physical Therapy Department Advisory Board and a member of the College of Health Sciences Advisory Board. He was honored in 2011 with the Distinguished Service Award by the Physical Therapy Department. In addition, he has served for seven years as president of the New England Physical Therapy Network and has lectured nationally through the American Physical Therapy Association.
• Patricia D. McPhail ’54 of Hattiesburg, Miss., (Graduate School of Education), a prominent member of the real estate community in Mississippi for nearly 40 years, is a former president of two enterprises in that state, Pat McPhail Inc. and McPhail Enterprises Inc., both involved in the development of shopping centers, apartments and residential subdivisions. Prior to that, she was founder of Colonial Realty in Hattiesburg, where she served as president of the Board of Realtors in 1988, was named Realtor of the Year in 2000 and was recognized in “Who’s Who in the South and Southwest.” As a student at Lowell State Teachers College – which she remembers for its “small classes, caring faculty, friendly atmosphere and warm friendships” – McPhail served as editor of the college’s yearbook, “The Knoll.” Since her graduation, she has been generous in her endowment of two scholarship funds to the Graduate School of Education: the Patricia McPhail Fund and the E. Dewey and Rose A. Dyer Fund, which honors her parents.
• Jacqueline Moloney, Ed.D., ’75, ’92 of Chelmsford (College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences), who has served for seven years as executive vice chancellor for UMass Lowell, playing a vital role in the most transformative growth period in the university’s history. Prior to that, she served as dean of the Division of Online and Continuing Education and as founding director of the Centers for Learning and Academic Support Services (CLASS). Moloney also founded UMass Lowell’s highly successful online education program nearly two decades ago and led it to earn several prestigious international awards from the Sloan Consortium. Widely considered a national leader in online and continuing education, Moloney received the Sloan-C award for Most Outstanding Achievement in Online Learning by an Individual in 2009. As executive vice chancellor, Moloney also oversees the Division of Student Affairs and has been deeply involved in the university’s economic development and entrepreneurship initiatives, including co-founding the DifferenceMakers student entrepreneurship program and co-chairing the 2013 and 2014 Deshpande Symposium for Entrepreneurial Colleges and Universities, hosted by UMass Lowell. Moloney, who holds a bachelor of arts in sociology, is a member of the faculty of the university’s Graduate School of Education, from which she earned her doctorate. 
• Richard A. Pierro Jr. ’83 of Hampton Falls, N.H. (Francis College of Engineering) is co-founder, president and co-owner of Superior Controls in Seabrook, N.H., which he launched in 1993. The company, with a global reach and a staff of more than 50 engineers, provides custom automation and information technology solutions to clients in more than a dozen countries. The company was named the worldwide Systems Integrator of the Year 2012 by Control Engineering magazine and Manufacturing/Technology Business of the Year 2013 by Business NH magazine. Pierro, who earned a master of science in chemical engineering from the University of Lowell after graduating from Boston University with a degree in chemistry, is co-chairman of the UMass Lowell Chemical Engineering Advisory Board and recently completed a three-year term as chairman of the Industrial Advisory Board for the university’s Francis College of Engineering. The college named him to the Academy of Distinguished Engineers in 2003. He also serves as trustee for the New Hampshire High Technology Council, has served as president of the Boston chapter of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering and sits on the boards of several technology and medical-device companies.
• Adam M. Hogue ’03 of Lincoln (Recent Alumnus Award), a Lowell native, is an adviser at Coastal Capital Group LLC, a financial-planning firm in Danvers, as well as the author of the book, “Shaping the Battlefield,” about his experiences during an 11-month military deployment in Afghanistan. Previously, he worked in the offices of Nebraska congressmen Jeff Fortenberry and Tom Osborne and as a financial services representative for Metropolitan Life in Waltham, an account executive for Metropolitan Life in Waltham and as an account executive for the First National Bank of Omaha. He earned a bachelor of arts in history from UMass Lowell in 2003, a master’s degree in education from the University of Nebraska and an MBA from Fitchburg State University. He received a commission in the U.S. Army, serving with an Airborne and Special Forces command, rising to the rank of captain. Hogue is a trustee of the Lowell Community Charter Public School, is an active Sigma Phi Omicron alumnus and serves as race director for the Chris Sullivan Memorial 5K, an annual event that raises funds for local veterans’ causes. 

UMass Lowell is a national research university located on a high-energy campus in the heart of a global community. The university offers its 17,000 students bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. UMass Lowell delivers high-quality educational programs, vigorous hands-on learning and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be ready for work, for life and for all the world offers. www.uml.edu