Long Island University student-athletes once again earned recognition for their dedication to academics. The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced that LIU volleyball received a Team Academic Award and Team Academic Honor Roll award for landing in the top 20% nationally in team GPA. The LIU bowling team earned the National Tenpin Coaches Association’s All-Academic Team Award, and 12 Sharks received an individual All-Academic Award.

Suzanne Wollman, CPA, ’91 joined Common Energy – one of the country’s leading community solar providers – as its senior controller to oversee corporate finance and accounting for the business. Wollman brings over 25 years of finance and accounting experience, most recently serving as the vice president of finance at Innovative Technology Electronics.

Brendon Rodney, one of the most decorated track and field athletes in LIU’s history, returns to the Olympics for the Canadian National Team in Tokyo. Rodney won bronze medals with Canada in the 4×100-meter relay at the 2015 World Championships and at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The Ontario native won multiple Northeast Conference Championships while at LIU, and competed in the NCAA Division I Championships.

Emeritus professor of biology and accomplished author Bill Schutt ’78 explores the fascinating history of the human body’s most vital organ in his upcoming book, Pump: A Natural History of the Heart, available in September. Schutt’s previous works include the widely acclaimed New York Times Editor’s Choice, Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History. He taught biology at LIU Post for 22 years and is a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History, where his research on bats has been featured in Natural History magazine as well as in the New York Times, Newsday, the Economist, and Discover.

Ugandan diplomat Adonia Ayebare ’11 was appointed as special envoy to the United Nations in addition to his role as permanent representative. Ayebare began his career as a journalist for East African Business Week, and became a diplomat in 2001. He most recently served as the senior adviser on peace and security at the African Union’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York City, and as director of New York think tank – the Africa Program at the International Peace Institute.

LIU Shark student-athletes continue to earn awards for their outstanding performances in the classroom during the 2020-21 academic year. The LIU men’s and women’s swimming teams both received Scholar All-America honors from the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America. LIU men’s lacrosse senior Alex Russell was one of just 70 athletes nationwide to earn an academic award from the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association, while his team also won the USILA Team Academic Award.

Deirdre Farabaugh ’14 was named as the new director of the Desmond-Fish Public Library by the Board of Trustees. Farabaugh was selected due to her commitment to create opportunities for lifelong learning through new programming, collections and services including a dialogue about race and a “Coffee With a Cop” program.

Long Island University professors have published a groundbreaking study in Nature Journal Scientific Reports that serves to advance the treatment of cirrhosis, a liver disease that kills over 1.3 million people per year. Dr. Jeffrey Idle, director and endowed professor of Arthur G. Zupko’s Institute for Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics, and Dr. Diren Beyoglu, associate director and associate professor of Arthur G. Zupko’s Institute for Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics, found that fetal bile acids, normally absent in adults, reach increasingly high levels in plasma as liver cirrhosis progresses, adding an important biomarker for evaluating the stages of cirrhosis.

Former 2004 Olympic Fencing Team member and LIU women’s fencing Head Coach Ivan Lee won the Veteran 40-49 Men’s Saber title at the USA Fencing Summer Nationals. During his championship run, Lee gave up just five touches in his six pool bouts and four touches in the elimination rounds, and has won numerous national and international championships during his prestigious career. Most recently, he led LIU freshman Laura Fekete to the first NCAA Division I National Championship in school history.

Angelo Vivolo ’68, former educator turned successful restaurateur, was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to the CUNY Board of Trustees. Vivolo served as a teacher in the New York City Department of Education for 10 years, a lecturer for City Technical College’s hospitality, culinary and hotel management program, and a university trustee of John Cabot University in Rome. He owns five restaurants in Manhattan and is a supporter of the education-related organizations of the Partnership for Inner-City Education, the Futures in Education Program and the Child Center of New York.