Gallery of Success Award Recipients
The Gallery of Success celebrates outstanding professional achievement, inspiring students toward their future.
The Gallery of Success celebrates outstanding professional achievement, inspiring students toward their future.
Leslie Anne Miller is an accomplished attorney who demonstrates a deeply held commitment to civic involvement.
During Miller’s 25 years as a litigator, she built a list of significant “firsts.” She was the first woman to be named a partner in her law firm, to be elected president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and to serve as general counsel of the Commonwealth under Governor Ed Rendell. She subsequently helped elect and then served as an advisor to Mayor Michael Nutter.
Miller’s civic engagement leadership runs deep. In 2001, she was recruited from her seat on the board to serve as interim president of the Kimmel Center. A trustee since 2011, Miller currently serves as board chair of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has also served as chair of the Philadelphia Flower Show, Women for the Water Works of the Fairmount Park Conservancy, and for the board of her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College. Other board service includes the Temple University Beasley School of Law; the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation; the Committee of Seventy; the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition; the University of Pennsylvania Health System; the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; the Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Council; and the Medical College of Pennsylvania and its successor, the Allegheny Health System. Equally important has been her work as a mentor and role model for countless women in the legal profession and broader community. She was the first chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession and is currently a member of the Pennsylvania Commission on Women, the Forum of Executive Women and the Pennsylvania Women’s Forum.
Miller’s contributions have been recognized with a variety of awards and honors. The Globy Award for Lifetime Achievement is among the most significant. Others include selection as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania; the Philadelphia Bar Association Sandra Day O’Connor Award; the Drexel University College of Medicine Woman One Award; the Philadelphia Business Journal Women of Distinction Award; induction into the Temple University Fox School of Business League for Entrepreneurial Women’s Hall of Fame; and the Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Medal of Honor. She has received honorary degrees from the Drexel University School of Law, the Thomas Jefferson University College of Health Professions and Wilson College. Miller graduated cum laude from Mount Holyoke College in 1973 and received a Master of Arts from Rutgers University in 1974. She then received her Juris Doctor from the Dickinson School of Law in 1977 and a Master of Laws with honors from the Temple Beasley School of Law in 1994.
Marguerite Laura Brooks served as chair of the conducting program at the Yale School of Music and director of choral music at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music for 35 years. As founding conductor of the Yale Camerata, one of Yale’s first campus/city arts collaborations, Brooks led hundreds of musical performances featuring some of the most innovative and wide-ranging programming in the field.
Brooks’ passion for music and inspiring career have earned her a Woman in History honor from Barnard College and several awards including a lifetime commitment to excellence in choral music and two lifetime achievement awards from renowned choral organizations. In addition, she has won alumni awards for distinguished work in her field from both Mount Holyoke College and Temple University. She was also cited by the Yale School of Music for cultural leadership in music and given its Gustave Stoeckel Award for Excellence in Teaching.
The National Collegiate Choral Organization, of which Brooks is a charter member and an honorary life member, celebrated her retirement in 2020 by initiating the Marguerite L. Brooks Commissioning Fund for New Choral Music. She holds degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Temple University and has served on the faculties of Smith College, Amherst College, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Kent Paredes Scribner has led the Fort Worth Independent School District (ISD) since 2015, where he serves more than 80,000 students and 10,000 employees.
Under Scribner’s leadership, Fort Worth ISD has consistently improved its district letter grade scores. In 2018, the district was cited by the Texas Education Agency as a Top Texas Urban District in positive year-to-year growth. One of his first achievements was establishing a Division of Equity and Excellence. This led to specific solutions to address academic opportunity gaps and dismantle systems that have historically reinforced those disparities.
Scribner’s district renewed focus on early literacy and mathematics, creating significant improvements in college, career and military readiness. In 2015, FWISD students earned $36 million in merit scholarships, a figure that has more than quadrupled to $158 million today. He has led initiatives that maximized community investment in Fort Worth schools through the passage of two voter-approved tax ratification elections and almost $2 billion in construction bond projects.
Scribner began his education career as a high school Spanish teacher and guidance counselor in Philadelphia. He then became a principal and a central office administrator before serving for 20 years as superintendent in Arizona and now Texas. He holds a Master of Education from Temple University and a PhD in educational leadership and policy studies from Arizona State University.
Dana Hecht has dedicated over 30 years of her career to public service. She has broken glass ceilings in the transportation industry, and in recognition of those who paved the way, she strives to give back through mentoring, working with students and volunteering with multiple industry associations.
While working with the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, Hecht led the program management teams for the multibillion-dollar Bus Terminal Replacement Program, which reimagined the world’s busiest bus terminal to address operational and technological limitations for commuters. She also led the program management team for the EWR PATH Extension Program, which aims to extend transportation coverages to a major New York-area airport to strengthen equity for underserved communities. Hecht’s career led her to NJ TRANSIT and the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT). As the director of capital project management at NJDOT, Hecht facilitated the delivery of record capital programs.
Hecht recently joined the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) as senior vice president of infrastructure, where she’s responsible for New York City Transit bus and subway state-of-good-repair capital projects, which ensures a safe and viable transportation system.
Hecht holds a bachelor of science from Temple University, where she majored in civil and construction engineering technology. A proud Temple Owl, she has shown great support over the years, promoting the university and College of Engineering in various ways, including participating in college fairs and attending Temple events. Hecht has received multiple service awards in recognition of her dedication to accessible transportation.
Victor Alos Rullan is the epidemiologist for the recently created Delaware County Department of Health. He has served for 40 years in public health at the federal, state and local levels.
Alos Rullan’s distinguished career led him to become a federal project officer for the departments of Human and Health Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health, and HIV; Federally Qualified Health Centers; the Office of Minority Health; and primary care workforce capacity programs. Since the pandemic began in 2020, he has worked as a COVID-19 contact tracer and case investigator in Pennsylvania for the Philadelphia and Delaware County Departments of Health. He’s an advocate for HPV vaccination with the Chester County Immunization Coalition and a researcher for the Temple Center for Obesity Research and Education. Alos Rullan has also done extensive research in the area of Type 2 diabetes. This research, along with his experience in community health assessment and grant writing, has resulted in the expansion of Type 2 diabetes prevention programs in both Chester and Philadelphia counties. He inspires and coaches communities toward healthy lifestyles as a bilingual Master Trainer of the CDC National Diabetes Prevention Program.
In addition to his invaluable contributions to improve the health of Delaware County residents, Alos Rullan is the lead analyst and evaluator of a countywide infant mortality prevention grant project in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He holds a Pennsylvania dental license, and he enjoys spending his time volunteering as a clinical dentist at a local free clinic and serving as a forensic dentist for the U.S. Department of Justice. He volunteers at the Delaware County Emergency Services, Medical Reserve Corps and Community Emergency Response Team. He holds a Master of Public Health degree with a health education concentration from Loma Linda University, the School of Public Health, and a Master of Science with an epidemiology concentration from Temple University. He obtained his doctorate in dental medicine at the University of Puerto Rico, School of Dental Medicine.
Wayne Mackey is the founder and CEO of Statespace. This platform combines neuroscience, artificial intelligence and video games to improve cognitive function and motor skills. Statespace grew from 30 to 130 employees in one year, partnered with game publishers like Riot and Ubisoft, and its first product, Aim Lab, has over 40 million users. Mackey has since broadened the mission and grown the platform toward improving cognitive and motor skills using video games.
Mackey’s scientific work focuses on how the brain supports flexible behavior and decision-making. He’s published several peer-reviewed articles on human cognitive, perceptual and motor abilities. His most recent work focuses on creating a new computational framework for short-term memory in humans and machines. He’s also done research collaborations with Mount Sinai, the University of Indiana, the University of Delaware and other institutions to look into Statespace technology applications in childhood movement disorders, traumatic brain injuries and stroke.
A lifelong gamer and self-proclaimed terrible student, Mackey credits video games for opening up a path to a college education and his scientific career. For this reason, Mackey’s a proponent of early STEM initiatives. He’s been recognized in Forbes Magazine for bringing esports and computers to underprivileged schools to help increase diversity in tech, has committed $500,000 in esports scholarships for STEM, and has worked closely with Gamers Outreach to fund programs that provide video games to children in long-term hospital care.
Mackey has won multiple awards and fellowships from various institutions, including the National Science Foundation, New York University and the Simons Foundation. He’s also on the advisory board of the Statespace-funded Queer Women of Esports Mentorship Program. Mackey holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Temple University and a PhD in cognition and perception from New York University.
George Bruce Taggart has dedicated over 35 years of his career to research in the advancement of science and technology.
Taggart began his career as an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1971 and concluded his time there as a professor of physics in 1983. During his career, he researched at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Naval Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Federal University of Pernambuco. He also conducted research in theoretical physics at Oxford University and served as visiting associate professor for a year at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
During the 1980s, Taggart worked with several prestigious companies, including Ford Aerospace, where he worked on studies and research primarily for defense agencies. These projects included materials for space-based lasers, armor-anti-armor, low observables, and applications of artificial intelligence to materials processing. In 1989, he joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a program director for condensed matter and materials theory in materials research, particularly theoretical and computational condensed matter physics and materials science. In addition to managing the theory program, Taggart was active in various initiatives, including advanced scientific computing, nanoscience and biological physics initiatives.
Taggart retired to the Philadelphia area to be closer to family and friends in 2006, but he continues to support the College of Science and Technology and the physics department. He holds a physics degree from the College of William and Mary in Virginia and a PhD from Temple University. He says that he learned physics at the College of William and Mary, but he learned how to be a physicist at Temple University; he is forever grateful for both experiences.
Julie Copeland has served as CEO and the third-generation owner of safety distributor Arbill Industries in Philadelphia since 2005. Arbill is a women-owned business focusing on enriching lives through safety.
Arbill protects the industrial market of manufacturing, state and government agencies, local municipalities and now consumer markets in an effort to help millions of people. As CEO, Copeland led Arbill’s expansion through environmental health and safety consulting, safety programs and technology, and the SafetyCare platform of products, including their PPE brand, Truline.
Copeland is an industrious entrepreneur who hopes to save lives while protecting environmental resources. During the COVID-19 outbreak, she launched a lab-tested environmentally friendly cloth face covering. This groundbreaking mask is now the choice for Fortune 100 corporations, government agencies and consumers alike. Copeland is unstoppable in her pursuit of safety; her motto is, “When someone closes a door, I find a window, a key or another way in.”
Currently, Copeland dedicates her time to continuous learning, volunteering and serving as a board member with the American Red Cross and National Association of Manufacturing. Copeland earned her master’s degree in business administration from Temple University and a Bachelor of Science from the Syracuse University Newhouse School of Public Communications. Copeland has been named one of Pennsylvania’s Best 50 Women in Business, Enterprising Women’s Top Women Entrepreneurs and Real Leaders Magazine Top 100 Visionary Leaders.
Ira M. Kay is a former dentist whose inventions such as the C-MORE sight have changed the world of International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) competition and provided innovative solutions for America’s military.
In 1973, Kay started a very successful dental practice, which grew to serve 15,000 patients. Four years later, he invented a device for storing, transporting and mixing reactive ingredients, which achieved a U.S. patent in 1980 and became the underlying technology for most of the self-activating silver alloy capsules that are used for fillings.
Kay’s passion for inventing eventually crossed over into his hobby, IPSC action shooting. He entered the competition world at the dawn of the optics age and became fed up with available sighting options. With the design characteristics in mind, Kay built the first C-MORE sight prototype out of dental materials. The linchpin for his success was winning the 1993 USPSA Nationals and the IPSC World Championship in the span of two weeks using the handbuilt prototypes. The first C-MORE sights were manufactured in Kay’s dental office, and “C-MORE Systems” was born.
C-MORE Systems developed red-dot sighting systems that have been used by every world champion action shooting winner since 1993. They’ve also been used to win over 90% of all national championships around the world to date. C-MORE Systems has since evolved to provide technical solutions to the specialized needs of our fighting forces. Since 2000 Kay has trained with special forces groups and SEAL teams to better understand these needs. He designed and developed the M26, the first shotgun type classified by the U.S. Army.
Kay is from Brooklyn and has loved microbiology since high school when he was selected for a six-week course at Cornell University and gained access to a microscope. He holds several patents for inventions in the dental world and beyond. C-MORE products have made hundreds of on-screen appearances in feature films and television shows. Recently C-MORE sights were featured in the Bond movie No Time to Die, and Kay himself was featured in War Dogs.
Tamron Hall has worked in television for nearly 30 years. Today she’s an Emmy Award-winning TV host, journalist, author and philanthropist.
After anchoring for several networks, Hall began hosting Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall on Investigation Discovery, which takes an in-depth look at crimes that shocked the nation. She went on to become the first African American female co-host of The Today Show and serve as the anchor for MSNBC Live with Tamron Hall. She received the 2015 Edward R. Murrow Award for her Today Show segment on domestic violence.
Currently, Hall is the host and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated daytime television show Tamron Hall, which is produced and distributed in national syndication by Walt Disney Television. For her work on the show’s first season, Hall won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host. Tamron Hall was also awarded the prestigious Gracie Award in its first season, which recognizes exemplary programming created by women. In October 2021 Hall released her first novel, As The Wicked Watch, the first in a thrilling new crime series. A member of the Temple University Board of Trustees, she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism from Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University.
Gerard J. Criner is a nationally renowned pulmonologist, researcher and educator who has been in practice for over 20 years.
Additionally, Criner serves on the Board of Directors and Science Committee for the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). He has received extensive research funding to conduct multiple clinical trials in emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and interstitial lung disease (ILD) as the principal investigator. Under his direction, the Temple Lung Center is the nation’s highest-volume lung transplant program, performing more procedures than any other hospital in the country in the past five years.
Criner is a true Temple Owl. He is currently the professor and founding chair for the Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, where he obtained his medical degree. In addition, Criner completed his internship, residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Temple University Hospital. He completed his pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship at Boston University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts.
Grady Grant III has over 37 years of sales leadership experience within the vanguard of innovative medicine.
Grant began his career at Eli Lilly and Company, leading multiple sales organizations across various markets in the U.S. He was instrumental in the successful transition of the Mead Johnson medical sales organization after the Bristol Myers Squibb spinoff. He also served as vice president of sales for TissueTech Inc., which pioneered the innovative application of human placental tissue in wound healing.
Grant is currently the senior vice president of medical sales for Evolve BioSystems, a biotechnology company that specializes in providing microbiome-based products, which use live microorganisms to prevent, treat or cure human diseases and conditions. Additionally, he serves as an independent director for APTEVO Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on bringing new cancer and blood disorder treatments to market. He also serves on Temple’s School of Pharmacy Board of Visitors, supporting the college’s advancement in strategic planning, finances, research priorities, curricular innovations and other areas.
Grant’s career is a direct testament to the value Temple University can bring to a person’s life. His decision to pursue a career in the medical industry results from the diverse curriculum and professor experience that stimulated him to think beyond pharmacy. As a way of giving back, Grady and his wife Lynne created the Lynne and Grady Grant Endowed Scholarship Fund in 2021. Grady graduated from the School of Pharmacy in 1980. He also holds a certification from the Duke University Executive Education Program in general management. He completed his training on corporate governance at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and has his NACD Directorship Certification.
Burton J. Katzen has revolutionized the podiatric medical field with minimally invasive foot and ankle surgeries that allow common issues to be treated with minimal trauma, scarring and downtime.
Katzen has served as chief of podiatric medicine at the Southern Maryland Hospital Center and the Greater Southeast Community Hospital in Washington, D.C. He also served as president of the Academy of Minimally Invasive Foot and Ankle Surgery from 2018 to 2021. He’s one of the national innovators of minimally invasive foot and ankle surgeries, such as the Katzen Wilson metatarsal osteotomy surgery (MIS) for correcting bunion deformity, and a certified master surgeon for a procedure called HyProCure, a minimally invasive flatfoot correction procedure. Katzen has published numerous scholarly articles in Profiles in Excellence about the uses of minimally invasive foot and ankle surgery and evidence-based medicine.
Katzen is currently the seminar coordinator and lecturer at the biannual Louisiana State University Medical School Seminar. Additionally, he has provided long-standing service to the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine (TUSPM) Alumni Association Board and Board of Visitors. He served as president of the Podiatric Medicine Alumni Association from 2015 to 2019. He was also the driving force as co-seminar coordinator and lecturer at the annual TUSPM educational seminars, which have raised well over $100,000 for the Alumni Association Scholarship Fund. In 2016, Katzen and his wife established two additional TUSPM scholarships called the Burton J. Katzen, DPM and Wendy Katzen Awards. The scholarships fund four years of medical college for former Israeli Defense soldiers and a residency in neuro-infectious diseases at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland.
Carol Watson has been a leading hospitality guru for over 20 years. With her passion for people and a mind for business, she’s made a lasting impact on her customers, employees and other women in the hospitality industry while serving as a role model and community leader.
Watson entered Temple University as a chemistry major but switched to the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM) in her sophomore year. Because she always cared for people and enjoyed hearing their stories, she set forth into the hotel industry.
Watson is currently the general manager of Kimpton Hotel Palomar, a 230-room boutique hotel located on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. Watson strives to make everyone feel important when they walk into the beautifully converted 1920s building. She achieves this through diligent service, her self-proclaimed strong listening skills and her immaculate attention to detail. For her, research is vital for determining how the design of every item the guest encounters will make them feel.
Watson has also been involved in many community and civic organizations, including the Visit Philadelphia Hotel Initiatives Committee and the Broad Street Ministry Hospitality & Corporate Council. She’s an active Temple alumna, serving on the STHM Board of Visitors and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. She was presented with the STHM Outstanding Alumni Award in 2017.
Sydney “Syd” Carpenter is a Philadelphia sculptor and professor whose powerful work focuses on African American farms and gardens.
During Carpenter’s career, she has been a resident artist at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Crafts, Anderson Ranch, the Vermont Studio School and the Watershed Center. Her poignant sculptures focus on African American farms and gardens to highlight the history of African Americans’ relationship to the land. She does this by referencing natural growth and productivity in the subject matter, drawing on family histories of farming and forming her work from the earth itself in its clay medium. This inspiration results from her travels to China, Ghana, Brazil, West Africa, Indonesia and Central America.
Carpenter has been honored with awards and fellowships, including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, Leeway Foundation Grants, National Endowment for the Arts and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowships. Carpenter’s work has been proudly displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian, Fuller Craft Museum, the Tang Museum of Skidmore College, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, the James A. Michener Art Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Swedish National Museum, all of which have acquired her work for their permanent collections. This year, Carpenter created a permanent outdoor garden installation for the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, with an upcoming garden for The Colored Girls Museum.
Carpenter has been a professor of studio art at Swarthmore College since 1991, where she currently holds the Endowed Peggy Chan Professorship of Black Studies. Carpenter received her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University.
James Madison is a filmmaker, set technician, serial entrepreneur and active Temple University alumnus. His companies and studios have led Philadelphia to a more exciting and sustainable film industry and have driven a higher level of creative execution in the market.
Madison began his film career by gaining experience in every department. For over a decade, he worked as a producer, production manager, grip, film electrician, writer, editor and production assistant. Today, he uses his understanding of the field and its workers to create a company culture that best serves the industry. He has since dedicated his professional life to building better infrastructure, resources, opportunities and access for the creative community.
Madison is the co-founder of Philadelphia’s premier camera and lighting rental house, Expressway Cinema Rentals, which serves as a creative hub, technical authority, crew agency and advocate for the region. Expressway also has locations in Rochester and Buffalo, New York. Additionally, he’s a co-owner of Bud’s Studio, a commercial and advertising production stage in Philadelphia, and Mocolab, a state-of-the-art cinema robotics studio and camera movement company.
Paul DiLorenzo is an independent consultant and child welfare subject matter expert with over 40 years of experience and certification with the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW).
He has been named as a Senior Fellow at the Child Welfare League of America. In addition, he serves as a subject matter expert for the Capacity Building Center for States, where he provides direct assistance to public and private agencies that are developing and implementing child abuse and family crisis prevention programs and supports the relationship-building between child welfare agencies and a wide array of community stakeholders.
DiLorenzo began his career as a caseworker and then served in various administrative and leadership roles. He led large nonprofit agencies and federal and state-funded projects as a consultant in multiple jurisdictions. He was the director of children’s policy for the City of Philadelphia and the American Humane Association Children’s Division. He also worked in a senior administrative position for the Pennsylvania state government. Recently he served as the interim executive director of the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance, the city’s professional team, and coordinated processes for assisting children who’ve been sexually abused. He also completed a 13-year tenure at Casey Family Programs as a senior director for strategic consulting.
DiLorenzo has written numerous professional articles and has been a guest keynote speaker at many professional events across the country, mainly on primary prevention and family support. He has delivered countless presentations at conferences and workshops over the years and led nonprofit and philanthropic boards. DiLorenzo holds a Master of Social Work from Temple University and a Master of Law and Social Policy from Bryn Mawr College.