Juniata College Honors Five High-Achievement Alumni
(Posted June 10, 2014)
HUNTINGDON, PA. -- Juniata College, as part of its "Alumni Weekend 2014," presented five alumni-related awards Saturday, June 7, during Alumni Assembly.
Zionsville, Ind. resident Fred Lytle, professor emeritus of chemistry at Purdue University and currently a corporate fellow at Indigo BioSystems, was awarded the Alumni Achievement Award; Gettysburg, Pa. resident Jane Brumbaugh Gough, retired program analyst and business programs specialist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, received the Harold B. Brumbaugh Alumni Service Award; Fort Atkinson, Wis. resident Jeffrey Boshart, fund manager for Church of the Brethren Inc., received the William E. Swigart Jr. Alumni Humanitarian Award; Jacksonville, Ill. resident Khara Koffel, associate professor of art at MacMurray College, in Jacksonville, Ill., was awarded the Young Alumni Achievement Award; and Altoona resident Dr. George M. Zlupko, director of the Lung Disease Center of Central Pennsylvania in Altoona, Pa., received the Health Professions Alumni Appreciation Award.
Fred Lytle, a 1964 graduate of Juniata and a native of Sunbury, Pa., retired as professor emeritus of chemistry at Purdue University after a 40-year career as a teacher and researcher at the West Lafayette, Ind. campus. He was one of the first researchers to use lasers as a tool for analytical chemistry and co-developed the synchronously pumped dye laser.
Lytle, who currently is developing algorithms for pharmaceutical data processing as a corporate Fellow for Indigo Biosystems, an Indianapolis, Ind.-based bioinformatics company, began his academic career in 1968 joining Purdue as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1974 and became full professor in 1979.
In addition to his impressive research career, Lytle also was recognized for teaching excellence. He was named 1996 Indiana Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and received such honors as Outstanding Teacher in the School of Science Award, the Amoco Undergraduate Teaching Award, which recognizes the outstanding teacher at the university, and the Outstanding Innovation in Helping Students Learn Award for his work with scientific Braille in translating chemical equations.
He also received the American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Chemical Instrumentation and the J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education. He was named a Fellow in 2009 by the Society for Applied Spectroscopy and received the American Chemical Society Award in Analytical Chemistry.
Lytle earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Juniata and went on to earn a doctoral degree in analytical chemistry in 1968 from the Massachusetts Institute of technology. He also took sabbaticals to work at the Center for Analytical Chemistry in the National Bureau of Standards, in addition to Indiana University and Stanford University.
He has been a member of the National Science Foundation Chemistry Advisory Board and the National Bureau of Standards Panel for Analytical Chemistry. He was associate editor of the journal "Applied Spectroscopy" and the spectroscopy editor of "Analytical Chemistry." He also remains a member of the American Chemical Society and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.
Jane Brumbaugh Gough is a 1960 graduate of Juniata and a native of Williamsburg, Pa. who spent most of her working career as a program analyst and business programs specialist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's Space Systems Technology Department in Washington, D.C. She worked at the Naval Research Lab from 1983 to 2000.
Gough began her working career as a teacher, working at Central High School in Prince George's County, Maryland from 1960 to 1963. She worked as a substitute teacher in Prince George's County from 1964 to 1974 and taught English at the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. from 1974 to 1978. Gough taught English at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, in Greenbelt, Md., from 1978 to 1982.
She earned a bachelor's degree in English from Juniata and took graduate classes at American University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Maryland, in College Park, Md.
Gough has been an extraordinarily involved volunteer for Juniata. She has served as one of two class fund agents for the Class of 1960 since 1960. She was a member of the Juniata College Alumni Council and is a member of Juniata's Quinter Society and Heritage Circle. She served as co-chair of the Class of 1960's 50th Reunion Planning Committee. She also has been an active participant in regional Juniata alumni groups in the Washington, D.C. area and in central Pennsylvania.
She also has been active in her community, particularly in music. She was a four-year member of the Juniata College Concert Choir and sang with the Washington Cathedral Choral Society for 10 years. She sang in the Nativity Episcopal Church Choir, in Camp Springs, Md., for 35 years. Currently she is a member of the Gettysburg Civic Chorus and Gettysburg's Prince of Peace Episcopal Church hand bell choir.
She has been an active community volunteer throughout her career, volunteering with parent organizations and church organizations in Maryland. Currently, she is the co-chair of the hospitality committee for the Prince of Peace Episcopal Church and served as vice president of the Adams County Newcomers Club from 2007 to 2009 and as president from 2009 to 2010. She also is a member of the Lake Heritage Women's Club, where she served as president from 2012 to 2014.
Gough is a member of the Federally Employed Women at the Naval Research Lab and in 1989 was named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Foundation.
Jeffrey Boshart, a 1989 Juniata graduate, has been fund manager for the Global Food Crisis Fund and the Emerging Global Mission Fund for the Church of the Brethren at the church's general offices in Elgin, Ill. As manager, Bohart is responsible for overseeing programs to develop food security and fight chronic hunger. Over the past 25 years, the funds have supported development programs in 32 countries by developing sustainable agriculture, and providing seeds, livestock, tools and training. Boshart also represents the Church of the Brethren at the Foods Resources Bank.
Before managing the fund, Boshart was a Brethren missionary, serving as Haiti Disaster Response Coordinator from 2008 to 2012 in the Brethren Disaster Response office in New Windsor, Md. He also worked as a community development coordinator in the Dominican Republic from 2001 to 2004, where he developed a microloan program. Before that, Boshart spent two years in Haiti as an agricultural development coordinator for the Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization from 1998 to 2000. He developed and maintained growing trials on a research farm and taught growing techniques to Haitian students.
His experience in Haiti was a direct result of his time at ECHO Global Farm in Fort Myers, Fla., where he was an agricultural intern and worked in Nigeria for three months.
He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Juniata in 1989 and went on to earn a master's degree in 1998 in international agriculture and rural development from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
He is an active volunteer, serving as vice president of the board of directors of FARMS International, a Christian microcredit organization and on the board of directors for Renacer: Hispanic Church Planting Movement. He also is a volunteer gardener for Seeds of Hope Community Garden. He is a member of the Rockford, Ill. Community Church of the Brethren.
Khara Koffel, a 2000 Juniata graduate and native of Souderton, Pa., has been on the art faculty at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., since 2004. She joined the faculty as an assistant professor and was recently promoted to associate professor.
She has been director of the college's art program since 2011 and is director of the college's Applebee Gallery.
Koffel maintains an active career as an exhibiting artist and has earned solo exhibitions at McHenry College Gallery in Crystal Lake, Ill., Lux Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Neb., Schmidt Art Center in Belleville, Ill., the University of Illinois at Springfield Visual Arts Gallery and Walnut Gallery in Gadsden, Ala.
Her work has been exhibited across the country in group shows at such venues as the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Art Museum, the Foundry Art Centre in St. Louis, Mo., the Indianapolis (Ind.) Art Center, South Bend (Ind.) Regional Museum of Art, and ARC Gallery in Chicago, Ill.
At MacMurray College she teaches a wide variety of art courses, including two- and three-dimensional design, sculpture, ceramics, photography and oversees art gallery assistantships. She also supervised art course trips abroad to Italy, Greece, England, Ireland, Wales, Egypt, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Germany.
She earned a bachelor's degree in studio art and art history from Juniata and earned a master's degree in fine arts in 2003 from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala. She returned to Juniata as a guest lecturer in 2004 and 2012 and has volunteered for the college as a Gold Card recruiter.
Before starting her career in higher education, Koffel worked as an online sales and marketing representative at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2002. She also worked as executive director and curator of the 4th Wall Gallery in Tuscaloosa from 2001 to 2003.
Dr. George M. Zlupko, a 1968 Juniata graduate and native of Chester, Pa., founded Altoona Lung Specialists, a pulmonary specialty medical practice, in Altoona, in 1977, and has been director of the Lung Disease Center of Central Pennsylvania since 2010 and chair of the Lung Disease Foundation of Central Pennsylvania since 2011.
Before founding the Lung Disease Foundation, Dr. Zlupko was chief of clinical service in Pulmonary Medicine and medical director of the Respiratory Care Department at the Altoona Regional Health System from 1988 to 1991 and from 1992 to 2011. He has been medical director for hyperbaric medicine at the Altoona facility since 2000.
Dr. Zlupko is board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Academy of Wound Management and the American Board of Preventative Medicine.
Zlupko also has served as medical director of pulmonary rehabilitation for HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital since 1986 and has been medical director of Horizons Hospice, in Altoona, Pa., since 2007.
Zlupko earned a bachelor's degree in 1968 in biology from Juniata and went on to earn his medical degree in 1972 from Thomas Jefferson University. He worked as an intern at Misericordia Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa. He served his residency and received pulmonary training at Mercy Catholic Medical Center in Darby, Pa., from 1973 to 1975. He also served as a staff physician at hospitals in Darby, Pa. and Media, Pa.
Dr. Zlupko also taught as an instructor in medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and Mercy Catholic Medical Center during the 1975-1976 academic year. He also was clinical assistant professor for family and community medicine at Penn State University's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center from 1980 to 1990. He also was the professional director in the Respiratory Medicine Department at J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital in Huntingdon, Pa., and was professional director of the Respiratory Care Department of the HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Nittany Valley, in Bellefonte, Pa.
Zlupko received the designation of Fellow of the College of Certified Wound Specialists as well as Fellow by the American College of Chest Physicians in 2004. He is a member of the American Academy of Wound Specialists, the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, the American Cancer Society, and the American Trauma Society.
Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.