Editorial team

Mark Auburn, ‘67

Mark Auburn’s In the President’s Home: Memories of the Akron Auburns will be published in 2019 by the University of Akron Press. Auburn was educated at King Elementary School and Simon Perkins Junior High School and Western Reserve Academy. He became the third of Norm and Kay Auburn’s children to graduate from UA in 1967. After completing a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1971, he taught and administered at Ohio State University, followed by appointments as dean or vice president at Arkansas State University, the University of Arkansas System, and Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne. In 1991, he returned to UA as Senior Vice President and Provost for President William V. Muse. He served in other administrative roles under Presidents Elliott, Ruebel, and Proenza, retiring in 2006. View his full résumé here [link].

Mark met Sandy Korman (B.A., ’67, M. A., ’68) on the stage in Kolbe Hall where they performed under the direction of Professor James F. Dunlap in The Wonderful Tang, summer 1965 Children’s Theatre Workshop. They married in 1969. Their son David is a playwright, director, and screenwriter.
 

S. Victor Fleischer

S. Victor “Vic” Fleischer received a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in American history and a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. He is currently University Archivist, Head of Archival Services, and tenured Associate Professor of Bibliography at The University of Akron where he has been employed since 2007. Before coming to Akron he served as the University Archivist/Special Collections Librarian at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio and Director/Curator of the University’s Rose Melnick Medical Museum from 2000 to 2003 and then Head of Archives & Special Collections from 2003 to 2007, where he was instrumental in planning YSU’s Centennial Celebration. From 1998 to 2000 he worked as the Special Collections Manager in the Curatorial Department at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens. He has taught as an adjunct faculty lecturer and has provided consulting services to various museums, archives, and appraisers. He was a long-time board member of the Ohio Museums Association and former Vice President and Council member of the Society of Ohio Archivists. He currently serves on the board of Progress Through Preservation of Greater Akron and the Friends of Hower House. He has presented at state, regional, and national conferences and published several articles and book chapters on a number of topics relating to archives, museums, and preservation. His forthcoming book, tentatively titled “Remembering Rubber: Goodyear Products that Changed the World, 1898-1945” is scheduled to be released by The University of Akron Press in the spring of 2018. Vic lives in Tallmadge with his wife, Susan, and daughter, Elizabeth. Learn more about Professor Fleischer.
 

Kevin Kern

Dr. Kern is the co-author of the first new textbook on Ohio History in half a century: Ohio: A History of the Buckeye State (Wiley Publishing, August 2013). While Ohio History is an important focus of Kevin Kern’s work, he also specializes in the history of the social sciences in the late 19th/early 20th century, particularly the development of the American Anthropology. His current research deals with the role of the American physical anthropological community in the eugenics movement and the long-term consequences of this relationship. Having produced a biography of T. Wingate Todd (a major early 20thcentury figure in physical anthropology), Kern is now working on a book on the Galton Society, an erstwhile physical anthropology organization that also served as an intellectual brain trust of the U.S. eugenics movement. He also continues to serve as co-founder and editor of The Northeast Ohio Journal of History.
 

Janise Troutman

Janice Troutman has over 30 years of experience working as a designer. She currently holds the rank of Professor and has taught in the Myers School of Art at The University of Akron since l989. For the past 20 years she has coordinated the Graphic Design Department. This past year she accepted the position of Interim Director of the Myers School of Art. She is ambitious, goal oriented and a right brain thinker. These energetic qualities coupled with her very approachable demeanor allows her to make emotional connections that inspire other people to become involved. She creates opportunities, articulates big ideas, and makes things happen.

In 1995 Janice founded and is currently co-creative director for design x nine, the award winning student design studio within the Myers School of Art. The studio has clients from both on and off campus. designxnine.com

Previous to teaching at the university level, she was an art director in a full service advertising agency. Her expertise coordinating complex projects as well as the work accomplished by design x nine, is acknowledged by receiving over 50 professional awards in local to international design competitions. Some of the awards include: The Drench Award, The Addy Award, American Corporate Identity, Creativity, The Admissions Advertising Award, How Magazine and Communication Arts.

For the past 10 years, she has has been a champion for non-profits, partnering with the community and donating design work. For this work she was awarded the 2015 Community Engagement Award from The University of Akron.
 

Jon Miller

Jon Miller moved to Akron in 2000 after attending the University of Delaware (1992) and the University of Iowa (2000). He is a Professor of English and the Director of the University of Akron Press. His research focuses on the history of Northeast Ohio and the publication of student work. Recent publications include The Akron Offering: A Ladies' Literary Magazine, 1849-1850, Nineteenth Century Ohio Literature, and From Canal Boy to President: The Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield.

Ken MacDonald

Ken MacDonald is a native of the Akron area and with the exception of a four-year (1954-57) tour of duty in the U.S. Air Force, has lived here all his life. Starting as a sophomore in 1959 until his graduation in 1963 MacDonald worked as a student assistant in the University of Akron’s News Bureau where he was introduced to sports information publicity. In January 1965 MacDonald was hired as UA’s first full-time director of sports information and he held that position until he retired on December 31, 1989. During his 25-year tenure as director MacDonald witnessed the advancement of the Akron athletic program from the college division to NCAA II, to NCAA IAA and finally to NCAA I, becoming the first school in NCAA history to do so. He saw the athletic budget grow from $130,000 to several million dollars and he saw the UA enrollment go from 2,400 as a freshman to become the third largest institution of higher learning in Ohio with 28,000 students in 1989. He saw the birth of women’s intercollegiate sports on campus in 1973, covered 274 football games and 809 basketball games during his 30 years in sports information. He was fortunate to have his very first basketball brochure of 1965-66 voted best in the nation in the college division. He went on to earn CoSIDA best awards in 22 of his other sports publications. He has been honored locally by the Dapper Dan, the Summit County Sport Hall of Fame and the Greater Akron Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2002, MacDonald was in Chicago, IL to receive the Elmer “Scoop” Hudgins Award for career achievement in sports information from the All-American Football Foundation and he was inducted into the UA Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.

Cathy Bongiovi

Cathy Bongiovi was named the Zips' Assistant Athletics Director for Communications in August 2014. She is responsible for formulating and executing a communications and public relations strategy to maximize coverage and exposure for Zips Athletics while overseeing the Communications and New Media offices. Additionally, Bongiovi serves as the primary publicist for the football and women's tennis teams and she will serve as the chair of the UA Sports Hall of Fame committee for the third consecutive year in 2019. Bongiovi, who has more than 25 years of Division I intercollegiate athletics experience, joined the Zips after seven years at Temple University and six years at the University of Virginia. She also has worked at the University of Connecticut, the University of Iowa and Penn State, where she was a graduate in broadcast journalism in 1987. Bongiovi has worked with legendary women's basketball coaches during her career, including Hall of Fame inductees Geno Auriemma (Connecticut), Debbie Ryan (Virginia), and C. Vivian Stringer (Iowa). She has earned three Final Four rings from three different schools: Connecticut (1991), Iowa (1993) and Penn State (2000). At Temple in 2007 Bongiovi was one of just five women nationally to serve as the primary media contact in football in the Football Bowl Subdivision. A member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Bongiovi has earned numerous citations for excellence from CoSIDA in publication design. Bongiovi earned a master's degree in education from the University of Akron in 2017. She teaches the Sport Communication class for the University's Sport Science and Wellness Education Department.
 

The Community Editorial Advisory Board