Miami Presents: A Place of Asset, Not Deficit: First Gen Alumni Perspective (Part 1)

Join the Miami University Alumni Association for a riveting conversation of alumni who are first generation college graduates. Miami is celebrating First Gen Celebration Day. The conversation will be moderated by students of the Miami First student organization. Miami First student organization is comprised of current Miami University students who are first generation college students. This is the first panel discussion with alumni who are first generation college graduates. The second virtual discussion will take place on Monday, November 9th at 11:30am. The alumni panel discussion will talk about their journey and provide advice for students.

Jenell Walton '94 is a Vice President, Communications & Strategic Development at Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau. Jenell has amassed twenty years working as an anchor, reporter, and public relations professional. She earned a Bachelors of Science degree in mass communications from Miami.

David Dafoe '84 is the founder and owner of Flavorman. For more than 20 years, Flavorman has been a leader in the beverage product development industry. In 2018, David gave a gift of $30.1 million dollars to the College of Arts and Science. He earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in zoology from Miami.

Dr. Joe Homan '83 is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Monterey Technologies, Inc. is a Human Factors Engineering (HFE), Human-Systems Integration (HSI), Mission Planning, and Modeling & Simulation (M&S) engineering firm. His experience includes oversight of employee teams, subcontractors, budgets, and projects of all sizes and complexity up to $200 million with 300 team members spanning 10+ subcontractors. Dr. Homan earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in geology.

Miranda Ferguson ‘16 is a Program Manager at Eli Lilly, where she gets to use her passion for technology and health care to bring medicines to patients faster. In her role, she leads several initiatives in Eli Lilly’s regulatory affairs space. Outside of her day job, she is heavily involved in Lilly's recruiting strategies to bring new talent into their Information and Digital Solutions organization. Miranda earned a Bachelors of Science degree in software engineering and a certificate in leadership from Miami.