CCM - County College of Morris

Alumni Hall of Fame 

CCM Alumni Awards 2011

ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR

Daren A. Cortese ’87 is honored to be chosen for this prestigious award. He has a special attachment to County College of Morris and the education he received here. He obtained his A.S. degree in Business Administration, then continued his education at Trenton State College with a B.S. in Economics, followed by a M.S. in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. He relocated to the Baltimore, MD area in 1992 and has been involved in nursing homes his entire career. He has 21 years of merger and acquisitions/financial analysis experience in the long-term care and health-care industries. He has held the positions of Director and then Vice President of Development for various healthcare facilities. During his career, he completed the acquisition or divestiture of over 140 skilled nursing facilities with a combined value of over $500 million.

Daren became inspired to start his own company because he grew tired of working for large nursing home chains that put profits first and patients second. Currently, he is the President, Owner and Operator of four skilled nursing homes in Maryland and Washington, DC, with 555 beds, known as Brinton Woods Senior Living. Daren and his partners espouse the philosophy that “as long as we take good care of our staff and our patients, everything else will fall into place.” Brinton Woods offers a wide range of nursing and rehabilitation services to meet the needs of both long-term and short-term residents.

Daren is a Director at Large with the Board of Directors of the Health Facilities Association of Maryland (HFAM). In December 2010, HFAM selected Daren to receive the “Gifted Spokesperson for HFAM and the Provider Community” award.

A single father of son Evan, 7, and daughter Olivia, 10, who has Down Syndrome, his career and children take up most of his time. Daren comes to New Jersey several times a year to visit his family and continues his connection to CCM through his generosity to the CCM Foundation. He is also a member of the Chesapeake Down Syndrome Parent Support Group.

 

 

ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Janice (Roe) Smith ’75 & ‘77 is currently the Managing Director and Line of Business Executive for the Real Estate Structured Finance Servicing Group for Bank of America, a division of Global Markets, the fourth largest commercial loan servicer in the country servicing approximately $135 billion in loans.

Janice attended CCM in the 1970’s, earning an A.A.S. in Office Systems Technology and an A.A. in Humanities/Social Science. She served on the Judicial Board, then worked in the Student Activities Office. She transferred to Seton Hall University, earning a B.A. in Sociology. While at Seton Hall, Janice worked as night manager of the Student Center at CCM, and was instrumental in the initial coordination of the CCM Alumni Association and early publication of its newsletter, the Alumni Advocate. Her fond memories of CCM include CCM’s small size, her time in student government; and meeting and interacting with students, staff and professors. At a formative time of life, CCM helped her realize her strengths, independence, and her awareness that life is what you make it, and personal responsibility. Her experience taught her management skills that she has used everyday since then.

Janice began her commercial real estate career with David Cronheim Mortgage Company, in Chatham, NJ. She eventually headed the commercial loan servicing and closing areas, managing a loan portfolio of just under $1 billion for more than a dozen institutional investors. In 1994, she was hired by Chemical Bank, which became Chase Manhattan Bank and then JPMorgan Chase. Janice built a commercial loan servicing platform for Chase rated by Fitch and Standard & Poor’s, which she headed as Senior Vice President between 1994 and 2001. In 2001, after the JP Morgan/Chase merger, Janice left to join Bank of America and moved to Charlotte, NC, to manage and build out its capital markets servicing platform, which she reorganized and relocated from Los Angeles to Charlotte, NC. Janice arrived in Charlotte on Labor Day, 2001, five days later, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, and for 36 months thereafter, she managed the special servicing of the 7 World Trade Center bonds.

She owns a 52-acre horse farm, The Inn at Rosehill & Rosehill Stables, just outside of Charlotte, NC, which is a full-service boarding and training facility promoting the Friesian horse. Rosehill Stables provides lessons and training in the discipline of dressage, and provides an Equine Facilitated Learning program dedicated to helping individuals improve their emotional and mental health and overcome traumatic experiences. Janice plans to build a bed and breakfast at Rosehill within the next two years, enhanced by the backdrop of the horse farm, where she can host weddings, executive retreats, and travelers and horse owners participating in Rosehill’s equestrian activities. She plans to run the Inn when she retires.

Janice is divorced and has an 18 year old son, Andrew, who is the love of her life, and who will be graduating high school and entering college in New Jersey in 2011.

 

 

ALUMNI HUMANITARIAN AWARD

Laura Reilly ’95 juggles professional duties, motherhood, volunteerism, education, teaching, certifications, presentations, memberships, publications and community service. She is a Critical Care Nurse in the Neuro/Surgical/Trauma ICU at Morristown Memorial Hospital, where she previously was the Stroke Program Coordinator – a highly successful progam she developed, that received widespread recognition and led to the hospital’s designation as a state Comprehensive Stroke Center. In 2010, Laura was named the Atlantic Health Neuroscience Institute’s Nurse of the Year at the institute’s 11th annual Nursing Symposium. Laura is the founder and past president of the NJ Stroke Coordinator Consortium – a group that allows nurses to network to build better programs and ultimately improve stroke care throughout the state.

Laura earned her A.S. in Nursing from CCM, her B.S.N. from Kean University in 2003 and her M.S.N. from Seton Hall University in 2007. She began working at Morristown Memorial Hospital in 1995 and spent nine years in the Intensive Care Unit. She has worked within a medical unit, surgical trauma unit, and intensive care unit, managed a critical-care quality outcomes benchmarking database, worked on data driven-protocols and research projects, published articles and abstracts, written grants, and presented works in both national and international forums.

Her teaching experience includes the National Speaker Bureau for Genentech Pharmacueticals, as co-leader of Stroke Support Groups, and numerous stroke education in-services and presentations. She is ACLS/BLS certified, a Critical Care Certified Nurse, an AHS Six Sigma Greenbelt and a Neuroscience Certified Nurse. Laura has received numerous honors and is involved in many professional organizations. She is a member of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce Leadership Morris Class of 2008.

In addition to all of the above, Laura is also the mother of 11-year old triplets. She volunteers as a PTA member, CCD aide, room mom, Girl Scout Troop Cookie Manager, and former member and supporter of Mothers of Super Twins (an international not-for-profit organization). Laura developed a CPR for Kids program that annually educates 5th graders at her children’s grammar school in the fundamentals of CPR.

 

 

ALUMNI SERVICE AWARD

Glenbrook Technologies:  Gil Zweig

Gil Zweig is President and Co-Founder of Glenbrook Technologies of Randolph, NJ, which has become a leading innovator of real-time x-ray inspection technology for the electronics, security and medical device industries.

Prior to founding Glenbrook Technologies, Gil was Vice President of MCI Optonix, the US X-ray Screen Division of Mitsubishi Chemical Industries.

Gil is presently Chairman of the Board of Directors of the County College of Morris Foundation. His commitment and dedication to CCM are extraordinary. He serves on the CCM Career Services Advisory Committee, as well as the Engineering/Technology Advisory Committee. Gil has continuing interaction on many levels with the Engineering Technology Department and its students. For many years, his company participated in the CCM co-op program and since 1996 has had numerous students work in his offices, many of whom became employees. Currently, more than half of Glenbrook Technologies employees are either CCM graduates or former students. Gil is extremely proud of these bright, knowledgeable and dedicated workers who are examples of the wonderful education they received at our “neighborhood community college.” He considers them “resourceful, innovative and persistent.” CCM alumni helping Glenbrook achieve its success are: Donna Miller ‘92, Anna Rodriguez ’04, Honord Montinard ’08, J. Corry Tsang ’00, Vincent Barbour ’00, Daxesh Patel and George Wisbauer. “CCM is the start of the American Dream,” says Gil. “It is one of the finest community colleges in the country.” He is also a big proponent of giving back to the community by establishing scholarships for CCM students, including his own Glenbrook Technologies Scholarship. He believes the influence of scholarships, especially established by small businesses, is profound – by shifting an individual from a future liability to a contributing asset, as well as giving them a life of hope. He feels these students can become the entrepreneurs and inventors our country needs.

Gil’s contribution to CCM doesn’t stop there. He is a generous supporter of the newly renovated CCM Planetarium. He, along with his wife Claire, can be seen attending many special events both on and off campus, and he is a tireless member of the CCM Foundation Gala Committee.

In 1994, Gil received the Inventor of the Year Award from The New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Inventors Congress and Hall of Fame. In 2009, he was awarded the Thomas Edison Patent Award by the Research and Development Council of New Jersey as well as the Invention Advancement Award from The New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame. Gil holds 16 patents and has numerous publications in the fields of imaging and x-ray technology.

In 2011, Gil was elected an affiliate member of the Orthopaedic Research Society for the contributions made to orthopaedic research at the Hospital for Special Surgery through the application of Glenbrook’s Magnification Fluoroscopy technology.

 

NOMINATIONS SOUGHT ANNUALLY FOR ALUMNI AWARDS:

Alumni, faculty and staff are encouraged to submit nominations of CCM graduates for these prestigious honors to be recognized by the County College of Morris Alumni Association, in conjunction with the CCM Foundation. Fill out the form below and mail to the CCM Alumni Office. Nominations may be received no later than December 31 each year. The awards will be presented at the Foundation Scholarship Gala/Alumni Awards.


Alumni Awards Nomination Form

Name of Nominee _______________________________________________________

(may be yourself)

Address _______________________________________________________________

City ______________________________________ State __________ Zip__________

Year Graduated ___________________________ Home Phone __________________

Business Phone ______________________ Email address _______________________

Please indicate which award nominated for:

Alumnus/a of the Year Award
Alumni Achievement Award
Alumni Service Award
Alumni Humanitarian Award


Nominated Because _____________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

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(attach additional sheet with lengthy explanation and information on nominee)