CEOs, Chief Financial Officers, and Chief Technology Officers are among the 12 Rochester Institute of Technology alumni honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards for the 2024-2025 year.
The Distinguished Alumni Awards are presented annually by each of RIT’s nine colleges, the School of Individualized Study, and the RIT Graduate School to alumni who have performed at the highest levels of their profession or who have contributed to the advancement and leadership of civic, philanthropic, or service organizations.
It is the highest award an RIT college can bestow upon its alumni. The 2024-2025 recipients will be honored during presentations throughout the academic year.
Here are the honorees:
College of Art and Design: Chris Wairegi ’14 (cinematography and photography), cinematographer with Blacker Berry Films.
Wairegi’s award-winning work crosses genres from narrative to documentary, commercial to experimental, and short to long form works for streaming, television, and the big screen. Her credits include projects featured at the Sundance, Tribeca, and South by Southwest Film Festivals, and working on TV shows, including Run the World and Survival of the Thickest. She is a four-time Gold ADDY award winner and recipient of the Kodak Vanguard Award for creating 600 Black Women, a group to help unify Black women in the film industry.
College of Engineering Technology: Mark Chaney ’83 (machine tool technology), president and CEO of WineCab.
Chaney is a serial entrepreneur recognized for integrating new technologies into manufacturing platforms to help drive efficiency and growth. He is the founder of Calvary Robotics. He is committed to nurturing the next generation of engineers and actively supports RIT by championing internships and co-op opportunities within his companies, providing valuable hands-on experiences for students in engineering fields.
College of Health Sciences and Technology: JoAnne Ryan ’04 MS (health systems administration), president and CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Rochester.
Ryan brings a unique blend of medical expertise and leadership to her role, having transitioned from clinician to healthcare administrator and now a nonprofit leader. Under her guidance, Ronald McDonald House has become an essential lifeline for families in the Rochester region, providing critical lodging, transportation, and meal support services. A dedicated mentor and board member, Ryan has received many accolades, including the Woman of Excellence from Rochester Business Journal.
College of Liberal Arts: Julie Tibbitt Feldman ’00 (social work), chief, Reasonable Accommodations and Accessibility Services with the federal government; and Shane Feldman ’00 (professional and technical communication), CEO of Innivee Strategies.
The couple’s journey began at the College of Liberal Arts, where their shared love for learning, adventure, and each other blossomed. Julie has held various teaching and academic administration roles, with a special focus on empowering lifelong learners through accessibility, administration, agency, and assessment. Through his leadership development and strategic consulting company, Shane has driven systemic changes at organizations that have increased visibility, efficiency, revenue, accountability, and influence. Together, Shane and Julie have dedicated time, energy, and philanthropic giving to champion career opportunities for deaf individuals and children of deaf adults.
College of Science: Louis Cantolupo ’93 (biotechnology), vice president of Business Development and Marketing at Primrose Bio.
Cantolupo is a researcher and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in gene therapeutics and biologics. He founded Omnia Biologics and worked for global organizations, where he expanded worldwide reach in vaccine manufacturing technologies. He now leads efforts in advancing platform technologies for complex biologics and supports strategic initiatives that will disrupt the existing models of how protein-based therapeutics are produced.
Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences: Robert Moore Jr. ’91 (computer science), partner championing Cloud and Digital Strategic Markets at PwC.
Moore is a leader in cloud solutions and digital transformation, with a career spanning telecommunications and technology startups. As executive vice president and CIO at PAETEC, he oversaw IT, engineering, and service delivery. He co-founded EagleDream Technologies—which was acquired by PwC in 2020—and co-launched the healthcare analytics startup EagleDream Health. Moore is committed to nurturing young talent, with nearly 200 RIT co-op students joining EagleDream’s engineering and cloud teams.
Kate Gleason College of Engineering: Fernando Silva ’82 (electrical engineering technology), ’87 MS (electrical engineering), president and CEO of Wild Fork Mexico.
Silva is a seasoned leader in global business development. He has held roles as executive vice president of Albertsons and president of Best Buy Mexico, overseeing significant growth and market share expansion. He has a proven track record of driving innovation in retail and manufacturing, with six U.S. patents that helped create thousands of jobs. His current responsibilities go beyond omni-channel retailing to overseeing manufacturing and distribution.
National Technical Institute for the Deaf: Jeffrey McCaw ’89 (business administration accounting), Chief Financial Officer of Source America.
McCaw has a distinguished career in fiscal management, leading financial functions that include accounting, financial planning and analysis, tax, treasury, and grant accounting and compliance. Previously, he served as CFO for Goodwill Industries International and controller for the accounting and advisory firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause.
Saunders College of Business: Dorothy Cole Farris ’73 (business administration), senior consultant at AchieveUnite.
Farris is a pioneer saleswoman in technology with more than 40 years of executive sales leadership experience. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and was featured in Fortune magazine as a “super savvy salesperson.” As a vice president for Veeam Software, she was responsible for driving revenue, building strong customer relationships, implementing comprehensive channel strategies, and overseeing an industry leading sales team. She recently came out of retirement to be a senior contributor for AchieveUnite.
School of Individualized Study: Ryan Rich ’13 (arts and sciences), Chief Technology Officer at Haekka and co-founder of Workstreet.
Rich specializes in security, compliance, and software development. Haekka enables organizations to train their workforce intelligently with the right content at the right time using the tools they already use. Workstreet is a managed service provider aiding high-growth tech companies in overcoming compliance and cybersecurity challenges. Previously, Rich served as Chief Product and Security Officer at Datica.
Graduate School: Erich Hernandez-Baquero ’00 Ph.D. (imaging science), vice president of Space Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance at Raytheon.
Hernandez-Baquero is a retired U.S. Air Force Col. with a career in defense and intelligence that includes significant roles at the National Reconnaissance Office, U.S. Air Force, and Raytheon. He now leads the development and sustainment of command and control, communications, and data processing systems for surveillance and reconnaissance missions from space in support of the intelligence community and Department of Defense.
This story originally appeared in RIT News.
