NEW ACADEMIC YEAR BRINGS NEW STAFF TO BLUFFTON
Nine new staff members—including five graduate assistant coaches in athletics—have arrived at Bluffton University since the end of the 2010-11 academic year in May.
• Elizabeth Vaccaro is the new assistant director of Marbeck Center at Bluffton. She just completed her master’s degree in student affairs administration at Ball State University, where she worked in the student center programs area. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University, where she served on the University Program Council for four years.
• Amy Tabler is working in the admissions office as campus visit coordinator. A former assistant to Bluffton’s dean of academic affairs, from 1993-98, she was most recently assistant to the lead pastor at Lima Community Church.
• Karen Brandt is the new head coach of men’s and women’s cross country and track and field. Brandt, who earned a master’s degree in American studies from the Pennsylvania State University Capital College, Harrisburg, in 1997, coached at Bloomsburg (Pa.) University from 1999-2009. Her 2007 women’s cross country team finished 15th in the NCAA Division II national meet.
• Ron Huber has returned to his alma mater to coach men’s and women’s tennis, which are also returning after a three-year hiatus. The 1968 graduate in education is a member of the athletics halls of fame both at Bluffton, where he qualified for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national tournament in 1966 and 1967, and at Shawnee High School in Lima, Ohio, where he compiled a record of 446-127 as tennis coach from 1968-98. Huber, who holds a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Dayton, is also a member of the Ohio Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame.
Graduate-assistant appointees in athletics are:
• In women’s basketball, Amanda Bell, a four-year letter winner—and three-year captain—in basketball at Bluffton. The Napoleon, Ohio, native graduated in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in sport management and, the following winter, coached freshman girls’ basketball at Findlay High School.
• In men’s basketball, Cody Hartzler, who graduated from Kutztown (Pa.) University in 2009 and was an assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg from 2009-11.
• In volleyball, Meghan Mohr, a 2009 Bowling Green State University graduate who earned second-team all-Mid-American Conference volleyball honors in 2007 and 2008 and has since coached at Spencerville (Ohio) High School.
• In men’s soccer, Brandon Ponchak, who graduated from Asbury University in 2008 and was a graduate assistant at Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, S.D., from 2009-11.
• In women’s soccer, Abigail Skoda, a 2008 Capital University graduate who was head boys’ soccer coach at Northridge High School, Johnstown, Ohio, from 2010-11.
Also new to campus is Caitlin Blake, a Bowling Green State University graduate student who will serve as Ropp Hall director during a two-year internship toward her master’s degree in college student personnel.
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Bluffton public relations, 8/26/11
