The 2026 Binghamton University Alumni Association Special Recognition Awards will be presented at the Holiday Inn Binghamton Downtown on Saturday, April 25. Register now for this event.
The following alumni will be honored for their career achievements, social impact
and volunteer service to the University.
SIGNATURE AWARDS
Sal Caruana '73
Glenn G. Bartle Distinguished Alumni Award
The Bartle Award recognizes and honors graduates who have rendered outstanding voluntary service to the Binghamton University community, while also serving their communities, their careers and their country.
Sal Caruana was founder and president of the investment management firm Foster Capital Corporation in New York. Foster specialized in equities day-trading using a proprietary strategy which Caruana developed. After 37 years of outstanding investment returns, and a career on Wall Street which spanned 50 years, he retired in 2024.
As a history student at Binghamton, he was a sportswriter for Pipe Dream, president of Tau Alpha Upsilon, and co-founded the Harpur’s Ferry student-run ambulance service which began with just $125 and the purchase of a hearse from a Johnson City funeral home.
A $1,000 scholarship enabled Caruana to attend Harpur College and inspired him to give back to his alma mater through service on the Binghamton University Foundation Board of Directors, endowment of the Caruana History Scholarship, and chairing a fundraising campaign for the first-ever Harpur’s Ferry Endowment Fund.
In 2015, Caruana received Harpur College’s highest honor, the Distinguished Alumni Award and was the Commencement speaker at the ceremony for social sciences graduates.
Caruana is passionate about serving his community of Westfield, N.J. Following the
Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, he took a leave of absence
from work to focus on helping affected families from Westfield. He endowed the Caruana
Family Fund at the Westfield Foundation to assist the medical and special needs of
local children from families in distress, chaired the fundraising effort for the Westfield
September 11th Memorial and Park, and subsequently served two terms on Westfield’s
town council. He has also served on the boards of the Westfield United Fund, Overlook
Hospital Foundation, Westfield Foundation, New Jersey Festival Orchestra and is currently
working with the Westfield Arts Collective, an ambitious and visionary project which
acquired the historic 100-year-old Rialto Theater seeking to transform it into a performing
and creative arts center, and arts education hub.
Katherine Gregory '96
Alumni Achievement Award
This award honors a highly distinguished alumnus or alumna who, over the course of a decade or more, has exemplified outstanding, significant professional achievement.
Katherine Gregory, PhD, RN, FAAN, was named dean at the William F. Connell School of Nursing July 1, 2021. Gregory was previously the associate chief nursing officer, women’s and newborn health, research, and innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
As a researcher, Gregory has worked with a diverse set of scientists across multiple disciplines from a wide range of institutions, and has secured both National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Nursing Research funding from 2003-24. In 2009, through the generosity of University Trustee Kathleen Haley and her husband, Gregory helped establish the Haley Nurse Scientist Program, a partnership between the Connell School of Nursing (CSON) and Brigham and Women’s that funded clinical nurses at BWH and nursing faculty at CSON to engage in scholarly activities and lead clinical research while strengthening holistic care provided to patients and families. She was selected as the inaugural Haley Nurse Scientist.
More recently, Gregory served as scientific founder of an early-stage company that aims to improve preterm infant nutrition and growth outcomes through software designed to optimize nursing care and clinical workflows, resulting in a patent issued in 2020. She has helped to raise significant funding for the venture, while gaining invaluable experience in nurse-led innovation and entrepreneurship.
Gregory earned her Bachelor of Science from Binghamton University, her Master of Science
and a minor in health care management from the University of Pennsylvania, and her
PhD from Boston College. She and her husband, Jeremy, have three children and are
now proud Boston College parents to two students, Classes of 2026 and 2029.
Lea Webb ’04
Edward Weisband Distinguished Alumni Award for Public Service or Contribution to Public
Affairs
The Weisband Award recognizes one alumnus or alumna each year whose life, work, career and contributions exemplify the highest standards of service and deepest dedication to the sustenance of the common good.
In 2022, Lea Webb was elected to represent New York’s 52nd Senate District, part of a historic class of incoming Democratic senators made up entirely of women for the first time in the 245-year history of the New York Senate. She is the first black woman to represent New York’s 52nd district, which includes Cortland County, Tompkins County and part of Broome County including the City of Binghamton and Town of Union. Webb is dedicated to making New York more affordable for working-class people and ensuring everyone earns a fair wage.
As chair of the Senate Women’s Issues Committee, Webb is a champion for reproductive justice and women’s equality, working tirelessly to pass legislation addressing a wide range of issues impacting women, including menstrual product accessibility, improved maternity health services, reinforced reproductive rights, enhanced protection against fibroids and ovarian cancer, and stringent measures to prevent human trafficking.
Webb is proud to lead the fight alongside her Senate colleagues to ensure that New York remains a sanctuary for reproductive freedom. She has worked to pass major maternal health milestones, including the Reproductive Freedom and Equity Grant Program and Maternal Health Care and Birthing Standards workgroup. Webb is also a strong advocate for working families, fighting for equitable and fair public school funding, a strong local economy, and support for working families and small businesses.
Born and raised in the Southern Tier, Webb is a first-generation graduate of SUNY
Broome Community College and Binghamton University, where she earned a degree in neuroscience.
In 2008, she was the first African American and youngest person ever elected to serve
on the Binghamton City Council. She worked to remove blighted properties and supported
their redevelopment into homes to address food desert issues by establishing community
gardens. Prior to joining the State Senate, she worked as an educator at Binghamton
University where she developed diversity and inclusion training and programs for faculty,
staff, and students. She is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Erin Hansen ’13, MAT '14
Diversity and Inclusion Award
To align our recognition and celebration of success and contributions of our alumni network with our values of appreciation and commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) in our engagement pursuits, we have created the Diversity and Inclusion Award as a Signature Award recognizing each year University alumni who have made notable contributions to the principles of DEIB.
Erin Hansen is the Q Center coordinator at Binghamton University. She taught Spanish at the high school level for nine years before returning to the University in 2023 to work for the Fleishman Career Center for nearly three years. A year into her University career, Hansen assumed leadership of the Bing Queers Faculty and Staff affinity group under the Professional Staff Senate, which supports LGBTQ+ employees through engagements such as campus lunches, café meetups, museum visits, and emotional wellness programming. Leading this group, and thereby building her own sense of identity and belonging within the queer community, spearheaded her growing involvement in supporting LGBTQ+ individuals. That same year, she became a social media administrator and event organizer for Broome County’s 21+ queer social group, Bing Guerrilla Queer Bar. In 2025, Hansen joined two additional teams; one was the Q Alumni Network Leadership Team, on which she works with University staff and alumni to plan engagements such as virtual meetups, Homecoming events, and Global Days of Service projects.
Additionally, Hansen further expanded her reach when she was elected to serve on the LGBTQ SOLACE Project Advisory Board alongside other queer professionals across New York state. The project’s mission is to develop scalable, accessible mental health peer support resources for queer women, and Hansen contributes her knowledge of educational strategies, curriculum development, and Southern Tier community connections to the team as the project progresses.
These involvements prepared Hansen well for her current Q Center Coordinator role, in which she supervises student staff, delivers educational LGBTQ+ programming to students and fellow employees, and conducts outreach for the center’s initiatives. Outside of her LGBTQ+ support work, she finds fulfillment in drawing, reading, crocheting, watching horror movies, and spending time with her partner and two Scottie dogs.
BEARCATS OF THE LAST DECADE (BOLD) 10 UNDER 10 AWARDS
These awards recognize 10 outstanding alumni who earned their Binghamton University
degrees within the last 10 years.
In 2018, Fuller founded the Binghamton Move Out Project, a volunteer initiative that
collects usable items from Binghamton University students moving out of their college
housing in order to keep these items out of the landfill and give back to the community;
she still serves as co-coordinator. After graduation, she began working as legislative
assistant for Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo who represents the 123rd Assembly District
in the New York state legislature, and was promoted to communications director in
2022. She has also served on the executive committee of the Susquehanna Group of the
Sierra Club since 2022, and recently took on a seasonal position as the sponsorship
coordinator for the LUMA Projection Arts Festival. She lives on the West Side of Binghamton
with her cat, Freckles.
Sarah Glose '14, MPA '16, is the director of economic development for the City of Binghamton, where she leads efforts to grow the local economy, support small businesses, and ensure Binghamton is a community where all can thrive. A two-time graduate of Binghamton University, Sarah earned her bachelor’s degree in 2014 and her Master of Public Administration in 2016. Her time at the University informed her career and her choice to make Binghamton her long-term home. Born and raised outside of Syracuse, N.Y., Glose began her post-graduate career in New York City as a leadership fellow for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, gaining experience in government administration and organizational leadership. In 2018, she returned to Binghamton to work for New York state as a project manager at Empire State Development, motivated by both professional opportunity and personal ties to the community developed during her time at Binghamton University.
Outside of work, she spends time enjoying everything the area has to offer and giving
back to the community. She serves as vice president of the Board of Trustees for the
Broome County Public Library, president of the board of Cornell Cooperative Extension
of Broome County, and as an adjunct professor at Binghamton University. An engaged
alumna, she regularly participates in local alumni chapter events and attends athletic
events (Go Bearcats!). She can often be found at arts and cultural events throughout
the community and is a longtime Broadway in Binghamton subscriber. She lives on the
West Side of Binghamton with her husband, their two rescue dogs, and two cats.
During his time at SUNY Broome Community College in the engineering science program, Kumpon and his cousin developed a deep interest in the recycling industry. Through tours of local recycling facilities, they learned about the vast quantities of glass sent to landfills each year and began connecting this challenge to the concrete industry. With early support from local concrete company Barney & Dickenson, KLAW was born. The Koffman Southern Tier Incubator and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships Office at Binghamton University played a foundational role in KLAW’s growth, helping the young founders chart their path in college and transition into full-time operations after graduation.
Today, KLAW is helping lead the recycling industry, built on the engineering foundation,
industry insight and relationships Kumpon developed through the Thomas J. Watson College
of Engineering and Applied Science.
Tom Mastro '16, MPA '18, MS '18, serves as assistant dean and campus administrator for Northeastern University's Charlotte Campus, where he leads academic innovation, student experience initiatives and entrepreneurial activities as a key member of the campus leadership team.
Before joining Northeastern, Tom served as director of strategic initiatives at The George Washington University's College of Professional Studies, leading the college's strategic plan implementation and managed the Dean's Office operations and special projects portfolio. Earlier, as director of academic and student affairs at Binghamton University, he oversaw departmental assessment, accreditation and student services activities within the Department of Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership.
Tom holds master’s degrees in public administration and student affairs administration,
and a bachelor’s degree in human development with a minor in education from Binghamton
University; and an associate’s degree from SUNY Broome Community College.
Deeply connected to Binghamton University, Martinez remains actively engaged with
the Educational Opportunity Program and serves as a mentor to undergraduate students
in the School of Management. He serves on the Alumni of Color Network board and has
contributed to fundraising efforts, service projects, alumni programming and community
partnerships that strengthen connections between students, alumni and the University.
Grounded by his experience as a first generation college graduate, his work is guided
by a commitment to access, representation and supporting the next generation of Binghamton
students.
Oluwafemi “Femi” Popoola, PharmD '21, BCPS, BCCCP is an associate director and medical science liaison in neuroscience at Eli Lilly and Company, where he supports neurology researchers and clinicians across New York state. A double board-certified pharmacist, Popoola’s background spans critical care, emergency medicine, and medical affairs, with a focus on translating complex clinical evidence into practical, patient-centered insights.
Popoola earned his pharmacy doctoral degree from Binghamton University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences as part of the inaugural Class of 2021, where he also completed research on cancer-related inflammation. He went on to complete a PGY-1 pharmacy residency and has served as a clinical pharmacist specialist in emergency medicine, contributing to quality improvement initiatives, resident training and multidisciplinary care for high-risk patient populations.
Alongside his work in healthcare, Popoola is a songwriter and music producer, with
releases that have reached a global audience and collaborations across the pop and
electronic music space. He approaches science and music through the same lens: dedication
to fundamentals, disciplined iteration and creative problem-solving. Deeply committed
to mentorship and community, he believes sincerity, curiosity and lifelong learning
are central to meaningful impact in both medicine and music.
Jaiden Price '24 is a senior digital strategy analyst at Adobe, where she works with manufacturing and automotive executives to accelerate their digital transformation journeys. She specializes in translating business challenges into actionable strategies, identifying high-impact technology and AI opportunities, and developing implementation roadmaps that deliver measurable results. In her first year at Adobe, Price helped launch Adobe's Customer Journey Analytics B2B Edition and is currently working on her next portfolio play to impact how Adobe does business.
Price graduated in 2024 from Binghamton University's School of Management with degrees
in supply chain management, management information systems, and global studies. During
her time at Binghamton, she was an RA, president of the Dean's Mentoring Program,
Investment Fund Subsector Head, Innovation Scholar, Student Ambassador, TA for Product
Management and MIS-323, and SOURCE Project participant. She studied abroad at Copenhagen
Business School, focusing on sustainability and fashion, where she interned at OUR
SHIFT, a circular fashion brand, improving inventory visibility and reducing lead
times.
Upon graduating from Decker, Sindoni began his career at Guthrie Lourdes Hospital.
Over the years, he has served in various roles, including bedside nurse, assistant
manager, and manager. He holds the position of program director of nursing excellence.
In this role, he leads organizational initiatives to achieve and maintain the ANCC
Pathway to Excellence designation. He ensures compliance with nursing excellence standards
and fosters a culture of professionalism and continuous development among the nursing
staff. This role involves close collaboration with leadership teams to align nursing
practices with strategic goals, quality benchmarks and evidence-based standards. Beyond
his professional commitments, Sindoni is actively involved in youth sports, frequently
coaching teams or officiating games. He is married to his high school sweetheart,
Collene, and together they have four children: Karson (19), Kaiden (17), Kaylene (15)
and Kylah (12).