Portland State Magazine Winter 2012

ALUMNI PROFILE ADAM R. SM IT H ' 04 , MBA '11 The core of an idea "I love cooking, but never thought I'd create a kitchen gadget," says Adam Smith. "But when I cooked with other people, everyone complained about coring peppers. What's the right way? How do you keep the seeds from going everywhere? For stuffed peppers, how do you remove the insides without wasting so much of the pepper?" Smith says the Pioneering Innovation MBA course helped him recognize that the world needed-and would buy-a pepper corer. "When customers can verbalize frustration with a task, but can't envision a different way of doing that task, there's an opportu– nity. And one night as Iwas falling asleep, I literally saw an item that could core peppers." Smith turned that vision into a product. Working with professors Charla Mathwick and Dana Bostrom and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), he prototyped a corer, then licensed it to Progressive International. The company now dis– tributes the corer to retailers, including Portland area Kitchen Kaboodle stores (southwest Portland location pictured here). The product launched at the 2011 International Housewares Association convention in Chicago. "With funding from the PSU Business School, I attended the launch. It was a phenomenal experience," says Smith. He was also one of 12 students nationwide admitted to the NCIIA, which promotes commercialization of technological development at universities. Smith is now a product manager for Portland-based Autodesk Inventor. The company develops 3D design software, which inventors use to create and test 3D models of new products-kitchen gadgets included. BY M EG D ESCAMP 26 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE WINTER 2012 Adam Hayward '07 has signed another three-year contract as a middle linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa, Florida. Hayward was a sixth-round draft pick in 2007 and is going into his fifth year in the National Football League. Kesia Micheletti MEd '07 is the transition coordinaror for Parkrose School District in Porcland. Micheletti helped create and implement Life Edu– cation for Adults of Parkrose. In addition, she was recognized with a 2011 Miller Foundation Award for reaching. Nick O'Donnell '07 is a guitar instructor with Beacock Music Education Center in Vancouver, Washington, where he reaches beginning to advanced-level stu– dents ages 6 and up. O 'Donnell has studied guitar with promi– nent musicians in Los Angeles and Porcland. He has many years of playing and reaching experience in rock, jazz, blues, and classical guitar. Meaghan Stetzik '07 is a man– ager for the Con A.uence Project, an interpretive artwork project that will feature the work of artist Maya Lin (who designed the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.) at seven sites along the Columbia River Basin in Oregon and Washington. Leaders from Pacific Northwest Tribes and area national parks organized the project as an alternative means of commemo– rating the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial in 2005. Srerzik started as a volunteer with the project. Karen Bishop MPH '08 is a health educator in the envi– ronmental health assessment program of the Oregon Depart– ment of Human Services in Porcland. Jayne Stevens '08 appeared in the romantic comedy For Better at the Clackamas Repertory Theater in July. Mark Baker '09 worked on three video projects for the Multnomah County Commu– nications Office chat received National Association of County Information Officers awards. Kirsten Hart MM '09 is direc– tor of the Porcland Lesbian Choir, the music director at Res– urrection Lutheran Church, and a frequent soloist at The Grotto in Porcland. Hare has taken part in both the Bel Canto North– west and Astoria Opera appren– ticeship programs and currencly sings as a member of the Porcland Opera Chorus. She has performed such roles as Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti, Katisha in 7he Mikado, Roselinda in Die Fledermaus and Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel. Jesse Laird MS '09 is a doctoral candidate with a human rights education emphasis in the International and Mulciculcural Education Program at Univer– sity of San Francisco. Scott Morrison '09 plays center for the Energa Czarni Slupsk basketball ream in Poland. Pre– viously, he played for the Anwil Wloclawek basketball team in Poland. Morrison was a member of the 2009 Big Sky champi– onship basketball team chat earned a berth to the NCAA tournament. Katherine Reiners '09 is direc– tor of operations at Lee Davies Real Estate in Porcland. Anna Sosnowski MS '09 is a project manager for healthcare research and quality at Kaiser Permanence in Porcland. She also volunteers as a foster parent to dogs and cats through the Pixie Project, a nonprofit animal adoption agency in Porcland. Sosnowski writes, "I would like to acknowledge Dr. Leslie McBride, Dr. Carlos Crespo, and Dr. Gary Brodowicz for mentoring me during my gradu– ate school thesis process."