College Announces 2024 Outstanding Alumni

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OAA 2024 recipients

The UMass Amherst College of Engineering is proud to announce the recipients of its 2024 Outstanding Alumni Awards (OAA). Awardees represent the college’s five departments and this year include six Distinguished Alumni and four Outstanding Young Alumni.

Visionary leaders in their field, recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award have reached exceptional levels of professional and personal achievement. This award recognizes distinguished leadership, service, teaching, innovation, and other exemplary accomplishments that positively impact society and the engineering profession. This year’s Distinguished Alumni Award honorees are:

  • Ron Kraus ’94 Mechanical Engineering [Awarded by: Biomedical Engineering], Syner-G BioPharma Group
  • Carrie Lavallee ’03 Civil Engineering, MassDOT Highway
  • Imona Omole ’04 Chemical Engineering, Verdant Energy LLC
  • Raquel Rivera ’92 Mechanical Engineering, Pratt & Whitney.
  • Rouzbeh R. Taghizadeh ’00 Chemical Engineering [Awarded by: Biomedical Engineering], Kendall Innovations
  • Jennifer Anne Watson ’95, ’97MS Electrical Engineering, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Emerging leaders in the early stages of their careers, recipients of Outstanding Young Alumni Award are generally no more than ten years out from receiving their UMass Engineering PhD or no more than fifteen years out from receiving their UMass Engineering undergraduate degree. This award recognizes outstanding professional and personal achievements, and highlights the recipient’s ambitions and potential to positively impact UMass, the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world. This year’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award honorees are:

  • Casey Fontana ’19PhD Civil Engineering, Invenergy
  • Ashley Kaiser ’17 Chemical Engineering. 6K Inc.
  • Brycen Luis Spencer ’09 Mechanical Engineering, Siemens Digital Industries Software
  • Fadi Zoghzoghy ’10 Electrical Engineering, BridgeAthletic

Several recipients of this year’s awards remained in Massachusetts after graduating from UMass, and have established themselves as engineering leaders within the Commonwealth. Ron Kraus is the Chief Executive Officer of Syner-G BioPharma Group, a leading provider of integrated pharmaceutical sciences and regulatory services based in Framingham; Carrie Lavallee is the Deputy Administrator and Chief Engineer at MassDOT Highway; Ashley Kaiser is a Senior Process Engineer at 6K Inc., a materials manufacturing start-up located in North Andover; Rouzbeh R. Taghizadeh is the President of the Cambridge-based Kendall Innovations, a consultation firm that supports innovation in regenerative medicine, longevity, and tissue engineering; and Jennifer Anne Watson serves as head of the Homeland Protection and Air Traffic Control Division at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

In addition, several of this year’s recipients maintain close ties to the College of Engineering. Raquel Rivera sits on the Industry Advisory Board for the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, while Casey Fontana serves on the UMass Amherst Offshore Wind Industry Advisory Board. Fontana and Lavallee have both recently visited campus for presentations and alumni panels to share their perspective with current students.

The OAA recipients will be celebrated during an invitation-only event in the UMass Amherst Campus Center on April 19. Learn more about their accomplishments here.

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