West Haven, Conn., May 18, 2009- Three new members have been appointed to the Board of Governors of the University of New Haven: Rosa M. Gatti, ESPN senior vice president, communications counsel and corporate outreach; Samuel E. Thurston, a longtime executive with Giant Food, now a division of Royal Ahold, one of the world's largest grocery companies; and Rolan Joni Young, senior partner in Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C.
Rosa Gatti, an ESPN and cable television pioneer, joined ESPN in 1980, in its first year of operation. As director of communications and, one year later, vice president, she built the communications department, establishing policies and best practices. Over the years, she and her team helped to grow the ESPN brand. In 1988, she was promoted to senior vice president. After other promotions since, she is now senior vice president, Communications counsel and Corporate Outreach. During her tenure, she has also overseen Human Resources and diversity initiatives for the company. Before joining ESPN, Gatti enjoyed a distinguished career as the first female sports information director at an NCAA major college, her alma mater, Villanova University, in 1974. She later served as sports information director at Brown University. She was a vice president of the College Sports Information Directors of America, which presented her with the Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award for dedication to the organization and college athletics. She served on the Villanova University board of trustees for 10 years, and currently serves on the board of directors for The V Foundation for Cancer Research, the Association for Cable Communicators and the Franciscan Life Center. She has received numerous awards for her public and community relations efforts.
Samuel Thurston graduated from the University of New Haven, then known as New Haven College, in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in engineering. After graduation, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, testing tanks in Fort Knox, Kentucky for two years during the Vietnam War. An industrial engineer, Thurston spent more than 30 years at Giant. Early in his career at Giant, he became the project manager for the design and implementation of a new distribution center. This involved computerizing and mechanizing a new warehouse, which was a cutting-edge initiative in the early 1970s. Thurston became vice president of Distribution, responsible for both warehousing and transportation. In 1984, he became senior vice president and part of the company's Management Committee, a group of senior vice presidents who reviewed and shaped policy for the corporation. He retired in 1999. Giant, headquartered in Landover, Md., operates 182 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, and employs approximately 22,000 associates. Included within the 182 stores are 164 full-service pharmacies.
Rolan Joni Young is senior partner in Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C. Previously, she was a principal in Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C. She has a 17-year background in affordable housing, economic and community development, and is experienced in financing a wide variety of housing projects, as an attorney, lender and head of a financial intermediary. She has extensive experience in real estate development-as a transactions attorney and community development practitioner-and has extensive experience in closing complex multi-layered financing and real estate development transactions for community-based projects. She has been a visiting lecturer in law at the Yale Law School Clinic on Housing and Community Development. Prior to joining Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C., she served as the executive director and chief operating officer of the Community Health Center Capital Corporation in Washington, DC, and was assistant vice president in the Community Development Lending Group at American Security Bank in Washington, DC, She received a J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law and received her A.B. from Dartmouth College. Young is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing, the Connecticut Bar Association, the New Haven County Bar Association and the National Bar Association. She is the chairperson of the board of commissioners of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, past president of the board of First City Fund Corporation, a member of the board of directors of Elm City College Prep and the Greater New Haven Community Foundation. In 1999, she was named Minority Business Person of the Year by "Business New Haven," and one of Twenty Noteworthy Women by the "New Haven Business Times." She is a life member of and served as president of the Greater New Haven NAACP in 2000.
A leader in experiential education, the University of New Haven is experiencing a historic and nationally recognized surge in enrollment. Founded in 1920, the University provides its students with a unique combination of solid liberal arts and real-world, hands-on professional training. UNH is a private university with an 80-acre main campus. The University has an enrollment of more than 5,200; approximately 1,700 graduate students and more than 3,500 undergraduates, 70 percent of whom reside in University housing. The University offers more than 80 undergraduate degrees and more than 25 graduate degrees through its five colleges, in fields such as sports management, nutrition, forensic science, music and sound recording, engineering, computer science and criminal justice. University College at UNH develops programs and courses to meet the emerging educational and training needs of educators, businesses and public and social agencies, focusing on academic excellence, convenience and flexibility. University of New Haven students study abroad through a variety of distinctive programs.
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