Notables:

Monica Echeverri Casarez ’08, a Henry Ford College surgical technologist instructor, died April 12, 2019, from complications due to COVID-19. She was 49. As a certified surgical technologist, Casarez worked for Southwest Solutions, a social services agency in southwest Detroit. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, she returned to the Detroit Medical Center to offer assistance and medical expertise in one of the pandemic hot zones. She soon fell ill due to the virus and passed away a week later. According to Henry Ford, Casarez was a business coach and consultant who founded her own company, Blue Order, LLC. She also used her bilingual skills to work as a Spanish interpreter, primarily in the healthcare field. She also recently co-founded Southwest Detroit Restaurant Week, which was launched during Hispanic Heritage Month with a team of volunteers to celebrate the diversity of Latin American cuisine found in Detroit.

SHU Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Physics Dr. Anthony Scioly passed away July 11, 2020, at his home in Ann Arbor after a battle with leukemia. He taught at Siena Heights University for more than 30 years, teaching chemistry and physics, as well as occasionally teaching classical Greek and Latin. Scioly was a department chair for many years, and served as the longest standing chair of the Academic Standards Committee. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award in 1999, retiring in 2016. According to his wife, Claudia, “You cannot believe how many faculty and students reached out since he got sick and then went into hospice care. He was so gratified to have them write, and see the scope of the impact he had on so many.” The University will plan a time for his former students and colleagues to remember his presence to the Siena community.

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