Gary Gabriele, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, has announced that, after almost 30 years of service, Bob Conway is stepping down as director of the Advising and Learning Assistance Center. Jeannie Steigler has been named interim director. Conway has been named assistant to the vice provost and will also provide academic advising services to the athletic teams.

Conway initiated several programs to assist students through their academic careers. He has served on numerous campus committees, and has had extensive involvement with the Troy community, including serving as its mayor. Conway was named the first Pillar of Rensselaer in 1993.

Steigler has served as an English as a Second Language Coordinator in the Learning Center. She is a member of the national organization Teaching English as a Second or Other Language and of the National Association for Foreign Student Advisors.

The Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) has announced that A. Chris Gesswein joined Rensselaer as licensing associate effective July 30.

Gesswein comes to Rensselaer with more than 12 years of technical, market analysis, and business development experience, working for university, startup, Fortune 500, and major consulting operations. Gesswein has a master's degree in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and a MBA from Rensselaer.

"Under The Rensselaer Plan, intellectual property and technology commercialization are important elements under the Scientific and Technological Entrepreneurship initiatives. The addition of Chris is another significant step forward as we work to achieve these initiatives," said Chuck Rancourt '70, director of OTC.

Director of Athletics Ken Ralph has named Leslie Khachadourian as the women's soccer and women's lacrosse head coach.

"We are excited to have Leslie on our staff in a full-time capacity," Ralph said. "She has tremendous passion and enthusiasm for both sports, which will certainly be an asset for our student-athletes as well as the entire department."

Khachadourian was most recently Rensselaer's field hockey and women's lacrosse intern. In addition, she served as the co-adviser to the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. Prior to joining Rensselaer's staff, she was a graduate assistant with the lacrosse team at Washington College in Chestertown, Md. A 2000 graduate of William Smith College, Khachadourian was a soccer and lacrosse standout for the Herons.

Khachadourian takes over a soccer program that set a Rensselaer record last year. The team also won the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament. In lacrosse, she will lead a team that expects the return of all but one player from a squad that finished 3-8 in 2002.

Director of Athletics Ken Ralph also announced that Adam Clinton has been named head men's soccer coach. Clinton is well known in the Capital Region's soccer circle. He was an assistant coach at the University of Albany in 2000, helping the Great Danes to a 9-7-1 record during its first year at the Division I level. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Hudson Valley Community College in 1999.
Clinton has also been a head coach on the professional level, leading the Capital District Alley Cats of the United Systems of Independent Soccer Leagues from 1997-98. On the field, Clinton played collegiately at both HVCC and Keene St. (N.H.) as a midfield and back. He played professionally for the New York Kick in the National Professional Soccer Indoor League.

Clinton, who earned an A.A.S. degree in drafting design from HVCC before receiving a B.S. in industrial technology from Keene, takes over a team that went 5-10 last season but won each of its last four games. 8/26/02