Category: SharkBytes

Great ideas can be born under the most mundane circumstances. NSU alumnus Alexander Lafortune got the idea for his new business while a student at the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship. Alone in his dorm room one evening, Lafortune accidentally knocked his toothbrush into the toilet. Frustrated by the inconvenience, he wondered why replacing or buying a new toothbrush was not as easy as ordering a pizza.

In October 2018, Lafortune launched Fortune X, a monthly oral care subscription service www.fortunexbox.com based in South Florida. The company’s goal is to help customers improve their oral hygiene and save time by having products regularly shipped to them.

“Dentists recommend that everyone replace their toothbrush every three to four months,” said Lafortune, whose company sells a variety of toothbrushes, replacement bristle heads, toothpaste, and whitening products. “People tend to forget or they don’t have time to buy a new toothbrush. Fortune X wants to take away those worries and create a new lifestyle…College students are a huge market for us. We understand that most college students do not have cars or time.”

Lafortune graduated in 2018 with a B.A. in Business Administration and a minor in Human Resources Management from NSU’s Huizenga College.

“I’ve aspired to become an entrepreneur since I was in high school,” he said. “Through my four years at NSU, my business degree helped prepare me in numerous ways. The business program had outstanding professors who were professionals in their fields. All had one goal in common: To make sure they prepared us to become the best when we entered the real world. The encouragement they gave me as a student motivated me to pursue my business.”

Jeffrey Scarpiello, M.S. is the Abraham S. Fischler College of Education (FCE) 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award winner. On November, 5 he presented and held a book signing on his book, The 10 “C” Leadership Principles of Excellence – Working Toward the Benefit of the Team, at the Don Taft University Center Club Room.

Scarpiello is a medically retired service-disabled Air Force Veteran with over 20 years of veterans’ advocacy, policy and strategic planning experience. Currently, he works for Optmum Serve – United Healthcare as the Virginia Market Lead, where he is responsible for the development and oversight of a Request for Proposal (RFP) on a federal contract with the Veteran Benefits Administration valued at $6.8 billion that would provide medical disability examinations to veterans and service members.

He has worked for two national veteran non-profit service organizations, the federal and legislative branches of government and in the private sector on behalf of Veterans.  Jeff is a graduate of the Department of Veterans Affairs Leadership VA, class of 2010, where he was the Class “Moose’ and President. In 2013, he was selected to attend the prestigious Partnership for Public Service Excellence in Government Fellows Program. In 2015, Jeff was the recipient of the Partnership for Public Service Citizen in Action Award for a homeless pilot project initiative leveraging partnerships to help cover move-in costs for homeless veterans to help make their new house a true home. Scarpiello earned his Master’s in Leadership with FCE in 2012.

To learn more about his book, please visit: https://outskirtspress.com/the10cleadershipprinciplesofexcellence

T. Sharis Robinson, graduate of NSU’s Abraham S. Fischler College of Education, was named a 2018-2019 Influencer of the Year by the International Association of Women (IAW).

Ms. Robinson is currently the Dependency Director at the Children’s Home Society of Florida. She works repeatedly to improve the lives of children and families in the state of Florida, while working closely with the judicial system and organizational partners to promote change in the child welfare system. Ms. Robinson’s motto is “positive output encourages feedback.” In the future, she hopes to become more involved in policy making decisions for the protection of children in Florida and create more awareness about the issue of child welfare in communities.

Ms. Robinson earned her Masters of Organization Leadership at the Fishler College of Education in 2014.
https://nsunews.nova.edu/international-association-of-women-honors-fce-alum-as-a-2018-2019-influencer-of-the-year/

Stanley Zamor, M.S., graduate of the master’s program in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and the B.S. in Legal Studies in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS), has been inducted into the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals. Membership in the National Academy is by invitation only after having been nominated and fully vetted. Most of the members are attorneys and retired judges.

Zamor is the former President of the Florida Academy of Professional Mediators (FAPM). As the FAPM president, he was the first non-attorney to lead the organization as well as the youngest and the first Caribbean-American president.

Zamor spent years in the legal field as a paralegal and mediator. He is currently in private practice as a mediator, trainer, and conflict resolution specialist. He is Florida Supreme Court certified in county, circuit civil and family mediation and a qualified arbitrator. He has served as an arbitrator for FINRA and has been selected as a mediator by federal and state agencies.
https://nsunews.nova.edu/cahss-alum-is-inducted-into-national-academy-of-distinguished-neutrals/

Marci DuPraw, Ph.D., doctoral graduate from NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), was named Senior Program Manager at the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (US Institute). Congress established the US Institute in 1998 to provide impartial consensus-building, collaboration, and conflict resolution services. One of the projects DuPraw will be working on is managing the Institute’s support for a very large, landscape-scale collaboration (the Missouri River Recovery process).

Previously DuPraw was a Senior Mediator/Senior Facilitator at the Center for Collaborative Policy in Sacramento. She was the Senior Mediator/Senior Director for Kearns & West, Inc., in Portland, Oregon and the Senior Facilitator and Mediator for SRA International, Inc., in Arlington, VA. In 2011, DuPraw was the recipient of the Association for Conflict Resolution’s Sharon M. Pickett Award for achievement in environmental protection using alternative dispute resolution.

In addition to her doctoral degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS), DuPraw completed a Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research from the Department of Multidisciplinary Studies (DMS). She earned her B.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, and her M.S. in Natural Resource Policy, Economics and Management from the University of Michigan. DuPraw has been an adjunct faculty member in DCRS and DMS.
https://nsunews.nova.edu/nsu-alumni-spotlight-cahss-alumnus-named-senior-program-manager-at-us-institute-for-environmental-conflict-resolution/

Ghadah Al Ghunaim, Ph.D., doctoral graduate from NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), was appointed by the King of Saudi Arabia, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, to the Board of Trustees of the King Abdulaziz Centre for National Dialogue. Al Ghunaim is also a Senior Consultant at Delivery and Rapid Intervention Center. Her previous positions include Director General, International Cooperation, Communication and Media Department at the Education Evaluation Commission of Saudi Arabia, and Director General, International Cooperation at the Education Commission of Saudi Arabia.

In addition to her doctoral degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS) in CAHSS, she has an M.B.A. from Johnson and Wales University, Rhode Island, and a Bachelor of Interior Design from King Abdulaziz University.

Teri Tribuba Williams, Ph.D., graduate of the master’s and doctoral programs in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS) in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) is on the Board of Directors of the National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE). “The mission of the NSEE is to cultivate educators who effectively use experiential education as an integral part of personal, professional, civic, and global learning.” For more information, please see http://www.nsee.org/

Williams is the Director of Experiential Education and Learning at NSU. In her position, she oversees Experiential Education and Learning (ExEL) and works collaboratively with faculty, staff, and administrators. She is also a current adjunct faculty member at CAHSS.
https://nsunews.nova.edu/cahss-alum-on-the-board-of-national-society-for-experiential-education/