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Outstanding Young Alumni 2004

The Outstanding Young Alumni Award is presented to up to two alumni of Stetson University who are 35 years of age or younger. The award recognizes contributions to society, to a profession, or to Stetson University. Recipients must demonstrate significant accomplishment or promise in their fields; leadership; or civic, cultural, or charitable involvement.

Gerard K. Marino '98

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A music composition major at Stetson, with a minor in Digital Arts, Gerard Marino received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1998. Moving to Los Angeles after graduation, he earned an Advanced Studies in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television Graduate Certificate from the University of Southern California in 2000.

Hired as a synthesizer programmer on a major studio film by composer Christopher Young, he first worked on Paramount's Bless The Child, starring Kim Basinger, then continued working for a year as Young's synthesizer programmer and studio engineer, earning screen credit on six other studio films, including Swordfish, Sweet November and The Gift.

Turning his focus to his own composing career, he provided musical scores for three independent feature films, including El Padrino, starring Jennifer Tilly, Stacy Keach and Faye Dunaway; television commercials; and several theatrical motion picture trailers, including Terminator 3, The Missing and The Chronicles of Riddick.

He has recently discovered the videogame music field, and is now at work on his biggest writing assignment yet: two hours of synthesizer plus orchestra music for God of War, an $80 million videogame in its third year of development at Sony Computer Entertainment and slated for release in 2005.

 

Stephanie L. Todd '92

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Born and reared in Pennsylvania, Stephanie L. Todd followed her uncle, the late Robert L. Todd, to Stetson, as did her sister, Kristen A. Todd, a 1994 graduate. After receiving her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance in 1992, Stephanie Todd worked in corporate marketing for Revlon Inc. in Manhattan, then returned to Florida to serve as an assistant branch manager for First Union Bank in St. Petersburg.

Always interested in medicine, she went back to the classroom in 1994, earning a second bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from The University of South Florida in 1996. During her USF studies, she accompanied a medical team from her church to Guyana in South America, a pivotal experience that inspired her to undertake further volunteer work around the world.

She traveled overseas full-time with volunteer groups for three years, living and working in Africa, Central and South America and Asia. In 1999, she enrolled in a Columbia University program in International Health, studied in Israel, then attended St. George’s University in Grenada. She completed most of her clinical education in New Jersey, with stints in Long Island and in England. Her worldwide volunteer efforts have continued, taking her to 25 countries in the past nine years.

Receiving her M.D. degree in May of 2004, she began graduate studies at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she is specializing in infectious diseases. Dr. Todd expects to receive a Master’s Degree in Public Health in May of 2005 and will begin her residency in July.