YSU commencement to highlight 2 stellar grads

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Kim Taylor and Janet Lynn Gbur will graduate from Youngstown State University this week with the three marks of university excellence under their belts — experience, accomplishment and success.

The two will speak at YSU’s 2011 spring commencement ceremonies Saturday, along with keynote speaker U.S. District Judge Peter C. Economus.

Undergraduate commencement will take place at 10 a.m. in Beeghly Center. The ceremony for graduate students will follow at 2:30 p.m.

About 1,200 students will receive degrees at the ceremonies.

Taylor, the speaker at the morning ceremony, graduates with a bachelor’s degree in geography. She was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society in 2010 and Gamma Theta Upsilon, the International Geographical Honor Society, in 2011.

During her years as a YSU student, Taylor has been awarded the JoAnn Knapic Academic Achievement award, the Vere Stalker Shaklee & Nina Pierce Shaklee Outstanding Geography Major award and the Michael Klasovsky Applied Geography award.

Taylor works full time as secretary for Trumbull County Auditor Adrian S. Biviano.

A 1977 graduate of Howland High School, she is married to Dave and is the mother of two boys, Vince and Dominic.

Gbur will speak at the afternoon commencement ceremony and will receive a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. She plans to pursue a doctorate in materials science and engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Since her graduation from Western Reserve High School in 1988, Gbur has built a multidisciplinary academic and professional career. She attended Kent State University with a dual major in biology and pre-medicine, earning a bachelor’s degree while simultaneously interning at several local orthotic/prosthetic practices as well as in the Cleveland Clinic’s Orthotic/Prosthetic Department.

It was while working in Cleveland that she became fascinated with biomedical engineering and materials applications in medicine and, following that interest, earned a bachelor’s degree in materials science from YSU.

While at YSU, Gbur served as a student trustee and collegiate and former national officer for Zeta Tau Alpha fraternity. She held memberships in the Order of Omega, the Golden Key International Honor Society and Omicron Delta Kappa.

An engineering internship with CleveMed, a medical-device company in Cleveland, led to work on multiple National Institute of Health grants and the design of a patent-pending EEG electrode, of which she is the co-inventor.

Gbur plans to continue research in biomechanics and materials in medical applications after graduation and eventually to teach materials-science engineering.