UC Alumni Association Volunteer Leadership

Cara Baah-Binney is the current student member of the Alumni Association Committee, with her experience as a scholarship recipient largely providing her personal motivation to help the UC Foundation and Alumni Association fulfill their missions. She is pursuing her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering while minoring in mathematics, and anticipates earning a master’s in electrical engineering.

Cara aspires to leverage her UC education toward improving the lives of people in Ghana, where she spent the first five years of her life before her family moved to the Cincinnati area. Given the country’s significant limitations in providing reliable power to its citizens, she envisions applying her expertise, perhaps in the area of innovative medical devices that can work with minimal power, to help Ghanaians better cope with their circumstances.

Cara is also a dedicated student volunteer, sharing her time through the Bearcat Buddies tutoring organization, the Engineering Learning Community, and as a CEAS Ambassador. “I’m really passionate about being there for others and making sure they know I’m in their corner,” she says.

Learn more about Cara's journey as a student volunteer.

Tom Carleton is a dedicated volunteer with UC largely because he feels a great desire to give back to the university that afforded he and his wife Christine, whom he met on campus, the educational excellence that propelled them to success. He embodies UC’s deep community connections through his work as the Chief of Philanthropy, Great Parks. He marvels at the quality of education and the national rankings that serve as testimony. Yet he feels the greatest proof is in the steady stream of accomplished graduates who become productive alumni.

Tom appreciates UC’s cooperative education and experiential learning opportunities, as well as the beautiful urban campus. But his penchant for service, currently expressed through his work with the UC Foundation board’s Alumni Association Committee, mostly can be traced to a personal commitment to help others. “UC is a huge part of our lives,” he says, and we are very passionate about giving back to the students.”

Learn more about Tom's journey from student to volunteer.

Lourdes Harshe is a Tax Managing Director with Deloitte Tax’s Global Employer Services and a leader in the organization’s workforce transformation efforts. Her professional experience spans more than three decades of providing consulting and compliance assistance to a wide range of clients.

With a student experience at UC built around her college and a variety of extracurricular activities, Lourdes feels a strong responsibility to promote and support her university however she can. Beyond her service on the UC Foundation board, she is involved in the UC Los Angeles Alumni Network.

A past president of the UC Alumni Association and recipient of UCAA’s Robert E. Dobbs Distinguished Service Award in 2023, Laurence Jones has been a respected alumni volunteer leader at UC for two decades. Chair of the Business Advisory Council at the Lindner College of Business, he is also a member of the UC Foundation Board of Trustees, formerly chairing the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. He and his wife established The Laurence and Rebecka Jones Business Fellows Annual Scholarship Fund.

Following his innate entrepreneurial spirit and building on the understanding of business operations he gained through his business degree and subsequent experience, Laurence co-founded RiskVersity, CyberSure LLC, and Resurgent Collaborative. The businesses chiefly help their clients identify and address their exposure to cyberattacks and security breaches. As with his service at his alma mater, their work is a manifestation of his “professional problem solver” persona.

Darrell Miller adds a unique perspective to the Alumni Association through his decades of professional experience as a prominent entertainment attorney based in Los Angeles. He is partner and founding chair of the Entertainment & Sports Law Department with Fox Rothschild, LLP, Attorneys at Law.

Beyond his work with the UC Foundation’s board, Darrell has served as a Kautz Alumni Master for his alma mater and supported programs across the university landscape. He has also provided volunteer leadership with numerous organizations related to the entertainment field.

With more than three decades in the financial services industry, Arun Murthy brings an analytical perspective to UC’s advancement and alumni engagement efforts. While studying accounting and finance as a student, he was also active outside of the classroom with conducting campus tours, alumni activities and student government.

Arun appreciates that UC maintains close ties to the community, and that strong relationships exist throughout the campus even as a large urban university with an outsized influence. “UC was very good to me and helped me become who I am today,” he says. “I want to give back to help the university continue to enable students and alumni to succeed.”

Learn more about Arun's journey from student to volunteer.

Andi Wiot’s interest in serving her alma mater comes very naturally. Her parents were outstanding musicians and CCM faculty members. Her late husband chaired UC’s Department of Radiology and served on the UC Foundation board. And Andi leveraged her nursing degree to work in the Emergency Department at University Hospital (now the UC Medical Center), retiring as Nursing Supervisor. She later became a founding member of the UC College of Nursing’s Board of Advisors and helped organize the annual recognition dinner and awards that showcase regional nurses for their tremendous caregiving.

As a member of the UC Foundation board’s Alumni Association Committee, Andi cherishes the opportunity to champion the university and the UC family. “UC is an incredible collection of many outstanding colleges, attracting high-achieving students, and graduating talented students in multiple fields,” she says.