RIT Alumni recognized for service

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Susan Holliday

Rochester Institute of Technology is honoring Susan Holliday as Outstanding Alumna and Andrew Brenneman as Volunteer of the Year.

The awards will be presented at the President’s Alumni Ball, part of the annual Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend Oct. 15.

After spending 10 years in the field of agricultural finance, Holliday, a 1985 graduate in business administration who lives in Mendon, N.Y., switched careers and purchased the Rochester Business Journal in 1988. She orchestrated a financial turnaround of the company and today the weekly newspaper that specializes in business news has a readership of more than 80,000.

Holliday was asked to join the RIT board of trustees in 1998 and serves as chair of the conflicts of interest committee. She serves on the endowment, university relations committees, committee on trustees and executive committees of the board.

In 2000, Holliday received the Distinguished Alumna award from the E. Philip Saunders College of Business in recognition of her business accomplishments and dedication to the university.

In addition to her involvement with RIT, Holliday serves on the boards of Financial Institutions Inc., Complemar Partners Inc., the Rochester Business Alliance, University of Rochester Medical Center and the United Way of Greater Rochester. She is vice-chairman of the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency’s 2020 Performance Commission.

While in college, Brenneman, a Leesburg, Va., resident, was the first deaf member of RIT’s Alpha Sigma Lambda Honorary Society, which recognizes academic achievement and leadership in college organizations.

Brenneman received a bachelor’s degree in business management in 1988 from the E. Phillip Saunders College of Business and an associate degree in accounting in 1986 from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

He is currently a senior national account executive with Sprint Nextel based in Reston, Va. Brenneman began his career with Sprint as an account manager and was promoted to national account executive and to senior national account executive. He is a four-time recipient of Sprint’s President’s Club Award, given to the top 1 percent sales performers companywide.

Brenneman is a past member of the Advisory Board of Visual Language Interpreting Inc., and served on the alumni campaign leadership committee for NTID. He is the first deaf alumnus to serve on the RIT Board of Trustees, working on the diversity and university relations committees. He is also chair of the RIT building and grounds committee and just completed his term as the chair of the NTID National Advisory Group but still serves on the committee.

The Outstanding Alumni Award, established by the Office of the President in 1952, is the highest honor the institute can bestow upon a graduate. The Volunteer of the Year award is presented to an individual who exhibits dedication to the RIT community.

Andrew Brenneman