The University of Toledo

Jeff Potter graduated from The University of Toledo in December 1995 with a BA in Communications, public relations. One year prior, he began working at the Ritter Planetarium as a student employee and continued work there until September 1997. He then began work at the Alexander Brest Planetarium in Jacksonville, FL. He returned to work at the Ritter Planetarium and was very happy to be under his "home dome." While back at Ritter, Jeff presented a paper (pdf) at the annual GLPA conference, which was published in the GLPA proceedings book. We are sorry to say that Jeff has left the Ritter Planetarium once again, hopefully to move on to bigger and better things.

Will graduated from The University of Toledo in May, 2001 with a bachelor's degree in physics. He remained on the Ritter Planetarium staff until July, 2001. In 2008, Will completed his Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of Massachusetts. He has now returned to UT to hold a postdoctoral fellowship, working with the Herschel Space Observatory, a far-infrared space telescope. His research focuses on the earliest stages in the evolution of stars like our Sun, when they are embedded in dense envelopes of gas and dust and have disks that will later form planets. 

Will wrote an article that was published in the September, 2002, issue of the Planetarian, a planetarium professionals' magazine. Astronomy education and outreach are still among Will's main interests.

Meredith graduated from The University of Toledo in May, 2001 with a bachelor's degree in geography. She worked at the Ritter Planetarium from September, 1998 to July, 2001. Meredith obtained a Master of Science in geography at the University of Massachusetts and is now a Communication and Technology Specialist at UT's Lake Erie Center. Meredith still enjoys astronomy, and she developed the experimental program, "Toddler Discovery Time," that we ran in April 2009 during the Hundred Hours of Astronomy.

Dawn Mulliss graduated from The University of Toledo with a Bachelor of Science in Planetarium Science in December, 1997 and continued regular work at Ritter until early January, 1999. Until recently, she was responsible for maintaining the Ritter Planetarium web site. Dawn wrote and presented a paper (pdf) at the annual GLPA conference in 1996. She now "telecommutes" to Ritter to help design flyers and assists in writing occasional shows. 

Waylena graduated from The University of Toledo in 1994 with a Bachelor's degree in Geography. She worked at the Ritter Planetarium from February 1992 until July 1994. Since leaving Ritter, Waylena has worked in a variety of planetaria. Currently, she is the Producer for the William M. Staerkel Planetarium in Champaign, Illinois.

Paul graduated from The University of Toledo in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. He is now a graduate student in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Samantha graduated from The University of Toledo in 2007. Since leaving Ritter, she has been teaching 8th grade science in Springfield, Ohio (near Dayton).