Each year, the Shenandoah University Alumni Association honors deserving alumni with the Distinguished Alumni Awards. To be selected, alumni must make significant achievements in their chosen profession; contribute to the betterment of their community, state, nation, or the world; or demonstrate ongoing dedication to the university.
The 2023 recipients will be honored at the Alumni Celebration Dinner- A Night of Distinction on Friday, Oct. 6, during Homecoming & Family Weekend 2023. Below are the bios for this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award recipients.
If you would like to nominate an alum for the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Awards, click here.
Don Krudop ’75, ’92, ’03
Lifetime Achievement Award
Krudop earned his Bachelor of Music Education in 1975, a Master of Music in Conducting in 1992 and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Education in 2003 from Shenandoah University. He also earned a Master of Education in Administration in 2005 from Regent University. Krudop is the Artistic Director & Conductor of The Virginia Beach Chorale and is the Director of Music Ministries at Heritage United Methodist Church in Virginia Beach. After 48 years of teaching, he retired from the music faculty at Regent University in 2023. From 1975 to 2019, he taught with the Virginia Beach City Public Schools system at all levels, elementary through senior high school. From 2004 to 2019, he was chair of the vocal music strand at the Visual & Performing Arts Academy at Salem High School.
Krudop will be the featured conductor of a residency in Carnegie Hall in New York City in June 2024. He has conducted All-District, All-County and All-City honors choirs throughout Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and New Jersey. Choirs under his direction have sung in the White House and National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City, and Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral in London, England. He is also a Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA)/Virginia Choral Directors Association (VCDA) certified adjudicator and has judged VMEA Senior Honors, All-Virginia and All-District Chorus auditions, as well as District Choral Assessments across Virginia.
Krudop served on the Shenandoah University Alumni Association Board of Directors from 2013 to 2019. He has had many professional achievements and recognitions throughout his career, including receiving Shenandoah University’s Distinguished Alumni Award for Outstanding Career Achievement, Virginia’s Music Educator of the Year, Teacher of the Year for Salem High School, Choral Director magazine’s Director of Note for Virginia and was a national finalist for the GRAMMY Foundation’s Music Educator Award.
De’Angelo Wynn ’19, ’20, ’21
Young Career Achievement
Wynn earned his Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in healthcare management in 2019, a Master of Business Administration in 2020 and a certificate in cyber security in 2021 from Shenandoah University. He is currently enrolled in Shenandoah’s Doctor of Professional Studies in Organizational Leadership. Wynn is a senior executive coach and assistant for Amazon. He is also an adjunct professor of business management for Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, California.
Prior to these roles, Wynn served in various leadership positions for the United States Navy and Army Corps where he was honored with several awards including the Military Outstanding Volunteer Award for all his professional accomplishments. During his combat deployments in Afghanistan, he was a bodyguard for chaplains and traveled on “Hero Flights,” where fallen service members were given last rites. His non-combat deployments in South Korea, Okinawa, Japan, New Caledonia, Philippines and Brunei allowed him to participate in projects like teaching English and building orphanages and a school, providing technology that revolutionized how people accessed educational resources in underprivileged communities.
During his time at Shenandoah, Wynn served as president of the Student Government Association, was on the cheerleading team, was the president of Shenandoah Veteran’s & Supporters and was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa.
Outside of work, Wynn also volunteers his time to his local community as the coordinator for Palmdale Community Outreach and as an aerobics (zumba) instructor for “Get Moving,” a community fitness program. Wynn has also written his first book entitled, “The Crown is Permanent,” that is set to be published in August 2023.
Monica Baranko ’19
Young Career Achievement
Baranko earned a Bachelor of Arts in mass communications in 2019 from Shenandoah University. She currently serves as the co-owner of Baranko’s Pizza, the owner of Rock and Reel Marketing, and is co-host with preeminent guitarist Guthrie Trapp of The Trapp Talkin’ Podcast. Baranko is also Marketing Director for BridgePoint Healthcare with locations in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Prior to her current roles, Baranko has worked with many influential individuals and businesses such as: Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), John Oates (Hall and Oates), Dennis Quaid, Sean Brock, Guthrie Trapp, Michael Ray, Abby Anderson, Orangetheory Fitness, the Grand Ole Opry and Wrangler.
During her time at Shenandoah, Baranko was a member of the track and field program (2015-2016), was an editor of the Buzz, assisted in the foundation of the AR/VR program and was inducted into and served as the treasurer for Omicron Delta Kappa. In her graduating year of 2019, Baranko won the Best Documentary Short and Best Comedy Short from the Emerging Filmmakers of Virginia Festival, and the Most Outstanding Media and Communications Student Award.
John Bischoff ’02, ’08
Professional Achievement
In 2002, Bischoff earned his Bachelor of Management in computer information systems management from Shenandoah University. He later returned to the university to get a Master of Business Administration and a certificate in information systems and computer technology in 2008. He then received a Doctorate of Engineering from George Washington University in 2018.
Bischoff is currently the vice president of the missing children division for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Prior to his role at NCMEC, Bischoff served as the mass care program specialist for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Washington, D.C., and was the technical director of public safety and criminal investigations for AOL. He also served as a senior operations officer and incident command officer for the New Kent County Fire-Rescue in New Kent, Virginia, and the Sterling Volunteer Fire Company in Sterling, Virginia.
Throughout his career, Bischoff has also served in many other roles, which include girl’s lacrosse coach for the Algonkian Tribe; team member for the Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group: Mid Atlantic Region; and storm spotter for the National Weather Service – Northern Virginia Region. Bischoff has received multiple awards for his professional accomplishments from the NCMEC, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce, FEMA, AOL and Sterling Volunteer Fire Company. In addition, Bischoff was the recipient of Shenandoah University’s John Scholl Family Scholarship in 2009 for his academic excellence and community service involvement.
Margaret Gonzalez ’12
Service to the Community
Gonzalez earned her Bachelor of Music in performance in 2012 from Shenandoah University. She is the founder and director of Music Mission San Francisco (MMSF), a non-profit organization that provides free music education to underprivileged children in San Francisco. She is also a Spanish tutor for Shenandoah University.
In March of 2021, Gonzalez received The Jefferson Award for MMSF’s commitment to serving and empowering the youth in their community. Gonzalez has also been a speaker at the American String Teacher Association, a speaker at the 2014 YOLA conference and was a member of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra.
In 2022, she was accepted into the Global Leaders Institute for Arts Innovation’s MBA program, which prepares arts professionals to grow creative enterprises that impact communities sustainability. Her future endeavors include working with the San Francisco Police Department to learn more about the city’s homelessness crisis and how she can use music to make an impact on the community.
David Divine ’08, ’10
Service to the University
Divine earned his Bachelor of Science in biology in 2008 and Doctor of Physical Therapy in 2010 from Shenandoah University. He is a physical therapist for Virginia Healthcare Services and Spine and Sport PT along with being an adjunct professor and clinical instructor for Shenandoah’s Physical Therapy program.
He is an alumni advisor for the university’s baseball program and created the Volinsky Memorial Scholarship, which honors late assistant baseball coach Simon Volinsky. In 2016, Divine founded the annual Shenandoah University Homecoming Golf Tournament and still directs the event each year.
He also assisted with the establishment of the Adaptive Sports Clinical Rotation in Winchester and developed “Referral for Community Profit,” a local charity fundraising effort with local physical therapists. In 2018 and 2021, Divine was a finalist for the Outstanding Clinical Instructor of the Year Award. Then in 2022, he received the Alumni Service Award for his service to the Shenandoah University Doctor of Physical Therapy program.
Thomas Sweitzer ’95, ’11
Hornet Hero Award
Sweitzer earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1995 and a Graduate Certificate for music therapy in 2011 from Shenandoah University. In 2017, He received a Master of Music Therapy from Berklee College of Music. Sweitzer is the co-founder, creative director and head of music therapy at A Place To Be in Middleburg, Virginia, which is a non-profit organization that serves over 300 families weekly, offering music therapy in northern Virginia.
In 2014, Sweitzer received the Loudoun County Humanitarian of the Year and was invited as a guest to the White House for his work with disabilities. A Place to Be and Sweitzer were awarded Best Music Therapy Provider of the Year by the American Music Therapy Association in 2017.
Throughout COVID-19, he has facilitated a nationwide online support group featured on both NPR and ABC News. In 2020, Sweitzer was a subject of the documentary, “Music Got Me Here,” along with one of his heroes, Forrest Allen, a young man with traumatic brain injury, who found his voice and courage through music therapy. “Music Got Me Here” can be streamed on Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime and features one of the stars of Netflix’s “Outer Banks,” Chase Stokes, as Forrest. He has created several therapeutic musical productions that focus on acceptance, diversity and empathy that have toured schools and beyond. Sweitzer also had his one rock opera about suicide prevention, A Will to Survive, performed at the Terrace Theater at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. This fall, he will be performing his one-man show about his childhood Off-Broadway at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia.