David H. Lissy ‘87

David Lissy served on the Ithaca College board of trustees from 2011 to 2024, serving as chair for 6 years. He was named chair emeritus in 2024.

David is the Chairman of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, the world's leading provider of employer-sponsored childcare and early education, dependent care and educational advisory services.

He graduated with a B.S. in management from the School of Business and spent 11 years in the health care industry, serving as senior vice president and general manager of the New England region for Aetna in addition to a variety of management and marketing functions with U.S. Healthcare. He joined Bright Horizons in 1997 as the chief development officer and was named Chairman in January 2002.

Based in Watertown, Massachusetts, Bright Horizons manages more than 900 early-care and education centers and schools, employing 25,000 people worldwide.David is responsible for leading the company's global expansion into Europe and Canada and serves as an executive resource to many of its client partners, helping to develop new and innovative services that meet the evolving needs of working families.

Bright Horizons has consistently been the only child-care organization named by Fortune magazine to its list of the 100 best companies to work for in America and by the Financial Times as one of the top 50 employers in Europe. It was recognized by President Bill Clinton with the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership.

Prior to becoming chair in 2018 and vice chair in 2015, David served on a number of board committees, including the Audit Committee, Campaign Planning Committee, Risk Management Committee, and Trusteeship Committee.

He previously served as a member of the President's Roundtable, Business School Advisory Council, and School of Business Campaign Committee, and also played a leadership volunteer role with the Ithaca Fund (now known as the IC Annual Fund). In 2010 he was honored with the Professional Achievement Award by the Ithaca College Alumni Association.

He also serves on the Board of Directors of Bright Horizons, the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children, the March of Dimes and Jumpstart.

He and his wife, Suzanne, live in Needham, Massachusetts, with their three children.

Tom H. Grape '80

Tom Grape served on the Ithaca College board of trustees from 2009 to 2018, serving as chair for 6 years. He was named chair emeritus in 2018.

Tom is founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Benchmark Senior Living in Waltham, Massachusetts, which has $2 billion in assets, generates $450 million in annual revenues, and employs 5,500 associates. A privately held company, Benchmark is the largest provider of senior housing in the northeast, and has been recognized as one of the top 100 places to work by the Boston Globe for eight straight years.

Tom earned a B.A. in planned studies from Ithaca College in 1980. Prior to becoming board chair, he served on the Buildings and Grounds Committee, Compensation Committee, Institutional Advancement Committee (which he chaired from 2010 to 2012), and Trusteeship Committee. He was also the recipient of the Ithaca College Alumni Association's Professional Achievement Award in 2013.

Previously, Tom served on the Business Professionals Alumni Advisory Committee, School of Business Steering Committee, Campaign Committee for the School of Business, and as a member of the President's Roundtable. He also has spoken to classes at IC's School of Business as a distinguished executive lecturer.

Tom is active in many professional organizations and is past chairman of the Assisted Living Federation of America, the industry's national trade association. He serves as chairman of the board of the Meadowbrook School and vice chair of Newton-Wellesley Hospital; is an active member and former board member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO); and served for many years on the vestry and as chair of the Building Committee at the renowned Trinity Church in Boston.

In 2003 he was recognized as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for real estate/hospitality in New England, and was honored with the inaugural International Corporate Social Responsibility Award from the YPO.

William L. Haines

After being elected to the Ithaca College Board of Trustees in 1996, Bill served for 11 years, including five years as chair from 2001 to 2006. He was named chair emeritus in 2006.

An alumnus of both the State University of New York at Cortland and Ohio University, Bill is a nationally recognized real estate investor and developer. The Bromley Companies, a real estate agency founded by Bill in 1972 and based in Manhattan, has developed a widely encompassing portfolio of work across the country, including office, retail, and residential buildings; student housing; and parking garages. Bill is well known for his optimistic spirit and creative approach to development, investing strategically to restore dilapidated properties and revive neighborhoods. 

During his time on the board, Bill served with distinction on numerous trustee committees including the Building and Grounds, Investment and Finance, Audit, Campus Life and Community, Educational Policy, and Trusteeship Committees.

C. William Schwab '68, Parent '93

Although he enrolled as a physical education major, Bill graduated magna cum laude from Ithaca College in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He then entered medical school at SUNY Upstate Medical University and married his college sweetheart, Marjorie Anne Rooke, a 1969 graduate of the School of Music. Bill joined the U.S. Navy in 1970 and served on active duty until 1980.

During his surgical residency, Bill met surgeons who had served in Vietnam and would become some of his most influential teachers and mentors. Bill, too, operated on casualties from the Vietnam War at the U.S. Naval Regional Medical Center in Virginia. There, he saw firsthand the critical need for progressive and improved trauma care and decided to stay in academic medicine to teach and pursue research. He joined the faculty of the Eastern Virginia Medical School, where he developed one of the nation's earliest hospital-based helicopter services and began his scholarly work in the development of systems for trauma care.

In 1987, Bill was recruited to the University of Pennsylvania, where he founded the trauma center and the academic division of traumatology and surgical critical care. He is currently an emeritus professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and a senior consultant at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia.

Renowned for his clinical research, Bill is an internationally recognized surgeon and educator. In the 1990s, Bill's group at Penn developed a surgical technique called damage control surgery, which has greatly improved the survival of patients with exsanguinating injuries. This technique was invaluable during the military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and is considered a major advance in trauma surgery from the latter 20th century. Bill's academic work continues to focus on improving the training and education of surgeons, physicians, and nurses in trauma and casualty care. Among the varied aspects of his career, teaching and training bring Bill his greatest joy and fulfillment.

Bill's expertise in education shaped his decision to remain involved with Ithaca College. Bill gave the 1988 Commencement address in 1988 and was first elected to the college's board of trustees in 1989, serving as chair from 2006 to 2012. Bill and Marjorie's daughter graduated from the Park School of Communication in 1993 and married fellow alumnus Sam Medina '82, who graduated with a business degree and was a member of the 1991 national championship football team.

For his leadership and vision in the pursuit of educational excellence and his lifetime service to humanity in the field of medicine, Bill was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree from Ithaca College in 2012. A year later, he was named chair emeritus, and his devotion to advancing the quality of education at Ithaca College and ensuring its future continues.