The University of Dayton added seven highly accomplished members to its 2025-26 board of trustees, including significant contributors to its record-breaking "We Soar" campaign, senior business executives, a young legal standout and two Marianists with decades of service in the Society of Mary.
Brian Blaser, Dave Conway, Kristin Dailey, Jamel Gross-Cassel, Greg Stevens, and Marianist Brothers Bob Metzger and Jack Ventura joined the board July 1 for three-year terms. Gross-Cassel will serve as a recent alumni trustee, a position for members three to eight years post-graduation with a record of student engagement in volunteer and philanthropy initiatives and continued involvement with UD.
The board also welcomed new chair Deb Tobias ‘73, who served as chair of the University’s highly successful “We Soar” campaign. Tobias began her three-year term July 1, taking over for Rick Omlor ’79, who spent 14 years on the board.
“Our new trustees care deeply about the University of Dayton and its students,” said University President Eric F. Spina. “They bring a range of skills, diverse perspectives and a passion for the role of higher education in a complex world. I look forward to working with them, and our new board chair Deb Tobias, as we continue to build on the momentum of the ‘We Soar’ campaign and tackle the many challenges facing universities today. I am confident that these new trustees will help make UD even better.”
Brian Blaser, president and CEO of QuidelOrtho, has more than 25 years of senior leadership experience in the in vitro diagnostics industry. Prior to joining QuidelOrtho, Blaser spent 15 years at Abbott Laboratories overseeing the company’s diagnostics business. He also served in leadership roles in operations, finance and engineering at healthcare and technology companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Eastman Kodak and General Motors.
Blaser serves on the board of directors for the Advanced Medical Technology Association and most recently chaired the UD School of Engineering advisory council. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering technology from UD in 1986 and an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Dave Conway is a first-generation college student who played soccer for UD for four years, and graduated from UD in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. In 2000, Conway became CEO of ConstructConnect, an internet-based resource for contractors and building product manufacturers to find and manage projects. Three years later, he was the recipient of the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year award in the south-central Ohio and Kentucky region in the technology category. In 2022, he launched J476 Capital, a family office investment fund focused on supporting entrepreneurs on their journey to financial independence. Conway has been a motivational speaker and served on the campaign cabinet for “We Soar.”
Kristin Dailey earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education from UD in 1998, and a master’s in educational administration from the University of Akron in 2001. Dailey has been a member of UD's parent leadership council, co-chair of her reunion class committee and a “We Soar” campaign cabinet member. She is co-chairing UD’s health and wellbeing center fundraising campaign.
A certified grief educator and former teacher in the Nordonia Hills and Solon school districts near Cleveland, Dailey has served as a board member of the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities, the Metzenbaum Foundation, Northcoast Community Homes, Fieldstone Therapeutic Riding Farms, and honorary chair for the Ohio SIBS annual campaign.
Jamel Gross-Cassel earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from UD in 2020 and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law in 2023. He was admitted to practice law in New York in April 2024. Gross-Cassel’s post-graduate pursuits include a judicial clerkship for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and a clerkship with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit starting Aug 18. At UD, he participated in the core honors program and mock trial team, and was named outstanding attorney at the Indy Mock Hundred in 2019. He was a 2019 intern for Advocates for Basic Legal Equality.
In a feature in Fordham Law News, Gross-Cassel said: “My journey to law school started at the University of Dayton. Before Dayton, I was a teenager, estranged from my parents, with no plans of attending college. Dayton offered me a near-full scholarship and continuous support to help me make something of myself.”
Brother Bob Metzger, S.M., is a Dayton native and a 1967 graduate of Chaminade High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio in 1981 and his Ohio CPA designation in 1984. In the Society of Mary, he served as business manager of Bergamo Center; assistant treasurer and treasurer of the Marianist Province of Cincinnati; and director of finance for the Marianist Province of the United States.
From 2008-18, Metzger worked with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., as associate director of planning and education for the National Religious Retirement Office. Metzger also served on UD's board from 1999 to 2008.
Greg Stevens, who earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from UD in 1993, is partner and corporate engineering manager at Cold Heading Company, a third-generation family-owned automotive supplier of fasteners in Warren, Michigan.
Stevens and his brother recently built Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, and own the Golden Gate and the D, two of the city’s oldest casinos. Their holdings also include Circa Sports, which operates sports books around the country. Stevens serves as treasurer of his family-run foundation, The Cold Heading Foundation.
Brother Jack Ventura, S.M., is the director of mission integration at Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory school in Hollywood, Florida. Ventura earned a bachelor’s degree in management and an MBA in information systems management from Iona University, a master’s in applied spirituality from the University of San Francisco, and a master’s degree in pastoral studies from Loyola University in New Orleans.
Professing first vows in the Society of Mary in 1985, Ventura served in vocation and formation ministry and as director for the Center for Marianist Spirituality and Communities for the former Marianist Province of New York before becoming assistant in the office of religious life for the Marianist Province of the U.S. He was later provincial councilor and associate director for the Marianist Center for Lay Formation and served in the office of formation for mission for the Marianist Province of the United States. He also was executive director for the International Center for Marianist Formation for the Society of Mary’s general administration in Rome.