When the last "University of Cincinnati Magazine" highlighted "alumni dream jobs," we knew we were only scratching the surface of those among UC's 220,000 alumni who have made their mark on the world. A few other alumni wrote to tell us of their dream jobs, and two previously featured alums gave us interesting updates that we share here.

Christopher Harris leads the team managing design and construction of the world's tallest building, compared here to ones in Taipei, Malaysia, Chicago , New York City and London.

I'm not sure that my position is really a dream job, but I graduated from the College of Applied Science and am the project director leading the team responsible for managing the design and construction of the Burj Dubai Tower in the United Arab Emirates. At 800-plus meters high and more than 160 floors, it will be the tallest building in the world when complete. I'm based at the site, where we work six days a week. We passed the 508-meter mark on July 18, which makes this the tallest in the world now.

Christopher Harris, CAS '87 & '89
United Arab Emirates

Burj Dubai Tower

Editor's note: Harris' degree in construction management from the College of Applied Science and his related co-op experience landed him a job with Turner Construction in New York City, where he worked for two years before heading abroad 17 years ago. Living in Taiwan, Kuwait, Malaysia, China, Korea, Oman, Morocco and now the United Arab Emirates, he has been involved in construction of the last two tallest-building record-holders, the Petronas Towers project, Malaysia, and the Taipei Financial Center, Taiwan.

Scheduled for completion December 2008, the Burj Tower will contain 55 elevators, 899 residences, one of the first Armani-designed hotels in the world with 160 guest rooms and 144 hotel-serviced apartments, a 168,000-square-foot spa complex, an observatory, 37 whole-floor suites for boutique offices and 3,045 parking spaces. The exact height and number of floors has not yet been released to the public.

Mark Boudreaux, DAAP '78, with some of the toys he has designed and the Rebel Trooper that bears his face (below). View photo gallery

This year was my 30th anniversary at Kenner/Hasbro, and my title is senior principal designer of Boy's Toys. In 1977, I was Kenner's first co-op in its newly formed Preliminary Design Department, working with Jim Swearingen [DAAP '72, featured in the last magazine] as one of the lead designers. I guess I did OK; the program is still going strong.

[Hasbro bought Kenner in the '90s, closed the Cincinnati office in 2000 and moved employees to Rhode Island.]

I did the preliminary design development on Kenner's original Millennium Falcon toy. Jack Farrah [DAAP '69], also still working at Hasbro, did the production development. I was fortunate to be able to work on all six "Star Wars" films, and now we are getting ready to work with LFL [LucasFilm Ltd.] on their new animated "Star Wars" TV series.

And yes, that is my face on the Rebel Trooper, the Rebel Blockade Runner Trooper and an exclusive AT-ST driver ["Star Wars" action figures]. LFL allowed portraits of members of the team to be used on "background" characters -- a little perk for us. It's a strange thing being mass produced in plastic.

Over the years I have worked on a variety of figures and vehicles. I developed the Star Wars Micro World line, and I am currently the designer of Galactic Heroes -- a fun line to work on.

We have a lot of passionate designers here at Hasbro and a lot who are UC grads. Most of our core Boy's Toys designers made the move to Rhode Island like I did, and I would like to think that both long-time Hasbro designers and Kenner transplants have had a positive impact on the success of the "Boy's" brands, not only "Star Wars," but Transformers, Spider-Man/Marvel, Batman, G.I. Joe and countless others.

It certainly has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be involved with the "Star Wars" line for the last 30 years, not to mention working with all the folks over the years -- Swearingen, Farrah, Tom Osborne and Tim Effler being the first. Not a bad group for a 21-year-old to start out with. I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

Mark Boudreaux, DAAP '78
Cranston, Rhode Island

Debbie Denise is visual effects executive producer for "Beowulf," which opens in theaters this month,, using a technology that digitally records actors' movements to be computer animated for the screen. View photo gallery

Here are two alumni in dream jobs -- Debbie Denise and myself.

In 1994, I formed the "Gordon Television Group" in Nashville. Most of my shows have been live specials or series, including four Gospel Music Association Dove Awards for the Family Channel and specials for Barbara Mandrell, Chet Atkins, Willie Nelson, Alabama and the Chieftains. That one still runs on PBS as a pledge-drive special.

Debbie is in Hollywood, the executive vice president of production infrastructure and executive producer at Sony Pictures Imageworks. She was previously at Industrial Light and Magic.

Bob Gordon, CCM '75, MBA '77
Nashville

Editor's note: Debbie Denise, CCM '73, is the visual effects executive producer on "Beowulf," which opens in theaters this month. The movie uses Imagemotion, Imageworks' proprietary performance-capture technology, which digitally records actors' movements to be computer animated for the screen. She also worked on the films "Monster House" (also in 3-D), "Superman Returns," "Click," "Open Season" in 3-D, "The Polar Express" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Prior to her current post at Imageworks, she was visual effects producer at Industrial Light and Magic, where she worked on Academy Award-winning "Forrest Gump" and "Death Becomes Her," which won an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. View lists of her recent projects and older projects.

Voice-over actress working in Hollywood

I just wanted to say I really enjoyed Deborah Rieselman's "Rising Stars." I, too, am a UC graduate living in Los Angeles, an alum from the electronic media department -- only waaaay back then we called it "radio/television broadcasting."

I am happy to report that I am a successful voice-over actress working in Hollywood. I've been the voice for several national TV campaigns, including the California Cheese Cows campaign, as well as radio, animation and CD-ROM games.

In any case, it was nice to see fellow UC grads out here in this crazy town who are making it in a very challenging medium.

Colette Whitaker, CCM '87
Los Angeles

CCM grad Diana Maria Riva (left) plays Vivy on the new Lifetime series "A Side Order of Life." Here she and her oh-so-perfect best friend prepare to torch a bridesmaid's dress -- the one Vivy was to wear to her friend's wedding.

This is the kind of stuff most people don't hear about when it comes to Hollywood. I was originally cast in a series-regular role in the Lifetime Channel's "Side Order of Life" and was very happy with the part.

After landing the role, my first meeting was for a table-read of the script, where the cast semi-performs the show while seated, our faces buried in our scripts in a sterile conference room filled with the producers and the heads of both the studio and the network.

This is almost like another audition, even though contracts have been signed and you've already had a costume fitting or two. Yet perhaps this is the worst audition of its kind, because although they loved you when they tested you, this is now about chemistry with all the characters coming to life.

You see, they could have loved the way you did the character in the audition room, but when you're opposite another character, it's different. Maybe it's not quite right, now. Indeed, that was what happened this time.

Immediately after the read-through, the cast was dismissed. The powers-that-be stayed behind to go down their list of the cast's strengths and weaknesses.

It was October, so I went with my husband, Mike, and my daughter, Sofie, to the store to get Halloween decor. While I was browsing through screaming doorknockers, my cell phone rang. In a very formal tone, an assistant told me that all four executive producers were on the line for me.

My heart stopped. All the annoying screaming witches, howling ghouls and maniacal theme songs were instantly drowned out. Mike stared at me from the checkout line with a panicked look on his face, having seen the lack of color in mine.

All I could think was, "These idiots are placing a conference call to fire me. Strength in numbers, I guess."

Before the party of four on the other end could get a word out, I said, "I just want you to know that I'm in the middle of Halloween hell. And if you called to fire me, I'm going to scare the daylights out of this crowded store with my reaction."

"Are you sitting down?" they asked. I couldn't believe it; they were really setting me up for the fall.

"No, I'm not sitting down," I replied in a slightly elevated voice. "I'm standing here with a basket of spider webs, Sofie on my hip and the theme to the 'Addams Family' playing obnoxiously loud!"

"Then we'll get right to it. We are not firing you. We are firing the second lead and want to move you up to that role."

Then they promptly started cheering and screaming, "Congratulations. Woo-hoo!!" Between them and speakers blaring, "They're creepy and they're kooky," I couldn't hear a thing.

They finally stopped and explained that after the table-read, they had all agreed that the way I had been playing my original character was the way they wanted the role of the best friend, Vivy, to be played. So they fired the other actress and replaced her with me.

Of course, the spectacle now became about me and Sofie jumping up and down in the aisle, setting off all the motion-sensored Halloween ghouls while Mike looked relieved and confused at the same time.

That's a common example of how unpredictable and unglamorous this job can be with its ups and downs. Fortunately, in this case, it's an "up" for me. Not so much for the fired actress.

Diana Maria Riva, CCM '91, MFA '95
Burbank, Calif.

Editor's note: Read Diana's original story here. "Side Order of Life" is a "drama/comedy" that debuted in July and airs on Sundays during primetime. Watch a trailer for Riva's new show, "Side Order of Life." (Click on video when page loads.) Watch an interview with Riva on the Lifetime Channel.

John Brombaugh, Eng '60, is working on this historic organ in St. Johannis Lutheran Church, Luneburg, Germany. Built in 1551, it is an organ on which J.S. Bach received organ lessons between 1700-03.

The article on my work ["Building Pipe Organs Like Old World Masters Did," July 2007] was very well done -- so much better than almost anything I've ever seen in print describing my work.

Since the interview, I've been chosen to design a new organ for the Hochschule für Musik in Bremen, the equivalent in north Germany to the College-Conservatory of Music, which has made Cincinnati and UC so famous. And I just had a phone call from Austria to participate in the restoration of a historic instrument in Linz.

An even more important project, however, is one I will be working on with two European experts to do a thorough documentation of the organ built in 1551 for the Johanniskirche [St. Johannis Church] in Lüneburg, Germany. I absolutely consider this the most significant organ still partially extant in northern Europe.

I will help document the organ's present condition so it can be restored as much as possible to its premier condition following alterations of 1714. You could put this in a category similar to the recent "improvements" made to restore the original appearance of Michelangelo's unbelievable frescoes in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.

This great organ, I dare say, is not exceeded in magnificence for its time in all of northern Europe, and this project is important to what great organs will be into the future. It is also important because Johann Sebastian Bach lived in Lüneburg for three of his teenage years, between 1700 and 1703, and studied with the organist, Georg Böhm, who was the organist on the Lüneburg Johanniskirche organ.

I am happy that retirement is nothing but a joke and that I still get to work every day on the things my study at UC helped me do so well. Best wishes to UC, a great place to learn.

John Brombaugh, Eng '60
Eugene, Ore.

Editor's note: Read the story of Brombaugh in "The Lutheran."

I enjoyed the article on the Army Band since I'm a member of the Army Band and an alumnus. It seems, however, that you forgot an alum in the article -- me! I could have sworn that I had updated my alumni information.

Scott Weinhold, MM '95
Vienna, Va.

Editor's note: The list was compiled from information provided by various armed forces.

I was omitted from your story ["Alumni Executives Oversee Corporations with Revenues Exceeding $100 Million," June 2007]. I would have been the youngest on the list graduating in '93. PMSI is a division of Amerisource Bergen, a $58 billion company.

Matthew Schreiber, DAAP '93
Vice President, sales, marketing and product development, PMSI
Avon, Conn.

Editor's note: The list of more than 100 names of alumni heading public companies worth more than $100 million was compiled using names of alumni who were presidents, CEOs, COOs, CFOs, chairmen, senior vice presidents and executive vice presidents. We did not include additional vice presidents simply because the volume of names was too large.

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Check out an entire issue dedicated to alumni in Dream Jobs