Kendall Parliament

During her undergrad and graduate studies at WilmU, Kendall Parliament found her professors “personable and caring,” she says.  “I also feel like WilmU has given me wonderful experiences to launch my career into HR.”

That launch was successful. Parliament has excelled in the human resources field, serving over eight years in her current role as a senior human resources business partner at University Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) in Philadelphia, and in other HR roles at Amazon FC in Robbinsville, New Jersey, and The Open Door Of New Jersey in Toms River.  She also served as executive director at the Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Chester, Pennsylvania. 

Parliament’s experience has deepened her understanding of HR functional areas, including labor law compliance, employee relations and performance management, leave of absence and ADA accommodations. She consults with many clients and thrives on mentoring business owners and managers from small to mid-size employers. Parliament understands unique business needs and the importance of establishing authentic professional relationships. 

“I’m looking to expand into this field, becoming a general counsel for UPHS,” she says, adding that she will focus on corporate law. 

At WilmU, Parliament earned a B.S. in Communication and an MBA, with a concentration in Human Resources Management. She also earned an Associate of Applied Science in Journalism at Rowan College at Burlington County, in Pemberton, New Jersey. Parliament is a Society for Human Resource Management member.

Dalton Lahti

Dalton Lahti enjoyed his undergrad years at WilmU so much that he enrolled at its law school immediately after graduation. “I finished my last semester, then after the summer break, started my first semester of law school,” he says. “The timing with the law school opening couldn’t have been better for me.”

Yet, Lahti doesn’t see himself practicing law. “I plan to go into government and politics,” he says. “However, if I were to practice law, I would want to work in employment and labor law, representing employees or labor unions.”

Lahti is a camp counselor at Fair Hill Nature Center in Elkton, Maryland, where he creates and executes lesson plans for children ages 5–14 during summer camps. Via lecturing, hands-on experiences, art, games, and activities, Lahti focuses on plant and animal identification, map reading skills, the water cycle, geocaching, and survival skills. 

At WilmU, Lahti earned a B.S. in Law, Policy, and Political Science, with a concentration in Government and Public Policy. He also holds an Associate of Arts degree in Paralegal Studies from Cecil College in North East, Maryland.

Sumanth Kaza

When Sumanth Kaza heard about the Wilmington University School of Law, he knew he needed to be a part of it.

“WilmU is a vibrant university (that has) the support of the Delaware legal community,” Kaza says. As a member of its first class, he says, “I could not pass up the opportunity to help shape the law school.”  

He has spent the past 20 years in the financial-services technology field, working with the latest technologies that support investment management companies and banks. Currently an IT program delivery manager at Vanguard in Malvern, Pennsylvania, he has various responsibilities, including managing teams of developers, project managers, technical leads, and quality assurance testing, and overseeing the development of business capabilities, project management, process improvements, and the delivery of investment management tools and applications. He has also worked as a collections strategy manager at JP Morgan Chase Bank and Barclays, both in Wilmington. He also holds certifications as a Scrum Master (Agile Project Management methodology) and business analyst, and from the Information Technology Infrastructure Library. In addition to law school, Kaza is working on his Amazon Web Services certification, which provides cloud expertise to IT professionals. 

Using his extensive experience, Kaza wants to practice corporate law.  “Given Delaware’s unique place as the heart of global corporations,” he says, “I found that WilmU is situated near where many key legal decisions are made relating to U.S. corporations.” 

Kaza earned a B.A. in Biological Sciences at George Washington University and an MBA from WilmU.

— Maria Hess