NORTHWESTERN 2011 OUTSTANDING GRADUATES HONORED APRIL 30

The Northwestern Oklahoma State University Alumni Association recognized seven Outstanding Graduates during the annual Spring Reunion Banquet on Saturday, April 30 at 6 p.m.

The honored alumni included: Charles Stuckey, class of 1961, of Ponca City, Outstanding Business/Professional Award; Dr. Keith Ballard, M.Ed. 1975, of Claremore, Outstanding Education Award; Barbara Duncan, class of 1969, of Little Rock, Ark., Outstanding Humanitarian Award; Manny Gamallo, class of 1973, of Sand Springs, Outstanding Arts Award; and Allison Woods, class of 2007, of Bentonville, Ark., Outstanding Recognition Award.

Angelia Case, class of 1984, and Valarie Case, class of 1985, both of Alva, were honored with the Ranger Recognition Award.  They are the sixth and seventh graduates to have received the Ranger Recognition Award, which celebrates support of the university and the embodiment of Ranger spirit, since it was first awarded in 1990.

The Alumni Association established the Outstanding Graduates program in 1973 to pay tribute to alumni achievement.  Beginning in 1977, awards were presented in specific fields: business/professional, education and humanitarian.

In 1984, the Recognition Award was added to honor someone who has made significant achievements within five years of graduation.  This is the second year for a graduate working in the arts field to be recognized.

For more information or to make nominations for 2012, contact Lizabeth Richey, Northwestern Alumni Association director, at 580-327-8594 or lrrichey@nwosu.edu.

Outstanding Graduates 2011

Charles Stuckey
Outstanding Business/Professional Award

Originally from Burlington, Stuckey graduated from Northwestern in 1961 with a major in chemistry and minors in physics and mathematics.  In 1962, he received his master’s degree in physical science from Emporia State College. 

Stuckey began his career in refining in Ponca City with Conoco Inc.  He transferred to research and development in 1965, advancing to research group leader and research associate before retiring after 32 years.  A member of the American Society for Testing and Materials, Committee D2 on Petroleum Products and chairman of Section K on Correlative Methods, he has had multiple publications in scientific literature covering gas chromatographic methods to describe refinery processing.  These included methods to simulate distillations, identification of specific compounds in petroleum products and computer methods to convert the data for engineering applications.

Stuckey served on the United Way Board, the Ponca City Rainbow Board and the Board of Manhattan Christian College.   Active in youth activities, he spent several years as president of the Ponca City Junior Baseball Association and coached YMCA basketball and Junior Baseball for more than 10 years.  He is also a certified DeMolay Advisor and received the Honorary Legion of Honor from the International Order of DeMolay. 

He has taught Sunday school classes for more than 40 years and served as deacon and elder at Eastern Heights Christian.  Having served as the head of many Masonic bodies, he was Grand Master of Masons in the state of Oklahoma in 2002.  He currently serves on the Guthrie Scottish Rite Foundation and as vice president of the Masonic Charity Foundation.

Stuckey and his wife of 46 years, Glenda, are retired and live in Ponca City.  They have three children and seven grandchildren.

Keith Edward Ballard, Ed.D.
Outstanding Education Award

A graduate of Kiowa High School in Kiowa, Kan., Ballard earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and speech from Fort Hays State University.  He earned his master’s degree majoring as a reading specialist at Northwestern in 1975 prior to receiving his doctorate in educational administration from Oklahoma State University.

Ballard began his career in 1972 at Coweta Public Schools before he took on the roles of teacher, assistant high school principal, administrative assistant, assistant superintendent and ultimately superintendent during his 18 years at Oologah Public Schools.  In 1992, he became the superintendent of Claremore Public Schools.  He served as executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association from 2000 to 2008.  He currently is the superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools, the second largest district in the state.

While serving as director of the OSSBA, Ballard trained more than 125 boards of education.  He also assisted with writing a school board training program for the Republic of Georgia as they entered into a democracy.  He currently serves as chair of the Tulsa County Area Superintendents Association. 

He has been recognized as the 2010 COOSA District 4 Administrator of the Year and the 1988 District Six Administrator of the Year by the Oklahoma Association of School Administrators.  In 1986, he was named one of the top 100 administrators in North America with 10 years or less of administrative experience.

Ballard has been active with Downtown Rotary of Tulsa, Tulsa Area United Way and Foundation for Tulsa Schools.  He is an education adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa and a past adjunct professor at Oral Roberts University and Southern Nazarene University.

He and his wife of 39 years, Christie, have three children and three grandchildren.

Barbara Kay Duncan
Outstanding Humanitarian Award

An Alva native, Duncan graduated from Northwestern in 1969 with a degree in sociology and speech.  She earned her master’s in social work at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1992.

Upon graduation from Northwestern, Duncan moved to Little Rock, Ark., where she worked as a Braille instructor for seven years at the Arkansas Enterprises for the Blind, now known as Lions World Services for the Blind.  She then became a consumer counselor in the Consumer Protection Division of the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office. 

After working 17 months for then Arkansas Attorney General Bill Clinton, Duncan requested to go to the capitol when he was elected governor of Arkansas.  Clinton granted her request, and she has since worked at the capitol under the direction of five governors: Clinton, Gov. Frank White, Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, Gov. Mike Huckabee and, currently, Gov. Mike Beebe. 

For the past 32 years, she has served the citizens of Arkansas as a caseworker, director of casework and executive assistant for constituent affairs.  As executive assistant for constituent affairs, she assesses the needs of constituents, providing information and referrals, and networks with community, state, and federal agencies and congressional offices.

Duncan has been recognized for her efforts receiving the Josetta Wilkins Courage Award from the Martin Luther King Commission in 1998 and the Service to the Citizens Award presented by Huckabee in 2003.  She also received a letter and plaque from the Transportation Security Administration for providing recommendations to assist disabled persons while going through airport security checks.

She is a member of the Arkansas Council of the Blind, the Fairview Baptist Church and the Pulaski Heights Lions Club.  She has served on the First-Care Outreach Board of Directors since 2001.

Duncan and her husband, Adren, live in Little Rock.

Manny Gamallo
Outstanding Arts Award

A Newark, N.J., native, Gamallo graduated from Northwestern with a degree in English and minors in journalism and Spanish in 1972.  While in college, he began his journalism career working for the Alva Review-Courier and the Northwestern News. 

After graduating, he worked as a reporter for the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith, Ark., as a municipal reporter and later as a copy editor for the Herald News at Passaic, N.J., and as a copy editor and headline writer for the Tulsa World before running a news bureau in McAlester for The Daily Oklahoman. 

Since 1986, he has worked as an assistant state editor, Tulsa County reporter and state editor for the Tulsa World.  He is currently reporting again on military news as well as covering Creek, Okmulgee, Osage and Pawnee counties in Oklahoma.

While at Fort Smith, he led the coverage of the July 1974 killing spree in Muldrow, at the time the largest in Oklahoma history.  In 1984, while working for The Daily Oklahoman, he was among those brought into the McAlester penitentiary to speak with an inmate who was holding a nurse hostage in the infirmary, marking the first time the Oklahoma Department of Corrections brought journalists into a hostage situation.  In 2008, Gamallo covered the murders of two girls in Weleetka, and, as a result of his coverage, he was interviewed six times on national TV.

Gamallo has been recognized with several professional awards including a humanitarian award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the American Legion National Commander’s Citation and first place in spot news reporting from the New Jersey Press Association for his coverage of the air disaster at Newark International Airport.

He has interviewed a number of notable figures including former President Bill Clinton, former U.S. House speaker Carl Albert, Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, actor Robert Mitchum and baseball player Danny Thompson, among others.

Gamallo and his wife of 41 years, Kay, a 1973 graduate, live in Sand Springs and have two children and four grandchildren.
               

Allison Woods
Outstanding Recognition Award

Woods earned her bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Northwestern in 2007 after transferring from Fort Hays State University.  Prior to graduating she accepted a position with FOX News in Fort Smith, Ark., and two weeks after graduation she began her television career.

She worked as a one-man-band reporter for FOX, and two and a half years later, she was promoted to Fayetteville, Ark., to work for FOX’s sister station KNWA.  Wanting a chance at the anchor desk, she moved north to Joplin, Mo., where she became a weekend anchor.  After a year in Joplin, she returned to Fayetteville where she currently works as a weekend anchor for 5NEWS. 

Woods said she always knew she wanted to become an anchor and reporter growing up in Pratt, Kan., with her parents, Blake and Chris, and her three sisters, Pauline, Emmalee and Heather.

Angelia Case
Ranger Recognition Award

Case, a Waynoka native, graduated from Northwestern in 1984 with a degree in art with art and journalism minors.  She earned her master’s degree in speech communications also from Northwestern in 2000. 

After five years as composition director for the Alva Review-Courier, she joined the staff at Northwestern.  Since 1989, she has worked as media technician and served the Division of Humanities, Language and Fine Arts and Division of Nursing as secretary. 

She has not only provided sign making, design and equipment services to the campus community but also contributed her creative skills to university publications and homecoming buttons, among other projects.  Her campus illustrations have been featured in the Northwestern cookbook and on the university’s centennial throw.

Case is a member of the Northwestern Staff Council, the Northwestern alumni band and the Northwestern Creativity Project, for which she has helped organize Picture My Weekend and the group’s first photowalk.  In 2010, she assisted with the university’s first summer art camp for area young people.  She has supported university organizations and athletics, serving as a chaperone on band and speech trips and volunteering as videographer of Ranger football games.

Active as the sponsor of the NWOSU Art Society since its inception, she has helped the group fundraise and set up its annual art show.  Through her association with the art society, she has raised funds to aid victims of natural disasters in addition to students, alumni and friends of the university in need.

Case, who lives in Alva, is a recipient of numerous artwork and photography awards, as well as the Thelma Crouch Employee of the Year Award in 2004 and the Cultural Development Award in 2007 presented by the Alva branch of the American Association of University Women.

Valarie Case
Ranger Recognition Award

Originally from Waynoka, Case was the first Northwestern student to receive a bachelor’s degree in mass communications, with public relations and journalism minors, upon her graduation in 1985.  In 2000, she earned her master’s in speech communications

Case worked as editor of the Alva Review-Courier before joining the Northwestern staff as a university relations specialist in 1989.  From 2002 to 2004, she taught print journalism classes as a mass communications instructor.  She advised the staff of the Northwestern News, which she edited as an undergraduate, and served as adviser for the Society of Professional Journalists. 

 In her current position as university relations specialist, she writes and distributes news to the media and designs a number of university publications.  She is an administrator for the university’s social media sites and is responsible for many of the pages within Northwestern’s website.  Her photos of student organizations and athletic events are displayed across campus and have graced the pages of the Roundup, the alumni magazine she served as editor.

Case, who lives in Alva, is a member of the NWOSU alumni band, the Northwestern Creativity Project and the NWOSU Art Society.  Through her involvement in arts and culture, she helped create the Northwestern Creativity Project’s first photowalk, assisted with Picture My Weekend and an art camp for local youth, and helped the art society with various fundraisers, outings and art shows.  She has also supported the Northwestern band and speech team as a photographer and chaperone.

The recipient of a number of top honors in design, photography, writing and art from the Oklahoma College Public Relations Association, the Society of Professional Journalists and area art shows, she was also awarded the Thelma Crouch Employee of the Year in 2009 and the Cultural Development Award from the Alva branch of the American Association of University Women in 2011. 

NORTHWESTERN 2011 OUTSTANDING SENIORS ANNOUNCED

Six Northwestern Oklahoma State University seniors receiving the Outstanding Senior Award were among the award recipients at this year’s Spring Reunion Day Awards Ceremony April 30 in the Student Center Ranger Room on the Alva campus.

A committee selected Chrystal Benson, Crystal Herber, Vince Lauderdale, Xin Xin Liu, Kasya Spade and Grayson Starbuck as 2011 Outstanding Seniors.

To apply, December 2010 or May 2011 graduating seniors had to have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5, have completed at least 60 credit hours at Northwestern, be involved in campus and/or community activities, show promise of future achievement and never have been subject to academic or disciplinary action.  The award, sponsored by the Northwestern Foundation and Student Government Association, includes a plaque and a $100 savings bond.

Outstanding Seniors 2011

Chrystal Benson

Benson, of Alva, will graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and a minor in chemistry.  She is cofounder of the Medical Sciences Club, which she currently serves as president.  She is also a Student Government Association senator, chair of the SGA Election Committee, Northwestern Scholar Ambassador and a member of the President’s Leadership Class of 2007, the Red and Black Scroll Honor Society, Chemistry Club and Biology Club.    A recipient of a number of scholarships, she has been listed on the President’s Honor Roll and Vice President’s Honor Roll.

Crystal Herber

Herber, of Shattuck, graduated summa cum laude in December with a Bachelor of Science degree in mass communication.  While at Northwestern, she served as editor of the Northwestern News, vice president of the Society of Professional Journalists, vice president of Phi Delta Music Society and section leader of NWOSU Choirs.  She was active in university choirs and band as well as campus media.  She has earned a number of top honors in writing, design, photography and art from the Society of Professional Journalists, Oklahoma Collegiate Press Association, the Best of Northwestern Media Contest and the Northwestern Art Show.

Vince Lauderdale

Lauderdale, of Woodward, will graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and a minor in chemistry.  He has served the students of Northwestern as Student Government Association senator and currently serves as president.  He is a Northwestern Scholar Ambassador and a member of the President’s Leadership Class of 2007, NWOSU Pre-Med Club, Red and Black Scroll Honor Society, and Chemistry Club.  He has been listed on the President’s Honor Roll and received first place at Ranger Research Day in 2010.

Xin Xin Liu

Liu, of Xi’An, China, will graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science degree in mass communication.  She has served as president of the Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association and Society of Professional Journalists at Northwestern as well as president of the International Student Association.  A Northwestern Scholar Ambassador, Liu’s work in campus media for NWTV 7 News, Rangerpulse.com and KNSU Ranger Radio has been recognized with Society of Professional Journalists, Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association and Best of Northwestern Media awards.

Kasya Spade

Spade, of Helena, graduated summa cum laude in December with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and is currently pursuing her Master of Counseling at Northwestern.  As an undergraduate, she was a member of Chi Alpha, Aggie Club and Psi Chi.  She served as president and vice president of the Psychology Club and reporter for the Red and Black Scroll Honor Society.  A recipient of the Randy Murrow Scholarship and Chesapeake Scholarship, she was listed on the President’s Honor Roll.

Grayson Starbuck

Starbuck, of Alva, will graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and a minor in health and physical education.  He has been active in the BSU Worship Band, Chemistry Club and intramural softball, football and dodge ball.  A member of the President’s Leadership Class of 2008 and the Chesapeake Leadership Class, he has been listed on the President’s Honor Roll and was named runner up in Northwestern’s Got Talent.  He was recently accepted into the University of Oklahoma Allied Health and Science Center doctorate in physical therapy program.

Other Award Recipients

Starbuck and Courtney Strzinek were awarded the T.C. Carter Award, presented to the graduating seniors with the highest grade point average.

Other Northwestern students and faculty recognized included:  Lauderdale receiving the John F. Kennedy Award, Ann Marie Emmons receiving the Dr. Joe Dollins Merit Award, Tylee Record receiving the John Ted Meier Student Teaching Award, Russell K. Leisher and Strzinek receiving the Psychology Student of the Year Award, Stephanie Hines receiving the Sabin and Pearl Percefull Scholarship Award, and Dr. Fred Jungman receiving the John Sheffield Teacher of the Year Award.

2010 Outstanding Graduates and Seniors