Scott Hill-Kennedy (BA 82) has been appointed to serve as judge of the 49th Circuit Court. The 49th Circuit covers Mecosta and Osceola counties in Michigan. Hill-Kennedy had been vice president for governmental relations and general counsel at Ferris State University.

Julie Holmes (BA 84) has become a site supervisor with Project elevate at Louisiana Tech University, where she worked with teachers in improving mathematics achievement.

Jeewa Moses (PhD 81) is the coordinator of the secondary education program at Union College in Lincoln, Neb.

John Scholten (BA 82) has been appointed superintendent of the Petoskey (Mich.) School District. He had been superintendent of the Glen Lake (Mich.) Community Schools.

Karen Sue Viele (MA 82) received the 2005 Gerstacker Teacher Proficiency Award by the Midland (Mich.) Public Schools. Viele is an orchestra teacher at H.H. Dow High School.


1990s

Tony Castellani (BA 92) has been selected as the Oakland County (Mich.) Middle School Teacher of the Year. He is a theater and forensics teacher at East Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Kathleen Conover (BA 90) has been appointed curriculum/instructional technology director of the Lake Fenton (Mich.) School District. She had been the director of information technology services at the University of Michigan–Flint.

Kevin Simpson (BA 98/MA 01) began a two-year teaching assignment in Laos. Simpson had been a teacher at the Fairfax County (Va.) School District.

Paula Yensen (PhD 94) has been appointed vice president of resource development at ChildServ, a not-for-profit child and family well-being organization affiliated with the United Methodist Church and based in Chicago. Yensen had been executive director of the United Way of St. Charles, Ill.


2000s

Sian Beilock (PhD 03) was selected as one of four Promising Scholars by the Chronicle of Higher Education. She was featured in the publication that for her research on the psychological phenomenon that causes people to underperform in pressure situations. Beilock also joined the faculty at the University of Chicago. She had been at the Miami University of Ohio.

Korin Cox (BA 04) released her first full-length album, Gasoline, as part of her three-member band, known as The Hard Lessons.

Christine Chan (PhD 05) has been awarded an $80,000 grant from the Law School Admissions Council. She will work with professors Mark Reckase and Sara Bolt on the two-year project that will investigate the effect of using an alternate testing format created and developed by Chan for college students with and without dyslexia. Chan is a research associate at the Association of American Medical Colleges.

John Jobson (PhD 04) has been appointed as director of residential life and housing at Hope (Mich.) College.

David Lustick (PhD 05) accepted a tenure track academic position at the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Graduate School of Education. Lustick had been the assistant director of the U.S.–China Center for Educational Excellence, based at the College of Educaton.

Leapetswe Malete (PhD 00), assistant professor at the University of Botswana, received the David International Travel Award from the American Psychological Association.

Mark Olson (PhD 05) was selected for the 2005 Knowles Science Teaching Foundation Young Scholars Fellowship. He received a fellowship totaling $110,000 for his project investigating the role of science teacher subject matter knowledge.

Joshua Wenning (MA 03) was appointed principal at Kettering High School in Waterford, Mich.

Jill Williams (BA 01) was featured in a profile in Crain’s Chicago Business. Williams is a program manager at the Wellness Center at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago.

In Memoriam

Janet Jopke (BA 65) died of a heart attack on June 1, 2005. She was 62. Ms. Jopke was the longest-serving superintendent of the Troy (Mich.) School District, and served as a member of the College of Education Alumni Association Board of Directors. The association presented her with an Outstanding Alumni k–12 Administrator Award in 2001.

Marion E. MacPherson (BA 43/MA 49) passed away April 1, 2005. He was 84. Mr. MacPherson was superintendent at Orchard View (Mich.) Public Schools for 33 years.

Joseph White (PhD 68) died November 18, 2004. He was 77. He had been superintendent of the South Lake (Mich.) Schools.

Alvin Zachrich (MA 52) passed away January 27, 2005. He was 84. He became a superintendent at age 28 in Potterville, and went on to serve as superintendent in Harbor Springs, Battle Creek, and Bay City.
 

Alumni, Students Honored at Spring Awards Reception

Hundreds of students, faculty, alumni, and their families gathered at the Kellogg Center in April for the College of Education’s annual Spring Awards Reception.

The college presented more than 90 fellowships and scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students, which included the presentation of five scholarships by the College of Education Alumni Association.

The association also presented Richard J. Robertson (PhD 81), vice president of student services at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, Calif., its Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition, the association honored James Linsell (BA 73) its Outstanding Alumni k–12 Teacher Award. In 2001, Linsell was honored as Michigan’s Teacher of the Year.

Audra Hunsberger, a senior from Rockford, Mich., addressed the gathering in behalf of the scholarship and fellowship recipients. Hunsberger, who majored in elementary education, was the recipient of the Dortha E. and John D. Withrow Scholarship in Education.

Honored Guests: Richard Robertson (left) and Jim Linsell (far right) were presented alumni achievement awards by David Dieterle, president of the College of Education Alumni Association, at the annual Spring Awards Reception. In addition, the association presented five graduate and undergraduate students (below) with scholarships.

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