• Battelle executive Dennis B. Cearlock received WSU’s Alumni Achievement Award last month. He was recognized for “superb corporate achievement as founder, president and CEO of two national companies, as an executive for Battelle Memorial Institute, and for generous support of Washington State University and Sigma Nu fraternity.”
Cearlock holds a bachelor’s degree (1964) and a master’s (1965) in civil engineering from WSU. His doctorate (1977) is from the University of Washington.
Cearlock served on WSU’s College of Engineering and Architecture Advisory Board, 1984-98. He helped the college start the Center for Digital-Analog Integrated Circuits as an industry/university cooperative research effort. He also played a key role in helping attract support from Battelle for scholarships that now total more than $550,000.
• The College of Sciences has appointed Gregory L. Helms as director of the Center for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Helms came to Washington State University in 1995 from the Merck Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories in New Jersey. Since then he has served as manager of the NMR Center.
The center provides nuclear magnetic resonance capabilities to scientists from WSU, the University of Idaho and surrounding institutions.
• Stephen Setter, assistant professor, pharmacotherapy, at WSU Spokane, received the “Golden Apple” award for excellence in teaching from the University of Washington Physician’s Assistant’s MEDEX program in Spokane. This is the third time he has received the award.
• Louise Achey, clinical assistant professor, pharmacotherapy, at WSU Spokane, was honored last month as Clinical Instructor of the Year at the Yakima MEDEX Northwest evening commencement ceremony. MEDEX Northwest, the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Physician Assistant Program, is a regional, full-time didactic training program with sites in Seattle, Spokane and Yakima.
• Keith Lincoln, longtime executive director of the Washington State University Alumni Association, was recognized last month when the Athletics Room in the Lewis Alumni Centre was named in his honor.
The 1961 WSU graduate returned to campus in 1972 as associate director and was named director in 1978. Lincoln was promoted to executive director of the Alumni Association in 1990. He retired earlier this year.
During his 25-year tenure, the alumni center moved from cramped quarters on the ground floor of the Compton Union Building to WSU’s historic livestock barn that was remodeled and enlarged.
• Don Holbrook, area finance/administrative officer, was selected as the Student Affairs Outstanding Employee of the Month for October. His co-workers say he offers sound advice when it’s requested; and if he is unfamiliar with a particular problem, he researches the situation and follows up with the individual or unit.
• Jennifer Steffen, assistant director, systems, was named September’s Outstanding Employee of the Month for the Division of Student Affairs. She makes customer service better for the Office of Student Financial Aid. As one co-worker said, “With all that is required of her, she still takes the time to meet one-on-one with students and parents, putting the students and their needs first. She is helpful not only to the students who have the opportunity to work with her, but all staff as well.”
• A book published by the Washington State University Press is among the winners of the 2003 Washington State Book Awards.
“The Restless Northwest: A Geological Story,” by Hill Williams of Shoreline, Wash., gives a brief, easy-to-follow overview of the geologic processes that shaped the region.
The Washington Center for the Book, part of the Seattle Public Library, sponsors the awards, which are in their 37th year. Books are chosen based on literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality.
The book is available for $19.95 in paperback at bookstores or directly from WSU Press at 800-354-7360.
• Collin Tong, senior director of news and westside communications for Washington State University, has been appointed to the National Peace Corps Association’s board of directors by NPCA board chair Pat Reilly. Tong served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand from 1968 to 1969 and is a guest lecturer at WSU’s Edward R. Murrow School of Communication.
While in the Peace Corps, Tong taught at Phuket Girls School in Thailand and led teacher training programs at Mater Dei School in Bangkok and the General Educational Development Center in Songhla.
More recently, Tong established Returned Peace Corps Volunteers for a Better World and led a national advocacy campaign that resulted in two New York Times ads urging a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Iraq and condemning unilateral U.S. action.
