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DCCCD Recognizes First Class of Distinguished Alumni
The Dallas County Community College District and the Foundation honored the first recipients of the inaugural DCCCD Distinguished Alumni Awards at a special reception in May. The honorees, representing each of the nine DCCCD locations comprise a diverse cast of civic leaders and professionals who have risen above the challenges to succeed in their endeavors. Board member Regen Horchow Fearon and her husband, Jeff, hosted the reception at their home in Dallas. The DCCCD Foundation congratulates the following distinguished alumni, who truly exemplify the excellence of DCCCD and its students.
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2002 DCCCD Distinguished Alumni (pictured from left to right)
• John R. Beaty, Brookhaven College
• Dr. Dolores Hutto Carruth, North Lake College
• Glo Coalson, Cedar Valley College
• Bennye Dickerson, Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development
• Cecilia Manouel, Richland College
• John Wiley Price, El Centro College
• Elvira Reyna, Eastfield College
• John Santiago, R. Jan LeCroy Center for Educational Telecommunications
• Dr. Moe Win, Mountain View College
John R. Beaty, Brookhaven College
Though John Beaty lives in Houston, his heart remains in Farmer's Branch,
Brookhaven's home. Now a successful international business consultant
for Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), Mr. Beaty admits the biggest
change of his life began when he first enrolled at Brookhaven in 1991
after serving for more than eight years on the Marine Corp. He had enrolled
in college before but didn't think he was ready for it yet, so he decided
to serve his country. "As I look back, I never would have thought that
the life I have led would have been possible," Mr. Beaty said. "I truly
feel that my time at Brookhaven best prepared me for the things to come
in my life." Mr. Beaty was one of the original members of Brookhaven's
Student Leadership Institute and a member of Phi Theta Kappa, a national
honor society for junior college students. He transferred to Texas A&M
University in 1993 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in management
two years later. He was named to the board of advisors of Texas A&M's
Center for Excellence in 2001. Mr. Beaty is an experienced manager and
team leader at Accenture whose clients include ExxonMobil, Halliburton,
YPF/Argentina, Citgo Petroleum. International projects have taken Mr.
Beaty to the Middle East, Australia and Central and South America.
Dr. Dolores Hutto Carruth, North
Lake College
Dr. Carruth, who served on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
from 1995-2001, is a pediatrician at Children's Medical Center and a consultant
at St. Paul Hospital in Dallas. Dr. Carruth also serves as clinical professor
of pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at
Dallas. In 1993, she received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award from
Texas Tech University's Ex-Students Association. Dr. Carruth's professional
service extends to a variety of medical groups, including the Council
on Public Health for the Texas Medical Association, American Medical Association,
American Women's Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and
the American Board of Pediatrics. She also serves on the editorial committee
of Texas Medicine and on the fund-raising committee of Shots Across Texas
Coalition. Dr. Carruth received her bachelor's degree in psychology at
Texas Tech and doctorate at UT-Southwestern Medical Center. Until recently,
Dr. Carruth has taken continuing education classes at North Lake.
Glo Coalson, Cedar Valley
College
Glo Coalson tackled a broad range of unique tasks throughout her well-traveled
artistic career, from creating drawings and paintings of the Eskimos in
Alaska, to illustrating children's books in New York City, to creating
life-like ceramic sculptures of pigeons in Dallas. Ms. Coalson currently
runs her own successful business designing these life-like pigeon sculptures
through Raku firing, an ancient Japanese method of heating and burning
pottery to produce the gray and black colorations of an unglazed surface.
Her inspiration to create these pieces came to her as she walked with
a friend through the grounds of Cedar Valley while taking pottery classes.
She saw, perched high on a window ledge of a campus building, what at
first she thought was a row of "the most beautiful, delicate little Raku-fired
pots." She told her friend that she was concerned that the wind would
knock the pots off the ledge. "My friend, who had keener vision than I,
reported to me that what I had seen was not a row of pots, but rather
a row of beautiful smoke-colored pigeons, all very much alive!" Her inspiration
became part of her project in the pottery class taught by instructor Randy
Brodnax, whom Glo credits for giving her the support to take as a sculptor.
Ms. Coalson is now renowned for her Raku-fired feather friends, which
she creates in a studio behind her Dallas home. Her business is fittingly
called Flights Ceramic Sculpture. "My project just developed and spun
off into a business," she said.
Bennye Dickerson, Bill
J. Priest Institute for Economic Development
Creating and selling customized children's furniture and toys that reflect
African-American heritage gives Bennye Dickerson found a lucrative niche
in a diversified consumer's market. Her homemade creations became the
source of her commercial genius through the guidance and support of the
Technology Assistance Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the
Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development. Encouraged by a friend
to visit the Bill J. Priest Institute in 1996, Dickerson received assistance
exploring the market potential for her designs, protecting her intellectual
property, consulting with a pro-bono attorney, and negotiating a license
agreement with a manufacturer. "Without their help, I'd still be wandering
around in the woods somewhere," she jokingly says. From these humble beginnings,
Dickerson's products have been sold at J.C. Penney, Wal-Mart, and other
stores throughout the country and have been distributed worldwide through
Army and Air Force Exchange Services. Dickerson has showcased her designs
at several international Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association shows
at the International Apparel Mart in Dallas and also sells her customized
children's furniture and toys via her web site, www.preciousfacesheirlooms.com.
Cecilia Manouel, Richland
College
Mrs. Manouel's talents as a gifted floral designer blossomed at a time
when most people have established careers. Before achieving her life's
dream, the Taiwanese immigrant had to overcome three major challenges:
breaking the language and cultural barriers in a foreign land; fulfilling
her duty as a mother of six children; and changing career paths twice
before discovering her true calling. Manouel worked more than 10 years
to graduate with her associate's degree in horticulture sciences at Richland
in 1995. After jumping majors from computer programming to accounting
-- two career fields which she soon discovered did not appeal to her --
Manouel decided to enroll in Richland's floral design program in 1985.
She attended classes part time to fulfill her full-time job as a mother.
In 1987, Mrs. Manouel got her first job as a floral designer at Conroy
Florist in Richardson and completed certification courses to become a
Texas Master Florist. In 1998, she became the first student from the Dallas
County Community College District to be inducted as a member of the American
Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD), an organization comprising the world's
top professional floral designers in the industry. She was also an AIFD
international students award winner in 1994 and the recipient of local,
state and national scholarships for floral design students. Now the lead
designer at Central Market in Plano, Manouel continues to attend college
part time pursuing a bachelor's degree and serves as a guest lecturer
at Richland, inspiring the hearts and minds of many students who face
the many challenges she overcame.
John Wiley Price, El Centro
College
John Wiley Price attended El Centro College from 1968-70, earning his
associate's degree in business. Mr. Price is now serving his fifth term
as Dallas County Commissioner. He took the oath of office for Dallas County's
District 3 on January 1, 1985, becoming the first African American to
hold such a position in the county's 142-year history. An activist with
a strong commitment to provide better opportunities for minorities in
the community, Mr. Price has achieved many milestones during his 17-year
tenure. More than $11.9 million has been distributed to minority contractors
from the court as a result of his efforts to ensure access to people of
color. In addition to his duties as County Commissioner, Price serves
on the Dallas County Civil Service Commission (chairman), the Dallas County
Juvenile Board, the Texas Juvenile Crime Commission and the Texas Organization
of the Black County Commissioners (president). He also hosts his own radio
talk show, "Liberation Nation," on KNON 89.3 FM, and has received numerous
awards, including the NAACP Medgar Evers Award, the Dallas-Fort Worth
Association of Black Communicators' Lifetime Achievement Award and the
Black United Fund of Texas' Alma Newsome Award.
Elvira Reyna, Eastfield College
The first Hispanic republican elected to the Texas House of Representatives,
Elvira Reyna took office in 1993 as representative of District 101, which
includes 70 percent of Mesquite. Born in South Texas and raised by a single
parent, Mrs. Reyna has been a strong advocate of legislation that favors
family values, education, and women's issues. She currently serves on
the Higher Education Committee -- a role she has embraced since her election
in 1993 -- and was a member of the Texas Advisory Group for the U.S. Senate
Republican Conferences on Hispanic Affairs in 1997. Her commitment to
the community college system has earned her the distinction of being nominated
for the 2000 American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) National
Leadership Award. She also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from
the University of Texas at Arlington, Center for Mexican American Studies,
in 1994. Mrs. Reyna graduated from Eastfield in 1986 with an associate's
degree in arts and sciences.
John Santiago, R. Jan
LeCroy Center for Educational Telecommunications
John Santiago earned his associate's degree in arts and sciences (awarded
through DCCCD's Eastfield College) in 1999 via teleconference in Florida,
making him the first Dallas County Community College District online graduate.
"Online education has been and is a very important part of my life and,
no doubt, the reason for my success," the Florida native said. "My experiences
with both the administration and faculty at DCCCD has always been of the
highest quality…my finest memories stem from my experiences there." Now
an international project manager at SIEMENS Corporation in Puerto Rico,
he manages large assignments with pharmaceutical companies and universities.
Before joining SIEMENS, he worked as project manager for a large construction
company in Florida. Mr. Santiago plans to complete his bachelor's degree
in international business from Florida Atlantic University, where he currently
takes classes online.
Dr. Moe Win, Mountain View College
Dr. Win is an avid scholar and teacher. After moving to Dallas with his
family from Burma at the age of 18, Dr. Win began his illustrious academic
career at Mountain View as an English-as-a-Second-Language Student (ESL)
student. Overcoming the language barrier, Dr. Win quickly achieved success
in his adopted country. He was named All-Star Student of the Year for
his outstanding achievements at Mountain View in science, mathematics
and technology. Dr. Win transferred to Texas A&M and graduated magna cum
laude in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Continuing
his education at the University of Southern California, Dr. Win earned
a Master of Science in electrical engineering (1998), a Masters of Science
in applied mathematics (1998), and a Doctor of Philosophy in electrical
engineering (1998). Since then, Dr. Win has worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in California and has conducted research for AT&T. A former
teacher at Mountain View, Texas A&M and the University of Texas at Arlington,
Dr. Win seeks to embrace the teaching profession full time. Dr. Win credits
Mountain View for giving him the perfect place to start his educational
journey. "Coming from a foreign country to Dallas was very difficult,
and I have some painful memories, but Mountain View is my shrine. . .
I like to come back here each chance I have," he said. "I owe my success
to [this] school."
May, 2002