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From left to right: Vice President Cheney; Kelli Price, VP, Performance Excellence and Organizational Engagement, Premier, Inc.; Richard A. Norling, President and Chief Executive Officer, Premier, Inc.; Charles D. Stokes, President, North Mississippi Medical Center; John Heer, Chief Executive Officer, North Mississippi Health Services; John Cole, MESA Products, Inc., Sales & Marketing Manager; Terry F. May, President, MESA Products, Inc.; and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez
One year after Richland was named a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, three companies were awarded the 2006 honor. President Steve Mittelstet and Vice President Kay Eggleston attended the ceremony in Washington conducted by Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez. 
The 2006 recipients were MESA Products, Inc., Tulsa, Okla. (small business); North Mississippi Medical Center, Tupelo, Miss. (health care); and Premier, Inc., San Diego, Calif. (service). Douglas D. Hawthorne, President and CEO of Texas Health Resources (Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas) is the current chairman of the board of Premier Inc, a group purchasing alliance. Mittelstet and Eggleston extended their personal congratulations to Mr. Hawthorne, who is a long-time Richland College and DCCCD advocate. Hawthorne is also chair-elect of the DCCCD Foundation Board of Directors. Named after Malcolm Baldrige, the 26th Secretary of Commerce, the Baldrige Award was established by Congress in 1987 to enhance the competitiveness and performance of U.S. businesses and expanded in 1998 to include education and health care. The Baldrige program is managed by the National Institute for Standards and Technology in conjunction with the private sector. The 2006 Baldrige Award recipients were selected from among 76 applicants. All of the applicants were evaluated rigorously by an independent board of examiners. There were no recipients in the Education sector for 2006.
Professional
President Mittlestet and several Thunderducks attended the Texas Association of Black Personnel in Higher Education (TAPBHE) 34th Annual State Conference, last week in Austin. The theme for this year was �Moving Forward – Giving Back.� Pictured from left are Tyrone Hollins, Wilfred Manyango, President of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Dr. Belle S. Whelelan, RLC President Steve Mittlestet, Jean Carter and Delores Elder-Jones.
RLC and DCCCD were well-represented at the Texas Association of Black Personnel in Higher Education (TABPHE) State Conference. RLC�s LaQueta Wright and Eloise Pinckney were conference presenters and Tanisha Shorter represented DCCCD serving on the TABPHE board. In addition to addressing the needs of African American students and professionals, and hearing from SACS�s President Dr. Belle Wheelan, Thunderducks also found time to practice the Thundervalue of joy and building community by dancing! In attendance at TABPHE were: Vanessa Matthews, Wilfred Manyango, Eloise Pinckney, Delores Elder-Jones, Ruby Davis, Sharon Wright, Jean Carter, Alisa Jones, Tyrone Hollins, Tanisha Shorter, Vickie Allen, Janice Bell, Melvin Pope, Michael Brantley and LaQueta Wright.
Carter’s “July Lotto Winner” piece is part of the Transit/Transition exhibit presented as part of The Parallel Festival at The Bath House Cultural Center through April 4.
Multimedia faculty Dwayne Carter opened his new art exhibit Transit/Transition this month at the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas. The exhibition features recent digital photographic montages that depict moments of transition in life. Carter uses DART stations and trains as backdrops for fictional narratives that illustrate life passages.
A gallery talk takes place on April 1 at 3 p.m. that will feautre Carter along with artists Andrew Ortiz of UTA, and Jesse English. The event is free and open to the public. For more info visit www.bathhousecultural.com/carter.html.
Six Richland students took top honors at the recent Texas Delta Epsilon Chi Conference and Competition, an annual collegiate marketing organization event. With these top-place awards, Richland Travel, Exposition and Meeting Management students Kristie Viduarr, Traci Crews, Eloy Martinez, Shekeemia Jones, and Natasha Williams qualified to compete in the International Delta Epsilon Chi Conference and Competition in Orlando, Florida, the end of April.
Richland College Office of Institutional Research staff, Bao Huynh, Gloria Washington, and Fonda Vera presented at the Texas Association for Institutional Research (TAIR) Conference in South Padre this month. Their topic was Using Baldrige Discipline To Create a Comprehensive Institutional Measurement System. The presentation information enables other Texas higher education institutions to benchmark on Richland�s use of Baldrige criteria in its strategic planning process.
Over 90 Latino GISD seniors and their parents visited RLC this month to participate in the Hands-on Financial Aid Workshop. This collaborative event, coordinated by Ethnic Studies & Community Outreach staff in partnership with the GISD Hispanic Liaison, included the help and support of Richland� s Financial Aid and Rising Star offices and Los Patos Listos volunteers. Most participants were able to complete the FAFSA on-line in either English or Spanish during the workshop.
Pictured from left are: President Steve Mittelstet, Delores Elder-Jones, Dean of Ethnic Studies Cindy Castaneda, V.P. Jean Conway, V.P. Kay Eggleston and Executive Dean Donna Walker.
Outreach�s Delores Elder-Jones was honored by the City of Garland, George Washington Carver Senior Center as an outstanding African American community member during African American History Month. A professional video, commissioned by the Carver Center, featured Delores and her work as a community activist, civil rights worker, entertainment, industry worker, housing advocate, educator, and volunteer, as well as a loving mother and sister. Six Richland College employees (including the president and two vice presidents), joined approximately 40 seniors at the Carver Center to celebrate Delores and her contributions.
The National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs and Phi Theta Kappa presented Richland Professor Perry Carter, students Yaqueline Rodriquez and Dulce Galviz, Executive Dean Joyce Williams and President Mittelstet their 2007 Exemplary Teacher Preparation Program Award.
Beautiful tulips in full bloom on the banks of Lake Thunderduck.
People
To: Ruby Davis, Accounting Services From: David Henry, Multicultural Center Thank you so much, Ruby, for going above and beyond the call to help a student get her ID card on a recent evening. She was able to keep from falling behind in her lab assignments and I got a great lesson in serving students and building community. On behalf of the student and me, thank you.
Specifically, my thanks goes to the Financial Aid staff: Marisa Gutierrez, Bill McMullen, Samona Griffin, Bruce Anderson, Howard Clappen
Dear Noreen Warwick, (Humanities) From the start you gave me the confidence to take your course. I am learning disabled in English and Math. You told me if I applied myself I would be able to do well in your class as you did not require notations or advanced knowledge of English. This support gave me the confidence I had lacked. Yes, it does take me 12-15 hours to do one essay. However, I feel this also accounts for the 95�s-96�s I have in your class. By trying to do a little bit better on each essay I have learned to make an outline, organize my thoughts, create an opening line and set out the main topics of the essay in the first paragraph while using the second paragraph to expound on the topics in the opening paragraph. Then to summarize the topics in the last paragraph, highlighting the ideas I wish to leave in the reader’s mind.
I use circles to create an outline, the center is the main overall idea. Each topic is another circle with smaller circles connected for sub-topics. Different I know, however it works for me. These basic tools I gained in your class allowed me to test out in English on the Accu Placer test at S.F.A. With the spelling and grammar help from Word and a good dictionary, I can now communicate more effectively than I have in the past. Again, THANK YOU so much. - A Grateful Student
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