Centralight

Connections From left, Alumni Award winners Steven T. Plochocki, Talia Mark, Dale W. Karolak, Ricardo Resio, Robert A. Gordon, Judith A. Rapanos and Edward Christian. Dale W. Karolak, '81 Alumni Commitment Award Dale Karolak serves on the College of Science and Technology's Alumni Advisory Board and the Department of Engineering and Technology's Advisory Board. He recently returned to speak to student groups and participated in the College of Science and Technology's first Alumni Career Day. For more than 11 years, Karolak and his wife, Lorraine, have contributed to a software engineering scholarship. Steven T. Plochocki, M.A. '83 Distinguished Alumni Award Steven Plochocki currently serves as chief executive officer and member of the board of directors for Quality Systems Inc. in Irvine, Calif. Throughout his three-decade career, Plochocki has received numerous awards recognizing his achievements, including the American Business Award for Best Business Turnaround for his leadership at InSight. Donald Trump featured Plochocki's business turnaround in his book, "Trump: The Way to the Top: The Best Business Advice I Ever Received." Ricardo Resio, '95 Alumni Chapter Service Award Ricardo Resio, principal of Human Resources at Rehmann, has served as president of the CMU Alumni Association's Great Lakes Bay Region Chapter since 2006. Originally called the Tri-Cities Chapter, Resio spearheaded an initiative to change the chapter's name in order to include more cities. Resio has grown the list of active and involved area alumni to more than 800, making it one of the most active alumni chapters. Talia Mark, '06 Outstanding Young Alumni Award Talia Mark serves as marketing manager for USA Swimming in the business development division. Mark developed NASCAR's college outreach program "NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion." The program currently is running at 20 universities and impacts thousands of college students every year. The American Biographical Institute Board of International Research named her "Woman of the Year." Mark also was awarded one of the "Top African-American Minds in Marketing and Advertising" at the annual ADCOLOR and Association of National Advertisers Multicultural Awards Conference. Robert A. Gordon Honorary Alumni Award Dr. Robert A. Gordon has forged a successful partnership with Central Michigan University that has led to more than 1,200 CMU alumni at 16 various colleges in Ontario. He developed a master's program for faculty and staff in community college studies. Gordon was appointed president emeritus at Humber College upon retirement and continues to work with CMU as an adjunct professor and chairman of its program advisory committee. • centralight winter '11 35

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