Three named 2015 Outstanding Alumni

TRAVERSE CITY — Three alumni have been named the 2015 recipients of NMC's Outstanding Alumni award.

Created in 1988, the award recognizes alumni for professional achievement and community and professional leadership. The 2015 recipients, announced at Saturday's commencement, are:

Sally Rogers, class of 1981 - Rogers took her first art class on campus at the age of 15, and knew immediately that visual arts were her passion. She graduated in 1981 with her associate degree and went on to earn both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art. Her career took her to North Carolina, where she built a studio and still lives and works today, focusing on large scale sculptures of steel, glass, stone and wood. In 2004 her sculpture, “Nexus” was installed on the east side of the Health and Science building. Rogers is also the daughter of the late Joe Rogers, a longtime math and science instructor and the namesake of NMC’s Joseph H. Rogers Observatory.

Gary Seabrook, class of 1972 - After NMC Seabrook attended the University of Michigan and Wayne State University medical school. He is now chief of the department of vascular surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Education was a value deeply instilled in Seabrook by his mother, Joanne, and in her memory he has created a significant endowed scholarship for business students.

Al Zelinski, class of 1983 - Zelinski is a member of the commercial lending team at Honor Bank. He has served on the NMC Foundation Board's Scholarship Open committee since 2005. He chaired the event, the college’s largest single-day fund raiser, for two years, more than doubling its net profit. He joined the Foundation Board in 2014 and has expanded his fund raising activities still further.

Read about past Outstanding Alumni here. Alumni interested in reconnecting should plan to stop by the Alumni Tent at the NMC Barbecue on May 17. Located under the pines in front of Osterlin Library, the tent will include a drawing for a new bike, the traditional quilt raffle as well as other prizes, NMC swag, appearances by nursing alumni seeking to support current nursing students, and by Paul Welch, whose department's role in shaping the region's thriving art community is chronicles in the new retrospective book, A Colorful Cast.

Release date: May 4, 2015

For more information:

Betsy Coffia
Director of Alumni Relations
bcoffia@nmc.edu
(231) 995-2825