Salt Lake Community College will honor the following during
commencement ceremonies May 6, 9:30 a.m. at the Maverik Center in West Valley
City:
Honorary Doctorate
Barbara Lindquist Tanner is a community leader, humanitarian, human rights activist. She attended Ogden High School and Weber College and then transferred to the University of Utah. At the University of Utah, she was on the debate team, and during one event her opponent was Norman Tanner. They were a well-matched team even when they were on opposite sides of a debate. Barbara and Norman were married for 77 years and raised four children; Clark (deceased), Susan, Deon and Deb. As a family, they cultivated a concern for community, the environment and humanity. Tanner shared her leadership talents in organizing such agencies as Utah Girls Village (now Utah Youth Village) and established and participated in musical groups such as the Utah Symphony and the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. In 2006, she established the Barbara L. and Norman C. Tanner Center for Nonviolent Human Rights Advocacy in the College of Social and Behavioral Science. She also has been a strong supporter of hundreds of Salt Lake Community College students through scholarship programs she has established.
Barbara Lindquist Tanner
Stanley B. Parrish, currently the president and
CEO of the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce, began his career in the wholesale floor
covering business at Midwest Floor Covering, Inc. where he worked for 21 years,
seven as the president and CEO. Parrish worked five years as the chief of staff
for Sen. Orrin Hatch and was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as
the associate deputy administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Upon his return to Utah, Parrish served as the Utah governor’s executive
director of Community and Economic Development and spent several years on the
SLCC Board of Trustees. He was president of the PPI Group, president of the
Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and president and CEO of Waterware, Inc. Parrish
then became the owner of the Mighty Distribution Center and Parandco. A long-time
friend of the College, Mr. Parrish has helped SLCC tirelessly by supporting
philanthropic efforts like the annual golf tournament. He and his wife Joyce
live in Salt Lake City and have six children and 17 grandchildren.
Stanley B. Parrish
Distinguished Alumni
Marisa Dawn Egbert discovered her love for civil engineering during a
pre-engineering class at Salt Lake Community College, where she attended on an
athletics scholarship and played on the women’s basketball team. She
transferred to Utah State University and earned her Bachelor’s of Science in
Civil Engineering.
In 2000, Egbert became state coordinator for the MATHCOUNTS, a national
nonprofit foundation that strives to engage students of all ability and interest
levels in fun, challenging math programs in order to expand their academic and
professional opportunities. The Utah
program annually benefits approximately 500 middle school students and more
than 60 participating schools statewide. Over the past decade her relationship
with SLCC has come full circle through her work with MATHCOUNTS at the annual
competitions every February and March on the SLCC Taylorsville campus.
“I am grateful for my STEM education at SLCC,” Egbert says. “I had no
trouble transitioning seamlessly to Utah State with my SLCC education. I found
a quality STEM education at SLCC, where I love bringing MATHCOUNTS every year.
I’m proud that I got my start at SLCC, and I want young students participating
in MATHCOUNTS and who are interested in STEM subjects to be excited about what
SLCC has to offer in those areas.”
Egbert is a registered professional engineer in the State of Utah and
has worked for the Utah State Division of Water Resources for the past eleven
years. Prior to working for the State of Utah, Marisa worked in the
Geotechnical Engineering field in Florida for several years. Marisa has served
on the Executive Committee of the Utah Section of the American Water Resources
Association (AWRA) for the past ten years, including the past eight years as
Secretary/Treasurer.
Marisa Dawn Egbert
Gerard Ford Craft received Food & Wine’s Best New Chef and Innovator of
the Year awards. He was one of Inc. magazine’s Star Entrepreneurs under 30. And
he won the James Beard Foundation Best Chef: Midwest award. To say that Gerard
Craft has found success as a chef and businessman would be an understatement.
The foundation upon which Craft continues to build his niche
in the culinary world took shape at Salt Lake Community College’s Culinary
Institute at the Miller Campus. “I
have been lucky to have a great career with many high points, but the one
experience I will never forget is my time at SLCC,” Craft says. “In that
kitchen is where I learned the building blocks of cooking, and without them I
wouldn't be where I am today. Even though I am pretty sure I was low on the
list of talent in that kitchen, my instructors kept pushing me. It’s really
shocking I have come as far as I have. I am sure I am only one of many who came
out of that kitchen to see success. Thank you, everyone at SLCC for the gift
you give every day.”
In 2005, at the age of 25, he opened the restaurant Niche in
Missouri and has since extended his offerings as part of Niche Food Group in
St. Louis to include Taste by Niche, Brasserie by Niche, Pastaria and Porano
Pasta—and a second Pastaria is expected to open in Nashville in summer
2016. In 2010 Craft told St. Louis Magazine,
“Growing up, all I wanted to do was to own a business and be a businessman.” He
now lives in St. Louis with his wife, Susan, and their two daughters.
Gerard Ford Craft
Teaching Excellence
Jane Drexler
Full-time faculty
School of Humanities and Social Sciences – Humanities, Language
& Culture
Department
Her students call her funny, clever and someone who loves what
she does.
Colleagues will say Jane Drexler is dynamic and energetic. Drexler
has taught
philosophy full time at the college level for the past 12 years,
nine of which have
been at SLCC. She sees teaching as inseparable from her
development, service,
leadership and scholarship. She is the 2010 winner of the
national Blackboard Exemplary
Course Award.
She believes studying philosophy can help students take a
holistic perspective,
converse with multiple voices and navigate conflicting
obligations or interests that
arise from the multiple communities to which they belong. She sees
philosophy
helping students take part in more engaged thinking and problem
solving.
One student said in a review of Drexler’s Reasoning and Rational
Decision-Making
class, “I have never taken a college course that was so
interesting, well-planned and
well taught. I think that every student should be required to
take this course (to
gain) the ability to communicate in a clear concise manner,
whether through writing
papers or having discussions. This class was invaluable.”
Jane Drexler
Mequette Sorensen
Full-time faculty
School of Humanities and Social Sciences – Social Work
Program
Mequette Sorensen became a first-generation college graduate
largely because of the influence of her grandfather, a migrant worker from
Mexico who “admonished” her not to become a laborer like him and to instead get
an education. She was still a social work practitioner when an adjunct
professor in the field helped her realize a passion for teaching. In June 2016
Sorensen will celebrate teaching 18 years (12 as a full-time faculty member) at
Salt Lake Community College. Sorensen says, “Rather than viewing my role as teacher,
I view myself as a facilitator of education; an agent in the exchange of
information, providing tools that enable enlightenment with an initial
development of curiosity and a deepening thirst and passion for knowledge.”
A former student and now current colleague of Sorensen says,
“Her vast knowledge and passion for social work and ethnic studies has been
incredibly rewarding to see. She is an ally, advocate and agent of difference
with her students on systemic and individual levels toward change for the
greater good. Her educational framework and skills for restorative justice,
diversity and equality is invaluable.”
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Ron
Carpenter
Adjunct Faculty
School of Humanities and Social Sciences – English Department
As an adjunct English instructor at Salt Lake Community College
since 2012, the
Hopi Indian values of autonomy, balance and kindness guide Ron
Carpenter’s
teaching philosophy. His goal is to help students improve their
rhetorical and critical
thinking skills as future leaders. “My courses provoke students
into meta-cognitive
acts about their writing and rhetorical process through engaged
learning and real-
world communication acts that mutually benefit the Salt Lake
community,” he says.
“I try to balance class time between lecture, writing exercises,
group work and
individual consultation. My goal is that students explore each
stage in the writing
process according to their individual needs and diverse skill
levels.”
Students often credit Carpenter with helping them develop an
appreciation for
service while taking his classes. One student wrote in an
evaluation, “I got involved
with service learning and found a whole new way of learning. Our
service learning
projects were tied into things that I might use in my work life.
I love the service
learning
aspect!”
Ron Carpenter
Distinguished Faculty Lecturer
John Close holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics from Minnesota
State University and a
Master’s degree in Meteorology from the University of Utah. His
teaching career spans over three decades and includes assignments in North
Dakota, Minnesota and Tanzania. For the last 24 years he has taught at
Salt Lake Community College where he specializes in developmental mathematics.
Close dedicated his career to helping underprepared and first
generation
students advance into the academic mainstream. In the
classroom, Close is noted
for being unrelentingly encouraging and supportive while
maintaining academic
rigor. During his
non-teaching hours he enjoys flyfishing, kite building and flying, singing,
woodworking and home improvements. His Distinguished Faculty Project will
center on “The Role of Community Colleges in US Economic Growth”.
John Close
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