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Commencement 2022: Honorary Doctorate Recipients

Salt Lake Community College has been awarding Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees to deserving individuals since 1955. The SLCC Board of Trustees selects two outstanding individuals in the community who have served with distinction, made extraordinary contributions to their professional field, and made a meaningful impact to their communities and/or to higher education to receive this honor.

Shawn Newell.

Shawn E. Newell

Trustee Emeritus, Board of Trustees

Shawn Newell’s deep appreciation for educational access stems from his childhood in 1960s Riverside, California, when the school system was still in the throes of segregation. He watched his parents and area leaders work hard to achieve equity and provide opportunity for their community.

Shawn realized his path to future success depended on education. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Utah, where he also played football, and worked his way up the career ladder at Industrial Supply, advancing from cleaning warehouses to joining the salesforce. Upon graduation, he tried out for the Chicago Bears, but an injury ultimately sidelined his NFL dreams.

With his first degree in hand and determined to refocus his life, Shawn headed back to school at Salt Lake Community College, where he earned an associate’s degree in marketing management. The experience inspired him to move beyond sales and become a leader in his industry by earning a master’s degree in management from the University of Phoenix. Shawn recently retired from Industrial Supply after a successful 37-year run with the company. “Over the years, I have realized the return on my investment of time, work and community connection,” he says.

That community connection has led him back to SLCC for several roles, including as a member of the Board of Trustees (now Emeritus) and as a former president of the Alumni Council. Shawn was honored with the college’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2017, and he recently created a scholarship for SLCC marketing students.

Shawn is also the current vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Salt Lake Chapter and a Program Advisory Committee member for SLCC’s Business Marketing department. He serves on the Utah System of Higher Education’s Board of Regents, the Utah Bar Commission, the Cottonwood Heights City Council and the Salt Lake Chamber’s Diversity Committee.

No matter which hat he is wearing, Shawn encourages everyone he meets to never stop learning. “Be diligent in your continued growth as a human being. Fight through perceived barriers. Many times, what you see as a barrier is an opportunity to gain strengths you may not have known exist within you.”

Mark and Kathie Miller.

Mark and Kathie Miller

Mark And Kathie Miller Foundation

Great effort can equal great gain, and that’s the approach Mark and Kathie Miller are taking as they seek to change educational outcomes in Utah – one school and one student at a time. Last year, they continued their longstanding support of education by partnering with Salt Lake Community College to expand its PACE (Partnership for Accessing College Education) program to Kearns High School. PACE encourages students from underserved communities to excel in high school, in order to prepare for and enroll in college. “We tell students, ‘The better your education, the more opportunities you will have,’” Mark says. “One of the reasons we love PACE is that high school students are exposed to many of the careers that can be explored at SLCC. By the time they leave the college, they should have a good idea of their career path.”

In addition to PACE, the Millers support the United Way’s Promise Partnership Regional Council (PPRC) initiative. Through the program, they work to raise the math scores of Utah’s elementary school students. Specifically, Mark is encouraging schools to use i-Ready online software to reveal learning gaps and help students improve their math skills.

While their philanthropy through PPRC has helped propel the initiative’s ship, the Millers, along with volunteers they’ve recruited, have also invested heart and soul in steering it by personally tutoring students, as many as four days a week. Significant improvements in the students’ scores are already being realized.

Besides their support of SLCC and the United Way, the Millers are involved in Angel Flight, a non-profit that provides transportation to people in need of medical treatment. To date, Mark has piloted 250 missions for the organization.

Kathie is a graduate of Utah State University and taught in the Jordan School District. Mark attended the University of Utah before serving in the United States Air Force and Air National Guard. They worked side-by-side for many years to build their wildly successful family business, the Mark Miller Auto Group, from which they are now retired.

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