Kudos

Mortar Board College Honor Society
presents three honorary memberships

Mortar Board has presented Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society honorary membership to three individuals who have made notable contributions to society and whose influence has extended beyond the university.

Dennis Barsema, president, CEO and chairman of the board of Onetta, Inc., is the director of the NIU Foundation. He also is director of Docutek, Inc., and chairman of Telenisus Corp. Barsema attended NIU and the College of DuPage. In 2000, he donated $20 million to NIU to fund a new building to house the College of Business.

Nancy Nuzzo, associate professor in the School of Allied Health Professions in the College of Health and Human Sciences, has been shaping the education of NIU students for the past 13 years. Nuzzo received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Elmhurst College, a bachelor’s in physical therapy from NIU and a doctorate in physiology and biophysics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is active in the American Physical Therapy Association.

Rick Ridnour, an associate professor in the Department of Marketing in the NIU College of Business, has been teaching in the department for 14 years and is published in more than a dozen scholarly journals. He holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in education from Iowa State University.

Mortar Board is a national honor society that recognizes college seniors for outstanding achievement in scholarship, leadership and service. For more information, visit www.mortarboard.org.

Newsom receives lifetime service award

Randall Newsom, coordinator of dance, ballet and modern dance in the School of Theatre and Dance in the NIU College of Visual and Performing Arts, has received a lifetime service award from the Chicago Dance and Music Alliance Award Panel.

The award is in recognition of his many and varied contributions to generations of young dancers.

Chicago Dance and Music Alliance provides direct services to members engaged in all genres of dance and music in the Chicago area, acts as an advocate on their behalf and disseminates information about their activities to the general public.

NIU geologist joins U.S. delegation
in partnership with New Zealand

NIU geologist Ross Powell joined a U.S. delegation this summer as it negotiated a bilateral partnership with New Zealand on climate change.

Powell, a native of New Zealand and an expert on the ice sheet dynamics and geological record of the Antarctic, provided scientific input during the negotiations. Harlan Watson, senior climate negotiator for the Bush administration, headed the delegation.

9-2-03