Berry College Names Outstanding Alumni

 

Media Release -- Five Berry College alumni were recently recognized for outstanding achievement and service to others during the college's annual Alumni Awards and Golden Guard Gala.

 

Distinguished Achievement Award: Angela Dickey

 

A commissioned officer of the United States Foreign Service, Angela Dickey (a 1975 Berry Academy graduate and 1979 Berry College graduate) has experienced a globe-spanning career with the U.S. Department of State.

 

As Iraq desk officer in Washington D.C., Dickey led her division in enforcing United Nations Security Council resolutions against Saddam Hussein's regime and coordinated with the Department of Defense for the delivery of humanitarian supplies to the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq.

 

From 2002-2006 she worked in the State Department handling relations with the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and East Timor. During that time she received two Superior Honor awards for improving U.S. relations with Indonesia and for leading the task force that responded to the 2004 tsunami in Asia.

 

At the U.S. Embassy in Laos, she partnered with the government of Laos to reduce the amount of opium produced in the country. She earned recognition from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and received a State Department Superior Honor award as well as the Medal of Labor, the highest distinction Laos confers on foreign citizens.

 

For her service as Deputy Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Dickey received the Department of State's James Clement Dunn Award, signed by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

 

Dickey is currently a State Department fellow with the United States Institute of Peace, where she is researching land and resource conflicts in Southeast Asia. 

 

Distinguished Service Award: F. Mack Gay

 

F. Mack Gay (1959 Berry College graduate) founded the non-profit Children in Crisis, Inc. with the goal of providing homes and establishing hope for abused, neglected and abandoned children in foster care.

 

The organization includes The Children's Neighborhood, a 24-hour emergency shelter, two long-term family foster homes, and a transitional home for young adults ages 18-22 who are too old for the foster care system but still in need of support. Since opening in 2008, The Children's Neighborhood has operated at near full capacity, providing for more than 360 children who were no longer safe in their homes.

 

Gay also works with the Okaloosa-Walton, Fla., Continuum of Care organization, which is dedicated to the alleviation of homelessness, participates in outreach missions with the Muscogee Indian Tribe and serves with a local prison ministry.

 

Distinguished Service Award: Walter Maine

 

Following his retirement as a civilian physicist with the U.S. Military, the late Walter Maine (1959 Berry College graduate) created and chaired the Faith Community Committee, the volunteer support arm for the Children in Crisis, Inc.

 

Maine recruited church participation with the Children's Neighborhood, the community of foster and transitional homes developed by Children in Crisis. He developed a system of volunteers and grew the number of churches involved from five to 60.

 

Maine also developed a program for Berry students to gain experience by working with the foster children. As a result, five Berry students served as interns at the Children's Neighborhood in the summer of 2012.

 

Entrepreneurial Spirit Award: Sheryle Bolton

 

Previously an executive at HBO and Rockefeller & Co. and an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, Sheryle Bolton left the field of investment banking in order to develop a career that served society. 

 

She became CEO of Scientific Learning Corporation, an educational technology company that develops scientifically validated reading programs based on neuroscience research. Over the course of several years, she grew sales from less than $1 million to nearly $30 million.

 

She is now Chief Executive Officer of Sally Ride Science, Inc., an educational technology company which the late Dr. Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, founded to ignite interest in and passion for science and technology in teachers and students.

Bolton is also a director of The Small Business Banking Network, which trains bankers in developing economies to make small-business loans. Bolton, a Berry alum, serves on college's Board of Trustees and is a previous member of Berry's Board of Visitors.

 

Outstanding Young Alumni Award: Beth Collins Earnst

 

Beth Collins Earnst (a 1993 Berry graduate) has worked 15 years with Ciba/BASF, a leading global chemical company, on projects in environmental health, toxicology, product safety and in-site environmental roles.

 

In 2006, she was named Ciba's North American regional director for public relations and site communication. At age 35, she was the youngest director in the company and one of relatively few women in a highly visible leadership role at the company.

In 2011, she was promoted to her current role as manager of marketing and employee communications for that division, where she is responsible for advertising, media relations, electronic communications and employee communications for 1300 employees working at 15 sites.

 

Earnst helped the company's connection with Habitat for Humanity, the Charlotte Mecklenberg "Tools for School" drive and National Chemistry week activities that support education awareness in chemistry and engineering careers. She was named among "40 Leaders Under Forty" by The Business Journal for the Piedmont Triad area.