April 2012 | North Central College

Tracie Morris '02

Tracie Morris was named vice president, human resources at ComEd. She returns to the company after holding the position of vice president of human resources for DeVry Inc. for the past year. Before joining DeVry, she served as director of human resources operations for ComEd and earlier served as director of human resources for Exelon Generation, a unit of Exelon Corp. Morris started with Exelon in 2002 as a manager of human resources at LaSalle Nuclear Power Station. She began her career at the U.S. Department of Labor and Department of Justice.

Susie Gawriluk '73

Susie Gawriluk is an account executive for Journal Community Publishing Group, selling advertising for three magazines and websites: Silent Sports, Wisconsin Trails and Wisconsin Journeys. She founded Denim and Dessert Theatre in Presque Isle, WI, in 2004 and continues to serve as its artistic director for three annual shows. She married for the first time in September 2011, to Tom Preston, “under a beautiful tent with lanterns and flowers, fresh from friends’ gardens, and a bonfire afterward.” She lives in Arbor Vitae, WI, and may be reached at sgawriluk1@gmail.com.

Deanne Reedquist Sramek '93

Deanne Reedquist Sramek has been a clinical nurse researcher at Wyoming Medical Center in Casper, WY, for seven years. She helps provide staff with the knowledge and resources to access and utilize evidence in their nursing practice. She educates new graduates and nurses on research and evidence-based practice, assists with research projects and practice changes, and mentors undergraduate and graduate students with their projects.

Jim Owczarski ’02

Jim Owczarski ’02 captured third place in the national Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) awards for feature writing. He’s a sports journalist at OnMilwaukee.com, a daily online magazine. He joined the staff in March after nearly nine years with the Chicago Sun-Times Media Network West Division and will cover the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks, Green Bay Packers and other sports teams in the Milwaukee area. His wife Michelle Rutkowski ’03 is music director and midday host at WLUM-FM 102.1 Milwaukee. He may be reached at jim834@gmail.com.

North Central NOW Spring 2012

Bob Pickett '73

Bob Pickett is in his 16th season as the producer/director of the St. Louis Concert Choir, a community Christian choral organization representing nearly 30 churches in the greater St. Louis metro area. This summer he and legendary music producer Thurlow Spurr are bringing together 200 singers from across America to perform in concert with three of Christian music’s greatest artists: winners of multiple Grammy and Dove Awards, singers Sandi Patty and Larnelle Harris, and pianist Dino in two “Festival of Praise” performances. The concerts are scheduled for Sunday, July 1, at Grace Church–St.

Matt Boresi ‘97

Matt Boresi ‘97 in April enjoyed the Washington, D.C., premier of his chamber opera titled “The Filthy Habit,” which opened in the black box theatre at Artisphere in Arlington, VA, and was produced by the opera company Urban Arias. He co-wrote the opera with composer Peter Hilliard. The principal soprano was Metropolitan Opera soprano Jennifer Aylmer. The production featured a newly commissioned 15-piece orchestration and players from the National Symphony and Washington Opera orchestras. Maestro Robert Wood conducted. The show originally premiered at Manhattan Opera Theatre in 2004.

Scott R. Daly '06

Scott R. Daly accepted a tenure-track faculty position in the department of chemistry at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and will begin in July. He was awarded a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2010 and received the Department of Chemistry’s Theron Standish Piper Award for outstanding thesis research. After graduating, he became a Seaborg Postdoctoral Fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, NM, and performed research to develop new methods to improve the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.

Kimberly Lisanby-Barber '77

Kimberly Lisanby-Barber was named the 2012-2013 Elementary School Principal of the Year by the Illinois Principals Association. She is the principal of Lincoln Elementary School in the Spring Valley Clark County School District 99. The award recognizes elementary school principals who have demonstrated a positive impact on their students and learning community. As the award winner, she will compete for the National Distinguished Principal of the Year award sponsored by VALIC and the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

Jacob Hubert '98

Jacob Hubert was named principal of North Boone High School in Poplar Grove, IL. He’s served as assistant principal at the school for the past five years and will begin as principal at the start of the 2012-2013 school year. He holds bachelor’s degrees in sports medicine and athletic training from North Central and in mathematics from Illinois State University. He earned a master’s degree in educational administration from Eastern Illinois University.

Ernie Brandon '62

Ernie Brandon founded a woodwind quintet called “Euterpe” Wind Quintet (Michigan) two years ago. The group is named for the Greek muse for music and lyric poetry. (He includes Michigan in the name because there is a “Euterpe” quintet based in the Netherlands.) The group’s repertoire ranges from classical to ragtime, including concert music written expressly for wind quintets, transcriptions of popular classical piano and orchestra pieces, and arrangements of folk and some pop music.