Eastern Iowa Community College recently issued the following announcement.
Muscatine Community College (MCC) President, Dr. Naomi DeWinter will receive the Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction from the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society during PTK Catalyst 2022, the Society’s annual convention in Denver, Colorado, April 7-9.
The Shirley B. Gordon Award is presented to college presidents who have shown strong support of student success on their campus by recognizing academic achievement, leadership and service among high achieving students at their colleges. Recipients are nominated by students on their campus and are only eligible to receive the award once over the course of their career.
DeWinter was selected among 617 college presidents and CEOs, nationwide.
“I’m delighted and honored by this recognition from PTK, particularly because the nomination comes from our students―that’s the best aspect of it,” stated DeWinter. “A few years ago, I was awarded an honorary membership to PTK and thought that was great. This just tops that!”
DeWinter regularly meets with PTK leadership and students to coordinate service projects and introduce them to community needs. When she’s not helping in that capacity, she can be seen on campus attending PTK events, like invocations, helping to shine light on their work.
To DeWinter, PTK offers students a way to be connected to an international organization and begin to think beyond Muscatine and Iowa.
“Their service projects give them hands-on volunteer work and the leadership positions give them experience that they can use well after they graduate from here,” said DeWinter.
In addition to her title as President, DeWinter also serves as the district’s Vice Chancellor for Student Development. In this role, she works with key players to provide student support services to students. Most notably, she has helped disburse millions in ‘Cares’ funds to students, pivoted to offer remote services during the pandemic and increased mental health support services to students.
The Shirley B. Gordon Award is PTK’s most prestigious award for community college presidents and is named in honor of the late Dr. Shirley B. Gordon, Phi Theta Kappa’s longest serving Board of Directors Chair and a founder and long-time president of Highline Community College in Washington. In addition to DeWinter, the 2022 recipients are:
| Dr. Seth Carter
Colby Community College, Kansas | Dr. Sunita (Sunny) Cooke
MiraCosta College, California |
| Dr. Andrea Daniel
Athens Technical College, Georgia | Dr. Naomi DeWinter
Muscatine Community College, Iowa |
| Dr. Para Jones
Stark State College, Ohio | Dr. Brenda Kays
Kilgore College, Texas |
| Dr. Belinda S. Miles
Westchester Community College, New York | Dr. Juston Pate
Elizabethtown Community & Technical College, Kentucky |
| Dr. Raymond Staats
Craven Community College, North Carolina | Dr. Devin Stephenson
Northwest Florida State College, Florida |
| Dr. Valmadge Towner
Coahoma Community College, Mississippi | Dr. Kevin Trutna
Feather River College, California |
| Dr. Jeanie Webb
Rose State College, Oklahoma |
Phi Theta Kappa is the premier honor society recognizing the academic achievement of students at associate degree-granting colleges and helping them to grow as scholars and leaders. The Society is made up of more than 3.8 million members and nearly 1,300 chapters in 11 countries, with approximately 240,000 active members in the nation’s colleges. Learn more at ptk.org.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up