Oklahoma City University to Honor Distinguished Alumni
The Oklahoma City University Alumni
Association will honor seven outstanding alumni during Homecoming weekend
festivities in November. The annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner will be
held Nov. 5 at the Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive.
This year’s honorees are arts and sciences
alumnus Terry Dean Bergdall, law alumna Cathy Christensen, religion alumna
Audra Doyle Fogle, nursing alumnus Edward Herrman, business alumnus Ronnie
Irani, dance/arts management alumna Lesley Johnson Jennings and honors alumna Courtney
Gray Montgomery.
The event will begin with a 6 p.m. reception.
The dinner and awards ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 each and
can be purchased by calling Cary Pirrong at (405) 208-5463 or e-mailing alumni@okcu.edu.
Bergdall, ’72, is the chief executive officer of the
Institute of Cultural Affairs in the United States. He oversees the largest
nonprofit service center in the Midwest, which is home to multiple programs
addressing issues of homelessness and poverty. The center also is the
residential setting for ICA’s Urban Service Experiences that allows college
students to earn course credit from participating institutions of higher
learning. The program focuses on social transformation and systematic change
through the themes of creating a just and equitable society, shaping a green,
sustainable society and building foundations for peace.
From 1969 to 1984, Bergdall worked for the Ecumenical
Institute of Chicago. He was co-director of ICA in Kenya from 1984 to 1989
where he was responsible for a large staff implementing a national program of
self-reliant bottom-up village development. He joined the Swedish Cooperative
Centre in 1989 and became project coordinator of the Methods for Active
Participation Research and Development Project (MAP) in Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania
and Zimbabwe.
Between
1992 and June 2009, Bergdall worked as an international consultant. For three
years in Ethiopia, he was team leader of the Community Empowerment Program
funded by the Swedish government’s agency for international assistance. He has
worked with a large number of development organizations including CARE and
Habitat for Humanity in 17 African nations. Civil society assignments have
taken him to the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East. He facilitated the
creation of a large strategic plan for the Institute of Social Policy in Kosovo
shortly after the NATO intervention. Funded by the World Bank and the US Agency
for International Development (USAID), he facilitated strategic planning processes
for five large municipal governments in Swaziland and Zambia. He has undertaken
major program evaluations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Republic of Georgia,
Azerbaijan and the Philippines. In North America, he has conducted educational
programs on asset-based development with AmeriCorps host-organizations in
several states.
Bergdall
earned his PhD in International Development at the University of Wales and is
an adjunct faculty member of the ABCD Institute at Northwestern University.
Christensen,
’86, practices family law and
general civil litigation at Cathy Christensen & Associates P.C. She is the
2012 president of the Oklahoma Bar Association and has served in a variety of
leadership positions within the organization. Her awards include the Oklahoma
Bar Foundation Distinguished Service Award, the Award for Community Service
from the Oklahoma City University School of Law and the Mona Salyer Lambird
Spotlight Award from the Oklahoma Bar Association. She has been listed as one
of the Top 25 Female Oklahoma Super Lawyers.
Fogle, ’90, attended Oklahoma City University as a
Bishop’s Scholar, played tennis, served as president of the United Methodist
Student Fellowship and served on the Presidential Advisory Team. She has served
in full-time ministry with youth and children in United Methodist churches in
the Oklahoma and central Texas conferences for more than 23 years. Fogle
currently serves on the Board of Trustees as program chairperson for Oklahoma
United Methodist Camps. She is the director of senior high youth ministries at
Boston Avenue United Methodist Church. She has developed a comprehensive
programming that emphasizes growth in student leadership at the local, district
and conference levels and strengthened family and congregational relationships.
Herrman, ’98, has been a Registered Nurse for 14 years,
serving the last six years as a chief nursing officer. He is the vice president
at Integris Southwest Medical Center.
As a nurse he has
held a wide variety of positions with a focus primarily in cardiovascular
intensive care. He was a travel nurse
along with his wife, also a nurse, for four years, experiencing multiple
opportunities including caring for the first self-contained mechanical heart
transplant on the west coast at UCLA Medical Center.
He started his
management career at Kaiser Sunset in Los Angeles as one of the clinical
coordinators of their 24 bed cardiovascular intensive care unit. He then moved
to the Dallas metroplex area to work as a director of the medical intensive
care unit for Presbyterian Hospital in Denton.
After completing his master’s degree, he was named chief nursing officer
at Baylor Medical Center at Trophy Club. He joined Integris Bass Baptist Health
Center in Enid before moving to Integris Southwest Medical Center.
Irani, ’90, is
president and CEO of RKI Exploration & Production headquartered in Oklahoma
City. He has more than 32 years experience in the oil and natural gas industry.
Prior to forming RKI, he was senior vice president and general manager with
Dominion Resources. He also served in senior executive positions for Louis
Dreyfus Natural Gas Corporation and Woods Petroleum Corporation.
Irani has also
completed the IPAA Executive Management Program offered in conjunction with
Harvard University. He serves on the Industry Advisory Board of the Mewbourne
College of Earth & Energy, is a senior board member and past chair of the
Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering and served as vice chairman
of the Board of Visitors for the International Programs Center at the
University of Oklahoma. He is a founding board member and past chairman of the
Oklahoma Energy Explorers.
Irani serves on
the executive committee of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association and
is vice chairman for this statewide oil and natural gas association. He is president
and founding board member of the India – U.S. Chamber of Commerce of Greater
OKC.
Jennings, ’93, has appeared on Broadway in the revivals of The Music Man and Grease. She performed in the singer/dancer ensemble at Radio City
Music Hall and was a member of the cast for the national tour of Grease. Jennings has performed in a
multitude of professional regional musical productions. She taught theater
dance to New York City public school students through Rosie’s Broadway Kids and
the National Dance Institute of New York. Jennings is a member of the Actor’s
Equity Association and serves on the board of the American Guild of Variety
Artists.
Jennings visits schools in Oklahoma as part
of the Tulsa Area Arts and Humanities Council and Project Creates. She also
teaches at several private studios, choreographs throughout the Tulsa area and
travels as a guest teacher.
Jennings has served as a faculty member for
several summer dance intensives including OCU’s Broadway Bound workshop and the
Broadway Theater Dance Workshop in Santa Fe, N.M., where she was the associate
artistic director.
Montgomery, ’95, is an assistant member of the Department of
Arthritis and Immunology at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. She holds
a Ph.D. in genetic and molecular epidemiology from Case Western Reserve
University.
Montgomery is a member of the Immunochip
Consortia, the Ethics, Legal and Social Implications Committee for the
International Genetic Epidemiology Society, the American Association for Cancer
Research, American Statistical Association, American Society of Human Genetics
and the International Genetic Epidemiology Society.
She is an editorial board member and reviewer
for the Public Library of Science (PLos) One and several journals. She has
given presentations on a variety of topics including “Complex Disease Genetics:
A Case Study in Sarcoidosis” and “Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: What Does DNA
Have to do With It?”
The Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner is part
of OCU’s homecoming week, scheduled for Nov. 2 to 6. For more information,
visit www.okcu.edu/alumni/homecoming.
