Each year McPherson College recognizes the accomplishments of young alumni during the Honors Convocation at Homecoming. This year, three alumni —Billy Jamison ’88, Bruce Lolling ’95, and Andrea Herrera ’00 — received Young Alumni Awards on October 13 in a ceremony at Brown Auditorium.

The purpose of the Young Alumni Award is to recognize the achievement and potential for accomplishment of the college’s young alumni. The award is given to alumni who are meeting significant challenges in pursuit of professional goals, are involved in service to others and church, and participate in alumni activities.

Billy Jamison, Jefferson City, Mo., graduated in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Business Management. Since 2004, he has worked as research administrator at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is a member of the National Council of University Research Administrators, an executive member of the Black Faculty and Staff Organization and serves on various Presidential committees, including the university’s Budget Committee, Family Friendly Campus Committee, and the Title IX Equity Panel. He is the chair of the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Staff Advisory Council and has chaired the Chancellor’s Star Award Committee. He has volunteered his time on campus in various faculty, staff, and student activities, including 5K runs, Tiger Walk, and freshman student move-in.  For the past 22 years, he has donated his time volunteering to organize and conduct the Lincoln University of Jefferson City, Mo. Homecoming parade.  He is an Elder and ordained minister and serves the Strait Way Temple of Deliverance as an assistant pastor and church administrator. He also gives his time to the McPherson College Student Debt Project as a program mentor.

Bruce Lolling, El Dorado, Kan., graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in history and later earned a master’s degree from Emporia State University and a master’s degree in school leadership from Baker University. He taught social studies for 10 years before becoming a school administrator. He is currently the principal at Valley Center High School, where he leads a staff of 130 including 85 licensed staff, and oversees educational opportunities for approximately 1,000 students from grades nine to 12. Since 2008, he has served as an AVID national staff developer training other educators for the AVID summer institute and AVID Path. He also wrote the AVID National Professional Learning curriculum for history. AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination, aims to close the opportunity gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success.

Andrea Herrera, McPherson, graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science in biology and earned a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City in 2005. She completed her residency at the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler in the department of family medicine. She is a family medicine physician and opened Great Plains Family Medicine, a direct primary care office, in McPherson in 2015. Before opening her office, she was a staff and clinic physician at McPherson Hospital, where she served as president of the medical staff in 2018. Her special interests are in women’s health, sports medicine, pediatrics, disease prevention, obesity and weight control. She volunteers in children’s ministry, the worship team, and women’s ministry at the Journey Mennonite Church. She supports McPherson College athletes as a host family for softball and provides meals and support to the volleyball team.

The McPherson College Citation of Merit award recipients exemplify the college’s mission of Service, Scholarship, and Participation through their lifelong commitment to the values they developed as students at McPherson College. The college honored this year’s recipients at a dinner on April 22 at the Cedars Conference Center in McPherson. Citation of Merit awards went to Annette Van Blaricum ’68, Roger Trimmell ’73, and Jeff Bach ’79.

The McPherson College Citation of Merit is the college’s highest award recognizing the most distinguished alumni for lifetime accomplishments in service to profession, community, church, and to McPherson College. The recipients are recommended by the Alumni Awards Committee and are approved by the College Board of Trustees.

Annette Van Blaricum

The characteristics of service, scholarship, and participation outlined in the McPherson College mission are a common theme throughout the life and career of Annette Van Blaricum of Wichita. At nine years old, after visiting her sister at the college, she knew where she wanted to attend college and through her participation as a student in activities like theatre and choir, she laid a foundation that allowed her to sing with her church choir for many years and meet her husband, Ken ‘67.

She taught kindergarten and Title 1 for more than 30 years in Tonganoxie, Wichita, and Pratt, retiring in 2006. She has been an active volunteer in her church and the communities where she has lived with her family. In Pratt, she taught pre-school Sunday School for more than 10 years. She served as president of the Pratt United Methodist Women and served as vice president for the Wichita West District UMW. She organized a young women’s Rebekah Guild, and tutored international students from Africa and India. She also volunteered within her profession as president of Delta Kappa Gamma teachers group, publishing its newsletter for several years and was president of the Retired Teachers organization. Other volunteer activities include filling many offices within PEO chapters, serving as president of the Prairie Pilot Club, and serving as state president of the American Association of University Women.

Annette stays connected with McPherson College by serving as class agent for the Class of 1968 and helping coordinate their successful 50^th reunion in 2018. She is a past member of the Alumni Board. She also shares her talents with her communities. After learning to quilt, she organized a sewing club that donated several baby quilts to the Pratt Regional Medical Center over the years. She enjoys reading and hiking along the Arkansas River and is an avid cook and baker. Since 2015, she has been selling jams, jellies, salsa, and baked goods at the Pratt Farmers Market and currently at the Wichita Flea Market.

Roger Trimmell

Roger Trimmell served as head coach for the McPherson College men’s basketball team for 27 seasons from 1982 to 2008 and was an assistant professor in the health and physical education program. His impact on the lives of hundreds of students and colleagues is immeasurable. During his time as head coach for the Bulldogs, 61 players were named to All-Conference teams, including three who were named KCAC Player of the Year, and three who received NAIA All-American honors. Additionally, the graduation rate for all his senior players was 100 percent. He is affectionately known to McPherson College as the Father of Dogball. His teams qualified for the NAIA District 10 playoffs six times and his overall conference record, 221-211, gives him the most victories in KCAC men’s basketball history. He was named KCAC Coach of the Year twice, and was inducted into the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame twice – once as a coach and once as a member of the 1968 Wamego, Kan., undefeated state basketball championship team.

While at McPherson College, he organized annual team collections for the local food bank and reading programs with elementary schools. He also coordinated student groups to support Operation Christmas Child. He devoted summers to the college basketball camps as well as youth leagues and was director of the McPherson College Boys and Girls All-Star Basketball Games.

Along with his successful teaching and coaching career, he also devoted much of his time and talent to McPherson community organizations and his church. He was the director of Heartland Basketball Camps for nine years as well as for Focus on Family Basketball Camps, also for nine years. He served as a board member for the McPherson YMCA and volunteers with Brush Up Mac. He is a member of Countryside Covenant Church where is a Christian Formation teacher for junior high youth as well as a leader for the Adult Life group, and past member and chair of the Diaconate Board.

Jeff Bach

The foundation for Jeff Bach’s life-long love of learning was set at McPherson College and led him to a career of scholarship and service within the Church of the Brethren. He graduated from McPherson College with a double major in elementary education and German language and taught German at area high schools after graduating for a brief time. He was called to the ministry earning a master’s of divinity degree at Bethany Theological Seminary and later completing a doctoral program in the department of religion at Duke University publishing a dissertation about the religious views of the Ephrata Community in Ephrata, PA. He served as pastor to churches in Iowa and later taught history and Brethren studies and served as director of Peace Studies at Bethany Theological Seminary.

In 2007, he was named director of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College and served as associate professor of religious studies. As director, he oversaw three major fund-raising efforts that resulted in the addition of an archive and special collection to the library, an addition to the Center’s facility, and $1 million endowed program support. He supervised acquisitions of several rare materials and books and developed content for the Bowers Interpretive Gallery at the Young Center, a museum-quality multi-media exhibit of artifacts, graphics, and text to interpret the Anabaptist and Pietist movements. He retired in 2020 and was recently named director emeritus.

He served on the Church of the Brethren 300^th Anniversary committee and was chair of the committee from 2005-2008. Currently, he serves as convener for the planning committee for the Church of the Brethren World Assembly in 2023. He is also the liaison between the Brethren Encyclopedia Board and the Alexander Mack Museum in Schwarzenau, Germany and participates in research for two projects transcribing and analyzing German text. He and his wife, Ann ’79, also serve as part-time ministers at Stevens Hill Church of the Brethren in Elizabethtown, PA.

Each year McPherson College recognizes the accomplishments of young alumni during the Honors Convocation at Homecoming. This year three alumni – Jason Pendleton ‘92, Jessica Everton ‘96, and Rana Salman ‘01 –received Young Alumni Awards on October 11.

The purpose of the Young Alumni Award is to recognize the achievement and potential for accomplishment of the college’s young alumni. The award is given to alumni who are meeting significant challenges in pursuit of professional goals as well as involved in service to others and church, and who participate in alumni activities.

Jason Pendleton, Overland Park, Kansas, graduated in 1992 with a degree in history. His career as a teacher began after he received his degree at McPherson College. He later received a master’s degree in history at Emporia State. He is currently a teacher at Blue Valley Southwest High School where he has been a teacher of U.S. history, sociology, AP U.S. history, and U.S. government since 2010. He’s taken on leadership roles as a co-chair for the history department and led professional development on blended learning and diversity. In 2008, he received the Dayton Rothrock Alumni Fellow from McPherson College.

Along with his teaching responsibilities, he has also coached 50 high school seasons–mostly soccer, but also football and track. At Blue Valley Southwest, his teams have won state championships in soccer two times for girls and once for boys. In 2017-18, both teams were undefeated and finished the season ranked fourth in the U.S. for boys and sixth for the girls. That season earned him the Girls United Soccer Coaches National Coach of the Year award along with the National Federation of High School Boys National Coach of the Year award. He has been named Kansas Coach of the Year for girls soccer five times and twice for boys.

Jessica (Boothe) Everton, Phoenix, Arizona, graduated in 1996 with a degree in English and later received a master’s degree in communication from Wichita State University. Everton is a senior director of product development at the NROC Project, a California-based technology firm that works with educators to build technologies and content that improve student success. She creates courses and tools that prepare secondary, post-secondary and adult learners for college and career success. Prior to her work at NROC, she worked in content and technology development for several ed-tech companies from start-ups to larger publishers.

Everton served on the McPherson College Board of Trustees from 2006-2011. She currently serves as the volunteer director of the Archway Scottsdale Parent Services Organization and is a Girl Scout leader.

Rana (El-Halabi) Salman, Austin, Texas, graduated in 2001 with a degree in public relations. Salman established Salman Consulting in 2016 collaborating with sales leaders, marketing, and enablement to improve sales effectiveness. She started her career with an interest in research and earned an MBA and Ph.D., along with several certificates. Salman has more than 18 years of experience in marketing and sales, spending a significant amount of her career as a sales consultant, working with top-tier organizations, conducting qualitative and quantitative analysis, developing sales strategies aligned to outcomes, and working closely on sales training programs.

She is the co-founder of WiSE, Women in Sales Enablement, an organization that brings women in sales enablement together to network and learn from another. She is also the previous board president of TMF Foundation, a charitable giving foundation that supports health care providers in multiple settings. She is a speaker at national conferences including Texas Conference for Women, Sales Enablement Society, and Competitive Marketing Summit, as well as a guest lecturer at Texas A&M Reynolds & Reynolds Sales Leadership Institute.