Six SEMO alumni to be honored at annual awards dinner

Six Southeast Missouri State University alumni will be recognized Friday, Oct. 25, at the annual Copper Dome Society and Merit Awards dinner.

Four awards will be presented at the event, including three Alumni Merit Awards, the Distinguished Service Award, the Distinguished Young Alumni Award and the Faculty Merit Award.

Jason Lane, Lew Miltenberger and Roosevelt Mitchell III will receive Alumni Merit Awards, which have been presented to alumni each year since 1958 who have “brought distinction to themselves and the university.”

Jason Lane

Throughout his 20-year career, Lane — a 1999 graduate with a degree in political science and business administration — has become an award-winning scholar, best-selling author, professor and public higher education leader. He has served as president of the National Association of Higher Education Systems and as chairman of the Board of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.

Additionally, Lane has published 14 books and more than 100 academic papers and has received several awards for his work. Currently, Lane is living in West Chester, Ohio, with his family and serves as a special adviser to the president of the University of Illinois System, as well as teaching at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, directing the AGB Institute for Leadership and Governance and co-directing the Cross-Border Education Research Team.

“Southeast allowed me to explore things that I had passion for and led me to a career that wasn’t even on my radar when I went to college. I was able to figure out what the right fit was for me, all within an amazingly supportive environment,” Lane said in a news release from the university. “That’s a hallmark of this institution. It has a long-standing focus on the success of its students, preparing them for their future.”

Lewis “Lew” Miltenberger

A 1981 graduate, Miltenberger has been a “dedicated community leader and accomplished attorney”. He received his bachelor’s degree from SEMO in business administration, where he majored in finance and economics.

After graduation, Miltenberger began a career in commercial real estate lending in Nashville, Tennesee. He received a law degree from Baylor University and has since had a successful legal career in Texas, Illinois and Missouri, representing multiple corporate clients in “high-stakes cases”.

“College life taught me the value of hard work, teamwork and keeping a sense of humor,” Miltenberger said. “I am incredibly grateful for the experiences and knowledge that SEMO brought me.”

Roosevelt Mitchell III

Mitchell, who graduated from SEMO in 2005 and is originally from Charleston, will be presented with the Alumni Merit Award.

Mitchell is an award-winning educator, author and public speaker who received a master’s degree in special education, as well as a specialist degree in educational leadership. He is currently working on his dissertation, “The Hiring and Retention Experiences of African American Male Special Education Teachers in the State of Missouri”, toward his doctorate in education.

Mitchell has previously been recognized by Black Enterprise Magazine as one of its “100 Most Influential Urban Professionals”, received the Excellence in Education Award and his time as a high school basketball player was recognized when the Charleston basketball program was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

Mitchell serves as a special education supervisor for East St. Louis School District 189.

“Coming to SEMO was life-changing,” Mitchell said. “If I had went anywhere else, I don’t know if I would have made it through because it was such a powerful community.”

Laura Hatcher

Laura Hatcher will receive the Faculty Merit Award for her decade of service at the university.

At SEMO, Hatcher teaches constitutional law, judicial behavior, administrative law and disaster studies. She has served as the pre-law coordinator for the Department of Political Science — of which she is the chairwoman, along with the Department of Philosophy and Religion — for the past seven years and helps students navigate the process of applying for law school and finding careers in the field.

Hatcher — a graduate of the University of Utah and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst — currently serves on the Renew Missouri and Kellerman Foundation for Historic Preservation boards of directors and volunteers with Old Town Cape and the PORCH Initiative.

“I remember telling my research assistant ‘I could work here full time!’” Hatcher said. “Two years later, I accepted an offer to do just that.”

Tiffany Rodriguez

Tiffany Rodriguez, a 2003 graduate of SEMO with a master’s degree in chemistry, will receive the university’s Distinguished Service Award for her work as a forensic chemist.

Before working at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) forensic laboratory in Atlanta, Rodriguez served at the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory for 21 years where she was awarded the Civil Service Commendation Medal.

In August, Rodriguez restored the ATF’s Trace Evidence section’s accreditation and brought glass-analysis capabilities online at Atlanta’s lab for the first time.

Tara Meyer

2014 graduate Tara Meyer will receive the Distinguished Young Alumni Award for her work as a costumer in Los Angeles.

Meyer, a Cape Girardeau native, worked as a costume assistant on multiple television shows before joining the Motion Picture Costumer’s Union. She has worked on several popular television shows, including “The Masked Singer” and “Lucifer”. Meyer was promoted to key costumer and led her teams on Emmy-winning productions of “The Masked Singer” and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast Live!”

At SEMO, where she received a bachelor's degree in performing arts with an emphasis in theater design and technology, Meyer worked as an assistant and stitcher for the theater costume shop for 32 productions at the River Campus.

“I feel so honored that I was chosen for this,” Meyer said. “... I feel very lucky.”

The Copper Dome Society and Merit Awards dinner will begin with a social hour from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25, with dinner and the main program beginning immediately after at the Show Me Center. Current Copper Dome Society members will receive two complimentary tickets, and additional tickets may be purchased for $40 apiece. Reservations may be made by calling (573) 651-2259.