Southeast Missouri State University honored five alumni during its Alumni Merit Awards ceremony Thursday, Oct, 12, in the Academic Hall auditorium.

George Gasser, director of Alumni Relations, said there are more than 80,000 living SEMO alumni "out there in the world." He said the Alumni Merit Awards have been presented annually since 1958 to SEMO alumni who have brought distinction to themselves and the university.

Carlos Vargas, president of SEMO, said the five alumni being honored were an "impressive group" and the university is "proud and grateful you represent us."

"Our alumni frequently become high level executives, they start businesses, they create and innovate, they serve and protect and, especially in the case of our nursing and teaching alumni, they touch of the lives of thousands of people," Vargas said. "Tonight's award recipients are all outstanding in their respective fields."

Alumni Merit Awards

Karl MuellerCourtesy of Southeast Missouri State University

Karl MuellerCourtesy of Southeast Missouri State University

Karl Mueller graduated SEMO in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He served as the senior vice president and chief financial officer of Old Republic International Corp. in Chicago before retiring in 2021.

Mueller is a past recipient of SEMO's Distinguished Young Alumni Merit Award. He's currently a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and serves on the board of directors and finance committee for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.

"I'm the first of my family to attend and graduate from college," Mueller said. "I think my experience at Southeast certainly prepared me and opened the door to allow me to have the opportunity to have a long, successful career."

Lisa PageCourtesy of Southeast Missouri State University

Lisa PageCourtesy of Southeast Missouri State University

Lisa Page graduated from SEMO in 1988 as a political science major with minors in Spanish, economics and criminal justice. She went on to Saint Louis University School of Law, then practiced law in Jefferson County, Missouri, for eight years. In 2005, she was appointed family court commissioner and elected the first female circuit judge in Jefferson County in 2006.

Page was appointed to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District in December 2015 and served as chief judge is 2018-2019. Page, a lifelong resident of Festus, Missouri, is a former member of the Missouri Supreme Court Trial Judge Education Committee and currently serves as the chairwoman of the Missouri Court Management Institute Oversight Committee and as a member of the Appellate Education and the Civic Education Committee.

"I'm grateful that I'm here," Page said. "I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for the foundation Southeast Missouri State University gave me."

Kenneth StrickerCourtesy of Southeast Missouri State University

Kenneth StrickerCourtesy of Southeast Missouri State University

Kenneth Stricker, CEO of The Jones Company of Tennessee, graduated SEMO in 1987 with a degree in accounting and finance. After graduation, Stricker worked at Aselage, Kiefer & Co. in St. Louis for seven years, where he was assigned to The Jones Company account and began a long relationship with them. He credited a SEMO professor with making a call and helping him get his first job there.

"If it wasn't for Southeast, I would have never made that connection," Stricker said. "Now I oversee the company's operations and have for a long time."

Stricker said he worked for several years as the company's auditor and then was offered the position of operations manager with Jones in 1994. He was promoted to vice president and chief financial officer two years later and became president in 2003.

Distinguished Young Alumni Award

Derrion HendersonCourtesy of Southeast Missouri State University

Derrion HendersonCourtesy of Southeast Missouri State University

Derrion Henderson, the morning anchor at WMBF News in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, graduated from SEMO in 2015 with a degree in Mass Media: Multimedia Journalism with a minor in marketing. Throughout his work in television, he's been nominated for two Mid-America Emmy Awards, and recently picked up a third Emmy nomination — a National Association of Black Journalists award. He also won News Anchor Team of the Year from Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas.

"SEMO gives you the tools that you need so when you get into that place that gives you that first shot, you're going to excel and you're going to grow and go far," Henderson said. "You find the way to just go and do it, and that's what you learn at SEMO."

Faculty Merit Award

Jim McGillCourtesy of Southeast Missouri State University

Jim McGillCourtesy of Southeast Missouri State University

Jim McGill, professor in SEMO's Department of Chemistry and Physics, associate dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, graduated from SEMO in 1996 with a degree in chemistry before earning his Ph.D. in chemistry at Kansas State University.

McGill has also worked as a forensic chemist for the Drug Enforcement Administration and helped secure more than $1 million in federal and corporate funding and donations for forensic chemistry at SEMO.

McGill said his true passion is helping others discover their gifts and their passions, then putting those together to find their calling and achieve their dreams.

"My catchword for years has been, 'SEMO changes lives'," McGill said. "I say it to a lot of students, and tell them you belong here, you can do it."