Indiana University East honored five individuals for their service to the university and within the community during the Chancellor’s Medallion Dinner held November 14 at Forest Hills Country Club. The Chancellor’s Medallion Dinner is one of many events scheduled during IU East’s 2014 Homecoming Week, November 10-15.

The Chancellor’s Medallion honors individuals who have rendered distinguished service to IU East. Honorees include IU East Professor Emeritus Ashton Veramallay, Ph.D., IU East Professor Emerita Jane Vincent, Ed.D. R.N., and James Helms, Chancellor Emeritus of Ivy Tech Community College Southeast.

This year IU East established an Alumni Hall of Fame. Jeff Cappa and Kate Hogg were inducted in recognition and celebration as outstanding alumni of IU East. Inductees to the Hall of Fame are alumni who have typified the IU East tradition of excellence and brought credit to the campus through their personal accomplishments, professional achievement and leadership and humanitarian service and citizenship.

Previously, IU East recognized the special achievements of alumni through its Distinguished Alumni Award. All past Distinguished Alumni will be automatically inducted into the Hall of Fame as charter members. For a list of previous Distinguished Alumni, visit iue.edu/alumni/awards/dist_alumni.php.

Chancellor’s Medallion Honorees
Ashton Veramallay, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, joined IU East in 1977. During Veramallay’s 27 years at IU East, he was an integral part of the School of Business and Economics. He served as an expert in local and worldwide economics, he was a member of several community organizations, a consultant, public speaker and published author.

In 1998, he established the Center for Economic Education, a teaching, research and development resource center. Under his direction, the center received the 2002 Peter V. Harrington University Center Award for Excellence by the Indiana Council for Economic Education.

Additionally, he served as the chair of the Division of Business, Economics, Systems and Technology. He led the division through a successful accreditation process by the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs. Veramally established and advised IU East’s Delta Mu Delta Honors Society, a national honor society for students in the field of business administration.

Within the community, he has served on the boards and committees of the American Red Cross Wayne/Union County Chapter, the United Way of Whitewater Valley, Junior Achievement of Eastern Indiana and the Small Business Development Center. He is a previous member of the Reid Hospital Foundation Board of Directors and Wayne Area Chamber of Commerce.  He is a founding member of the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Richmond.

In recognition for his service, community involvement and teaching, Veramallay has received prestigious honors including the Sagamore of the Wabash Award for excellence in economics education and the Indiana University Distinguished Service Award, the W. George Pinnell Award for Outstanding Service.

Today, he continues to support IU East and its students through the Ashton Veramallay Economics/Economics Education Scholarship, awarded to a current student for demonstrated academic potential in an economics related field.

Jane Vincent, Ed.D., R.N., Professor Emerita, is known as a quiet leader throughout the community, is recognized locally and throughout the state for her leadership in nursing education. She was the first woman to serve on the Reid Hospital Foundation Board of Directors, which she did ably for three terms, one of those as president. Vincent’s passion has been to encourage quality of life for families and caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients. She organized and facilitated the first Alzheimer’s support group in the state, (two years prior to the inception of the Indiana Alzheimer’s Association), a commitment she maintained for over 20 years, impacting countless lives in the region and beyond.

As a teacher, she has educated and mentored thousands of nurses through their profession to become the best nurses possible. Now she is “teaching the teachers.” She continues to teach graduate level courses online. Jane has worked hard with many nursing students as they have overcome various obstacles during their nursing education. She is a mentor who loves what she does and cares about the future of her students.

In recognition of her leadership and teaching, Vincent has received the 1992 Educator of the year Award from the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, the 2000 Distinguished Service Award from the Indiana University School of Nursing Alumni Association, a Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) award, IU East Helen Lees Award and a Teaching Excellence Recognition Award.

James Helms, Chancellor Emeritus, is well-known for the forward-thinking, service and leadership he brought to the table as Chancellor at Ivy Tech Community College Southeast, which serves Dearborn, Ripley, Jefferson, Ohio, and Switzerland Counties. Among his many achievements, Helms is attributed with increasing enrollment at the community campus from 500 students in 2000 to approximately 5,000 upon his retirement in January 2014. While at Ivy Tech, he was instrumental in the establishment of three new facilities in Batesville, New Madison and Lawrenceburg and creating associate degree programs.

He is highly recognized and noted for his partnership with IU East to develop a degree completion program that would allow associate degree graduates to complete a four-year degree at their local campus. Students could stay in Lawrenceburg, eliminating the need to drive long distances, and save costs on higher tuition and transportation, while completing a bachelor’s degree through IU East.

Helms put together the degree completion program in 2002-2003. Following a trial run with the successful partnership becoming a reality in 2004, the partnership continues to be just as successful today. Through the Ivy Tech and IU East partnership, students can complete credits with both institutions at the Ivy Tech Lawrenceburg campus to earn a bachelor’s degree including a RN to BSN, elementary education, psychology, communication studies, and business administration as well as a Master of Science in Education. Additionally, the program has expanded to Madison and Batesville.

Helms served in primary and secondary education for 51 years before he retired from Ivy Tech in January 2014. Before joining Ivy Tech as executive dean in 1998, Helms served as a member of the Ivy Tech regional board, appointed in 1976.

He is currently a member of the Ivy Tech Community College State Foundation Board and continues as a liaison with special initiatives in the Southeast Region in coordination with the President’s Office in Indianapolis.

Alumni Hall of Fame Inductees
Jeff Cappa completed his Associate Degree in Criminal Justice in 1996. Cappa has worked with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department since 1980, when he was a new graduate from Richmond High School. Four years later, Cappa graduated from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.

Serving as Sheriff of Wayne County since January 2011, Cappa worked for more than a decade before heeding the advice of his father, Dan Cappa, the IU East alumnus completed his Bachelor of Science in Business in 1988, and two veterans of the sheriff’s department. Cappa completed his degree – while continuing to work full-time and raise his three children with his wife, Susan. All three of their children attended IU East; Brandon and Adam graduated from IU East with a Bachelor of Science in Continuing Studies and his daughter, Courtney, completed her Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Indiana University Bloomington in 2010.

Cappa has served Wayne County as a dispatcher, jail officer, merit patrolman, youth service officer, investigator, merit sergeant, Chief Deputy before he was elected to office in November 2010.  As Sheriff, Cappa has developed a strategic plan for the Sheriff’s Office. He led the agency to successfully achieve Accreditation Status from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc., in November 2013. The accreditation – a three-year process to complete – is the primary method for an agency to voluntarily demonstrate their commitment to excellence in law enforcement.

Cappa is an elected member of the Indiana Sheriff’s Association Board of Directors and serves as the second vice president.

Among his honors and awards, he was named the Indiana Sheriff Association 2013 Sheriff of the Year. In 2010, Cappa received the Indiana University Alumni President Award for his volunteer service and dedication to the university.

After completing his degree, Cappa continued to be supportive and involved at IU East. He is a past president of the IU East Alumni Association Board. Cappa is now a member of the Indiana University Alumni Executive Council in Bloomington.

Kate Hogg graduated from IU East in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. Today, she is an English teacher at Richmond High School.

In her nomination letter, the author recognized Hogg as a mentor and beloved teacher of many Richmond youth, saying her students have participated in the many projects and activities she has created or organized. They share their love for her and usually tell a story about how she has made a difference in their lives.

As a teacher, she provides leadership among her colleagues and has sought opportunities to not only maker herself a better teacher, but to provide experiences that will help other teachers as well. For example, in 2005 Hogg met Erin Gruwell, a teacher in California who turned 150 “throw away kids” into college graduates and the author of the Freedom Writers Diary. Influenced by her message, Hogg encouraged her fellow teachers to participate in the summer institute offered by the Freedom Fighters and then change the way they engage students in the classroom.

In 2006, she helped bring the Freedom Writers movie to a Richmond theater and coordinated all 9th grade students in one group to see the movie.
In addition, she started an after school club, “My Will,” that welcomes at risk girls to participate. Currently, she is working with students through a travel club with the purpose of to expose young people to the issues of the world and do work projects in these very poor communities. The group is raising money to go to Costa Rica in summer 2015. Previously, the club traveled to Puerto Viejo.

She has organized several events to bring diversity and cultural opportunities for her students including “Changeapolozza,” worked with students on “Multigenre Project: The Impact of Ignorance on Intolerance” to present at the National Council of Teachers of English National Conference in New York City, and she brought Holocaust survivor Eva Kor to visit Richmond and meet with her students. She has arranged a panel of community members who had overcome adversity to speak to her students; encouraged and helped her students do a service project for Gabriel Bol Deng (Lost Boy of Sudan) after he spoke to 9th graders.

For her education and community leadership, Hogg has been honored by Girls, Inc., and she was named the 2011 Teacher of the Year by the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce.  Hogg was selected as the 2007-2008 Richmond High School Teacher of the Year. In 2011, Hogg completed her Master of Arts in Teaching from Earlham College.