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Northern Kentucky University awarding honorary doctorates to Sparks, St. Amand, Johnson, Rieveshel


Northern Kentucky University will award four honorary doctorates at its commencement ceremonies Sunday.

The honorary degrees will go to:

Alice Steven Sparks
Doctor of Education

Alice Steven Sparks of Ft. Mitchell joined Northern Kentucky University’s Board o Regents in 1992 and was subsequently elected to serve as its chair in 1994, a milestone move for both her and NKU.

Sparks was the first woman to chair a public university in the Commonwealth. But this trailblazer’s dedication to public service and philanthropy can be traced back decades to when, at a young age, she worked as an intern to Kentucky’s first lady Mildred Chandler during her husband, Albert “Happy” Chandler’s, second term as 49th governor of Kentucky (1955-59).

Alice Sparks

Over the years, Sparks has shown a commitment to impacting education issues at both the state and national levels, serving as legislative chair of the Kentucky PTA, as well as advocating tirelessly for the Kentucky Education Reform Act. She’s been recognized by a number of educational groups for her work improving education, from kindergarten to university, in statewide education reform efforts. In addition to serving NKU, Sparks has worked to impact higher education across the Commonwealth, sitting on the Board of Trustees for both University of Kentucky and Thomas More College, and on the board for the Governor’s Scholars program.

Sparks currently serves on the executive board of NKU’s Go Norse Fund Board, supporting NKU Athletics, and is a regular sponsor of athletics events and is a basketball season ticket holder. The Alice Sparks Ticket Office in BB&T Arena was named in honor of this support of NKU Athletics and the home of NKU basketball. In addition to Athletics, Sparks has also funded a wide variety of scholarships providing support for NKU students, including the D. Joseph Sparks Memorial Endowed Scholarship for student leaders, scholarships for student-athletes, support for graduate students in the College of Education and Human Services, and the Distinguished Scholarship for academically talented students. She has also supported the Chase Tort Room Fund for NKU’s law students and the Judge Judy M. West Scholarship within Chase College of Law.

Sparks’ accolades are evidence of her enthusiastic advocacy of worthy causes and include the Devou Cup from the Northern Kentucky Fund of Greater Cincinnati Foundation; honors and recognitions from WKET and WCET, Hospice of the Bluegrass and the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce; and the Lincoln Award from NKU. She was named one of 100 Women of Distinction by the Wilderness Road Council on the Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary. 

On a professional level, Sparks has proven herself time and again to be a skillful businessperson, most notably as founder, president and chief executive officer of SSK Company Communities, a real estate company that specializes in manufactured home communities. SSK is ranked among the top 30 manufactured home community companies in the country, with more than 6,000 homes in their properties’ portfolio.

Sparks is the widow of D. Joseph Sparks, a local businessperson who owned Hebron-based highway construction firm The Harper Company. She is the mother of two children, John and Sally, and the proud grandmother of two grandchildren.

Gerald St. Amand
Doctor of Education

Gerard A. St. Amand has served as Interim President of Northern Kentucky University since May 2017. He postponed his planned retirement scheduled for May 1, 2017, to serve in this role when former President Geoffrey Mearns announced he was leaving the university.

St. Amand has a long tenure with NKU, joining the Chase College of Law as dean and professor of law in 1999. In 2006, he was asked to serve as NKU’s Vice President for University Advancement, a position he served in until 2013 when he elected to return to the law school in a full-time teaching capacity.
 

Gerald St. Amand

Since his time with NKU, St. Amand has served the national, Kentucky and Ohio legal communities in multiple capacities, most notably on the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Bar Foundation, the Kentucky Judicial Education Commission, the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, and the Ohio State Bar Association Law Deans Committee. He has also served on the NKU Foundation Board as a member of the executive, investment, governance and membership committees. In addition, he serves on the board of directors of multiple community and business organizations, including the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and the Northern Kentucky Regional Alliance. 
He has been recognized during his service at NKU with the Public Advocate Award from the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, the Distinguished Service Award from the Chase College of Law Alumni Association, the Keeper of the Dream Award from the National Black Law Students Association and the Second Act Award from the Business Courier.

Prior to coming to NKU, St. Amand dedicated nearly 25 years to serving his country by practicing law as an officer and lawyer in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He held many distinguished positions during his military career. Even during this time, St. Amand exhibited a passion for educational excellence, as his Army service included three years on the faculty of the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s School, where he taught in the LL.M. program, followed later by serving as the Director of Academics and Commandant of the School. His most notable military awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal and the Legion of Merit. He also received the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff National Security Strategy Award. St. Amand retired from Army service at the rank of Colonel and as Commandant of The Judge Advocate General’s School to assume his duties as dean at the Chase College of Law.

Bruce Johnson
Doctor of Letters

Bruce Johnson has been an anchor and reporter for Washington, D.C.’s WUSA9 for over 40 years.

Johnson currently anchors the weeknight 6 p.m. news and the 7 p.m. news broadcast called “Off Script with Bruce Johnson.” He can also be seen regularly covering politics and breaking news stories.

A veteran broadcast journalist, Johnson has traveled the world on special assignment for WUSA9, filing special reports or documentaries from Moscow, Paris, Stockholm, Budapest, Tokyo, Dakar, Bangkok, earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Beijing, Shanghai and Rome.

Bruce ohnson

Johnson has won 22 Emmys including the prestigious Ted Yates Award, which is only given with a unanimous vote of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) Board of Governors. He‘s been inducted into the Society of Professional Journalists‘ Hall of Fame, the NATAS Silver Circle and the Washington, D.C. Hall of Fame. Johnson is a member of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and the National Association of Black Journalists.

Johnson has been honored with resolutions from the D.C. City Council and proclamations from D.C. mayors Anthony Williams and Muriel Bowser. He
has lent countless hours to charitable causes and served on dozens of nonprofit boards.

Johnson’s community service and volunteer awards number well into the hundreds. His passion is the city’s youth and it’s shown in the stories he’s told about their struggles and successes.

In 1992, while on assignment for WUSA9 in a D.C. neighborhood, Johnson suffered a sudden heart attack. As part of his recovery Johnson became an avid runner. Years later with his doctor’s approval he trained for and completed the 26.2 mile Marine Corp Marathon in Washington, D.C.

Friends convinced Johnson to use his status to become a local and national heart health advocate. Mended Hearts.org recently awarded him a life membership for his work. Cardiologists and clergy members still use and promote Johnson’s documentary “Before You Eat the Church Food, Watch This Video.” He has several books to his credit also; Heart to Heart is a moving account of Johnson’s struggles and those of eleven other men and women who suffered heart attacks. His second book, All or Nothing: The Victor Page Story is the story of a Georgetown University basketball player whose pro career was sabotaged by his past.

Johnson is married with three adult children, three grandsons and Najee the family dog. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Northern Kentucky University in 1973 with a major in political science. He also holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Cincinnati.

Ellen Rieveschl
Doctor of Education

Ellen Rieveschl is no stranger to blazing the trail. During her studies at the University of Cincinnati, she was one of the first female qualifying members of the National Economics Honor Society before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Management and Economics. She was one of the first women at Fifth Third Bank to be hired to a management role in the Trust Department, and later had a successful career in residential and commercial real estate.

Ellen Rieveschl

Rieveschl didn’t stop with making her mark in the business world and the real estate business. The widow of George Rieveschl, inventor of the antihistamine Benadryl, has a love for community service. She is a long-time philanthropist and community volunteer, especially on our campus. Thousands of students have had their lives transformed thanks to the substantial financial support of The George and Ellen Rieveschl Endowed Scholarship and the Rieveschl Scientific Instrumentation Fund at NKU, providing a state-of-the-art science education and unparalleled research opportunities. Scholarship investments continue to assure gifted recipients the resources to realize their education and life dreams.

Rieveschl has made a particular impact on NKU’s College of Informatics. She recognized the importance of informatics — particularly cybersecurity -— in the 21st century. She and George provided key early and ongoing support to the college, prompting the naming of the George and Ellen Rieveschl Digitorium in recognition of this support. She also serves as a special advisor to the Dean of the College of Informatics and uses her time and experience to help position the college for growth and new opportunities. Rieveschl’s new Video Mural in the Griffin Hall Commons displays the research, creative activity and outreach work of NKU informatics students and faculty in a visually compelling way while highlighting activities in the adjacent new JRG Cyber Threat Intelligence Lab.

In addition to the time and support she has given to NKU, Rieveschl has also been very active elsewhere in her community. She served as the first woman president of the Mt. Adams Civic Association and has held board positions with the Covington Rotary, Friends of Covington and Forward Quest. She is a passionate supporter of the arts and has served on the boards of the Carnegie Arts Center, Cincinnati May Festival, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Taft Museum of Art. Rieveschl has also been active with her alma mater, serving on a variety of boards and committees with the University of Cincinnati Foundation and UC Medical School.

Given these accomplishments, it is no surprise that Rieveschl’s list of honors is as prestigious as it is long—ranging from the Northern Kentucky Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation’s Devou Cup to Northern Kentucky University’s Lincoln Award. For Ellen and her late husband George, giving back to the community has always been a way of life, and she continues to be an example to others of service and civic engagement.

Northern Kentucky University


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