The College of Business Administration presented special recognition awards to seven business and community leaders and to Kaiser Permanente on Thursday, May 15, 2008 at its Eighth Annual Recognition and Awards Banquet. The program, which is open to invited guests and the media, recognized the achievements of CBA students, faculty, staff, alumni, members of the Business Advisory Board, and business leaders from the region.

The community recipients were:

Outstanding Business Leader
Paula Zagaris-Leffler
President of Liberty Property Management and CFO of PMZ Real Estate

Outstanding Entrepreneur
Dan Costa
CEO 5.11 Tactical Inc.

Outstanding Community Leader
Brent Ives
Mayor of Tracy

Outstanding Emerging Business Leader
John Jacinto
President and Co-Founder VisTech Manufacturing Solutions

Outstanding Business Alumna
Trudy Pauley
Director of Finance Foster Farms

Outstanding Community Service Leader
Kevin Riley
Project Analyst Stanislaus County Office of Education

Outstanding CBA Business Advisory Board Member
Kent Kushar
Vice President and Chief Information Officer E. & J. Gallo Winery

Outstanding Corporate Social Responsibility, Kaiser Permanente's Free Mobile Medical Clinic. Kaiser's mobile clinic makes monthly stops with no eligibility criteria for participants at Turlock's CARES Resource Center which is operated through a CSU Stanislaus community grant program that helps the homeless and needy.

Faculty and staff were recognized for their achievements and service to the College during the past year:

Outstanding Faculty Special Recognition, Dr. Ed Hernandez
Outstanding Teaching Faculty, Dr. Theo Chronis
Outstanding Research Faculty, Dr. Peter Li
Outstanding Service Faculty, Dr. Steve Filling
Outstanding Staff Member, Claudia Valencia

Students were honored with scholarships for leadership and academic excellence:

Accounting, Raquel Morshead
Computer Information Systems, Juan C. Pasillas
Finance, Daniel Hall
General Business, Orlando Zaragoza
MBA, Amie Coker
Management-Human Resources, Tim Boone
Management-International Business, Rochelle van Horn
Management-Strategy/Entrepreneurship, Kevin Bull
Marketing, Mikelle Thatcher
Operations Management, Timothy Lovick Brown
MSBA, Kyle Weinheimer
Commencement Standard Bearer, Mikelle Thacher

Next year’s award banquet is scheduled for May 14, 2009.