ETSU presents 2023 Alumni Awards

The 2023 ETSU Alumni Awards were held at the D.P. Culp Center Ballroom on Friday, Nov. 17.

Nine East Tennessee State University alumni and friends were recently honored with 2023 Alumni Awards on Friday, Nov. 17.

The George L. Carter Award was presented to Lt. Gen. Ronald V. Hite, a member of the Class of 1964. Hite led a decorated career in the military that spans more than three decades, commanding at every level and holding many unique positions during assignments throughout the United States, Germany, Vietnam and Korea. 

These assignments included leadership and command positions in two infantry divisions, including commanding a battalion in the 7th Infantry Division. He also held a battalion staff position and commanded a company in South Vietnam and served as the executive officer of a large battalion spread throughout South Korea.

Hite participated as one of the cofounders and instructors at Combined Arms and Staff Services School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  He was activated as the First Commander, the U.S. Army Combat Systems Test Activity, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. Upon completion of this assignment, Army leadership tasked him to put together a highly qualified team of military and civilians with the mission of developing and executing a live fire program for both the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the Abrams Tank.

He retired from the Army in 1997 and joined Cypress International, where he later retired from the position of chairman and CEO in 2005. 

Outstanding Alumni Awards were bestowed upon Dick Clarke and Pauline Douglas. 

Clarke graduated in 1971 with a B.S. degree in English and a minor in speech and embarked on a career in commercial liability insurance. During 1989-90, he was president of the ETSU National Alumni Association.

In October 2016, he retired from full-time employment after working as liability insurance company underwriter, insurance agency manager, insurance consultant, insurance manager and international insurance broker. He has published two books and written numerous professional articles.

After graduating from ETSU, Douglas began her career with the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office in Security and Emergency Management. While at the Department of Energy, she completed details as the acting diversity EEO/employee concerns manager and the Small Business Program manager. Opportunities opened throughout her career, culminating in her selection as assistant manager for Safeguards, Security and Emergency Management and acting assistant manager for Safety and Technical Services.

Among her many civic contributions was working with the Knoxville Christian Arts Ministry and the Susan G. Komen East Tennessee Board. Now retired, she is active with several local organizations, including the Jonesborough Kiwanis Club and Langston Education and Arts Development. 

The Award of Honor was given to Shirley Holtsclaw Berk and Dr. Joe D. Moore. Berk holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in microbiology from ETSU. While living in Johnson City and working as a supervisor of the clinical microbiology laboratory at the Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, she was an active community servant, working with such organizations as the Johnson City School System PTA, Johnson City Board of Education, Suzuki School of Music board of directors and the Medical Auxiliary of the Washington, Unicoi Johnson County Medical Association.

After moving to Texas with her family, she continued her dedicated record of service with numerous organizations, including the American Cancer Society, Children’s Miracle Network, Amarillo Symphony Guild, March of Dimes, American Diabetes Association, City of Lubbock Community Development Board and Alzheimer’s Association.

Moore currently serves as director of athletic bands, associate director of bands, and associate professor of music at ETSU. Upon joining the ETSU faculty in 2014, he was tasked with revitalizing the Marching Bucs, which had been dissolved a decade earlier. Under his leadership, the group has enjoyed exponential growth year-to-year, from a membership of 165 in its 2015 debut season to well above 300 active members at present, continually and consecutively breaking the record for the largest band in ETSU history.  

Along with a surge in membership, the Marching Bucs have quickly established themselves as a premier marching arts organization with national recognition. The group was chosen to represent the State of Tennessee in the 2024 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the first time a collegiate band from Tennessee has been featured in over 50 years.  

Class of 2001 graduate Robert Raines received the Distinguished Alumnus in Public Service Award. In 2012, Raines was appointed by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to be the executive director of the Tennessee Entertainment Commission, a role in which he leads all economic development and job creation initiatives within Tennessee’s entertainment sector. Raines is responsible for advancing strategic goals of the Tennessee Entertainment Commission, managing production tax credits and grants, driving business development, executing campaign strategies and steering state legislative initiatives.

Throughout his career, Raines has managed over $1 billion in economic output for the State of Tennessee, helping create $500 million in new income for Tennesseans and thousands of jobs. Under his leadership as executive director, employment in the motion picture and video production sector has increased by 64% in Tennessee, positioning Tennessee as No. 5 among all states for total employment in this industry cluster with projected growth set at 19% over the next decade.

He has consulted for over 1,500 productions and managed key relationships with such industry leaders as Paramount, NBCUNI, Lionsgate, Warner Bros Discovery, Sony Entertainment, Apple Studios, Disney/ABC, Amazon Studios and Netflix.

In 2021, Raines led efforts between the Governor’s Office and state legislators to craft the state’s first tax credit and sales tax exemption program to attract high-impact production activities. And, in 2023, he initiated the state’s first music office in the partnership with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development to build programmatic resources that reinforce the development of Tennessee’s music ecosystems .

Dr. Cornell Sneed was presented the “PRIDE of ETSU” Award. A native of Miami, Sneed came to ETSU in fall 2008 as a track and field thrower pursuing his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and criminology. While at ETSU, he excelled academically and athletically, graduating magna cum laude, winning four team championships, earning all A-Sun Conference thrower honors seven times, having top five all-time ETSU marks in the shot put, discus, hammer and weight throw and breaking the school record in the discus. 

After finishing undergrad in 2012, he pursued a master’s degree in sport management at ETSU and later an Ed.D. degree in global sports leadership. He is currently an assistant professor of sports management and Business and the track and field throws coach at Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina.

Honorary Alumni Awards were given to ETSU First Lady Donna Noland and Col. (Ret.) Daniel S. Bishop. 

Noland became ETSU’s first lady in January 2012 and has volunteered within the community on various boards. She has served as past member of the board of directors for the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation during the Haslam term, and as president, secretary and member of the University School Foundation. In her role as first lady, Noland helped to create Bucky’s Food Pantry and Clothing Closet for any ETSU family in need, and she led the initiative to design the official, Scotland-registered university tartan. 

She was also part of the partnership with Ballad Health that initiated the Buccaneer Building Blocks program, which provides families of all newborn babies delivered in the region an information packet with early college planning resources, as well as an ETSU onesie. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she worked with the colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy in managing and administering vaccinations both on campus and across the region.

In addition, Noland has been an active volunteer with Niswonger Children’s Hospital and has been involved within the Johnson City community at large as a previous member of the Johnson City Development Authority and the Johnson City Foundation. In 2019, she served as a member and fundraising chair for the Sesquicentennial Committee for the City of Johnson City. She remains active as past board chair and current member of the Crumley House Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center as well as a member of Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church.  

Bishop graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1996 as a distinguished military graduate, receiving his commission as an armor officer. After completing his Basic Officer Course at Fort Knox, his first assignment was to the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, in Friedberg, Germany, where he served as a tank platoon leader and company executive officer.  

Bishop transitioned to the Military Intelligence Corps, attending the Intelligence Transition, Advanced and Counterintelligence courses.  As a captain, he was assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, with the 1st Cavalry Division, where he served in a variety of positions to include division intelligence collection manager; senior intelligence officer for 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment; and assistant operations officer for the 312th Military Intelligence Battalion. He deployed as the 312th’s headquarters company commander to Baghdad, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II from 2004 to 2005.  

Reassigned in 2007 to Fort Bragg, he served with the Joint Special Operations Command initially as an intelligence planner, later serving as J-2 chief of future operations, and eventually assumed responsibility for human intelligence, counterintelligence and detention operations. He deployed to Iraq multiple times with a Joint Special Operations Task Force. From 2012 to 2014, he served as the professor of military science at ETSU. He followed his tour at ETSU with an assignment as commander, 308th Military Intelligence Battalion, and was deployed to Afghanistan in July 2016 serving with the NATO Special Operations Component Command - Afghanistan.

In 2017, Bishop served as a U.S. Army War College Fellow at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. In 2018, he was assigned to the Pentagon, Sensitive and Special Operations Division, and later served as the deputy director for the Department of Defense Human Intelligence and Sensitive Activities in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. 

Following retirement, Bishop returned home to become director of the Office of Military and Veteran Services at ETSU.

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East Tennessee State University was founded in 1911 with a singular mission: to improve the quality of life for people in the region and beyond. Through its world-class health sciences programs and interprofessional approach to health care education, ETSU is a highly respected leader in rural health research and practices. The university also boasts nationally ranked programs in the arts, technology, computing, and media studies. ETSU serves approximately 14,000 students each year and is ranked among the top 10 percent of colleges in the nation for students graduating with the least amount of debt.