Community
Alumni
To be held at 4 p.m. in the Wilkinson Alumni Center at Ford & Joplin streets, the event is part of a week-long focus on Pitt State involving students, faculty and staff, alumni, donors, and the community.
Dr. Gary Doolittle, Jo Ann (Goodwin) Gilford, and Carole (McAlpine) Watson will be presented with the Meritorious Achievement Awards, and Jeff Ney will be presented with the Dr. Ralf J. Thomas Distinguished Service Award.
Dr. Gary Doolittle (BS '80, Biology), grew up in Pittsburg and after graduating from Pitt State, earned his medical degree from the University of Kansas. He joined the KU faculty as a medical oncologist with an interest in bone marrow transplantation and has continued to teach for 30 years.
Early in his career, both parents were diagnosed with cancer, sparking his interest in oncology care, especially in rural areas. In 2000, he was named medical director of the University of Kansas Medical Center’s Center for Telemedicine. He also was instrumental in KU Cancer Center’s partnership with Pitt State and Ascension.
Today, he is the Capitol Federal Masonic professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology at KU, where he also is the medical director of the Masonic Cancer Alliance, vice chair of education in the Department of Internal Medicine, and assistant dean for the Office of Medical Education. He lives in Prairie Village, Kansas, and has three children.
Jo Ann (Goodwin) Gilford (BSEd ‘55, Elementary Education), had a very long teaching and consulting career, but she also was a trailblazer beyond the classrooms. She taught in Iowa, Washington, D.C., and Germany, and was the first Black teacher hired at Burroughs Elementary in Tulsa, Oklahoma, kickstarting her advocacy for school desegregation, the abolishment of corporal punishment, and an emphasis on childhood literacy.
She went on to serve on numerous boards including Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education in 1976, winning by six votes, as well as the Urban League, the Greenwood Cultural Center, Tulsa Mental Health Association, Tulsa Arts & Humanities Council, the National Education Association, and many more. She volunteered with many children’s groups. She was awarded the National Teacher of the Year in 1965.
Now in her 90s, she never really retired; she continues to be a mentor for young teachers and volunteers daily at a local elementary school. She was inducted into the Oklahoma African American Educators Hall of Fame in 2016.
Carole (McAlpine) Watson (BS ‘62, Language & Literature) is the retired deputy chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C. She earned a master’s degree from Saint Louis University and a doctorate at George Washington University.
She has twice served as acting chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, first in 2009 and again in 2013-14. She studied African American literature and authored “Her Prologue,” a scholarly bibliography of novels by African American women published between 1859 and 1965. She was the founding chair of the English Department at the Abraham Lincoln Opportunity School in St. Louis and directed Inter-Cultural Programs at Lindenwood Colleges at nearby St. Charles.
She helped guide the NEH through the National Digital Newspaper Program, a humanities equivalent of the Human Genome Project. In collaboration with the Library of Congress, the agency is digitizing a hundred years of reportage published by an American newspaper.
Jeff Ney (BBA '91, Marketing) is president of New Dynamic, LLC, in Overland Park, Kansas — a Gold Microsoft Partner dedicated to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE and Power platforms. Ney also served as a partner in the PSC Group, LLC, for 18 years; was a sales manager for New Resources Corporation; and was an account manager for Bradford & Galt. Since 2014, Ney has served on the Kelce Board of Advisors.
He was the driving force behind the initiation of the annual Kelce College of Business Golf Tournament in Kansas City, now in its 14th year as a fundraiser for the college. The golf tournament endowment has grown to $90,000 and has to date awarded $27,000 in scholarships to students in the Kelce College of Business. As the primary organizer, Ney’s role extended beyond the planning, from choosing a venue to securing corporate sponsors, recruiting teams, and executing the actual event.
Ney also served on the Pitt State Alumni Association Board of Directors.
