Students enrolled in Lakeland's "Business Leadership, Ethics and Decision Making" course worked with Shannon Laehn, Van Horn's internet sales director, and Bruce Vreeke, the dealer's new collision center manager, to develop a marketing plan for the body shop.

The class, taught by Brett Killion, assistant professor of accounting, was divided into nine small groups, and each developed and submitted a marketing proposal. Laehn and Vreeke selected their top two proposals, and the final two groups gave an oral presentation to Laehn and Vreeke, who then selected a winner.

"The students really offered us some great insight," Laehn said. "We have implemented a few ideas that the students came up with and are taking all the ideas into consideration. The group that won really spent a lot of time investigating our current tactics and offered feedback on our current website that led to us making some changes."

Killion and Laehn got connected at a job fair on Lakeland's campus that Van Horn attended. The dealership had just started a process of increasing its marketing efforts to generate new business, so the timing was perfect.

Laehn and Vreeke had an initial meeting with the students to detail their current marketing efforts and target markets, and students were invited to visit the dealership and tour the collision center.

"This exercise provided our students with a real-world opportunity to learn more about the processes of an existing business and provide some helpful suggestions," Killion said. "It was a great way to bring to life several of the concepts we had discussed this semester."

Other ideas Van Horn is considering using include use of social media to target younger demographics, participating in a campaign about the dangers of texting while driving and hosting different events at the dealership that will create awareness for the collision center.

"Bruce and I were very impressed with how the project turned out and we really enjoyed working with the students," Laehn said. "We are very thankful that Brett gave us the opportunity to work with his students and we look forward to having a continued partnership with Lakeland."

Lakeland College is creating a debate program and the college has hired a familiar face from Wisconsin's debate community to lead it.

David Henning, who has more than 30 years of debate experience, will coach Lakeland's debate and forensics team and teach the college's new debate course, which will be offered for the first time this spring.

Lakeland's program is for students at every level of experience - from high school national championship qualifiers to those with no previous debate experience. More than a dozen current Lakeland students - some with high school debate experience - have expressed interest in joining the debate team, and they'll give Henning a core to build around. Lakeland's team will compete in various debate, forensics and individual speech events.

"Everyone I have met and talked to at Lakeland has reinforced the idea that there is a commitment to building a competitive debate program," said Henning, director of debate at Sheboygan South High School and assistant director of debate at Sheboygan North High School.

"I'm looking forward to taking intelligent, motivated students with little or no formal debate experience and teaching them the debate skills they will use for the rest of their lives as well as turning them into solid collegiate debaters who fare well at regional and national college debate tournaments." In Henning, Lakeland has hired a fixture from Wisconsin's debate community who has succeeded in motivating his debaters to share in his enthusiasm.

Henning has been a debater, debate coach and judge for 32 years. He participated in more than 300 debates in high school and college, and has judged nearly 2,000 debates. He won one high school and three college state debate championships and placed second nationally in the 1985 Freshman/Sophomore College National Debate Tournament.

Henning helped South High qualify a record four varsity teams to the Wisconsin State Debate Tournament in 2012, and his top team tied for 17th out of 200 teams at the National Catholic Forensics National Debate Tournament.

He was Judge of the Year in the Milwaukee Debate League in 2006 and 2011, and final round judge for the NFL and CFL national qualifying tournament from 2006-12.

Henning has also been on the judging panel for the championship round of the Wisconsin State Debate Tournament in 1991-1994, 2007, 2008 and 2012. He was also on the panel for the National Championship Debate at the NFCL National Tournament in 2009 and on the national semi-final judging panel at the NCFL in 2011.

The Sheboygan native is in his third year as coach at South High School (his alma mater), his first as head coach. He is also the lead instructor at Marquette University's Debate Institute. He will continue to hold these positions, in addition to his work at Lakeland.

Lakeland's new debate course will include traditional readings and discussions, videos of several different formats of debate (political, presidential, high school and college policy debates, parliamentary and world debates) and fun, interactive lessons.

"I place an emphasis on building research skills, crafting logical arguments and identifying illogical ones, note-taking and listening, and effective refutation and persuasion," Henning said. "These are skills that will help anyone succeed in the rest of their college and graduate school classes, as well as in their chosen careers."

Henning envisions his team holding debates for the student body and/or public on topics of interest or importance.

"A successful program will attract interest from regional and national debaters interested in attending a small, high quality educational institution. Success in competitive debate builds on its own success, and through the testimonials and later career success of former students it helps brings more of the same to Lakeland."

Henning has a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master's degree in history from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He spent six years as a teaching assistant, two at UWM and four while in the doctoral program in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.]]> Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:30:00 CST 2012-11-15 14:30:00 http://lakeland.edu/academics/news.asp?article=9561 http://lakeland.edu/academics/news.asp?article=8410 Stephanie Drotos, assistant professor of education at Lakeland College, presented a talk entitled "'Secret Ingredients' in Baccalaureate Attainment: Recipes from Students Attending High-Poverty, Urban High Schools" at the Comparative and International Educational Society (CIES) eastern conference, held Oct. 28-29 in Pittsburgh. The conference theme was "The Transformative Role of Education for a More Inclusive World."

Drotos shared insights from research gathered during a year-long qualitative inquiry into the experiences and perceptions of college-bound high school students attending high-poverty high schools in a large Midwestern city. Drotos found that students attending high-poverty high schools face unique challenges during the college enrollment process. For these students, enrolling in college presents greater risks than for others and, therefore, requires larger amounts of courage and sacrifice.

In addition to speaking at the conference, Drotos has discussed her findings and other foundational research with the education majors in her junior and senior level classes at Lakeland, promoting a diverse view of issues relevant to educational access and equality.

Stephanie Drotos is a new assistant professor of education. She comes to Lakeland with 16 years of teaching and training experience, and she recently completed a doctorate in educational policy and leadership at Ohio State University.

Drotos has more than two years of college teaching experience, including teaching Educational Foundations to new teacher candidates at OSU. She was lead instructor for OSU's Young Scholars Program for potential first-generation students at Ohio State. She was a first generation college student. She spent more than 10 years teaching middle and high school in large school districts with high poverty levels.

Drotos has a bachelor's degree in education from Ohio University and a master's in comparative education from OSU.

Brett Killion is a new instructor of accounting. For the past eight years, Killion has been a business education instructor at Luxemburg-Casco High School, where he taught a variety of courses including accounting I and II and personal finance.

He was the third-place winner of the 2009 EconomicsWisconsin's Excellence in Teaching Economics and Financial Literacy Teaching Award. He wrote the curriculum and started Lakeland's Personal Finance for Teens course in 2005.

He previously worked as an accounting instructor in the adult education program of Concordia University, Wis., and he was an associate auditor with Grant Thornton, LLP. His undergraduate degree is from Concordia, and he earned a masters of accountancy from UW-Madison in 2000. He passed the CPA exam in 2001.

Joseph McGeorge has been named the college's first instructor in aviation science. He comes to Lakeland from the University of Illinois, where he was an aviation education specialist in Illinois' Institute of Aviation for the past four years. He recently completed his master of education in human resource development from Illinois.

McGeorge has provided nearly 1,500 hours of flight instruction, he has administered over 100 flight tests and teaching ground-school has also been one of his primary responsibilities. In 2009, he was awarded the Rick Weinberg Leadership Award, which goes to the one instructor a year for outstanding leadership qualities.

John McKenzie has been named the college's first assistant professor of communication. He comes to Lakeland from the University of Texas at Austin where he is working on completing his doctorate in communication studies with an emphasis in rhetoric and language. He earned a master's and bachelor's degree in speech communication from Texas A&M.

McKenzie was an accomplished graduate student, with numerous publications, fellowships, awards and conference presentations. He worked as a teaching assistant and later as an assistant instructor in UT's department of communication studies and university extension program. At Lakeland, he will play a lead role in developing Lakeland's communications major program.

Heather Mollé has been hired as an assistant professor in mathematics. She comes to Lakeland from Franklin College in Franklin, Ind., where she had worked as an assistant professor of mathematics since the fall of 2009. She has a doctorate and master's in mathematics from the University of Iowa, and bachelor's in mathematics and physics from Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo.

Mollé has taught a variety of mathematics courses to a diverse group of students, and been recognized for her work. In 2007 she was awarded the Catherine Wegner Outstanding Mathematics Teaching Assistant Award, in 2008 she received the University of Iowa Outstanding TA Award and last November she was chosen Faculty of the Month by Franklin's Student Congress. Last summer, she was named a Project NExT Fellow.

Nearly 60 Asians - 46 students from Korea and 11 Chinese professors and administrators - will take part in this three-week program, which is meant to improve their English-speaking skills and, according to ELI Director Tim Fojtik, "give them a flavor of life in the American Midwest."

The students are from two of Lakeland's sister schools, Koje College and Ansan College. The Chinese contingent is from the East China Institute of Technology.

Throughout the summer, Fojtik and his staff, which includes Lakeland faculty and students, will take ELI participants to local attractions like Lake Michigan and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and to regional ones like Miller Park, Six Flags Great America and a day in Chicago.

Korean students will take English and American culture and language lessons nearly every morning, while the Chinese educators will participate in seminars about various aspects of Lakeland College.

"One of our goals is giving participants an accurate view of American culture in middle America and confidence in dealing with people from other cultures in English," said Fojtik, who has led the summer program for five years.

The class includes:

• Sarah Neuman of Campbellsport, Ph.D. program in cell and molecular biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. She graduated in May with a bachelor's in biology and music-instrumental performance emphasis.
• Sean Johnson of Sheboygan, Ph.D. program in cell and molecular biology, Washington University (St. Louis). He graduated in May with a bachelor's in biology.
• Amber Koenig of Howards Grove, Ph.D. program in chemistry, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She graduated in May with a bachelor's in chemistry and mathematics.
• Kellen Grott of New Holstein, doctor of chiropractic program, National University of Health Science (Chicago). He graduated in May with a bachelor's in fitness & sport studies-fitness studies emphasis.
• Grace Jairo of Rongo, Kenya, Ph.D. program in biomedical sciences, Tulane University. She graduated in May with a bachelor's in biochemistry.
• Dominique Olds of Mequon, Ph.D. program in microbiology, Ohio State University. He graduated in May of 2009 with a bachelor's in biology.
• Phil Sontag of Altoona, Ph.D. program in ecology, Rutgers University. He graduated in December of 2010 with a bachelor's in biology.

All of these students have participated in Lakeland's LURE (Lakeland Undergraduate Research Experiences) Program, where students, under faculty supervision, pose scientific questions, then perform experiments to address their questions.

"Participants in this program have very different experiences than many of their peers at larger institutions," said Greg Smith, associate professor of biology and LURE co-founder and director. "Undergraduates are not asked to simply wash the dishes or learn to reliably perform a single assay. LURE participants are responsible for all aspects of experimental design, troubleshooting, data analysis and presentation of results and conclusions.

"We measure success not by whether the work got published, but by what the student researcher has learned about the scientific process, including the collection, analysis and presentation of publication-quality data."

In the last five years, 28 students have graduated after participating in the LURE program, and 15 of those students have gone on to graduate programs, including medical school, pharmacy school, genetic counseling, and 10 in research Ph.D. programs in biology, biochemistry and chemistry.

"We don't want our students to simply understand science in theory; we also want them to understand how science is performed," said Jeffrey Schwehm, associate professor of biochemistry and LURE co-founder.

"Prospective employers and graduate/professional school admissions committees prefer students who not only understand the theory of scientific concepts, but have actually performed original scientific research. That makes participation in the LURE program an essential component for the future career opportunities of many students."

Lakeland senior Andrea Weber of Sheboygan and Lakeland Assistant Professor of Exercise Science Kelly Quick will present their research at the National Strength and Conditioning Association national conference, which runs July 6-9, in Las Vegas.

Weber and Quick investigated whether intentionally using the gluteus maximus during two different lower body exercises (step up and body weight squat) would make the quads work less, thus reducing the risk of non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries.

"Many people, especially women, suffer from non-contact ACL injuries, and one factor in those injuries is an imbalance between the strength of the quads and the strength of the hamstrings," Quick said. "The quads are too strong for the balance between the two.

"If we can decrease quad activity by intentionally recruiting the gluteus maximus, then perhaps training over time that way will help to decrease the chance of overdeveloping the quads."

Weber is a double major in exercise science and biology. She hopes to be a physician's assistant or physical therapist.

The research was conducted through a Lakeland College Grant for Faculty-Student Collaboration in Research and/or Performance, a Lakeland program which provides funding for students and faculty to work on projects together.

Gaumer is an associate professor of accounting at Lakeland, and Martin is an instructor of accounting.

Lakeland is the only Wisconsin college/university with a forensic accounting emphasis track as part of its accounting major.

"Broadening the study of forensic accounting to more than just a single class, which is typical at most schools, provides another viable career track for accounting students," Gaumer said. "Our students are trained to better understand and to apply internal controls and fraud prevention practices in the workplace.

"We're the only program in the state with two faculty members with CFE certification, which allows us to better prepare students for forensic accounting careers."

Lakeland forensic accounting students are available to assist local businesses in assessing fraud risk exposure and applying fraud prevention concepts to an organization. Contact Gaumer at gaumerrk@lakeland.edu or Martin at martinb@lakeland.edu to learn more about this service.

Gaumer and Martin passed a rigorous exam administered by the ACFE and demonstrated knowledge in four areas: fraudulent financial transactions, criminology and ethics, legal elements of fraud and fraud investigation.

CFEs have the ability to examine data and records to detect and trace fraudulent transactions, interview suspects to obtain information and confessions, write investigation reports, advise clients and testify at trial.

The ACFE is the world's largest anti-fraud organization and premier provider of anti-fraud training and education.

Lakeland provides free tax preparation and electronic filing for low income tax filers until April 15. This service is available through the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA), which is designed to help low- to moderate-income people who cannot prepare their own tax returns.

Students in Lakeland's accounting program will be available at the Sheboygan Salvation Army, 710 Pennsylvania Ave. The students work under the supervision of members of Lakeland's business faculty. Students from Lakeshore Technical College and the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan will also be volunteering.

The program is sponsored by Schenck Business Solutions.

The free service is now open on Thursdays from 5-8 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Some dates are excluded due to school breaks. No appointment is necessary, although advance reservations can be made by calling 565-1543.

Last year, Lakeland and LTC students prepared and filed 770 returns that helped taxpayers collect over $1 million in refunds, with an average total refund of $1,599. In its first five years, Lakeland's program has collected over $3.5 million in tax refunds for low income earners in the area.

People interested in taking advantage of this free service must have income under $49,000 a year. Applicants must bring a photo ID; social security cards for themselves, their spouse and dependents; W-2 forms; 1099 forms; rent certificate or 2007 property tax bill; and a copy of their 2007 tax return.

Assistance will be given in preparing several forms including, Wisconsin Form 1 and 1A, Federal 1040 and 1040A, Schedule R (credit for the elderly and disabled) and Wisconsin Homestead Credit. Returns cannot be done for those taxpayers having income from outside Wisconsin sources, those having complex tax returns, and those who are non-US residents.

Representatives from M&I Bank will be on hand for anyone wishing to set up an account for direct deposit of their tax refund.

Lakeland students will also prepare online FAFSA student financial aid forms on site, and information will be available for those seeking financial literacy assistance.

For additional information about this program, please contact Rick Gaumer in the Lakeland business division at 565-1351.

A total of 380 graduates participated in the ceremony in the Todd Wehr Center. Lakeland awarded 574 undergraduate degrees, 363 to students that attended classes through Lakeland's Kellett School of Adult Education and 211 to students from the college's full-time program at its main campus in Sheboygan County. Lakeland also awarded 219 graduate degrees.

On Saturday night, at Lakeland's graduation celebration, hosted by the Lakeland College Alumni Association, the college made two major award presentations.

Terry Miller of Sheboygan was named the winner of the Robert W. Lope Award, which goes to the Kellett School graduate who has shown unusual persistence, dedication and commitment in the course of earning their bachelor's degree.

Miller starting taking classes at Lakeland nine years ago, and he completed 92 of his 120 of his academic credits at Lakeland. He graduated Sunday with a bachelor's degree in business management.

Miller's parents had a dream of seeing all four of their children graduate from college, and Miller's graduation completed that dream. Miller relocated twice while taking class, he had three kidney surgeries, a rotator cuff repair and, most challenging, his mother died of cancer a few months before he completed his final coursework.

Kasey Gussert of Kingsford, Mich., was named the winner of the Clarence H. Koehler Campus Senior Award, given annually to the graduate who best exemplifies the "Lakeland Spirit" through academic achievement, service to the college and fellow students and participation in college and student programs and activities.

A four-year member of the Dean's List, Gussert, who gained acceptance into Lakeland's honors program, graduated with a bachelor's in biochemistry and conducted research for Lakeland during her undergraduate time.

She was extensively involved at Lakeland, serving as an officer for Lakeland's pre-healthcare club, a member of the women's basketball team for four seasons, including two as captain, and an ambassador for Lakeland's admissions department. She will attending the University of Wisconsin pharmacy school this fall.

Susan Mboya, founder and president of Zawadi Africa Educational Fund and an executive with Coca-Cola Company, delivered Sunday's commencement address, which was recorded and will be aired nationally on CSPAN.

Mboya established the Zawadi Africa Education Fund (www.zawadiafrica.org) in 2002 to provide scholarships to academically gifted girls from disadvantaged backgrounds from Africa to pursue higher education in the United States.

Two students have attended Lakeland College for the past two years through the program, and two more will attend Lakeland next year.

Susan Mboya's work is a living tribute to her father, Tom Mboya, a former minister for justice and constitutional affairs in Kenya who was assassinated in 1969. Susan based her organization on the highly successful Kennedy-Mboya Africa Student Airlifts Program of the 1960s, pioneered by her father and President John F Kennedy.

Peter Shem Kamuyu attended Lakeland from 1959-61 through the Kennedy-Mboya Africa Student Airlifts Program.

Following her address, Mboya received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Lakeland.

Terry Kohler, a well-known and respected business leader and longtime friend of the environment, received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in recognition of his lifetime of "committed service to country, community and the environment."

Kohler is president of Windway Capital Corp. He was associated with one of its subsidiaries, The Vollrath Co., for 27 years and served as chairman and CEO prior to a 1989 reorganization that formed Windway.

Lakeland is one of many community organizations that have been the beneficiaries of the philanthropy of Terry and his wife, Mary Stewart Kohler.

Prior to his successful business career, Kohler served in the U.S. Air Force, and he continues actively his flying in various aircraft including the Cessna Caravan.

Kohler received his master of science degree in industrial management from the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In addition to teaching computer programming classes at MIT, he was the first Business Executive in Residence at Lakeland College.

Kohler is an outdoor sports enthusiast. He has sailed and raced extensively for 60 years, and is also a past Commodore of the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation. He is a life member of Ducks Unlimited (DU) and the National Rifle Association (NRA), and has served on the Board of Directors of the Trout & Salmon Foundation for two decades.

Terry and Mary Kohler are actively involved with the International Crane Foundation and the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service. They recently received the 2009 Lindbergh Award for their lifelong dedication to environmental conservation, and the more recent use of their airplanes to help reintroduce trumpeter swans and whooping cranes in the United States.

The Kohlers have been involved for over a decade with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in the Trumpeter Swan Recovery Project, collecting and flying swan eggs back from Alaska.

Terry's father, Walter J. Kohler Jr., and grandfather, Walter J. Kohler, both served as Governor of Wisconsin, from 1951 to 1957 and 1929 to 1931 respectively, and he was a candidate for U.S. Senate and governor in Wisconsin.

Sunday got started with the baccalaureate service in the Bradley Fine Arts Building.

The baccalaureate preacher was Kelly J. Stone, the chaplain at Lakeland and an ordained United Church of Christ minister.

Stone joined the Lakeland community in the summer of 2006 and has sought new and creative ways to meet Lakeland's religious needs. Prior to Lakeland, she served two churches in Connecticut working with youth and young adults while completing her masters of divinity at Yale Divinity School.

A native of Northwestern Illinois, Stone received her bachelor of arts from Elmhurst College. She is an advisor for Lakeland's Habitat for Humanity chapter, and serves as a resource for numerous other organizations that are concerned with matters of faith, equality and diversity.

Photos from the event are available for viewing.

The Mirror won three awards in Region 6 of the Society of Professional Journalists' (SPJ) 2008 Mark of Excellence competition. The Mirror was recognized for these awards at the Mark of Excellence Luncheon in Bloomington, Minn., in March.

Junior Jessica Lillie and junior J.D. Botana III took second place in the editorial cartooning category for three different political cartoons; senior Alex Marit took third place in feature photography for his homecoming photo of the cheese ball toss; and the entire Lakeland Mirror staff placed third for the Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper for three of its recent issues.

"I hadn't taken very many photos this year, so I was thrilled when I was notified of the win," said Marit.

"When I was told that I'd won an award for something in the Mirror, I was stoked," said Lillie, who is serving as managing editor this semester. "I'm glad they recognized the value of our political cartoons."

Lakeland has won SPJ's Mark of Excellence awards every year since 2003. SPJ's Region 6 includes newspapers from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. In the 12 regions of the contest, over 3,600 entries were submitted.

The Mirror also won two Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation (WNA) awards last fall. Sports editor Brad Wilk and former editor-in-chief Lori Sass were given honorable mentions in the weekly news publication division of the WNA contest in their respective categories.

Wilk received his award in the category of sports reporting for his article on the Lakeland's men's volleyball team winning the national championship last April. Sass won in the graphics category for her artwork exhibiting the effects of alcohol on the body.

The WNA holds the contest annually, and the Mirror last won awards in 2006.

"I am very proud of the entire staff," said Erik Hyrkas, who serves as editor-in-chief this semester. "Without their constant quality contributions, these awards would be fewer and further between."

• 6th hour: 8:30-11 a.m.
• 11th hour: 12-2:30 p.m.
• *9th hour: 3:30-6 p.m.

In addition to serving as series editor of "The Best American Poetry," which he initiated in 1988, he is general editor of the University of Michigan Press's Poets on Poetry Series.

He is the author of several collections of poems, including "When a Woman Loves a Man" (Scribner, 2005), "Jim and Dave Defeat the Masked Man" (with James Cummins, Soft Skull Press, 2005), "The Evening Sun" (2002), "The Daily Mirror: A Journal in Poetry" (2000), "Valentine Place" (1996), "Operation Memory" (1990), and "An Alternative to Speech" (1986).

Karl Elder, Lakeland's Fessler Professor of Creative Writing and the college's poet-in-residence, met Lehman at a reading in Milwaukee several years ago, and the two poets have long admired each other's work. Lehman told The National Poetry Review Press that Elder's "Gilgamesh at the Bellagio" was a "tour de force."

"I'm partial to his scholarship and his prose," Elder said. "I was impressed by his professionalism and upbeat anecdotes between poems at a reading he delivered in Milwaukee, and I said to myself then, this is a guy right for a wider audience than mere poets and professors."

Poet John Hollander is another admirer of Lehman's work.

"This increasingly impressive poet keeps reminding us that putting aside childish things can be done only wisely and well by keeping in touch with them, and that American life is best understood and celebrated by those who are, with Whitman, both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it," Hollander said.

A native of New York City, Lehman graduated from Columbia University and attended Cambridge University in England as a Kellett Fellow. He also received a doctorate in English from Columbia University.

He has edited such books as "Ecstatic Occasions, Expedient Forms: 65 Leading Contemporary Poets Select and Comment on Their Poems" (1987; expanded, 1996), "James Merrill, Essays in Criticism" (with Charles Berger, 1983), and "Beyond Amazement: New Essays on John Ashbery" (1980). Most recently, Lehman edited "The Oxford Book of American Poetry" (Oxford University Press, 2006).

His books of criticism include "The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets" (Doubleday, 1998), which was named a "Book to Remember 1999" by the New York Public Library; "The Big Question" (1995); "The Line Forms Here" (1992); and "Signs of the Times: Deconstruction and the Fall of Paul de Man" (1991). His study of detective novels, "The Perfect Murder" (1989), was nominated for an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

Lehman's honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award. He is on the core faculty of the graduate writing programs at the New School and New York University. He lives in New York City.

Lakeland's commencement ceremony, which begins at 2 p.m., is open to the public. Anyone attending the live ceremony must have a ticket, which can be obtained free of charge by contacting Deb Fale at 920-565-1536. A limited number of tickets for the general public are available, and will be given out on a first come, first served basis.

The ceremony will be broadcast live and can be viewed on a projection screen in the Woltzen Gymnasium in the Wehr Center. Tickets are not needed to watch the broadcast, which is also open to the public.

Whitcomb's address, entitled, "Being Present to Your Life: Spiritual Tools for the Spiritual Journey," will be at 11 a.m. in the Bradley Fine Arts Building on the Lakeland campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Founders Day is an annual Lakeland event that recognizes the church's contributions to Lakeland and provides a time to reflect on Lakeland's strong tradition with the United Church of Christ.

Whitcomb graduated from Yale Divinity School in 1978 and has served churches in Connecticut, Iowa and Wisconsin. She is also a graduate of the two-year program for spiritual directors at the Shalem Institute in Bethesda, Md.

A widely-traveled retreat leader who directs Kettlewood Retreats, she is also a spiritual director and writer who has published dozens of articles on spirituality. She is the author of four books including "Feasting with God and Practicing Your Path." Her latest book, "The Seven Spiritual Gifts of Waiting," sold out in three weeks and had to be immediately reprinted. It took her to New York City where she did a taping for the popular TV show, "New Morning."

Whitcomb lives in suburban Milwaukee with her husband Dr. John Whitcomb, an emergency physician. They are the parents of two adult children, David and Kate.