Seven exceptional alumni will be honored by the West Virginia University Eberly College of Arts and Sciences during the University’s annual Fall Family Weekend.
Each year, the Eberly College’s Departmental Alumni Recognition Program recognizes alumni for their civic leadership, social welfare activities, professional accomplishments, and intellectual and cultural pursuits. The awards honor individuals whose accomplishments represent the highest level of professional and personal excellence and whose lives reflect the enrichment gained from a broad arts and sciences education.
“We are proud to welcome these seven distinguished alumni home for the ceremony. They are a wonderful example of the breadth and depth of professionals with arts and sciences degrees representing West Virginia University and the Eberly College,” Dean Robert Jones said.
The 2011 honorees are:
Matthew Ballard
Matthew Ballard is currently president and CEO of the Charleston Area Alliance. Prior to being named president, Ballard served as executive vice president of the Alliance, managing its economic development efforts and launching its young professional’s initiative, now known as Generation Charleston. Before joining the Alliance, Ballard served as the executive director of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails, a special assistant for project management and policy analysis to cabinet secretary in the West Virginia Department of Tax and Revenue, and a lead manager for recovery efforts implemented by Governor Wise after two devastating floods impacted much of Southern West Virginia in 2001.
Ballard received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Alderson-Broaddus College in 1991. He then came to WVU to earn a master’s of public administration with a concentration in health care administration in 2001. While working on his master’s at WVU, Ballard was selected as a Burke Scholar with the West Virginia Legislature and spent six months working for the West Virginia Senate majority leader. In 2009, Ballard was selected as a Ford Fellow by the American Association of Chamber Executives and the Ford Foundation. Ballard also currently serves on the West Virginia Governor’s Disaster Recovery Board and holds the position of treasurer of the board of directors for the West Virginia Regional Technology Park. In addition, he is a member of the board of directors at Alderson Broaddus College, the Hatfield-McCoy Trail, the Chemical Alliance Zone and the West Virginia University School of Nursing. He has recently been named president-elect of the Charleston Rotary Club.
Clark M. Egnor
Clark Egnor currently serves as executive director of the Center for International Programs at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. As chief international officer at Marshall, Egnor oversees the university’s study abroad and exchange program, the International Students and Scholars Office, the International Admissions Office, the L.E.A.P. Intensive English Program and various grant projects. Egnor also provides campus-wide leadership in advancing and promoting the internationalization of the university and its surrounding community.
Egnor received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. After his undergraduate career, he went on to earn a master’s degree in foreign languages and a doctoral degree in educational leadership studies from WVU. He is the 2005 Cyrus R. Vance Award winner for International Education in West Virginia, past president of West Virginia Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, a commissioner for the West Virginia Governor’s Commission on International Education and chair of the Chancellor’s Consortium for Internationalizing Higher Education in West Virginia. In addition, he is actively involved in Rotary District No. 7550 of Southern West Virginia, currently serving as chairs of both the Rotary Foundation Scholarship Committee and the International Youth and Group Student Exchange Committee.
Brian A. Glasser
Brian Glasser is an attorney and founding partner at Bailey and Glasser, LLP. The law firm holds offices in Charleston, Morgantown, Washington, D.C., Springfield and Joliet, Ill., and Montgomery, Ala. Glasser started his career as purely a civil and criminal trial and appellate lawyer. His consistent involvement in high-stakes commercial litigation expanded his practice to include negotiating and managing the execution of billions of dollars worth of business transactions.
Glasser graduated summa cum laude from WVU with a bachelor’s degree in international studies in 1988. During his time at WVU, he earned both the Truman and Rhodes Scholarships. Glasser then went on to earn an additional bachelor’s degree from Oxford University in 1991 and a law degree from Harvard Law School, graduating cum laude in 1994. While at Harvard, he was a member of the Environmental Law Review.
Suronda Gonzalez
Suronda Gonzalez is the director of both the Global Studies Minor program and the Languages Across the Curriculum program at the State University of New York at Binghamton. The Languages Across the Curriculum program is not only a foreign instruction program, but it also allows students the opportunity to apply their language skills and intercultural knowledge to a wide range of academic subjects. Gonzalez began her career at SUNY Binghamton in 1999, as the program’s assistant director before taking over the program in 2001. She also was an instructor in the history department in 2005.
While attending WVU, Gonzalez double majored in Spanish and international studies with a concentration on Western Europe. She graduated in 1987 and went on to complete a certificate in women’s studies and a master’s degree in liberal studies in 1991. Her oral history project focused on the experiences of Spanish immigrant women in Harrison County, W.Va. Gonzalez received her Ph.D. in U.S. history in 2005 from SUNY Binghamton.
Carrie Koeturius
Carrie Koeturius serves as director of operations for the ENKWSA Shoe Show that is held each February and August in Las Vegas. The ENKWSA Shoe Show is annually recognized in the Top Ten Trade Shows based on square footage and attendance. In the past, she has served in multiple roles at event-planning firms and held the position of operations director for a number of large computer shows. Koeturius worked for WVU for many years, starting out as a secretary in the state 4-H office and ending as the director of WVU Conference Services.
Koeturius went through the Regents BA “BORBA” program at WVU, studying social work and women’s studies. She graduated in 1979, and was able to earn credits toward her degree through volunteering with non-profit organizations. In 1984, Koeturius received the Mary Catherine Buswell Award as Outstanding Woman of the Year for her contributions to women’s causes both on and off campus. She has been involved in several political campaigns in West Virginia and California.
James Stephen “J.S.” Walker
J.S. Walker is the owner of Pinnacle Property Management, LLC, a full-service real estate property management company, and J.S. Walker Associates, Inc., a full-service brokerage company. Both businesses are located in Morgantown. Walker has been active in the marketing of residential and commercial properties in the Morgantown market area for more than 30 years. In addition, he serves as an educator and mentor to his staff of marketing professionals as well as being an active real estate practitioner in his company. He is a licensed real estate broker in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and a residential real estate appraiser in West Virginia.
Walker attended the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., from 1967-1969 before attending WVU. Walker earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history at WVU in 1971 and 1973, respectively.
Allen N. Weiner
Allen Weiner is the managing director of Communication Development Associates, Inc. in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was one of the founders of the firm, which was constituted in 1976, and has since served as counsel to senior management on a variety of issues related to human communication. Weiner’s external responsibilities include on-site delivery of seminars and individualized coaching. Internally, he serves on the long-term planning committee and leads the research and development group.
Weiner completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree in communication studies at WVU in 1968 and 1973, respectively. He served in the U.S. Navy on destroyers and cruisers during the Vietnam War era. Following his service in 2000, he received his Ph.D. in communication studies from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California. His research interests were and remain persuasion and influence and interpersonal attraction and credibility. He has a number of published studies on those topics.
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