ICC to Honor Four Instructors

Four Itawamba Community College faculty members have been selected as recipients of the Meritorious Achievement awards for 2015.

They include Dana Hale of Saltillo, chair of the Health, Physical Education and Recreation division; Eddie Moore of Fulton, forestry, surveying and math instructor; Lisa Pearson of Amory, practical nursing instructor; and Charles Wayne Spencer III of Woodland, heating and air conditioning instructor.

The Meritorious Achievement award is the most prestigious honor bestowed on an employee for exemplary service to the College.

An Itawamba County native, Hale is a graduate of Tremont High School. She earned the associate’s degree at ICC, where she played both basketball and softball; the bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi; and the master’s degree from Mississippi State University. She is a certified athletic trainer, licensed in Mississippi, and a BLS instructor through the American Heart Association. Hale is a graduate of the inaugural ICC Leadership Institute class and a 2008 participant of the Mississippi Community College Fellowship program. She is currently chair of ICC’s health and wellness executive committee. Most recently, she wrote and secured a health and wellness grant, WellFIT 365, which focuses on physical activity and healthy eating. The $355,048 grant was awarded through the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation.

Moore, who is an ICC graduate, earned both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Mississippi State University. Prior to joining the ICC faculty, he had 18 years of practical engineering experience for engineering companies at remote sites in Mississippi, Iran, Nigeria, Louisiana, Korea and California. His achievements include an eight-week summer fellowship at the Stennis SpaceCenter, ArcGis, a Weyerhauser GPS/GIS grant, Mississippi NASA Space Grant Consortium mini-grant, past Faculty Association president, Lamplighter honoree and National Science Foundation Conceptual Design project. Moore and his wife, Susan, have been married for 38 years. They have two sons, Chris (Ally) and Kevin (Linda), and two grandchildren, Miller and James.

Pearson, who has been a nurse for 24 years, has been at ICC for eight years. Her educational background includes the associate’s degree from Northeast Mississippi Community College, bachelor’s degree from Mississippi University for Women and the master’s degree from the University of North Alabama. She will receive the DNP degree from Union University in May. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau and Mississippi LPN Association and president-elect of the Mississippi Practical Nurses Council. Pearson attends Meadowood Baptist Church in Amory. She and her husband of more than 20 years, Phillip, are the parents of one son, Ty, a sophomore at Mississippi State University enrolled in the Shackouls Honors College and majoring in mathematics.

A graduate of Houston High School, Spencer earned the associate’s degree from ICC and has additional work from Mississippi State University. He has been employed at ICC since 1997. His activities include deacon and Sunday school director at Bethel Baptist Church, president of the Houston Diamond Club and a member of ICC’s Strategic Planning Council. He and his wife of 20 years, Cathy, have two sons, Charles Wayne Spencer IV and Kyler Russell Spencer.

The awards will be presented at a dinner in their honor, May 5.