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Tamra Halmrast-Sanchez '79 |
2012 ALUMNA OF THE YEAR
The BSC National Alumni Association is pleased to honor Tamra Halmrast-Sanchez (‘79) for humanitarian work in the U.S. Agency for International Development and selflessness in helping those in need.
Halmrast-Sanchez has more than 25 years experience in international development and humanitarian assistance. Today, she serves as the Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Office for American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA). ASHA provides assistance to schools and hospitals abroad that best demonstrate American ideals, practices, and principles and that intend to share these values with their populations.
Prior to joining ASHA, Halmrast-Sanchez served three years in Iraq for USAID. From 2008-09 she was a member of a U.S. government's Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) as an aid worker embedded with the U.S. Brigade Combat Team serving Baghdad. She then was appointed USAID's office director for PRTs, traveling extensively throughout Iraq working with USAID staff and Iraqi partners and stakeholders in building local capability.
Halmrast-Sanchez has served in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. She spent 12 years in USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance managing the government's response to approximately 75 disasters and complex emergencies globally each year and provided humanitarian assistance to countless people. She also served as Disaster Assistance Response Team leader during Hurricane Mitch in Honduras (1998), civil strife in Kosovo (1999), famine in Ethiopia (2000), and the earthquake in Bam, Iran (2004). She was USAID's director of operations for responses in the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and 2007 conflict in Lebanon.
Other career highlights include her leadership in creating and implementing the management system currently used by USAID for responding to disasters and complex emergencies worldwide.
Halmrast-Sanchez started her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala (1984-1986). She has an Associate in Arts degree from BSC, Bachelor of Science in education from Valley City State University (1983), and a Master's degree from National Defense University's Industrial College of the Armed Forces (2005). She has received numerous awards from USAID.
Raised in Bismarck, Halmrast-Sanchez has two sons. Her parents are the late Jerry Halmrast and wife Beverly, now married to Ev Miller.
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2012 RISING STAR AWARD
Mick Miller, '99, has 13 years in the ethanol industry. In that short time, he has become president of Energetix, a management company partnered with four ethanol plants in four states. He also works full time as general manager for two ethanol production facilities, one in South Dakota and the other in Minnesota, while his brother and partners run the plants in Michigan and Indiana.
Miller was studying business at BSC with the goal of managing and owning a convenience store, a job he had all through high school and college. Sometime during college, he was inspired by his brother's success at a plant in Minnesota and added Process Plant Technology (PPT) to his course load, graduating in three years with Associate in Art (Business) and Associate in Applied Science (PPT) degrees.
He accepted an operator position at Diversified Energy Company in Morris, Minn., becoming plant manager two years later and vice president of operations of its consulting affiliate, Greenway Consulting. He left after six years (2005) for Red Trail Energy in Richardton, N.D., to become general manager and to lead the plant construction and startup. He stayed until 2009 as CEO and president and then resigned to join Energetix, the company his brother Mitchell and one partner founded in Ada, Mich., as business development manager.
Miller is a founder and vice president of the North Dakota Ethanol Producers Association and past Board of Governors member of the Renewable Products Marketing Group. He serves on BSC's Process Plant Technology Advisory Board. Miller has continued his business management degree through Southwest State University in Marshall, Minn., and hopes to earn BSC's Bachelor of Applied Science in Energy Management.
He resides in Mandan with his wife Kiley and their three children, ages 13, 9, and 5.
2012 award recipients will be honored at the annual Alumni Awards Dinner on Thursday, May 10, 2012 at the BSC Student Union.
For more information, call (701) 224-5692 or (800) 272-2586 or email to Rita.Nodland@bismarckstate.edu.
Sponsored by the Board of Directors of the Bismarck State College National Alumni Association, Bismarck State College and BSC Foundation.
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