April 5, 2004

Boise State Alumni Association Names Distinguished Alumni

editors note: all photos in this press release are clickable for a full size print quality version of the photo The Boise State University Alumni Association will honor the winners of its Distinguished Alumni Awards at a banquet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 20, in the Boise State Student Union Jordan Ballroom. Boise State’s Top Ten Scholars will also be honored. (See separate press release) The Alumni Association has named four 1970s-era graduates who are leaders in their professions and communities as the 2004 Boise State Distinguished Alumni. They are: Mark Lliteras, Wells Fargo senior vice-president and manager of Southern Idaho Commercial Banking; Christine Donnell, Meridian School District superintendent; Trisha Bennett, Bennett Forest Industries government affairs liaison; and William C. Glynn, Intermountain Industries president and director. The banquet is open to the public. Tickets are $20 and are available at the Alumni Center, 1173 Grant St. Call 426-1959 for information. The R.S.V.P. deadline is Tuesday, April 13. The awards are given annually to recognize excellence among former students of the university. This year’s Distinguished Alumni are: Mark W. Lliteras ’72 In Lliteras’ 30-year banking career, he has distinguished himself not only as a driving force in commercial banking, but also as an active community leader. Lliteras has served as a Junior Achievement adviser, president and crusade chair for the Ada County Cancer Society, president of the Discovery Center of Idaho, president of the Boise State Alumni Association, director of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce, community campaign leader of the Learning Lab development campaign, and on the boards of the Idaho Heart Association, the Saint Alphonsus Medical Center Foundation, the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry and in many other roles. After earning a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Boise State in 1972, he joined First Security Bank as a management trainee. He rose through the ranks, and when First Security merged with Wells Fargo in October 2000, Lliteras was named senior vice president and manager of the Southern Idaho Commercial Banking Office. His professional contributions have also included serving as president of the Idaho Bankers Association from 1999-2000, a role in which he effectively lobbied the Legislature concerning significant banking issues. He continues to serve on the IBA Executive and Public Affairs Council and has also been an active member of the American Bankers Association. Christine Donnell ’73 In her six years as superintendent of the Meridian School District, Donnell has led Idaho’s largest school district during a period of growth from 21, 914 students in 1998 to 26, 438 students today. She plans to retire at the end of this year. She started her education career in much smaller communities, teaching elementary school in Payette and Fruitland. She then taught first through fourth grades in Meridian and served as principal at McMillan Elementary School and Lowell Scott Middle School before becoming assistant superintendent and director of personnel and instruction for the Meridian district. Donnell took 11 years to complete her first college degree. While raising her young family and teaching with a provisional certificate, she took classes and eventually earned a bachelor of arts degree in elementary education from Boise State in 1973. She drove to Boise from Fruitland every day for 12 weeks to do her student teaching at Campus Elementary with her instructor, Miss Hawks, watching from behind the one-way mirror. Donnell earned a master’s degree in educational administration from Albertson College of Idaho in 1981 and a specialist in educational administration degree from University of Idaho in 1994. An active member of her community, Donnell has served on many boards of directors including PAYADA (Parents and Youth Against Drug Abuse), Success by Six, United Way, the Boys and Girls Club of Ada County and others. She also served as president and in other roles for the Meridian Chamber of Commerce. Throughout her professional career, she has served in many capacities on a number of committees including the Southern Idaho Conference Superintendent’s Council, the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on School Facilities, the Idaho Association of School Administrators and many others. Trisha Bennett ’74 Bennett, of Federal Way, Wash., enjoys telling her children that the bachelor of arts degree in history she earned from Boise State made her available for employment in anything from waiting tables to fixing chain saws — both of which she did. She also has gone on to distinguish herself in the field of natural resources and government relations. She and her family own and operate Bennett Forest Industries, a lumber company and 70,000-acre tree farm. She works as BFI’s government affairs liaison. Today she is an integral member of BFI’s management team in a job she calls “a labor of love, war and politics.” The first woman in her family to receive a college degree, Bennett believes strongly in the importance of education. Her Boise State classes in American history and government helped prepare her for a career influencing national forest policy. Before joining the family business in 1987, she served in Washington, D.C., for several years as a legislative assistant responsible for energy and natural resource issues for Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, then as the legislative director for Burlington Northern Railroad. In 2002 she was elected to her current position as chairman of the board of the American Forest Resource Council. She has also been actively involved for more than 17 years in the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, a nationwide group representing lumber manufacturers that has been instrumental in negotiating the Software Lumber Agreement between the United States and Canada. William C. “Bill” Glynn ’79 Bill Glynn has contributed to the economic development of Idaho though extensive community service, as well as in his role as president and director of Intermountain Industries and Intermountain Gas Co. Bill, who earned an MBA from Boise State in 1979, is the former chairman of the board for the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry. In 2001 the Chamber of Commerce honored Bill with a Community Service Award. His contributions have included serving on the President’s Long Range Planning Community Task Force at Boise State and the Bronco Athletic Association board, chairing the Bishop Kelly Foundation, and currently serving as director of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank Board, Salt Lake City branch. Born on a farm in eastern Iowa, Bill earned a bachelor of arts degree from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, and began his career at Northern Natural Gas in Omaha, Neb. He moved to Boise and joined Intermountain Gas Co. in 1973. He left his position as Intermountain’s chief financial officer in 1979 to join MDU Resources in Bismarck, N.D. Bill returned to Boise in 1987 as Intermountain’s president after it became a private company. -30- Contact Lee Denker Alumni Association 208 426-1698 Media Contact Pat Pyke communications and marketing 208 426-1987