Bloomington-Normal Residents Receive COB Career Award

Three Bloomington-Normal residents are among 15 Illinois State University College of Business alumni being honored with the College's Early Career Achievement Award.  The award recognizes younger graduates who have already experienced significant success or professional distinction.

Early Career Achievement Award winners will participate in panel discussions in the College of Business Building on Friday, Oct. 17 from 2:30-3:45 p.m.  Accounting and finance, insurance and law honorees will hold their panel discussion in the Caterpillar Auditorium.  Those representing marketing and MBA will be in Room 357.  Management and quantitative methods honorees will speak in Room 366.  A reception to honor all Early Career Achievement Award winners will be held from 3:45-4:30 p.m. in the lower level atrium.

Nicole Albertson '96, business administration, Normal, is human resource manager at Heritage Enterprises, Inc. and has more than 15 years experience in HR management across several different industries.  She is also a licensed nursing home administrator, executive board member of the Bloomington-Normal Human Resource Council and has recently completed her MBA at Illinois State. 

Deborah Christner '00, business information systems, Normal, is a software and infrastructure design analyst with State Farm Insurance Company. Since joining the company in 2000, she has served as a financial business analyst, a member of the systems department governance unit, and is currently involved in design responsibilities.  In this role she is an expert in agile software design, business and software modeling, infrastructure design, platform migration, and vendor integration.  Christner has served as an adjunct faculty member in Illinois State's College of Business and supports the work of the Business Information Systems Club.

Aaron Vaughn '95, finance, Bloomington, is a senior research analyst with Edward Jones & Company. In that role, Vaughn makes investment recommendations within the health care sector for the firm's more than 10 thousand financial advisors and more than seven million clients. Prior to joining Edward Jones, Vaughn worked at Robert W. Baird & Company as an equity research analyst covering the utilities industry. He also served as a financial analyst for State Farm Insurance, and was a credit analyst for First of America Bank. Vaughn, who earned his MBA from Indiana University, is a chartered financial analyst and a certified public accountant.                                       

Other Early Career Achievement Award winners are: Kevin Wesley Earley '00, management/human resources, Detroit, Michigan, associate pastor of the Metropolitan Church of God in Detroit; Kristen Fitzpatrick '95, accountancy, Roselle, CPA and audit principal with Miller Cooper & Co.; Nadine Friedman '05, professional sales, Chicago, account executive at Lemme Insurance Group, Inc.; Andy Hobbs '02, human resources, lead systems analyst for the Hewitt human resources firm; Alan Kubitz '94, insurance, Oak Park, director of risk management at HAVI Group LP; Joseph Lee '05, master of professional accountancy, Springfield, certified public accountant and audit supervisor for McGladrey & Pullen, LLP.

 John R. Madera '03, marketing, Lakeview, Chicago, consulting services/business advisory professional at BearingPoint management and technology consulting firm; Alan J. Medina Jr. '92, international business, Heidelberg, Germany, senior trader and logistics manager for Bunge Deutschland GmbH and Bunge Austria GmbH; Venky Peruvemba '00, MBA, Schaumburg, manager of financial analysis at Motorola, Inc.; Glen Steiner '02, masters in accountancy, Lafayette, Minnesota, tax manager for the LarsonAllen LLP public accounting firm; Jessica Thompson '03, integrated marketing communication, Naperville, supervisor of corporate media relations for McDonald's Corporation; and Michael Wesbecher '02, business teacher education, Belvidere, business teacher at North Boone High School.