Alumni Merit Awards have been presented annually since 1958 to Southeast alumni who have brought distinction to themselves and the University.

This year’s Alumni Merit Award recipients are:

• Kenneth Stricker, CEO of The Jones Company
• Karl Mueller, former senior vice president and chief financial officer of Old Republic International Corporation
• Lisa Page, judge on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District

This year’s Distinguished Young Alumni Award recipient is:

• Derrion Henderson, morning anchor at WMBF News

This year’s Faculty Merit Award recipient presented for excellence in teaching is:

• Jim McGill, professor in Southeast’s Department of Chemistry and Physics, associate dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Karl Mueller ’81 / Alumni Merit Award

Karl Mueller graduated with a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Southeast, and he used it to form an incredible career.

“I’m the first of my family to attend and graduate from college,” Mueller said. “So I didn’t have a strong role model to follow in the whole selection process. I was uncertain what I wanted to do other than knowing I wanted to be involved in the business field.” 

Mueller was a part of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity while on campus. 

After graduation, Mueller joined KPMG LLP in St. Louis. He ultimately was admitted to the partnership and moved to Chicago, serving clients in the financial services industry.

Mueller eventually joined Old Republic International Corporation (NYSE: ORI) in Chicago. He served as its senior vice president and chief financial officer for 17 years before retiring in 2021. ORI is one of the nation’s 50 largest publicly held insurance organizations.

“I think my experience at Southeast certainly prepared me,” Mueller said. “It opened the door to allow me to have the opportunity to have a long, successful career in public and corporate accounting.”   

Mueller is a past recipient of the Distinguished Young Alumni Merit Award. He’s currently a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and serves on the board of directors and finance committee for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. 

Lisa Page ’88 / Alumni Merit Award

Lisa Page started her academic journey at Southeast, and it led her to a judgeship with the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District.

Judge Page is a lifelong resident of Festus, Missouri. At Southeast, she served on the All University Judicial Board and was active in her sorority as president and rush chair. When she was a student at Southeast, she majored in political science but picked up minors in Spanish, economics, and criminal justice.

“I just really liked the professors in those classes,” Judge Page said.

After graduation in 1988, Page went on to Saint Louis University School of Law, then practiced law in Jefferson County for eight years. In 2005, she was appointed family court commissioner and elected the first female circuit judge in Jefferson County in 2006.

For nine years, she was the administrative judge of the Family Court. She served as the Presiding Judge from 2013-2015.

Page was appointed to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District in December of 2015 and retained in 2016, where she served as chief judge from 2018-2019. She was appointed by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon.

Judge Page was a former member of the Missouri Supreme Court Trial Judge Education Committee and currently serves as the chair of the Missouri Court Management Institute (MCMI) Oversight Committee and as a member of the Appellate Education and the Civic Education Committee.

“I’m grateful that I’m here,” Judge Page said. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the foundation Southeast Missouri State University gave me.”

Kenneth Stricker ’87 / Alumni Merit Award 

Kenneth Stricker was an accounting major during his time at Southeast in the 80s, and he turned that into a long career and eventually, a position as a CEO. 

At first, Southeast was the easy choice.

“I didn’t really have any idea what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go,” Stricker said. “Southeast was about an hour and a half away from home, and it seemed like a good fit at the time.”

When he started diving into accounting classes, he hit his stride. He found a field that was interesting to him and that he excelled in. He graduated in 1987 with a BSBA in accounting and finance.

After graduation, Stricker worked at Aselage, Kiefer & Co. for seven years. In fact, he had an instructor at Southeast who had a friend at the accounting firm and helped him land his first job.

He was then assigned to The Jones Company account and began a long relationship with them. He worked for several years as their auditor and then was offered the position of operations manager with Jones in 1994. He was promoted to vice president and chief financial officer two years later, and became president in 2003.

Stricker has also won a number of awards and been a part of a number of volunteer boards and committees throughout his career.

“Now I oversee the company’s operations and have for a long time,” Stricker said. “And if it wasn’t for Southeast, I would have never made that connection.”

Derrion Henderson ’15 / Distinguished Young Alumni Award 

Derrion Henderson delivers the morning news in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, but just eight years ago he was graduating in Cape Girardeau.

Henderson earned a Bachelor of Science in mass media: multimedia journalism with a minor in marketing in 2015. Originally from St. Louis, he transferred to Southeast to join some of his friends from home. 

“I looked at it and said they’re accredited, just like that other school,” Henderson said. “And I’ll be paying way less, too. After touring and seeing the success out of the department, I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of.” 

Henderson returned to his hometown, where he received several awards including DELUX Magazine 30under30, St. Louis Champion by Explore St. Louis, and two distinguished alumni awards from his high school alma maters.

Throughout his work in television, he’s been nominated for two Mid-America Emmy Awards for a feature news story in 2018 and his part in the historical St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup Parade in 2019. Recently, he picked up his third Emmy nomination, a National Association of Black Journalist award. He also won ‘News Anchor Team of the Year’ from Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas. 

“The reason I’m here today is because I changed my major to multimedia journalism,” Henderson said. “Taking multimedia journalism allowed me to hone my writing and begin to learn what is writing, what is creative writing. Those skills allowed me the opportunity to do it on my own in my current position.” 

Jim McGill ’96 / Faculty Merit Award

Dr. Jim McGill just completed his twentieth year on the faculty at Southeast. He holds the rank of professor in the Department of Chemistry and Physics and serves as associate dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

McGill earned his Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Southeast before earning his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Kansas State University. He’s originally from the Missouri Bootheel, growing up in Anniston, Missouri.

“I didn’t know anything about college,” Dr. McGill said. “No one in my family had been to college, so I didn’t know how it worked and I had to figure that out as I went along.”

Even though his education specialized in organic chemistry, McGill is an expert in forensic chemistry, focusing in the chemistry of illicit drugs and fingerprints. He worked as a forensic chemist for the Drug Enforcement Administration during a break from academia and helped secure over a million dollars in federal and corporate funding and donations for forensic chemistry at Southeast.

McGill says his true passion is helping others discover their gifts and their passions, then putting those together to find their calling and achieve their dreams. 

“I say it to a lot of students, and I say it once they’re here, you belong here and you can do it,” Dr. McGill said. “Those are important things for me to share with students and prospective students. It’s okay if you’re not exactly sure what you want to do. That’s our job to help you find out.”

For more information on the Alumni Association Awards Celebration, visit the Southeast Homecoming 2023 page.