Tennessee Tech to recognize four outstanding alumni at 2024 Evening of Excellence awards dinner
The Tennessee Tech Alumni Association’s 2024 alumni award winners. Clockwise from
top left: Ashraf Islam, Distinguished Alumnus Award, Brittney Herman, Outstanding
Young Alumna Award, Randy Wilmore, Outstanding Service Award, and Mary Anne Koltowich,
Outstanding Philanthropy Award.
Tennessee Tech University’s Alumni Association will recognize outstanding graduates
with its annual Evening of Excellence alumni awards dinner on Saturday, Nov. 2 at
the Leslie Town Centre in Cookeville. A cocktail hour will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed
by the awards program and dinner at 6:30 p.m.
Ashraf Islam will be honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award, Tech’s highest alumni honor,
for his generous support of the university and his remarkable professional success
since earning a civil engineering degree from Tech in 1968.
Islam came to Tech from his native Bangladesh in 1965. Following graduation, he built
a successful engineering and transportation industry career from the ground up, culminating
in a role as co-chair of CONSOR Engineers, LLC.
Islam was previously named a Tech “Engineer of Distinction” in 2002 and today serves
on the university’s Foundation Board. Most recently, he was honored as the namesake
for Tech’s Ashraf Islam Engineering Building – the first new engineering building
on Tech’s campus in 50 years – following a $3 million financial commitment toward
the facility’s construction.
At an Oct. 15 ribbon cutting event for the new building, Islam expressed a “heart
full of gratitude” to the Tech faculty, staff and local community members who shaped
his educational journey.
“I fondly remember the kindness of the Cookeville community, a town where a simple
walk down the street could turn into a delightful journey punctuated by a friendly
offer of a ride,” said Islam. “The warmth of this community and the dedication of
the faculty at Tennessee Tech provided me with the solid foundation I needed to succeed.”
In addition to Islam, Tech’s Alumni Association will recognize 2017 Tech graduate
Brittney Herman with the Outstanding Young Alumna Award. The award is given annually to an accomplished
Tech graduate age 40 or younger.
Herman earned an English degree from Tech before going on to graduate cum laude from
Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School and earning a Master of Laws
in taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.
She established the nonprofit “We Will,” an organization dedicated to sexual assault
prevention and survivor empowerment. Herman has traveled across the United States
and helped legislators pass improvements to sexual education laws. She was published
in 2019 for her research regarding sexual assault prevention education and has developed
her own curriculum, including a children’s book which has been distributed to more
than 2,000 families and translated into multiple languages.
Also at the Nov. 2 awards dinner, Mary Anne Koltowich will receive the Alumni Association’s Outstanding Philanthropy Award. Koltowich has
given financially to Tech every year for more than four decades and is a member of
the President’s Club 1915 Society. In 2010, she established the Koltowich Engineering
Scholarship to support women engineering students.
She also provided generous support for the Ashraf Islam Engineering Building and Tech’s
engineering summer camp for high school students. Her latest project is the Koltowich
Electronics, Computing and Technology Grant Foundation for students in need.
Rounding out Tech’s alumni awards recipients is Randy Wilmore, the 2024 winner of the Outstanding Service Award.
Wilmore, a 1982 graduate of Tech’s College of Business, serves as chief relationship
officer for Farm Bureau Health Plans and lends his time to multiple boards and causes,
including serving as immediate past chair of Leadership Middle Tennessee and serving
on the board of the Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature (TISL) Foundation.
In 2023, Wilmore concluded a more-than-20-year run on the Tech Alumni Association
Board of Directors. He has also given consistently to the university each year for
more than 40 years and is a member of the President’s Club Tower Society.
“These alumni truly represent the best of Tennessee Tech,” said Susan Luna-Hazlewood,
director of Tech’s Crawford Alumni Center. “From Ashraf Islam’s only-in-America story
and lavish generosity to Brittney Herman’s tenacious advocacy for sexual assault survivors,
Mary Anne Koltowich’s decades of selfless giving and Randy Wilmore’s unrelenting passion
for service, we look forward to celebrating these exceptional Golden Eagles at what
is sure to be a memorable event for all.”
Tickets for the Evening of Excellence alumni awards dinner are still available and
can be purchased at https://www.tntech.edu/univadv/cac/registration-evening-of-excellence.php.