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The public is invited to attend the NIACC Alumni Association’s 19th Annual Pathways to Success luncheon on Thursday, April 16.  The event will begin at 11:30 a.m. in the Muse Norris Conference Center on campus. 

Tickets are available for $12 through the NIACC Business Office, 1-888-GO NIACC, ext 4188.  Sponsors are NIACC Student Senate and the Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors. 

During the program, over 40 current students will be recognized for their scholarship, leadership and character, and Dr. Norma Cook Everist will be honored for her accomplishments with the Outstanding Alumna award.  A 1958 graduate, Norma will serve as the keynote speaker.

Dr. Norma Cook Everist, is Professor of Church Administration and Educational Ministry at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.  She was the first woman theological seminary professor to be tenured in the American Lutheran Church. She is a deaconess and an ordained Lutheran pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  Everist is a widely known lecturer across the country.  She has published over a dozen books and contributed chapters to a dozen more.  She has published over 50 articles, and was a regular columnist with her husband, the Rev. Burton Everist, for “The Lutheran” magazine.

Norma is a 1956 graduate of Mason City High School and continued her education at Mason City Junior College (NIACC).  After receiving her Associate of Arts in 1958, she went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts degree from Valparaiso University.  She earned both a Master of Arts in Religion degree from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) and a Master of Divinity degree from the Yale University Divinity School.  Her Doctor of Philosophy Degree is from the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology.  

Dr. Everist came to Wartburg Theological Seminary in 1979 after teaching three years at Yale Divinity School. She helps foster a seminary community atmosphere of shared power and partnership that builds on the gifts and insights of the students, which in turn enhances learning for leadership in the church and in the world.  She has served nationally and internationally on many task forces and committees in the areas of ministry, leadership, theological education, gender studies and ministry in daily life.

Norma and her husband Burton have three sons, Mark, Joel and Kirk, and three grandchildren.

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