The CFAES Alumni Society sponsors an annual awards program to recognize individuals whose careers have enabled them to make significant contributions to the college. This year, four of the recipients have connections to the Wooster campus. They were honored at a reception on the Ohio State ATI campus on March 4 and a luncheon on the Columbus campus on March 5, 2016.
Young Professional Achievement Award
Ryan Saxe
Ryan Saxe has distinguished himself as an education professional in a relatively short amount of time. Since graduating from Ohio State ATI with an Associate of Science degree in 2003, Ryan has gone on to earn a B.S. in agricultural and environmental education from West Virginia University, an M.A. in leadership studies from Marshall University and an Ed.D in educational leadership from Liberty University. Along the way, he as garnered numerous teaching awards and his creativity has been exemplified by his being highly successful in both granstmanship and scholarship. Ryan is currently Director of the Office of Professional Learning for Manatee County Schools in Bradenton, Florida.
Distinguished Alumni Award
John Douglass
John Douglass is a dynamic, progressive dairy producer that contributes in many ways to sustaining the Ohio dairy industry. He presently owns about 5700 cows that are managed on three dairy operations – Catalpadale and Bristol Dairies located in Marshallville, Ohio and the Coral Hill Dairy located near Glasgow, Kentucky. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in dairy science in 1984. The Douglass dairy operations thrived during some very challenging and tumultuous fiscal times. John has been very active in state and national dairy activities through the Ohio Farm Bureau's Dairy Advisory Committee, as president of the Wayne County Farm Bureau and through Wayne County Soil and Water Conservation District activities. Furthermore, he is a charter member of the Ohio Dairy Producers Association. He has always been a willing guest lecturer in various dairy management classes and is an advisory board member at Ohio State ATI.
International Alumni Award
Milton Gorocica
Dr. Milton Gorocica has made astounding advances in his career endeavors with the food producing animal pharmaceutical industries since the time he graduated with a Ph.D. degree in 2006. Following graduation, he joined Cargill Meat Solutions as a national technical services leader for dairy. In a very short period of time, Milton had the opportunity to move back to Mexico in an area close to his childhood home with Elanco Animal Health, in a position that focused on the beef cattle finishing feedlot sector. In 2013, Milton joined Phibro Animal Health, where he is presently Global Cattle Marketing Director responsible for planning, generating and implementing marketing plans to support technical sales staff for the Northern Hemisphere – USA, Canada, Mexico, Central America, China, Russia, Israel, Turkey and other sectors of the Middle East.
Meritorious Service Award
Ken Cochran
Ken Cochran joined the faculty of Ohio State ATI in 1978, where he coordinated the nursery management program. He gained a tremendous reputation for training of students the technical and business skills that helped prepare them to be “job ready” in the landscape industry. He used the Secrest Arboretum as a learning laboratory, and relationships he had with industry clientele from his earlier career endeavors helped students in obtaining leading positions in the landscape industry. Ken took on the role as Secrest Arboretum program director in 1999. He retired in December 2014 after 36 years of service on the Wooster campus.
"I congratulate these 2016 recipients of the highest awards bestowed on our CFAES alumni and service providers by our College," said Jim Kinder, interim director of Ohio State ATI. "This is a great showing by the Wooster campus in having this illustrious group of 2016 CFAES Alumni recipients."