By Debbye Abe
A trio of accomplished professionals in the business, creative and nonprofit worlds will be honored as Pierce College’s 2013 Distinguished Alumni.
Each of the graduates began their higher education with an Associate in Arts and Science degree from Pierce College. The awardees, who will be feted at a dinner at the Pierce Puyallup campus on Wednesday, April 17, are:
– L. Denice Randle, director of education and employment programs at Making a Difference in Community (MDC) in Tacoma. The education program offers college preparation services to low-income students who will be the first in their family to go to college.
Randle has taught in two Tacoma high schools and earned master, bachelor and associate degrees from three institutions, both public and private. Therefore, she speaks from experience when helping students decide which college or university is the best fit for them.
Randle, 30, grew up in Lakewood, where she lives today.
– Kurt Fletter, co-owner and co-founder of Power Plastics Corp., which fabricates gears, sprockets and other industrial components out of high-strength plastic, polymer and composite materials. The parts are used in a wide variety of applications from roller coaster wheels to earthquake abatement coils in the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
Located in Portland’s industrial area, the state-of-the-art firm employs 12 workers and grosses $3 million annually.
Fletter, 48, grew up in Lakewood and later earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at Central Washington University. He and his wife, Denise, live with their three children in WestLinn, Ore., where he volunteers at his church and with his children’s sports teams.
– Alan Kropf, president and founder of Mutineer Magazine, a publication exploring fine beverages from wine to coffee to spirits, and everything in between. The 75,000-readership quarterly favors a humorous, irreverent edge that makes fine beverages approachable to adults in their 20s and 30s, the demographic collectively called Millenials.
Forbes magazine, Zagat’s and Wine & Spirits Magazine are among the publications that have named Kropf to their lists of up-and-coming trailblazers under the age of 30 in the wine, beverage or culinary industries.
Kropf, 29, grew up in Puyallup, and later earned certifications as a sommelier, beer server and bartender. He lives in Napa Valley, Calif.