KAMLOOPS – Three distinguished alumni from Kamloops will receive Distinguished Alumni Awards this Friday at a banquet beginning at 6 pm in TRU’s Culinary Arts Building.
Honourees for 2006 from Kamloops include:
Alan Corbishley (Award in Arts & Culture), an accomplished baritone who received a Bachelor of Arts degree from TRU in 1994. Corbishley’s vocal ability, exciting stage presence and innovations in the performing arts have brought him international success;
Sue Carpenter (Award for Professional Achievement), an exemplary nurse who received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from TRU in 2001. Carpenter’s innovations and initiatives have been instrumental in bettering health care and nursing education in a significant way and;
Don Avison (Award for Public Service), who completed two years of university transfer studies at TRU in 1977. Avison is a creative and innovative leader whose record of excellence in public administration, program implementation and strategic planning is highly respected.
Also receiving awards at the banquet will be Deanna Howell (Award for Service to the Community), who has contributed greatly to her community, particularly in the areas of the development, education and well-being of children and Shelly Johnson (Grace Chronister Award), who has made a significant contribution to the profession of social work through her employment and her involvement in community service.
Friends, family and associates of the winners are invited to attend this banquet. Tickets are $50/person, available by calling 250-371-5711
For more information, please contact Nancy Plett, Executive Director, TRU Alumni Association, at 250-828-5267
NOTE: Full citations for Corbishley, Carpenter and Avison are appended below:
Alan Corbishley Thompson Rivers University Distinguished Alumni Award in Arts & Culture
Alan Corbishley is an accomplished baritone whose vocal ability, exciting stage presence and innovations in the performing arts have brought him international success.
Alan Corbishley was born in Sault Ste. Marie in 1973 and then moved with his family a year after his birth to Thunder Bay, where they remained until 1999, when the family moved to Kamloops in his final year of high school.
After graduating from Kamloops Senior Secondary in 1991, he attended Thompson Rivers University from 1991 to 1994, where he completed three years of a Bachelor of Arts program with a concentration in theatre arts. While at TRU, he portrayed the lead character in the university’s Actors Workshop production of Up the Ivory Tower. He then went on to study at the University of British Columbia in 1994, where he completed a Bachelor of Music degree with a major in opera in 1998.
While at UBC, Alan Corbishley made his European stage debut in 1997 as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, performed with the UBC Opera Ensemble at the Silesian State Theatre in the Czech Republic, a role he later reprised in Marseilles, France, in 2003 and in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2005.
He was granted a fellowship in 1999 by the Boston Symphony to study for two summers at its prestigious Tanglewood Music Centre, during which time he also pursued a Master of Music degree in voice and opera at the New England Conservatory in Boston, completed in 2000 with a mark of distinction.
While at Tanglewood in 1999, Alan Corbishley performed in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with Robert Spano conducting and then returned in 2001 to singe the role of Ramiro in Ravel’s opera, L’heure Espagnole, led by world-famous conductor Seiji Ozawa. Through his success at Tanglewood, Alan Corbishley made his debut with the Boston Symphony in its regular season as Horns Wild Thing in the opera version of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.
While at the New England Conservatory, he performed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Rape of Lucretia both by Britten . Following graduation, he performed with the Connecticut Grand Opera in Kurt Weil’s Three Penny Opera before attending the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara California.It was world famous mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne who personally invited Alan to study at the academy for the summers of 2000 and 2002.There, he performed the roles of Harlekin in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, and the role of Sid in Britten’s comic opera Albert Herring.
While at the new England Conservatory, he performed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Rape of Lucretia. Following graduation, he performed with the Connecticut Grand Opera in Kurt Weil’s Three Penny Opera before studying at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, which he attended at the personal invitation of world-famous mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne. There, he performed the roles of Harlekin in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and the role of Sid in Britten’s comic opera Albert Herring.
In 2001, Alan Corbishley returned to Canada to perform in the world premiere of Turtle Wakes with the Calgary Opera and in 2002 was one of 12 other young singers from around the world to be invited to study voice and opera for one year as part of the Young Artist Program at the Centre National Insertion Professionnelle Artistes Lyriques (CNIPAL) Marseilles, France. While there, he returned to Canada to sing Schaunard in Puccini’s La Boheme with the Vancouver Opera.
From 2003 to the present, Alan Corbishley has performed on the stage in many countries and has lived in France, Germany and England. He made his London debut in 2004 as Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus with Opera Holland Park, and within the last year he has performed roles and concerts in Belfast, Bristol, Exeter and Bath, and has performed several roles with the Besançon Opéra Théâtre in France. He also mounted a self-produced concert creation in 2006 in which he fused classical chamber music with multi-media and theatrical staging to overwhelming success. In the same year, he performed in Vancouver, Canada, in the role of Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
Alan Corbishley plans to focus on producing and stage directing, while continuing his performance appearances. He said of his alma mater, Thompson Rivers University, that “It is exciting to see it blossom into a fully-accredited university in such a short span of time and proves what excellent planning and true vision can amount to.” His words can easily be applied to the singing career of this engaging and talented young artist.
It gives the Thompson Rivers University Alumni Association great pleasure to bestow a Distinguished Alumni Award in Arts and Culture upon Alan Corbishley.
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Sue Carpenter Thompson Rivers University Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement
Sue Carpenter is an exemplary nurse whose innovations and initiatives have been instrumental in bettering health care and nursing education in a significant way.
Sue Carpenter was born in Kamloops and attended high school in Clearwater, graduating from Clearwater Secondary School in 1973. She enrolled as a member of the first nursing diploma class at Thompson Rivers University (then Cariboo College) in 1973, graduating as a Registered Nurse (RN) in 1975. Upon graduation, she worked as a Registered Nurse at Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake and at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.
Upon completion of a post-graduate critical care course in 1978, she worked as a critical-care RN until 1989, when she was appointed Head Nurse in Royal Inland Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, a position she held until 1996. During this period, Sue Carpenter completed programs in nursing unit administration and management/leadership training through the hospital and the university.
In 1996, Sue Carpenter was promoted to the position of Director of Critical Care, a position she held until 2002, during which time she also embarked on studies to complete a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at Thompson Rivers University, which she completed in 2001.
In 2002, Sue Carpenter assumed the role of Leader of Recruitm
ent and retention for the Interior Health Authority, the next year accepting the position of Corporate Director of Emergency Services with that organization, in which capacity she is still employed.
She enrolled in the first cohort of the TRU-hosted University of British Columbia Master of Science in Nursing degree program in 2003, and that year was also awarded the Registered Nurses Association of BC Recognition Award for Valuable Contribution to the Nursing Profession. She has also been recognized with service awards from Thompson Rivers University, Royal Inland Hospital, and the Interior Health Authority. She completed her master degree in 2005.
Throughout her busy career, Sue Carpenter has also been involved in the education of others as a Nurse Manager and as the health authority’s Leader of Recruitment and Retention, when she was responsible for the educational strategy for all of nursing in the Interior Health Authority. She found time to further nursing education as a mentor to many practicing nurses and has been a frequent guest lecturer for TRU’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. She has had an influence on many nursing students through her encouragement, advice and commitment to creating a workplace that welcomes learners.
Sue Carpenter’s system-wide accomplishments and innovations have been acknowledged on the provincial level, with many other provincial health authorities drawing upon her work for inspiration and potential solutions to their own challenges. She has also provided leadership that has elevated rural practice in rural areas to the provincial agenda.
True to the spirit of nursing, Sue Carpenter combines her professionalism in education, clinical practice and leadership with compassion and caring. She continues to be a passionate advocate for patients and staff and is highly respected by all in the hospital setting as an inclusive, fair-minded, value-driven and patient-focused health-care leader.
It gives the Thompson Rivers University Alumni Association great pleasure to bestow a Distinguished Service Award for Professional Achievement upon Sue Carpenter.
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Don Avison Thompson Rivers University Distinguished Alumni Award for Public Service
Don Avison is a creative and innovative leader whose record of excellence in public administration, program implementation and strategic planning is highly respected.
Don Avison was born in Jasper, Alberta in 1954. He moved with his family to Kamloops in 1957, and graduated from Kamloops Secondary School in 1972. That fall, he enrolled at Thompson Rivers University (then Cariboo College) where he was a member of the student council. After completing two years of undergraduate study, he went on to Simon Fraser University, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977. He then earned a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of British Columbia.
After articling for a year, in 1980 Don Avison was employed at a private law firm for a year before taking the position of Crown Counsel at the Yukon Regional Office of the federal Department of Justice, where he remained until 1985. In 1986, he was appointed Counsel for the Appellate and Advisory Unit of the Criminal Law Branch of the Department of Justice in Ottawa. While there, he was mainly involved in Charter-based Supreme Court of Canada litigation, major extradition cases, and was the Canadian Attorney-General’s representative regarding the constitutional challenge of the mandatory minimum sentences for first- and second-degree murder.
In 1989, he returned to the north when the Department of Justice appointed him Regional Director and Chief Crown Counsel at its Northwest Territories Regional Office. He left this position in 1992 to assume the office of the Director General of the Aboriginal Justice Initiative under the Canadian Department of Justice, where he remained until 1994, distinguishing himself in a number of ways. He implemented the Aboriginal Justice Pilot Project and Research Initiatives, led the policy development process for the administration of the justice aspects of the Inherent Right, and successfully advocated for amendments to the Criminal Code which require sentencing judges to specifically address the circumstances of Aboriginal offenders.
From 1994 to 1999, Don Avison held five Deputy Minister positions, in the Northwest Territories Department of Justice and Office of the Premier, and then with the British Columbia government, in the Ministry of Education, Skills and Training, the Crown Corporations Secretariat, and the Ministry of Health.
During this period, Don Avison was closely involved in a number of key initiatives, among them the implementation of the Nunavut Agreement and the establishment of Canada’s first fully unified superior court in Nunavut. He was also Chief Negotiator for the Government of the Northwest Territories in the development of all socio-economic, environmental and impact-benefit agreements associated with the approval of the Broken Hills Properties NWT Diamonds project. In British Columbia, Don Avison was responsible for education policy and funding, and long-term planning for provincial health care.
In November, 1999, Don Avison assumed the presidency of the University Presidents’ Council of British Columbia, a position he holds today. In this capacity, he has been the key spokesperson for the province’s university sector, and also led the development and implementation of a proactive government relations and advocacy program. He was also called upon during this period to act as Chief Negotiator for the First Nations Education Jurisdiction Agreement, signed in July, 2006.
Don Avison has contributed greatly to social justice and education throughout his professional career. It gives the Thompson Rivers Alumni Association great pleasure to bestow a Distinguished Alumni Award for Public Service upon Mr. Don Avison.
