Alumni

Dallas Seavey, who trained as a wrestler at the U.S. Olympic Education Center at NMU, won a record-breaking sixth Iditarod. The victory came despite a fatal encounter with a moose that his team became entangled with on the trail, which resulted in a two-hour penalty for insufficiently gutting the animal.

Actor Eric Roberts, star of “Intent Unknown,” the first screenplay by Northern Michigan University alumna Beth Rondeau Deacon, delivers a video message to NMU. The shoutout is timed with today's campus visit by Deacon and director/producer Terence Gordon. They are screening the film and conducting a casting call for NMU students for the upcoming sequel and another project on a prominent female pilot. Deacon is also the author of “Seven Doors In: One Teacher's Mission within Prison Walls,” which has been optioned by a prominent production company for a streaming series. View the video here. Read more about the visit by Deacon and Gordon here.

A new college scholarship that honors the memory of former Northern student Barbara (Golenda) Forsberg will be available beginning this year from the Alger Regional Community Foundation.

NMU 2016 graphic communications alumna Alexa Haferkorn is a website design specialist with Packerland Websites, a Green Bay-based digital marketing company that recently opened an office in Marquette. She will also manage the new location.

Northern Michigan University alumna and Ironwood native Beth Rondeau Deacon will return to campus on Wednesday, March 13, for a series of events related to her work as a screenwriter, book author and mathematics teacher. She and director/producer Terence Gordon will present a free 6 p.m. showing of the movie based on Deacon's first screenplay, Intent Unknown, followed by a Q&A in Jamrich 1100. The psychological thriller stars Eric Roberts and revolves around four ambitious psychology students who embark on a risky experiment to unravel the mysteries of human behavior.

NMU alumna Amanda Giracca, who earned a master's degree in English, has expanded her role with Literacy Network (LitNet). She joined the LitNet team in 2020 and most recently served as the organization's Grants and Communications Coordinator. She joins the staff full-time with the additional role of New Programs Coordinator.

When 1983 alumnus and NMU Foundation Board member Mark Pynnonen decided to retire from his Signs Now business in Negaunee Township, he transferred ownership to another member of the Wildcat family. Keven Hagans, who attended NMU from 2007-2010 and played football for the Wildcats, is the new owner.

NMU alumna Mia Cinelli recently published her first book, "Giving Type Meaning: Context and Craft in Typography." As an associate professor in the School of Art and Visual Studies at the University of Kentucky, she engages with textbooks and resources surrounding the subjects of type and design. But she could not find a book that focused on the layers of meaning behind typography and answered her own question: “When we look at typefaces— when we look at words in the world and what they look like—how do we understand what they mean?” So she wrote her own.

Mike Oswald, a 2003 Northern Michigan University construction management alumnus and former Wildcat football player, has been promoted to CEO of Hill & Wilkinson General Contractors in Richardson, Texas. He joined the firm as a project engineer shortly after earning his NMU degree. His solid performance fueled rapid promotions through various leadership roles over the past 20 years. Prior to being elevated to CEO, Oswald served as chief operating officer, managing field operations for all divisions.

Wilbert Alik, a 2021 Northern Michigan University anthropology alumnus from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, recently donated a flag from the island nation in the northwest Pacific to the collection of world flags hanging in the Whitman Hall Commons on campus. After earning his NMU degree, Alik returned to his home country and became director of its Historic Preservation Office and the national historic preservation officer.