Manatee Technical College alumni, volunteers are honored | From the Sarasota Herald Tribune

Manatee Technical College presented awards to alumni and volunteers during its annual advisory committee dinner meeting on April 7.

Director Doug Wagner presented a certificate of appreciation to Tropicana for the company’s contribution to Florida’s first Remote Area Medical expedition and continued support of MTC’s farmworker career development program. Scott McGarrity and Fernando Olvera accepted the award on behalf of Tropicana and the volunteers who worked on the program.

John Ziemnicki, chairman of the MTC Foundation and Board of Governors, presented the Outstanding Volunteer award for 2016 to Mote Marine Laboratory’s Earl Stockton, who is a member of the MTC Foundation Board of Directors and an alumnus. Stockton is a founding life member of the MTC Alumni Association, immediate past president of its board of directors and a current member.

Virginia Sirocky, executive director of the MTC Foundation and Alumni Association, presented the 2016 Outstanding Alumni awards to Jay Romine and Kimberly Bland.

Romine is the director of MTC’s Law Enforcement Academy. He is a 1979 graduate of MTC, then Manatee Area Vocational Technical Center. Romine was a patrol officer at the Holmes Beach Police Department in 1979 and advanced through the ranks until he retired as the chief of police in 2013. In 2015, Romine was elected chairman of the Florida Criminal Justice Training Center Directors’ Association.

Bland has been the program manager of the Dental Assisting Program at Manatee Technical College since 2004. She began teaching at MTC in 1995 and was voted teacher of the year in 1999-2000. Bland is president of the American Dental Assistants Association. She is a founding life member of the MTC Alumni Association.