The Moraine Valley Foundation celebrated its Alumni Hall of Fame’s 10th anniversary at the annual induction ceremony held at the college’s Palos Hills location on March 4.
The Hall of Fame Class of 2025 included four inductees: Dr. Jermaine Ford, Dr. April Gallik, Michael Ross Schofield Jr. and Naheda Zayyad-Hussien. In addition, over 20 individuals who won the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award prior to the creation of the Hall of Fame were officially inducted at the ceremony.
“Each year, we honor successful alumni as new inductees into our Alumni Hall of Fame. This year, we inducted four new members who have contributed to their professions and communities,” said Patti Mehallick, director of Alumni and Annual Programs for the Foundation. “We also had the privilege of inducting alumni who were named Distinguished Alumnus of the Year before the Hall of Fame was created in honor of our Hall of Fame’s 10-year anniversary.”
The 2025 Distinguished Alumnus Award winner was Dr. Jermaine Ford, who serves as the president of Florence-Darlington Technical College in Florence, South Carolina. Under his leadership, the college has seen significant growth in enrollment and programs.
After graduating from Moraine Valley and DePaul University, Ford worked in the corporate world and owned a small business. Later, he returned to Moraine Valley to work in the college’s Corporate, Community and Continuing Education Department.
Ford held several positions at South Louisiana Community College, eventually becoming vice president of Workforce and Economic Development. He accepted the president position at Florence-Darlington Technical College in 2021.
As this year’s Distinguished Alumnus Award winner, Ford is the college’s nominee for the Illinois Community College Trustees Association statewide contest.
Inductee Dr. April Gallik has worked in the health care field for over 15 years and currently serves as a nurse practitioner at Duly Health and Care in Lisle. Her specialty is internal medicine, with a subspecialty in geriatrics.
In addition to working as a nurse practitioner, Gallik helps future health care professionals by serving as a volunteer nurse preceptor for students at the University of Michigan and Rush University and as a mentor for an American Association of Nurse Practitioners mentoring program. She has served as an adjunct instructor at Moraine Valley.
Michael Ross Schofield Jr. also was inducted. He spent 46 years in the fire service and has been the fire chief for the Orland Fire Protection District since 2015.
He worked for the Chicago Fire Department as a paramedic and as a firefighter in Country Club Hills and Homer Township before joining the Orland Fire Protection District.
Because of his expertise in rescue, Schofield was appointed to a State Fire Marshal committee to develop rescue certifications and related testing for building collapse, trench rescue, rope rescue and more.
Inductee Naheda Zayyad-Hussien is a prosecutor in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. She has served in the State’s Attorney’s Office for 18 years in various divisions and is now the first chair assistant state’s attorney in the Felony Trial Division in the Fifth District in Bridgeview.
Zayyad-Hussien was named a 40 Under 40 awardee by the Arab America Foundation in 2021. She volunteers for various organizations including the American Middle East Voter Alliance Political Action Committee, Arab American Bar Association and Justice Coalition Action and regularly mentors young people interested in a legal career.
Approximately 160 family members and friends attended the event to honor the successful alumni.
For information about the Alumni Hall of Fame, contact Patti Mehallick at (708) 974-5551 or mehallickp@morainevalley.edu.
For media inquiries, contact Karen Town, communications specialist, at (708) 974-5652 or town@morainevalley.edu.
About the Moraine Valley Foundation
The Moraine Valley Foundation was founded in 1982 to provide scholarships and emergency assistance to Moraine Valley Community College students, fund innovative programs at the college and offer financial support to its Fine and Performing Arts Center. As a 501(c)3 entity, the Foundation partners with corporate and individual donors and has awarded over $1 million to support the college’s mission. In the last fiscal year, over $325,000 in scholarship funds were awarded to students pursuing a better life through higher education. Please help make our students’ dreams possible through a donation to the Foundation at morainevalley.edu/donate.
