2017-2018 Distinguished Alumni Award Winners Announced

Dr. Victor Carrillo, Dr. Leroy Humphries, and Cindy Wier will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award for their exemplary personal and professional accomplishments and service to Hardin-Simmons. The recipients will be honored during Homecoming at the Alumni Awards Banquet on October 27 at 6:30 p.m.

Carrillo has had many personal and professional achievements throughout his career. He was the first in his family to go to college, receiving a B.S. from HSU in 1986, a M.S. from Baylor, his J.D. from The University of Houston, and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Hardin-Simmons in 2005. In his career, he worked as a petroleum geophysicist, HSU professor, attorney, city council member, statewide elected official, Taylor County Judge and Chair of the Texas Railroad Commission. While serving as on the Texas Railroad Commission, he also chaired Governor Rick Perry’s Texas Energy Planning Council and was vice-chairman of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. He currently serves as President and COO of Zion Oil & Gas, Inc., a Dallas-based company exploring for oil and gas in Israel with the goals to help make Israel more economically and politically dependent. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Directors of Energy Hunter Resources, the Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce, and the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University.

Humphries currently serves as the Director of The Leroy J. & Daisy E. Humphries Foundation, which is a program that teaches financial responsibility and practical skills to young men and women with the purpose of helping them to receive an education and start a life in agriculture. Prior to that, he was an Associate Professor of Physics at McMurry University, received a Postdoctoral Fellowship to study medical physics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and then served as the Director of the Radiation Dosimetry Calibration Laboratory. Leroy was also a member of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine team responsible for disseminating the protocol for calibrating linear accelerators and establishing medical physics organizations in countries around the world, during which time he started his own company manufacturing radiation dosimetry equipment. He has since sold his company and is now in the cattle business with farms in Tennessee and at the Geometrical Center of New Mexico.

Wier is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Serenity Foundation, a substance abuse treatment organization, where she has served in various positions since 1993. She works tirelessly spending long hours directing a substance abuse treatment program that helps all persons regardless of their ability to pay. Prior to joining The Serenity Foundation, she held several leadership positions at the Hendrick Medical Center Foundation and Hospital. She is an avid supporter of Hardin-Simmons where she has served as a part-time lecturer, board member, and alumni volunteer.

For more information on the Alumni Awards, visit https://connect.hsutx.edu/alumni-awards.