5 to receive UNL Alumni Achievement awards

Five University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduates will receive Alumni Achievement Awards from the Nebraska Alumni Association May 5 during the All-University Celebration and Salute to Alumni Achievement at the Nebraska Champions Club.

The 2006 recipients of the award, which recognize service to one's community, state and nation, are:

Ilmars Bergmanis, '57, of Des Plaines, Ill., an integral figure in the independence of Latvia. Bergmanis and his family escaped Latvia in 1944 when Ilmars was just 14. They spent five years in a displaced persons camp before moving to Lincoln where Bergmanis would begin college and his quest for an independent Latvia. After graduating from NU with a business administration degree, he worked for Bechtel Corp. as a field auditor and later as a team leader for the federal government, reviewing Head Start programs. He also continued to fight for the liberation of Latvia, serving on four different committees dedicated to Latvian independence. World leaders have honored Bergmanis for his service; he was recognized at the White House and has received Latvia's prestigious Three Star Medal and Citation.

Eric Dawson, '85, a casting director in Bell Canyon, Calif. Over the last 16 years, Ulrich/Dawson/Kritzer Casting has cast more than 2,000 hours of prime-time television, making it the largest casting company in the United States, hiring hundreds of actors each month. Dawson was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 2005 in the category of "Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series" for his work on the F/X series "Nip/Tuck"; he won an Artios Award for excellence in casting for the same series. Among the nearly 100 other shows for which he has casting credit are: "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation," "Everwood," "Missing," "Felicity," "The Chris Isaak Show," "The Dead Zone," "Any Day Now," "Early Edition," "Battlestar Galactica," "Perry Mason" and "Melrose Place."

Bernard J. Doyle, '57, of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, a retired dentist who has practiced humanitarian medicine in third world countries several months each year. Previously, he was commissioned as a dental officer in the U.S. Air Force and served combat tour in Vietnam in 1968. Doyle later served as a professor at the University of Texas and was in private practice in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Upon his retirement from dentistry, he received an M.D. in 2001 from Grace University School of Medicine in Belize at the age of 71. For the past five years, he has practiced humanitarian medicine in a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand. This spring he traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan, to help build and equip a relatively modern dental treatment facility.

Virginia Gilbert, '91, of Madison, Ala., is a professor of English at Alabama A&M University and director of its program in creative writing. Gilbert earned her Ph.D. in creative writing-poetry and English from UNL. She is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and was the 2001 Alabama Poet of the Year. She has had several chapbooks published, as well as her first full-length book of poems, "That Other Brightness." Gilbert served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1971-73 in the Republic of South Korea and was an English teacher in Iran (she was evacuated from that country during the Islamic Revolution in the late 1970s). In the summer of 1993, Gilbert was a Fulbright Scholar in China. She is also a noted, award-winning photographer.

David Nuckolls, '86, of Alpharetta, Ga., is an executive producer with CNN. He is a past participant in UNL's Masters Week and a recipient of the Outstanding Broadcasting Alumnus Award at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Highlights of his career include executive producing more than 100 projects that have aired on CNN, CNN Headline News, CNN International, CNN Interactive and TNT. Nuckolls is responsible for every aspect of production, from selection of the topics and talent to every detail of the editing, budgeting and programming. During the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, he was the video director for the medals ceremonies each night. Prior to working at CNN, Nuckolls was a senior producer in the Disney Corp.'s Creative Entertainment division.

Reservations for the All-University Celebration and Salute to Alumni Achievement may be made by calling the Nebraska Alumni Association, (888) 353-1874 or (402) 472-4250. The cost is $25 per person and the deadline for registrations is April 28.

CONTACT: Marti Paquette, Nebraska Alumni Association, (402) 472-4250