Receiving Distinguished Alumni awards will be cultural historian Dennis Barrie of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and state Rep. Aldo Vagnozzi of Farmington Hills .
Alexandria Conley, a member of the Honors Program, majored in nutrition and food science in the WSU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She is a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society, the Association of Pre-Med Students and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.
She has done volunteer work at the Karmanos Cancer Institute, the Cass Clinic and Henry Ford Hospital and has been a student laboratory research assistant at Wayne State for four years. The institute recognized her in 2002 for assisting with its Hazards of Tobacco Program, an education and smoking prevention project aimed at youth.
Conley has been an investigatory team member in several health research projects and is the recipient of many academic and research scholarships.
Daniel Levin, a member of the Honors Program since enrollment at WSU in 1999, majored in finance in the School of Business Administration. He is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an international scholastic honor society, and the Golden Key National Honor Society. He has been active in various projects as vice president in the School of Business Administration's Student Senate, and he served for a year as president of the Honors Program social committee. This year, he received the Dean's Award for outstanding service in the school.
Levin also participated in WSU's Club Hispano, which provides opportunities for Spanish language students to engage in conversation in that language and to learn about Latino culture and cuisine.
Barrie, who earned a doctorate in American cultural history from Wayne State in 1983, is the founding executive director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, where he helped bring the project from conception to reality. His latest creation, the International Spy Museum in the nation's capital, is the only public museum in the world dedicated to the history and contemporary role of espionage.
A graduate of Oberlin College, from which he holds bachelor's and master's degrees, Barrie is president of Cleveland-based Malrite Co., which specializes in planning and building for-profit museums. He began his career with the Smithsonian Institution, where he worked for 11 years. As Midwest director of the Archives of American Art, he worked to document the history of visual arts in America.
Later, he was executive director of the Cincinnati Arts Center from 1983-92.
Vagnozzi, who holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Wayne State, has long been active in politics and community service. As a first-term legislator in the Michigan House, he serves on the Education Committee and the Senior Health, Security and Retirement Committee. He is a former mayor of Farmington Hills, served on that city's council for seven years and was a board member for the Farmington School District.
During a career of service that spans decades, he served as editor of the AFL-CIO News and the Detroit Labor News and has been active in numerous service organizations, including the Farmington Area Consumer Protection Committee, Farmington Area AARP, Michigan Campaign for Quality Care, Goodfellows of Greater Farmington nd the executive committee of Neighborhood House. He has received numerous awards for community service.
Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 12 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.