North Central College honors Flossmoor resident with Outstanding Alumni Award

North Central College is honoring the Rev. Dr. Tracy Smith Malone of Flossmoor with a 2013 Outstanding Alumni Award. She graduated from North Central in 1990 with a degree in religious studies.

Malone and six others will be honored during the College’s Homecoming Convocation at 4:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25, at North Central College’s Wentz Concert Hall at the Fine Arts Center, 171 E. Chicago Ave.

An ordained elder and recognized leader in the United Methodist Church (UMC), Malone is widely known for her devout faith and her outstanding abilities to lead, mentor, teach and preach. She is the UMC Chicago Southern District Superintendent of the Northern Illinois Conference. The district she oversees includes 60 local churches, a social agency, two campus ministries and other ministries.

Malone has served in associate, pastor and senior pastor positions and been a member of the board of directors for the General Board of Church and Society and chair of the 2012 delegation to General and Jurisdictional Conferences. She has received the Distinguished Leadership Award by the Chicago Black Methodists for Church Renewal.

While a student at North Central, Malone prepared for a life of ministry service and seminary study. She initiated the Voices of Praise gospel choir, planned new events for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and served on the search committee that hired the College’s first multicultural affairs director.

As an alumna, she has been generous with her time on many occasions, returning as a speaker at Martin Luther King Jr. events and at the worship service to celebrate the inauguration of President Troy D. Hammond. In addition, she and her husband established the Derrick and Tracy Malone Minority Scholarship to support the African-American student population at North Central.

Malone received a master of divinity degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and a doctor of ministry degree from United Theological Seminary.

Others being honored during North Central’s Homecoming are Outstanding Alumni Award recipients Charles Bartsch of Washington, D.C.; John Giannini, Ph.D., of Millica Hill, N.J.; Steven Hoeft of Naperville; and William Soper, M.D., of Arlington Heights. The Alumni Recognition Award recipient is Josh Stumpenhorst of Oswego, and Wilber C. Harr, Ph.D., will be honored with a posthumous Wall of Witness honor.

Founded in 1861, North Central College is an independent, comprehensive college of the liberal arts and sciences that offers more than 55 undergraduate majors and graduate programming in seven areas. With more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students, North Central College is committed to academic excellence, a climate that emphasizes leadership, ethics, values and service, a curriculum that balances job-related knowledge with a liberal arts foundation and a caring environment with small classes. Visit www.northcentralcollege.edu to learn more.