ICCTA Ray Hartstein
Trustee Achievement Award
2013 RecipientDr. Thomas M. Bennett
Parkland College
A former science teacher and school board member, Dr. Tom Bennett is an 18-year veteran of the Parkland College board of trustees.
As ICCTA president from 2005 to 2006, he adopted the theme "Nobody Does It Better" to call attention to the unique role played by Illinois community colleges in serving more than one million students each year.
At the national level, Bennett made history in 2010 as the first Illinois trustee to win election as chair of the 6,500-member Association of Community College Trustees.
Dr. Tom Bennett (right) receives ICCTA's 2013 Ray Hartstein Trustee Achievement Award from the honor's namesake, former ICCTA president Ray Hartstein.Under his leadership, ACCT created the Governance Institute for Student Success and developed a series of accountability measures to better gauge college performance. In 2010, he was one of two trustees invited to speak at the first White House Summit on Community Colleges.
A true believe in lifelong learning, Bennett has presented nearly a dozen workshops at national trustee conferences and is a three-time recipient of ICCTA's Trustee Education Award.
In addition to his trustee responsibilities, Bennett volunteers with a number of civic groups, including Rotary and Lions Club. He has served on two different K-12 school boards and was a founding member and president of the Gibson City Education Foundation.
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