Five to receive Northwestern College alumni awards for 2025

Northwestern College will present five of its alumni with awards recognizing their accomplishments and service during Raider Nation Celebration, the college’s Homecoming and Family Weekend. The recipients will be honored during a banquet Saturday evening, Oct. 4.

Dr. James C. Kennedy of Amersfoort, the Netherlands, will receive the Distinguished Professional Achievement Award; Capt. Robin Lewis of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, the Distinguished Service to Humankind Award; Dan and Tricia Vermeer of Pella, Iowa, the Distinguished Service to Northwestern Award; and Grant Hegstad of Orange City, the Standout Young Alum Award.

Kennedy is a professor of modern Dutch history and a distinguished university professor of community-engaged learning at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He previously served as dean of University College Utrecht, which offers an English-language undergraduate program at Utrecht University. The author of many books and articles on Dutch history, Kennedy was chairman of the committee that presented a revised version of the Canon of the Netherlands, a historical canon that includes 50 important persons, objects and events that played pivotal roles in the country’s historical and cultural development.

A member of Northwestern’s class of 1984, Kennedy holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University, a master’s degree from Calvin College and Seminary, and a doctorate from the University of Iowa.

Lewis was commissioned in the U.S. Navy in 1999 and served as a naval officer in California, Guam, Texas and at the U.S. Naval Academy. After taking a commission with the U.S. Public Health Service in 2009, she served as a commissioned officer with the Navy in Virginia, South Carolina and aboard the USNS Comfort. Since 2020, Robin has served as a public health captain in the U.S. Coast Guard, where she helps guide a worldwide behavioral health program with direct oversight of the Coast Guard’s District 7, an area spanning Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and the Caribbean.

After graduating from Northwestern in 1992, Lewis earned a doctorate in psychology, along with additional advanced degrees in counseling and psychopharmacology. She is the recipient of more than 40 military awards and was named 2011 Force Protection Military Medical Hero.

The Vermeers are active members of the Vermeer Corporation, where Tricia is executive director of the Vermeer Charitable Foundation and Dan serves as an engaged shareholder. Both have held roles as Vermeer family ambassadors and members of the Vermeer Ownership Council, and Tricia additionally serves on the company’s board of directors.

Dan and Tricia graduated from Northwestern in 1994, and their commitment to Christian higher education has been evident throughout their careers as educators and community leaders. Dan taught high school history at Christian schools for more than 20 years and also coached baseball and basketball. Tricia sat on Northwestern’s board of trustees from 2012 to 2024, serving three years as vice chair and two years as chair.

Hegstad is the assistant principal, career experiences coordinator and head football coach at MOC-Floyd Valley High School in Orange City. In 2024, his success as an administrator and educator was recognized by the Milken Family Foundation when he was selected as Iowa’s sole recipient of the national Milken Educator Award, known as the “Oscar of Teaching.”

A former special education teacher, Hegstad is a 2010 Northwestern graduate and holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Sioux Falls. He is also a member of the School Administrators of Iowa organization.