John Gonzalez, a BSU professor and a Bemidji Area Schools board member was named post-secondary Teacher of the Year. BSU senior Naomi Johnson won post-secondary Student of the Year, and Donald Day, the former executive director at the university’s American Indian Resource Center, received a Lifetime Achievement Award. And BSU alum Roger Aitken’s family accepted a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award on his behalf.

Gonzalez is a psychology professor at BSU who was voted to the K-12 school board last November. He’s investigated American Indian students and people’s experiences accessing healthcare and has spoken at length about racial microaggressions and racial disparities in the Bemidji area.

Johnson is a McNair scholar at the university who works on the President’s Student Commission. She’s also on the American Indian Advisory Council at BSU and has served as vice president and president on its Council of Indian Students.

Day has been around BSU for years and is a former executive director at the school’s American Indian Resource Center. He’s also served as president of the Fond Du Lac and Leech Lake tribal colleges.

Aitken, who passed away last February, was instrumental in creating the resource center at BSU and getting Leech Lake Tribal College’s new campus. He served on the Bemidji State University Foundation for years and was on the search committees that selected former BSU presidents Jon Quistgard and Richard Hanson.