The Foundation for Daviess County Public Schools Board of Directors is pleased to announce DCPS Distinguished Alumni 2015. The public is invited to attend an open house reception hosted by the Board of Directors honoring Loretta Dunn Schmitzer and Christopher Payne from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, October 30, in the Daviess County Public School boardroom at 1622 Southeastern Parkway.
Loretta Dunn Schmitzer is a 1973 graduate of Daviess County High School. Ms. Schmitzer graduated with high honors upon earning an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Kentucky, a law degree from the University of Kentucky School of Law and a Masters of Law degree from Georgetown University. Ms. Schmitzer retired from The Boeing Company in 2014 where she worked as Vice President of International Operations and Policy. While at Boeing, Ms. Schmitzer was responsible for the company’s foreign policy advocacy in Washington, D.C.
Christopher Payne is 1986 graduate of Apollo High School and a 1990 graduate of Dartmouth, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. For the past 25 years, Mr. Payne has led innovation in technology, serving in senior leadership positions at eBay, Amazon, Tinder and Microsoft. At eBay, Payne led the North America Marketplaces business. At Amazon, he helped drive the company’s expansion from book sales to video, electronics and more. During his time at Microsoft, Payne led web search (Live Search, now Bing), mapping and shopping efforts before founding Positronic, a search technology company, which was acquired by eBay.
Mr. Payne currently sits on the Board of Directors of Gogo Inc., a leading global aero-communications service provider. Payne resides in Saratoga, California with his wife and two children.
The DCPS Distinguished Alumni reception is part of the Foundation for DCPS 2015 Alumni Celebration to be held on October 29 and 30, 2015. The Alumni Celebration begins with Ms. Schmitzer’s speech to Daviess County High School seniors at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday afternoon (October 29) at the school. Mr. Payne will speak with seniors at Apollo High School at 9:30 a.m. on Friday morning.
Following the reception Friday evening at the Daviess County Public School Central Office, Ms. Schmitzer and Mr. Payne will be presented with a memento of the Distinguished Alumnus honor at halftime of the Apollo/Daviess County football game to be held at Daviess County High School. Game time is 7:00 p.m.
Distinguished Alumni Reception attendees are asked to make a reservation on or before October 27 by email ([email protected]) or by calling the Foundation at (270) 231-5583. There is no cost to attendees for the reception.
Persons wishing to attend either or both of the speeches should contact the appropriate school in advance to make a reservation. Valid government-issued photo ID is required when checking in at the front office. Persons wishing to attend the presentation at the football game will be expected to purchase a ticket; advance football game ticket purchase available at Daviess County High School.
