Muskegon Community College will present its 2019 Alumni Achievement Award, an honor recognizing extraordinary professional achievement by one of its graduates from the past 15 years, to Nicholas Strait, Class of 2003, who is the director of Clinical Consolidation at Mercy Health in Muskegon
Strait will be honored on Tuesday, May 7, at the Alumni Awards Dinner on campus and will be formally recognized on Wednesday evening, May 8, at the 2019 MCC Commencement in L.C. Walker Arena in downtown Muskegon.
Established in 2017, the Alumni Achievement Award recipient is selected by the MCC Alumni Relations Committee.
A native of Shelby, MI, Strait graduated from Shelby High School. He attended MCC from 1999 to 2003, when he earned an associate’s degree in nursing. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science Nursing from University of Detroit Mercy, a Master of Science in Nursing and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix, and is a doctoral candidate in Nursing Administration at the University of Michigan.
“Muskegon Community College allowed me to get a high quality education without sacrificing time away from my friends and family,” said Strait. “Once I started down the path to becoming a nurse, and at every interval in between, my professors guided me to success. From general education courses to specialty nursing courses, each instructor provided me with the resources I needed to thrive. With my nursing degree in hand, I was able to start working right away at Mercy Health without the crippling student loan debt many of my peers were saddled with.”
Strait continues his nursing career in Muskegon. An experienced director of nursing services, he has practiced nursing in many different roles: bedside nursing, unit management, department management, and currently as the Director of Clinical Consolidation at Mercy Health.
He serves as the process improvement facilitator for clinical groups in three hospital sites. He is the director, facilitator, problem solver and overall project manager for construction, finance and clinical teams to complete Mercy Health’s $271 million hospital consolidation project.
Strait has served as campaign co-chair of United Way and currently serves on the Muskegon Community College Foundation Board.
He and his wife, Sara, have four children – Jacob, Zachary, Evey and Andrew.