- Now Accepting Nominations!
2023 Inductees
Dale Lefferts – Class of 1969
Dale is a 1969 graduate of Wickliffe High School. He obtained a BA Degree from Kent State University (73), Masters Degree, Kent State (77) and Juris Doctor Degree, Cleveland Marshall College of Law (84).
It was during his children’s tenure at WHS that he began “giving back” to the school system that had given so much to him. He was named “Popcorn King” by fellow volunteers in the Friday night football concession stand and proudly served as the PA announcer for both the football team and the Wickliffe Swing Band. It was also during this time that he was elected to two consecutive terms on the Wickliffe City School Board.
Dale served on the Lake County Board of Developmental Disabilities and the Crossroads Board for youth and family counseling. During this time, he served as a member of the Wickliffe Civil Commission, overseeing the hiring of police and fire department members.
Dale served as a juvenile probation officer in the Lake County Juvenile Court for 11 years while attending night school to obtain Masters and Law degrees. After law school, Dale joined the Painesville law firm of Cannon, Stern and Aveni and remained in private practice for the next seven years. He became a Court Magistrate in both the Willoughby and Cleveland Heights Municipal Courts. He also served as Law Director of the City of Wickliffe until his retirement in 2007.
Dale is the husband of fellow Wickliffe grad Christine Tomsic Lefferts (1969) and proud father of daughter, Lori (1997) and son, Eric (1998), his wife Kristin and grandchildren Nolan and Reagan.
Theresa DiMattia Shine – Class of 1972
Theresa, a lifelong Wickliffe resident, graduated in 1972 from Wickliffe High and attended Lincoln Elementary School and the Junior High School. She was heavily involved in the music department in both band and choir at the high school. Her fondest memories are of the adventures she had with her band and choir mates who became lifelong friends. She maintained friendships with Chuck Frank and Mike Lenenski.
Her love of lifelong learning started with obtaining a diploma in nursing from Huron Road Hospital School of Nursing, East Cleveland (1975), Hiram College with a BA in Business and Allied Health (1994) and BSN from Chamberlain College of Nursing (2017).
Theresa’s nursing career spanned 44 years; working at Lake West Hospital and UH Richmond Medical Center. Her specialty of Peri Anesthesia Nursing started in 1984 which began her involvement with GCPANA (Greater Cleveland PeriAnesthesia Nurses Association). 1994 brought the recognition to this specialty when pre and post op nursing was formally identified by the Recovery Room Nurses Association, and the group’s name change. She wore all the hats of the organization-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and mentor for 25 years. That led to the Presidency for the state of Ohio (OPANA) and participation on multiple levels at the National level (ASPAN). Her greatest accomplishment was to author the winning entry for the Gold Leaf Award, which recognized Ohio as the best example of perianesthesia nursing excellence in the United States. Professional honors received were in 2014 at University Richmond Medical Center for Clinical Nursing Excellence and the. Theresa participated in many service committees and projects while employed and earned awards for Clinical Nursing Excellence at UH Richmond (2014) and ASPAN (2009). Teri also served with the American Board of PeriAnesthesia Nursing Certification (ABPANC) from 2012-2019. Theresa was certified in her specialty from 1995 until her retirement in 2019.
Theresa has been the historian for the WSAA since 2004 and the Executive Director from 2012-2018. She maintained memorabilia in Memory Lane at the old high school and has displays at the Wickliffe Public Library and hopes for space at the new campus.
Theresa is also on the board of the Wickliffe Historical Society. She continues to learn, research and create presentations about the great city where she was raised. Her presentations on Harry Coulby and the estates of Wickliffe have become very popular.
Theresa lives in Wickliffe with her husband. Her two daughters, their husbands, and four grandchildren live nearby.
James Zizelman - Class of 1978
Much of Jim’s work throughout the years has been focused on advanced technology in the automotive industry. He’s a deep thinker whose technological innovations led to vehicles that are safer, greener, and more connected. Jim has contributed a lot to make cars operate with far better fuel economy, but with much less toxic exhaust emissions. These performance improvements mean cleaner air for all of us, less carbon dioxide emissions which helps to slow global warming, and far less cost to operate and service our vehicles. Jim was also involved in the introduction of many of today’s safety systems on our cars such as collision detection, automated emergency braking, and eventually automated driving. And today, as CEO of a large automotive technology company and a Board member of several technology companies, he continues to help deliver more and more of these innovations!
But Jim is more than all of this. He is a truly outstanding son, brother, husband, and father. He is a principles-based person and is focused 100% around honesty, friendship, and respect. He loves people and loves engaging them across all ages and walks of life. He loves to mentor young folks and is always “at the ready” to help you solve a problem. He has a long history in theater and music and has a history doing karaoke around the world! And perhaps most importantly, he treats all people with the utmost respect—something at his very foundation that grows stronger every day. He is very proud of his roots in Wickliffe and the strength of his education here and is very happy to have moved back to the area after nearly 40 years!
John Vourlis – Class of 1980
John Vourlis has 25+ years’ experience working in the entertainment industry. John has written screenplays and various treatments for Academy Award nominated actor James Cromwell’s production company, Koshari Films; for actor John Kapelos’ (Breakfast Club, Justified) production company Carpuzi Films; nine scripts for the children’s educational DVD series Rainbow Valley Heroes, and the text for several video games for Acclaim Entertainment. He has been a semi-finalist for the prestigious Nicholl’s Fellowship in screenwriting, and a semi-finalist for the Stage 32 Action/Adventure and True Story screenplay contests.
Vourlis also produces and directs documentary films. His first documentary, Breaking Balls, about the cultural impact of the game of bocce on the Italian-American community of Northeast Ohio, was an official selection of the 2017 Cleveland International Film Festival and the 2017 Chagrin Documentary Film Festival, where it played to sold out crowds. The film was picked up for distribution by Virgil Films. His current documentary feature film, The House Next Door, about the devastating effects of the foreclosure crisis on his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, was named an official selection of the 2022 Chagrin Documentary Film Festival as well as the 2023 Columbus International Film & Animation Festival.
John is also a published author of short stories, a comic book, a travel memoir about Nepal called Yoga For Freedom, and the college screenwriting textbook Understanding Screenwriting (published by Kendall Hunt). John also launched and ran a software company, Story Vision, which developed and marketed the first ever writing tool for interactive media storytelling.
Vourlis is currently an Instructor in the School Film and Media Arts at Cleveland State University. Before teaching, he was a VP/General Manager at the Academy Award-winning and Emmy Award-winning Hollywood specialty lighting company, Luminys Systems Corp. Prior to that, he was a Story Analyst for Nippon Herald Films (a Japanese film distribution company) where he analyzed scripts for films being considered for financing and distribution. While there, he worked closely with the VP of the U.S. division of the company.
John has an M.F.A. in Film Production from the highly acclaimed USC School of Cinematic Arts, as well as an M.A. in English and a B.S. in Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. Once upon a time, he also worked in Space Propulsion Technology at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland before embarking on his career in film.
Mark Tromba – Class of 1985
Mark graduated from Wickliffe High School in 1985 and from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 1989. He used his Communications Major to excel in both Sports Broadcasting and in Sales.
On the air, Mark had stops at WMBA Radio in Ambridge, PA and WELW in Willoughby prior to being hired by 3WE/WTAM and the Cleveland Indians.
At 3WE/WTAM, he handled Sports Updates, Talk Shows, and Indians Pregame Shows on the Weekends. Mark was also hired as the 1st Public Address Announcer at Jacobs Field from 1994-1997 where he announced over 300 games including two World Series (1995 & 1997) and the MLB All-Star Game (1997). He had the privilege to introduce many celebrities and Hall of Famers during his 4 years including President Clinton. Mark also did the Play-By-Play for over 700 High School, College, and Professional sporting events during his broadcasting career.
Switching gears, he also spent 22 years in Foodservice Sales for Sysco Cleveland, where he was the Vice President of Sales for over 8 years. Mark then joined Performance Foodservice in the same capacity in Austin, Texas. After 3 years in Texas, he was promoted to Executive Vice President for Performance Foodservice Pittsburgh last fall and is on pace to become the Division President by the end of September.
Mrs. Tara Seibel (nee Murphy) – Class of 1991
Tara Seibel is an American Artist named the #1 Female Comic Artist by the pop culture website “The Things.”. Her comics, cartoons and editorial illustrations have been in numerous publications. Most notably, The New York Times, LA Times, The Paris Review, Jewish Review of Books, and The Funny Times. She’s been interviewed by Ideastream’s Dee Perry, WKSU Ideastream, Cleveland Jewish News, Chagrin Valley Times, Juxtapoz, and Comic Book Resources. She presently runs the Tara Seibel Art Gallery in Cleveland. Where she has illustrated many of the Little Italy art walk posters depicting the historic neighborhood.
In 1996 Tara set off for Chicago after receiving a BFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and soon found herself immersed in the graphic design world. Working on projects such as menu designs and illustrating package designs for food products. This early work segued to a job as a line designer with American Greetings. Soon after having her first child, Tara left her position at American Greetings and began contributing free-lance illustration content and editorial cartoons to various publications. Her ambition and curiosity for independent comics and graphic novels led her to meet and collaborate with the renowned, auto-biographical comic book author Harvey Pekar. She co-collaborated with the author of American Splendor on a comic strip called Rock City Comix. Which was published in several national alternative newspapers and journals. Today, Tara’s solo work and recognizable style is seen in several digital and print comic strips and graphic novel anthologies, including her graphic adaptations of classic literature, which can be read in the books The Graphic Canon 2&3, The Graphic Canon of Children’s Literature and in Long Story Short: Turning Famous Literature into Cartoons.
Tara has taught classes at moCa Cleveland, Fairmount Center for the Arts, Pepper Pike Learning Center, Ursuline College’s Art Space program and (Tara Seibel Art Gallery) in Cleveland’s Little Italy. She’s currently working on a children’s book, graphic novel and cartoon-style mural that will be displayed inside Presti’s Bakery in Cleveland. She’s the daughter of Lauren Murphy and the late Robert A. Murphy. Tara lives with her husband Aaron, three children: Lauren 20. Patrick 16 and Oscar 14. two pugs and a cat in Pepper Pike.
Previous Years
Class of 2021
Class of 2018
Class of 2016
Class of 2014
Class of 2012
Class of 2010
Class of 2008
Class of 2006