Distinguished Alumni

2025 Recipients of the Charlie A. Carmody
Distinguished Alumni Award


Marietta Baba (Class of 1967)	Henry Mendelsohn (Class of 1969)	Mark Ignash (Class of 2004)

The Alumni Dinner will be held at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club on Saturday, September 20, beginning at 6:00 pm. Tickets are $50. We encourage friends, family, and community members to come join us and support our GBHS Distinguished Alumni! Please RSVP.

RSVP to Alumni Dinner

More about GBHS Distinguished Alumni of 2025

Dr. Marietta Baba (Class of 1967) has been an esteemed scholar, leader, and educator for five decades. An anthropologist by training, she was Dean of the College of Social Science at Michigan State University from 2001 to 2015. Before that, she was a Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Wayne State University. Her research has focused on the anthropology of work, organizations, and institutions; technological innovation in organizations, policy, and the history and theory of applied anthropology. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications. Currently, she is Executive Director and President of the Foundation for Women and Children Enslaved in War, an organization providing support services to survivors of human trafficking in conflict zones who now reside in the United States.

Henry Mendelsohn (Class of 1969) is an accomplished librarian, educator, and Foreign Service Officer. For sixteen years, he worked as an academic librarian, predominantly at the University of Albany. Mendelsohn developed collections that supported research in social welfare and criminal justice and taught students how to access those resources. In 1994, he joined the Foreign Service and spent twenty years in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Among his activities abroad, Mendelsohn managed libraries at U.S. Embassies, served as a regional consultant to embassies, and taught foreign students, journalists, and academics how to find accurate and authoritative information. The recipient of numerous State Department honor awards, as well as a Fellowship by the American Library Association, Mendelsohn currently works part-time reviewing documents for release under the Freedom of Information Act.

Mark Ignash (Class of 2004) has fostered a career in public service focused on industry, community, talent development, and investment within the state of Michigan. He currently serves as Interim Executive Director of the Michigan Defense Center and Senior Sector Development Director & Defense Advisor at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Ignash is responsible for the State of Michigan’s economic development portfolio related to the aerospace and defense industries, which have a multi-billion-dollar impact. His work has centered on initiatives that attract business, drive industry innovation, and advocate for Michigan on the local, national, and international stages.

Since 2003, the GBHS Alumni Association has honored dozens of alumni with the Charlie A. Carmody Distinguished Alumni Award.

Honorees are selected based on their substantial career success and the significant impact they have made in their communities. Our honorees have come from as close as right here in Grand Blanc to as far away as California and Sweden!

Nominations are accepted for distinguished alumni throughout the year, and induction classes are generally announced late summer. Honorees are invited home to Grand Blanc the week of Homecoming. They ride the streets of Grand Blanc in the Homecoming parade, and are then introduced to the community at halftime of the football game. On the following Saturday, we host our Alumni Dinner, where honorees receive their award plaques and share memories from their time in high school.

Pictures and biographies of our Distinguished Alumni are hung in the Alumni Hallway at Grand Blanc High School's East Campus.