Ginny Lipke, alumna from Class of 1995, is receiving this year’s national Outstanding Alumni Award. (Photo by Bill Roa)

Lipke is one of six people nationwide receiving the American Association of Community Colleges’ Outstanding Alumni Award.  Past honorees include Pulitzer Prize winners, brigadier generals and filmmaker George Lucas.

“We are so excited Ginny is being honored with this award,” says Collins Foster, director of Alumni Relations at Georgia Perimeter College, which was instrumental in nominating Lipke. “We are fortunate to have someone as caring and passionate as Ginny on our Nursing Alumni Board.”

After obtaining her associate degree in nursing in 1995 from GPC’s forerunner, DeKalb College, Lipke earned a bachelor’s in nursing and a master’s in health care administration. Her first job in nursing was at Emory University School of Medicine’s Grady Infectious Disease Clinic, where she helped serve more than 4,000 HIV-positive patients through clinical trials. It was there she discovered her passion for helping those affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Lipke works for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, visiting African countries and developing strategies for patients with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. The resources and strategies she has developed have helped set the standard for HIV/AIDS patient care throughout the world.

Lipke has never stopped giving back to the GPC nursing community. She speaks to nursing students regularly and is the current president of the Nursing Alumni Board.

“Giving back to my nursing school is important to me,” says Lipke. “DeKalb College gave me the training and foundation in nursing that has not only propelled my career, but inspired me to earn my master’s degree.”

For more information, please visit the GPC Alumni website.