2022 graduating class

Peter C. Cook Leadership Alumni

The Peter C. Cook Leadership Academy has a vast network of 400+ alumni across the region, nation, and world. They have taken on a variety of leadership roles and many serve as speakers, mentors, members, and active donors to the current fellow candidates. 


“As of Friday, I was given two job offers! One to be a Neonatal ICU nurse and the other to be a labor and delivery nurse. These opportunities are not typically available to new grad RNs and I attribute a lot of my success to CLA.”

Andrea Holt

Michael Dykstra

Michael Dykstra, CLA Alumnus

Michael graduated from GVSU as a Peter C. Cook Leadership Academy Fellow in April of 2015. Since then, he has been studying medicine at Harvard Medical School, and we are proud to share that he graduated just this month. During his time at Harvard, he was awarded several prestigious fellowships to work with a clinical trial for breast cancer and implementing new technology to diagnose lymphoma in Botswana during the 18-19 academic year. Michael’s passion and research are focused on improving the lives of people at the margins of society which he will continue to pursue next year in his preliminary medicine year at Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston and at the University of Michigan where he will begin his residency in radiation oncology starting in July of 2021. During this time of uncertainty Michael has stepped up and shown leadership through serving as the lead editor of an educational module specifically about considerations of global innovation and collaboration as they relate to the pandemic.


Riley Pearl, CLA Alumna

“I have gained wisdom and strength through this journey, and yet my world would still be a better place if sickness did not exist. So really, the wall between the sick and the healthy is a concept of being in-between things, being two identities at once. A piece of my identity will always be left behind, not left in the dust to be forgotten but molded and shaped into something stronger over time. I can be a balance of strength and femininity, deep but light-hearted, confident yet humble, a walking contradiction.” Riley is a member of the April 2020 graduating class and has earned her Bachelor of Business Administration, majoring in finance and minoring in psychology. Riley has been a member of the Peter C. Cook Leadership Academy for two years and throughout this last year has shared the lessons she has learned through being a full-time student and campus leader while being diagnosed and treated for stage three cancer. We continue to learn and be inspired by her drive, commitment to serve the places and people she calls home, and magnetic personality.  Riley recently joined the Keyence Corporation as a full-time Technical Sales Engineer at their Detroit location.

Riley Pearl


If you are an alumni of the Peter C. Cook Leadership Academy and are interested in future speaking, mentor, or networking opportunities please contact Abby Sachs at [email protected] or (616) 331-7322.



Page last modified July 3, 2023