St. Cloud State University employees and alumni Dr. Emil Towner ’96 ’04 and Matt Trombley ’97 ’00 have been named recipients of the 2026 Minnesota State Board of Trustees Awards for Excellence.
The annual awards provide systemwide recognition for consistently superior commitment to student learning and to encourage the ongoing pursuit of excellence at the 33 colleges and universities of Minnesota State.
Towner was named a 2026 outstanding educator, and he is currently a professor of business communication and interim director for the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education.
“I’m incredibly proud to be a professor at SCSU; to receive the Outstanding Educator award while working at my alma mater is more than I would have imagined,” Towner said. “When I think back to sitting in classrooms here as an undergraduate student, I’m reminded of the professors who taught me and shaped my life. I hope I’ve made half the impact on my students that my SCSU professors made on me.”
He began as an adjunct professor at SCSU in 2002 and has been a professor of business communication since 2013. Towner received his bachelor’s in mass communication — advertising in 1996 and a master’s in English in 2004.
Trombley was awarded for excellence in service, and he was recently named interim vice president of Student Affairs.
Trombley previously was the assistant dean of graduate programs in the Herberger Business School. He earned his bachelor’s in public administration from SCSU in 1997 and his MBA in 2000.
Towner and Trombley will be honored by Minnesota State at a luncheon on April 22.
