2024 Alumni Awards

Sam Gilbert

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Amed Khan ’91 President, Amed Khan Foundation UW Majors: International Relations, Political Science

Robin Wall Kimmerer MS’78, PhD’83 Author, professor, and director, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, SUNY UW Majors: Botany and Forestry As a UW graduate student, Robin Wall Kimmerer spotted a photo in an Arboretum building of the tallest American elm tree in the United States. It was named the Louis Vieux Elm, in honor of a Potawatomi elder who was one of Kimmerer’s ancestors. Shortly after, Kimmerer was invited to a gathering to hear Native elders talk about plant wisdom. The timing of these occurrences felt connected and sparked a profound realization. “To walk the science path, I had stepped off the path of Indigenous knowledge,” she says. Kimmerer is a distinguished professor of environmental biology, best-selling author, and founding director of the SUNY Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, which articulates a vision for incorporating Indigenous plant knowledge and storytelling into Western science. It has sold more than two million copies worldwide, and in 2022, Kimmerer received a MacArthur “genius grant.” Her focus as a plant ecologist is biocultural restoration, with the aim of healing human relationships with the land. She advocates beginning with a fundamental shift in perspec- tive, from viewing nature as a resource to be exploited to experiencing it as a community of kinfolk to which we belong. “People have a great longing to be in a right relationship with nature,” she says. “The way we treat land is how we treat each other. It’s the idea of kinship with each other and with other species. We can extend that idea of kinship to the land itself.”

Two weeks after graduation, Amed Khan joined Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, and when Clinton won, Khan became the special assistant to the director of the Peace Corps, where his resonsibilities included serving as liaison to the White House. Almost immediately, he realized he wanted to be in the field instead. In 1995, Khan jumped at a chance to conduct a site survey in Georgia in the midst of national conflict. “The U.S. embassy was in a trailer, and there was gunfire 24/7. It was in the middle of winter, with no electricity or heat,” he says. “I loved it.” Khan shifted to the International Rescue Committee and moved to Tanzania to help refugees fleeing Rwanda. He also began to dabble in investing to generate resources to help, eventually creating an investment firm. Khan has emerged as the most prominent and effective private-aid coordinator in active conflict areas, including Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He has traveled to 185 countries and worked directly in more than 60. He personally conducts complex, high-stakes operations that include large-scale evacuations, supply runs, and refugee housing efforts. In 2021 Khan flew into Kabul during the withdrawal of U.S. forces to rescue two Afghan children of an American government employee. While there, he was contacted by dozens of Afghani women trying to leave. He reached out to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who sent in Ukrainian special forces to evacuate hundreds of female professionals, and Khan also personally chartered flights out of Kabul. Khan also cofounded Elpída Home in Thessaloniki, Greece, which houses refugees on their way to homes in the European Union.

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WISCONSIN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION