Alumni Awards

Alumni Awards WISCONSIN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION®

2023

Contents Alu WISCON Letter from Sarah Schutt Distinguished Alumni Award Rajiv Batra MS’83 Steven Bornstein ’74 William Campbell MS’54, PhD’57 Luminary Award Zachary Ellis Jr. MS’13 Alexander Gee ’85 Jessi Kendall ’14 Jay Laabs ’98 Nicolaas Mink ’02, PhD’10 Patricia Marroquin Norby MA’01, MFA’02 Dana M. Peterson MS’02 Forward Award Jon Fasoli ’09 Carlos Eduardo Gacharná ’17 Alex Hanna MS’13, PhD’16 Lanikque Howard MSW’14, PhD’18 Farha Tahir ’09, MIPA’10 Alumni Chapter Awards Lifetime Achievement Award Badger of the Year Award Presidents’ Circle of Excellence Award 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 18 18 19 19

Chief Alumni Officer and Executive Director, Wisconsin Alumni Association: Sarah Schutt Managing Director of Communications: Jessica Arp ’04 Chief Marketing Officer: Jim Kennedy Senior Editor: Niki Denison Designer: Katie Sandheinrich ’15 Writer: Sandra Knisely Barnidge ’09, MA’13 Alumni Address Changes: 888-WIS-ALUM(947-2586), alumnichanges@uwalumni.com, or uwalumni.com/update-info Cover photo by Jeff Miller, University Communications Photo of Sarah Schutt by C&N Photography Wisconsin Alumni Association 650 N. Lake Street Madison, WI 53706-1476

608-262-2551 or 888-947-2586 Email: WAA@uwalumni.com Website: uwalumni.com © 2023 Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association

A Letter from Sarah Schutt It is an honor to share with you the recipients of our 2023 alumni awards. The individuals featured in this publication are a living reminder of the tremendous impact that UW–Madison has on the world through the achievements and contributions of alumni. We’re pleased and proud to celebrate these accomplished Badgers and tell their stories. The Forward Award acknowledges rising stars who exemplify the Wisconsin Idea. These alumni within 15 years of graduation have demonstrated exceptional early-career achievement and have demonstrated the ideas of progress, service, and discovery. The Luminary Award, offered this year for the first time to alumni at least 15 years from graduation, recognizes alumni who serve as aspirational examples for others through their accomplishments in their professions and/or service or philanthropy. The Distinguished Alumni Award is the preeminent and most longstanding honor conferred by the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA). Past recipients have included environmentalist Gaylord Nelson LLB’42, Epic founder Judy Faulkner MS’67, and Broadway star André De Shields ’70. This marks the 87th year that WAA has acknowledged outstanding alumni like these for contributions to their professional fields, their alma mater, and the world. We solicited nominations from the campus and alumni communities for these awards. We’re grateful to the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association staff, campus colleagues, and alumni on the selection committees for their time, insights, and efforts to recognize these deserving Badgers. In these pages, we also celebrate chapter award honorees, who are being recognized by their respective alumni chapters for career success, community service, or service to their local alumni organizations. If you’d like to nominate someone for one of next year’s awards, please visit uwalumni.com/awards .

On, Wisconsin!

Sarah Schutt Chief Alumni Engagement Officer and Executive Director Wisconsin Alumni Association

Andy Manis

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Alumn WISCONSIN A Rajiv Batra MS’83 into the unknown and cofounded his first company, VitalSigns Software. Within two years, it was acquired by a larger services provider, and soon after, Batra joined Peribit Networks, Inc., as its first employee and vice president of engineering. Peribit Networks, which built cutting-edge WAN (wide-area networks), was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2005. In 2005, Batra cofounded Palo Alto Networks, a multinational cybersecurity company that offers advanced firewalls and other web-security tools. “The good entors I had taught me that if you’re going to do something, you want to be among the best in the world,” he says. “Otherwise, what’s the point of putting in so many hours?” Ten years later, Batra stepped back from an active role with the company to travel with his wife, Ritu, and they’ve visited more than 50 countries. Jeff Green Alumni Award WISCONSIN ALUMNI ASSOCIATIO

Distinguished Alumni Award The Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Wisconsin Alumni Association. Since 1936, Wisconsin Alumni Association has been presenting the awards to the most prestigious graduates of UW–Madison for their professional achievements, contributions to society, and support of the university.

UWMajor: Computer Sciences Cofounder of Palo Alto Networks

“Providing the best education is the best thing you can do for future generations.” Batra serves on the boards of the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association. He is a past chair of the UW–Madison Computer Sciences Board of Visitors, has sponsored research and a chair, and has made contributions to the new Computer, Data, & Information Sciences building. In recent years, he’s also gotten involved in promoting cybersecurity education by sponsoring scholarships, a professorship, and chairs at his undergraduate alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and has helped aspiring entrepreneurs from India make connections in Silicon Valley. “Providing the best education is the best thing you can do for future generations,” he says.

Within six months of arriving on the UW campus from India, Rajiv Batra knew he’d made the right choice. “Academically, the UW was miles ahead of what I was learning in India at the time,” he says. “It was a quantum leap in quality of education, with knowledgeable professors and advanced courses.” A welcoming host family and a helpful department also made it easy for Batra to thrive. After 15 short, intense months, he completed his degree and fielded multiple job offers. He moved to Beaverton, Oregon, to join the first computer network team at Tektronix, a manufacturer best known for electronic measurement tools. After stints at Hewlett Packard, Sequent, and SynOptics, Batra gravitated toward smaller, newer tech start-ups. He also met fellow engineers who were becoming entrepreneurs, and in 1996, he took yet another leap

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In 1975, Campbell joined a team working on cattle roundworms. That team eventually developed ivermectin, widely considered a wonder drug of modern veterinary science. In addition to treating cattle and horses, ivermectin was the first convenient and widely used treatment to prevent heartworm in dogs. Campbell’s interdisciplinary background helped him hypothesize another use for ivermectin: as a treatment for river blindness. Caused by a parasitic worm, river disease was the second-leading cause of blindness worldwide before the 1980s. Clinical investigators proved his hunch correct, and Merck executives made the unusual decision to make the drug available for free to all who needed it for the prevention of river blindness. This helped eradicate the disease in many of the affected countries in South America and Africa. The significant, ongoing impact of ivermectin led to Campbell sharing a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2015. He was invited to the White House to meet President Barack Obama, who gave Campbell a small stuffed toy in the shape of a heartworm. Campbell’s team eventually developed ivermectin, widely considered a wonder drug of modern veterinary science. Since retiring fromMerck, Campbell has kept busy as a university lecturer at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He is also an avid painter, mostly of parasitic worms, and he regularly donates artworks to auction off at student scholarship fundraisers. “I like parasites, even though I’ve spent most of my life trying to kill them,” he says. “I often compare them to flowers — there’s an almost endless variety in their structure and life cycle. It’s absolutely phenomenal.”

four-month-old channel was manager of program coordination, and he pioneered ESPN’s unique mix of event broadcasting, sports news, and special-interest programming. He rose quickly, becoming ESPN president and CEO in 1990 at age 38. He spent the next 12 years growing ESPN into a multichannel Goliath of sports content. Bornstein then spent a few years as president of ABC Sports, which he helped to establish as the preeminent network for college football, and spearheaded the creation of the College Football Championship Series. In 2003, he was tapped by the National Football League to launch the NFL Network, which became the most widely distributed sports network in the history of the industry. Bornstein shepherded large acquisitions, mergers, and innovations that have reshaped how, when, and where the American public watches football. In 2015, video-game company Activision Blizzard recruited Bornstein to become the head of a new e-sports division. The experience opened his eyes to the potential for media companies to “gamify” live sporting events into more personalized experiences for audiences. In 2021, Bornstein joined data firm Genius Sports as its first president of North America. He oversees the company’s core data business, streaming endeavors, marketing, partnerships, and forays into artificial intelligence. In 2003, Bornstein was tapped by the National Football League to launch the NFL Network. “Steve has distinguished himself professionally by completely revolutionizing the world of sports and sports entertainment,” says retired UW athletics director Barry Alvarez. “Steve is a giant in his field.”

Courtesy of Steven Bornstein

© Nobel Media/Alexander Mahmoud

Steven Bornstein ’74 UWMajor: Communication Arts President of North America at Genius Sports

William Campbell MS’54, PhD’57

UWMajor: Veterinary Science Merck Research Scientist, Nobel Laureate

William Campbell studied biology at Trinity College in Dublin and then arrived in Madison supported by a Fulbright grant in January 1953. He lived in Knapp House and studied giant liver flukes in sheep and deer while working in the lab of veterinary science professor Arlie Todd. Although Campbell originally wanted to pursue science for the sake of science, Todd convinced him to consider working in the pharmaceutical industry, and Campbell accepted a job at Merck and moved to New Jersey. Campbell was an unusual industry scientist for his time. In addition to his assigned work, he regularly pursued independent projects that led to journal publications, invitations to academic conferences, and a fellowship in South and Central America usually reserved for university-affiliated scientists.

Observing the construction of Vilas Hall as an undergrad piqued Steve Bornstein’s interest in television production. He took a few communications classes and was hooked enough to switch his major away frommath and physics. Bornstein got a job as a cameraman at a local TV station and balanced school with work. He held positions at both public and commercial TV stations in Madison, ultimately ending up as a director. After graduating, he worked at several stations around Wisconsin before moving to Columbus, Ohio, where he climbed his way up to executive producer at WOSU-TV. On the side, he was hired to help produce the first-ever pay-per-view Ohio State football games, which in 1980 earned him an invitation to join a brand-new dedicated sports channel called ESPN. Bornstein’s first job at the

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Alexander Gee ’85 Melissa Austin Alumn WISCONSIN ALU Major: Biotechnology CEO and Managing Director, South Loop Ventures Zachary Ellis Jr. MS’13 Rocky Kneten Shalicia Johnson/Arrowstar Major: Nursing Registered Nurse, UW Health Jessi Kendall ’14

Luminary Award

The Luminary Award recognizes alumni who serve as aspirational examples for others through their accomplishments in the areas of leadership, discovery, progress, and service. It celebrates extraordinary Badgers who have demonstrated exceptional achievement in their professions, service or philanthropy.

Majors: African American Studies, Economics Founder and CEO, The Center for Black Excellence and Culture / Founder and President, Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development Alexander Gee has spent a lifetime advocating on behalf of the Black community. Soon, his biggest project to date will open its doors: the landmark Center for Black Excellence and Culture, located on Madison’s south side. The Center will include a theater, a recording studio, an art gallery, a coworking space, a wellness space, a children’s education center, a senior space, and more. Gee was six when his mother moved the family from Chicago to Madison to complete her bachelor’s and master’s degrees on campus. He followed in her footsteps, enrolling in UW– Madison in 1981. As a teenager, he was already a lay preacher for a “living-room congregation” that eventually grew into Madison’s Fountain of Life Church, where he is now lead pastor. After working in a series of UW–Madison positions related to student services and minority recruitment, Gee left to found the Nehemiah Center, which aims to empower Black families and support formerly incarcerated men. In 2018, Gee launched the award-winning Black Like Me podcast to showcase other Black leaders and offer non-Black allies an honest peek into race relations in America. “We’ve got to be able to dig into whatever Black people have dug into for the last 400 years in this country that’s allowed us to survive,” Gee says. “That’s each other, our stories of resilience, and our rich culture.”

When Jessi Kendall started nursing school as a returning adult student in 2009, she was working full-time, her mother-in-law had recently been diagnosed with cancer, and she was pregnant. Yet those challenges also gave her an unusual empathy. “I already knew that a person’s diagnoses aren’t all of who they are,” she says. “I learned that you don’t have to give up joy just because you’re sick.” After graduation, her compassion made her stand out at her first nursing job at UW Health. She was tapped to become a diversity resource nurse and underwent additional training to become an advocate for patients of color. Kendall’s struggles with mental-health challenges gave her even more empathy. As a teenager growing up in Madison, she battled depression but attempted to muscle through college as a student in New Orleans. Eventually, she came home to rest and heal. She became a restaurant server and learned how to both talk and listen to a wide range of people, especially older adults, and her interest in working in health care began to blossom. Kendall has been actively involved in various initiatives in and outside of UW Health to recruit more Black nurses into the profession. Additionally, she founded Nursing Needs You, an independent organization to support aspiring and early-career Black nurses. “Nursing Needs You is a guilt-free zone,” she says. “It doesn’t matter how long and twisted your road to nursing has been. Everything that brought you here will make you better able to help someone who needs you.”

After leaving the U.S. Navy as an officer in 2006, Zachary Ellis was working as a corporate consultant and struggling to find a bridge into venture capital. An acquaintance encouraged him to accept a job at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). There he worked closely with both investors and start-ups to negotiate tech licensing deals. He also launched WARF’s first accelerator program dedicated to women and entrepreneurs of color. At the same time, he enrolled in the UW–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health’s biotechnology University, and Rev1 Ventures, Ellis launched and led a venture capital fund for Black and Brown tech founders based in Houston, Texas. The murder of George Floyd in 2020 prompted him to reevaluate his career, and he realized that he wanted to make diversity efforts a primary focus. So in 2022, he launched his own fund, South Loop Ventures, where he aims to level the playing field in tech entrepreneurship by investing exclusively in underrepresented founders of color. “I know many very talented Black, Latino, and female professionals who are highly educated and accomplished but just don’t get the benefit of the doubt to operate in the tech community,” he says. “I know we have just as much potential to succeed if given the same grace, context, connections, and access to capital as our counterparts.” program, which prepares graduates to commercialize life sciences products. After stints at PepsiCo, Ohio State

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AJ Kane

Nicole Hansen

Scott Rosenthal

Courtesy of Dana Peterson

Jay Laabs ’98

Major: History Chief Restoration Officer, Seven Acre Dairy Company / Cofounder, Sitka Salmon Shares Nicolaas Mink ’02, PhD’10 While earning his UW–Madison doctorate, Nicolaas Mink discovered a passion for understanding the relationships between humans and sustainable food systems. After graduating, he moved to Sitka, Alaska, where he met local fishermen who were struggling to uphold sustainable harvesting practices while competing with large commercial enterprises. With one of those fishermen, Mink cofounded Sitka Salmon Shares, which is now the biggest community- supported fishery in the country. Each month, Sitka Salmon customers receive a box of wild-caught seafood on their doorstep that meets quality standards far stricter than those imposed on fish sold in typical grocery stores. For a decade, Mink helped build the company’s supply chain from scratch and establish best practices. But during the pandemic, he felt drawn to a new project. During a river-paddling trip, he and Danika Laine ’02, MA’08, who is Mink’s business partner and wife, spotted an abandoned creamery in Paoli, Wisconsin. Mink felt a calling to revive both the building and the memory of a quintessential regional lifeway. Thus began Seven Acre Dairy Company, which includes a farmstead restaurant, an upscale bar, a casual café, an eight-room inn, an event space, and a micro-dairy. “Businesses are too often understood strictly for their economic function,” Mink says. “To me, businesses are tools to explore who we are — our relationship to the natural world, to our past, and to the richness of culture.”

Major: Art Associate Curator of Indigenous Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art Patricia Marroquin Norby MA’01, MFA’02 Because Patricia Marroquin Norby’s ancestral pueblo, the Purépecha, is in Michoacán, Mexico, she was happy to find a robust community of fellow Indigenous students and faculty when she entered the MFA program at UW–Madison. In particular, Professor Truman Lowe MFA’73 (Ho-Chunk) pushed her to grow both as an artist and an academic. When Lowe became curator of contemporary art for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, he invited Norby to join him in Washington, DC, in 2003 as a visiting scholar. Her work at the Smithsonian was complemented by a directorial role at the Newberry Library in Chicago. She also earned a doctorate in American Studies at the University of Minnesota, exploring intersections between art and environmental issues along the northern Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico. In 2020, Norby became the first curator of Native American art at The Met, where she serves as steward of the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection, which includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, textiles, quill and beadwork, basketry, and ceramics representing more than 50 Indigenous nations across North America. Her curatorial debut at The Met, Water Memories , explores the significance of water for Indigenous peoples. It was selected as a top exhibition of 2022 by the New York Times and the online arts magazine Hyperallergic .

Major: Economics Chief Economist and Center Leader, Economy, Strategy, and Finance, The Conference Board Dana M. Peterson MS’02 As a global economist, Dana M. Peterson explains howmacro trends affect financial markets and the world economy. She’s an expert on a wide range of themes, including monetary and fiscal policy, trade policy, debt, taxation, inflation, labor markets, and demographics. Peterson worked as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board and then moved to Madison to pursue an advanced degree. The unusually large size of her master’s cohort taught her how to persevere. “I learned a measure of competition, that not everything is going to be easy or equal,” she says. “Those principles later helped me to survive and thrive on Wall Street.” Peterson then worked at Citi, where she was a director in North American economics research for 16 years, followed by a stint as a director in global economics research. Her expertise led to frequent appearances on news outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg, along with interviews in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s . In 2020, her public profile led to an invitation to become chief economist at The Conference Board, a global, nonprofit think tank delivering business insights to C-suite executives of Fortune 500 firms. Peterson leads the organization’s U.S. Economy, Strategy, and Finance Center. She also serves on several boards of directors, including for the Global Interdependence Center, which strives to influence world policies for the greater good.

Major: Finance, Investment, and Banking Founder and CEO, Spaulding Ridge

Jay Laabs always thought he’d become an attorney like his father — until he took a class in the Wisconsin School of Business called Analysis of Financial Statements. There he discovered a talent for finance and a passion for technology. After graduating, he took a job at a small financial software company, where he learned the technology business and gained experience interacting with clients. At age 29, he founded his own consulting company, Blue Stone, which sold in 2013 for $30 million. Laabs planned to retire early. But then he accompanied his mother on a volunteer service trip to Nicaragua, where he reconnected with his parents’ values and their commitment to making the world a better place. “I believe business can be a force for good,” he says. In 2018, Laabs launched Spaulding Ridge, a global business-technology consultancy focused on cloud computing. The company’s 500 employees commit to annual volunteer service in their local communities. Since its founding, Spaulding Ridge has consistently been named one of the top workplaces in the consulting industry, and it has implemented hiring practices to intentionally diversify as it grows. Laabs is based out of the company’s Chicago office, which dedicates its volunteer efforts to the local food bank. He is also personally involved in needs-based scholarships to UW– Madison for women and minority students. “Tech can be the great equalizer if you can learn to leverage it,” he says. “If you’re smart and willing to work hard, tech can help you move to the front of the line.”

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Jon Fasoli ’09 Brittany Hosea-Small Alumn WISCONSIN ALU Major: Art Artist and Teacher, artworxLA Carlos Eduardo Gacharná ’17 Wisconsin School of Business Adrian Gutierrez Major: Sociology Director of Research, Distributed AI Research Institute Alex Hanna MS’13, PhD’16

Forward Award

The Forward Award acknowledges rising stars in various fields who exemplify the Wisconsin Idea through an emphasis on service, discovery and progress. This award celebrates young alumni who have demonstrated exceptional early- career achievement and a positive impact on their professions.

Major: Business, Finance, Investment, and Banking Chief Product and Design Officer, Intuit Mailchimp Jon Fasoli’s passion for technology led him to Intuit’s Rotational Development Program in Mountain View, California, where he launched the company’s first-ever operating system for mobile devices. Within five years, he’d built the company’s global payment platform and was tapped to establish a new business in the company, dedicated to developing products and services for the self-employed. In 2019, Fasoli was named vice president of the company’s small-business segment, which grew rapidly under his leadership to more than 7 million small-business and self- employed customers worldwide. In particular, the QuickBooks Self-Employed platform grew from zero to 1 million paid subscribers in three years. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Fasoli mobilized his team to help connect QuickBooks customers with PPE loans and other tools to help keep their businesses afloat. He found himself deeply inspired by his clients’ resiliency and creativity during the bleakest months of lockdowns. In fall 2021, Intuit acquired Mailchimp, a leading marketing platform for small businesses. The $12 billion deal is Intuit’s largest acquisition to date, and Fasoli was named Mailchimp’s chief product and design officer. His team is on the forefront of developing generative AI capabilities for small businesses. Beyond Intuit, Fasoli has served as an adviser and early investor at several start-ups. He also holds 12 patents, which he says “are all very nerdy and will put an audience to sleep.”

Along with earning her doctorate in sociology, Alex Hanna minored in journalism and mass media. She’s Egyptian American, and her dissertation focused on the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. She also took part in the historic Madison 2011 labor protest against a bill to curtail collective bargaining rights for state employees. She found this a formative experience that later fed into her interest on the impact of AI on labor issues. Hanna became an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, but she realized quickly that she wanted to make a more direct impact on the technologies she was studying. “I really want to change things so that tech doesn’t do as much harm in the world,” she says. In 2018 she moved to the Bay Area, started at Google, and found her way to the Ethical AI team. When Hanna’s manager, computer scientist Timnit Gebru, was fired in a high- profile response to her public warnings about AI racism and other issues, Hanna followed her to work at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), which Gebru founded after her exit from Google. Hanna is a technologist for DAIR, which aims to both shine a light on current practices in Big Tech and to model community-rooted, rather than corporate profit-driven, methods for building and implementing AI tools. “I’m proud to be imagining different ways of doing research based in thinking about what technology can do for us, rather than being beholden to profits or a set of shareholders,” she says.

Carlos Eduardo Gacharná’s art is closely tied to his preoccupation with migration and identity-making in foreign or hostile places. This perspective makes him a deeply empathic teacher for at-risk youth in Los Angeles. Since 2020, Gacharná has facilitated 450 art workshops, both online and in person, that have Born in Bogotá, Colombia, during the peak years of cartel violence, Gacharná emigrated with his family at age seven. In Colombia, he was already a budding artist, using clay to create imaginative figures. But in Wisconsin, his adolescence was marred by culture shock, housing instability, and close calls with law enforcement. At 16, he took a ceramics class that changed everything. Gacharná spent all of his free time in the high-school studio, and his rekindled passion led to a precollege art program at UW–Madison, which tracked into a bachelor of fine arts degree. At the UW, Gacharná began to develop and teach workshops in juvenile detention centers, youth shelters, and other nontraditional classrooms. In 2017, Gacharná moved to Los Angeles, where he runs after-school teen programming at artworxLA, an arts nonprofit that annually serves 1,000 predominately low-income youth. According to UW assistant professor of glassworking Helen Lee, “Carlos Eduardo believes in the power of art to heal, and his work brings this to communities in deep need of this human magic.” served more than 1,000 students across 40 sites in Wisconsin and California.

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Scott Suchman

Kim Davalos, KD Photography

Lanikque Howard MSW’14, PhD’18

Majors: History, Political Science, International Public Affairs Program Analyst, U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Farha Tahir arrived on campus assuming that she’d go on to law school. But during a foreign policy class, she learned about an internship program that paired UW students with opportunities in the nation’s capital. Tahir joined one of the first cohorts of the program, now known as the Wisconsin in Washington Internship Program. She and three fellow interns founded an international development program that served the small island of Lingira in Uganda’s Lake Victoria, launching a farmers’ co-op, girls’ soccer team, women’s economic collaborative, and other initiatives. The project solidified Tahir’s passion for development work. After graduation, she worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as a research associate and then became a program officer at the National Democratic Institute, followed by the National Endowment for Democracy. She traveled extensively throughout sub-Saharan Africa and built especially close ties in Somalia, Malawi, and Tanzania. Tahir transitioned to the State Department, as a program analyst for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, where she now oversees programs that support democracy around the world. “I have always felt that everyone deserves to be able to shape their lived reality, and that’s why I care about democracy,” she says. “The power of democracy is not something we can take for granted.” Farha Tahir ’09, MIPA’10

Major: Social Work Director, Office of Community Services, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services When Lanikque Howard was growing up, her mom worked two jobs but was never able to get ahead. Howard wanted to help families like hers, so she became the first in her family to graduate from high school and college and then went on to graduate studies in social work at UW–Madison. Howard joined the UW’s Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) as a research assistant and worked closely with professor and then-IRP director Maria Cancian. When President Barack Obama tapped Cancian to lead the Administration for Children and Families, she chose Howard as a political appointee. Howard later become a senior programs administrator at First 5 Alameda County in California, a public initiative to help young children from birth to age five. In 2020, the Biden Administration asked her to return to federal service as the director of the Office of Community Services (OCS). “Every day, I see the vital role our programs play in helping to address persistent poverty and inequities,” she says. “I will not waver in my commitment to making a tangible difference in the lives of the people we serve.” During her tenure, the office’s budget has doubled and she has expanded its antipoverty programs from five to nine. She now provides leadership and oversight in distributing approximately $12 billion to support a wide range of initiatives aimed at alleviating poverty.

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Andy Manis

Alumni Chapter Awards

Badger of the Year Award The Badger of the Year Award recognizes local alumni who have represented the university positively through success in their professions, community service initiatives, or volunteer activities. We extend our sincere admiration and appreciation to:

Congratulations to these outstanding alumni around the world! Wisconsin Alumni Association chapters have long honored members who are at the heart of what makes their alumni chapters, UW–Madison, and their communities flourish. We are proud to recognize the following 2023 alumni chapter award winners.

Jody Gottfried Arnhold ’65 Big Apple Badgers chapter

Allan ’83, MS’86 and Sharon Bricker ’81 Bay Area Badgers chapter

Lifetime Achievement Award

Natascha Hess ’01 Mile High chapter

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest chapter award and recognizes leaders who have served in a role (or multiple roles) with a chapter for 10 or more years. A heartfelt Badger thank you for exceptional dedication to UW–Madison and extended service goes to:

Amy K. Kennedy PharmD’08 Tucson chapter

Patrick Kinlen PhD’78 Saint Louis chapter Susan Lynch ’67 Orange County chapter Dorri McWhorter ’95 Chicago chapter

Mary ’62 and Dick Burnett Saint Louis chapter William Chapman ’82 Chicago chapter Kathy Chazen ’74 Big Apple Badgers chapter Piyabutr Cholvijarn ’72 Thailand chapter Beth Fuller ’69 Bay Area Badgers chapter

Varawut Silpa-Archa MBA’97 Thailand chapter

Roger Van Vreede ’66 Fox Valley chapter

Presidents’ Circle of Excellence Award

The Presidents’ Circle of Excellence Award recognizes excellence in volunteer service to the university for alumni who have actively served in a leadership role with their local alumni chapter. With much gratitude for your support of UW–Madison, we congratulate:

Glen Gargas ’80 San Diego chapter

Bart Heldke ’92, MS’93 Motor City chapter Bruce Pierce ’88 Motor City Badgers chapter

Marci Briskin ’86 Bay Area Badgers chapter

Mark Polster ’00 Motor City chapter

Judith Feilen-Kocsis ’86 Chicago chapter Wichai Riewtrakul PhD’71 Thailand chapter

Brian ’75, MBA’76 and Julie Shapiro ’77 Los Angeles chapter

Chartchai Na Chiangmai MA’79, PhD’83 Thailand chapter

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