Alumni Awards

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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