This year's honorees
The Alumni Association honored eight graduates at its annual Alumni Awards dinner on May 29, part of Reunion Weekend. About 600 alumni and guests attended the ceremony in the Student Union ballroom.
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Dr. Evelyn Park, Class of 1992, the state's former chief public health officer
- Young Alumni Award: Rina Sato, Tokyo Campus Class of 2018, co-founder of a Tokyo game studio
- Service Award: Marcus Bell, Class of 1999, debate coach at Lincoln High School for 22 years
- Global Alumni Award: Johanna Weber, Frankfurt Campus Class of 2015, wind turbine reliability engineer
- Entrepreneurship Award: Andre Toussaint, Class of 2017, owner of three cafes near the Downtown Campus
Three additional honorees received awards for volunteer service to their alumni chapters in Chicago, Atlanta and Toronto.
Park led the state health department through two major disease outbreaks and expanded rural clinic funding. Sato's studio was honored for its games and its paid internship program for Tokyo Campus students.
I learned to argue at this university. Mostly I learned that the best argument is the one where you actually listened to the other side first.
Nominations for 2027
The evening ended on the steps of Memorial Hall with the reunion sparkler send-off, now in its third year. Nominations for the 2027 Alumni Awards open August 1. Any alumnus, student, faculty or staff member can submit a nomination on the Alumni Awards page.
The dinner raised $140,000 for the alumni scholarship fund.
Past honorees are listed on the Alumni Association website.
