Paying It Forward

WAA honors outstanding young alumni.

They range from a leading magazine publisher and engineers at the forefront of innovation to dedicated international volunteers and grassroots leaders, and they’re all under age forty.

In recognition of their remarkable work, twelve UW-Madison graduates have been honored with 2009 Forward under 40 Awards. These outstanding graduates, says Paula Bonner MS’78, WAA president and CEO, “live the Wisconsin Idea” — the 105-year-old guiding philosophy behind UW outreach efforts to aid people in Wisconsin and throughout the world.

“These young Badgers are among the world’s best and brightest innovators and citizens,” she says. “They represent a wide variety of professional callings, but they have one thing in common — they have quickly used what they learned at UW-Madison to make broad, positive contributions for people and communities here in Wisconsin and around the world.”

The award recipients are featured in Forward under 40, a publication distributed in March 2009 to eighty thousand UW-Madison alumni. The 2009 recipients are Andrew Adams III JD’06, Jodi Brooks ’93, Abigail David ’96, MS’98, Ayman EL-Refaie MS’02, PhD’05, Clayt Freed ’97, Matthew Geck ’92, MD’96, Amanda Harrington ’07, Dennis Hong ’94, Kimberly Anderson Kelleher ’93, Genella Taylor Stubrud ’96, PhD’07, Zoe Timms ’97, and Neil Willenson ’92.

Forward under 40

If you did not receive a copy of Forward under 40 magazine, you may still read about the recipients at a Web site created by WAA. For profiles, photographs, and biographies detailing the award winners’ accomplishments, visit forwardunder40.com.

Published in the Spring 2009 issue