Deer was the first American Indian woman to run for Congress in Wisconsin. Bryce Richter

Ada Deer grew up on Wisconsin’s Menominee Indian Reservation in a log cabin with no running water or electricity. She attended UW–Madison on a tribal scholarship, becoming the first member of the Menominee tribe to earn a UW–Madison degree. It was the first of many firsts. Next up: she became the first American Indian to earn a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Social Work.

Deer worked relentlessly on behalf of the Menominee in their struggle to restore their land and sovereignty. In the 1950s, the federal government initiated a national termination policy that Deer describes as a “cultural, legal, and economic disaster” for affected tribes.

The Menominee tribe was the first to resist the policy and worked to achieve a historic reversal that set a legal precedent, which was later used by other tribes. The work of their grassroots organization, DRUMS (Determination of Rights and Unity of Menominee Shareholders), resulted in the passage of the Menominee Restoration Act in 1973. Deer was then elected as the first woman to chair the tribe in Wisconsin. She said later, “At Menominee, we collectively discovered the kind of determination that human beings only find in times of impending destruction. Against all odds, we invented a new policy — restoration.”

Deer returned to UW–Madison in 1977 as a lecturer in the American Indian Studies Program and the School of Social Work, and in 1992, she became the first American Indian woman to run for Congress in Wisconsin.

The following year, President Bill Clinton appointed her as the first woman to serve as Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior. One of her most important works in this role was applying her powers to federally recognize 226 Native villages in Alaska, as well as helping to set policy for more than 550 federally recognized tribes.

From 2000 to 2007, Deer directed UW–Madison’s American Indian Studies Program. In 2010, she was recognized by the National Association of Social Workers as a Social Work Pioneer for her work as an advocate and organizer on behalf of American Indians. Deer credits her mother, also a fierce advocate for American Indians, for her confidence and dedication to social justice for all people. “I speak up. I speak out,” she says. “I want to do, and I want to be, and I want to help. And I’ve been able to do it.”

Gary Ebben ’82

Ebben combines an engineering mind with exceptional human-relations skills. Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs

Gary Ebben was inspired to go into military aviation by his older brother, Dale Ebben ’64, who was an Air Force fighter pilot.

Gary retired in 2019 as an assistant adjutant general for air of the Wisconsin Air National Guard. After earning his UW bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, Ebben pursued Air Force pilot training. As a command pilot, he has logged more than 3,000 flying hours, including 64 combat missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Ebben enlisted in the Wisconsin Air National Guard in 1981 while attending UW–Madison. He rose through the ranks to become vice commander of the 115th Fighter Wing, a unit based in Madison that serves in Iraq and Afghanistan. After 9/11, Ebben oversaw the unit’s rapid conversion to readiness for active-duty service. He then became commander of Wisconsin’s Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center near Camp Douglas. At the time of his retirement, Ebben’s role entailed leading nearly 10,000 airmen and soldiers, as well as the entire Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs, which also includes Wisconsin Emergency Management.

Reflecting on his career, Ebben has been struck by the fact that “we have so many tremendous young men and women in this country — extraordinary individuals who are willing to serve their country and commit to a purpose bigger than themselves. I have been incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to wear the uniform and serve alongside them.”

Ebben has received 21 awards for his service, including the military’s Distinguished Service Medal, the National Guard Association Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, and the Iraq Campaign Medal.

He has been involved with the UW’s ROTC program, providing shadowing and mentoring opportunities. He is active with the Wisconsin National Guard Challenge Academy for high school at-risk youth, and he helped create the Wisconsin Guard’s STARBASE program for fifth-grade science, technology, engineering, and math. Ebben is also an active supporter of the Badger Honor Flight, a program that gives veterans the opportunity to see memorials that have been erected in their honor.

One of his former supervisors, the late Major General Al Wilkening, said that Ebben’s strengths combine an engineering mind with exceptional human-relations skills. “I’ve supervised hundreds of officers in my 40-year career,” he said, “and I’d put Gary in the top 1 percent.”

Thomas J. Falk ’80

Falk: “Never stop being curious about the world around us and the people who live in it.” Courtesy of Kimberly-Clark

Tom Falk grew up in the Milwaukee area as the oldest of nine children. After earning his UW accounting degree, he began his career with what is now Grant Thornton, and in 1983, he joined Kimberly-Clark, known for brands such as Kleenex, Huggies, Scott, Kotex, Cottonelle, and Depend.

The company sent him to Stanford to earn a master’s degree in management, and he steadily worked his way up the ladder, serving as chair of the board and CEO for 16 years before retiring at the end of 2019.

During Falk’s 36-year career, Kimberly-Clark’s total shareholder return outperformed the S&P 500, and he was instrumental in transforming the company into a global leader in consumer products. Over the years, Falk has garnered numerous accolades for his business acumen. Forbes magazine has described him as an “operations wiz,” and Barron’s said he was “a master of efficiency” who ended each day with an empty in-box.

Falk was a key player in the company’s acquisition of Scott Paper, and also in the turnaround of European operations, achieving major efficiencies. He was the chief architect of Kimberly-Clark’s global organizational structure and Go to Market initiatives, which saved more than $200 million in two years by reducing costs in the supply chain. Falk also led sustainability initiatives and increased gender diversity during his time at Kimberly-Clark. An avid reader, he made a habit of preparing an annual booklist so that his team could get to know him better.

Falk has served on the board of visitors for the UW’s business school and has chaired the board for the UW Foundation. Falk and his wife, Karen Falk ’80, have been generous with UW–Madison, supporting endowed faculty chairs and scholarships in both the Wisconsin School of Business and the School of Education, from which Karen graduated.

Falk serves on the boards of Lockheed Martin and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and as a national governor of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He chaired the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’s 2013–14 fundraising campaign, and he and Karen chaired the 2019–20 campaign. They also made a generous gift to the organization’s Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund.

Falk says that the motto he has lived by is “Never stop learning. Never stop being curious about the world around us and the people who live in it. They will teach you something new every day.”

Lasker with President Lyndon Johnson, who received a Lasker Award in 1966 for his efforts to promote health legislation. William J. Smith

A combination of experiences — painful ear infections during childhood, a family laundress undergoing a double mastectomy, her husband’s death from cancer, and more — impelled Mary Lasker’s notable life accomplishments.

Lasker x1922 became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century medical research, despite admittedly having not a speck of training as a scientist.

Together with her husband, advertising executive Albert Lasker, she created the Lasker Foundation in 1942 to shine a light on emerging medical research. They established the Lasker Awards, which for more than 70 years have honored dozens of recipients, many of whom have gone on to win Nobel Prizes — including the UW researcher Howard Temin. Seeing a need to educate the public about cancer and bolster research funding, they reshaped a previously ineffective organization into the American Cancer Society.

After Albert’s death, Mary began an unrelenting campaign to counteract woefully low regard for the importance of medical research. She lobbied presidents and members of Congress, urging them to channel public money to the study of major diseases. She called upon medical experts, the media, and Hollywood as she built a network of support, leading Jonas Salk, who developed the first polio vaccine, to describe her as “a matchmaker between science and society.”

Ever the pragmatist, Lasker once said, “Without money, nothing gets done.” Thanks in large part to her efforts, the National Institutes of Health’s budget soared and the federal government committed funds to a “war” on cancer. (No doubt getting columnist Ann Landers to motivate 500,000 readers to send letters to legislators helped to pass the National Cancer Act.)

For those who questioned putting resources toward such efforts, Lasker made a succinct observation: “If you think research is expensive, try disease.”

Although she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one honor may have touched her heart more. An ardent proponent of urban beautification programs — she donated more than 10,000 azaleas for Capitol Hill and 300 cherry trees to the United Nations — Lasker became the namesake for a pink tulip in the 1980s.

This year’s honorees are leaders in fields ranging from technology, medicine, and chemistry to social services and the entertainment industry. For more on the awards, visit uwalumni.com/awards.

Robert Bergman PhD’66

Robert Bergman Peg Skorpinski

Robert Bergman is a pioneering organic chemist whose findings have led to numerous commercial applications. Now the Gerald E. K. Branch Distinguished Professor Emeritus in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, he discovered a reaction known as the Bergman Cyclization that has had major implications for the pharmaceutical industry. He has also done innovative research in the field of organometallic chemistry. In 1981, Bergman led a team in the discovery of an unusual new group of organometallic complexes that sever carbon-hydrogen bonds, which created an entirely new subfield of chemistry virtually overnight.

Bergman began teaching at the California Institute of Technology in 1967, moving on to Berkeley in 1977. He has been named a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the California Academy of Sciences. He has more than 575 publications and eight patents to his name. Bergman has earned some two dozen awards for his research and teaching, including honorary doctorates from Texas A&M University and Carleton College, and the 2017 Wolf Prize in Chemistry.

He founded the Bay Area Scientists in Schools program, which provides science outreach for elementary school students in the Berkeley area. Although he has emeritus status, Bergman remains active in research, teaching, and outreach.

Danae Davis JD’80

Danae Davis Jim Moy

Danae Davis has devoted her career to promoting education and helping the most vulnerable in society. She worked as legal counsel for former Wisconsin governor Tony Earl and sought to promote diversity as an executive at Miller Brewing and Kraft Foods. She was a member of the UW System Board of Regents from 2003 to 2011, and in 2008, she earned the Outstanding Woman of Color in Education Award from the UW System.

As the executive director and CEO of PEARLS for Teen Girls, Davis served at-risk African American girls in Milwaukee. In 2014, 97.6 percent of the 1,300 girls in the program graduated from high school and were accepted to at least one college; 99.9 percent avoided teen pregnancy.

In 2015, Davis became executive director of Milwaukee Succeeds, a collaborative community effort to improve educational outcomes through focusing on children’s readiness to learn, from kindergarten through college and career. The organization, which is part of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, has shown promising results, particularly in improving third-grade reading skills. Davis was recently named a Woman of Influence by the Milwaukee Business Journal and attended a prestigious program for nonprofit leaders at the Harvard Business School. Davis also chairs the board for 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, which seeks to make the city more inclusive, and StriveTogether, a national, nonprofit network to improve U.S. educational outcomes from cradle to career.

Jim Berbee ’85, MS’87, MBA’89

Jim Berbee Media Solutions

A four-time Ironman triathlete, Jim Berbee once broke his collarbone during training, and the care he received inspired an interest in emergency medicine. Berbee is now a clinical assistant professor at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and an emergency physician at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital.

But he started his career as an IBM systems engineer, and in 1993, he founded Berbee Information Networks Corporation in his basement. As the business grew, clients included IBM, Microsoft, and Cisco. After selling his company to CDW in 2006, he attended Stanford University’s School of Medicine and earned his MD in 2010. He then completed his residency in emergency medicine at the UW Hospital and Clinics.

Berbee is also the founder of the Berbee Derby Thanksgiving Day 10K run and 5K run/walk. Proceeds support the Technology Education Foundation, which provides technology resources and education to help alleviate the digital divide. He and his wife, Karen Walsh ’81, MA’89, support human health and welfare projects through the BerbeeWalsh Foundation, including a $10 million gift to the UW medical school’s Department of Emergency Medicine that has been transformational for faculty, staff, and patients. Berbee is a trustee for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the Morgridge Institute for Research, and WiCell Research Institute.

Kelly Kahl ’89

Kelly Kahl Johnny Vy/CBS

It’s very possible that Kelly Kahl is responsible for one of your favorite TV shows. As senior executive vice president for CBS Primetime, he oversaw planning and scheduling of primetime programming for more than two decades. He helped build a schedule that included huge successes such as Survivor, Blue Bloods, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Big Bang Theory, CSI, and three editions of the NCIS franchise, ensuring that CBS ranked number one in viewership for 14 of the past 15 seasons.

Kahl was promoted to president of CBS Entertainment in May. He now leads the network’s entertainment division, where he oversees programming, research and scheduling, marketing and promotion, digital-interactive, diversity, and publicity. Kahl signed on at CBS in 1996 after several years at Warner Brothers Television. Prior to that, he was with Lorimar Television, starting as a research intern and quickly rising through the ranks as a research analyst and manager.

Kahl, whose Twitter handle is @calibadger, is well known for his love of Wisconsin sports, and he serves on the Communication Arts Partners board for UW–Madison. He often hosts UW events at his home and at the bar he owns, the Underground Pub, and he has established a successful internship program at CBS for UW students. Senior Ryan Holtz, this year’s intern, says, “Kelly is extremely hands-on with his interns. His promotion happened just as I was arriving at CBS for the summer, but he was still able to keep his door open for each and every minute question that I had.”

AP IMAGES/John Hart

For years, Clyde Stubblefield kept the beat for James Brown, and his drum break on the soul singer’s recording of “Funky Drummer” is one of the most sampled in hip-hop and popular music, used by the Beastie Boys, Prince, and Public Enemy, among others. Stubblefield was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but the legendary drummer called Madison home. His generous support of the local music scene made him a beloved figure, and before his death in February at the age of 73, he was selected to receive an honorary degree during spring commencement weekend.

We salute this year’s Forward under 40 Award winners, who were chosen based on their exceptional career accomplishments before the age of 40, as well as their commitment to the Wisconsin Idea, which seeks to spread the benefits of the university to the world. To suggest a young alum for next year’s awards, complete the nomination form at uwalumni.com/forwardunder40 by July 1, 2017.

Matthew Aliota ’05, PhD’10, a research scientist at the UW School of Veterinary Medicine, is on the front lines of battling the Zika virus. He is developing a mouse model to study how the virus affects the brain, as well as confirming that a particular type of bacterium can prevent transmission of Zika in mosquitoes. He has also served as a research ambassador, sharing his findings at UW outreach and continuing- education events.

Shana Hazan ’02 is the chief development officer at Jewish Family Service of San Diego, where she and her team raised more than $14 million last year to support services ranging from free parenting workshops to a home-delivered meal program. She also launched youth efforts such as kindergarten readiness, service learning for girls, and teen leadership development, and she founded the Hunger Advocacy Network, a coalition that works for policies that increase food security.

As a science and technology policy fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Katherine Himes MBA’01 led programs to improve access to water, support economic growth, and increase international research partnerships. Working at the intersection of diplomacy and development, she served in the USAID Office of Science and Technology and lived overseas as its regional science adviser to Central Asia. She is now a freelance foreign policy scholar and author.

An attorney with the U.S. Department of State, Neha Lugo ’06 earned her JD at Harvard Law School. As an attorney for the Legal Adviser’s Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, she works on multilateral treaties that protect marine environments, prevent wildlife trafficking, and promote biodiversity. She also teaches International Human Rights Law at Georgetown University Law Center.

Stacy Igel ’99 is the founder, creative director, and fashion designer for Boy Meets Girl USA. Her BMG line is worn by major celebrities, sold online and at Nordstrom stores, and was recently featured at the Colette boutique in Paris. She also launched Boy Meets Girl University, a hands-on learning experience for fashion industry hopefuls, and she has collaborated with charities on breast cancer and anti-bullying designs. She was featured in UW–Madison’s Big Apple Badgers video series (see page 7).

Steven Olikara ’12 is the founder and president of the Millennial Action Project, a national, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering millennial policymakers to champion collaborative governance. He spearheaded the creation of the nation’s first and only bipartisan caucus for young members of Congress. His work has been featured by NBC, ABC, CNN, the New York Times, theWashington Post, and many other news outlets.

Peter Tempelis ’01, MPA’06, JD’06, an assistant Wisconsin attorney general, previously served Milwaukee County and was named Wisconsin Assistant District Attorney of the Year in 2015. He commissioned a UW study that led to a law aimed at reducing the high turnover rate among assistant DAs, and he implemented a program to support domestic-violence victims at the greatest risk of homicide. He now prosecutes cases of Medicaid fraud and elder abuse.

Yee Lee Vue ’10, MA’12 is an adult services and engagement librarian at the Appleton, Wisconsin, Public Library. Previously the library’s first Hmong outreach specialist, she taught Hmong families how to access library services and cultivated a love of learning and reading in children. She also helps her husband run an Appleton restaurant called City Cafe where she began City Cafe Cares week, inviting local residents experiencing homelessness to enjoy free meals.

Lauren Groff discussed her latest bestseller on Late Night with Seth Meyers last fall. Lloyd Bishop/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

For Lauren Groff MFA’06, the last year has been marvelous. Unexpectedly thrilling. And exhausting.

The humble novelist, who tries not to read reviews and prefers to write at home, has spent months on a national tour: book signings, literary festivals, awards banquets, and numerous interviews, even matching wits with comedian Seth Meyers on his late-night talk show. And in early 2016, she was off again, this time with stops in Amsterdam and Australia, packing what she calls her event persona.

“Trying to be charming and clever — it’s awfully difficult,” Groff says. “I know that it’s going to be many, many years until I have another tour, if I ever have another tour again, so I’m just trying to really, really love what’s happening and be appreciative of it.”

Groff is much in demand due to the success of her latest book. Fates and Furies, a duo of perspectives on a fiery marriage, has earned a legion of honors. The accolades include a nomination for the National Book Award for Fiction; the number-one spot on Amazon’s list of Best Books of 2015; and the endorsement of President Barack Obama, who revealed in a People magazine interview that it was his favorite book of 2015.

Like her previous best-sellers — 2008’s The Monsters of Templeton and 2012’s Arcadia — Fates and Furies showcases the lyrical prose Groff polished while earning her master of fine arts from UW–Madison’s English department. She chose the UW to study creative writing with one of her all-time favorite authors, the award-winning Lorrie Moore, who was on the faculty at the time.

In her earliest writing, Groff says she was trying to replicate Moore’s style. “I was trying for her wry, hilarious voice, and I was trying for her devastating wit, and failing so terribly,” she says. “So I kind of went in the opposite direction.” She developed a narrative that led to a big break: Groff sold a short story, “L. Debard and Aliette,” to Atlantic Monthly while in her first semester.

She treasures her connections with her UW professors, including Jesse Lee Kercheval, Judith Claire Mitchell, and Moore, who now teaches at Vanderbilt University. “They’re the kind of incredible human beings you know are there no matter what,” Groff says.

Although Groff said she’d retire after the leader of the free world praised her novel, her schedule proves she was joking. Her Twitter account often previews her next tour stops for Fates and Furies; she mentors an eleventh-grade writing apprentice; she teaches a residency at the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina; and she says, with a bit of mystery, that in between her travels, more writing is in the works.

Fates and Furies is Groff’s fourth book. The New York Times Book Review, which calls her “a writer of rare gifts,” says it is “an unabashedly ambitious novel that delivers — with comedy, tragedy, well-deployed erudition, and unmistakable glimmers of brilliance throughout.”

“I can only say that I’ve been working on three separate things, and one of them may end up working, or all three of them won’t,” she says.

Groff does most of her writing at home in Gainesville, Florida, where she and her husband, Clay Kallman, live with their young sons, Beckett and Heath. She often bestows thoughtful nicknames upon her characters, such as a lead subject in Fates and Furies — Lancelot, known as “Lotto” — whom she’s described as a personification of Florida’s grandeur.

“I wasn’t trying to go for subtlety,” she says. “Names are really important — a micronarrative of who the person is.” So what of a character reflecting Madison?

“Ooh, I don’t know. … I have yet to do that,” Groff says. “I would think about the lakes … because that’s what sort of haunts me now, and that’s what I miss the most. The lakes, and the spicy cheese bread at the Farmers’ Market. And just the overwhelming sense of kindness and helpfulness that I felt there.”

Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

It’s just a short time after winning an Oscar, but life isn’t all that different for Nicole Rocklin ’01 (second from right).

“I woke up and had to make my kid breakfast and sweep the floor,” Rocklin says. “Day-to-day life doesn’t change that much.”

Yes, many things remain the same, but there is a bit more of a spotlight, thanks to the movie Spotlight. Rocklin was one of the producers of the film, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in February. Spotlight, starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Liev Schreiber, tells the story of the Boston Globe journalists who uncovered sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. The movie received six Oscar nominations and also won for Best Original Screenplay.

Rocklin grew up in California and graduated with honors, double- majoring in history and Afro-American studies.

“My college experience was one of the highlights of my life. It’s the only time in life [when] you have that much freedom to explore so many things,” she says. “I miss it.”

After graduation, Rocklin moved back to California. She knew she wanted to work in entertainment but wasn’t quite sure in what way. After working for an entertainment law firm, she took a job with Jerry Bruckheimer Films. She then started her own production studio and partnered with fellow producer Blye Faust.

“We’ve been focused on smaller sorts of projects,” Rocklin says. “Some people put twenty things out there. We don’t do that. It’s not who we are. We want to tell stories about real people.”

It took seven years to bring Spotlight to the screen. “It was never a question of whether we were going to tell the story,” she says. “We had to tell the story.”

In an era of shrinking newsrooms, Rocklin hopes the movie reminds people of the importance of journalism. She sees the Flint water crisis as another example of why good journalism is necessary and says that the best thing people can do is buy their local newspaper.

“If the Boston Globe didn’t have an investigation team, we might not know the story. As we all know, knowledge is power. This story spread throughout the world,” Rocklin says. “There are still so many stories to tell. If we don’t have reporters investigating, who is going to tell them?”

For nearly a decade, the Wisconsin Alumni Association has honored UW–Madison alumni under the age of forty who have excelled in both careers and community service with the Forward under 40 award. This year’s eight winners have demonstrated their commitment to the Wisconsin Idea, the principle that students, faculty, and alumni should improve lives beyond the borders of campus. To nominate an alum for next year’s awards, visit forwardunder40.com. The nominations deadline is July 10, 2016.

Virgil Abloh ’03 is best known for his high-end fashion label, Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh; his RSVP Gallery clothing store in Chicago; his work as a DJ; and his role as the creative director for music icon Kanye West. But he also makes time to give back to his alma mater. In 2015, he designed limited editions of WAA’s The Red Shirt. All proceeds from sales of the shirt went to a fund Abloh created called the Off-Scholarship, which provides need-based financial aid to incoming freshmen.

Leslie Anderson ’04 is the vice president of human resources at the Gap-owned brand Athleta in San Francisco. As a UW student, she held down a part-time job in human resources and partnered with university job-placement centers to lead free workshops for students. In 2015, she was named Retail Innovator of the Year and was invited to the White House to participate in the Upskilling America movement, which brings together business, nonprofit, academic, and labor groups to help improve opportunities for American workers.

AnneElise Goetz ’02 is a partner at Higgs Fletcher & Mack, one of San Diego’s oldest law firms. Additionally, she appears weekly on HLN’s Dr. Drew and on Fox television networks to provide viewers with legal tips and insights. She also writes and produces her own podcast, AnneElise Goetz Your Life and the Law, to help listeners with major legal issues. Goetz is dedicated to helping women seek out leadership positions in government, law, and business.

William Hsu ’00 has lived and worked all over the United States. But for him, there’s no place like Wisconsin. He runs Hsu’s Ginseng Enterprises in Wausau, a business his parents founded in 1974. Through it all, Hsu has not lost his passion for UW-Madison. Working with the UW Foundation, he helped develop an innovative social-media fundraising campaign that launched in 2011 and helped endow a Great People Scholarship. He also serves on the UW Foundation Board of Directors.

Laura Klunder ’06, MSW’07 studied social work at UW-Madison and was involved with the university’s MultiCultural Student Coalition. As a representative for Adoptee Solidarity Korea, she engaged fellow adult adoptees in strengthening Korea’s social welfare system and fighting discrimination against unwed mothers. After four years of grassroots organizing in South Korea, Klunder returned to campus in 2015 to serve as a social justice education specialist with the Multicultural Student Center.

Aaron Lippman ’98 is the principal of Carmen High School of Science and Technology in Milwaukee. During his first year on the job, Carmen was named School of the Year by Milwaukee Charter School Advocates. During Lippman’s second year, Carmen took Wisconsin’s top spot on the Washington Post’s list of schools that challenge students to achieve through college-level exams. Lippman also mentors administrators in Milwaukee-area schools with the goal of closing the racial achievement gap.

Tom Rausch ’04 is the cofounder and director of strategy and innovation at Good World Solutions, which helps workers in the developing world who do not have a secure channel to share complaints about workplace conditions. The organization’s flagship product, Laborlink, has reached more than 500,000 workers across Asia, Europe, and South America, maintaining worker anonymity and delivering participation rates that far exceed those typically achieved during social audits.

Tonya Sloans JD’01 serves as counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Ethics in Washington, DC. As a student, she decided that she wanted to use her education for community service, and she now gives back to the DC community as a licensed minister. She also founded PowerWoman Enterprise, an organization that aims to improve the lives of women by providing resources to achieve their full career potential. This venture utilizes her skills as an attorney, minister, and entrepreneur.

The Class of 1965 will hold its fiftieth Class Reunion October 1–3, 2015. Highlights will include campus tours, a Day of Learning, and the Half Century Club reception and dinner, along with the class tailgate and Badger football game against Iowa. For more information, visit uwalumni.com/events/reunions.

WAA member receptions are becoming as much of a tradition as the spring events they celebrate. WAA members gathered at the Fluno Center for a reception before the UW Varsity Band’s concert in April. Another special social for association members during the following weekend treated some 130 Badgers to breakfast and camaraderie at the Quarles & Brady law offices preceding the Crazylegs Classic run.

Since 2004, the Wisconsin Alumni Association has honored alumni who have provided outstanding service to their local communities with Badger of the Year awards. This year, 19 of them were recognized at their local Founders’ Days.

Badger weight-thrower Michael Lihrman ’15 won his second consecutive national title at the NCAA indoor track and field championships in March. With a meet record of 80 feet, 10.25 inches, he finished his college career as the nation’s top tosser.

In addition to Lihrman, three other Badger track athletes were named All-Americans. From the women’s squad, 5,000-meter runner Sarah Disanza x’18, shot-putter Kelsey Card x’16, and pentathlete Georgia Ellenwood x’17 all made the list.

Wrestler Isaac Jordan x’17 won the Big Ten championship at 165 pounds. The grappler has also received All-American honors in both of his Badger seasons.

The UW volleyball team looks to continue its run of success, as six incoming recruits were named among the fifty best players in the country. Volleyball Magazine listed Madison Duello, Hannah Juley, Amber MacDonald, Brooke Morgan, Julia Saunders, and Tionna Williams among its Fab 50. Duello also earns props for having the number-one awesome first name.