The University of Vermont Alumni Association honored outstanding graduates at its annual reunion weekend celebration on Saturday, May 31, 2008. UVM President Daniel Mark Fogel presented award citations to the following honorees:

Distinguished Service Award—

Sarah Dopp '68 South Burlington, Vermont

Sarah Dopp has long served as a dedicated volunteer on behalf of her alma mater, despite the competing demands of work and an impressive array of other volunteer commitments in her South Burlington community. An impressively effective fundraiser on behalf of the University in an understated and persuasive way, she has never hesitated to say "yes" when asked to serve in that role on behalf of UVM. As a long-time member and until recently manager of the Ira Allen Society Committee, she focused her energies on raising leadership-level gifts for the University from alumni donors and offered valuable insights on how the work of that important group could best be carried out. Sarah also served the Alumni Association as a member of the UVM Bicentennial Committee that orchestrated the University's 200th birthday celebration in 1991, as Awards Committee chair, as a member of the Alumni Career Network, and as class gift chair on the Class of 1968 Reunion Committee. Her guidance as a dedicated Vermont Regional Campaign volunteer fundraiser during the recently concluded Campaign for the University of Vermont was key to the success of that historic effort. A lifelong passion for education — from medicine to the classics — and her service to the University and the community, exemplify her shared commitment to liberal education, environment, health, and public service.

David Holton '72 Essex Junction, Vermont

David Holton has been a loyal and enthusiastic volunteer for the University of Vermont in numerous capacities over many years. A co-founder of the UVM Vermont Regional Board and its first chair, he worked to recruit a diverse and talented board to act as ambassadors for the University throughout the state, raising awareness of the positive impact of the University on Vermont and its communities. President of the Class of 1972, he has also served as co-chair of the Class of 1972 Reunion Planning Committee, a member of the Alumni Council and the Athletic Council, team captain and member of the Victory Club Executive Committee, and member of the Alumni Regional Golf Board in Boston. Countless UVM alumni have benefited from the skill he has brought to bear in organizing social, career development, and networking events that showcase the tangible value of UVM connections.

Dale Rocheleau '80 South Burlington, Vermont

Dale Rocheleau began his loyal service to UVM as an undergraduate. A well respected student leader, he rose to serve as president of the Student Government Association and continued his close ties to his alma mater after graduation. As an alumnus, he brought his leadership skills to bear in many significant initiatives, programs, and services that have advanced UVM and the Alumni Association, including the expansion of the alumni regional boards and the launch of a very successful national community service initiative. He has served on his class gift committee and has been a member of the Ira Allen Society Committee. Despite the demands of a brilliant career as an attorney, he accepted leadership roles in the Alumni Association, rising to serve with distinction as vice president and president and representing the Alumni Association on many standing committees of the Board of Trustees.

Alumni Achievement Award—

Bonnie Christensen '73 Essex Junction, Vermont

Bonnie Christensen is an artist, writer, and teacher who has won numerous prestigious awards and garnered national praise for her work. Her highly acclaimed book, Woody Guthrie, Poet of the People, received accolades including selection as a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2001, a Boston Globe Corn Book Honor Award, and a Parents' Choice Gold Medal for Non-fiction. Her illustrations in Moon Over Tennessee shared in honors including a New York Public Library "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing" in 2000. An Edible Alphabet, which she wrote and illustrated, was a Smithsonian Notable Book in 1994. Among her other accomplishments, she is also a gifted and versatile printmaker and worked on the illustrations for UVM Professor Tom Simone's book Dante's Inferno, published by Focus Press.

Miriam Nelson '83 Concord, Massachusetts

Miriam Nelson has become a national leader in the field of health and nutrition. Among the many examples of national acclaim for her work are a Bunting Fellowship Award at Radcliffe College's Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Governor's Committee on Physical Fitness and Sports, and the American Diabetes Association's Women in Valor Award. She is perhaps best known for the internationally best-selling Strong Women series of books, which examine the practical implications of emerging science. An associate professor in the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, she founded the John Hancock Center on Physical Activity and Nutrition Science Policy, the focal point of translational nutrition at Tufts, and serves as vice chair of the expert committee charged with developing physical activity guidelines for the federal government. Her contributions to research, teaching, and service in nutrition and physical fitness have earned her a worldwide reputation.

Susan Hudson-Wilson '76 Chebeague Island, Maine

Susan Hudson-Wilson is the retired chief executive officer and current board member of Property & Portfolio Research, Inc., an international real estate research firm she founded in 1994. Today she is a widely published real estate expert sought after as a featured speaker at major industry conferences sponsored by the leading risk management, mortgage bankers', and real estate associations. Her numerous awards and recognition include the Wisconsin Real Estate Award and the Pension Real Estate Association's Graaskamp Award for Research Excellence, and her firm earned a place on the Inc. 500 list of America's fastest-growing private companies. She is co-author of Managing Real Estate Portfolios and editor of Modern Real Estate Portfolio Management, and her service as a board member and advisor within the real estate industry and community at large is distinguished and extensive. Susan has provided expert commentary on real estate topics in the national press and in industry journals, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Business Week, USA Today, Financial Times, and many more. A Counselor of Real Estate and a founding member and past president of the Real Estate Research Institute, she has served as chair of the Pension Real Estate Association and currently brings her expertise in service to the University of Vermont as a member of the Board of Trustees.

Young Alumni Award—

Jillian Giardina '03 Parsippany, N.J.

Jillian Giardina has continued to be a loyal and dedicated member of the Class of 2003 since her undergraduate years, representing the class on the UVM Alumni Council during her senior year and keeping them updated on class activities. A class leader on the Senior Class Council, she continued to build on the relationships nurtured in that capacity by engaging her classmates as alumni through a dual role as class president and class secretary. As secretary, she helped keep her classmates up to date with one another as well as with UVM. Always mindful that alumni have an important stake in the future of UVM, she has served as vice chair of the Young Alumni Committee, encouraging recent graduates to join in the tradition of giving back to UVM by making a class gift. Now celebrating her 5th Reunion, she has been a dynamic co-chair of the Class of 2003 Reunion Committee and has taken an active role in planning the first official class reunion.

Nathaniel Sillin '03 Washington, D.C.

Nathaniel Sillin is an enthusiastic and committed alumnus in the Washington, D.C., area who has served on the Washington, D.C., Events Committee as well as on the D.C. Regional Board since 2004. Eager to help the University recruit the next generation of UVM students, he also serves as an Alumni Admissions Representative in the Washington area. This year for his 5th Reunion, he has taken on a leadership role as co-chair of the Class of 2003 Reunion Committee. Nat has also been an active recruiter for the 2003 Reunion Committee in the nation's capital, as well as in other areas along the East Coast. Through his leadership contribution to the 5th Reunion Class Gift, he is a role model for other young alumni considering philanthropic support for their alma mater. Nat has been the leader of his 5th Reunion class fundraising efforts, taking an active part in soliciting Reunion gifts from classmates.

Andrew Rosenstock '02 San Francisco, CA

Andrew Rosenstock has been a very active and dedicated young alumnus since his graduation from UVM in 2002. After leaving campus, he began serving as an Alumni Admissions Representative in the Washington, D.C., area in 2004, and continued as an admissions volunteer in the New York area. For his 5th Reunion in 2007, he was an effective and committed volunteer, helping to make their first UVM Reunion a wonderful experience for his classmates. While living in the New York area, he served on the New York Regional Board and showed his selfless, other-directed spirit as a participant in its volunteer day at the Saint Francis Xavier Food Table. Andrew has had a successful career in computer programming and operations as a senior network/desktop technician with Covington & Burling both in New York and in San Francisco.

George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award—

Lynne Bond Charlotte, VT

Lynne Bond joined the UVM faculty as an assistant professor of psychology in 1976. Her teaching career has been highlighted by numerous awards and honors. She was chosen UVM Outstanding Woman Faculty of the Year in 2005, named a fellow in the Society for Psychology of Women by the American Psychological Association in 2004, and was chosen to receive UVM's Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award in 2000. Her lifetime contributions to research and scholarship in the social sciences were recognized with a University Scholar award in 1999. A founding director of UVM's Office of Community-University Partnerships and Service-Learning, she implemented service-learning pedagogy in her courses and established funding and infrastructure to assure that UVM students and faculty have access to this powerful form of teaching and learning. She was one of the early leaders of Writing Across the Curriculum at UVM, and she also has been a campus leader in faculty-led study abroad courses. She taught a course in Cuba until the Cuban government forbade travel there. Bond's influence on student life outside of the classroom has taken the form of UVM community collaborations, helping to make changes in programs and quality of life on campus, as well as serving on numerous committees that address important campus issues.

About the Alumni Awards

The Alumni Distinguished Service Award has been awarded since 1958 to volunteer alumni leaders whose service to the University of Vermont and the Alumni Association has enhanced the reputation and furthered the mission of the University.

The Alumni Achievement Award has been awarded to alumni since 1985 for outstanding achievement that has been recognized at the local, state, and/or national level.

The Young Alumni Award has been awarded since 1979 to alumni who graduated within the past ten years for volunteer service to the University of Vermont and to the Alumni Association, and for commitment to furthering the mission of the University.

The George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award was established by the UVM Alumni Association in 1974 to honor excellence in teaching. It is given annually to a faculty member nominated by alumni, students, faculty, and staff for significant contributions to the broadening of students' academic experience and the enrichment of campus life. The award is named in honor of the late Dean Emeritus George V. Kidder '22, who served the University of Vermont for more than seventy years.