The University of Vermont Alumni Association honored outstanding graduates at its annual reunion weekend celebration on June 6. UVM President Daniel Mark Fogel presented award citations to the following honorees:

Distinguished Service Award

James Betts '69, MD '73
Alameda, Ca.

James Betts has been a loyal and dedicated UVM volunteer for more than twenty years. A class officer in his undergraduate class and in medical school, he has served in leadership roles, as either chair or co-chair, on the Reunion Gift Committees for both classes. Jim has served as interim chair of the Planned Giving Committee and was a participant in the campaign planning study that preceded the university's six-year comprehensive Campaign for the University of Vermont, during which he took a leadership role as a member of the National Campaign Steering Committee. Currently a member of the Medical Dean's Advisory Board, he also serves on the university's Board of Trustees. In 2003, he was the recipient of the A. Bradley Soule Award, the top honor bestowed by the UVM Medical Alumni Association. Beyond his service to UVM, Jim is revered for the work he does every day as surgeon-in-chief, senior vice president for surgical services, and director of trauma services for the Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, California.

Thomas "Ted" Child '74
South Burlington, Vt.

Ted Child has dedicated significant time and effort in support of UVM for many years. A former varsity hockey player at UVM, he has been especially dedicated to UVM Athletics and has served on numerous committees, including the Catamount Club Executive Committee and the Hall of Fame Committee, and as President of the Friends of UVM Hockey. Always working in support of his alma mater, he has been a member of the Ira Allen Society Committee, actively fundraising to help UVM reach its goals. Ted has also been a Reunion volunteer and served as a class agent.

Fred "Chico" Lager '75
Williston, Vt.

Chico Lager has been a loyal alumnus who has worked on behalf of his alma mater for many years. Currently a member of the Ira Allen Society Committee, he has been and continues to be a dedicated fundraiser for UVM. He served on the Vermont Regional Campaign committee during The Campaign for the University of Vermont and was part of the team of fundraisers who brought the Vermont Campaign to a successful conclusion. "Chikago Landing," in UVM's Dudley H. Davis Center, is the result of a generous gift from Chico and his wife, Yvette Pigeon, UVM Class of '80, G'87, Ed.D.'99. Chico is a dedicated, long-time member of the UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Board of Advisors and in 2008 was the featured speaker for the college's graduation ceremony. He was also a member of the class of 1975's 20th Reunion Committee in 1995.

Alumni Achievement Award

Paul Anderson '59
Lansdale, Pa.

Paul Anderson is renowned for his contributions to the pharmaceutical industry he has served for nearly 40 years. Currently an independent consultant for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries after having served as a research vice president for Merck, Dupont-Merck, and Dupont, Paul earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry from UVM and a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from the University of New Hampshire and was awarded honorary doctorates from both institutions. After completing an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University, he joined Merck Research Laboratories in 1964. For his contributions to drug discovery in the areas of hypertension, glaucoma, blood cholesterol levels, and anti-viral-retro AIDS drugs, he received the Priestley Medal, the E. B. Herschberg Award, and the Industrial Chemistry Award from the American Chemical Society. He also received the Perkin Medal from the Society of Chemical Industry and the Award for Chemistry in Service to Society from the U. S. National Academy of Sciences. Paul is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Society of Sigma Xi. He has served on the Council of the NIH Institute of General Medical Sciences and as president of the American Chemical Society. He has chaired the Medicinal Chemistry Division of ACS, the Gordon Conference on Medicinal Chemistry, and the NIH Study Section on Natural Products and Bioorganic Chemistry. He is currently chair of the Gordon Research Conferences and serves as director or scientific advisor for several public and not-for-profit organizations.

Herbert Brown '57
Portland, Ore.

As an undergraduate at the University of Vermont, Herb Brown was a two-time varsity letter winner as well as a sports columnist for the Vermont Cynic. Currently an assistant coach with the Charlotte Bobcats basketball team in Charlotte, North Carolina, Herb has spent most of the last half-century as a basketball coach at all levels of the game. As head coach of the Detroit Pistons from 1976 to 1978, he led Detroit to back-to-back playoff appearances. He has served as an assistant coach with Houston, Phoenix, Chicago, Portland, Indiana, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Atlanta during his career. As an assistant coach, he helped lead the Pistons to the 2004 NBA Championship and the 76ers to the 2001 Eastern Conference Championship. He also served as a scout for Milwaukee, Indiana, Philadelphia and Chicago, earning championship rings with the Bulls in 1992 and 1993. Herb began his coaching career in 1960 with 14 seasons as an assistant and head coach on the collegiate level at C.W. Post College and S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook. He went on to win championships in the European Professional Basketball League and the Western Basketball Association before spending four seasons in the CBA, where he led his teams to the playoffs each season and earned Coach of the Year honors in 1984. He also spent 15 summers in the Puerto Rico Basketball League, where he was named Coach of the Year with Isabela in 1981 and won a championship with Canovanas in 1984, leading his teams to the playoffs each year. Internationally, he has coached Team USA three times at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, leading his teams to a Gold Medal in 2001 and Bronze Medals in 1997 and 2005. In addition, in 1972 he helped train the national team of Pakistan for the Asian Games on behalf of the U.S. State Department. Herb has written three books about basketball and is an active participant in the NBA's Basketball Without Borders, Peace Players International,and the Friendship Games. He was inducted into the U.S. Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 and is a member of the board of directors of Maccabi USA Sports for Israel.

R. Jarrett Lilien '84
New York, N.Y.

R. Jarrett Lilien held several executive positions in the financial services industry before founding TIR Holdings, a global institutional stock broker for which he served ten years as chief executive officer. Following the company's acquisition by E*Trade, he became president and chief operating officer of E*Trade Financial Corporation. In that role he had responsibility for the tactical execution of the company's global business strategies. While at E*Trade, he drove revenue growth and enhanced profitability, strengthening value for its customers. As the company's acting chief executive officer, he successfully developed and implemented a comprehensive turnaround plan necessitated by the global financial crisis. More recently, Jarrett has been president of the board of directors for the Jazz Foundation of America, which is dedicated to saving the lives of elder jazz and blues musicians, the pioneers of America's original art form, including many of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Eric Lipton '87
Washington, D.C.

Eric Lipton began his career in journalism as a member of the Vermont Cynic staff. By the time he graduated, he had risen to the position of editor-in chief, and he had brought the Cynic to new heights of reporting. He also served as a student trustee during his undergraduate years. Since graduating from UVM, Eric has worked for some of the nation's largest and most respected news organizations, including The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Hartford Courant, as he built a successful career in journalism. In 1992, he shared a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism for his investigative reporting on how flaws in the Hubble Telescope had escaped detection. City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center, his insightful chronicle of the birth and tragic death of New York's twin towers, was published in 2003 and received critical acclaim as "the definitive biography of the iconic skyscrapers and the ambitions that shaped them." Eric was the recipient of an honorary degree from UVM in 2008.

Keith Meurlin '72
Oak Hill, Va.

Keith Meurlin has built two notable careers in military service and airport management since graduating from UVM. He earned his commission through the Army ROTC program in 1972, then transferred to the Air Force and served on active duty for 5 years flying the KC-135 tanker. He has served in the Air National Guard and Reserves flying the C-130 and C-7 aircraft. He left Active Duty and started a career in Airport Management at Washington Dulles International Airport, where he quickly rose to the position of Vice President and Airport Manager in 1989. During that time the airport grew from 2 million passengers to over 29 million. He retired from the airport in 2005 and has been on active duty in the Air Force since then. While in the Air Force he has served as an aircraft maintenance officer and held senior positions at Air Mobility, Air Combat and Air Force Material Commands as well as in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. Keith is currently working for the Secretary of Defense as Director of the office responsible for Wounded Warriors from all services. Keith is from a long line of UVM alumni, including his wife Beth, also a 1972 graduate.

Jan Reynolds '78
Stowe, Vt.

Jan Reynolds is a writer, photographer, and author who truly goes to the ends of the earth to get her story. The owner of Jan Reynolds Productions in Stowe, Vermont, she has earned widespread acclaim for her accomplishments as an outdoor adventurer with several important "firsts" to her credit. She was a member of the first team of western skiers to visit China in 1980 and the first woman to reach the top of Mount Muztagata in Chinese Pamirs, a site that had never been reached on skis and only scaled twice before. After scaling the mountain using no oxygen, she achieved a high-altitude record for women skiing down it. In 1982, she was on a team completing a 200-mile trek around Mount Everest on skis, the first time that had been done. On the Southern Cross Expedition, she made the first cross country ski and climbing traverse of the Southern Alps in New Zealand. Jan has been a member of the U.S. World Cup Biathlon Team and is a Mountain Man Triathlon Champion. On a research assignment for National Geographic, she made a camel crossing of the Sahara. Her byline has appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times, Esquire, Vogue, and People Magazine. She is the award-winning author of Everest Grand Circle, documenting this monumental accomplishment, and also of Mothers and Children, portraying the lives of indigenous people in the many cultures she has experienced around the world. Jan is a member of the University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Vermont Ski Hall of Fame in 2008. She was also on the cover UVM's Vermont Quarterly magazine in fall of 2008.

Young Alumni Award

Kelly Kisiday '04
Boston, Mass.

Kelly Kisiday has been a leader since her days as a UVM student, having been elected class president while an undergraduate and representing the Class of 2004 on the UVM Alumni Council. After graduation, she joined the Young Alumni Committee and helped with fundraising efforts among her classmates and other young alumni classes. As an alumna, she has been the volunteer class secretary for the Class of 2004, and in that role, over the past five years she has been dedicated to gathering news of her classmates and sharing it in each issue of Vermont Quarterly. She has been a valued participant in her class's 5th Reunion Committee as committee co-chair. Kelly works for Healthworks Fitness in Boston and is the Sales Director for the Chestnut Hill club.

Caitlin McPherran '04
Boston, Mass.

Caitlin McPherran has been an active UVM volunteer since her graduation five years ago. As a member of the Washington, D.C., Regional Board for three years, she participated in several admitted student receptions and student sendoffs in the Washington area. Even when she was no longer a member of the Regional Board, she volunteered to staff UVM events at Glen Echo Park. When she moved to Boston in the summer of 2008, Caitlin offered to help recruit alumni to bring new enthusiasm to UVM's effort there. She has attended numerous activities and usually volunteers her time at those events as well. Now as a member of the Class of 2004 Reunion Committee, she is applying her talents in a new role as a Gift Committee volunteer.

Marissa Stokes '99
Burlington, Vt.

Marissa Stokes has been an exceptionally loyal and dedicated alumna since graduating from UVM a decade ago. She was on the UVM Alumni Events Committee in Los Angeles, helping to get other young alumni involved with UVM. As coordinator and leader of UVM's Los Angeles Alumni Chapter, she planned numerous events, from social gatherings to cheer on the Catamounts at nationally televised hockey games to a beach clean-up, where she mobilized twenty-five alumni to demonstrate UVM community spirit by helping to tidy up Will Rogers Beach. She has been actively engaged in planning for her 10th UVM Reunion and has proven herself to be a dependable volunteer with creative ideas and selfless motivation to help the university in any way she can. A native Vermonter and a third-generation UVM alum, Marissa recently completed a master's degree in counseling and guidance at Loyola Marymount University and works in higher education financial aid with Vermont Student Assistance Corporation.

George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award

Professor Elaine McCrate
Department of Economics
Underhill, Vt.

Elaine McCrate began her tenure at the University of Vermont in 1985. A member of the College of Arts and Sciences faculty, she holds a joint appointment in Economics and in Women's and Gender Studies, where she is a highly respected teacher and researcher, as well as a valued advisor. She is known for her passionate interest in leveraging economics to explore issues surrounding women and minorities in the labor market. She has also taught in the Integrated Social Science Program, serving as interim director on several occasions. Believing that students can best sort through difficult issues by writing about them and dissecting and digesting the various arguments, McCrate devotes a great deal of her teaching to medium-sized writing-intensive courses. She is exceptionally committed to working with students on their independent studies and honors theses, and many students have underscored the importance of her emphasis on writing to their educational and professional success.

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.