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This June, �������ý��Ƶ will honor six graduates who have made lasting contributions to their professions, communities, and the university itself. The celebration takes place during Reunion weekend, June 18–21.

The 2026 Alumni Awards recognize achievement in three categories: Career Achievement, Service to Society, and Service to �������ý��Ƶ. This year’s honorees are Kim Sherman ’76 and Sara (Schlarman) Russell ’01 for Career Achievement; Marylene Wamukoya ’01 and Susie Medak ’76 for Service to Society; and Alison Guthrie ’86 and Stephen Rodriguez ’01 for Service to �������ý��Ƶ.

Career Achievement

Kim Sherman ’76, Lucia Russell Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award: Kim Sherman's music recently earned a Grammy nomination, but her path began with a college pamphlet. 

“I saw the pictures on it, and I'm like, ‘That's where I'm going,’” she says of �������ý��Ƶ. Receiving this alumni award, she adds, is “a surprise… to be seen is very nice.”

At �������ý��Ƶ, she studied piano, theory, and composition, experiences she credits with helping her find her creative voice. But it was the theater department that changed everything. A guest director from the Guthrie Theater came to campus to direct a play, and Kim composed the music. 

After graduation and a year studying with composer Thea Musgrave, that same director helped her land her first job. A �������ý��Ƶ connection resurfaced years later when Rick Davis '80 brought her to Baltimore Center Stage to compose for Hamlet. “That put me on a new level in the theater world. That's a direct relationship from �������ý��Ƶ.”

Her work, described as both “rhapsodic and lush” and “craggy and leap-about,” has appeared on concert stages, in opera houses, and in theaters. In 2025, her composition Invocation was featured on Allison Charney's album Alike: My Mother's Dream, which earned a Grammy nomination. 

“At this point in your life, to have this new world open up for you is pretty great.” 

Her work includes recordings, choral pieces, song cycles, and stage works such as O Pioneers!, Heartland, and Bluestem. She is artistic director of the Composers Institute, which runs a summer program at UW-River Falls for young composers, songwriters, and film and game music creators. She also works with New York’s 52nd Street Project, where children write original plays with songs. 

“The characters might be a pencil and an eraser having a fight,” she says. “It takes you to places you would not expect.” 

Her advice is simple: “Pay attention to who is around you. You never know.” 

Looking back, she still values the independence she found at �������ý��Ƶ. “The Conservatory thought I should be taking harpsichord lessons instead. I was like, ‘No, I think I will do this other thing.’ The good news is that it was my choice.” 

Sara (Schlarman) Russell ’01, Nathan M. Pusey Distinguished Achievement Award: For Sara Russell, teaching is built on small moments that add up over time.

Sara first visited �������ý��Ƶ as a high school junior. “It was a gross day. It was late November. It was snowy and rainy,” she says. But she remembers thinking, “This is where I am supposed to be. It just felt like home.”

She arrived planning to study government but switched to history. Near the end of her junior year, she took an education class on a whim and never looked back. She found a mentor in Professor Stewart Purkey.

“The best teachers I had were very much authentically themselves,” she says. “They weren’t trying to be someone they weren’t, and that really resonated with me.”

Her first job, in a small farming district in Iowa, was not what she expected. She taught special education and psychology, areas she had not been formally trained in.

“It was a real baptism by fire,” she says. “My first month, I cried nearly every day on the drive home. I was like, ‘What am I doing here? I am not fit to be here.’”

Over time, the experience reshaped how she teaches. 

“Now I’m so thankful,” she says. “It gave me a better appreciation of how different each learner is.”

In 2005, she moved to Pleasant Valley High School in Bettendorf, where she still teaches social studies today. Two decades later, in 2022, she was named Iowa Teacher of the Year. 

As part of that honor, she stepped out of the classroom for a year of service. She chose to visit all of the teacher preparation programs in the state, making it to every one except one, not for lack of trying. “My classroom became all of those college classrooms,” she says. 

Ask her why she teaches, and she points to her students. “I can brag on these kids all day,” she says. She co-advises “A Positive Place,” a student group that has helped create a Welcome Wall in multiple languages, a multi-faith space, hygiene supply boxes, and a name pronunciation audio system.

“Kids are amazing,” she says. “If you are ever feeling down, just spend a day with students.”

The ripple effect of education, she says, is incredible. “I have been in education now for over 20 years, and I run into 30-year-olds at Costco who say, ‘Ms. Russell? You were my history teacher.’ That impact is huge.”

She adds that teachers do not always see their influence in the moment. “You sometimes have to get a little distance from it to realize the effect you are having on others,” she says. 

Beyond her classroom, Sara mentors new teachers and supports professional development in her district. She holds two master's degrees and serves on the University of Iowa REACH board, and she is active in the Iowa State Education Association. 

Outside work, she runs, loves live music, and travels with her husband, Ian '01, and their twin sons.

When the alumni award letter arrived, she was stunned. "�������ý��Ƶ was such a supportive, accepting place," she says. "To be honored by �������ý��Ƶ is really cool. I'm just so proud."

Her advice: “Going out into the world and making an impact is not easy. It requires perseverance and grit.” But she adds, “Being able to have an impact on people every single day, I can't think of anything better.”

Service to Society

Marylene Wamukoya ’01, Joseph F. Patterson Jr. ’69 Service to Society Award: Marylene Wamukoya often says, "In order to make any kind of change anywhere, you need information. You need data." 

She is a PhD Fellow in Global Health Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, researching how reproductive events, from first period to menopause, shape a woman’s risk of multimorbidity later in life, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. 

“Globally, multimorbidity is more prevalent in women than men. We are losing women,” she says. “We need to find out why.”

Her work builds on more than 15 years of health and demographic research in Africa, much of it rooted in two slums in Nairobi. 

In one, many residents had moved for factory jobs. "They are not as poor as you think. They are employed," she says. 

The other left a deeper mark. "The okay-ness with slum living really shook me,” she says, describing the sense of permanence, what it felt like people accepted as their future: “I will live here, and my family will live here, and my grandkids will also live here." 

From that work came a clear insight. "People just want to matter. They also want to be counted." 

In many places, births and deaths go unrecorded. “You don't realize how important that document is until you try to get a passport, go to school, buy land, or open a bank account,” she says. “You just don't exist without that paper."

Her approach is simple: “I make data sing our songs.”

“If you are born in a slum and you don't matter and you're not registered, I am probably singing your song in some graph or table or publication,” she says. “You matter." 

She also mentors others. "When you arrive here, you have a purpose,” she says. “Someone should invest in making sure that it is extracted from you before you leave."

Marylene holds a Master of Public Health from Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts from �������ý��Ƶ, where she studied Chemistry and Spanish. “Those many hours in the lab taught me attention to detail. Spanish and art history taught me expansive thinking.” 

She says receiving the award, "confirms I am on the right path."

When she is not making data sing, she sings herself, performing in choirs and playing drums, kayambas, and tambourines. She also weightlifts and is planning to create 12 handmade blankets for a children’s hospital in 2026 through knitting, crocheting, and sewing, and hopes others will join her.

Susan (Susie) Medak ’76, George B. Walter ’36 Service to Society Award: Susie Medak never planned this path. She arrived at �������ý��Ƶ thinking she would become a dentist. Three months later, she changed course. 

“I have to be in theater,” she told her sister. 

She tried acting, then realized it was not going to be her career. A classmate, David Haugland ’73, introduced her to theater management. “It had never crossed my mind that there was a career like that.”

She met two of the most important people in her life at �������ý��Ƶ: her lifelong friend Sue Cook ’76, and David Hawkanson ’69, a mentor who became her greatest sponsor. 

During her sophomore year, Hawkanson offered her a job at the Guthrie Theatre. “You idiot,” he said. “Quit school and come up here.” She did. 

�������ý��Ƶ faculty supported her, and she finished her degree later, graduating with eight job offers. “I've never written a resume in advance of a job in my life.”

She went on to a 32-year run as Managing Director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, helping build major facilities and programs, including the Roda Theatre, the Nevo Education Center, and the Medak Center, a 45-unit artist housing complex named in her honor. 

Her leadership philosophy traces back to a government class with Professor �������ý��Ƶ Longley, who required students to attend city council meetings. “I can still remember sitting in that chamber, watching democracy in action,” she says. “It taught me that if you want to lead a cultural organization, you have to be part of the community.” 

Mentorship has remained central to her work. For 20 years, she hosted Yale drama students. During the pandemic, she began weekly calls with former students, which still continue every other week. 

At her retirement, the technical crew at Berkeley Rep threw her a party. Two longtime colleagues pulled her aside to share news of a pregnancy. “That felt like the award,” she says. “They named a building after me, but that was the thing that really sticks out for me.”

As an executive coach, she compares her work to dentistry. “You tap around with that sharp little device, poking for the soft spot. When you hit it, that's where you've got to work.”

Receiving the alumni award, she says she was surprised. “I’m a little shocked. I have done nothing for the campus in 50 years to speak of. But it's lovely to be recognized.” 

Her advice to current students: “Learn everything you can. Don’t get precious. The more you know, the more you have to offer.” 

She says �������ý��Ƶ did not demand that everyone be a leader, “but if you wanted to be one, there was so much opportunity.”

And after 50 years: “I just have the best life.”

Service to �������ý��Ƶ

Alison Guthrie ’86, Gertrude Breithaupt Jupp M-D ’18 Outstanding Service Award: For more than 36 years, Alison Guthrie has taught music to students of all ages. She runs her own music school, mentors teachers, and helps students discover abilities they did not always believe they had. She continues to refine her teaching, pursing the highest level of instruction she can offer. 

She holds memberships in MTNA, WMTA, WFMC, and MMTA, has served in leadership roles across multiple music organizations, and currently sits on the board of PianoArts Milwaukee. She adjudicates competitions, performs, and stays deeply active in the field.

�������ý��Ƶ gave her something she did not have at the start: belief. 

“It shaped me in learning to believe in myself, in my capacity to succeed at things,” she says. “It helped me push myself out of my comfort zone.” 

That mindset never left. 

“In all that I do, I try to apply the belief that I can do something. Just roll up your sleeves and dig in.”

She still thinks about her teachers. Piano instructor Ted Rehl taught her to play artistically. Professor George Damp saw something in a shy student she had not yet seen in herself. “He was very kind and gentle with me,” she says, “and recognized where I had gifts. One of them was teaching”

Freshman Studies also left a mark. “My teacher just ripped me apart,” she remembers. “And it helped me be much more intentional about what I say and how I write it.”

After graduation, Alison eventually reconnected with �������ý��Ƶ through alumni involvement. "I heard myself say yes and then thought, 'What have I done?'" 

She served on the Alumni Board and eventually became co-chair. Her committee, Connecting to Campus, organized a speed-dating-style event where students met alumni for career advice. 

During a difficult stretch in the Conservatory, students reached out, not for answers, but for someone to listen. “I really enjoyed just hearing what their struggles were and what their vision and dreams were,” she says.

Some friendships from �������ý��Ƶ have lasted decades. This year is her 40th reunion, and her best friend from freshman year is still close, even though they live in different states.

What she didn't expect was how returning would change her perspective. 

"Old wounds have been healed," she says. “I went from not wanting any connection to the university to a complete evolution.” 

Now she uses her own difficult experiences to help students going through similar challenges.

The alumni award caught her off guard. “I don't know why I was picked, but I am very grateful,” she says. “I do not like to stand out. I like to just do the work. The fact that someone noticed me means a lot.”

When she's not teaching or performing, she enjoys cooking, reading, and gardening.

Stephen Rodriguez ’01, Marshall B. Hulbert ’26 Outstanding Service Award: Stephen Rodriguez’s path to university advancement began at �������ý��Ƶ, where he worked in student phonathon, calling alumni. “People actually answered their phones in the late ’90s,” he says. “I probably talked to thousands of alumni and parents. That really began my career in philanthropy.” 

What started as a campus job grew into a 25-year career in fundraising and leadership, taking him from Berklee College of Music, where he worked during its first comprehensive campaign, to roles at Boston University, MIT, Phillips Academy, and Harvard. He now serves as Vice President of Development at Brandeis University.

At �������ý��Ƶ, he still remembers the “Con couches,” what he calls “the living room of the Conservatory,” where students gathered before and after rehearsal. One of his key mentors there was saxophone professor Steve Jordheim. 

“He taught me how to think about practice, how to think about honing your craft, and how to embrace limitations and failures,” Stephen says. 

Early in his freshman year, Jordheim paused a lesson when he was unprepared. “He simply said, ‘You know, Stephen, I think for the next 15 or 20 minutes you should go to a practice room. Then you can come back.’ It was the nicest way of saying, ‘You’re unprepared. Don’t let that happen again.’” 

That moment stuck with him and shaped his approach to growth beyond music.

Stephen stayed connected to �������ý��Ƶ through volunteer work, including the Alumni Board and admissions efforts in Boston. He is currently serving on his 25th reunion committee.

“It is all about the people,” he says.

Looking back on receiving the award, he calls it unexpected. “I feel honored that someone noticed that I’ve been involved,” he says. “That recognition is really meaningful.” 

When he told his son, “Your dad is going to get an award,” it made him feel, as he says, “cool that he was excited about it.”

“�������ý��Ƶ is an amazing place,” he says. “Not because of its geography, but because of its magnetic power to bring together people who are smart, hardworking, want to learn, want to push themselves, and are just good human beings.”