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2021 Alumni Award Recipients

Congratulations to the 2021 Alumni Award Recipients. These ten alumni were honored by the Macalester community at the Grand Celebration: Reunion Kick-Off event on Wednesday, June 2, 2021.

Young Alumni Award

The Young Alumni Award recognizes alumni who have graduated in the past 15 years. This award pays tribute to those who are making an effective contribution to the communities in which they live, or moving forward rapidly in their careers, and living the kind of unselfish, caring life for which their Macalester education prepared them.

Jaye Gardiner, 2011

When cancer researcher Jaye Gardiner dreams up a solution to a problem, she’s not one to wait for someone else to take action. Take JKX Comics, for example, which she founded in 2015 to increase scientific literacy through comics as a storytelling medium. Or the Unique Scientists website and trading cards, projects she helped organize to celebrate the diversity of scientists. Or Jaye’s most recent initiative: co-organizing a Black in Cancer group, which promotes diversity in the cancer and biomedical research communities and supports young scientists of color, including through strengthening the retention of Black scientists in the academic pipeline.

Through these projects and more, Jaye is making science more approachable and inclusive for people from diverse backgrounds. “Everyone’s perspective is unique and based on their lived experience, and they will tackle problems, find solutions, and solve problems in a different way than someone else will,” says Jaye, who earned a PhD in cancer biology from the University of Wisconsin and works as a postdoctoral research trainee in Philadelphia’s Fox Chase Cancer Center, supported by numerous competitive fellowships. “Having all of these diverse minds in the same room will help propel science farther, faster.”

For Jaye, mentorship is another key step in expanding the next generation of scientists. For four years, she’s helped connect Philadelphia high schoolers to laboratory research experiences, mentoring students (and using comics as a teaching tool) as one of the Teen Research Internship Program’s lead instructors. In 2019, she was selected as one of 125 ambassadors for the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s IF/THEN initiative, a national platform for women STEM leaders to serve as role models for middle school girls.

Writes Jaye’s nominator: “When I think of my Macalester education, I think about students’ broad interests—it’s common to see them connecting fields like physics and anthropology. Jaye has taken her love of science, and her love of comics—two seemingly unrelated fields—and created a way to bridge the gap so that she can inspire and teach others.”

Catharine Lealtad, Class of 1915, Service to Society Award

The Catharine Lealtad Service to Society Award is given to alumni of color who have used their education to distinguish themselves in service to the community.

Nyalleng Moorosi, 2006

“From the moment I met Nyalleng Moorosi ’06,” writes her nominator, “I was both awed and inspired.”

Moorosi has earned the distinction. A leader in the fields of artificial intelligence and data science, she helped set up the first Google Research Lab in Africa and co-founded an Africa-wide summer school focused on machine learning, all while researching how AI perpetuates inequality. 

Now a software engineer for Google AI, Moorosi aims to help people understand how data influences their lives.

“Even the most perfectly quantitative space is not perfectly without bias,” says Moorosi. “Data is produced with our beliefs and values embedded in it.” For example, a job candidate interviewed with AI software may generate a report about not matching company culture due to their facial expressions. 

“That is 100 percent a place of challenge,” she says. “AI systems are not very good at understanding emotion, eye contact, and the cultural ways that people of different backgrounds speak.”

Along with her groundbreaking research, Moorosi has brought other women, especially Black women in Africa, along with her as trailblazers in a field made neither easy nor accessible for women. “This can be their home,” she says. “They deserve to take up space in this field.”

Moorosi’s interest in computer science and research was cultivated by two women. Professor Susan Fox taught Moorosi’s first class at Macalester. The class not only sparked her interest in computing but helped her grasp its concepts. Professor Libby Shoop introduced Moorosi to research and was an important mentor. 

“The way teaching was carried on at Mac was transformative,” Moorosi says. She calls the award her “most celebrated and meaningful achievement.”

Writes her nominator: “Nyalleng fully embodies Macalester values, continuing to see the goodness and potential in the world that energized so many of us during our Mac days.” 

Charles J. Turck Global Citizen Award

The Charles J. Turck Global Citizen Award honors the legacy of Charles J. Turck, president of Macalester College from 1939 to 1958. Lawyer, educator, social activist, internationalist, and churchman, President Turck championed internationalism throughout his tenure. This award recognizes alumni who have advanced the spirit of internationalism and lived up to the exhortation, “to be a worthy son or daughter of Macalester, you must listen to your hopes and not your fears.”

Douglas Johnson, 1971

After his sophomore year at Macalester, Douglas Johnson ’71 quit school and hitchhiked to India. He wanted to travel and study non-violent organizing in Gandhi’s ashram for a year. He visited 15 countries before returning home.

“Doug brought his values to Macalester where they were expanded and honed,” writes his nominator. Back on campus, Johnson became involved in the Vietnam anti-war movement and majored in philosophy. He says he’s grateful for “being taken seriously, and given good guidance” at Mac. Since then, the self-described entrepreneur for social justice has been a transformational human rights activist and leader, and trainer of the next generation of nonviolent organizers.

A co-founder of the Infant Formula Action Coalition (INFACT) in 1977, Johnson led a campaign protesting the infant-formula marketing practices by multinational corporations like Nestlé in the developing world. Misuse of the product was believed to be responsible for an estimated 300,000 infant deaths annually. First launching the Nestlé Boycott in Minnesota, the campaign became the first international grass-roots consumer boycott.  As national organizations joined the campaign, Johnson then co-founded the International Nestlé Boycott, which successfully pressured Nestlé to abide by a marketing code designed to curtail inappropriate marketing measures in 1984.

“My experience with the boycott and my interactions with Gandhi’s followers showed me I had the responsibility not just to speak truth to power, but to build the power necessary to make change,” he says. “With the limited time I have on Earth, I have to do more than be right. I have to work to move things along.”

In 1988, Johnson became the first executive director of the Center for Victims of Torture. Over 23 years, he helped build an organization and an international movement that has enabled thousands of torture survivors to heal and rebuild their lives. With Senator Dave Durenberger, he designed and then, with Senators Paul Wellstone and Rod Grams, enlisted critical and unusual bipartisan support for the passage of the Torture Victims Relief Act of 1998.

Concerned by the tactical inflexibility of the human rights movement, Johnson launched the New Tactics in Human Rights project at CVT in 1996, which continues to thrive.

Last December Johnson celebrated another important collaboration: his 40th anniversary with his wife, Professor Kathryn Sikkink, a leading international relations scholar. Sikkink says she learned how networks across borders influence world politics when Johnson had his network sleep in their living room during the Nestlé Boycott. Johnson says he’s proud that his own activism has been a constant source of learning for her ground-breaking theorizing about human rights and other topics. “Her work has taught me a lot about how to think about my effectiveness and strategizing as an activist,” says Johnson.

Today, Johnson trains the next generation of human rights leaders at the Harvard Kennedy School. “Working with students allows me in some ways to work on all the issues—Black Lives Matter, global warming, the plight of refugees,” he says. “If I can help train new leaders, that’s the best use of my time and experience.”

Distinguished Citizen Award

The Distinguished Citizen Award recognizes alumni who have exercised leadership in civic, social, religious, and professional activities. It is given because the Macalester community believes that a college education should be the training and inspiration for unselfish and effective service to the community, the nation, and the world. Recipients demonstrate a practical acceptance of these obligations in their lives and work.

Mary Ackerman, 1970

“The most fun I had in my work life was as Macalester’s dean of students,” says Mary Ackerman ’70. “Macalester students are unbelievable. They’re smart, fun, critical, supportive, and creative—you don’t get anything better.”

As a student, “Mac was an important instrument in making me who I am,” says Ackerman. “It gave me the ability to grow into myself, to understand that I could lead and be passionate about things that mattered.”

After graduating from Macalester with majors in English and dance, Ackerman was hired as a Macalester admissions counselor. She eventually rose to become director of admissions, one of two women in the country in that role at the time. From 1979 to 1991, Ackerman created a nationally recognized student affairs program as Macalester’s dean of students. 

Ackerman then worked as a family mediator and later as director of national initiatives at Search Institute, a nonprofit that promotes positive and equitable youth development. There, she wrote Conversations on the Go to help teens and adults engage in meaningful conversations.

In 2011, Ackerman retired and moved with her husband to their lake home in northern Minnesota. The move reignited her activist roots. Her new community grappled with a proposed pipeline, set to run through wetlands, wild rice paddies, tribal lands, and across the Mississippi.

To help facilitate communication between community protestors, Ackerman and her husband gathered leaders from water conservation organizations around their kitchen table. Those efforts launched the Northern Water Alliance of Minnesota, a collaboration to preserve and protect clean water in northern Minnesota. Empowering others to use their voices continues to drive Ackerman, as it did during her tenure at Mac.

Writes her nominator: “An inspirational and brilliant leader, Mary led student affairs and handled whatever came with aplomb. She contributed to all Mac students by exercising grace, dignity, and fine judgment.”

Kristin Amundson, 1971

Sixteen years ago, on a mission trip to help abused and abandoned girls in Honduras, Kris Amundson and two friends had a realization: if these girls could go to college, they could have far better lives. “We looked at each other,” says Amundson, “and we said, ‘We could do this.’”

With that, La BECA Women’s Scholarship Foundation was founded. “Beca means ‘scholarship’ in Spanish,” Amundson explains, “but we use it as an acronym for bringing education, compassion, and assistance to girls and women in Central and South America.” La BECA has awarded more than $550,000 in scholarships to 114 scholars in six countries.

“Kris has been a leader throughout her career,” writes one of her nominators. “She believes that she was put on this earth to make sure that every kid—every single one—gets a shot at the best possible education.”

She has remained a fighter for kids in politics, as a leader in K12 education, as an author and writer, and as founder of multiple nonprofits. After serving for more than a decade on the Fairfax County School Board in Virginia, Amundson served for 10 years in the Virginia House of Delegates, District 44, representing Mount Vernon in the seat once held by George Washington. She later was appointed president and CEO of the National Association of State Boards of Education.

 “Kris helped me figure out what I like and who I am,” says Astrid Garcia, who has been mentored by Amundson since sixth grade and is now a first-generation college student at William & Mary. “If you know that, you’re going to be a better version of yourself.”

The pandemic has not stopped Amundson. She’s written a book—81 Questions for Parents: Helping Your Kids Succeed in School—that came out in May; founded EduTutorVA, a nonprofit designed to help tutor K-12 students at risk of falling behind during the pandemic; and is co-chairing the Class of 1971’s 50th Reunion committee.

 “At Macalester, I learned the enormous sense of the possible,” says Amundson. “If you need to get something done, you get together a bunch of people and then you go and do it.”

Christopher Herlinger, 1981

“Throughout his 40-year journalism career, Chris Herlinger ’81 has consistently and eloquently lived out the liberal arts and internationalist world views that are at the core of a Macalester education,” writes his nominator. 

A New York-based international correspondent for National Catholic Reporter’s Global Sisters Report, Herlinger has reported from Bangladesh, South Sudan, Haiti, the Middle East, and Europe, covering the work of Catholic sisters, global humanitarian issues, and the United Nations. 

“I feel very drawn to the Catholic sisters I write about,” says Herlinger. “They’re hard workers and inspiring women doing good work in a very broken world.”

Along with his daily journalism, Herlinger penned a humanitarian-themed trilogy: Food Fight: Struggling for Justice in a Hungry World; Rubble Nation: Haiti’s Pain, Haiti’s Promise, and Where Mercy Fails: Darfur’s Struggle to Survive

“His work is about telling the stories, making the connections, celebrating the work of the people he meets, and providing his readers with a clearer understanding of the world around us—all with an international perspective,” writes his nominator. 

On top of his work, Herlinger continues to learn. Graduate degrees from Union Theological Seminary (theology), the University of Cambridge (international relations), and the University of Edinburgh (creative writing with a focus on poetry) demonstrate what Herlinger’s nominator calls “an ever-evolving sense of curiosity combined with the willingness to put forth the effort to learn more.” 

Herlinger, who majored in history at Macalester, still keeps in touch with many former professors. “Emily Rosenberg and Robert Warde have been two of the most influential people in my life,” he says.  

Peers at Macalester also prompted Herlinger to think about religion in a new way by introducing him to liberal theology. Forty years later, his nominator calls him “one of the nation’s leading thinkers and writers focused on the intersection of religion and international issues.” 

Amy Hagstrom Miller, 1989

“Amy Hagstrom Miller ’89 is a woman of exceptional courage and determination,” writes her nominator. “She has what we call it in Texas, grit.” 

In 2016, that grit brought Hagstrom Miller all the way to the Supreme Court. Her clinics were the lead plaintiff in the most critical abortion rights decision in a generation, taking on onerous regulations around abortion in Texas. Her win created a legal standard that has helped secure and preserve access to abortion around the country.

Hagstrom Miller is the founder and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, managing eight clinics in five states. After years working in different clinic settings, she learned that many approaches to abortion care services were rooted in patriarchy and traditional medical approaches. In 2003, Hagstrom Miller decided to start a company with a more holistic, feminist model.

It may be surprising that, despite her success in business, medicine, and the law, Hagstrom Miller does not hold graduate degrees in those fields. “My undergraduate studies have brought me to a place where I can learn, listen, and think critically, but also innovate and develop as I go,” she says. 

The emphasis Macalester placed on empathy and experiential learning was transformative for Hagstrom Miller, who practiced these values during study abroad experiences in India and Nicaragua.

Empathy shines through Hagstrom Miller’s vision for reproductive health care. She envisions a menu of choices for patients. “What if we could design our own experience for healthcare that would consider our values, cultural experiences, and comfort with medicine; one where that pregnant person is truly at the center?” she says. 

For now, Hagstrom Miller continues to dispute restrictions around abortion, in the legislative halls as well as in the courtroom. “It’s important to challenge laws that harm people,” she says. “Abortion access is the floor, not the ceiling.”

Demoya Gordon, 2006

From challenging racism at Prada to advocating for the rights of transgender people in prison, Demoya Gordon ’06 has dedicated her career to making positive change through the law. 

Gordon grew up in Jamaica. A lucrative career as an attorney would make her parents proud, which was important to Gordon. But she also wanted her work to make the world more just and fair. At Macalester, Gordon realized a law career could encompass more than money. 

“I could do it in a way that would better the world,” she says. “The readings, teachings, and conversations at Macalester helped me develop a language around the social justice issues that had always bothered me.” 

Macalester also provided space for her to explore her identity as a queer, Black, immigrant woman in the United States. 

After graduating with a sociology major, Gordon attended law school at the University of California–Berkeley. She eventually joined Lambda Legal, a New York-based national nonprofit that works through litigation and public policy on behalf of the LGBTQI community and people living with HIV/AIDS. Gordon led litigation on behalf of transgender people in prison, “some of the most marginalized and forgotten people,” she says. 

Gordon is currently a Supervising Attorney at the New York City Commission on Human Rights. There, she tackles discrimination in public spaces and bias-based profiling by city law enforcement. 

Looking back, Gordon says she often doubted herself. Leaning on her Macalester community helped. “If I didn’t have the support of my Mac friends and professors—people at each turn to tell me, ‘You deserve this, you’re brilliant, you can do this,’ I don’t know if I would have made it.”  

Writes her nominator, “Demoya continues to see pathways for change, and I am grateful that she is among the many incredible women who have been nurtured and sent out into the world by Macalester!” 

Alumni Service Award

The Alumni Service Award is presented to alumni of Macalester whose significant service and consistent loyalty to the college has set an outstanding example of volunteerism. Awardees were nominated and selected by Macalester staff.

Emily P.G. Erickson, 2008

Emily P.G. Erickson ’08 calls her reason for wanting a book group with Macalester alumni “selfish.” But her efforts toward creating and directing MacReads are anything but selfish. 

MacReads, a monthly book club for alumni in the Twin Cities, was launched in 2012 after Erickson discovered that no such group existed.  

“Macalester alumni tend to pay attention to perspectives other than their own,” Erickson says. “I thought this broad perspective and humility would be a good formula for a book group.”

Over the past ten years, Erickson has devoted considerable time and energy into organizing MacReads. She created and maintains the book club’s website, sends regular emails, facilitates Zoom meetings, and even put together a guide to help other alumni launch their own book clubs. 

Every month, people show up. Clearly, alumni crave what she created: a fun and safe space to exchange ideas, much like what they encountered at Macalester. 

Since graduation, Erickson has met with Mac students and alumni to offer career advice. After majoring in geography and psychology, Erickson worked as an urban planner in St. Paul. She earned a master’s degree in psychology. Now a freelance writer, her work has appeared in The New York Times

Erickson lived in the neighborhood where George Floyd was killed. A parent of two young sons, she wrote a trio of widely-read essays about how parents can talk to their white children about race, justice, and what’s right. 

So when the Alumni Board asked Erickson to help facilitate discussions on anti-racism in education, parenting, and community activism, she answered the call.

Intellectual curiosity, compassion, and multiculturalism—these are values Macalester helped sharpen from “ideas that you talk about in high school to embodied action,” Erickson says. These values both transformed her life and continue to drive her service to Macalester. 

Mike Coleman, 2011

Michael Coleman ’11 has stayed connected with Mac in so many ways since graduation, from serving for seven years on the Young Macalester Alumni Connect (yMac) steering committee to pitching in on alumni panels. (And that’s not even factoring in his ongoing role as a Mac tennis coach.) For Mike, the explanation is easy. “Macalester feels like home to me—more than my actual house sometimes, more than the home I grew up in and loved,” he says. “No matter what’s going on, what’s happening in the world, I can walk onto campus and feel good.”

And his actions demonstrate that those aren’t empty words, says his nominator: “Mike has dedicated countless hours to planning and attending events for young alumni to encourage connection and community. His consistent support means everything.”

Mike’s college tennis experience created the foundation for his Mac connection, and he also worked as a residential assistant for three years, building community for new students. And although he focused closely on computer science, he always valued his courses’ interdisciplinary emphasis. Mike carries those lessons today as a Quality Bicycle Products programmer: “You could be the best programmer in the world, but if you only know how to type code and can’t apply it, your skills actually aren’t that great,” he says. “You have to understand the world more broadly, with a focus on holistic learning.”

He continues that learning through yMac programming, especially networking events that bring together alumni in different life stages, facing varied challenges. During the pandemic, yMac has drawn in more young alumni through online events, in addition to helping prepare students for life after graduation. Soon, Mike’s looking forward to resuming Dunn Brothers coffee chats with students who reach out through the MacDirect platform.

His goal for his efforts and support is big, yet simple: “I want to set up future Mac students and alumni to do great things,” Mike says. “That’s how I can best help.”