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Home Distinguished Alumni Awards Distinguished Alumni Awards Nomination Information

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDS NOMINATION INFORMATION

Recognizing Our Alumni Successes

The University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Awards Committee—which includes members of our Alumni Leadership Council—aims to recognize a broad range of qualified candidates who embody the university’s core values by honoring them with Distinguished Alumni Awards. The committee selects an annual recipient in each of the following categories:

  • The Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award recognizes graduates or former students who demonstrate significant accomplishments in their business or professional lives as well as distinguished service to their university, community, state, or nation.
  • The Distinguished Alumni Service Award recognizes graduates or former students who demonstrate specific and meritorious service to their university, community, state, or nation.
  • The Distinguished Alumni Hickerson Recognition Award recognizes graduates or former students for outstanding contributions to their alma mater. This award is named in honor of the late Loren Hickerson (40BA), the university’s first full-time alumni director and an ardent UI champion.
  • The Distinguished Recent Graduate Award recognizes graduates or former students, age 40 or younger at their time of nomination, for significant accomplishments in their business or professional lives as well as for distinguished service to their university, community, state, or nation.
  • The Distinguished Friend of the University Award recognizes individuals who are not alumni for specific and meritorious service that enhances and advances the university.
  • The Distinguished Faculty Award recognizes retired or former faculty for significant achievements and for specific meritorious service that enhances and advances the university. Nominees need not be alumni.
  • The Distinguished “Forevermore” Staff Award recognizes retired or former staff for significant achievements and for specific meritorious service that enhances and advances the university. Nominees need not be alumni.

NOMINATION FORMAT

Graduates, former students, faculty, staff, and friends of the University of Iowa may make nominations (the Distinguished Alumni Awards Committee reserves the right to reassign nomination categories, if deemed applicable). Nominators should submit the following:

  • Cover letter that states the nomination category, endorses the candidate’s qualifications, and highlights how the nominee embodies the UI's core values
  • Nominee's vita or professional résumé, including a current address
  • Three or more letters of recommendation from other individuals who support the nomination
  • Any additional information that would further substantiate the nomination

EXCLUSION FROM ELIGIBILITY

Current members of the University of Iowa Center for Advancement’s board of directors and staff, members of the Alumni Leadership Council, and current full‑time university faculty and staff are not eligible to receive these awards. Individuals currently in a position of elected or appointed office or known to be launching a campaign are also not eligible to receive these awards. All nominees must be living at the time of nomination and cannot have received a University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Award in the same category in the past. Nominations by active Awards Committee members will not be reviewed until the member’s term has concluded on the committee. The Awards Committee reserves the right to consider and approve exceptions to the exclusions from eligibility.

AWARDS TIMELINE

Nominations for the 2026 awards will open in May 2025 and close on January 31, 2026. The Distinguished Alumni Awards Committee will meet in April 2026 to review all nominations and make the annual selections. Distinguished Alumni Awards will be presented at a special ceremony on the Friday before the University of Iowa's Homecoming (Fall 2026).

Submit an Online Nomination

MAIL NOMINATIONS TO:

The University of Iowa Center for Advancement
Distinguished Alumni Awards
One West Park Road
Iowa City, Iowa 52244

For more information, email Nici Bontrager or call 319-467-3607.

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Anything But a Crash and Burn

Former University of Iowa student-athletes Blake and Stephanie (Swanson) Rasing have had success in competition, the classroom, and their respective careers. As alumni, they're paying it forward and supporting Iowa's soccer and wrestling programs. It was a wet, rainy September day in 2007 when Blake Rasing (12BBA) was driving his motorcycle up to Hillcrest Hall. That's when he crashed. "I was walking down the hill afterwards?with a few burns on my leg?and that's when I met Stephanie for the first time," says Blake, of his wife, Stephanie (Swanson) Rasing (11BSE). "She didn't even bat an eye. She laughed and walked away." Just a few hours later, though, Stephanie had an incident of her own. "We had goalkeeper practice before the rest of soccer team," says Stephanie. "We were messing around and taking shots. I slid and ran my right knee into the goal post. I gashed it up and ended up going to the hospital." Soon, both Blake and Stephanie found themselves meeting again at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics while waiting for medications. It wasn't the start of a romance?that took time?but it was one of many conversations that led to a lasting relationship. "Most people get tattoos of their significant other, but I have a nice scar on my knee to remember the day we met," says Stephanie. While meeting each other in Iowa City shaped the course of their lives, it wasn't the only highlight from their time at the University of Iowa. Blake and Stephanie were successful student-athletes. Blake was part of the 2010 national championship wrestling team and won the 2011 Big Ten title at heavyweight, while Stephanie was a four-year letterwinner and two-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar as part of the Iowa soccer program. Their time at Iowa also prepared them for careers in the Chicago area. Blake is a senior manager at Grant Thornton, the sixth largest U.S. accounting and advisory organization, while Stephanie is a program manager at Hendrickson International, which designs and manufactures suspension systems and components for trucks and trailers. "Because Iowa has a smaller, Big Ten engineering school, I had a lot of great opportunities," says Stephanie. "And as student-athletes, we both knew how to put in the work to be successful. Our experiences as student-athletes?working with teammates from a variety of backgrounds on common goals?really set us up for success." That's why the Rasings have given back to the University of Iowa, including to their respective sports. They recently supported the Carver Circle campaign, which is raising funds for a new wrestling training complex adjacent to Carver-Hawkeye Arena. "Our love for the University of Iowa is the only thing we agree on in our household," says Blake, who credits Tom Brands (92BS) and Terry Brands (92BGS) for his success on the mat. "We talk about the University of Iowa just about every day. It's a common goal for us to help the university as much as we can because of what the university gave to us. As a former wrestler, I wanted to support Carver Circle to keep our program going and keep it strong." They also supported the new operations facility at the Iowa Soccer Complex, which opened in fall 2021. Stephanie wanted to honor a former teammate, Kim Olsen White (10BA), who passed away in 2020 after a battle with adrenocortical carcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. The locker room in the new facility is named in White's honor. "I had great teammates at Iowa, and when they decided to name the locker room after Kim, I knew I wanted to be part of that," says Stephanie. "Resiliency is an important trait as a student-athlete, and Kim was resilient as a student-athlete and during her battle with cancer. We knew the soccer facility was bigger than us. We wanted to keep her memory alive and leave a lasting impact on the program."

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NOTICE: The University of Iowa Center for Advancement is an operational name for the State University of Iowa Foundation, an independent, Iowa nonprofit corporation organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, publicly supported charitable entity that works to advance the University of Iowa. Please review its full disclosure statement.

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