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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).

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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Twenty-Five Years Later: Jessica Bashor Gelder Recounts an Incredible Hawkeye Season

The Hawkeye softball standout and former Big Ten Freshman of the Year recounts the 2000 season and her trajectory to the Women?s College World Series, the Summer Olympics, and beyond. PHOTO: Courtesy of Hawkeye Athletics Jessica Bashor Gelder was part of some exceptional Iowa softball teams coached by Gayle Blevins. This spring marked the 25th anniversary of the 2000 Iowa women?s softball season. That year, the Hawkeyes, under Hall of Fame coach Gayle Blevins, were crowned Big Ten Conference champions?with Blevins being named Big Ten Coach of the Year. Catcher Jessica Bashor Gelder (03BBA) was one of the many memorable student-athletes on the team. The 2000 Big Ten Freshman of the Year grew up in a baseball family in rural Riverside County in Southern California, where she played softball from a young age. She admits she had one advantage most kids didn?t. ?My dad was a baseball player, and we grew up on two acres in the mountains,? says Gelder. ?We had a softball field that my dad built, and it had a full infield with a real home plate, a pitcher?s mound, and bases all the right length.? PHOTO: Courtesy of Hawkeye Athletics The 2000 Iowa softball team finished its season with a 46-15 record and a Big Ten Conference regular season title. The legendary 2000 championship season After a recruiting visit from Blevins and a visit to Iowa City, Gelder knew she wanted to play for Iowa. Her first season for the Hawkeyes saw Gelder collect a .383 batting average as she helped Iowa to a Big Ten Conference regular season title. ?I was very fortunate to have a very good season, and I hit very well,? Gelder says. ?I was also surrounded by an amazing team. I was so lucky to catch for senior pitcher Kelly Zeilstra Florkowski (00BA) who went on to play for the Canadian National Team. To have that relationship and experience is one I will never forget and will always cherish.? She also fondly recalls playing for Coach Blevins, the iconic Iowa Athletics Hall of Famer and all-time winningest coach in Hawkeye softball program history. ?To be around Coach Blevins, you learned all the time,? Gelder says. ?She was very organized, and I remember her pulling out her practice plan and looking at the next thing then the next thing. I was fortunate to play for someone who was so knowledgeable, and not just from a softball standpoint, but from a life standpoint.? Submitted Photo Jessica Bashor Gelder and her sister, Lindsey, competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the Greek national team. The World Series, the Olympics, and beyond Gelder and her Hawkeye teammates went on to win two more Big Ten championships in 2001 and 2003 and also competed in the 2001 Women?s College World Series. But the California native wasn?t ready to hang up her catcher?s mitt after graduation. ?I had always dreamed of playing in the Olympics, literally, since I was old enough to watch them on TV,? says Gelder. ?I would watch figure skating or gymnastics, and I would say ?I?m going to be in the Olympics someday.? Then I would watch baseball, and I would think, ?That?s what I?m going to do. I?m going to be a girl playing baseball? because softball wasn?t in the Olympics at that time.? Softball was added to the Summer Olympics in 1996, and a fortuitous family connection gave Gelder a rare opportunity to become an Olympian. As Greece was preparing to host the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, she learned that her grandparents being Greek made Gelder eligible to try out for the national softball team. ?It was a two-year process, and my sister Lindsey and I both wanted to play, so we submitted all our documentation and became Greek citizens,? Gelder says. ?We both played for the Greek national team from 2003 through 2007, including the 2004 Summer Olympics. It was very exciting and a wonderful opportunity.? Today, Gelder owns Shine Events, a wedding planning company in Phoenix, Arizona. She loves working with couples, bringing their wedding dreams to life. She also keeps up with some of her Hawkeye softball teammates. ?I just talked on the phone with my teammate Lori Leon (02BA), and Katie Boney (03BA) lives just down the street here from me. Kylie Murray (06BA) and Ali Manly (07BA) also live close by,? Gelder says. ?Several of us text and call, and with social media, we all see each other?s kids and what?s going on and who?s at what tournaments or events, so that part is really fun.?

The University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Awards

Each year since 1963, we've honored University of Iowa luminaries with our prestigious Distinguished Alumni Awards.

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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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