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2017 Alumni Award Winners
The following have been selected to receive awards during the Alumni Awards Dinner and Campus Update on Friday, Oct. 6, at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn in Salina: Heather Morgan ’95 ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Heather Morgan has made significant contributions to her home state of Kansas since graduating with a degree in Secondary History Education in 2002. After obtaining a Master in Public Administration from Kansas State University, she launched a 15-year career in public service, including positions with the governor’s budget office and the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority. She was the first Leavenworth County manager, and she served as a lobbyist in Topeka for improved child welfare, health care and behavioral health care in Kansas. Currently, as the director of engagement and economic development, she serves as the executive director of Project 17 at the Kansas State University Advanced Manufacturing Institute. This initiative created a 17-county regional economic development project that works to address economic vitality, generational poverty, health and civic leadership issues throughout the 17 counties in Southeast Kansas. Lee ’65 and Marla ’64 Beikman ALUMNI SERVICE AWARD Once biology lab partners at KWU, Marla and Lee, who have settled near Dallas, TX, have found numerous ways to be engaged at KWU over the past five decades. Marla served on the Board of Trustees for nine years, including a stint as board secretary and several years as chair of the Advancement Committee. As Pioneer Society members, they have provided leadership gifts to the Graves Family Sports Complex and Mabee Arena, and have made numerous gifts to Fine Arts and a variety of special projects — many targeted to students — throughout the years. They also have joined the KWU Choir on international tours. Giving back was a value modeled by Marla’s mother, Margaret, who contributed funds in honor of Marla’s father, Everett C. Morgan ’37, to support the Morgan Strength Training Center and the Morgan Family Scholarship.
Dr. Meriah (Forbes) Moore ’11 YOUNG ALUMNA AWARD After graduating in 2011, Meriah (Forbes) Moore went right to work toward her goal of becoming a medical doctor. She graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine−Wichita in 2016, earning Alpha Omega Alpha and Gold Humanism Honors for academic performance and service. During her medical training, she served on the Committee for Academic and Professional Conduct and performed public health research about healthy food access in rural Kansas. A highlight of her medical training was caring for patients at Zimba Mission Hospital in Zambia, Africa. She is currently in her second year of an Internal Medicine Residency at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, WA, where she focuses on primary care and quality improvement. Ken and Karen Ebert ALUMNI BY CHOICE AWARD Ken has been the team leader of a successful financial planning business for more than 25 years, where Karen also works as an administrative assistant. The Eberts are excellent examples of how a local business can engage in successful partnerships with a local university to which it has little affiliation. Ken has shared his financial acumen with the university by serving on the Foundation Board, in which his leadership has re-energized the Foundation’s Heritage Committee. He is currently chair of the Foundation Board and has also served as vice chair. Ken and Karen served as co-chairs of the 2016 Night with the Yotes, for which Waddell & Reed was the presenting sponsor. They opened their home in June 2017 to host more than 75 members of the Board of Trustees and Pioneer Society, in which they are members, and they can often be seen at a variety of athletic events. Waddell & Reed, a founding member of KWU’s Corporate Circle, has hired KWU business students as interns, recently transitioning one to full-time staff. For a complete description of award winners and Hall of Fame inductees, visit www.kwu.edu/homecoming2017.
BIOLOGY LAB DEDICATION Join us as we celebrate the opening of the Martha (Wessling) Bieber Biology Lab on Friday, Oct. 6, from 4 to 5 p.m. in Peters Science Hall Room 325. The lab, named in honor of Martha (Wessling) Bieber, the wife of Jeffrey Bieber ’71, is one of the improvements made possible by the Breakthrough Project. In addition to faculty-vetted teaching equipment, the lab will feature the artwork of Leslie Cusick Fernandes ’77. Alumni generously gave $340,000 to upgrade, install and maintain science equipment so that cutting-edge science and technology labs are available for use by KWU students. Improvements will also include a new physics lab, named in memory of Dr. Charles B. Creager, a former KWU physics professor, and the purchase, installation and endowment of chemistry, astronomy and computer science equipment. We are excited to welcome home four cherished science faculty—Dr. Yuan Chiang, Dr. David Fancher ’64, Dr. Arthur Neuburger and Dr. Wes Jackson ’58—to share in this celebratory moment.