Each year during Reunion Weekend, Grinnell and the Alumni Council honor Grinnell alumni who have distinguished themselves by their extraordinary contributions of service to the College, their profession, or their community.
From an iPad-wielding master communicator who’s kept classmates in touch for nearly seventy years to an internationally recognized mediator to a new Watson Fellowship winner, learn more about this year’s winners.
Alumni Awards
Audrey “Bunny” Howard Swanson ’43
“The glue that has held us together” — that’s how her classmates describe Bunny Swanson ’43, a testimonial to her decades of sending group letters, writing notes, calling classmates about Reunion plans, even writing Christmas letters to each of her classmates and mailing them at her own expense. She joined her 50th Reunion planning committee in 1992, then served as class agent. Now Swanson, a sociology major, uses an iPad to connect stay in almost daily touch with College and classmates. More about Swanson …
Linda Miller Staubitz ’62
After majoring in Spanish and participating in a range of extracurriculars, Linda Miller Staubitz ’62 has shown similar variety in her longtime support of her alma mater. She has hosted events at her home, served on the Alumni Council, established with her late husband what is now the Class of 1962 Endowed Scholarship Fund, and underwrote the Staubitz Practice Room in Bucksbaum Center. A former Spanish teacher, freelance writer, and editor, Staubitz is now class agent. More about Staubitz …
James R. Holbrook ’66
James Holbrook ’66 has won international recognition as a mediator and teacher of mediation and negotiation. He majored in philosophy; after a life-changing year in Vietnam (where he earned a Bronze Star and a Medal for Valor) and a law degree, he spent more than twenty-five years as a Salt Lake City attorney and mediator. He now teaches law at the University of Utah and last year published a book on advanced negotiating skills. More about Holbrook …
Jacque “Jack” L. Reynolds ’68
A Grinnell history major, Peace Corps volunteer, osteopath and family practice physician, Jack Reynolds ’68 has been an active community and medical volunteer all his life. He practiced medicine in western Missouri for more than 30 years, was a medical volunteer on church missions to Nicaragua, founded the El Dorado Springs (Mo.) Community Foundation, is active in the local Rotary Club, and won a lifetime achievement award from the Joplin Business Journal for his community efforts. More about Reynolds …
Mark H. Hamilton ’71
Mark Hamilton ’71 returned to his home state of Iowa in 1983, when he became co-owner, president and publisher for Times-Citizen Communications, which publishes several community newspapers. He also is charter chair of two Iowa organizations that promote small-town growth through jobs and has won the Iowa Governor’s Volunteer Award. At Grinnell he was a political science major, All-Conference football player, salmon fisherman, staff member for two U.S. senators and executive on two Alaska newspapers. More about Hamilton …
Barry H. Zigas ’73
History major and a longtime Grinnell supporter who helped develop the First-Year Tutorial program while a student, Barry Zigas ’73 has spent his career advocating for accessible housing. He helped enact the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and lead the 1989 Housing NOW! march on Washington. As senior vice president at Fannie Mae, he increased investment in housing for the underserved. Now he focuses on foreclosure problems as director of housing policy for the Consumer Federation of America. More about Zigas …
Kimberly A. Kuncl ’87
Kim Kuncl ’87 overcame substandard education in Chicago’s South Side public schools to become a top Grinnell biology student and earn a medical degree. Since 1999 she has been an OB-GYN at Douglas Women’s Center in Georgia and is recognized for using cutting-edge techniques to remove cysts and for helping patients who can’t pay. In addition to an active professional life, she is on several Georgia community charity boards and volunteers as Grinnell admission representative. More about Kuncl …
Anthony D. Weeks ’91
An illustrator and documentary filmmaker who is now a partner at Dogpatch Films, Anthony Weeks ’91 focuses his camera and talents on social inequality. His recent film Imaginary Circumstances, about actors with disabilities working in Hollywood, won several awards. His Grinnell degree was in sociology; his film work, which began in 1998, was preceded by social work in child protection and mental health. More about Weeks …
Devora Kimelman-Block ’93
Devora Kimelman-Block ’93 has successfully merged her ideals with her business, becoming a national supplier of kosher, grass-fed organic meat as founder of KOL Foods five years ago. At Grinnell she majored in American studies, got a masters from Fordham University, and then worked for the American Jewish Congress, I Have a Dream Foundation, and Jesuit Secondary Education Association. Her ideals are comprehensive; KOL Foods operates out of an LEED-certified building. More about Kimelman-Block …
Pioneer Award
Pioneer Award winners are members of a 10th reunion class (or younger) whose contributions go far beyond what has been achieved by their peers.
Seth R. Gitter ’02
Only a decade away from his economics major at Grinnell, Seth Gitter ’02 went on to earn his doctorate in agricultural and applied economics and to focus on economic development, poverty reduction, and using economic tools to study early childhood development. Now an economics professor at Towson University in Maryland, his work has been published in leading journals and has earned him research grants and consulting posts from several major international organizations, including the World Bank. More about Gitter …
Alumni Senior Award
Kevin M. Jennison ’12
Kevin Jennison ’12 doesn’t have much free time. The biology major started Tab for a Cause, a Web-based organization that helps raise money for charitable organizations through advertising revenue, while earning one of the top grade-point averages in his class. He also was lead saxophonist for the Jazz Ensemble, captain of the volleyball club, presided over the Judicial Council, designed and taught economics courses at the state prison near Grinnell, and helped teach an American Sign Language class. More about Jennison …
Wadzanai “Wadzi” K. Motsi ’12
One of only 40 students nationwide to receive a Watson Fellowship, Zimbabwe’s Watdzi Motsi ’12 is heading to Tunisia, Ghana, the Czech Republic, and Cambodia to study student political activism. It’s a natural extension of the international relations major’s focus at Grinnell, where she worked several campus jobs, was active in campus groups (including a stint as student government vice president), and organized a Rosenfield symposium on African issues and a student-volunteer fall break trip to flood-damaged Nashville. More about Motsi …
Lori Ann Schwab ’95 Alumni Grant
Lori Ann Schwab ’95 was committed to making the world a better place by helping others, but her life was cut short by a sudden illness while she was studying in London in 1994. Grinnell College’s Lori Ann Schwab ’95 Alumni Grant recognizes the ongoing community service of Grinnellians from the classes of 1992 through 1998, who attended the College with Lori. The grant provides stipends to support specific projects or fulfill the needs of nonprofit service organizations or public schools in which these individuals are significantly involved.
Nora Bloch ’92
Nora Bloch ’92 will use a $1500 Schwab Grant to expand a partnership between the Rafael Hernandez Two-Way Bilingual School, a Boston public school that teaches all classes in English and Spanish, and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, while expanding this partnership to also include the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum. The “Thinking Through Arts” Program includes five annual visits to the museums, curriculum work, visits by museum staff to the school, and an exhibition and reception at the museums to recognize the work done by students. The Schwab Grant will be used to offer this outstanding program to students in more grades than ever before.
Kathy Hansen Waddell ’96
By day, Kathy Hansen Waddell ’96 is a senior manager in assurance services for Ernst & Young, but on nights and weekends she is an active volunteer with the YWCA of Oklahoma City. In 2011, the YWCA’s onsite childcare center provided safe childcare for 146 children residing in shelter and transitional housing, at no cost to their mothers, who are all survivors of domestic abuse. This service enables mothers to obtain and/or maintain employment and to pursue housing and educational opportunities during their transition out of violent homes. The availability of childcare frees women to schedule goal-related appointments, medical appointments, employment interviews, and domestic violence education and counseling. Kathy has received a $1500 Schwab Grant to help continue funding
Joseph F. Wall ’41 Sesquicentennial Service Awards
The Joseph F. Wall ’41 Sesquicentennial Service Awards, established during Grinnell College’s Sesquicentennial celebration in 1996, have created a legacy to the College’s tradition of 150 years of social responsibility and public service. The awards are named in honor of the late professor of history who always inspired an ideal of social responsibility in his students. The college typically gives awards of $25,000 to each of two graduates to carry out a service project that is of tangible benefit to others. Projects may be original or supplement existing projects or programs; they may address issues specific to local communities, regions, or of wider global concern; and may be carried out domestically or internationally.
Amy Smith ’95
Amy Smith ’95 is a Professor of Psychology at San Francisco State University (SFSU). She will utilize the Wall Award to develop and implement a “bridge course” at SFSU to assist formerly incarcerated individuals returning to the community from prison, while linking the work of three agencies providing support throughout the transition process. The course will address issues related to transition and social justice that are rarely explicitly addressed, firmly based in the experience and expertise of numerous currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. Amy will also work closely with these individuals to create a curriculum that builds upon the social justice course currently being taught inside San Quentin State Prison. The bridge course will be offered simultaneously inside and outside the prison, as a collaboration between three difference agencies.
Chase Strangio ’04
Chase Strangio ’04 is the founder of the Lorena Borjas Community Fund in Queens, New York, which provides support to low-income LGBTQ immigrants to avoid the collateral consequences associated with criminal convictions, jail time, and court appearances. Chase, a staff attorney at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, will use the Wall Award funds to provide financial support for pending cases, direct and full bail assistance, and other forms of support to mitigate the burdens associated with pending cases and trials, such as child care, court clothing, and court accompaniment.
