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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The Foundation's gift benefits University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, UI Stead Family Department of Pediatrics, and Blank Children's Hospital The Richard O. Jacobson Foundation has given $4.5 million to create two endowed chairs in the University of Iowa Stead Family Department of Pediatrics, part of the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City, and to help expand specialty pediatric services the University of Iowa offers in the Des Moines area, in collaboration with Blank Children's Hospital. ?This significant investment from the Richard O. Jacobson Foundation will help us address the shortage of pediatric specialists in Iowa and advance our goal of creating a statewide system of care that provides comprehensive health care for all children,? said Raphael Hirsch, MD, UI Stead Family Children?s Hospital physician-in-chief, and chair, UI Stead Family Department of Pediatrics. ?This gift will help us attract and retain national leaders who will grow our pediatric programs.? ?Children in Iowa deserve the best care,? said Steve Stephenson, MD, president and chief operating officer at Blank Children?s Hospital. ?Through this gift, we are able to build the infrastructure needed to bring even more pediatric experts to the state, so that families of children with complex medical conditions do not need to travel out of state to receive care.? The funding will create an endowment to support two faculty positions within the UI Stead Family Department of Pediatrics to be named the Richard O. Jacobson Foundation Chairs in Pediatrics. It will also help further collaboration between the two hospitals, supporting training and recruitment of pediatric specialists to Iowa. UI Stead Family Children?s Hospital currently collaborates with Blank Children?s Hospital in Des Moines to provide kidney care to pediatric patients in Des Moines, allowing more convenient access for families in central Iowa, especially those from surrounding communities and rural areas. To support UI Stead Family Children's Hospital visit givetoiowa.org/children.

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