The University of Louisville Alumni Magazine: for alumni, faculty, staff, students and anyone that is a UofL Cardinal fan.
Issue link: https://louisville.epubxp.com/i/43017
Alumni Awards 2011 Alumni Awards The Alumni Fellows awards are presented annually to graduates who are exemplary ambassadors for their respective schools and colleges through their contributions to their professional fi elds and communities. UofL schools and colleges submit nominations to the Alumni Board, and fi nal selection is made by the Board of Trustees. College of Arts and Sciences Angela Ford A Louisville native, Angela Ford is a 1982 cum laude graduate with a degree in political science. As an undergraduate, she was elected as the fi rst female student government president in the state. After graduation, she attended law school at Northern Kentucky University for two years and then moved to Lexington where she completed law school at the University of Kentucky. In law school she was the fi rst student to be appointed to the Council on Higher Education. She developed a passion for health care while working as an intern at Humana in Louisville, and continued working in the health care fi eld after fi nishing law school. Under Gov. Brereton Jones, Ford was appointed as the fi rst female general counsel for the Cabinet for Human Resources and focused on health care issues, including fraud in the Medicaid program. She represented the attorney general and governor in lawsuits related to medical services. In her private practice, Ford has handled a number of controversial cases, including a lawsuit against the Diocese of Covington for the sexual abuse of minors. Nearly seven years ago, she fi led the largest case of her career and uncovered one of the biggest thefts in U.S. history. The case against a group of lawyers who misappropriated more than $64 million from their own clients is still winding its way through the courts. Ford was named one of the 10 Lawyers of the Year by Lawyers USA in 2009. College of Business Robinson S. Brown, III Robinson S. Brown, III (Robbie) earned two degrees from the College of Business and repre- sents a very special breed of its supporters: those who have reconnected with the college as a result of exceptional academic experiences enjoyed by their children. When Brown's son, Robinson IV, participated and excelled in the college's signature Entrepre- neurship MBA program — including winning 46|LOUISVILLE.EDU regional business plan competitions as part of a MBA student team — Brown and his wife took the lead in generating support and sponsorship for the college to host a national business plan competition. Today the competition they helped spark — The UofL Brown-Forman Cardinal Challenge — is recognized as one of the nation's fi nest new business concept competitions, and is a qualifying event for the international "Super Bowl" of competitions, the Venture Labs Investment Competition. They continue to support the competition, now in its fourth year. Due in part to their participation in the Cardinal Challenge and subsequent competi- tions, College of Business entrepreneurship students have since distinguished themselves in international competitions, regularly sharing honors with the fi nest entrepreneurial programs in the world. In addition to his participation in the entrepreneurship program, Brown is involved in several local business start-ups and also focuses his giving and time on Prodigal Ministries, a second-chance program for prison inmates. He retired from Brown-Forman Corporation in 2006 after 40 years. School of Dentistry Robert McGuinn, DMD Dr. Robert McGuinn is a unique individual and alumnus who contributes to the lives and futures of the people and things he loves. He is a longtime contributor to the Hinman Dental Society, an Atlanta-based organization that is one of the nation's most active and well-known organizations for providing continuing education for oral health providers and supporting dental education. In regard to the latter, McGuinn has always supported his alma mater. Besides covering the cost of two of the teaching stations in the school's innovative Simulation Clinic, he and his wife have created and are funding endow- ments to provide scholarships for students from the state of Georgia; an annual cash award to a faculty member who has excelled in teaching; and funding to support dental students' annual "senior trip" to the Hinman Meeting. College of Education & Human Development Maj. Kent Solheim Maj. Kent Solheim received his BS in Occupational Training and Development in 2002 and his MS in Human Resource Education in 2008 from the university. He has served in the United States Army for the last 16 years and earned a Silver Star in Iraq for his bravery during Operation Volcano II, the successful mission to capture a senior leader of the infamous Mahdi Army. He saved dozens of lives during the opera- tion, but in the process lost his right leg. He has also been awarded a Bronze Star Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart Medal, two Meritorious Service Medals, and Army Com- mendation Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. Since his injury, Solheim has remained on active duty and has redeployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom for his sixth combat tour. And despite his prosthetic leg, Solheim and a fellow Green Beret participated in 12 Hours of Santos, an ultra endurance moun- tain bike challenge to raise funds for Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF), raising a total of $14,000 to provide educational funds for the children of special operations personnel who fall in combat or training operations. SOWF also provides support for families so they can travel to be at the bedside of a severely wounded loved one. As Solheim was a recipient of SOWF, this is his way of giving back. J.B. Speed School of Engineering Yung T. Nguyen Yung Nguyen is a native of Saigon, Vietnam. After the fall of the South Vietnamese govern- ment in 1975, he endured several years under the harsh political system imposed by the Communist regime and ultimately escaped to the U.S. to pursue the American dream. He made his home in Louisville, where by he furthered his education by attending Jef- ferson Community College and the University of Louisville. He earned a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1986, a master's degree in computer science in 1988, and a master's degree in mathematics in 1990. Nguyen worked for a