Learn more about Alumni Masters »
Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources Dr. Lalit R. Verma is the head of the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas. He has made outstanding contributions as an educator, dedicated researcher and society leader by providing leadership in the development and promotion of biological engineering. As a department head, he led transformations of the agricultural engineering programs at the University of Arkansas and Louisiana State University into vibrant successes. Verma served as the president of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) for 2013-14, president of the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE) for 2004-05, is serving as the current president of the ASABE Foundation Board and is a namesake of the recently created Lalit and Aruna Verma Award for Excellence in Global Engagement given by the ASABE since 2017. He and his wife Aruna live in Fayetteville, Ark.
Architecture Douglas Bisson is the Central Region Urban Planning and Design Principal at HDR, a global engineering, architecture, and planning firm, where he specializes in urban design and redevelopment. He is an expert in bringing together key city leaders, business owners, and residents to stimulate economic development and neighborhood revitalization using environmentally friendly, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use development practices. He was the Project Manager for several notable initiatives in the region, including Aksarben Village, River’s Edge, and the Downtown Omaha 2030 Master Plan. He and his wife Liz live in Omaha.
Arts and Sciences Dr. Charles Wilson was a pioneering leader in health care in Nebraska during a 40-year career. He is one of the founders of the Nebraska Heart Institute and the Lincoln Cardiac Transplant Program. Passionate about higher education, he was elected to three terms on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents and served as chair of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education. He helped found the Humanities in Medicine program at UNL and UNMC with an endowment for student scholarships and speakers focused on the intersection of medicine and the humanities. He also served as chair of the Lincoln Community Health Endowment. After earning his undergraduate degree from UNL in 1960, Wilson earned his medical degree from Northwestern, completed specialty training in cardiology at the Mayo Clinic and served as a medical officer in an army field hospital during the Vietnam War. He and his wife Linda live in Lincoln.
Business Howard Hawks is the founder and chairman of Tenaska, an independent energy company known for its expertise in natural gas, wind, and solar power plant development and operations, energy production and marketing, and private equity fund management. He has spent decades as a patron and supporter of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business, endowing the Howard Hawks Chair in Business Ethics and Leadership at the College of Business, which is now housed in Howard L. Hawks Hall. Hawks has been elected to three terms on the NU Board of Regents and served as chairman in 2005 and 2014. In 2004, he received the College of Business Lifetime Achievement Award and has earned community and statewide recognition for his many years of philanthropy. He and his wife, Rhonda, live in Omaha.
Education and Human Sciences Deacon Donald Blackbird Jr. is the principal of St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago, an ordained Catholic deacon for the Archdiocese of Omaha and a member of the Umonhon Nation of Nebraska. He has received several honors throughout his educational career serving the people of the Winnebago and Umonhon nations including being named the Archdiocese of Omaha Educator of the Year 2007 and again being recognized as the Archdiocese of Omaha Administrator of the Year in 2016. He currently serves as vice chair of the American Indian Catholic Schools Network through the University of Notre Dame, using his expertise to seek out resources and share best practices with American Indian Catholic Schools across the U.S. He and his wife Cathy have four children and live in Walthill.
Fine and Performing Arts Richard Svoboda is the principal bassoonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, both positions he has held since 1989. He is currently on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, the Tanglewood Music Center and the Sarasota Music Festival, and has given master classes throughout the world. Prior to his appointment to the BSO he performed for 10 seasons as principal bassoonist of the Jacksonville (Fla.) Symphony. Svoboda is an active chamber music collaborator, orchestral soloist and recitalist, and has more than 30 recordings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Chamber Players, including on the soundtracks to “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.” He and his wife Elizabeth Foulser live in Melrose, Mass.
Journalism and Mass Communications Wendy Guillies is the president and chief executive officer of the Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States with $2.4 billion in assets. Guillies leads the foundation’s work to boost student achievement in Kansas City and to accelerate entrepreneurship across the country. Guillies and her husband Dean live in Kansas City, where she serves on the boards of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, MRI Global, St. Luke’s South Hospital, Folience and the Enterprise Bank Advisory Board. The Kansas City Business Journal has named her to its annual Power 100 list since 2016, and she was selected for the Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business program in 2017.
Law William Schwartzkopf is the president and principal of Sage Consulting Group, a construction consulting firm based in Denver for whom he has worked since 1989. He testifies as an expert witness in various courts and alternative dispute forms throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Iceland. During his career, he has been vice president and general counsel for a large electrical contractor, the vice president of a large building contractor working in the western U.S. and vice president for a regional commercial development company. Schwartzkopf is a member of the Nebraska State Bar (inactive), the American Bar Association, and a registered professional engineer in Nebraska. He is the author of several reference books in his field, including Calculating Construction Damages and Calculating Lost Labor Productivity In Construction Claims. He earned two degrees from UNL -- in electrical engineering in 1973 and a juris doctorate in 1976. He and his wife Michelle Scholes Schwartzkopf live in Denver.