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Home Distinguished Alumni Awards Distinguished Alumni Awards Nomination Information

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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Pat Mellendorf, of Phoenix, Arizona, benefited from vital financial aid during her time at Iowa. Now she is paying it forward to future generations. Photo Courtesy Patricia Patterson Mellendorf Patricia Patterson Mellendorf Patricia Patterson Mellendorf (71BA, 73MA, 73EDS) could have easily given up on her educational dreams. After her freshman year at the University of Iowa, Mellendorf got married and soon had a daughter. Two years later, she returned to Iowa City with a young child by her side and a determination to complete her studies. ?I did it because I felt like I had to do it, and I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other,? says Mellendorf. ?Getting an education was so important to me, but it was a totally different experience with a young child.? Mellendorf lived off campus in a mobile home park and worked at a daycare while managing her class schedule. ?The hardest part of going back to college was the financial piece,? says Mellendorf. ?Inflation, at the time, was so high that there was not money for anything. I barely made ends meet, but that was only because the scholarships and fellowships I received covered my tuition. Being able to go to school?I was fortunate. Grateful does not touch how I feel.? While faculty and staff at Iowa were extremely accommodating?including when her young daughter had to attend class?Mellendorf also benefited from mentorship by faculty members such as Richard ?Jix? Lloyd-Jones (50MA, 56PhD), who worked in the UI Department of English. ?Jix knew I needed to be out and about with people,? says Mellendorf, who pursued an education specialist degree along with her English major. ?At the time, community colleges were just opening and growing, and there was a dire need for instructors. He suggested a program that was just getting off the ground at Iowa, and it was pretty much designed for me.? Photo Courtesy Patricia Patterson Mellendorf Patricia and her daughter, Peggy Mellendorf went off to teach at community colleges for a decade before teaching management development in the corporate world for more than 15 years. Now, retired in Phoenix, Arizona, Mellendorf continues to believe in the power of education, and she has passed on that importance to her family and friends. ?For me, she set in motion the importance of higher education,? says Peggy Gawron, Mellendorf?s daughter, who is a speech-language pathologist in Illinois and whose son, Ian Gawron (15BA), graduated from Iowa. ?She wants to help this generation and put them in position to help the next generation. For her, it is really about generational change.? Through a gift in her estate plans, Mellendorf is creating the Patterson Family Scholarship as a way to pay it forward to other individuals who are trying to better their lives. By including a bequest in her will, Mellendorf doesn?t have to part with any assets now?ensuring that the funds are still there for her should she need them in the future. ?I?m trying to duplicate what I was able to get?the availability of a scholarship for a single parent who might not be able to go to college without assistance,? says Mellendorf. ?I want to give someone the opportunity to get that boost and to do so at Iowa.? Learn how you can make a difference at the University of Iowa by visiting our planned giving website, or contact Susan Hagan, JD, executive director for planned giving at the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, at susan.hagan@foriowa.org or 319-335-3305.

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NOTICE: The University of Iowa Center for Advancement is an operational name for the State University of Iowa Foundation, an independent, Iowa nonprofit corporation organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, publicly supported charitable entity that works to advance the University of Iowa. Please review its full disclosure statement.

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