Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award
Nathan M. Pusey Young Alumni Achievement Award
George B. Walter '36 Service to Society Award
Gertrude Breithaupt Jupp M-D'18 Award for Outstanding Service to Lawrence
Marshall B. Hulbert C'28 Young Alumni Service Award
David R. Hawkanson '69
Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award
David R. Hawkanson '69 is completing his first year as executive director of Chicago's
Steppenwolf Theatre, a post that comes as the culmination of a distinguished 30-year
professional career that included six years as managing director of the Guthrie Theater
in Minneapolis. Previous to that, he was managing director at the Hartford Stage Company
for eight years, during which time the Connecticut theatre company received a special
Tony Award for outstanding achievement in regional theatre. He had earlier been managing
director of the Arizona Theater Company and held managerial positions with the American
Conservatory Theater and, from 1970-74, with the Guthrie. Before joining Steppenwolf, he
maintained a management consulting practice with clients in Arizona, Connecticut, Oregon,
Minnesota, New Mexico, and Illinois. He has been an artistic advisor to the Kennedy Center
Fund for New American Plays, a program committee member for the National Arts Stabilization
Fund, and a panelist and advisor to both the Ford Foundation’s Working Capital Fund
and the Minneapolis Foundation's Working Capital Reserve Fund, as well as many major
national foundations and federal and state arts organizations. In addition, he is a former
senior staff member at the National Endowment for the Arts and a former chairman and
panelist for the theatre program of the NEA. Other affiliations have included serving
as officer and board member of the Alliance for Arts Advocates, Theater Trustees of America,
the Theatre Communications Group, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, New York Stage and Film,
and the American Arts Alliance.
Jean Bragg Schumaker '68
Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award
Jean Bragg Schumaker '68 is co-founder and associate director of the Center for Research
on Learning (CRL) at the University of Kansas, where she also serves as an associate
professor in the Department of Special Education and a senior research scientist.
Characterized by a colleague as "an internationally recognized scholar of the highest
caliber and one of the leading researchers in the field of learning disabilities," she
received her master's degree and doctorate in development and child psychology from the
University of Kansas and was trained as a somatic experiencing practitioner in trauma
therapy by the Ergos Institute. She has been principal investigator of research grants and
contracts totaling nearly $60 million and has produced numerous journal articles, book
chapters, instructional manuals for classroom teachers, and books, including the co-edited
Teaching Every Adolescent Every Day: Learning in Diverse High School Classrooms.
In addition, she founded the International Training Network (ITN), whose trainers teach
educators throughout the world to use the scientifically based instructional practices
developed by the CRL, and Edge Enterprises, an educational research and publishing
organization. Her honors include election to the University of Kansas Women's Hall of Fame
and the prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award of the Council for Exceptional Children's
Division for Learning Disabilities. A guest editor of the Journal of Behavioral
Education, she has served on the editorial boards of her field's other leading journals
and is a past president of the Division of Learning Disabilities.
Mary Louise Knutson '88
Nathan M. Pusey Young Alumni Achievement Award
Mary Louise Knutson '88 Minneapolis-based jazz pianist and composer, has been called
"one of the most exciting and innovative artists to happen to jazz piano in quite some
time." Her debut jazz trio CD, "Call Me When You Get There," charted in the Top 50 in the
United States and Canada for eight consecutive weeks following its release and earned her
an award for "Top New Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year." An acclaimed composer, she has
received numerous awards, including two from Billboard magazine for her compositions
"How Will I Know?" and "Meridian." Chosen as the music for the art documentary,
Wellington Lee: 60 Years of Artistic Photography, her composition "Call Me When You
Get There" will soon be heard at major art museums across the country. In addition, her
composition "Merle the Pearl" streams on the Internet as the theme music for "Jazz Release,"
an interview program on JazzSteps.com. A member of the International Association for Jazz
Education and a former instructor in jazz piano and improvisation at Carleton College, she
offers a variety of masterclasses, including "Jazz Voicings and Scales: Freedom from the
Written Page" for beginning jazz students and "What's Up with Jazz?" for non-musicians.
She has performed with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby McFerrin, Dianne Reeves,
Slide Hampton, Richie Cole, and Greg Abate, among others, and currently is performing both
locally and nationally, with her jazz trio or as a soloist, at clubs, festivals, and
concert halls, as well as backing up other performers and freelancing with a variety of
instrumental groups.
William D. Mittlefehldt '68
George B. Walter '36 Service to Society Award
William D. Mittlefehldt '68 is a high school teacher in Anoka, Minnesota, but there is
much more to his story than that simple description conveys. Since 1974, with imagination,
energy, and personal commitment, he has taught social studies, futuristics, environmental
issues, and — by example — community service. More than a classroom teacher, although a
fine one, he is widely recognized as the author of innovative and effective curricula.
In 1987, his high school economics curriculum "Minnesota, Where Are We Growing?" took first
prize in the National Economics Award Program. In 1992, he was recognized by the Amway
Corporation and Time magazine as one of nine "Earth Teachers" of the year, for his
curricular unit "Energy: How Weather Is Created," which earned Anoka High School a
$10,000 grant from Amway. In 2002, he was a regional winner of the NASDAQ Distinguished
Teaching Award; most recently, he won first place at the secondary-school level of the
3M-sponsored Innovative Economic Education Awards. He has taken student teams to testify
before the United Nations, the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee, and the
Minnesota legislature and has guided many other noteworthy student ventures into the realm
of education through activism. He serves on the national advisory board for Rescue Mission
Planet Earth and is an advisor to Vermont's Center for a Sustainable Future and a
curriculum designer for the Water on the Web team at the University of Minnesota.
Barbara Ives Isaac and Walter J. Isaac, both '64
Gertrude Breithaupt Jupp M-D'18 Service Award
Barbara Ives Isaac '64 and Walter J. Isaac '64 are being recognized for the depth,
breadth, and length of their volunteer service to Lawrence University. Together, they have
served as key alumni leaders for the Class of 1964 since they graduated 40 years ago and
for the Denver, Colorado, region since they moved there over 25 years ago. They have served
on every reunion committee since they graduated — and are chairing the steering committee
for their 40th Reunion this year. They are tireless alumni workers who are ready to do
whatever Lawrence asks, whenever asked. Moreover, they are the parents of Megan Isaac '88
who celebrates her 15th Reunion this weekend. Barb has served as an admissions worker in
the Denver area for well over two decades. She has coordinated countless admissions events,
persuading many talented Denver high school students to enroll at Lawrence. Her hospitality
toward Lawrence alumni dates back to the early 1980s, when she organized some of the first
regional alumni events in Denver. Walt, who recently began a new career as an
elementary-school teacher, served as Lawrence University Alumni Association president from
2001 to 2003. During his years on the LUAA Board of Directors, he chaired the Communications
Committee for two years and served on the Executive Committee for four. His presidency was
remarkable in that he assumed those duties while finishing his student teaching and
starting out as a full-time second-grade teacher.
Gina Perri Jaecekel '94
Marshall B. Hulbert C'28 Young Alumni Service Award
Gina Perri Jaeckel '94 has missed few opportunities to assist Lawrence in her first ten
years as an alumna. She was a member of both the Fifth and Tenth Reunion steering
committees for the Class of 1994 and also served on the gift committee for her Tenth
Reunion this year. She is an energetic and effective volunteer for the admissions program,
according to our alumni admissions coordinator; has served as a career contact for three
years; and has helped organize and host several alumni events in the Chicago region. One of
the most remarkable services she has provided Lawrence is in the development area —
although fund-raising volunteers are not always the easiest to recruit, Gina has been an
enthusiastic leader on the Viking Gift Committee, soliciting support from young alumni for
The Lawrence Fund.
Kelly Carroll Rhodes '89
Marshall B. Hulbert C'28 Young Alumni Service Award
Kelly Carroll Rhodes '89 since graduating from Lawrence 15 years ago as a class officer,
has helped in almost every imaginable way to support the greater Lawrence community. She
has been a reliable and articulate Class Secretary for the Class of 1989 for 11 years; has
served on all three reunion steering committees, including the current 15th Reunion;
and has volunteered as a career contact and an admissions volunteer, as well as organizing
alumni events in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. The most recent event in which she was
involved helped young alumni network with established alumni in a variety of career fields,
but she also has helped with many regional send-off picnics for new and returning students.
In 2003 she completed a four-year term on the Alumni Association Board of Directors, during
which she was a hard-working member of the Student Relations Committee and later took on
leadership of the Careers Committee, which included serving on the Executive Committee.