The 2007 DAA Honorees
2007 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients were honored on Thursday, May 10, 2007
The Wisconsin Alumni Association honored six alumni in 2007 who are making a positive difference in the world and whose work exemplifies the Wisconsin Idea and motto. They are truly living their lives forward.
Below, you can watch each of the honorees' video compilation and acceptance speech from the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Awards Program: Forward. Living.
The Wisconsin Alumni Association honored six alumni in 2007 who are making a positive difference in the world and whose work exemplifies the Wisconsin Idea and motto. They are truly living their lives forward.
Below, you can watch each of the honorees' video compilation and acceptance speech from the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Awards Program: Forward. Living.
Susan Chapman MBA’98
Global Head of Operations, Citigroup Realty Services, New York
As if earning a bachelor of science degree in engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a master’s of regional planning from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst weren’t enough, Susan Chapman added a University of Wisconsin-Madison master’s degree in real estate and urban land economics to her educational credits. Says Susan, “I chose Wisconsin because it has one of the country’s best real estate MBA programs and one of the best alumni networks I’ve ever seen.”
Shortly after graduating from the UW, Susan joined an international communications and information services company headquartered in Colorado. There, she grew the firm’s real estate acquisitions to more than 13 million square feet. Now at Citigroup Realty Services in New York, she manages the day-to-day operations for 85 million square feet of space in 96 countries.
In 2003, Black Enterprise magazine named Susan one of the “fifty best and brightest” on its list of America’s Most Powerful Players Under 40. As recently as February 2006, the magazine listed her as one of the “50 Most Powerful Black Women in Business.” She has been featured in several other publications, ranging from Fortune to Working Mother.
In addition to her professional work, Susan is currently composing music for a children’s CD, writing two nonfiction books and working on a family cookbook with one of her brothers. She volunteers with nonprofit organizations across the United States and is an active mentor to young people. She keeps in touch with several UW School of Business professors and former classmates, noting that the university “breeds a culture that continues.”
Watch Susan Chapman's video biography.
Watch Susan Chapman's acceptance speech.
In 2003, Black Enterprise magazine named Susan one of the “fifty best and brightest” on its list of America’s Most Powerful Players Under 40. As recently as February 2006, the magazine listed her as one of the “50 Most Powerful Black Women in Business.” She has been featured in several other publications, ranging from Fortune to Working Mother.
In addition to her professional work, Susan is currently composing music for a children’s CD, writing two nonfiction books and working on a family cookbook with one of her brothers. She volunteers with nonprofit organizations across the United States and is an active mentor to young people. She keeps in touch with several UW School of Business professors and former classmates, noting that the university “breeds a culture that continues.”
Watch Susan Chapman's video biography.
Watch Susan Chapman's acceptance speech.
Jerome Chazen BA’48 and Simona Chivian Chazen x’49
Chairman, Chazen Capital Partners, New York (Jerome)
(Journalism and Philosophy)
Psychotherapist (Simona)
Well-known philanthropists, Jerome and Simona Chazen grew up surrounded by the arts. While Jerome’s passion for jazz goes back to when he was a boy in New York City, it was an art history course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that first awakened his interest in the visual arts. “I wouldn't call it an epiphany, exactly, but studying the arts at the university raised my awareness in many ways and allowed me to become a different person than I would have otherwise,” he says. Simona’s love of the arts sprung from her childhood Victorian home, which her parents filled with 19th- and early-20th-century objects they found in small, out-of-the-way antique shops.
After earning a bachelor’s degree at UW-Madison and an MBA at Columbia University, Jerome spent many years in the fashion industry. He was one of four founders of Liz Claiborne, Inc. He is also the founder and chairman of Chazen Capital Partners, a private equity firm in New York.
Simona is a practicing psychotherapist specializing in family issues, such as divorce and abuse. She is a board member of the Museum of Arts & Design in New York City, along with serving on several other arts and charitable boards.
The Chazens began collecting art with the purchase of a print more than 40 years ago. Today their collection includes more than 500 pieces, including many masterworks.
Initially attracted to UW-Madison because of the campus’s beauty and reputation for academic excellence, the Chazens have fond memories of their time here. The $20 million gift that created the Chazen Museum of Art comes from the Chazen Foundation, a private organization created by the Chazens to support projects and causes important to them.
Says Simona, “In recent years, the arts have been tremendously shortchanged in education. The gift and museum expansion allow for more art from the collection to be seen, and it will create a larger presence for the museum in campus and community life.”
View Jerome and Simona Chazen's video biography.
View Jerome and Simona Chazen's acceptance speech.
Simona is a practicing psychotherapist specializing in family issues, such as divorce and abuse. She is a board member of the Museum of Arts & Design in New York City, along with serving on several other arts and charitable boards.
The Chazens began collecting art with the purchase of a print more than 40 years ago. Today their collection includes more than 500 pieces, including many masterworks.
Initially attracted to UW-Madison because of the campus’s beauty and reputation for academic excellence, the Chazens have fond memories of their time here. The $20 million gift that created the Chazen Museum of Art comes from the Chazen Foundation, a private organization created by the Chazens to support projects and causes important to them.
Says Simona, “In recent years, the arts have been tremendously shortchanged in education. The gift and museum expansion allow for more art from the collection to be seen, and it will create a larger presence for the museum in campus and community life.”
View Jerome and Simona Chazen's video biography.
View Jerome and Simona Chazen's acceptance speech.
Ernest Darkoh BS’93
Chairman of BroadReach Healthcare, Washington, D.C.
Born on the UW-Madison campus and raised in Tanzania and Kenya, Ernest Darkoh has put the knowledge he’s gained while earning his undergraduate UW degree, his Harvard Medical School degree, and his University of Oxford business administration degree to use by helping to address Africa’s major health care problems. In fact, he has dedicated his life to creating an entirely new model for AIDS treatment.
Dr. Darkoh is an internationally recognized expert in HIV/AIDS program management, strategic planning, systems development, and large-scale treatment program implementation. In 2004, he oversaw Masa (a Setswana word meaning “new dawn”), Africa’s first AIDS treatment program that involved offering free antiretroviral drugs to all Botswana citizens who require treatment.
Today, Ernest Darkoh is co-founder and chairman of BroadReach Healthcare based in Washington, D.C. BroadReach has made it possible for 10 percent of the HIV-infected population of Botswana to have access to free medications. In addition, an untold number of HIV-negative people remain uninfected due to his efforts. He advises numerous governments across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean in the development of public and private sector HIV/AIDS programs. His expertise is frequently sought after by international organizations, including the World Bank and UNICEF.
In 2005, Time Magazine named Dr. Darkoh one of just 18 Global Health Heroes around the world, and that same year he was highlighted in a PBS documentary titled Rx for Survival. Twelve other countries are now using Botswana’s model for AIDS treatment.
View Ernest Darkoh's video biography.
View Ernest Darkoh's acceptance speech.
Today, Ernest Darkoh is co-founder and chairman of BroadReach Healthcare based in Washington, D.C. BroadReach has made it possible for 10 percent of the HIV-infected population of Botswana to have access to free medications. In addition, an untold number of HIV-negative people remain uninfected due to his efforts. He advises numerous governments across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean in the development of public and private sector HIV/AIDS programs. His expertise is frequently sought after by international organizations, including the World Bank and UNICEF.
In 2005, Time Magazine named Dr. Darkoh one of just 18 Global Health Heroes around the world, and that same year he was highlighted in a PBS documentary titled Rx for Survival. Twelve other countries are now using Botswana’s model for AIDS treatment.
View Ernest Darkoh's video biography.
View Ernest Darkoh's acceptance speech.
Harry Spiegelberg BS’59
Retired Vice President, Kimberly-Clark Corporation
If Wisconsin could be embodied in one person, the state just might look like Harry Spiegelberg. He grew up on a dairy farm west of Appleton, received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the UW in 1959, and went to work for Kimberly-Clark, long one of Wisconsin’s premier corporations, where he spent his entire working career.
Harry’s initial assignment at Kimberly-Clark was in the pulp-engineering department. He soon found that his interest was in research, where he could invent something “new and different and better.” In 1961, he was granted leave from the company to attend the Paper Chemistry Institute in Appleton, where he earned his master’s and doctorate degrees. He returned to Kimberly-Clark as a research scientist. In 1967, he was asked to head the New Concepts Laboratory, a small group at the forefront of consumer product research.
By 1985, Harry had become vice president for Consumer Tissue Research. In 1992, he was named vice president for technology and patent strategy, and in 1993 he became vice president for technology transfer. He retired in 1996.
In his various roles at Kimberly-Clark, Harry considered recruitment of quality employees key to the growth and survival of the company, and recruitment from UW-Madison was his primary focus. To this day, Kimberly-Clark is a major employer of UW graduates.
Harry is a founder and current chair of the executive committee of the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame, a nonprofit organization established to recognize people who have made pre-eminent contributions to the paper industry.
View Harry Spiegelberg's video biography.
View Harry Spiegelberg's acceptance speech.
By 1985, Harry had become vice president for Consumer Tissue Research. In 1992, he was named vice president for technology and patent strategy, and in 1993 he became vice president for technology transfer. He retired in 1996.
In his various roles at Kimberly-Clark, Harry considered recruitment of quality employees key to the growth and survival of the company, and recruitment from UW-Madison was his primary focus. To this day, Kimberly-Clark is a major employer of UW graduates.
Harry is a founder and current chair of the executive committee of the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame, a nonprofit organization established to recognize people who have made pre-eminent contributions to the paper industry.
View Harry Spiegelberg's video biography.
View Harry Spiegelberg's acceptance speech.
Frances Shuter Taylor BSE’68
Former Executive Vice President, Bank of America
After graduating from UW-Madison with a degree in elementary education, Taylor spent two years teaching sixth-grade in the Indiana public school system before embarking on a successful career in domestic and international investment banking. Her appointments include seven years with Smith Barney in New York syndicating new issues of stocks and bonds, including Initial Public Offerings, three years with Bank of America in Caracas, Venezuela, where she syndicated international jumbo loan transactions for entities throughout Latin America, and four years in Hong Kong as Executive Vice President of Bank of America and CEO of BA Asia, Ltd. By the time she retired in 1998, Taylor had gone from a small town in Wisconsin to the top ranks of the corporate world.
Currently, Taylor serves on numerous boards in and around Madison. A member of the Bascom Hill Society, Taylor is involved in a broad range of campus interests, including men’s rowing, education, and international studies. She has funded several scholarships for undergraduates interested in education careers, as well as scholarships for graduate students to conduct research abroad. She is a former Wisconsin Alumni Association board member and currently a board member of the UW Foundation, where she serves on the governance committee. She is on the board of TomoTherapy, a Madison-based company that has created a revolutionary method of delivering image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy for cancer treatment. Taylor is also on the Boards of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and of Oak Bank.
She now lives in Madison and Angel Fire, New Mexico, where she and her husband helped to fund a new building to house the Shuter Library of Angel Fire, named in honor of her parents.
View Frances Shuter Taylor's video biography.
View Frances Shuter Taylor's acceptance speech.
She now lives in Madison and Angel Fire, New Mexico, where she and her husband helped to fund a new building to house the Shuter Library of Angel Fire, named in honor of her parents.
View Frances Shuter Taylor's video biography.
View Frances Shuter Taylor's acceptance speech.
WAA Events
- China - October 8
- Treasures of Italy - October 9
- German-American Heritage Series: Immigration - October 15
- UW Admissions 101: Waukesha - October 15
