The 2008 DAA Honorees

Joanne Disch is the Katherine R. and C. Walton Lillehei Chair in Nursing Leadership at the University of Minnesota, where she directs the Katharine J. Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership. A nationally and internationally recognized nursing leader, she currently serves as chair of AARP's national board of directors. A former president of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, she was recently honored with the GE Pioneering Spirit Award from that organization.
Watch Joanne Disch's video biography.
Watch Joanne Disch's acceptance speech.

Truman Lowe is a professor of art and a curator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An acclaimed sculptor who has exhibited nationally and internationally, he served as curator of contemporary art in 2000 for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. His works reflect his Ho-Chunk ancestry and culture, and often capture the beauty and force of moving water. Lowe is a dedicated teacher and mentor who continues to help others discover their own artistic voices.
Watch Truman Lowe's video biography.
Watch Truman Lowe's acceptance speech.

Philanthropists Sheldon and Marianne Lubar have lent their support to higher education in Wisconsin for more than a decade. Sheldon is the founder of the Milwaukee investment firm Lubar & Co. and a former president of the UW System's Board of Regents. Marianne has held prominent roles with the Milwaukee Public Library, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and UW-Milwaukee's Golda Meir Library. The couple endowed UW-Milwaukee's Lubar School of Business and UW-Madison's Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions, and in 2007, they contributed $5 million to the $85 million Wisconsin Naming Partnership—the largest gift in the history of the Wisconsin School of Business.
Watch Sheldon and Marianne Lubar's video biography.
Watch Sheldon and Marianne Lubar's acceptance speech.

Linnea Smith is a physician who went to the Amazon on vacation in 1990 and fell in love with the area. She left behind a successful practice in Wisconsin and started a clinic for indigenous people who previously had to travel 50 miles by dugout canoe to reach a doctor. Smith started a nonprofit foundation to support the remote Peruvian clinic, which has saved thousands of lives, and she still spends much of her time there.
Watch Linnea Smith's video biography.
Watch Linnea Smith's acceptance speech.

Shihoko Fujiwara is a coordinator with the Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization that combats human trafficking-a form of modern-day slavery. Based in Tokyo, Japan, Fujiwara provides food, shelter, medical assistance and other support to human-trafficking survivors, most often women and children. She also educates law enforcement about how to identify victims and advocates for public policy to better protect survivors.
Watch Shihoko Fujiwara's video biography.
Watch Shihoko Fujiwara's acceptance speech.

Stephen Turner is founder and chief technology officer of Pacific Biosciences, a Menlo Park, California company focused on DNA sequencing and currently at the forefront of the race to the "$1,000 genome." Turner oversees the scientific and technical direction of the company, with a goal to have an instrument available by 2010 that is able to unravel an individual's entire genome for less than $1,000, a monumental step to aid doctors in research and transform modern medicine. Turner is inventor on nine issued U.S. Patents and over 20 published applications, and was awarded the MIT Technology Review TR 100 award in 2003.
Watch Stephen Turner's video biography.
Watch Stephen Turner's acceptance speech.