KU News Release

Dec. 23, 2008
Contact: Christie Appelhanz, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, (785) 864-3516.

Four KU alumni earn distinguished achievement awards

LAWRENCE — The chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the director of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, a world-renowned professor of biochemistry and a federal appellate judge have been selected as recipients of the 2008-09 Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Kansas.

KU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences announced the winners of the award, the highest honor bestowed by the College on its graduates.

“The achievements of the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award recipients are inspiring to our students, gratifying for faculty members and a source of pride for alumni of the College,” said Dean Joseph E. Steinmetz. “While these four extraordinary individuals have distinguished themselves in diverse fields, a broad liberal arts and sciences education provided the foundation for all of them to make a difference in their communities and in the world.”

Recipients are Shelia Bair of Potomac, Md.; Jacqueline Z. Davis of New York, N.Y.; Robert Hill of Durham, N.C.; and Deanell Reece Tacha of Lawrence. Awards will be presented during the annual Deans Club Banquet at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 17, 2009, in the Kansas Union ballroom.

Shelia Bair was sworn in as chair of FDIC in June 2006. Before her appointment, Bair was the Dean’s Professor of Financial Regulatory Policy for the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Other career experience includes serving as assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, senior vice president for government relations of the New York Stock Exchange, commissioner and acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and as an aide to former Sen. Robert Dole. Bair was named to the Wall Street Journal magazine Smart Money’s “Power 30” list and Forbes magazine honored her as No. 2 among the world’s 100 most powerful women. Bair has received several honors for her published work on financial issues, including a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Education Publishers. Her first children’s book, “Rock, Brock and the Savings Shock,” was published in 2006. Bair received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and law degree from KU.

Jacqueline Z. Davis is executive director of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, where she oversees a collection of more than 9 million items related to performance. Davis was director of the Concert, Chamber Music and New Directions Series beginning in 1980 and as the executive director of the Lied Center of Kansas from its opening in 1993 until 2000. She is vice president of KU’s Theatre and Film Advisory Board. Davis is serving her second three-year term as a Tony Award nominator and is a Tony voter. She is on the American Theatre Wing Advisory Committee and the Executive Committees of the International Society for the Performing Arts and Benjamin Barber’s Global Interdependence movement. She assisted in the creation of the Imagine ’04 Festival of Arts, Issues and Ideas, for which she received an Obie Award. Davis has been recognized as one of the 11 most influential university presenters by International Arts Manager, named to KU’s Women’s Hall of Fame and honored as an Outstanding Citizen by Lawrence Public Schools. She received a master’s in French from KU.

Robert Hill is a world-renowned scientist who serves as the James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University. His major research interests are the relationship between the structure and function of proteins and carbohydrates. Hill joined Duke’s biochemistry department in 1961. He was chair from 1969 to 1993 and director of the University Program in Cell and Molecular Biology and the Medical Scientist Training Program. He has authored two textbooks and more than 340 articles and academic treatises. Hill is a past president of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1974 and was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He has been active in international scientific affairs and was general secretary of the International Union of Biochemistry from 1983 to 1991. Hill earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate in biochemistry from KU.

Deanell Reece Tacha was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in 1985, where she is a federal appellate judge. She was a special assistant to the secretary of labor as a White House fellow in 1971, an associate in the Washington, D.C., firm of Hogan and Hartson and later returned to Kansas to engage in private practice. In 1974, she joined the KU School of Law faculty, becoming associate dean of the law school and eventually vice chancellor for academic affairs. Tacha served as a national Trustee of the American Inns of Court Foundation since 2000. She is a past chair of the Appellate Judges Conference and member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession. Having served as president of the KU Alumni Association, Tacha is also on the Board of Trustees for Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City. Tacha received her bachelor’s degree in American studies from KU and law degree from the University of Michigan.

The Alumni Distinguished Achievement Awards are presented annually to select graduates of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The College encompasses more than 50 departments and programs and awards bachelor’s degrees to nearly half of the students at KU. The awards recognize professional achievements, dedication to their communities and involvement with KU. More information and nomination forms are available on the College’s Web site. Follow the “Alumni & Friends” link.

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