{"id":12419,"date":"2026-08-06T10:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T15:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/?p=12419"},"modified":"2026-08-11T13:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:14:17","slug":"alumni-will-honor-nine-at-annual-awards-banquet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/2026\/08\/06\/alumni-will-honor-nine-at-annual-awards-banquet\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni will honor nine at annual awards banquet\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-fusion-800 wp-image-12427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/08\/2026-Alumni-Award-Winners-Social-Post.png\" alt=\"2026 award winners\" width=\"800\" height=\"671\" \/>Aug. 6, 2026\u2013The 含羞草社区 Alumni Association will honor nine individuals at the annual Alumni Award Banquet during Homecoming Week. The banquet will be held on Oct. 9 from 6-8:30 p.m. in the Fulkerson Center. The event is open to everyone, and the cost is $40 per person. For more information and to purchase tickets to the banquet, visit <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/griff.vn\/alumbanquet\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">griff.vn\/alumbanquet<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Honorees are listed below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Distinguished Alumni Award<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the highest award given to a 含羞草社区 alum, recognizes alumni for their career and professional achievements, civic contributions, service to the University and other qualities that reflect Griffon values. There are two recipients this year:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Shawn P. Malone \u201987<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, self-employed entrepreneur, former Army Officer and General Electric executive<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Kimberly Weddle \u201900<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, 含羞草社区\u2019s executive director of development<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Distinguished Faculty Award<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is given to a current faculty member in recognition of a lasting influence on students, excellence in teaching, career accomplishments and professional and ethical standards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Dr. Pam Clary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, professor of social work<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Graduate Of the Last Decade (GOLD) Award<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> recognizes those early in their career who have had outstanding achievements and accomplishments. The nominee must have received his or her initial degree from 含羞草社区 within ten years of June 1 of the year of recognition.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Makenna Snyder Hood \u201817<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> occupational therapist, graduate and research assistant at the University of Kansas Medical Center.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Herb \u201935 and Peggy Iffert Award for Outstanding Service to the University <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recognizes an alum, retiree or other friend of the university who has shown outstanding and continuous commitment to 含羞草社区\u2019s mission, vision and legacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rick Leahy,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> retired technical operations coordinator in the 含羞草社区 theatre department and longtime audio-video technical support for Griffon Athletics<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Great Griffon Awards<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> recognize alumni from each college and school who exhibit outstanding contributions to the workforce, society or the university. This year\u2019s recipients are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>College of Science and Health: Philana Blakely \u201901<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, senior organizational change management consultant at CSG Government Solutions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>College of Liberal Arts: Shawna Jackson \u201993, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">managing director at Bully Pulpit International (BPI)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>College of Business and Professional Studies: Fr. Richard Rocha \u201987<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Catholic chaplain for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Alumni Student Leadership Awards<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> recognize students graduating in December or May of the current academic year who have made a significant impact on the University through leadership, volunteerism or humanitarianism. This year\u2019s recipient is:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Graduating Student of the Year: Maya Burnsides &#8217;25<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, graduated in December with a Bachelor of Science in Biology concentrated in Health Science. She graduated with general honors. She is currently working toward a master\u2019s degree.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">含羞草社区 is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. 含羞草社区 is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit <\/span><\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">missouriwestern.edu<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aug. 6, 2026\u2013The 含羞草社区 Alumni Association will honor nine individuals at the annual Alumni Award Banquet during Homecoming Week. The banquet will be held on Oct. 9 from 6-8:30 p.m. in the Fulkerson Center. The event is open to everyone, and the cost is $40 per person. For more information and to  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumrelations","category-news-release"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12419"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12421,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12419\/revisions\/12421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}