2023 - Cynthia “CJ” Warner, BE’80
Cynthia “CJ” Warner is the Alumni Professional Achievement Award recipient. Warner is president and CEO of Renewable Energy Group Inc., a leading provider of clean, low-carbon-intensity products and services. She is a seasoned executive with experience in traditional and renewable fuels. For more than 40 years, she has driven growth and improvements to deliver energy more safely, reliably and sustainably. Warner has held executive positions in operations, technology development, strategy, business development, and environment, health and safety. She has led operations globally for large refiners, including Andeavor and BP, as well as scale-up and development efforts in novel renewable energy technologies. Warner serves on the board of directors for Chevron and is lead independent director for Sempra Energy. She is also a member of the Columbia University Advisory Board for the Center for Global Energy Policy, the National Petroleum Council and the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni.
2021 - Kenneth Epps, BS'90
Kenneth Epps is the recipient of the professional achievement award in honor of his prestigious three-decade-long naval career. He reached another milestone in 2019 when he was promoted to rear admiral and deputy chief of staff for fleet ordnance and supply in the U.S. Fleet Forces Command. Epps' role is to ensure that all the Navy's operating forces in North America and the North Atlantic have what they need logistically to succeed. Epps is also currently serving as an assistant professor at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, National Defense University, Washington, D.C.
2020 - Monique Nelson-Nwachuku, BS'96
Monique Nelson-Nwachuku, BS'96, chair and chief executive officer of UWG, will be honored with the Alumni Professional Achievement Award. A marketing and advertising industry thought leader, she also has been honored for her work to improve the lives of others by United Way of New York's Women's Leadership Council with the Power to Make a Difference Award.
2019 - Roy Blount, Jr., BA'63
A celebrated writer and humorist, Blount has published 24 books, has been a panelist on National Public Radio's Wait, Wait. . . Don't Tell Me, and has contributed columns, essays, stories, verses and drawings for 171 periodicals including Garden and Gun, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, GQ, Vogue, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, The Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic, and Smithsonian.
Blount was the president of the Authors Guild, a usage consultant to the American Heritage Dictionary, and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, and the Vanderbilt University Student Media Hall of Fame. He also received a Rockefeller Foundation residency at Bellagio, Italy, and the Thomas Wolfe Award for lifetime achievement from the University of North Carolina.
He is on the Vanderbilt Magazine Advisory Board, has been a Reunion volunteer and is a member of the Oak Leaf Society that recognizes donor loyalty to the university.
2018 - Kimberly Bryant, BE'89
As founder of Black Girls CODE, Kimberly Bryant introduces an ever-growing number of girls of color to technology, computer programming and entrepreneurial concepts. The non-profit organization has chapters in seven US cities as well as Johannesburg, South Africa, and plans to train 1 million girls by 2040.
Bryant has been named to Forbes magazine "40 Women over 40" to watch, EBONY'S "Power 100," Marie Claire magazine's 20 women changing the world, and CNN 10: Visionary Women. She has received the White House Champions of Change for Tech Inclusion Award, the Jefferson Award for Public Service and is a Government Technology Top 25 winner. She serves on the Chancellor's Dores of Distinction committee and received the Vanderbilt School of Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award in 2017.
2017 - Doug Parker, MBA'86
Doug Parker, MBA '86, is the recipient of the 2017 Vanderbilt Alumni Association Alumni Professional Achievement Award.
As a veteran airline industry executive, Parker has been credited with record revenue growth and operational performance. While serving as chairman and chief executive officer of US Airways Group, he was instrumental in the merger with American Airlines that made American Airlines Group the largest airline in the United States in 2013. He is now chair and chief executive officer of American Airlines Group.
Parker currently serves on the Board of Visitors of the Owen Graduate School of Management and the Parents Leadership Committee, received the 2004 Owen Distinguished Alumnus Award, and was the 2013 Owen commencement speaker.
International Alumni Professional Achievement Award Winners
2019 - Josué Gomes da Silva, MBA'89
As CEO of his family business, Coteminas, Gomes da Silva led a long-term strategic plan to navigate the global marketplace that would not only affect the company, but also the South American textile industry. Under his direction, he carefully led Coteminas to become the biggest textile group in Latin America and a leading bed and bath home fashion products company.
He is also founder and chairman of the board of Cantagalo General Grains, a company with integrated operations including the production, commercialization, and distribution of grains, and chairman and CEO of Wembly, S.A., a publicly traded holding company for the Gomes da Silva family businesses.
Gomes da Silva has been a business and economic adviser to three presidents of Brazil, is president of the Institute of Studies for Industrial Development, and led the Brazilian Association of Textile and Clothing Industries. He has been a member of the Owen Board of Visitors since 2001.
2018 - Krista Donaldson, BE'95
As CEO of D-Rev, Krista Donaldson leads efforts to design and develop medical technologies that close the quality healthcare gap for under-served populations around the world. She was previously a diplomacy fellow in the U.S. Department of State's American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, where she guided economic policy and the reconstruction of Iraq's electricity sector. Her work there earned recognition for its impact on bilateral relations. She was also a design engineer for KickStart International in Nairobi, Kenya and at the product design firm IDEO.
Donaldson's leadership has won acclaim as one of Fast Company's Co.Design "50 Designers Shaping the Future," a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, and she has spoken at TEDWomen and the Clinton Global Initiative. She has been a Rainer Arnhold Fellow and a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow. She received the Vanderbilt School of Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award in 2014.
2016 - Paul Deemer III, BA'69, JD'75
Paul Deemer III, BA'69, JD'75, is the recipient of the 2016 Vanderbilt Alumni Association Board of Director's International Alumni Professional Achievement Award .
Paul Deemer has established a highly successful international law career. He represents major clients, including multilateral lenders, in the development and financing of energy projects in China, Russia and other countries for the law firm Vinson & Elkins. He helped open offices in Moscow in 1991 and Beijing in 1997, and has served as co-administrative partner of the Beijing and Shanghai offices. He generously supports Vanderbilt as a capstone member of the Oak Leaf Society and as a strong advocate for the university in China.
To learn more, and to nominate a deserving alumnus/na, visit our Awards Page.