ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNERS
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ach year, Alumni Achievement Awards are presented to Augustana University alumni who have made outstanding contributions to their fields of endeavor, communities and/or churches. The Horizon Award recognizes young alumni who have quickly demonstrated outstanding vocational achievement and provided faithful service to their community and/or church. The recipient must have graduated within the last 15 years. Recipients of both awards must exemplify one of the shared core values of the university: Christian faith, liberal arts, excellence, community or service.
2020 DR. CAROL CASEY ‘76 serves as a professor of internal medicine gastroenterology & hepatology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Veterans Affairs research career scientist. Casey earned her Ph.D. from Rice University in Houston, Texas, and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota Duluth in 1984. The Mitchell, South Dakota, native has focused on the negative impact of alcohol on the liver, with her research funded by the National Institute of Health and featured in more than 120 publications. Aside from her research, she also actively mentors as many as six scientists every year, and was recognized with the Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Junior Faculty Award. DR. BRENT LOKEN ‘94 is a lead food scientist at the World Wildlife Fund and leading expert in global sustainability, especially in the area of food systems. Loken received his master’s in curriculum and instruction from the University of Colorado Boulder, and Ph.D. in resource management and sustainability from Simon Fraser University in Canada. Loken is known for his work on endangered species conservation and has been featured in National Geographic and Scientific American, as well as on CNN. Along with rediscovering an extinct monkey species in Borneo, Indonesia, Loken served as the director of science translation at EAT where he was part of a team seeking to develop sustainable food practices for feeding a planet with 10 billion people.
DR. TIM RIDGWAY ‘80 serves as the vice president of health affairs and dean of the University of South Dakota (USD) Sanford School of Medicine. After graduating from Augustana, Ridgway completed medical school at USD and residency at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. As a physician, he received recognition as a Top Gastroenterologist in Sioux Falls by the International Association of Healthcare Professionals, the Presidential Award of the South Dakota Medical Association and has been listed among the “Best Doctors in America” for the past 10 years. Within Ridgway’s teaching roles, he was named the American College of Physicians Teacher of the Year in 2016, and received the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award in 2013 from the USD Sanford School of Medicine. Most recently, Ridgway served as president of the South Dakota State Medical Association, and, at the USD Sanford School of Medicine as dean of faculty affairs, member of the Administrative Council and Executive and Faculty Development Committees, as well as dean of the Sioux Falls campus and executive dean.
HORIZON AWARD WINNERS INGRID (ARNESON) RASMUSSEN ‘05 serves as the senior pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rasmussen attended Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and earned her master’s degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Her years of study combined with her work in a free health care clinic led her to ordained ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. At the beginning of the pandemic, Rasmussen immersed herself in serving her congregation virtually when a stay-at-home order was issued. In May 2020, after the killing of George Floyd, Rasmussen reopened the church’s doors for medics needing a place to care for the injured, volunteers needing a place to drop supplies and those needing a place for prayers. Holy Trinity became the focal point of relief efforts for nonprofits in Minnesota.
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THE AUGUSTANA | FALL 2021
