Alumni Achievement Award Winners

Each 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.

2021

LUANN (LOFTESNES)AAKHUS ‘76

spent 40 years in health care management, operations and business development, physician and health plan partnerships, strategic planning, entrepreneurship, patient and caregiver education programs, hospital devices, as well as medical products sales and service. After graduating from Augustana with a biology major, Aakhus earned her Master of Business Administration from St. Mary’s College of California. Aakhus’ entrepreneurial spirit led her to create an aerobics exercise company, bed and breakfast and hospital device sales and service company. She is currently the chief operating officer of Bicycle Health, a health care startup company committed to helping patients lead fulfilling and opioid-free lives.

MEL ANTONEN ‘79 was a dedicated journalist and storyteller who began his career in high school at the Watertown Public Opinion, and, after graduating from Augustana, the Argus Leader, where he covered sports, farm and political beats. Antonen covered Major League Baseball for 25 years at USA Today. He was a baseball analyst at CNN, ESPN and SiriusXM and was an analyst/ reporter at MASN-TV. The Lake Norden, South Dakota, native walked on Fenway Park’s left field with the late Yankee Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio, and sat in a dugout with another Hall of Fame member, Minnesota Twins’ Harmon Killebrew. Antonen, proud husband of Lisa, and father of Emmett, died Jan. 30, of a rare acute auto-immune disease and complications from COVID-19.

DR. ANDERS (AJ) DAVIDSON ‘08

is an active duty major in the United States Air Force (USAF) and a vascular surgeon at David Grant Medical Center (Travis AFB) and the University of California, Davis (UC-Davis). He is also an assistant professor of surgery through the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Davidson, a student-athlete, joined the USAF as a senior at Augustana, and following graduation, attended medical school at Creighton University, held a residency at UC-Davis, completed a master’s degree in clinical and translational research and continued surgical training with a fellowship at the University of Michigan. Davidson has published more than 30 peer-reviewed research articles, been awarded more than $850,000 in research grants and garnered national recognition from the military and trauma societies for his research into battlefield injury.

DR. LON KIGHTLINGER ‘77

served as the state epidemiologist for the South Dakota Department of Health (SD-DOH) for nearly 20 years — career highlights from which include polio elimination, malaria and schistosomiasis control, as well as church building in Madagascar; disease control, immunization and infant mortality in South Dakota; and the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Ebola response team in Guinea. After graduating from Augustana with majors in biology and chemistry, Kightlinger received a Master of Science in public health from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, specializing in infectious parasitic diseases and epidemiology. At 65 years old, he left retirement to again work with the SD-DOH to aid in the coronavirus response effort. Kightlinger is now re-retired in Pierre, South Dakota. He has a son, Andrew Kightlinger ‘08, and lost his beloved wife, Mynna, in 2007.

REV. DR. MEGAN ROHRER ‘01 (they/their/them) serves as the bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Rohrer, the first openly transgender pastor ordained in the Lutheran church, was ordained extraordinarily in 2006. In 2010, they were one of the first seven pastors received into the ELCA after policies regarding openly LGBT pastors changed. On May 8, 2021, Rohrer was elected the first openly transgender bishop in a mainline Christian denomination. After graduating from Augustana with a religion major, Rohrer earned a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry from the Pacific School of Religion. They have been listed in the Trans100, won OutHistory’s Since Stonewall Local History Competition and international awards for their documentary, “Zanderology.”