Distinguished Alumni at CSU Aspen Grill open................................10

By Bruce Hallmark

Each year, the Alumni Association honors Colorado State University alumni and friends who have brought honor to the University by excelling in their professions and making significant contributions to their industries, communities, and the institution.

Winners of the top four awards – the William E. Morgan Alumni Achievement Award, the Charles A. Lory Public Service Award, the Jim and Nadine Henry Award, and the Distinguished Graduate of the Last Decade Award – are highlighted below, along with award recipients from each of the eight colleges and Athletics.

CSU honored the winners during the Distinguished Alumni Awards celebration on Oct. 7 during Homecoming and Family Weekend.

William E. Morgan Alumni Achievement Award Debra Stencel (B.S., ’78) and Patrick Phillips (B.S., ’79)

Debra Stencel and Patrick Phillips believe access to higher education is transformative. It was for them. They both grew up in Aurora, Colorado, and met while attending CSU. Stencel is a first-generation student who graduated from the College of Business. She went on to attend Syracuse University Law School in New York, and after graduating, became a partner in a Washington, D.C.based law firm working on real estate, finance, and commercial transactions. From there, her career path led her through a series of commercial real estate companies before she began serving as general counsel and senior vice president for B.F. Saul Company, a major Washington, D.C., real estate development and investment firm.

Throughout his career, Phillips has been a passionate advocate for the creation of vibrant and sustainable cities. After graduating from the College of Agricultural Sciences, he completed graduate degrees in landscape architecture from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and in public management and finance from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public A airs. After a brief stint in academia, he began a career focused on urban development strategies for cities, developers, and investors.

Charles A. Lory Public Service Award Stacy (B.S., ’91) and Kevin (B.A., ’92; Ph.D., ’13) Unger

Hospitals are a great example of public service, and the name Unger has become synonymous with them in Northern Colorado. Kevin Unger is a Fort Collins native who was born at Poudre Valley Hospital. He earned two of four degrees from CSU (his master’s degrees in health administration and business administration are from the University of Colorado in Denver). Unger has been with PVH/UCHealth since 2001 and currently serves as the CEO of Poudre Valley Hospital and Medical Center of the Rockies. He’s also been working with CSU on the Asia medical partnership, as well as the CU-School of Medicine/CSU Medical School relationship. As a catalyst in transforming the healthcare industry in Northern Colorado, Unger received the prestigious Robert S. Hudgens Memorial Award for Young Healthcare Executive of the Year in 2009.

Stacy Bond Unger moved from her hometown of Gibbon, Nebraska to Fort Collins to finish her degree at Colorado State. She also has a Master of Science in psychology from the University of Nebraska. The Ungers met at CSU and were married in 1993. After living in the Denver area for several years where Stacy Unger worked at the Aurora Mental Health Center, they returned to Fort Collins to raise their family. Stacy Unger serves on the boards of several local organizations that assist those in need and was a founding board member of both the local Young Men’s Service League, Inc. (YMSL) chapter and Women Investing in Strategies for Health (WISH). YMSL is a national nonprofit that teaches leadership and life skills to young men in high school while o ering them and their mothers service opportunities. WISH is a giving circle that educates, empowers, and inspires women philanthropists.

Jim and Nadine Henry Award Linda (B.A., ’70; M.A., ’72) and Bob (B.S., ’55; M.E., ’70) Cates

for CSU (then Colorado A&M) in the mid-1950s. After graduation, he began his high school teaching and coaching career in Sterling, Colorado, before going to Fort Collins High School.

When Linda Brooks arrived at CSU in the fall of 1967, she was captivated by the Department of Communication Studies (formerly the Speech Department) and never considered another major. After earning her bachelor’s degree in 1970, she became a graduate teaching assistant while earning her master’s degree. Linda Cates’s first teaching position was at Fort Collins High School where she taught speech and a variety of media courses. She also met Bob Cates there, and they later married.

Together, they moved to the Western Slope and worked at Fruita Monument High School near Grand Junction, Colorado. Bob Cates retired from teaching and coaching in 1980 when he became the Mesa County School District athletic director and served on two state boards overseeing high school athletics. In 1990, the couple moved to Denver after Bob Cates was hired as the assistant commissioner of the Colorado High School Activities Association, which organizes and hosts all high school activities and athletics for the state. In that role, he also ran the Student Council State Conference at CSU each summer.

Distinguished Graduate of the Last Decade Award (GOLD) Angelina Howard (B.S., ’14)

Angelina Howard is a first-generation student who was very involved in extracurricular activities: she was a College of Business mentor, vice president of the Supply Chain Management Club, member of Business Diversity and Leadership Alliance, student assistant in the Department of Management, and student coordinator in the Career Management Center. Outside the college, she was a student alumni associate and a secretary and public relations o cer for the Black Student Alliance. Somehow, she found time to add to her degree a concentration in corporate finance and supply chain management, both of which have served her well.

She is currently a senior product manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s largest cloud provider. Howard works on early market development e orts for new AWS o erings. She transitioned into product management in 2017 and has been passionate about learning and building inclusive products, and about increasing the knowledge and representation of people of color in product management. In 2021, she was the opening speaker for the University of Washington’s inaugural Inclusive Product Summit.

Debra Stencel & Patrick Phillips Stacy & Kevin Unger

Linda & Bob Cates Angelina Howard

Additional 2021 Distinguished Alumni winners

Distinguished Athletics Award

Jim Detterick (B.A., ’96)

College of Agricultural Sciences Honor Alumni

Kristie (B.S., ’82) and Jim (B.S., ’83) Doche

College of Business Honor Alumnus

Rich Tinberg (B.S., ’72)

College of Health and Human Sciences Honor Alumna

Carla Dore (B.S., ’83)

College of Liberal Arts Honor Alumna

Karen Barker (B.A., ’71)

College of Natural Sciences Honor Alumnus

Tom Heidenfelder (B.S., ’74)

College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Honor Alumna

Diane Brown (B.S., ’83; D.V.M., ’86; Ph.D., ’95)

Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering Honor Alumnus

Todd Filsinger (B.S., ’85)

Warner College of Natural Resources Honor Alumnus

Chris Lidstone (M.S., ’81)