Annual alumni awards to be presented during Reunion Weekend

Each year, the Clark Alumni Council Awards Committee honors alumni for their service to Clark and society. This year’s recipients, with their wide range of accomplishments and impacts, display a common bond — a passion to help others — that is deeply rooted in their Clark education.

Four awards will be presented at the Friday Night Dinner during Reunion Weekend. The recipients are:

• Distinguished Service Award: Theresa Strempek ’79
• Young Alumni Award: Alex Turgeon ’16, MBA ’17
• University Award for Service to Society: Leah Penniman ’02, MAT ’03
• Challenging Convention Award: Margaret Guzman ’89

Distinguished Service Award

The Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor bestowed by Clark’s Alumni Council, recognizes and celebrates a graduate who has demonstrated exemplary leadership and volunteerism for Clark over several decades.

Theresa Strempek, who has worked in planning and real estate development, has significantly contributed to Clark as an alumna. In addition to serving as a member of the Board of Trustees from 2011 to 2018, she has been one of the key architects of the Los Angeles Leadership Council and has hosted multiple events in the area. She has also been involved in reunion planning, held a West Coast admissions counselor event in Los Angeles, and is a member of the Jonas Clark Fellows giving society.

With her husband, Peter McMillan III ’79, Strempek has been a loyal supporter of the University. The variety and depth of her volunteerism and philanthropy, as well as her dedication to the University, inspire and motivate fellow Clark alumni.

Young Alumni Award

The Young Alumni Award recognizes a Clark “Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD)” who has served as an exemplary leader and volunteer for Clark since graduation.

Alex Turgeon is a co-chair of Clark’s GOLD Council and serves as the GOLD liaison to the Alumni Council. The chief growth officer of Valere, an AI and software development firm, and co-founder and CEO of Valere Digital, Turgeon also acts as an alumni advisor to the Clark University Consulting Group, has provided internships to several Clark students, and has been a guest lecturer in classes. In addition, he led his fifth reunion committee in 2021, providing a unique virtual reunion experience due to pandemic restrictions, and has planned events for young alumni in Washington, D.C. He has also continued to actively support the men’s lacrosse team, of which he once served as captain.

During his time at Clark, he and fellow alumnus Abhijit Singh ’16 co-founded WooConnect, a platform connecting students with the city. While at Clark, Turgeon was recognized for his contributions to campus with the Outstanding Contribution to Student Life Award and the Russ Granger Award.

University Award for Service to Society

The University Award for Service to Society celebrates an individual who has made extraordinary contributions to society since graduating from Clark while advancing a cause consistent with Clark’s values.

Leah Penniman ’02, MAT ’03, co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2010, with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim ancestral connections to land. As co-executive director and farm director, Penniman is part of a team that facilitates food sovereignty programs, including farmer training for black and brown people, a subsidized farm food distribution program for communities living under food apartheid, and domestic and international organizing toward equity in the food system.

Penniman has been farming since 1996 and is a West African Indigenous Orisa tradition clergy member. She trained at Many Hands Organic Farm in Barre, Massachusetts, and internationally with farmers in Ghana, Haiti, and Mexico. She also taught high school biology and environmental science for 17 years. Penniman and Soul Fire Farm have been recognized by the Soros Racial Justice Fellowship, Fulbright Program, Pritzker Environmental Genius Award, Grist 50, and James Beard Leadership Award, among others. She has published two books — “Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land” and “Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists.”

Challenging Convention Award

Inspired by Clark graduates’ deep reverence for the University’s motto — “Challenge Convention. Change Our World.” — the Alumni Council recently established the Challenging Convention Award to honor an individual who “has a crowning achievement in advancing a particular artistic, social, or scientific cause deemed consonant with University values.”

Judge Margaret Guzman has been challenging convention since she was a teenager when she wrote a letter to the Boston Red Sox offering to be the team’s first batgirl, just for a day (the team declined). In 2009, she was appointed a Massachusetts District Court judge and would later serve in 32 of the 62 district courts in the Commonwealth. She served in cities and towns where English was often the second language, where poverty was suffocating, perpetuated in courtrooms, and where people experiencing poverty were penalized for nonpayment of fines and fees that they had no possibility of paying. She also had leadership roles on numerous Trial Court committees, including Judicial Education, Race and Ethnic Fairness, and the Supreme Judicial Select Committee on Implicit Bias, which examined the roots of decision-making through the lens of justice and compassion.

In 2023, President Biden nominated Guzman for a seat on the federal bench, and she was sworn in as a United States District Court Judge. She is the first person of Hispanic heritage to serve as a federal judge in Massachusetts.

Guzman has given back to the University through numerous volunteer roles, including serving on the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force from 2018 to 2020 and as an Alumni-in-Residence participant from 2005 to 2012. She serves on the Alumni Council and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

♦♦♦♦♦

“The Alumni and Friends Engagement team appreciates the time, attention, and heart our Alumni Committee devoted to the nomination process and award selection,” said Cindy Ironson, director of Alumni and Friends Engagement. The Alumni Council’s Awards Committee comprises David Brenerman ’73, chair; Justin Bailey ’00; Nicholas Callender ’11, MPA ’12; Randi Guinn-Shirley ’91; Thomas Montanari ’25; Jermel Moody ’00; Abhishek Raman ’09; Edgardo Rivera ’86, P ’09; Raphael Rogers ’94, faculty representative; Adi Tibrewal, MBA ’05; and Rebecca Sherer ’79.