Current Recipients

2023 Alumni Award Recipients

Alumni Service Award

Mr. Matthew M. Cantwell

Matthew: B.A. & M.S. in Professional Accounting, 2004, Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University Corporate Controller of SC Industries Colorado Springs, CO Sarah: B.A. in Social Relations, 2003, James Madison College, Michigan State University M.P.A. in Public Administration, 2005, College of Social Science, Michigan State University M.S. in Fundraising Management, 2010, Columbia University VP of Institutional Advancement for U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Foundation Colorado Springs, CO Matt and Sarah Cantwell are dedicated Spartans who have made a significant impact at MSU and in two of MSUs largest markets, NYC and Chicago. In particular, the Cantwells provided significant leadership and support in the development of Sparty Ball, a best-in-class alumni gala that has raised significant support for Chicago Spartans MSU funds. Matthew holds a B.S. and M.S. from the Eli Broad College of Business and is currently the Corporate Controller of SC Industries. Sarah has two degrees from MSU; a B.A. from James Madison and an M.P.A from the College of Social Science. She also holds a M.S. from Columbia University and currently works as the VP of Institutional Advancement for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Foundation. As an alum of James Madison College, Sarah continues to engage with the college. Both the Cantwells have dedicated considerable time and treasure at the international and national level through their service and leadership on the Alumni Advisory Board, with Sarah serving as president for two years. Additionally, the Cantwells have held leadership roles with the MSU Alumni Club of Metro Chicago, the Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity, and the MSU Alumni Club of Greater New York. The Cantwells are members of the Kedzie, Spartan Bold, Captains Club, JMC Lifetime Founders Circle, and Landon Legacy giving societies. The impact of their leadership, engagement with other Spartans and alumni clubs, service to the community in and outside the alumni arena, and philanthropic contributions to MSU are stellar examples of what the Alumni Service Award represents.

Ms. Sarah M. Cantwell

Distinguished Alumni Award

Mr. Randolph Lee Cowen

B.A. in History, 1974, College of Social Science, College of Arts & Letters and Honors College, Michigan State University MSU Research Foundation Chair Former CIO and Co-Chief Administrative Officer at Goldman Sachs New York, NY Randolph (Randy) Cowen received his bachelors degree in History, with a minor in Mathematics, from MSU in 1974, where he was a member of the Honors College. During his 26-year career at Goldman Sachs, he held the position of Chief Information Officer from 2001-2007 and Co-Chief Administrative Officer from 2007-2008.Cowen went on to share his expertise by serving on a number of for-profit and nonprofit boards in both Michigan and New York City, including the Board of Directors of EMC Corporation until it was acquired by Dell for $67 billion. He has also been active on the boards of Pivotal Software, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, the Child Mind Institute, Solace and GTY Holdings.Currently, Cowen is chair of the MSU Research Foundation board, where he has served since 2013. He demonstrates a continued commitment to MSU by investing in the Physics and Astronomy department through endowments. The Jerry Cowen Endowed Chair in Experimental Physics honors Cowen's father, Professor Jerry Cowen, who was a distinguished researcher in the MSU Physics and Astronomy department for more than five decades. A natural-born leader himself, Randy Cowen has used his achievements to help rising leaders at MSU transform research in emerging industries. His guidance in entrepreneurship and corporate engagement, paired with his personal philanthropy, have made an invaluable impact on the MSU community.

Mr. Larry Dean Thompson

B.A., 1967, Culver-Stockton College M.A. in Sociology, 1969, College of Social Science, Michigan State University J.D., 1974, University of Michigan Former Executive Vice President, Government Affairs, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for PepsiCo Sea Island, GA Larry Thompson has an extensive career in government, in private practice and as a public company general counsel, where his actions reflect a commitment to equity and social justice. Thompson graduated cum laude from Culver-Stockton College in 1967, received his masters from MSU College of Social Science in 1969, and received his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1974. He is a former U.S. Deputy Attorney General who served during the George W. Bush Administration. Mr. Thompson served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia and General Counsel and EVP of PepsiCo Inc., where his efforts centered on promoting diversity. He has been awarded the first-ever William T. Coleman Lifetime Achievement Award by the African American Partners Network, the Edmund Jennings Randolph Award for contributions to the DOJs mission, the Outstanding Litigator Award by the Federal Bar Association, and the AT Walden Award by the Gate City Bar Association. Mr. Thompson served as the Lead Director of The Southern Committee, served on the Compensation Committee of the Graham Holdings Company, and is currently on the Board of the Franklin Templeton Mutual Series Funds, and the George W. Bush Foundation Board. He is an elected Fellow of the American Board of Governance Counsel, and the American Board of Criminal Lawyers and was elected to the Council of the American Law Institute. Upon Mr. Thompsons retirement from PepsiCo, the company created the Larry Thompson Fellowship Program to honor his lifes commitment to adding diversity to the legal profession. Through his work in public service, Larry Thompson has distinguished himself as an extraordinary Spartan.

Dr. Thomas J. Wielenga

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, 1978, College of Engineering and Honors College, Michigan State University M.S. in Computer-Aided Engineering, 1979, University of Michigan Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, 1984, University of Michigan President of DynamotiveIP Hollywood, FL Dr. Wielenga is a mechanical engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur. He currently serves as the President of Dynamotive IP and the Wielenga Innovation Foundation. Wielenga is an Honors College graduate from the College of Engineering. After MSU, he received a masters degree in Computer Assisted Engineering and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Following this he worked at Mechanical Dynamics Inc and was one of the developers of the mechanical simulation program, ADAMS. Wielenga then worked as a consultant and expert in the field of vehicle dynamics and accident reconstruction. His innovations in automotive safety have saved thousands of lives around the world. Among his inventions, Dr. Wielenga invented and holds the patent for the Anti-Rollover Braking system and the After Collision Braking system. Currently, he has patented and is developing the Wielenga Innovation Static Salt Reactor (the WISSR), a new type of inherently safe nuclear reactor that uses liquid fuel derived from the waste of existing reactors. At MSU, he established the Wielenga Creative Engineering Professorship, an endowed faculty chair designed to kick-start the next teaching paradigm in the College of Engineering. Dr. Wielengas generous support also launched the Wielenga Research Scholars Program. Additionally, Dr. Wielenga founded the Wielenga Innovation Foundation to study creative processes and promote innovation. He is the recipient of the Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award and a member of the colleges Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board. His legacy of creativity, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy continues to inspire Spartans and they, he says, inspire him.

Young Alumni Award

Ms. Allison B. Campbell M.B.A.

B.A. in International Relations with Honors, 2008, James Madison College and Honors College, Michigan State University M.B.A. in Business Administration with Honors, 2018, Harvard Business School, Harvard University Co-Founder at Zubale Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico Allison Campbell has taken her education and jumped into the international business arena with phenomenal success. While attending MSU, Campbell was a member of ASMSU, the James Madison College Senate, and the MSU Model United Nations. She received the Hollings Scholarship, an award given to 100 students nationwide. She received her B.A. in International Relations from James Madison College where she was a member of the honors college. After eight years in the corporate world working in India and China markets, she returned to higher education to begin her M.B.A. at Harvard. During her graduate work, she and a member of her cohort co-founded the Mexico City-based Zubale in 2018, the leading Latin American e-commerce ecosystem. Today Zubale has scaled to help retailers win in e-commerce across six countries in Latin America including Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru. Through their gig worker marketplace and world class technology they power their clients back end e-commerce operations to deliver the best quality fulfillment service and help their B2B retailer customers grow. To date Zubale has completedover 15 million e-commerce deliveries across Latin America, built a global team of 400 people, and empowered over 10,000 gig workers to improve their quality of life through access to work and financial products and services. Campbells entrepreneurial leadership has exemplified the extraordinary difference Spartans can make in the world.

Ms. Leila Chatti

B.A., 2011, Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and Honors College, Michigan State University M.F.A. in Poetry, 2015, North Carolina State University Poet & Educator Provost Fellow at University of Cincinnati Norwood, OH Leila Chatti is an acclaimed poet with numerous publications, awards including an Academy of American Poets Prize, and grants from the NEA, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and the Helen Wurlizter Foundaton of New Mexico. Shes received fellowships and scholarships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, Tin House Writers Workshop, the Frost Place Conference on Poetry, the Key West Literary Seminars, and Dickinson House. In 2017, she was shortlisted for the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, and at Cleveland State University, she was the inaugural Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in Writing and Publishing. Her full-length collection, Deluge, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2020. She is the winner of the 2021 Levis Reading Prize, the 2021 Luschei Prize for African Poetry and longlisted for the 2021 PEN Open Book Award. She served as the inaugural Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in Writing and Publishing at Cleveland State University, as the provost graduate fellow in the creative writing Ph.D. program at the University of Cincinnati, and as the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence at Smith College. Chatti is Tunisian-American and has lived in the US, Tunisia and Southern France. She currently teaches in the low-residency M.F.A. program at Pacific University and has returned to the University of Cincinnati as a provost fellow. As a mentor to young writers, Leila Chatti is a poet who represents the best of the Spartan spirit.

Ms. Alexandra Nicole Clark

B.A. in Hospitality Business/Food Science, 2010, Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University Post Graduate Degree in Agricommerce, 2012, Massey University Founder & President of Bon Bon Bon Sawyer, MI Alex Clark is an outstanding 2010 graduate of MSUs highly ranked Hospitality Business and Agriculture programs. After receiving certification in chocolate from The French Pastry School of Chicago, she left the country on a full ride scholarship to New Zealands prestigious Massey University to complete a postgraduate diploma in Agricultural Commerce and continue her research on value chains in the cocoa and chocolate industry with USAIDs Partnerships for Food Industry Development. She traveled the world to study and stage attending Vancouvers Ecole Chocolat before returning to Michigan to study under Master Pastry Chef Joe Decker and Master Chef Jeff Gabriel at Schoolcraft College. Clark has since taken her entrepreneurial spirit, passion for design, and love of chocolate and merged them into a phenomenally successful business, Bon Bon Bon a wildly popular artisan chocolate company. Since opening in the Detroit-surrounded city of Hamtramck in 2014, the shop has earned national acclaim, expanded into a 5,000-square-foot factory, added four retail shops, a full-service e-commerce platform and earned features from likes of Shake Shack and The James Beard Foundation. Clark's work has received acclaim from Bon Appetit, Food & Wine Magazine, Martha Stewart, Crains (20 in their 20s), and Forbes Magazine (Best Pastry Chef Under 30). Alex continues to challenge the status quo as Founder and President of Bon Bon Bon while also growing a small portfolio of like-minded businesses from publishing to household supplies. She has appeared on the cover of Spartan Magazine and generously given her time to MSU students and alumni through various programs and events.

Ms. Endea N. Owens

B. MUS. in Jazz Studies, 2015, College of Music, Michigan State University M.M. in Jazz Studies, 2018, The Juilliard School Recording Artist, Bassist and Composer New York, NY Endea Owens graduated from the College of Music in 2015 with a degree in Jazz Studies. She went on to earn a masters degree from the Juilliard School and began her remarkable career as a jazz musician. She has performed internationally as a collaborative artist with jazz greats such as Jennifer Holliday, Rhonda and Diana Ross, Jazzmeia Horn, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Steve Turre, and Lea Delaria. Currently, Owens is the bassist with the house band on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS. Owens has won an Emmy, a Grammy Award, and a George Foster Peabody Award. Her work has appeared on Jon Batistes Grammy Award-winning album We Are, the Oscar-nominated film Judas and the Black Messiah, and H.E.Rs widely acclaimed Super Bowl LV performance. In addition, she was named among the 2019 class of Emerging Artists by Lincoln Center for Performing Arts. In 2020, Ms. Owens founded the Community Cookout, an organization that makes New York City a better place through music, activism, and meals. To date, Endeas organization has helped feed close to 3,000 New Yorkers and has hosted over a dozen free music concerts. Endea is set to premiere a newly commissioned work with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and will serve as the 2023 MAC Music Innovator with the organization. Additionally, Owens is the curator for the National Arts Club and a fellow for Jazz is Now! with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. As a proud MSU alum, Endea exemplifies the Spartan spirit in her passion for philanthropy and teaching.

Philanthropist Award

Mrs. Bonnie Ann Larson

B.A. in Social Science - Teaching, 1970, College of Social Science, Michigan State University Philanthropist & Cultural Leader Bloomfield Hills, MI and Naples, FL Bonnie Larson is a philanthropist and cultural leader who is an advocate for the arts in Southeastern Michigan and at Michigan State University. She has held leadership positions in iconic arts institutions, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Cranbrook Academy and Museum. Additionally, she has served on the boards of Meridian International in Washington, DC, the Detroit Zoo, Kids Kicking Cancer and the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan. Larson graduated from MSU with a bachelors degree from the College of Social Science. She is a founding member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum and past chair of its International Advisory Board. She established the Bonnie A. Larson Aspiring Musicians Endowment for the Community Music School in Detroit, and the Bonnie A. Larson Music Scholarship Endowment at the College of Music. Additionally, she facilitated valuable partnerships between the College of Music and the DSO. In 2021, she was invited to join the College of Music National Leadership Council. As Bonnie Larson is an enthusiastic supporter of MSU Athletics, Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Alan Haller recently requested that she join the newly formed AD Advisory Board. Additionally, she has endowed a scholarship for student athletes in mens basketball at MSU in honor of Coach Tom Izzo. Coming from a family of proud Spartans, Larson established the Cecile A. and Donald R. Borgeson Education Enhancement Fund within the Eli Broad College of Business, in honor of her parents. Bonnie Larson continues to inspire others with her unwavering dedication and commitment to philanthropic leadership, which has made a long-lasting impact at MSU and in the Detroit community.