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DU announces 2012 Founders Day honorees

Among his many acts of service to DU, Doug Scrivner makes weekly flights from his California home to teach corporate governance risk and compliance at the Sturm College of Law. Photo courtesy of Snavely and Associates

The University of Denver has announced the recipients of the 2012 Founders Day Awards, which recognize accomplishments of alumni, faculty and staff. The 2012 awards will be handed out at a gala reception March 8 at the Seawell Grand Ballroom in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

The Evans Award — the University’s highest alumni honor — will be presented to Doug Scrivner (JD ’77). Helping DU grow over the past 40 years, Scrivner sits on various University committees and makes weekly flights from his California home to teach corporate governance risk and compliance at the Sturm College of Law. He was an adviser on the law school’s recent strategic planning exercise, has been a leader on several DU fundraising campaigns and served on the search committee that led to the appointment of Martin Katz as dean of Sturm. In addition, he developed the concept and provided initial funding for the Ved Nanda Center for International Law.

The Ammi Hyde Award for Recent Graduate Achievement will go to Erik Myhren (MA ’03). Myhren, an elementary school teacher in Denver for the past 14 years, introduced the sport of lacrosse to inner-city kids several years ago, and a handful of them fell in love. The story is so powerful that it became the subject of the award-winning documentary City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story. Myhren also founded Connect the Kids, a nonprofit that introduces disadvantaged Denver kids to enrichment programs in areas ranging from arts and academics to sports and life skills.

Emmit McHenry (BA ’66) will receive the Randolph P. McDonough Award for Service to Alumni. McHenry’s many DU volunteer activities have included serving as president of the Alumni Association, mentoring staff and alumni, and serving on the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Alumni Board.

The Distinguished Service to the University Award will be presented to Cathy Grieve (MA ’72, PhD ’79), DU’s executive director of conferences, events and special programs. Formerly a faculty member in the communications department, then director of the Office of Special Community Programs, Grieve—who has worked at DU for more than 30 years—now oversees everything from Convocation to the upcoming presidential debate.

Leslie Howard (EMBA ’03) is the recipient of the Community Service Award. Howard and her husband, Gary, started the Gary and Leslie Howard Family Foundation, which provides scholarships to students who want to study business at the University of Denver or Colorado State University. The Howards also organize and run the annual Miracles on Ice hockey camp on the DU campus, serving children who live in Denver’s housing projects.

Daphne Preuss (BS ’85) will receive the Professional Achievement Award. Preuss, a former professor of molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of Chicago, is CEO and co-founder of Chromatin Inc. in Chicago. Among other things, the company is using proprietary technology to develop specialized types of sorghum that can be turned into high-energy biofuels to run vehicles and power plants.

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