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Founders Day 2012 award recipients

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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