2006 College of Liberal Arts
ALumni/ae Achievement Award Recipients

When David Audretsch came to Drew from Poughkeepsie, New York, he hoped to be a physicist –until Professor Jerome Cranmer introduced him to economic thought. Thirty years after graduation, as an award-winning economist and prolific scholar, he is outspoken in thanking Drew for preparing him for an impressive career.

After graduating magna cum laude , David went on to the University of Wisconsin. In 1980, after earning M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in economics, he joined the faculty of Middlebury College. In his career he has constantly handled multiple responsibilities involving teaching, research, publication, and consulting.

While at Middlebury David became involved with the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fuer Sozialforschung; David lived in Berlin for 12 years and served as acting director of the organization from 1989 to 1991. Since 1998 he has held Indiana University's Ameritech Chair of Economic Development and directed Indiana's Institute for Development Strategies, to which he has added the directorship of the Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group of the Max Planck Institute of Economics (since 2003). He also teaches geography at Indiana, and is actively involved with three other organizations in Germany, London, and The Netherlands. In addition, he serves as consultant to the Science, Technology and Economic Policy Board of the National Research Council at the National Academy of Sciences and consultant at the World Bank. He has consulted with a wide range of corporations and government agencies at home and abroad. His most recent book, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth , was just published in April 2006 by Oxford University Press. His list of publications is extensive.

David takes great satisfaction in having introduced a new field in economics: the study of entrepreneurs. And he is quick to praise the liberal arts at Drew for equipping him to reason, to question, to make new connections, to think creatively in a way that has enabled him to develop new areas of economic thought and to be a positive force all around the globe. Most significant among his awards was the 2001 International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research, given by the Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research. But if you ask him his greatest professional satisfaction, he is quick to mention his selection as an outstanding teaching assistant when he was a graduate student. And as Traphagen Speaker at Drew in 2003, he brought his expertise back to The Forest.

Other satisfactions include music, hiking, and, above all, his family. David and his wife, Joanne, live in Bloomington, Indiana with their three sons, Alex (15), James (11), and Christopher (7).

Tom Collamore began his career in public service. In the corporate world, he still concentrates on serving the public good.

A native of Bloomfield, Connecticut, Tom was hooked on political science early in life. As a student of Julius Mastro, Douglas Simon, David Cowell, and Perry Leavell, he pursued his love of American history and his political science major, and was active in political campaigns. He worked in the George H. W. Bush campaign in 1979 and arranged for Bush's visit to Drew in 1980. After completing his degree magna cum laude —also with four years of baseball—he was invited to join the new Secretary of Commerce, Malcolm Baldridge, in Washington, D.C. In 1985, after four years as Baldridge's special assistant, Tom received the Commerce Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Achievement. He then served in the White House on Vice President Bush's senior staff for four years. He traveled extensively with the Vice President and was senior traveling aide during the campaign that led to Mr. Bush's election as President in 1988. In the George H. W. Bush administration, he served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Administration and later as Chief of Staff and Assistant Secretary of Commerce.

The 1992 national election results marked the time for Tom to join the private sector, and he has made a graceful transition from success in public service to success in business. In 1992 he joined Philip Morris Companies Inc.—now Altria Group Inc.—as Vice President for Corporate Affairs Policy and Administration, and became Vice President for Corporate Public Affairs three years later. At Altria he is responsible for the strategy, direction, and management of the company's public policy, public affairs, charitable and political giving programs, and outreach. He develops and manages efforts that exemplify Altria's commitment to corporate responsibility, including programs on hunger and domestic violence, support of the arts, and promotion of employee volunteerism. He finds the ability to steward Altria's philanthropy exciting, and is enthusiastic about applying his public service experience in a different sphere.

Tom's commitment to public affairs does not end when he leaves Altria's doors. He is a former Drew trustee and currently serves on Drew's Board of Visitors, and has also been active in the College Alumni/ae Association and in admissions support. He serves on the boards of organizations involved in hunger, health, the arts, and domestic violence in several states and is on the advisory board of the George Bush Presidential Library in College, Station, Texas. He and his wife, Jacqueline, live in Chevy Chase, Maryland with their four children, Thomas Jr. (11), Pauline (10), Sally Ann (9), and Katherine (6).

Kenneth Hellman and Nancy Bottone met at Drew and were married two years after graduation. In their lives they made significant contributions to women's science education. Their deaths, in 2005, have been a great loss to their families and to the Class of 1956.

Ken hailed from Baltimore, Maryland, and came to The Forest from the Baltimore City College high school, lured by Drew's reputation in the liberal arts and the opportunity to play baseball. A chemistry major who was active in student government and sports, he earned Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry at Michigan State University and was a National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Fellow from 1960 to 1961. When Ken received the Ph.D. in 1961, he accepted a teaching position at Smith College, one of the nation's best-known women's colleges. He and Nancy moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, where Ken taught chemistry at Smith until his retirement in 1999.

Ken served multiple terms as chair of the Chemistry Department and of the college's biochemistry program, and directed many graduate students as well as undergraduate summer research programs. His own research activities in the structure of proteins and the dynamics of protein reactions did not prevent him from excelling as a teacher, and he received Smith's Honored Professor Award in 1999. In presenting the award, Smith President Ruth J. Simmons told how he "led by example, persuading his students that they could be exceptional scientists at a time when women were discouraged and even blocked from advanced study in the sciences." In retirement, he was recruited to serve as special assistant to Smith's acting president John Connolly, assisting in the transition to a new president. The Smith Chemistry Department remembers him as "a complete gentleman, a consensus builder, a model of civility," and he is very much missed.

Nancy, a Spanish major at Drew, grew up in Union City, New Jersey. A year after her Drew graduation she completed a master's in teaching at Goucher College, where she was a Ford Foundation Fellow. She taught elementary school in New Jersey, and then in Michigan after she and Ken were married. Upon arriving in Massachusetts, she served in Smith's admissions, development, and art departments, and in 1980 earned an Ed.D. at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The next year Nancy joined U. Mass's College of Engineering, where she founded the Women in Engineering program and spent most of the next 18 years as the program's first woman assistant dean and director. She received the Outstanding Advisor Engineering Award in 1989 and the Advisor of the Year Award in 1990. Two years later she received the Engineering Alumni Association's Special Recognition Award, and, in 1994, the Mary E. Tobin Award from the Massachusetts Association of Women in Education. She is well-remembered for her strengths as an advisor and mentor and her work in recruiting women science students..

Nancy retired from U. Mass in 1999, just as Smith became the first women's college to initiate an engineering program in the context of the liberal arts. Nancy continued to follow her interest in women's science education by becoming special assistant to the director of Smith's Picker Engineering Program, and then as consulting director of the Women In Technology International Invent Center which served Smith, Mount Holyoke, Amherst, and Hampshire Colleges and U. Mass Amherst. She retired in 2002.

The Hellmans were known as a strong team by family, friends, and colleagues. They were among Drew classmates who were active in making the Class of 1956 Scholarship a spectacular success. They shared passions for travel and boating; Nancy, as a long-term cancer survivor, was also active in cancer support groups and as a cancer research advocate. They raised two children, Gregory and Christopher, and had two grandchildren. Their marriage of 45 years ended when Nancy died in January 2005, and family and friends were shocked by Ken's sudden death only nine months later. They are missed by all.

Andy Hershey likes to make friends. His life reflects his pleasure in making new friends and meeting new challenges, and so does his work on behalf of Drew.

A native of York, Pennsylvania, Andy realized after a year at Old Dominion University that he wanted a different school. Drew's size, the Computer Initiative, and the proximity of New York lured him to The Forest. After growing up in a very homogeneous area, he was fascinated and challenged by Drew, where his horizons grew, his mind opened, and he learned how to move into the real world. He thrived on campus, especially enjoying his economics major and political science courses and the influence of Vivian Bull, Barbara Salmore, and then-President Kean. In the 1989 Brussels Semester, he had the heady experience of seeing the Berlin Wall come down.

Upon graduating cum laude , Andy was drawn to a career in technology, just as he had been attracted by Drew's emphasis on applying technology to academics. After a first job with a printing company, he fulfilled his desire to work in technology sales by joining Hitachi Software in California. In 1998 he moved to Computer Associates International, first in the San Francisco area and then in Virginia. In 2001 he joined OPNET Technologies, where he is currently regional sales director for the Metro New York region. In sales, he says, he gets paid to make friends, and he enjoys building new teams, developing new territories, and helping people solve problems through technology.

Andy is articulate about his love of Drew, his obligation to those who made Drew a special place for him, and his desire to advance Drew's reputation. He actively applies his talents with people and team-building to his work as an alumnus. He helped to initiate the Drew San Francisco Bay Club and chaired its steering committee until his move to Virginia, where he now co-chairs the Washington D.C. Club steering committee. He has been active in the College Alumni/ae Association since 1993, when as a participant in the Second Leadership Conference he gave a thoughtful evaluation. He has chaired the Undergraduate Relations and Technology Committee for several years, and has been involved in the Development Committee, as well as serving as an economics volunteer and a Career Online Mentor. He has been extensively involved in admissions support, and has been a Reunion Class Host and volunteer.

Until Andy met Maggie Angell, he thought coming to Drew was the best decision he ever made. Since their marriage, he says, it runs a very close second. Andy and Maggie, a lobbyist for the technology industry, live in Arlington, Virginia and enjoy the challenges of traveling.

The Reverend Mimi Hollister believes in 'taking on the world wherever it comes to you." What better philosophy for a volunteer?

Mimi learned in childhood that the world can come to you unexpectedly. Born in China to second-generation Methodist missionary parents, she fled China with them during World War II and again during the Maoist Revolution in 1949, finally settling in New York City. For college, Mimi chose Drew, a "nice Methodist school." Although at the time she did not anticipate becoming an ordained minister, she later found her Drew religion major very helpful. She speaks of James Pain, now Dean of the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, as a "wonderful guide and teacher."

Marriage followed graduation, and Mimi and her husband raised two girls and a boy in California. She volunteered in her children's activities and in her church, and became involved in a support group for the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Her commitment to environmental and social concerns led her to the San Fernando Valley's Fair Housing Council, and to educating the public about nuclear power plants. She also completed an M.A. in marriage, family and child counseling at Immaculate Heart College and engaged in pastoral counseling.

Returning to New York City, Mimi enrolled at Union Theological Seminary and immediately realized her call to ministry. She was ordained in the United Church of Christ after completing her Master of Divinity degree in 1991. While in New York, she worked for sustainable development and socially responsible investing through connections with the World Council of Churches, encouraged Riverside Church to invest responsibly, and became an advocate for the homeless.

Mimi's second marriage to the Reverend William Hollister, a Presbyterian minister, took her to Marblehead, Massachusetts. After moving to New Hampshire, Mimi initiated a global partnership between the United Church of Christ's New Hampshire Conference and the UCC of Zimbabwe and served as the partnership's part-time minister in mission. The partnership has grown rapidly, and 40 New Hampshire churches now have sister churches in Zimbabwe.

In recent years Mimi has worked hard for Drew, especially as a strong leader of the Class of 1956's spectacular success in funding their class scholarship. Now retired and widowed, Mimi is back in Marblehead. She is still taking on the world, continuing as a consultant to the global partnership and educating her broker in responsible investing!

Major Allen Walker comes by his professional interests honestly—he was an Army brat. His father's teaching post at West Point meant that the family did not move quite as often as many military families, but Allen started high school in Belgium before completing his secondary education at West Point. Appreciation of the small high schools he attended whetted his interest in Drew, and the campus's beauty clinched his choice.

Allen attended Drew on an ROTC Scholarship, which involved attending the Seton Hall ROTC program two days a week throughout his four years in The Forest. For the first two years he was the only Drew ROTC student. He honed his logistical ability by achieving fame—or notoriety—as one of the enterprising students who moved all the chairs in the Commons to the building's roof one memorable night. A computer science major, Allen worked at the Computer Aide Station for most of his Drew career.

Immediately following graduation, Allen was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Artillery, and transferred to the Signal Corps a year later. In 2000, after his promotion to Captain, he completed the Officer Advanced Course at Fort Gordon, Georgia. He then became battalion communications officer with the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg. His unit deployed to Ghana to teach communications to the Ghanaian Army, returning early in 2001. After 9/11, his battalion deployed to Afghanistan, where Allen taught communications to the newly formed Afghan National Army and supported operations against the Taliban.

Returning home, he was assigned to the 112th Signal Battalion (Airborne), which supports all Army special operations. As Company Commander, he was responsible for a company divided among 10 different locations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Qatar. Allen is now stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he is Headquarters Company Commander and also Assistant Operations Officer. He is assigned to the United States Army Systems Performance Office, which tests the latest communications equipment for the Army. He currently lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his sister, who recently graduated from the College of William and Mary.

Allen has a solid record of achievement in the Army, beginning with his graduation in the top ten percent of his Seton Hall ROTC group. He was salutatorian for his class in the Officer Advanced Course. He has received the Major General Newman Award for Leadership, the Army Achievement Award, the Army Commendation Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Bronze Star. Recommendations for these awards, and his recent promotion to Major, indicate that Allen is an outstanding officer.