Media Advisory: UB Alumni Association to present Achievement Awards Friday

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo Alumni Association will honor alumni and friends who have brought distinction to the university at the 2015 Achievement Awards program to be held at 6 p.m. Friday, March 27, in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

UB President Satish K. Tripathi and UBAA President Carol Gloff (BS ’75) will present the awards.

Honorees will include Steven Guttenberg, a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon in Washington, D.C., and president of the Washington Institute for Mouth, Face and Jaw Surgery, who will accept the association’s highest honor, the Samuel P. Capen Award.

The International Distinguished Alumni Award will be presented to Alejandro Rivera Becerra of Chihuahua, Mexico, a distinguished diplomat for Mexico who directs environmental governance and is Mexico’s chief negotiator at the United Nations on issues of climate change.

Other honorees attending the ceremony are:

• Rear Adm. Rebecca McCormick-Boyle, deputy chief, U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine, Education and Training, and commander, Navy Medicine Education and Training Command.
• Arthur Goshin, co-founder of Univera Health and founder of the Health Foundation of Western and Central New York.
• Stephanie Mucha, who will receive the Walter P. Cooke Award, which recognizes notable and meritorious contributions to the university and its family by non-alumni.
• Dale Fish, who retired from UB in December, concluding a 40-year career at the university, who will receive the Richard T. Sarkin Award for Excellence in Teaching.
• Mark Travers, research assistant professor in the School of Public Health and Health Professions, who will receive the George W. Thorn Award, given to distinguished alumni under 40.

In addition, The Philip B. Wels Outstanding Service Award will be given to the Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council in recognition of the council’s role as a model advisory group. With more than two dozen members, the group has led the engineering school through multiple transitions while also helping to steer the success of numerous university events.

Press arrangements: Ann Brown, onsite, at 716-491-1803.