MADISON, WI (September 28, 2022) — The Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) will celebrate the fifth anniversary of Alumni Park with special festivities and the unveiling of 11 new alumni honorees and their exhibits featured in the park.

Many of those new honorees, including U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Governor Tony Evers, are scheduled to attend a ceremony and community celebration.

A gift to the University of Wisconsin–Madison from alumni and friends around the world, Alumni Park tells the story of what it means to be a Badger. Located on the UW-Madison campus, Alumni Park contains inspiring sculptures, statues, panels, inscriptions, and beloved UW traditions. The exhibits — laid out in 10 areas of distinction such as health and medicine, education, and the environment — feature more than 120 alumni, highlighting decades of achievements beyond the classroom, which embodies the Wisconsin Idea: the UW’s cherished principle that the “beneficent influence” of the university should reach to the borders of the state and well beyond.

In 2009, the park was conceived as an elegant and spirited way to complete the Lakefront Gateway, which includes the Gordon Dining and Event Center, East Campus Mall, Library Mall, the Red Gym, Memorial Union, and the Lake Mendota shoreline. Alumni Park opened on October 6, 2017.

The new Alumni Park honorees include:

• Kiana Beaudin ’10, MPAS’15 (scheduled to attend the event)

Executive Director of Health, Ho-Chunk Nation

• William Campbell MS’54, PhD’57 (will attend event virtually)

Discovered the drug ivermectin and won a Nobel Prize

• André De Shields ’70

Tony award-winning actor

• Tony Evers ’73, MS’76, PhD’86 (scheduled to attend the event)

Governor of Wisconsin

• Elzie Higginbottom ’65 (scheduled to attend the event)

Founder of East Lake Management, one of the largest real estate development firms in Illinois

• Geraldine Hines JD’71 (scheduled to attend the event)