Alumni of the Year Award

About the Award

Established in 2019, the UW Bothell Alumni of the Year Award recognizes individuals who have exemplified the core values of UW Bothell (Transformational Education, Engaged Scholarship and Inclusive Culture) within the past year.

Nominate an individual for the Alumni of the Year Award today!

Nominations collected year-round. A recipient is selected in the spring and awarded at a special event.

Alumni of the Year Award Recipients

2022 Recipient: Aaron Davis

Growing up, Aaron Davis dealt with unstable housing and, at times, was without a home. “There were many periods of my life where my family’s housing stability crumbled, and we had to rely on the kindness of distant relatives to survive,” Davis said. “These hardships helped drive a passion in me as an adult to focus on the needs and well-being of people most likely to get left out of supportive systems.”

After graduating from the University of Washington Bothell’s School of Nursing & Health Studies in 2021, and is currently pursuing a degree in epidemiology at UW Seattle.

2021 Recipient: George Ahearn

Growing up in Eastern Washington, George Ahearn noticed a lack of health care resources in rural areas. To help alleviate the need, he founded the company called West Infusion Nurses’ Network, which strives to provide people who have autoimmune and genetic disorders with access to quality health care.

Then, farmers in Othello, Ahearn’s old hometown, had a disrupted food chain due to the coronavirus pandemic. They were forced to waste many onions and potatoes, plowing them back into the ground. Hearing about this, Ahearn took action, and that was the beginning of the food rescue organization which focuses on moving food to where it’s needed.

George Ahearn graduated from the University of Washington Bothell in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and in 2005 earned an Executive Master in Health Administration degree from the UW in Seattle.

2020 Recipients: Priya Frank // David Ryder

The UW Bothell Alumni Council is excited to announce that it has chosen two remarkable alumni as recipients of the 2020 Alumni of the Year Award. Coincidentally, Priya and David have worked together often, both as students in the MACS program and as professionals, dedicated to shedding light on and creating change around issues of social/environmental justice through the arts.

Priya Frank

Priya Frank (MACS ’11) when Priya Frank entered the MACS program in 2009, she came with a passion for community development and stewardship. The career she’d already begun coupled with the skills she developed at UW Bothell led to her current position as Associate Director for Community Programs at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and recognition as one of Puget Sound Business Journal’s (PSBJ) 40 Under 40 this year.

David Ryder

David Ryder (MACS ’11) has been an independent Seattle photographer and filmmaker for more than 15 years. His portfolio is extensive and includes images for The New York Times, Getty Images, Bloomberg News, and Reuters, Ryder uses theoretical approaches from his M.A. in Cultural Studies (MACS) training. “MACS allowed me time and resources to improve my cultural ‘product.” Most recently, David’s photo was published on the front cover of TIME Magazine.

2019 Recipient: Stefan Torres

Stefan Torres (Nursing & Health Studies ’14), who is gaining fame and influence with his Nurse Stefan videos on social media, is the recipient of the University of Washington Bothell Alumni Council’s first Alumni of the Year Award.

In 2018, Torres won the It Takes a Nurse Video Challenge, a national competition hosted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. And, he was recognized as one of the UW School of Nursing’s centennial 100 influencers.