Young Alumna Award, Young Alumnus Award

Ululani Brigitte Russo Oana BA ’15

2023
Outstanding Young Alumna Award

Ululani is a middle school science educator in Hawaiʻi who epitomizes an unwavering commitment to fostering culturally responsive pedagogy and environmental stewardship. She teaches at Waianae Intermediate School as a member of Teach for America. Ululani was recognized for her ability to intersect science curriculum with ʻike kupuna (ancestral knowledge), and in 2022 she was selected for a We The Peoples Before Education Fellowship organized by the First Peoples Fund, a nonprofit organization that works to support the art and culture of Indigenous communities. During this time she earned her MS in education from Johns Hopkins University and her PhD in education from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Young Alumna Award, Young Alumnus Award

Dan Caplen ’12

2022
Outstanding Young Alumnus Award

Watch the Alumni Honors Celebration 2023!

Dan is trained in a number of instruments and music production, and he was very involved with the music department while at L&C. In 2018, he scored his first number-one record. He has sold over 10 million records, has streaming numbers in the billions, and just signed a new publishing deal in Los Angeles.

Young Alumnus Award

Chris Bailey ’08

2021
Outstanding Young Alumnus Award

Watch the Alumni Honors Celebration 2022!

Chris is senior business advisor with the Portland Mercado, a Latinx market hall and culturally inclusive business incubator, and project director with Community Co-Pack, a manufacturing startup supporting the scaling of BIPOC- and women-owned consumer products. He is committed to supporting a more diverse and equitable ecosystem for entrepreneurs.

2020, Young Alumna Award

Kemiyondo Coutinho BA ’12 - 2020 Outstanding Young Alumna Award

2020
Outstanding Young Alumna Award

Kemiyondo is the founder of a production company, a music platform, and the #fivefor5 initiative, which will grant five Ugandan female filmmakers the chance to make a short film. Her own directorial debut film, Kyenvu, won multiple international awards; additional awards and honors include John Singleton’s Filmmaker’s Fellowship, Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud Filmmaking Fellowship, a Shadow and Act Rising Star Award, Forbes Africa30 Under 30 recipient, and OKAY Africa’s 100 Women of Africa to Watch recipient. Kemiyondo can be seen in Apple TV’s Little America, and wrote for MTV’s Undressed and Starz’s Step Up: High Water.
2019, Young Alumnus Award
Nate Jones BA '05

Nate Jones ’05

2019
Outstanding Young Alumnus Award
Meet Nate in this video!

In November 2019, Nate joined the Washington Post as its first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) director. Prior to this he served as FOIA director for the National Security Archive, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that fights for the public release of secret historic documents where he remains a fellow. Nate has overseen thousands of FOIA requests and appeals and continues to work as a liaison with federal agencies on FOIA matters.

Young Alumnus Award

Jeff Cruttenden ’12

2018
Outstanding Young Alumnus Award
Meet Jeff in this video!


Jeff is the cofounder of SAY, a technology platform that transforms stock ownership by opening communication between companies and their owners. The idea was born at Jeff’s first company, Acorns, which he cofounded with his father, Walter, to radically simplify and democratize investing.
Young Alumnus Award

David Norse-Thomas ’08

2017
Outstanding Young Alumnus Award
Meet David in this video!

After graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary, David was ordained in 2014 to work at Broad Street Ministry, a progressive faith community, in Philadelphia. He started a spirituality group for LGBTQ+ youth, along with creating an LGBTQ+ Fellowship. He is currently pastor of Maryland Presbyterian Church in Towson, Maryland.
Young Alumna Award

Haben Girma ’10

2016
Outstanding Young Alumna Award
Meet Haben in this video!

Haben Girma has earned recognition as a White House Champion of Change, in Forbes’ “30 Under 30” celebration, and as a subject in the BBC World Service series “Women of Africa.” The first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, she advocates for equal access to information for people with disabilities.

Young Alumna Award

Samantha Robison ’08

2015
Outstanding Young Alumna Award
Meet Samantha Robison in this video!

Samantha is the Founder and Executive Director of Awareness and Prevention through Art (aptART), an organization of artists and activists dedicated to sharing artistic experiences with conflict affected and marginalized youth throughout the world.
Young Alumna Award, Young Alumnus Award

Usman Ally ’04

2014
Outstanding Young Alumnus Award

Award-winning actor Usman Ally, an ensemble member of Chicago’s American Theater Company, has starred in acclaimed theatre premiers around the country, including an adaptation of Disney’s The Jungle Book, The Invisible Hand, Disgraced, and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. His television work includes roles on Damages, Boss, and Madam Secretary.

2009, Young Alumnus Award

Isaac Holeman ’09

2013
Outstanding Young Alumnus Award
Meet Isaac Holeman in this video!

A cofounder of social enterprise Medic Mobile, Holeman has earned wide recognition for the company’s innovative work using communication technologies to improve the health of underserved communities. A member of the Pamplin Society of Fellows, he has also been recognized as a Compton fellow, Echoling Green fellow, mHealth innovator of the year, and a member of Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30: Social Entrepreneurs list. He is earning a Ph.D. in management studies at University of Cambridge on a highly competitive Gates Cambridge Scholarship.

1999, Young Alumna Award

Nicolle Rager Fuller ’99

2013
Outstanding Young Alumna Award
Meet Nicolle Rager Fuller in this video!
Nicole Fuller is a science illustrator whose artwork helps the general public recognize and navigate the science inherent in our daily lives—from new medical therapies, to environmental issues, to emerging knowledge about our universe. Through her business, Sayo-Art, she works with clients including Science News, the National Science Foundation, the American Association for Cancer Research, and several universities. She recently won the Research and Knowledge Communication category in the Association of Illustrators’ annual international competition.
2008, Young Alumna Award
Amber Case

Amber Case ’08

2012
Young Alumna Award

Amber Case is a cyborg anthropologist and a cofounder of Geoloqi, a company that developed a platform for real-time location-based services. She has been featured in Forbes and Wired magazines, spoken at SXSW, TED and MIT on technology and humans, and was named by Fast Company as one of the Most Influential Women in Technology in 2010. She studies the interaction between humans and computers and how relationships with information are changing the way cultures think, act, and understand their worlds.
honors, Young Alumnus Award
Matthias Fripp

Matthias Fripp ’99

2011
Young Alumnus Award
Matthias Fripp is a research fellow in renewable energy at the Environmental Change Institute and Exeter College, University of Oxford. He specializes in modeling the technical and economic performance of power systems with large shares of renewable energy, using quantitative analysis to go beyond preconceptions of the role that renewable energy can play. He holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California at Berkeley.
1997, Young Alumnus Award

Naomi Pomeroy ’97

2010
Outstanding Young Alumna
Naomi Pomeroy is the chef and owner of Beast. Since the restaurant opened in 2007, accolades and awards have followed, including features in Gourmet, Elle, and Marie Claire magazine.
2001, Young Alumnus Award
Sadna Samaranayake '01

Sadna Samaranayake ‘01

2009
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in communication and international affairs , Sadna co-created a web design and development business, InSiteLogic, Inc (www.insitelogic.com), which provides websites and custom web based solutions to a broad range of clients, including over 30 professional member based associations across the United States. As a Partner and Director she manages client services, liaising between clients, designers and developers, and handles long term strategic planning, marketing and product development.
2004, Young Alumnus Award

Satya Byock ‘04

2008
Satya Byock graduated from Lewis & Clark in 2004 with a degree in history. Soon afterward, she traveled to Colombia and developed an internship at a prison in Bogotá, photographing prison life and helping a group of Afro-Colombian male prisoners discuss race discrimination in the prison, nonviolent conflict resolution, and the potential for personal transformation.
1994, Young Alumnus Award

Shahzeb Jillani ‘94

2007
Shahzeb Jillani has established a reputation as a versatile journalist through his international reporting on issues ranging from the environment to politics. As a student, Jillani, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in international affairs, was a resident assistant, leader in student government, member of student media groups, and participant in the international student speakers’ bureau.
1993, Young Alumnus Award

Sagala Ratnayaka ’93

2006
Sagala Ratnayaka initially set his sights on a career in international banking. When he was approached by the head of one of Sri Lanka’s leading political parties to run for a provincial office, though, Ratnayaka saw it as a welcome opportunity to be of service to his community.
1995, Young Alumnus Award

Aaron Myer ‘95

2005
Aaron W. Meyer, who made his stage debut as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 11, combines classical, world, and popular music in a blend often called classical crossover. He has performed at two World Peace Conferences, for the Dalai Lama, in Thailand to raise money for tsunami relief, and with orchestras and ballet companies as well as artists such as Smokey Robinson and the group Everclear.
1990, Young Alumnus Award

Suzanne C. Segerstrom ‘90

2004
Suzanne C. Segerstrom is the 2002 winner of the Templeton Positive Psychology Prize, one of the largest prizes in psychology, for work showing the influence of optimism on cellular immunity. Her research examining psychological influences on the immune system, particularly the interaction between environmental stressors and personality characteristics, is widely cited and has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Norman Cousins Program in Psychoneuroimmunology, the Dana Foundation, and the Templeton Foundation.
1995, Young Alumnus Award

Bal Krishna Joshi ‘95

2003
Bal Krishna Joshi is the founder of Thamel.com, a Web site and business that enables expatriate Nepali to purchase gifts and arrange for their delivery within Nepal. The employee-owned company, which currently employs 40 people, helps sustain the ties of far-flung friends and family and has contributed greatly to the economy of Joshi’s native country.
1995, Young Alumnus Award

Nerissa Koehn ‘95

2002
Koehn was a founding member of the Pamplin Society of Fellows and a Barbara Hirshi Neely Scholar. Additionally, she was named one of Glamour magazine’s Top-Ten College Women. At Lewis & Clark, she served as a hospice volunteer and, while participating in the Kenya overseas study program, she studied traditional healers. Since graduating, Koehn has volunteered with the Office of Admissions and the Holiday Gala alumni choir
1987, Young Alumnus Award

Bradley R. Cairns ‘87

2001
Bradley R. Cairns’ career is impressive, particularly for someone who earned his bachelor’s degree less than 15 years ago. While at Lewis & Clark College, Brad majored in chemistry and graduated with honors. He then enrolled in Stanford University, where he earned a Ph.D. in cell biology. In 1999 he completed a postdoctoral degree in genetics at Harvard Medical School.
1988, Young Alumnus Award

Hideo Nagura ‘88

2000
Hideo Nagura epitomizes the dedication and determination of Lewis & Clark’s brightest students. A transfer student, he entered Lewis & Clark through ISALC, the Institute for the Study of American Language and Culture. He earned his bachelor’s degree in international affairs in 1988.
1988, Young Alumnus Award

Carissa S. Goux ‘88

1999
1985, Young Alumnus Award

Patrick J. Mahaffy ‘85

1998
1983, Young Alumnus Award

John A. Wright ‘83

1997
1981, Young Alumnus Award

David Pitassi ‘81

1995
1981, Young Alumnus Award

Wally Klemp ‘81

1995
1981, Young Alumnus Award

Lee Weinstein ‘81

1994
1980, Young Alumnus Award

Dan Balmer ‘80

1993
1985, Young Alumnus Award

Kieu Oanh Nguyen ‘85

1992
1981, Young Alumnus Award

Roberto A. Alvarez ‘81

1992
1981, Young Alumnus Award

Alyce Sadongei ‘81

1991
Young Alumnus Award

Kelly Clark ‘80

1991
Young Alumnus Award

Leslie Walters Tuomi ‘77

1990
1979, Young Alumnus Award

J. Kingston Pierce ‘79

1990
1976, Young Alumnus Award

Melissa Waggener Zorkin ‘76

1989
1980, Young Alumnus Award

Michael Sutton ‘80

1989
1981, Young Alumnus Award

Liz Walker Downing ‘81

1989
1979, Young Alumnus Award

Richard Rolf ‘79

1988
1973, Young Alumnus Award

Nanette Newell ‘73

1988
1981, Young Alumnus Award

Jed Emerson ‘81

1988
1975, Young Alumnus Award

Yamai Secka Jack ‘75, M.A.T. ’76

1987
1978, Young Alumnus Award

Larry Burton ‘78

1987
1981, Young Alumnus Award

Charles Blanchard ‘81

1987
1972, Young Alumnus Award

Douglas Tunnell ‘72

1986
1973, Young Alumnus Award

Beverly Byer ‘73

1986