Chatham announces 2023 alumni award winners
Chatham University recognized successful alumni during the Alumni Remembrance and Awards Recognition Ceremony held on October 14 at the 2023 Alumni Reunion Weekend. Below are all the 2023 Chatham University Alumni Award winners.
Distinguished Alumni Award
The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes individuals whose achievements fulfill the University's core values: sustainability, women’s leadership and gender equity, diversity and inclusion, and community engagement.
Diane Ayers ’78 was chosen by the Alumni Association Board for the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award. Ms. Ayers is a fiction writer, poet, illustrator, editor, and author of the acclaimed first novel, Other Girls, which explores women’s friendships, gender fluidity, and feminist satire set at a women’s college. She has worked as a contributing editor at Pittsburgh Magazine, as a documentary researcher for WQED, and as co-director of the Folger Shakespeare Library exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art. She taught at the Young Writers Conference at The University of Pennsylvania and worked as a research assistant for a UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh oncology study. She published a poetry chapbook, Rotation Stabilizes, and was featured in the Philadelphia Noir short story collection.
Cornerstone Award Winners
The Cornerstone Awards were established to recognize the achievements and leadership of Chatham undergraduate alumni who demonstrate the essence of a Chatham education.
Ann Kessler Guinan ’68 was recognized with the Cornerstone Award for Ancient Studies. Ms. Guinan is a consulting scholar at the Babylonian Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) and a series editor for “Magic and Divination in the Ancient World,” published by Brill Academic Press (Leiden, Netherlands and Boston, USA). She is one of the original members of GeMANE (Gender and Methodology in the ancient Near East). She is also on the editorial board of “wEdge: Cutting-Edge Research in Cuneiform Studies” (Zaphon Publications).
Dr. Barbara Wilhelm ’73 received the Cornerstone Award for Liberal Arts. A board-certified specialist in family practice and emergency medicine, Dr. Wilhelm practices at Farmington Medical Center in Michigan, where she has seen patients of every age with issues ranging from urgent physical care to mental health. In addition to her medical career, Dr. Wilhelm has written and published eight mystery and historical romance novels. Her book In Your Dreams is based around Chatham College and its Tiffany window. She has welcomed medical and physician assistant students to train in her office over the years and has participated in various capacities with Chatham’s Alumni Association.
Dr. Janet Summers ’74 was recognized with the Cornerstone Award for Optometry. Dr. Summers is an optometrist in Pittsburgh. She has served as chief of optometry at Penn Group Health Plan in Pittsburgh and established five private practices, where she precepted optometry students from her alma mater, the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. More recently, she joined the University of the Incarnate Word Rosenberg School of Optometry in 2018 as a clinical professor and mission trip leader, taking her teams to Panama and Guatemala. Today, she serves as chief of UIW RSO Bowden Eyecare and Health Center in San Antonio.
Young Alumni Awards
The Young Alumni Awards are presented to one undergraduate and one graduate alumnus of the past 15 years who have demonstrated a commitment to the core values of Chatham through their professional work or volunteer efforts.
Tishanna Lewison ’08, MSCP ’09 was recognized as the Undergraduate Young Alumni winner. She has worked in counseling, achieving licenses and certifications on a national level. Ms. Lewison strongly believes in giving back and is involved in multiple business and employee resource groups, serving as the DEI co-chair for West Penn Hospital. In 2023, she was honored to be named an Allegheny Health Network Integrated Clinical Ethics Champion for her work in preventative ethics. She is active in various community organizations, including chairing the community service division of the Greater Pittsburgh Business and Professional Women’s Organization.
Dr. Jordon Yakoby, DNP ’17 received the Graduate Young Alumni Award. A 2017 Doctor of Nursing Practice program alumnus, Dr. Yakoby is a fellowship-trained nurse practitioner in neurocritical care and stroke neurology. His studies at Chatham launched his academic career in nursing, and he now serves as director, chief nurse administrator, and associate professor of nursing at Touro University. Dr. Yakoby was recently inducted as a fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine and recently appointed by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice. He serves on the boards of directors of several organizations, including Freedom Network USA, an anti-human trafficking organization, and the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a sexual violence treatment and prevention organization.