Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters to be awarded

Nancy Aossey earned a marketing degree in 1982 and an MBA in 1984, both from UNI. She has gained national and international recognition for her success as president and CEO of International Medical Corps, a humanitarian organization that provides health care training and relief and development programs worldwide. IMC is often the first responder in disaster situations around the world. By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at highest risk, IMC rehabilitates devastated health care and economic systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.

Ms. Aossey joined IMC in 1986, and has guided the organization from its three-employee beginnings to a $100-million-plus relief organization with more than 4,000 volunteers and staff working in 21 countries. Her success as an executive has been widely recognized by the business community, citing her success in applying an entrepreneurial perspective to reach humanitarian goals. Ms. Aossey has appeared on various television news programs and has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Business Journal. In 2006, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Center for Creative Leadership and was named Non-Profit CEO of the Year by the Los Angeles Business Journal. She was presented with the prestigious 2007 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

Ms. Aossey has forged a reputation among international policy makers, becoming increasingly influential as an advisor around the globe on issues of humanitarian assistance. Ms. Aossey has been a frequent guest at the White House where she has briefed the president, vice president and first lady on humanitarian issues. She has testified before the U.S. Congress, served as chairman of the board of InterAction, America’s largest coalition of international relief organizations, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Pacific Council on International Policy, and USAID’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid. She is a commissioner for the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and a member of the Young President’s Organization.

Sheri Greenawald ’60 is an alumna of UNI’s School of Music. Her career as a professional singer has involved major leading operatic roles under the world’s most famous conductors. These appearances have occurred in the most prestigious international opera houses and concert halls around the globe. She is considered a star in both the opera and classical music fields, as evidenced by her invitations to perform and teach at prominent venues and institutions. Her professional singing has been met with rave reviews and resulted in invitations by leading conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, and the late Leonard Bernstein.

Sheri has performed at the most prestigious venues in the world including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Venice’s La Fenice, the Munich State Opera, Paris’ Chatelet Theater, Welsh National Opera, Seattle Opera Company, Houston Grand Opera, the Netherlands Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Naples’ Teatro San Carlos, Washington Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Dallas Opera and many others. Greenawald toured with Leonard Bernstein and the Israel Philharmonic to New York, London, Zurich, Naples, and Paris. She was honored as Seattle Opera’s Artist of the Year in 1998. She taught at the Boston Conservatory for several years before accepting her current position as director of the San Francisco Opera Center.

She has sung with symphony orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.