CONWAY, Ark. (March 26, 2019)
— The Hendrix College Alumni Association will honor three alumni, Carol Hampton Rasco ’69, Heather Michelle
Newell ’11, and Douglas Hutchings ’05 at the Alumni Association Awards Brunch to
be held Saturday, April 6, at 10 a.m., in Worsham Student Performance Hall in
the Student Life and Technology Center. The brunch is part of the College’s Alumni
Weekend festivities.
The 2019 Alumni Association
Award honorees are:
Distinguished
Alumna Award — Carol Hampton Rasco ’69
Carol Hampton Rasco has been
a lifelong policy advocate for children, improving education, promoting early
literacy, and supporting children with disabilities. She spent a decade as
Chief Policy Advisor to Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, serving as liaison to
the National Governors Association during that time. She went on to serve as
Director of the Domestic Policy Council for President Clinton, spending four
years in the White House influencing national policy regarding immunizations,
disability rights, immigration, and healthcare. Her career led to a role as
senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, directing the
America Reads Challenge, a four-year national campaign that promoted the
importance of children reading well and independently by the end of the third
grade. Rasco also served as the Executive Director for Government Relations at
the College Board. As President and CEO of Reading Is Fundamental, she grew the
organization’s national presence by increasing community and private
partnerships, enabling it to provide 4.4 million children with free books and
literacy resources each year, including the addition of tips and resources for
parents.
Hendrix
Humanitarian Award — Heather Michelle Newell ’11
Heather Michelle Newell has
spent the last seven years gaining experience in international education,
social enterprise, women’s empowerment, and mental health. She served in the
U.S. Peace Corps in Rwanda, then consulted for a microfinance bank and helped
launch The Women’s Bakery, which trains women to run and operate
nutrition-centric bakeries in East Africa. Newell now works in the mental
health field, facilitating connections to work and educational opportunities
for young adults with mental health barriers. She also chairs the advisory
board for Growing Colorado Kids, a refugee organization that teaches refugee
and immigrant youth to harvest and cook healthy food; and she has written and
published a variety of articles specific to LGBTQ+ topics and issues.
Outstanding
Young Alumnus Award — Douglas Hutchings ’05
Douglas Hutchings has worked
in the solar industry to develop cutting-edge technology, optimize the supply
chain for local installers, and to advocate for intelligent policy at the
local, state, and national level. He co-founded Picasolar, a solar equipment
company built around technology he developed while conducting research for his
master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Arkansas. He has served on
the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority STEM Advisory Board, and was a
founding board member of the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association and its
corresponding Foundation. Hutchings supports entrepreneurship in Arkansas
through his work with the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the UA
and Innovate Arkansas, playing a role in ensuring that Arkansas graduates can
join a company or create their own job, regardless of their academic
discipline.
Other featured activities
for Alumni Weekend 2019 include the induction of the Class of 1969 in the Half
Century Club, an alumni memorial service, and an afternoon of “Last Lectures to
Alumni” by four retiring faculty: Dr. Stella M.
Čapek, Professor of Sociology; Danny
Grace ’77, Professor of Theatre Arts; Dr. Wayne
Oudekerk, Professor of German; and Dr. Joyce Hardin,
Professor of Biology. View
the full Alumni Weekend schedule here.
About
Hendrix College
A private liberal arts
college in Conway, Arkansas, Hendrix College consistently earns recognition as
one of the country’s leading liberal arts institutions, and is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That
Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges. Its academic quality and
rigor, innovation, and value have established Hendrix as a fixture in numerous
college guides, lists, and rankings. Founded in 1876, Hendrix has been
affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. To learn more, visit www.hendrix.edu.