Awards and Recognition

Margee Bracken ’64 has worked tirelessly to create affordable housing and spread the joy of music. After graduating from Carleton as a psychology major, marrying William Bracken ’63, and becoming a mother, Bracken embraced a challenge to construct quality, affordable housing, and, her success led to a career in low-income housing development. She founded Home Pride, a company intent on building houses in a struggling part of Minneapolis, and she later joined Brighton Development as a Project Manager to work on subsidized and moderately priced housing as well as several historic preservation projects along the Mississippi River. In the early 2000s she played a critical role in forming the Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation, which later became the Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, developing permanent housing with services for those experiencing homelessness. Her construction expertise and calm, steady nature proved invaluable as the organization encountered protests and an unsuccessful lawsuit during its construction of Lydia Apartments, a supportive housing. Along with her efforts to improve the quality of life for others, Bracken is an active leader in the Minnesota arts community as a longtime board member of the MacPhail Center for Music. She also chairs the Minnesota Orchestra after many years serving on its board of directors, overseeing fundraising events, and employing thoughtful, personal diplomacy to help end an 18-month lockout and rebuild relationships. “There is no doubt,” one nominator writes, “that the city of Minneapolis is a better place because of Margee’s steadfast commitment.” Bracken lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

For over 40 years, Chris Hansen ’69 was a lawyer for the ACLU, specializing in defending the First Amendment rights of individuals and protecting people from invidious discrimination. Hansen, a government major at Carleton, holds a JD from the University of Chicago. Among his many notable cases, he was the key litigator in the landmark Willowbrook case, which became the impetus for a nationwide revolution in care of intellectually disabled people, and the lead counsel on the reopened Brown v. Board of Education, which forced a Kansas school district to honor the Supreme Court’s 1954 mandate to desegregate public schools. As senior staff counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Hansen successfully challenged an effort by Congress to criminalize constitutionally protected speech on the web in Reno v. ACLU and worked on several other cases that established that states may not regulate the Internet. At the end of his illustrious career, Hansen led ACLU efforts in the Supreme Court case AMP v. Myriad Genetics, ultimately persuading all nine Supreme Court justices that companies should not be permitted to own patents on genes. This decision has significantly reduced the cost of screening tests and improved the lives and health of women facing increased risk of breast or ovarian cancer due to genetic history. Hansen’s deep belief that everyone is entitled to basic rights, along with his dedication to mentoring young attorneys, has inspired scores of civil liberties advocates across the country. He lives in Mount Vernon, New York. 

Known for essentially creating the field of restoration ecology, Evelyn Howell ’69 has had an immense impact on the natural world and everyone in it. Her research, scholarship, and influence as an applied plant ecologist has stretched worldwide, from her home in Madison, Wisconsin, to Africa. She is renowned for her seminal ecology textbooks Introduction to Restoration Ecology and The Historical Ecology Handbook: A Restorationist’s Guide to Reference Ecosystems. Equally notable are her contributions to higher education—throughout her four decades as a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Howell has earned accolades such as the UW-Madison Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the UW-Madison College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award, and the UW-Madison Doris Slesinger Award for Excellence in Mentoring. Additionally, Howell has been a National Academies education fellow in the life sciences and a fellow with the University of Wisconsin Teaching Academy. She has also served her peers as head of the faculty senate and her students as a faculty fellow for UW-Madison’s honors residence hall and as faculty co-director of the Women in Science and Engineering residential learning community. Branching outward, she has also worked with the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, the International Crane Foundation, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and several resource management organizations. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Carleton and a master’s degree and PhD in botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Howell lives in Madison, Wisconsin. 

Starting in 1974, Helene Reichgott Johnson ’69 has chaired or co-chaired nine out of ten of her class’s Carleton reunions—with volunteers working together for up to two and a half years prior to the celebration, this equates to more than 20 years of service to the College. Her enthusiasm to increase attendance at the Class of 1969’s 25^th Reunion led to an innovative approach of including more classmates in the planning of reunion, and it paid off. More alumni attended reunion for the first time, and Carleton’s Office of Alumni Affairs subsequently adopted Johnson’s philosophy, enhancing reunion planning for all class years. This has resulted in exponential growth in reunion attendance and reunion giving. Johnson also brings expertise and wisdom to reunion planning, having earned a master’s degree in adult and continuing education from the University of Minnesota and spending almost four decades as executive director of Government Training Service (later GTS Educational Events) in St. Paul, Minnesota. For each reunion, she keenly identifies topic possibilities that will resonate with her classmates at the time of each reunion and relevant to their stage of life. Johnson has also been instrumental in uniting Carls of all classes by helping organize an alumnae event attended by more than 90 people from the Class of 1960 to the Class of 2015. Additionally, she has volunteered with the admissions office and Career Center and is a member of the Joseph Lee Heywood Society. Johnson lives in Golden Valley, Minnesota. 

Few people have an asteroid named in their honor—but few people have contributed as much to science as Candace Kohl ’69 has. A cosmochemist who embodies passion, curiosity, courage, and integrity, Kohl graduated from Carleton as a chemistry major and completed her PhD in chemistry at the University of California, San Diego. She has since conducted fieldwork on all seven continents, including drilling 2 miles through the Greenland ice cap to its bedrock to collect the longest time record of climate in the northern hemisphere. She is also credited with helping establish a method for studying solar cosmic ray flux by measuring lunar rocks, and of extending the methods first established on meteorites and lunar samples to measure ages of landforms on the earth. In 1988 renowned geologist and astronomer team Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker named main-belt asteroid 4899 after Kohl, stating that “Candace has no reluctance or fear of the unknown. She is a ball of fire—who studies fireballs!” Kohl is active in the scientific community as well, having served as vice president of the Board of Trustees of the Planetary Science Institute, treasurer of the Meteoritical Society, and president and longtime member of the San Diego branch of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation. She is also a recipient of the ARCS Light award for outstanding service. Her dedication to mentoring budding female scientists and promoting public interest in planetary science completes her laudatory career. Kohl lives in Del Mar, California.

A great friend and promoter of Carleton in Asia, Leo Lum ’69 has had an exceptional impact on the college’s student body and intellectual pursuits. According to president emeritus Stephen Lewis, Lum was integral in Carleton’s move to become more international following a period of less global emphasis. As a member of the Parents Advisory Council from 1994 through 1998 and a Board of Trustees member from 2001 to 2009, Lum encouraged the College to recruit more international students and was particularly effective in opening up Carleton to students from Singapore and Hong Kong. He graciously hosted numerous events in Asia for Carleton and generously supported faculty development and scholarships targeting this region. He has also honored two Carleton legends by creating the Bardwell Smith Fellowship Fund for General Faculty Development, the Bardwell Smith Fellowship for Faculty Development in Cross-Cultural Studies, the John W. Nason Scholarship for Undergraduates, and the John W. Nason Scholarship for Post Graduates, which provided financial aid for students from Singapore to attend Carleton. In 2001, he was awarded the William Carleton Medal for his commitment to Carleton and its mission. Lum graduated from Carleton as a history major; he later earned a master’s degree from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. For much of his career, he was chair of Pacific Rim Bancorp with business interests in Hong Kong and Singapore. Lum lives in Singapore; his daughter, Amy Lum Hausmann ’98, is also a Carleton graduate. 

Known internationally as one of the foremost experts in agricultural science and technology policy, Carl Pray ’69 has dedicated his career to improving life in developing countries through improved crop seeds and agricultural policy. His work with the role of technology in world food systems has been published in scholarly articles, including Science and Nature, as well as 40 book chapters. Since the late 1990s, Pray has been an advisory member of the China Center for Agricultural Policy and Sciences and has significantly impacted China’s agricultural research policy and seed industry reform. In recognition of these efforts, in 1999 he was awarded the Outstanding Scientific Progress Award from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. His contributions have also earned him several prestigious awards including an International Excellence Award from Rutgers University, two Quality of Communication Awards from the American Agricultural Economics Association, and a Special Services Award from the National Association of Universities and Land Grant Colleges. Pray, a founding member and leader of the International Consortium of Applied Bioeconomy Research, has worked extensively in India. Beyond his work in the field, Pray is known as a compassionate educator and mentor, beginning at Rutgers University. Following his graduation from Carleton as a history major, he joined the Peace Corps and aided farmers in India with adopting modern techniques; he later earned a PhD in economic history from the University of Pennsylvania. Pray lives in Highland Park, New Jersey.

Renowned for excellence in clinical care, research, and teaching, William Truog ’69 is widely recognized as one of the nation’s best doctors. A biology major at Carleton, Truog earned an MD from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine and focused his research on newborn lung complications. For forty years, his work has impacted the health of infants nationwide—Truog was among the first researchers to explore treating infants with nitric oxide, now standard care for infants with restricted blood flow to the lungs. Throughout his career at the University of Washington-Seattle and later Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Truog published almost 200 scholarly articles and textbook chapters, including publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Pediatric Research. He is a highly sought-after panel reviewer for the National Institute of Health, the Federal Drug Administration, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. A leader with the Pediatric Academic Societies, Truog also helped create the Pediatric Interim Care Center in Seattle, an out-of-hospital, not for profit entity for drug-affected infants, and is a founding member of the Bronchopulmonary Disease Collaborative. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri where he serves as the medical director for the Center for Infant Pulmonary Disorders at Children’s Mercy and the Sosland Family Endowed Chair in Neonatal Research and professor of pediatrics at both the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine.

Mansco Perry III ’74 is known as a role model to his family, friends, and colleagues as well as an innovative leader in the field of investment management. He is the 2018 recipient of Chief Investment Officer’s lifetime achievement award for his contributions as CIO of the Minnesota State Board of Investment (MSBI), the Maryland State Retirement System, and Macalester College. Under his direction, the MSBI (with assets of $95 billion) manages the assets of the 15th largest state pension fund and has consistently achieved investment performance in the top quartile. Perry has also been a dedicated volunteer to his community through service on nonprofit boards such as Catholic Charities, the St. Paul Foundation, and the Worker’s Compensation Reinsurance Association—as well as to his alma mater as a member of the Alumni Board, the Alumni Relations Club and the Class of 1974 Reunion Planning Committee. Nominators note his quiet support for those around him, including Carleton students seeking his advice. Significantly, Perry has devoted his career to having a positive societal impact, ensuring that students have scholarships to fund their educations and retirees have reliable pensions and saying, “my achievements as an investment professional are only meaningful if they assist these organizations to achieve their objectives.” Perry, a history major, holds a BA from Carleton, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and a JD from Mitchell Hamline School of Law (formerly William Mitchell) College of Law. Perry lives in Eagan, Minnesota.

Author Lincoln Child ’79 has achieved what exceedingly few writers have: international acclaim with more than two dozen books on The New York Times best-selling list. Graduating from Carleton with distinction in English, Child went to work as an editor at St. Martin’s Press, where he quickly made a name for himself. Interested in commissioning a book about the American Museum of Natural History, he reached out to Museum employee Douglas Preston, which led to an incomparable and prolific partnership as the writing team of Preston & Child. He left the publishing world, and together the two wrote Relic, which sold more than a million copies and was turned into a No. 1 box office hit movie. Child and Preston have continued to collaborate on an astonishing 27 more books, including 23 consecutive New York Times bestsellers. Additionally, Child has found bestselling success as a solo writer with thrillers such as Full Wolf Moon, The Forgotten Room, and Deep Storm. Significantly, each of his nominators emphasize that despite his voluminous output, Child never sacrifices quality, and each of his books is celebrated for its literary merit, deeply crafted characters, complex plots, thorough research, and masterful use of language. He has won the National Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Literature and Popular Culture, and a National Public Radio Award for best thriller. Child’s dedication to his readers is legendary as well, signing thousands of first editions and bringing a sense of whimsy to author events. Child lives in Sarasota, Florida. His daughter, Veronica Child ’18, also graduated from Carleton.

With career highlights including university president, renowned Shakespearean scholar, and digital entrepreneur—not to mention Ultimate Frisbee pioneer—Katherine Rowe ’84 stands out even among the most distinguished academics. Rowe, who holds a PhD in English and American literature from Harvard, became president of William & Mary in 2018 after four years as provost and dean of faculty at Smith College. During her time at Smith, she had an incredible impact on the college through increasing diversity in faculty hiring, helping plan and design a new library, launching a design thinking curriculum, and launching one of the first statistical and data sciences majors at a liberal arts college. Rowe has also published dozens of scholarly articles and books, beginning with Dead Hands: Fictions of Agency, Renaissance to Modern and Reading the Early Modern Passions: Essays in the Cultural History of Emotion. Establishing herself as a leading voice in Shakespeare adaptations, she also co-wrote New Wave Shakespeare on Screen. Her extensive knowledge of the Bard led her to co-found Luminary Digital Media, a series of interactive iPad apps for high school and college students studying Shakespeare, and in 2019 she began a term as president of the Shakespeare Association of America. While still an English major at Carleton, Rowe helped form what would become Syzgy, the college’s first women’s Ultimate Frisbee team, and has remained dedicated to the sport by coaching young women. She lives in Williamsburg, Virginia.

With 13 world championship gold medals, Daniel Casper ’89 demonstrates the pinnacle of achievement in the sport of cycling. At Carleton, Casper was an English major and a stand-out runner, and his many successes as a student—a nine-time All-American and a national champion in the metric mile—earned him a spot in Carleton’s ‘C’ Club Hall of Fame in 1999. Post-graduation, Casper earned a master’s degree in English and education from the University of Minnesota, but numerous injuries prevented him from further running success. Far from being discouraged, in his 30s Casper took up competitive cycling. He won his first Masters World Championship in 2011 and has since repeated as world champion six times in the individual pursuit, five times in the team pursuit, and twice in the scratch race. In 2017 Casper set the world record in the 2,000 meter masters individual pursuit and the 3,000 meter masters team pursuit. He holds 28 national track and road cycling titles and is considered among the best in the world in his age group. He has also twice won the master’s division of the unofficial world stair climbing championships at the Empire State Building. Yet it is his gracious nature and dedication to coaching others in the sport of cycling that his nominators emphasize. As a fellow racer noted, Casper is always “first among competitors in honor and integrity.” He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is a captain in the Minneapolis Fire Department.

Brent Irvin ’94 is a global leader in the fields of business, technology, and intellectual property rights. As the vice president and general counsel of China-based Tencent Holdings Limited, Irvin has played an integral role in the company’s rise to become one of the largest Internet companies in the world and is among the few foreigners who have risen to the top of corporate China. At Tencent, Irvin oversees a team of nearly 400 lawyers that has done ground breaking work in the areas of intellectual property rights, anti-piracy, competition law and platform liability. He and his team have also led efforts to improve the PRC court system through the use of mobile technologies, including an innovative app-based case management system. Recognizing his work, in 2016 the Financial Times named him one of the top 30 general counsels worldwide. In addition to overseeing legal matters, Irvin is also active in Tencent’s investment activities, especially overseas, and is currently a board member for numerous Tencent invested companies ranging from Gaana Music and Ola Cabs in India to Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand. Still a loyal Carl, Irvin has hosted Carleton students as interns at Tencent and advises students through the Career Center’s 30 Minutes program. A history major, Irvin also holds a master’s degree in Asian studies from Yale and a JD from Stanford University Law School. He currently splits his time between Mercer Island, Washington and Shenzhen, China.

With two primetime Emmy Award nominations and three Writer’s Guild of America Award nominations, Wendy West ’94 is an accomplished writer and television producer. Her work in literature and film is noted for its humor, intelligence, and challenging ideas, with human-centered plots that treat women and other under-represented people full participants in the story. After 20 years in television, West has amassed an impressive list of credits from writer to executive producer on television programs including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Practice, and Dexter. She recently created the crime series Ultraviolet. Prior to starting her career, West earned a master’s degree of fine arts in film studies from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television. While still at Carleton, West honed her dramatic skills in Cujokra, the Experimental Theater Board, and Uninvited Company. She majored in English before a media studies discipline was recognized, and Carleton English professor Susan Jaret McKinstry credits West as a catalyst for institutional change. Her work and ideas helped spark the college’s creation of the new Department of Cinema and Media Studies (CAMS), a CAMS concentration, and ultimately, a popular CAMS major. Additionally, her determination—and successful effort—to craft a creative rather than traditional senior comps project directly led to interdisciplinary comps options. West lives in Los Angeles, California.

A tireless social justice advocate, Sarah Walker ’99 has dedicated her career to helping advance criminal justice reform locally and nationally as a non-profit executive, political consultant and most recently as the Deputy Commissioner of the MN Department of Corrections. She was the first woman of color to enter the lobbying world in MN and is also the first women of color to be appointed in the MN Dept. of Corrections. Her many notable achievements include founding the Minnesota Second Chance Coalition, a lobbying and advocacy organization dedicated to seeking equal treatment for formerly incarcerated citizens, and driving bipartisan support for significant legislation reforms including Minnesota’s “Ban the Box”, an expansion of expungement laws, probation reform and comprehensive drug sentencing reform. She is the past president of the Coalition for Impartial Justice, whose mission was to empower voters with unbiased data to make informed decisions in judicial elections and reduce partisan effects. She has served on the board or as a consultant to more than 25 statewide and national foundations such as the Council on Crime and Justice, the Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, the African Development Center, Minnesotans United for All Families, the US Justice Action Network and more. In 2007 she was appointed to the Council of Black Minnesotans by Governor Pawlenty and in 2011 she was appointed by Governor Mark Dayton to work toward fairer sentencing policies on the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission. Through her lobbying efforts, she has fought to reduce gun violence, working with Every Town for Gun Safety, MOMS Demand Action, and Students Demand Action. For the past decade Sarah has been a regular political and social commentator on local and national radio and television outlets. Named one of the Twin Cities’ “40 Under 40” by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Walker lives in Minneapolis with her husband and fellow criminal justice reformer, Brockton Hunter. She graduated from Carleton as a political science and African American studies double major and has completed her course work in both the U of MN’s Departments of Political Science and Sociology.

With a drive to identify problems, curiosity to question existing systems, and creativity to find innovative solutions, Michael Martin ’09 is transforming emergency care. Martin realized that emergency communication in the US remained based on a 1960s-analog based system – leading to tens of thousands of fatalities annually. As a graduate student at Harvard University, Martin co-founded RapidSOS to rebuild the global emergency response infrastructure – linking any connected device directly to 911 / first responders with life-saving data. In 2018 that technology went fully commercial – powering Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Uber among others – powering over 150 million emergencies annually and with over a thousand documented examples of lives saved. Recognizing Martin’s innovation and impact, in 2017 Forbes placed him on top of its “30 Under 30 in Healthcare” list. His venture won Harvard’s President’s Innovation Challenge in 2015, as well as the 2016 Consumer Technology Association’s Startup of the Year Award, and was named one of the Top Technology Innovations of 2015 by the MIT Technology Review. Martin and RapidSOS have formed strategic partnerships with Apple, Google, Microsoft, Uber, and more and have been featured in national media including The New York Times, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Wired, the Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. A political science/international relations major at Carleton, Martin also holds an MBA from Harvard. He lives in Long Island City, New York.

Putting his liberal arts problem-solving skills to task, Matthew Fitzgerald ’14 has pioneered revitalization efforts of Minnesota’s agricultural landscape. Just two years after graduating from Carleton as a religion and political science double major, Fitzgerald utilized his expertise in community organizing to co-found the Central Minnesota Young Farmers Coalition, a group dedicated to changing policy, building community networks, and serving and supporting young farmers. Recognizing that fewer than 3 percent of farmers are younger than 35, Fitzgerald and the coalition lobbied state Republicans and Democrats to pass the Beginning Farmer Tax Credit in 2018, which resulted in more than $2 million for young farmers and roughly 400 new young people entering the industry and inspired at least four other states to consider similar legislation. This is proof of Fitzgerald’s knack for leadership, creative brainstorming, his concern for the greater community, and his drive to create a better future for all. Previously, Fitzgerald worked as a community organizer for Thrivent in Minneapolis. He has also put his talents to work for Carleton, volunteering for his class reunion program committee. He is now an organic farmer in Hutchinson, Minnesota and he serves on U.S. Minnesota Senator Tina Smith’s Agriculture Advisory Committee.

After admitting almost 45 percent of all Carls who have graduated or expect to do so in the next four years, Paul Thiboutot has led an astounding career of service, passion, and love for Carleton. Thiboutot joined the Carleton staff in 1987, when the higher education landscape was vastly different and Carleton received roughly 3,000 applications per year. In 2019, as he retires as Carleton’s vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid, that number is more than 7,000, and the college’s selectivity rate has dropped from 40 to 20 percent. Thiboutot led the admissions office to adapt as market pressures changed while always championing accessibility and diversity—over the course of his tenure, the percentage of admitted students of color at Carleton doubled. Numbers alone, however, fail to depict Thiboutot’s full impact on the student body and his brilliance in crafting classes filled with young people who embody Carleton values of intelligence, curiosity, and whimsy—all traits that shine in Thiboutot himself. Always the first to burst into song, he brought humor, joy, humility, and energy to work every day. He was a staunch supporter of financial aid, advocating an admissions philosophy of meeting students’ full need rather being “need-blind” at Carleton and on a national level. In this way, his contributions to college accessibility are truly monumental. He holds a BA from Boston College and an MA from the University of Chicago. Thiboutot is a Carleton parent, of Lily Thiboutot ’08, and lives in Northfield.

Leon Smith was a three-time letter winner in both basketball and baseball during his time at Carleton. A basketball captain his junior and senior seasons, Smith was named to the five-player All-Midwest Conference First Team for the 1972–73 and 1973–74 campaigns. At the time he graduated, Smith ranked fourth in recorded team history with 1,088 career points over his three seasons. His scoring average of 19.4 points over 56 career games and 467 career field goals still rank ninth in the team record book, 45 years after his graduation. Freshmen were ineligible to play varsity NCAA basketball his first year on campus, but Smith had an instant impact upon being inserted into the lineup as a sophomore. Showcasing his versatility, he played center and was second on the squad with a 14.5 scoring average. Smith shifted to forward the following season and was the conference’s second-leading scorer at 19.1 points per game. His senior year brought another position change — this time he was asked to play guard, and he responded spectacularly by averaging 25.2 points in 17 games, the second-highest scoring average in recorded team history. On the diamond, Smith earned a spot in the starting rotation as a freshman and was selected to the All-Midwest Conference First Team in both 1971 and 1972. Considered to be the ace of the pitching staff, Smith often drew the toughest assignments for the Knights, even taking on D-II opponents.

After graduating from Carleton with an economics major, Smith lived in California with his wife, Jessica Pearman ’74. The College was sad to learn recently that Smith passed away several years ago. 

Heidi Muller participated in four seasons each of volleyball, basketball, and softball during her time at Carleton, an interesting development considering she told the Carletonian that she had not planned on playing any sport in college. However, Muller tried out for the volleyball team, enjoyed the camaraderie, and quickly became a three-sport collegiate student-athlete. She played on teams that established school records for victories in all three sports, and her leadership was recognized through her selection as a team captain within each program. Muller made her greatest impact on the diamond, where she was a four-year starter at shortstop and a three-time All-MIAC selection. Her .385 career batting average, 120 hits, 21 doubles, 16 triples, 88 RBI, and 19 stolen bases were each the program standard at the time. Although she last suited up for the Knights 30 years ago, she still holds the team record for career triples (second-best in MIAC history), ranks second in RBI, and is third in batting average. Muller batted better than .340 every season, including a blistering .432 during her junior campaign. She set the team single-season record with six triples in 1987 and still owns three of the top-10 RBI seasons in program history, including what was then a school record 31 RBI in 1988. Muller displayed a keen batting eye as she totaled only 13 strikeouts over her four seasons—including two seasons with only one strikeout apiece—while walking a total of 34 times over that same span. She appeared in 55 basketball games over her four seasons at Carleton and was a member of the volleyball program that totaled 112 victories over four years. Muller was the 1989 recipient of Carleton’s Ele Hansen Award. After her playing career ended, Muller returned to Carleton as an assistant coach and then served as the interim head coach for softball during the 1992 season.

After majoring in psychology at Carleton, Muller earned a master’s degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and elected to pursue a PhD in communication from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She currently serves as an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Northern Colorado. Among her many endeavors, Muller helped create the Softball for a Cure tournament in Boulder, Colo., an event that has raised more than $80,000 to date in support of local cancer survivors and cancer research.

Marie Marsman is one of the most accomplished athletes in Carleton and NCAA Division III swimming history. She raced for Carleton and competed for her country as she was the lone NCAA Division III member of the U.S. National Team that competed at the 2003 World Games in South Korea. She swam on the silver-medal-winning 400-meter freestyle relay and placed 16th in the 100-meter freestyle. Marsman took a year off from Carleton to train for the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials in 2004. A 21-time All-American, Marsman earned a MIAC-record nine NCAA titles, seven of those coming in individual events. In 2002, she swept the 50-, 100-, and 200-yard freestyle swims to become the first Carleton Knight to win three individual national titles in one year. The following season Marsman was the NCAA champion in the 100 and 200 freestyle. She returned in 2005 to add individual national crowns in the 50 and 100 freestyle as well as help the Knights win the 200 and 400 freestyle relays at the NCAA Championships, as Carleton became the first MIAC school to win two national relay titles in the same year. The NCAA Swimmer of the Meet in 2002 and again in 2003, she was also a three-time finalist for the Honda NCAA D-III Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year Award (2002, 2003, 2005). Marsman was voted the MIAC’s Female Swimmer of the Year in 2002, 2003, and 2005. She won all 12 individual MIAC Championship races in which she competed, with those titles coming across four different events. Marsman was also a 10-time MIAC Champion in relay events. She established then-national records in the 50, 100, and 200 freestyle and was the first Division III female to swim the 100 freestyle in under 50 seconds. She still holds the MIAC 100 freestyle record; owns the Carleton 50, 100, and 200 freestyle records; and is a member of three Carleton record-holding relay teams.

After graduating magna cum laude with a major in political science/international relations, Marsman earned her master’s degree in kinesiology from Indiana University in 2008 and currently works as HR operations manager at Dolby Laboratories in California. She also spent time as assistant swim coach at both the University of Utah and Indiana University, coaching Olympic medalists at IU from 2010-13. She and husband Anthony live in Redwood City, Calif. with their son Jack.

One of the best wide receivers in Carleton annals, Matt Frank was only the second player in program history to earn All-America recognition at the position. He finished his illustrious career with a school-record 220 receptions, ranked second in team history with 2,766 receiving yards, and tied for third with 26 touchdown receptions. After ranking fourth on the team with 21 catches as a rookie in 2005, he blossomed as a sophomore, hauling in what was then a school single-season record 74 catches for 1,120 yards (second most in program history) and eight touchdowns. His reception and yardage totals led the MIAC and earned him Football Gazette’s All-America second-team recognition, making him one of only three sophomores named to any of the Football Gazette All-America teams that season. He was limited by injury to only five games as a junior but returned to smash his own school record with 90 receptions in 2008. Frank totaled 12 touchdowns and 990 yards that season, the third-highest and fifth-best totals, respectively, in team history. Those statistics are particularly impressive considering he missed eight quarters of action—the equivalent of 20 percent of the season—due to a shoulder injury. Frank ranked third among all NCAA wide receivers (all divisions) that season by averaging 10.0 receptions per game and totaled 110.0 receiving yards per contest, a figure that ranked 11th in D-III and 24th in NCAA overall. He averaged 1.33 touchdowns each game, the ninth-best ratio in Division III and 18th among all NCAA wideouts. Frank had six double-digit reception games that year, including the program’s single-game record with 16 catches against St. Thomas on Oct. 25, 2008. He earned All-MIAC First Team status in 2006 and 2008 and secured D3football.com’s All-West Region honors both years.

Frank majored in physics at Carleton and used his love for problem-solving to carve out a career in product development. He is currently employed by Optum Health as a product manager in the health solutions group. Frank resides in Plymouth, Minn. with his wife Megan (Mileusnic) Frank ’10 and their daughter Julliette.

Zach Johnson established Carleton’s all-time scoring record with 2,029 career points, ranking him 16th in Minnesota men’s collegiate basketball history (regardless of division) at the time. His 592 points during the 2008–09 season set a new Carleton single-season mark. He ranked 12th in Division III by averaging 22.8 points per game that season, the fifth-highest figure in team history. Johnson was the first Carleton player in 16 years to lead the MIAC in points per game (22.4 in conference games). For his accomplishments on the court, he received numerous awards. In 2009 Johnson was named to the D3hoops.com All-America Second Team, becoming only the fifth All-American in Carleton men’s basketball history. That same year, College Sporting News named him the MIAC’s “MVP” and “Player of the Year,” marking the first time in the publication’s history that CSN gave both honors to the same player. He garnered All-MIAC honorable mention as a rookie, then took home All-MIAC First-Team distinction the next three years. He was named to both the D3hoops.com All-West Region Team and the NABC All-West District Team in 2007–08 and again in 2008–09. His play helped the Knights advance to the postseason all four years, including the 2006 NCAA Championships, which was Carleton’s first-ever trip to the national tournament. Johnson was the first player in recorded school history to accumulate at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 250 assists for his career. He finished his time at Carleton with 584 boards, 264 assists, 147 steals, and 44 blocked shots. At the time he graduated, Johnson ranked fifth in school history for career steals, sixth in career scoring average (19.1 points) and total assists, and 12th in total rebounds. He also played one season as a member of the Carleton football team.

Following graduation, Johnson traveled to Reykjavik, Iceland, where he played professionally for the Fjolnir Basketball Club in 2009. He later returned to the Upper Midwest and served as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Mary (NCAA Division II) while completing his MBA. An economics major at Carleton, Johnson currently works as a senior manager at Avelead in Independence, Mo. 

One of the most decorated and accomplished swimmers in Carleton history, Ted Marschall was an eight-time All-American—the second-highest total in program history—and received All-America Honorable Mention three other times as he advanced to the finals at the NCAA Championships in 11 of 12 chances during his career. At the 2006 national meet, he earned his first All-America award with a fifth-place result in the 400-yard individual medley. The following year he posted fourth-place finishes in both the 200 IM and 400 IM events. As a junior Marschall became the third men’s swimmer in team history to capture a trio of individual All-America awards as he was the national runner-up in the 200 IM and 400 IM in addition to a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke. He capped his collegiate career in 2009 with two more All-America swims, taking fifth in the 200 IM and eighth in the 200 breaststroke. Marschall was an eight-time MIAC individual champion and captured 19 All-MIAC awards overall, including a perfect 12-for-12 in individual events. He won the 400 IM all four years, the 200 IM on three occasions, and the 200 breaststroke as a junior. Marschall was voted the 2008 MIAC Men’s Swimmer of the Year, earned Carleton’s Warren L. Beson Memorial Award in 2009, and was honored with the swim program’s Warnecke Award for leadership, sportsmanship, and scholarship in 2008 and again in 2009. In addition to being a four-time CSCAA Scholar All-American, he was twice selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Men’s At-Large Team. For all of his accomplishments, Marschall was also awarded a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. He established MIAC Championships records on seven occasions. Ten years later, Marschall still holds the school record for the 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 breaststroke, 1000 freestyle, and 1650 freestyle along with four pool records.

After graduation, Marschall earned both his master’s degree and PhD in physics from the University of Rochester (N.Y.). He has served the last three seasons as a volunteer coach with the U of Rochester swimming and diving team. During both his time at Carleton and after graduation, Marschall has been instrumental in the development and growth of the Ted Mullin “Hour of Power” swim relay, an annual event which started at Carleton in the fall of 2006 and honors a former collegiate teammate by raising awareness and funds for sarcoma cancer research.

Tammy Metcalf-Filzen is one of the most successful and decorated coaches in any sport over Carleton’s 150+ years of existence. After serving as the women’s basketball assistant coach from 1992 to 1997, she took over the head coaching position from 1997 to 2010 and amassed a 226–122 record, making her the winningest coach in program history. Carleton women’s basketball owned a combined .310 win percentage in the 24 seasons prior to Metcalf-Filzen’s arrival, making her school-record .649 win percentage even more impressive. Carleton averaged more than 20 wins per season from 2000 to 2009, including a school-record 25 victories in both 2002–03 and 2003–04, with both squads nationally ranked throughout the year. Under her direction, the Knights were three-time MIAC regular season champions (2003, 2004, and 2005) and five-time playoff champs (2001–04 and 2008). Metcalf-Filzen was the first coach in conference history to lead a team to four consecutive MIAC Playoffs titles in any sport, regardless of gender. She guided her team to four straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, including three consecutive trips to at least the second round. Metcalf-Filzen was honored as both MIAC Coach of the Year and West Region Coach of the Year in 2001, 2003, and 2004. She coached a three-time All-American, 25 First-Team All-MIAC performers, four MIAC Sixth-Player-of-the-Year honorees, 12 MIAC All-Defensive Team selections, and 13 MIAC All-First-Year Team players. She also served as Carleton’s head women’s soccer coach from 1994 to 1997, guiding that program to double-digit wins in 1995 and 1997. Metcalf-Filzen, who was inducted into the St. Olaf Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999 due to her stellar playing career for the Oles, joins Charles Lunder (‘C’ Club class of 1990) as the only individuals to be inducted into both the Carleton and St. Olaf Athletic Halls of Fame.

After retiring from Carleton, Metcalf-Filzen was able to spend more time with her husband Dave and their seven children. However, she had some trouble shaking the coaching “bug” and she spent stints helping the basketball coaches at both Northfield High School and Bethlehem Academy. She is now the co-founder and executive director of Whispers of Hope, a non-profit ministry serving women seeking to overcome life’s struggles.