Generation of Achievement
2026 UIC Alumni Awards
Each year, the University of Illinois Chicago Alumni Association recognizes extraordinary alumni who contribute to a vibrant, healthier, more connected world.
Leveraging their UIC educations, these Alumni Award honorees uplift lives locally and abroad by applying their knowledge and dedication to pressing social challenges — from illness to educational access to people experiencing homelessness. Through their spirited work, they reimagine the status quo and ignite new realities. They advocate for overlooked populations, foster stronger communities and craft solutions to lingering inequities.
These distinguished alumni are changemakers, and their accomplishments — driven by earnest purpose and a tireless commitment to service — underscore the power of individuals to use their time and talents to create the world they want to live in.
Two alumni from the Graduate College are among this year's recipients.
Alumni Achievement Award: Chrissie P. N. Kaponda, PhD, Nursing, 1996
In a dynamic career spanning academia, service and national health systems leadership, Dr. Chrissie Kaponda has transformed futures and elevated quality of life in her home country of Malawi.
Kaponda attended UIC through the United States Agency for International Development’s African Graduate Fellowship Program. Her ability to dive into thoughtful research projects — ranging from peer education for AIDS prevention among women in Botswana, to a study of teen motherhood in the maternal-child nursing department — immediately impressed her classmates and professors.
“[Kaponda] has both exceptional intellectual capacities and a deep commitment to the nursing profession [and] women’s health,” says Dr. Kathleen Norr, Kaponda’s PhD faculty advisor at UIC.
Kaponda’s vision of improving global health care, combined with the skills and collaborations she developed during her PhD studies at UIC, deepened her expertise and expanded the impact of the work she would lead across Malawi.
Kaponda’s efforts as a faculty member at the University of Malawi’s Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) advanced Malawi’s nursing education and research capacity. She strengthened the nation’s pipeline of nursing educators and researchers by launching the college’s MS and PhD programs and spearheaded her own groundbreaking research projects focused on maternal/child health and HIV prevention.
In securing funding from the National Institutes of Health, she helped to establish Malawi’s first research center at a college of nursing. Her leadership positioned Malawian scholars to lead impact-driving research projects elevating care and quality of life.
After her 2015 retirement from KCN, Kaponda continued championing public and personal health across Malawi. She developed a national program to promote safer motherhood at the first lady’s request and chaired the Blantyre Water Board, where she led reforms that strengthened accountability, stabilized water access and helped curb a cholera outbreak in Lilongwe, Malawi’s largest city.
In 2022, Kaponda founded the Ekodda Foundation, a community-focused organization dedicated to enhancing health, education and sustainable development in Malawi’s Phalombe district — the area she and her family have called home for generations. The foundation’s work includes supporting HIV prevention peer groups, providing university scholarships and helping rural residents develop income-generating small businesses.
Linda McCreary BSN ’73, MSN ’93, PhD ’00, the former associate dean for global health at UIC’s College of Nursing, says Kaponda’s career stands as an inspired example of bringing global thinking to local action.
“It is difficult to overstate the significance of her contributions to both the development of the nursing profession and improvement of the health and well-being of the citizens of her country,” McCreary says.
Distinguished Service Award: Peter Skosey, MUPP, 1993
As Peter Skosey planned monthly events for the Chicago Area Public Affairs Group, he regularly extended personal invites to College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA) students he met through the CUPPA Alumni Association’s mentorship program. Skosey spearheaded the founding of the association in 1997 and helped create key organizational efforts like its mentorship program and annual block party. In his estimation, a vibrant college community rooted in personal relationships would drive individual success and elevate both UIC and CUPPA in Chicago’s professional ranks.
Skosey has a long history of championing UIC, a commitment spurred by gratitude for the university’s role in propelling his career.
The Chicago native discovered the power of advocacy and community involvement as a CUPPA graduate student. Classes, he says, leveraged Chicago as a laboratory for exploration, sparking important reflection about planning’s role in driving the long-term health of a metropolis and quality of life for its residents.
Skosey’s UIC education led to a decorated — and ongoing — career propelling Chicago’s evolution. His 20-year run with the Metropolitan Planning Council included rewriting Illinois’ Tax Increment Financing law allowing support for school expenses and steering the master plan for Union Station’s redevelopment.
Skosey, who now serves as BNSF Railway’s executive director of public and government affairs, has remained consistently engaged with his alma mater. At his behest, BNSF endowed CUPPA’s Last Mile Fund with a $50,000 gift in 2021 to provide emergency relief in perpetuity to near-graduating students encountering financial hardship.
Skosey’s efforts with CUPPA prompted board leadership roles with the UIC Alumni Association, where he recently chaired the Alumni Advocacy Task Force and guided initiatives promoting investment in the University of Illinois System.
“UIC has played such a pivotal role in setting me on my professional life’s trajectory that I’m beholden to it beyond words,” Skosey says.
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For the full article, visit: https://stories.uic.edu/alumni-awards-2026