1:39 p.m., April 8, 2009----Four alumni of the University of Delaware's College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy have been named winners of the 2009 CHEP Outstanding Alumni Award. They represent diverse areas of public service including state government, education, scholarship and service to those with special needs.

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The awards will be presented at the annual CHEP Outstanding Alumni Award dinner, which will be held this year on Friday, June 5, at Clayton Hall as part of UD's Forum and Reunion Weekend.

According to Interim Dean Michael Gamel-McCormick, selecting the winners from the field of nominees is always a difficult task.

“The college now has more than 22,000 alumni who are out there doing wonderful things in their communities and around the world,” he said. “This year's honorees are deserving of recognition because of the exemplary way they have all addressed challenging circumstances through their professional careers and emerged as leaders in their fields.”

The award recipients are as follows:

Rita M. Landgraf

Landgraf received her bachelor of science degree from the Department of Human Development and Family Studies in community and family services in 1980. For the past 30 years, she has served in numerous capacities in both volunteer and paid positions in the public and private sectors but has always sought to identify innovative measures to meet the needs of special populations and to advocate for best practices in the delivery of support services on their behalf.

On Jan. 22, Landgraf became secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services for the state of Delaware in the administration of Gov. Jack Markell. Prior to being named secretary, she served as co-chair of the Governor's Task Force for Continued Improvement at the Delaware Psychiatric Center.

She has twice served as the executive director of The Arc of Delaware, a nonprofit agency that offers programs and services for individuals with cognitive and intellectual disabilities and their families. She has also worked for United Cerebral Palsy, United Way of Delaware and the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Delaware.

As a volunteer, Landgraf has served as president of the American Association for Retired Persons (AARP) Delaware, co-chair of the State Council on Persons with Disabilities and co-chair of the Governor's Commission on Community-based Alternatives for Adults with Disabilities.

She has also served as chair of the UD Center for Disabilities Studies advisory council; a board member for Centreville School, an independent school for children with learning disabilities; executive vice president and trustee of the Delaware Foundation Reaching Citizens with Intellectual Disabilities (DFRC), which enhances the lives of persons with cognitive disabilities; executive vice president of the board of Delaware CarePlan, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping families establish trust funds for loved ones with special needs; and a member of the MBNA Foundation's Helen Graham Grants Program, which administered grants to special education programs.

Rudolph F. Karkosak

Karkosak received his Ed.D. in educational leadership in 1991. He is currently the superintendent of the Kennett Consolidated School District of Pennsylvania. He has been a teacher and administrator in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania for 43 years and has been honored as Delaware's Secondary School Principal of the Year and as Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year.

In Delaware, Karkosak served as principal of two schools in the Red Clay School District over a period of 13 years, playing a key role in the desegregation work of Conrad Middle School and Wilmington High School. In 1991, he moved to Maryland's Wicomico County schools, where he served first as director of strategic planning and then as assistant superintendent.

In 1999, he became superintendent of the Kennett Consolidated School District. During his tenure there, the Kennett schools have experienced a surge in the population of Latino students, which increased from 22 to 32 percent between 1999 and 2007, and Karkosak has overseen significant efforts to boost the enrollment and retention of Spanish-speaking and migrant students. Over the past few years, Kennett's high school dropout rate has been less than two percent.

Michael S. Jackson

Jackson earned his master of public administration degree in 1998. He began his career at the Delaware Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as an off-campus research assistant while pursuing his degree.

Since his graduation, Jackson has served OMB in various roles including senior fiscal and policy analyst, assistant chief of fiscal and policy analysis, chief of fiscal and policy analysis, and director of budget development, planning and administration (BDPA), where he has served since July 2005. As director of BDPA, he has integrated land-use planning into the capital budget to strengthen the role of planning in the state.

Jackson is responsible for leading the merger of two major sections of OMB - BDPA and Management Services. He directs a staff of 65, overseeing budgetary and fiscal support to the operating units of OMB, the Governor's Office, and the Health Care Commission. He also provides oversight for technology support to OMB and the Statistical Analysis Center and provides management direction to the Office of State Planning Coordination.

He serves as the primary contact other than the director of OMB for members of legislative finance committees and the Controller General's Office staff in the coordination, analysis and adoption of the state's overall financial plan, operating budget and capital budget. Jackson represents the director of OMB on several boards and task forces, including the Transportation Trust Fund Development and Funding Options Committee, the Community College Infrastructure Funding Options Committee, and the Revenue Sustainability Committee.

Jackson was recognized for his public service by the Council of State Governments, who named him a Henry Toll Fellow in 2006. He recently participated in the statewide dialogue on Delaware's growth as a panelist at the University of Delaware's “Creating a Livable Delaware: Pathways for Enhancing Prosperity and Quality of Life” conference in March 2008.

Pearl E. Stewart

Stewart received her bachelor of science degree in community and family services in 1986 and her doctorate in individual and family studies in 2003. She is currently an associate professor with tenure in the Department of Family and Child Studies at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

Stewart has coupled a successful academic career with a high level of service activities. Her research focuses on extended, rural African American families. So far in her young career, she has published eight refereed journal articles, with more in the works, and presented over 15 papers at scholarly meetings. She has successfully taught a number of courses at Montclair, including Introduction to Family Studies, Poverty and Families, Family Counseling, and Family Diversity.

In addition to her service to her department and university, Stewart currently acts as a consultant for an ongoing project called Beloved Communities, which serves the needs of children and families impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The project serves as a placement option for Montclair family services interns, and Stewart is developing scholarly publications based on her work with the organization.

Article by Beth Chajes