Alumni News

The Cal Aggie Alumni Association of the University of California, Davis, today (March 2) announced the recipients of its 2023 Alumni Awards. This year is the 50th anniversary of honoring the achievements and impact of outstanding alumni and friends of UC Davis. 

The winners are leaders in engineering, global and local government relations, agriculture, investment and education who are being honored for their unwavering efforts to help others through their work.

The Cal Aggie Alumni Association recognizes the recipients of the 2022-2023 Special Interest & Affinity Network Awards and APFA Scholarship.

On behalf of the donors and volunteers with the African and African Alumni Association (5A), Sword and Sandals, Chicanx Latinx Alumni Association, and the Aggie Parent and Family Association (APFA), congratulations to the 2022-2023 recipients with outstanding leadership and dedication to the UC Davis community.

Chidubem Nnaji ’22, a Donald A. Strauss Foundation Scholarship recipient, has dedicated his career to public service through engineering and project management.

Poet, mentor and educator Denisha Bland, also known as Coco Blossom, empowers young adults throughout the region with spoken word and writing in her role as associate director of Sacramento Youth Area Speaks.

Former UC Davis football player and co-captain Rudy Kadlub ’71 Cred. ’72 is breaking records as a 70-plus-year-old powerlifter. He shares his journey and how to achieve New Year’s fitness resolutions.

In 2020, David Holcombe ’71 became the face of the pandemic response in central Louisiana, where he has been a leader of public health for over 15 years. Read more about how he led the region of over 350,000 people during difficult times.

Joseph Patel’s walk from his seat onto the bright stage during the 94th Academy Awards ceremony took just moments. But his journey to Oscar fame, Patel ’94 says, began years earlier and miles away — in the windowless basement of UC Davis’ Freeborn Hall.

Already a music lover when he arrived as a first-year student from his hometown of Fremont, California, Patel (B.A., economics, ’94) quickly found his way to KDVS, the campus’s freeform radio station.

When First Lady Jill Biden stepped out in a brilliant blue Markarian dress, coat, gloves and matching mask during the January 2021 inauguration, Anneliese Koch ’17 knew her career would never be the same.