4.6.25
Shocker News
Long Wave
Last October, the WSU Foundation and Alumni Engagement welcomed three Shocker alums into the fold as Alumni Award winners at its Heritage Gala: Junetta Everett ’79, Diana Ho ’16 and Ronald Baker ’15. While this celebration marks only the second Heritage Gala since the merger of the WSU Foundation and the WSU Alumni Association in 2022, Everett, Ho and Baker join the long wave of fellow Shockers, hundreds-strong, under a tradition harking back to 1955.
The same year that the University of Wichita first began its campaign to enter the state system of higher education, the WSUAA hosted its inaugural Alumni Awards banquet and ceremony. Astronomer and leading figure in meteoritics Lincoln LaPaz, a 1920 graduate of Fairmount College, was recognized with the Alumni Achievement Award.
The award is still the highest honor bestowed upon Wichita State alumni by the WSU Foundation and Alumni Engagement for significant contributions to their field, community or society. Alumni are also recognized at the Heritage Gala with two other awards from the program’s history: the Social Impact Award (formerly, Recognition Award), which commends those who better their community through service or philanthropy, and the Young Alumni Award, given to an alumnus 35 or younger who demonstrates excellent leadership in their chosen profession.
Just as Fairmount College transformed into the University of Wichita, and the University of Wichita into Wichita State University after successfully joining the state system in 1964, the Alumni Awards program, too, has evolved in the decades since its founding. What remains unchanging, however, is the illimitable pride we share in celebrating the one-of-a-kind alumni who constitute Shocker Nation, a privilege we continue to cherish.
View the complete list of WSU Alumni Award honorees at foundation.wichita.edu/alumni-awards
‘Architect’ of TRIO programs at WSU Deltha Q. Colvin advances educational opportunity
Amidst decades of building national racial tensions, Black students at Wichita State in the 1970s were not satisfied to simply dream of a better world. Instead, they sought to create one.
Among them was Deltha Q. Colvin ’72, a lifetime advocate for racial justice and equity, and recent retiree from Wichita State University. Colvin, who graduated from the first TRIO Upward Bound program, recalls how her time in TRIO helped her and her fellow classmates overcome hurdles limiting their access to education. “It was important to realize that there were others who were coming from similar backgrounds,” she says. “We never saw ourselves as disadvantaged. We just wanted to be the best we could be.”
After graduating with her bachelor’s degree in secondary education with an emphasis in English, Colvin joined the staff at Wichita State, dedicated to afford those same opportunities to future generations of students. She would do just that in her more than 50 years at the university, where she held a number of titles, including assistant vice president for campus life and university relations and, later, associate VP of student affairs. Though perhaps most salient of all was Colvin’s dedicated involvement in WSU’s federal TRIO programming.
Under Colvin’s direction, Wichita State adopted and expanded operations to 10 TRIO Upward Bound and three GEAR UP programs, tailored to the unique needs of underrepresented populations, serving first-generation and low-income students, student veterans and students with disabilities. “Deltha Colvin is the architect of TRIO programs at Wichita State,” says Corinne Nilsen, executive director of Kansas Kids @ GEAR UP and Colvin’s colleague of more than 30 years. “But her impact extends well beyond our university.”
It’s true. Colvin’s contributions over the decades gained her nationwide recognition as a trainer, presenter, conference chair, contributing author and consultant for TRIO programs and operations, with well-deserved accolades from the Mid-America Association of Educational Opportunity Program Personnel, Northwest Association of Special Programs, and the National Council of Educational Opportunity Associations. She also served on the Department of Education’s first Negotiated Rulemaking for Higher Education committee to address the Higher Education Act Reauthorization. Her legacy on campus is evident from her tribute paver in the Plaza of Heroines from the African/African American Faculty/Staff Association.
Colvin’s contributions have been of incalculable value to the Wichita community, Wichita State and the tens of thousands of matriculating students in the TRIO programs. “Many of these students have no idea what it takes to go to college, nor do they think a college education is even achievable for somebody in their situation,” Nilsen says. “Deltha has created a pathway for those who did not have a hand to guide them along the way.”
Wichita State bids farewell to Shirley Lefever and welcomes Monica Lounsbery
Waving Goodbye
After nearly 20 years, Wichita State bids farewell to Shirley Lefever, executive vice president and provost, who retired at the end of the 2024 calendar year. Lefever, a first-generation student and passionate advocate for education, taught as an elementary school teacher prior to receiving her doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Kansas State. As a faculty member at the University of Arkansas, she was responsible for developing graduate programs in the College of Education and Health Professions.
Supplied with a wealth of experience in teaching and curriculum development, she came to WSU in 2005 as department chair for Curriculum and Instruction and is credited with extending the focus of the WSU Professional Development School into an urban serving model. Within the College of Education (now, College of Applied Studies), she served as associate dean, senior associate dean and concurrent assessment coordinator, interim dean and dean. She was appointed interim executive vice president and provost in the fall of 2020 and instated as full EVP and provost in 2022.
Dr. Lefever was – and remains – a stalwart champion of Wichita State’s students. Throughout her tenure, she helped bolster the university’s inclusivity initiatives, K-12 outreach programs and innovative classroom and applied learning opportunities, which taken together cultivated the empowerment of students to achieve their fullest potential – academically, professionally and personally. As she often says, “It’s all about the students.”
Waving Hello
Monica Lounsbery assumed the role of senior executive vice president and provost at Wichita State at the beginning of the 2025 spring semester. Lounsbery joins from California State University, Long Beach, where she was dean of the College of Health and Human Services. Before joining CSU, she was a faculty member and administrator at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she held appointments as department chair, associate vice provost, vice provost and associate dean for faculty affairs in the School of Medicine.
Lounsbery, who holds a doctorate in sport pedagogy and educational research methods from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has been recognized as a fellow in three academic organizations, including the National Academy of Kinesiology. Her scholastic pursuits, focused on improving population-level health through physical activity, promote community growth and wellness. The new SEVP and provost says she is eager to help advance the university’s efforts at prioritizing accessibility and affordability for all students, increasing the economic prosperity for the communities it serves and contributing to the “trend-bucking trajectory” of Wichita State.
Joy of Giving
“Working in philanthropy, you witness so many defining moments and milestones,” says Darin Kater, senior vice president of development at the WSUFAE. And Kater, who oversees the organization’s gift development team, has seen no shortage of celebrations since joining the WSU Foundation in 2008.
Milestones not limited to enabling students to seize once-in-a-lifetime study abroad opportunities, present their work at symposiums and be the first in their family to walk the stage to receive their diploma; seeing new academic buildings, state-of-the-art sports complexes and student resource facilities rise on the campus skyline; and helping students and staff alike achieve their full potential through endowed scholarships and professorships – just to name a few.
“Seeing progress like this never gets old — never,” Kater says, warmly. “We’re privileged here at the WSUFAE to be able to celebrate these accomplishments alongside the people whose support helps make it all possible.”
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas has invested $2.5 million in Wichita State and its largest current capital campaign, the Wichita Biomedical Center, a joint venture with the University of Kansas and WSU Tech.
“Most of the biggest moments in our lives are tied to health care in some way,” says Matt All, president and CEO of BCBSKS. “The Wichita Biomedical Campus will help make those moments better for Kansans by training the health care workers of the future and empowering them with the best tools and research.”
$1.8 million of the BCBSKS gift is earmarked toward the outstanding $16 million project cost of the WBC, ensuring that clinical space is included in Phase I of its construction. The remaining $700,000 of the gift will establish two endowed nursing scholarships in the WSU College of Health Professions.
All adds, “We’re thrilled to be a part of making it happen.”
Dr. Lefever was – and remains – a stalwart champion of Wichita State’s students. Throughout her tenure, she helped bolster the university’s inclusivity initiatives, K-12 outreach programs and innovative classroom and applied learning opportunities, which taken together cultivated the empowerment of students to achieve their fullest potential – academically, professionally and personally. As she often says, “It’s all about the students.”
Michael Fischer
Michael Fischer ’91 believes in the power of paying it forward.
Fischer, who has supported several programs in the Barton School of Business since his graduation, is a partner at New York City offices of the London-headquartered Ernst & Young, a Big Four accounting firm with the likes of Deloitte, KPMG International Limited and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Fischer, who lives in Sarasota, Florida, has worked internationally for the firm in London, Frankfurt and Zurich. “I’ve had a great career at EY,” he says, “including both professional and personal opportunities.”
Now, the business administration alumnus is giving back to his alma mater with the largest planned gift in the history of the Barton School of Business’ school of accountancy. “I feel I owe much of my professional success to the education and career networking that Wichita State provided,” he says. A Neff scholar and member of Mortar Board Honor Society, the international business honor fraternity Beta Alpha Psi and the business honor society Beta Gamma Sigma while a Shocker student, Fischer adds, “I’m happy to be able to give back a little in gratitude to WSU for the critical part it played in my professional life.”
Donna Sweet
In the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis, patients diagnosed with the then-mysterious and fatal disease were confronted with a health care system riddled with stigma, creating a very real barrier to accessing medical care.
But a handful of doctors around the world, including Dr. Donna Sweet ’70/72, set a new standard amidst the epidemic, one that met each patient with dignity, humanity and compassion.
Now 40 years into a career defined by altruism, Sweet is still not done.
The newly established Drs. Donna E. and George H. Sweet Professorship in Biological Sciences at Wichita State, created through a generous gift from Sweet, will provide support for a faculty member within the department of biological sciences. Sweet earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biological sciences, and her late husband, George ’60, taught in the department for nearly 30 years.
“I hope the department continues to support students in such a way that those who want to go on to medical school have the opportunity,” she says. “My goal is to make sure no matter their status or stature in life, people can be as productive and healthy and live as comfortably as possible.”
Sweet’s lifetime record of service and proven generosity are the building blocks to making it so.
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