Hillsdale College Honors Alumni Award Recipients
HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hillsdale College is proud to announce its 2024 Alumni Award recipients, each of whom were honored on June 30, 2024, at a special ceremony during White & Blue Reunion Weekend. Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn presented the awards.
“When students graduate from Hillsdale College, they go into a wide variety of fields and professions — the arts and sciences, journalism, law, education, among many others,” said Colleen Mc Ginness, the executive director of Alumni Relations at Hillsdale College. “These awards give us the opportunity to recognize and honor the good work being done by Hillsdale College alumni everywhere.”
Kerry Donovan Cummings (’77) will receive an award for Outstanding Service to Hillsdale College. She graduated from Hillsdale College in 1977 with a double major in English and mathematics. She earned her law degree from the Chicago-Kent School of Law. She worked for The Northern Trust Co., handling estate tax and trust and probate administration. After taking some time off to raise a family, she returned to Northern Trust, where she currently serves as a vice president. She joined the Hillsdale College Alumni Association Board and served as the board secretary before being elected president in 2019. Cummings is currently serving as immediate past president.
Elizabeth Edwards Spalding (’88) will receive the Elizebeth Smith Friedman Award for Freedom. She is the chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and founding director of the Victims of Communism Museum. A lifelong educator and frequent public speaker, she is senior fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy and visiting fellow at the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in international politics and political theory from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in politics from Hillsdale College. She lives with her family in Arlington, Virginia.
Michael Francisco (’04) will receive an award for Outstanding Professional Achievement in Law. Michael is an attorney with the First & Fourteenth law firm. He is a proven public and commercial litigator with extensive appellate experience who often serves as a strategic advisor to clients facing acute legal challenges. He has represented clients nationally for public impact litigation, bet-the-company lawsuits, and in defense of constitutional rights. Since graduating from Hillsdale College in 2004 and Cornell Law School in 2007, he has worked in public and private settings on some of the most important constitutional disputes nationwide. He clerked on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals for Judge Timothy Tymkovich (2008) and later for Justice Neil Gorsuch on the U.S. Supreme Court (2019-2020).
Kat Timpf (’10) will receive an award for Outstanding Professional Achievement in Journalism. Timpf is a writer, comedian, and libertarian commentator. She is currently the co-host of “Gutfeld!” on Fox News weeknights at 10 p.m. and a Fox News analyst. She’s also the author of the New York Times bestseller “You Can’t Joke About That: Why Everything is Funny, Nothing is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together.”
For headshots and photos of the award recipients, click here.
For a high-resolution copy of the Hillsdale College clocktower logo, click here.