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Alumni Humanitarian Award

The Alumni Humanitarian Award, established in 2001, is bestowed upon alumni of the University of Illinois by the Alumni Association, on behalf of the University of Illinois. It is presented to those alumni who, through their outstanding involvement and dedication, have made a significant contribution of volunteer leadership or service which has improved or enriched the lives of others and the welfare of humanity, and whose accomplishments reflect admirably on or bring honor to their Alma Mater.

2010 Recipient

For more than 24 years, Mary Ingram, MS ’81 NURS, has provided health care services to Native Americans living in the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on the boarder of North and South Dakota, the Ogala Sioux Reservation in Pine Ridge, S.D., and an urban Indian Health Service hospital in Rapid City, S.D. A nurse practitioner with a Ph.D. in transcultural nursing, she began her work with the United States Public Health Service as a lieutenant, junior grade, assigned to the Indian Health Service. Her personal research into Lakota health and caring practices was adopted as curriculum model for the nursing program at Oglala Lakota College, where she serves as instructor and academic counselor. Also a member of the USPHS Commissioned Corps Readiness Force, Ingram was deployed to provide care for Albanian Kosovar refugees in 1999 and Gulf Coast Hurricane Katrina victims in 2005.