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Homecoming Alumni Awards

ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ is pleased to honor and celebrate four alumni for faithful lives of leadership and service.

Do you know an alum who should be considered for an alumni award? Nominations will be accepted until May 1. Nominations received after that date will be considered for the following year. Awardees will be recognized at the Alumni Awards Brunch during Homecoming. Tickets to the brunch can be purchased through the Homecoming registration form. 

Did you know at Homecoming 2027 (October 15 & 16) we will Celebrate ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½'s 90th Anniversary! In Celebration of 90 years we will be honoring and recognizing nine alumni at an awards Gala on Saturday October 16. See below for the nine unique areas. We hope you will join us for this special celebration! 

  1. Faith & Service- 

    Honoring an alum who embodies Christ’s love through ministry, missions, nonprofit leadership, or acts of compassion that bring hope and healing.

  2. Education

    Celebrating an alum who has shaped lives as a teacher, professor, coach, or mentor passing on wisdom, cultivating curiosity, and inspiring the next generation

  3. Business

    Recognizing an alum who has led with integrity in business, entrepreneurship, or finance- bringing excellence and ethical leadership to their industry

  4. Arts

    Highlighting a creative alum- writer, musician, performer, filmmaker, and communicator whose work tells stories, stirs imagination, and reflects truth and beauty.

  5. Health

    Celebrating a healthcare professional who advance discovery, promote wellness, and steward creation with excellence

  6. Science/Research

    Recognizing an alum whose scientific inquiry or research work honors the good of creation and advances responsible care for God’s world

  7. Public Service/ Law

    Recognizing alumni who serve the public good- through government, law, policy, or advocacy- working for justice, equity, and flourishing communities.

  8. ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½/ Coaching

    Celebrating an alum who inspires discipline, teamwork, and resilience- whether as an athlete, coach, or advocate for physical and mental well being.

  9. Innovation

    Recognizing a pioneer and builder whose vision creates new opportunities, ventures, and solutions that meet needs and bless communities 

Award Categories

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Alumnus and Alumna of the Year Award

Young Alumni Award

Global Service Award

Recognizes distinguished careers and lives modeling ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½'s values. Their outstanding contributions to their profession and community embody ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½'s mission.

Commends a graduate of the past 10 years with a distinguished professional career who shows promise for the future and models ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½â€™s Christian principles and values.

Honors devoted service to God’s kingdom through international, missionary or non-profit work by living a faithful Christian life in a diverse, complex and quickly changing society as a citizen and servant of the world. 
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Alumnus of the Year: Kiah Jordan ’06

The founder and president of Impact Family Office in Santa Barbara, Kiah provides independenttrustee and family office services to individuals, families, trusts and private foundations. ACalifornia Licensed Professional Fiduciary, he serves as a professional trustee, and dozens offamilies have selected him for current and successor fiduciary roles. Kiah focuses on thoughtful stewardship of multigenerational wealth. He helps families navigatecomplex trusts, succession and estate transitions, family governance, philanthropic engagementand the responsibilities of significant financial resources. His multidisciplinary team providesaccounting, administration, reporting, planning and professional coordination for longtimesupport of families and beneficiaries. He believes stewardship extends beyond financial performance and encourages families toreflect their values in their decisions, relationships, philanthropy, business interests, estate plansand use of capital. He combines the independence and personal accountability of an individualtrustee with the professional infrastructure of an established family office. Previously, he worked in real estate investment and growing family-owned businesses. He holdsthe Certified Financial Plannerâ„¢ certification, the Chartered Financial Consultant® designation,the ACCREDITED ESTATE PLANNER® designation and is a licensed Professional Fiduciarythrough the California Professional Fiduciaries Bureau. Kiah earned degrees in economics and business and Spanish at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ and completed aMaster of Science in Social Entrepreneurship at USC’s Marshall School of Business. He brieflytaught social entrepreneurship for ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½â€™s downtown program. Committed to strengthening Santa Barbara organizations, he chairs the Santa Barbara RescueMission Board and serves on the boards of the Towbes Foundation, the Santa BarbaraFoundation and Leading from Within. He also belongs to organizations supporting excellence inestate planning and fiduciary practice. In 2015, the Pacific Coast Business Times named himone of 40 Under 40. Kiah enjoys outdoor adventures with his wife and four children and plays ina local soccer league.

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Alumna of the Year: Sarah Spengeman ’01

Sarah first studied climate change in a chemistry class at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½. Today she pursuespassions she developed in college, working for the Crux Alliance, which supports the rapidimplementation of ambitious, cutting-edge climate policies. She shares successes in climatepolicy with global audiences and develops strategic communications. Her previous positionsincluded deputy director of communications for Energy Innovation, a clean-energy and climatepolicy think tank in San Francisco, and associate director for advocacy and communications atHealth Care Without Harm, a global campaign to help healthcare institutions and professionalslead on climate solutions and community resilience. She also writes about climate justice and policy for publications such as Forbes, Yale ClimateConnections and Stanford Social Innovation Review. Her work involves planning andimplementing successful campaigns, developing strategy, building coalitions and creatingadvocacy education and training materials. In 2015, while she was working in Washington, D.C., at a Catholic social justice lobby, PopeFrancis issued his encyclical Laudato Si’. This document inspired her to pursue climatesolutions, convincing her that addressing the climate crisis promotes justice. Sarah’s faith animates her commitment to clean energy and climate policy. She serves as boardsecretary of Interfaith Power & Light (IPL), an organization that mobilizes people of faith tosupport a thriving natural world, helping churches and religious congregations be good stewardsof the Earth. A political science major, Sarah participated in the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ Urban Program and interned withthe International Rescue Committee, which led to her first job helping resettle refugees with theIRC in San Francisco. She then earned both a master’s degree and a doctorate in politicalscience from the University of Notre Dame. She lives in San Rafael, California, with herhusband, daughter and two rescue dogs.

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Global Service Award: Nick ’94 and Jen McKinney ’98 Greener

The Greeners have served as missionaries with Water for Life (a branch of Youth with aMission) for the past 20 years. In 2009, they moved to Rwanda with their children, Christian andAva, to direct projects in a dozen African countries, providing clean drinking water to more than100,000 people. They focus on working with local ministries to help provide water for those inneed and lift up the churches and ministries serving those communities. Nick and Jen met in Washington, D.C., in 1998 through mutual ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ connections. With adegree in communication studies, Jen served as a U.S. Senate staffer while Nick worked inhealth policy at the White House after finishing a Master of Public Administration at USC. Theycelebrated 25 years of marriage in September 2025. Current projects have expanded to include partnerships with local churches to build communityfarms, especially in Zimbabwe. They provide access to clean drinking water, irrigation for thefarms and opportunities for training in sustainable agriculture and discipleship among thefamilies through local churches. The Greeners now operate out of Cape Town, South Africa. Life continues to be an adventure,and they express gratitude for their years at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ that helped provide much of thefoundation for their work and ministry.

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Young Alumnus of the Year: Aaron Wilk ’16

Aaron earned both a medical degree and a doctorate in immunology through the MedicalScientist Training Program at Stanford. His doctoral research applied single-cell multi-omicstechnology to human viral infections. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he developed the firstsingle-cell atlas of the peripheral immune response to severe COVID-19, one of the most highlyused public resources in COVID-19 immunology. A physician-scientist, clinical pathologist and translational immunologist at Stanford UniversitySchool of Medicine, Aaron is a fellow in hematopathology and serves as the inaugural directorof the Translational Laboratory for Immunology and Cellular Function, which he co-founded.This new initiative develops novel clinical diagnostics of the immune system to guide moreprecise use of immunomodulators and cellular therapies. His work focuses on developing next-generation immune diagnostics, single-cell genomics andtranslational approaches to immune-mediated disease, specializing in diagnosing leukemia,lymphoma and other immune system disorders. Aaron has created multiple novel diagnostictests for immune system cancers, becoming a recognized leader in diagnosing natural killer cellcancers and contributing to new diagnostic criteria for these entities. He majored in biology, chemistry and music and graduated summa cum laude. A pianist withthe ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ Orchestra, he twice won the Music Department’s Concerto Competition andfounded Sanare Music to bring music into memory-care facilities. He received Stanford’sGraduate Prize in Music and continues to perform chamber music and collaborate with scientificand artistic disciplines, passionate about integrating scientific innovation, clinical medicine,mentorship and the arts to promote human health.