Outstanding Alumni and Supporters to be Honored at Annual Gala
Five UT Dallas graduates and a loyal University supporter will be honored at the 15th annual UT Dallas Awards Gala on March 30. The program will feature the presentation of the Gifford. K. Johnson Community Leadership Award, the Green and Orange Award for Alumni Service and four Distinguished Alumni Awards.
Gifford K. Johnson Community Leadership Award
Russell Cleveland is the principal founder of private investment management firm RENN Capital Group Inc. and a Chartered Financial Analyst. He has held executive positions with major regional brokerage firms and served as a corporate director for many public and private companies. Cleveland serves as chair of the Guitar Advisory Council at UT Dallas and endowed the Russell Cleveland Professor of Guitar Studies.
Green and Orange Award for Alumni Service
Dr. Peter Balyta MBA’03 is vice president of academic engagement and corporate citizenship and president of education technology at Texas Instruments, leading teams focused on teaching, learning and finding inspiration from STEM subjects. He works with the National Initiative on Cybersecurity Education, National Science Teachers Association and National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, as well as serves on the UT Dallas Development Board.
Distinguished Alumni Awards
Mike Brodie BS’76 and his partners opened the Plano office of Keller Williams Realty in 1997, where he has served as broker/owner since its inception and took on the operating principal role in 2013. He has received a number of professional awards and volunteers with organizations such as the Lone Star Chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Greater Dallas United Way, Emily's Place and the Plano Chamber of Commerce.
The Honorable Deborah Hankinson MS’77 is a partner at Hankinson LLP, an appellate law firm that spans all phases of litigation. She graduated from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law at the top of the class and joined Thompson & Knight LLP, where she tried cases and practiced appellate law. In 1995, she was appointed, and later elected, to serve as a justice on the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas. From 1997 to 2002, she served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Texas. She returned to private practice in 2002.
Tahir Hussain BS’94 is the founder and managing partner of technology accelerator Collide Village LLC. He also founded Fusion Solutions Inc., a consulting and staffing company, and served in a number of technical and management positions at Ericsson. He holds 14 patents in wireless technologies.
Dr. Solomon C. Luo MS’78, MD, FACS founded Progressive Vision Institute in 1986 and grew the business to eight locations throughout Pennsylvania. An internationally renowned ophthalmologist, he was one of the first physicians in the region to perform surgery to correct nearsightedness. He and his wife established the John Jagger Scholarship for Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Visit utdallas.edu/gala or call 972-883-2586 to register or learn more about the honorees.