Four young alumni honored with ‘Emerging Voice Award’

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Four alumni from Purdue University's College of Liberal Arts  received the 2018 Emerging Voice Award Friday (Sept. 7).

The College of Liberal Arts, CLA Alumni Board and Purdue Alumni Association present the award annually to young alumni who have excelled in their careers and proven to be productive, engaged members of society. The CLA has recognized 32 alumni with Emerging Voice Awards since first establishing the honor in 2007.

This year’s four recipients received the award at a reception at Purdue Memorial Union. They are:

* Ina Kaur, a 2007 graduate with an Master of Fine Arts in creative arts, whose mixed media art has been featured in exhibitions around the world. Kaur currently oversees the master’s program for the Contemporary Art Practice Department at Srishti Institute of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore, India, and has also worked as an art professor at Purdue, the University of Tampa and Bowling Green State University.

* Blair Milo, a 2010 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in political science, who is now the secretary of career connections and talent for the State of Indiana. Prior to accepting Gov. Eric Holcomb’s appointment to her current position in 2017, Milo completed two Persian Gulf deployments in the U.S. Navy, worked in the Pentagon and was elected mayor of her hometown, La Porte, Indiana, in 2011.

* Amy O’Shea, a 2009 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in political science, who is the founder of Bright Books and manager at Grant Thornton LLP in Washington, D.C. Bright Books uses the profits from its journal sales to distribute solar lights to children and families in impoverished areas who lack access to electricity.

* Johnny Smith, a 2011 graduate with a Ph.D. in history, who is the J.C. “Bud” Shaw Assistant Professor of Sports, Society, and Technology and assistant professor of history at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Smith has published three books on sports history, most recently “A Season in the Sun: The Rise of Mickey Mantle” (Basic Books, 2018), co-written with Randy Roberts, 150th Anniversary Professor and Distinguished Professor of History.

More information about the Emerging Voice Awards can be found here.

Writer: Kelsey Schnieders Lefever, kschnied@purdue.edu

Media contact: Joseph Paul, paul102@purdue.edu

Source: Alice Wenger, Program Coordinator, wendera@purdue.edu