Alumni Excellence Honored at Awards Gala
ALBANY, N.Y. (May 4, 2023) — Eleven members of the University at Albany community, including 10 alumni and a professor, were honored for their achievements and service at the Alumni Association’s annual Excellence Awards Gala, held April 22 at Wolferts Roost Country Club.
This year’s recipients are:
Leigh L. Wen, MFA ’94, Stoneman Distinguished Alumni Award
Modern artist Leigh Li-Yun Wen is held in high esteem across national and international curatorial and collectors’ circles and is an ambassador to the world. She has served as a cultural ambassador during the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, and has exhibited in 18 American embassies, consulates and other government institutes worldwide as part of the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program.
Wen was named a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow and artist of New York State by The New York State Legislature. She has been honored with an Arts Fellowship by the Helena Rubinstein Foundation and artist grants by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
Wen’s artwork has been shown around the world, including at the New York State Museum, the Taipei Art Fair, the America University Museum in Washington, D.C., and in U.S. embassies around the world, and has been featured in top art and pop culture magazines including Art in America, American Art Collector and Vogue. Last year the Albany Institute of History & Art held a retrospective of her work, featuring more than 60 sculpture, paintings and mixed media works.
Rabi Musah, PhD, Collins Citizen of the University
UAlbany Chemistry Professor Rabi Musah has demonstrated a sustained dedication to furthering the University’s mission by addressing high attrition and low graduation rates among students in STEM.
In 2008, with $1 million in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Musah and collaborators Associate Professor Hua Shi and technician Denise McKeon (biological sciences) launched UAlbany’s Center for Achievement, Retention and Student Success (CARSS) to increase the retention of core science majors, with particular benefit to historically underrepresented groups. In 2022, the University was awarded $2.5 million from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to launch the EXCELlence in STEM program, which will expand the CARSS model to all incoming STEM majors.
Musah’s research focus is in medicinal organosulfur natural products, plant chemical defense, and forensics analysis of plants.
She has been honored with both the President’s and SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and was selected by students as the recipient of the Faculty & Student Engagement Torch Award. In 2022, she received the President’s Excellence in Research and Creative Activities Award.
Nicholas Creegan ’13, Irvis Outstanding Young Alumni Award
Journalist-turned-actor Nick Creegan has become one of the most visible young talents today, starring in trending roles that have thrust him into the social media spotlight while demonstrating the impact of diversity on screen.
Creegan’s first break in the acting industry came in 2019 after Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) casting team members discovered a viral comedy sketch of the then-journalist on Instagram. Creegan was cast as Desmond, a recurring character in OWN’s critically acclaimed drama, “David Makes Man.”
After performing in the 2019 “ABC Discovers: New York Talent Showcase,” Creegen went on to play the major recurring role of Richie Wheatley Jr. on NBC’s “Law and Order: Organized Crime.” In 2021, Creegan landed the role of Marquis Jet, who later transformed into the Joker, on The CW series, “Batwoman.” Creegan made history as the first Black actor to portray the infamous villain.
At UAlbany, Creegan studied communication and journalism, and was a member of the Chi Alpha Epsilon National Honor Society, Albany Student Television, Sports Debate Show, TRiO Student Support Services and Circle K community service group.
Alex Fredericks ’95, Whittlesey Excellence in Alumni Service
A partner and leader in EY’s Financial Accounting Advisory Services/Technical Accounting Advisory Group, Alex Fredericks has utilized his professional role to serve as a conduit back to the UAlbany School of Business for two decades.
Fredericks serves as the matching gifts sponsor lead of EY Bench, which includes UAlbany alumni at various career stages and levels of employment at EY. The EY Bench is active in spearheading an annual internal fundraising campaign for UAlbany’s EY Initiative, raising $50,000-100,000 annually in support of the priorities of UAlbany’s Accounting Department. These priorities include the EY Trajectory program, the EY LEAD program, and the Living-Learning Community: World of Business program.
Fredericks received his BS in Accounting from UAlbany and was a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors 2010-2020. He is a current member of the School of Business Accounting Advisory Council and the Junior Accounting Orientation Task Force.
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, ’13, Excellence in Arts & Letters
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the author of The New York Times best-selling short story collection Friday Black and the just-released novel, Chain Gang All-Stars (Pantheon, May 2).
Adjei-Brenyah was selected by Colson Whitehead as one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honorees, and he was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Media in 2020. He is the winner of the PEN/Jen Stein Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for Best First Book.
Adjei-Brenyah’s debut novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars, was listed among the most anticipated books of the year by The Washington Post, Goodreads, Oprah Daily, The Seattle Times, Huffington Post and Publishers Weekly, and received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.
He has been back to UAlbany to discuss his work through the New York State Writers Institute.
Elda A. Di Re '83, Excellence in Business
Elda Di Re is a financial services industry expert known for helping Americans better understand tax-related issues. The go-to expert for years, she was frequently called upon by national news outlets including CNBC, Bloomberg TV and FOX News to answer financial questions and discuss new legislation with tax implications.
By the time of her retirement as a partner at EY in January 2020, Di Re had earned a reputation as a trailblazer in the world of personal tax and led the largest book of business in EY’s Private Client Group. The co-author of the Ernst & Young’s Financial Planning Guide for Women, Di Re is an advocate for the advancement of women in the accounting profession.
Di Re serves on the School of Business Accounting Advisory Board and is a member of the Executive Committee of the University at Albany Foundation. She established the Elda Di Re ’83 Curriculum Innovation Fund.
Dana Basnight-Brown, MA ’04, PhD ’10, Excellence in Education
Dana Basnight-Brown is an associate professor of psychology at the United States International University (USIU-Africa) in Nairobi, Kenya. She founded and serves as principal investigator for the school’s Centre for Cognitive and Developmental Research, the first research laboratory dedicated to the study of human cognition in East Africa.
Basnight-Brown helped to develop USIU-Africa’s first doctoral program in psychology, as well as two masters of arts degrees in the psychology programs. She also was a founding committee member and former co-chair of the International Review Board at the university and is a founding board member of the Psychological Science Accelerator, one of the largest team science initiatives in the behavior sciences worldwide. Her work as a mentor and scholar has been recognized by the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science for her work on open scholarship in African psychology.
Nancy Grasso Barry ’85, Milk Excellence in Public Service
UAlbany Women’s Basketball alum Nancy Grasso Barry is the chief of operations for the Office of Court Administration. Before embarking on her career in the New York State Unified Court System, Barry was principal in a firm managing its litigation and transactional practice. She has served as the district executive of the 9th Judicial District (Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties) and she also served as chief clerk of the Supreme and County Courts of Westchester County.
After graduating from UAlbany she got her law degree from Pace University.
Barry has set up clinics, given talks at community centers and local churches and reaches out to everyone she can to make courts more accessible. She has lectured before various organizations and conducted continuing legal education seminars on the topics of mortgage foreclosure, ethics, civil case management, access to justice and electronic filing in New York state.
Audrey LaFrenier, MSW ’85, Excellence in Public Service
School of Social Welfare alum Audrey LaFrenier recently retired as president and chief operating officer of Northern Rivers Family of Services in Albany. Under LaFrenier’s stewardship, Northern Rivers introduced and expanded innovative programming such as rapid-response teams to handle mental health crises in the community, licensed mental health clinics in public schools and short-term, intensive mental health services to keep youth out of hospitals.
LaFrenier has served as a member and leader of the NYS Children’s Behavioral Health Coalition, NYS Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the NYS Council on Community Behavioral Healthcare. She has mentored hundreds of UAlbany SSW students and collaborated with SSW faculty on the establishment of the first licensed mental health clinic in an upstate school at Schuyler Elementary in Albany.
Perry Samson ’72, MS ’74, Excellence in Science & Technology
A first-generation college grad, Perry Samson has led a distinguished career in meteorology for 43 years. He retired from teaching at the University of Michigan in 2022 as the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering and was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 2023.
In 2006 and 2019, Samson led students from Michigan, UAlbany and Virginia Tech on expeditions to Greenland to perform research and see climate change firsthand. In the 1990s, Samson started using weather data to enhance learning through the Blue-Skies Project. This work evolved into the Weather Underground service, which was acquired by the Weather Channel in 2012. Samson also created Lecture Tools, which was acquired by Echo 360 and serves over two million students worldwide. His latest project, LearningClues, uses AI technology to connect students to supporting educational resources based on the context of class discussion.
Samson and his wife, Deborah, established the Perry J. Samson Student Experience Fund, which helps UAlbany undergrads deepen their understanding of atmospheric and environmental sciences through fieldwork.
Alicia M. Wein, MS ’03, Bertha Brimmer Medal
In the last 26 years, Guilderland High School English teacher Alicia M. Wein has distinguished herself as a gifted classroom teacher, a collaborator with community partners and a champion for meeting the needs of all students. She is sought out by peers for advice and instruction in writing and is highly regarded as a teacher-leader across the Capital District.
Wein works to keep at-risk youth in the classroom through GHS’s Focus Program and is the lead English instructor for the Syracuse University Project Advance (SUPA) program. She is co-founder and advisor of GHS’s Muslim Student Association and co-advisor of the school’s LGBTQ+ Alliance. Wein advised the students who founded the first chapter of the March for Our Lives movement in the Capital District.
Wein has been a part of the Capital District Writing Project (CDWP) since 2004 and has served as CDWP co-director and co-facilitator of the Invitational Summer Institute.
Learn more about the recipients and nominate someone for a 2024 Excellence Award: www.alumni.albany.edu/awards