Distinguished Legacy Award
Awarded to FAA alumni who have attained outstanding success and national or international distinction in their chosen profession or life’s work and whose accomplishments reflect admirably on, or bring honor to, the College of Fine and Applied Arts and the University of Illinois.
Marilyn Kay Austin (BFA '62 Industrial Design)
Marilyn Kay Austin (BFA ’62 Industrial Design)
Marilyn Kay Austin attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was the only female in her class of 1962 to graduate with a BFA degree in Industrial Design. Later that same year, she began her work at Architectural Pottery in Los Angeles as their first full-time in-house designer at the age of 22. For the next three years, she produced award-winning designs for both ceramics and fiberglass, contributing to the company’s image of groundbreaking design that helped to mold the movement that was to become Mid-Century Modernism. After leaving Architectural Pottery, she continued her work as an industrial designer, designing plumbing products for American Standard for five years. She then moved on to applying her talents to commercial interior design for her own business, followed by 18 years as Senior Designer for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach, CA. In 2012, Marilyn was featured in an exhibit at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles titled California’s Designing Women: 1896–1986. Twelve years later she was featured in a 6-month show at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona titled Architectural Pottery: Ceramics for a Modern Landscape, honoring the designers at AP and their significant impact on mid-20th century architecture and design in California. As impressive as these accomplishments still seem today, it must be remembered they were made while working in a profession dominated by men, making her a true pioneer in the world of women in design.
Hazel Ruth Edwards (PhD '93 Regional Planning)
Hazel Ruth Edwards (PhD ’93 Regional Planning)
Hazel Ruth Edwards, Ph.D., FAICP, is an award-winning educator, planner, and researcher whose work integrates place-based scholarship, urban design, and inclusive planning practice. A native of North Carolina raised in Washington, D.C., she holds degrees from Howard University (BArch), Harvard (MArch in Urban Design), and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (PhD in Regional Planning).
Dr. Edwards’ career reflects a deep commitment to livability, equity, and expanding representation in the design and planning fields. Her coauthored book The Long Walk: The Placemaking Legacy of Howard University remains a landmark study in campus planning and inspired an award-winning documentary. She later served as Special Assistant for Campus Planning at Howard, contributing to plans still shaping the university today.
Her academic career spans Morgan State University, The Catholic University, and Howard University, where she returned in 2016 as the first woman to serve as full professor and chair of architecture since the program’s founding in 1911. She also helped establish The Catholic University’s planning program, later ranked among North America’s top 15 small programs by Planetizen.
Named a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners (FAICP) in 2018, Dr. Edwards has received numerous accolades, including the 2024 Richard T. Ely Distinguished Educator Award from Lambda Alpha International and the 2022 Women in Architecture Design Leadership Educator Award from Architectural Record. Her leadership extends to national service, including her 2021 appointment by President Biden to a four-year term to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, where she served as Vice Chair.
Dr. Edwards is also a principal investigator on a NASA-funded research initiative exploring adaptive architecture for space missions. Her work—grounded in history, community, and design—continues to shape the future of planning education and practice.
J. David Hoglund (MArch '81)
J. David Hoglund (MArch ’81)
David Hoglund, FAIA, LEED AP, is a pioneering architect and thought leader whose four-decade career has transformed senior living environments worldwide. Guided by the belief that design can elevate the human experience—particularly focused on society’s most vulnerable—David has led the design of over 250 senior living and affordable housing projects across 35 states, Canada, and Asia. His visionary work, including the groundbreaking Woodside Place in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, revolutionized dementia care and inspired a global movement toward more humane, dignity-centered environments.
A former president of Perkins Eastman and a global leader in aging-focused architecture, David helped grow the firm into an international practice with 23 studios and over 1,000 staff. His projects, research, and writings on senior living are essential references in the field, earning more than 150 design awards, including 35+ AIA Design for Aging Review awards and the AIA DFAR 10-Year Award.
David graduated from the University of Illinois with a Master of Architecture in 1981 with a Ryerson fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His research on senior housing in Northern Europe led to his first book Housing for the Elderly: Privacy and Independence in Environments for the Aging which won a Progressive Architecture award.
David has taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design for 15 years and continues to guest lecture and mentor emerging designers at Perkins Eastman and through his guest lectures at the University of Southern California. Through his leadership, teaching, and profound empathy, he has made architecture a tool for dignity, independence, and quality of life.
Tinashe Kajese-Bolden (BFA '01 Studio Acting)
Tinashe Kajese-Bolden (BFA ’01 Studio Acting)
Tinashe Kajese-Bolden is a multi-award-winning director, actor, and producer at the forefront of American theater. A University of Illinois Department of Theatre alumna (BFA ’01), she is celebrated for work that bridges artistic excellence with community empowerment.
Born in Zimbabwe and raised in post-colonial East and Southern Africa, Tinashe brings a global lens to storytelling. She is committed to creating liberatory spaces for diverse voices, a mission recognized with the 2019 Princess Grace Award for Directing and a MAP Fund Award for ALL SMILES, a devised piece centering children on the autism spectrum.
She began her journey at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre as the inaugural BOLD Women’s Leadership Circle Artistic Director Fellow, later becoming Associate Artistic Director. There, she led initiatives like the Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab and the Spelman Leadership Fellowship—the first regional theater/HBCU partnership to elevate emerging Black women and non-binary arts leaders.
Her directing and acting credits span Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theaters, and screen. Notable directing work includes premieres of Forsyth County is Flooding, The Preacher’s Wife Musical, Furlough’s Paradise, and Nick’s Flamingo Grill, with productions at The Geffen Playhouse, Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth, and more. On screen, she has appeared in Strays, The Suicide Squad, Marvel’s Hawkeye, HBO’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Ava DuVernay’s Cherish the Day.
In 2023, Tinashe became the Jennings Hertz Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre—the first woman of color to hold this role. Her leadership has launched Broadway transfers, bold new programming, and a new youth performance space. She serves on the ARTS ATL Advisory Council and mentors through the Kenny Leon Directing Fellowship, advancing a more inclusive and visionary future for American theater.
Donald Nally (DMA '95)
Donald Nally (DMA ’95)
Donald Nally collaborates with creative artists, leading orchestras, and art museums to make new works for choir that address social and environmental issues. He has commissioned over 200 works, and with his ensemble The Crossing has produced 36 recordings, won four Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance, and was nominated 10 times.
Donald has held distinguished tenures as chorus master for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Welsh National Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and for many seasons at Il festival dei due mondi in Spoleto, Italy. He has prepared choruses for the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Donald works closely with the artists Allora & Calzadilla and composer David Lang on projects in museums of London, Porto, Cordoba, Edmonton, Houston, Osaka, and Philadelphia. He has been a visiting resident artist at the Park Avenue Armory and music director of The Mile Long Opera, David Lang’s 1000-voice work on The High Line in Manhattan. Two of his projects have been preserved by the National Archives of The Library of Congress as cultural artifacts, both responding to the 2020 pandemic: his 72-chapter series Rising w/ The Crossing, and Carols after a Plague, with contributions from 12 composers.
Recent collaborations include the Swedish Radio Choir, Klockriketeatern at the Finnish National Opera, Musikgebouw (Amsterdam), the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm, the Big Ears Festival, the Haarlem KoorBiënnale, and various projects at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Donald is a frequent guest artist/teacher at universities, including Yale, Harvard, The University of Chicago, Indiana University, Notre Dame, UNC Chapel Hill, and Boston Conservatory.
Donald is the John W. Beattie Chair of Music Emeritus at Northwestern University. He is Professor of Choral Studies at Westminster Choir College of Rider University.
Emerging Legacy Award
Recognizes FAA alumni early in their careers who have made outstanding professional contributions to their field since graduating.
Noël Wan 萬依慈 (DMA '20, BMUS '14)
Noël Wan 萬依慈 (DMA ’20, BMUS ’14)
Lauded as “a huge talent with hidden power and amazing maturity” (Bart van Oort) and “not [a harpist] to be slept on” (The Globe and Mail), Taiwanese-Canadian-American Noël Wan 萬依慈 (b. 1994) is an internationally acclaimed harpist and interdisciplinary scholar. She has performed across Europe, Asia, and North America at venues including Carnegie Hall, Taiwan Performing Arts Center, het Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, and Yellow Barn. Currently Assistant Professor of Harp and Entrepreneurship at Florida State University, she is also a sought-after teacher and masterclass clinician.
A top prizewinner at numerous international competitions, Noël is a 2023 Astral Artists laureate and the 2022 Gold Medalist of the USA International Harp Competition. She is also the youngest First Prize winner in the history of the World Harp Competition. Known for her genre-crossing versatility, Noël’s solo repertoire spans classical masterworks, avant-garde compositions, and bold transcriptions—from J.S. Bach to Alice Coltrane and Polyphia.
Currently, she is working on several projects for the electroacoustic harp: commissions of three works written by Paolo Griffin, Caroline Lizotte, and Liliya Ugay, and electronic sound design under her new moniker The Mother’s Teeth.
Noël’s research explores intersections of music, identity, and digital aesthetics through posthuman feminism and performance studies. Her work investigates queer embodiment, the monstrous feminine, and cyborg sound creation. She is supported by the Chimei Arts Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, and Florida State University.
An alumna of the University of Illinois (BM ’14, DMA ’20) and Yale School of Music (MM ’16), her mentors include Ann Yeung, June Han, and Erika Waardenburg. She lives between Florida and Ontario with her husband, composer Patrick Murray, and their two tuxedo cats, Simone and Georgina.
Illinois Arts Legacy Award
Recognizes volunteers, staff, loyal performers, affiliated artists, etc. who are not necessarily graduates of FAA but whose contributions have made a significant impact in the arts at Illinois.
Omar Lamar Francis (BFA ’94 Photography)
Jeffrey Mellander (BSAS ’73)
Since arriving at the University of Illinois in 1968 to study Architecture, Jeff Mellander has exemplified creativity, entrepreneurship, and community impact. Inspired by the modernist influence of campus landmarks like the Krannert Center and Assembly Hall, as well as the mentorship of design instructor Jack Baker, Jeff began a journey that would intertwine design, education, and urban revitalization in extraordinary ways. During a transformative year abroad through the university’s architecture program in collaboration with the École des Beaux-Arts in Versailles, France, Jeff deepened his appreciation for architectural history and culture. Upon returning, he merged artistic talent with technical training, working as a freelance illustrator before founding Precision Graphics in 1977. What began as a solo venture became a nationally recognized company serving major educational publishers like McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and National Geographic. In 2004, Precision Graphics earned McGraw-Hill’s “Star Vendor” award.
Jeff then turned his focus to revitalizing downtown Champaign, acquiring and restoring nine historic properties over three decades. Collaborating with Smith Burgett Architects and his former mentor, he preserved architectural character while creating vibrant new commercial and residential spaces. Key projects include the Atkinson Monument Building and the Hickory Street Trolley Barn.
His work has earned widespread recognition, including the Key to the City of Champaign (1997), the Longevity Through Innovation Award from the Champaign County EDC (2008), and an honor from the local AIA chapter in 2007—especially meaningful since Jeff never pursued licensure yet made a lasting architectural impact.
A generous community advocate, Jeff has supported the arts through service on the Champaign Downtown Development Committee, the Krannert Council, and the Sinfonia da Camera board, and by donating event space to local artists and organizations.
Jeff’s legacy lives in the revitalized streets of Champaign and in the creative and civic energy he’s inspired across generations.
Past recipients
The Legacy Award recipients from 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, and 2018, can be found here.