Alumni Association announces 2025 Alumni Award Recipients

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 10, 2025) — The University of Kentucky Alumni Association announced the recipients of the 2025 Distinguished Service Awards and the Joseph T. Burch Young Alumni Award on Friday, June 27, during its annual Summer Workshop. These awards are presented each year to individuals who have provided extraordinary service to the University of Kentucky, the UK Alumni Association and their communities.

Distinguished Service Award Winners

The Distinguished Service Award is one of the highest honors bestowed by the UK Alumni Association. Up to five recipients are selected by the Board of Directors awards committee. Nominees must demonstrate:

• A sustained history of service to the UK Alumni Association and/or local alumni clubs;
• contributions to the accomplishments of the UK Alumni Association and/or local alumni clubs;
• leadership and dedication to university and alumni programs; and
• meaningful contributions to alumni, their community and their profession.

The 2025 Distinguished Service Award recipients are Phillip Elder, Tracy Lovan, Ouita Michel and Rachel Watts Webb.

Phillip Elder | Weatherford, Texas

A 1986 graduate of the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Elder holds a bachelor's degree in agricultural economics. His career includes 18 years of service with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Farmers Home Administration and Farm Service Agency) and another 18 years with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2021, and in 2024 was honored with two DHS Secretary Awards for exceptional and distinguished service to the department and the United States.

Since 2001, Elder has served as an active UK alumni club officer and board member, including five years as president of the Nation’s Capital UK Alumni Club (2005-2010), as a member of the UK Alumni Association Board of Directors (2012-2020), and as president of the Dallas-Fort Worth UK Alumni Club since 2017.

He earned his law degree from George Mason University in 2005 and is a licensed attorney in Texas, D.C. and Virginia. The Webster, Kentucky native lives in Weatherford, Texas, with his wife, Angie.

Tracy Lovan | Lexington, Kentucky

Lovan earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the College of Education in 1984 and later completed her master’s degree and Rank 1 in special education with an emphasis on learning disabilities and behavior disorders from Eastern Kentucky University. Lovan worked for Fayette County Public Schools for 28 years — 12 as a classroom teacher and 16 as a special education diagnostician — before retiring in 2014.

A dedicated volunteer, she has served on numerous boards including those of her son’s parent organizations, Habitat for Humanity, the Junior League of Lexington, the Lexington Philharmonic Guild, the Lafayette Band Association, Central Music Academy and the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, where she served two terms as president. She was a member of the UK Alumni Association Board of Directors from 2001-2004.

Lovan currently volunteers in the museum store at Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate. One of her favorite volunteer roles is with the UK Alumni Band, where she served two terms as co-president alongside her husband, Joel, a 1977 graduate of the UK College of Fine Arts. They are longtime members of Spindletop Hall and Life Members of the UK Alumni Association. The couple has been married for 41 years, and their son, Will, is a 2019 graduate of the UK College of Fine Arts.

Ouita Michel | Midway, Kentucky

A 1987 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences with a bachelor’s degree in political science, Michel is a chef, restaurateur, author and food advocate. Founder of Holly Hill & Co., she owns seven Central Kentucky restaurants along with a bakery, a bar, an event company and a cooking studio. An eight-time James Beard semifinalist and a Culinary Ambassador in the U.S. State Department’s Culinary Corps, Michel is regarded as Kentucky’s go-to authority on local food and the agricultural culture. Her accolades include awards for championing farmers, fishermen, butchers and stewards of the land.

Over the last 20 years, Michel’s restaurants have purchased more than $10 million in Kentucky Proud products, garnering lifetime achievement status. She co-founded Lexington’s FoodChain to promote food access and launched Smithtown Seafood as its public-facing restaurant. The Holly Hill website celebrates the people, places and ingredients of Kentucky, stories that also come to life through her Holly Hill Cooking Studio.

Michel is the author of "Just a Few Miles South: Timeless Recipes from Our Favorite Places" and has spent 37 years at the stove, sharing wisdom, recipes and life hacks. She is a mentor to countless young chefs and creatives. She and her husband, Chris, have a daughter, Willa.

Rachel Watts Webb | Shelbyville, Kentucky

Webb graduated in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in integrated strategic communication from the College of Communication and Information. During her time as a student, she served two terms as Student Government Association president and was a member of the UK Board of Trustees. She chaired the Kentucky Board of Student Body Presidents and was involved with Alpha Delta Pi sorority, Campus Crusade for Christ, Panhellenic Council, Emerging Leaders Institute, Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Beta Kappa and the 2004 Homecoming Court. She received the 2005 Dean’s Award from the College of Communication and Information.

After graduation, Webb served as UK’s government relations coordinator, supporting legislative efforts in Frankfort and grassroots alumni advocacy across the state. She has worked in nonprofit and healthcare spaces, including outreach for the Children’s Hospital Foundation and as executive director of the Kentucky Academy of Eye Physicians and Surgeons.

She served on the UK Board of Trustees from 2018-2024, chairing the Academic and Student Affairs Committee and serving on the Athletics and Executive Committees as secretary. Webb has served on the UK Alumni Association Board of Directors for 14 years and was a founding member of the UK Young Alumni Council. She received the Joseph T. Burch Young Alumni Award in 2014; her husband, Lee (a 1998 UK graduate), received the same award in 2010, making them the first couple to share this honor.

A Leadership Shelby alumna, Webb currently serves on the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. Her greatest passion is helping faith leaders in Kentucky find meaningful ways to connect and serve their local communities. She and her husband run a commercial real estate firm, Alton Webb & Associates, and are raising three children: Walker, Warren and Wells.

Joseph T. Burch Young Alumni Award

The Joseph T. Burch Young Alumni Award is named in honor of a beloved UK administrator who dedicated his career to supporting students. The award recognizes young alumni who demonstrate leadership and service to youth through the university, the Alumni Association, local alumni clubs, or their communities. Recipients are active members of the UK Alumni Association.

Nominees for this award typically:

• Raise and/or award scholarships to UK students;
• support local high school students interested in attending UK;
• educate or mentor youth in the community through coaching, tutoring or other means; and
• assist the UK Student Alumni Association through mentoring or support.

S. Zebulon “Zeb” Vance | Forest Hills, New York

Vance is a 2013 graduate of the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering with a degree in biosystems engineering. He earned his doctorate in biomedical engineering from the University of South Carolina in 2018 and later moved to New York City, where his multidisciplinary academic research spanned neurodegeneration, hematology and molecular therapeutics at the Mount Sinai Hospital and the New York Blood Center’s Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute. His 2024 publication in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, focused on the effects of genetic iron overload related to acute myeloid leukemia.

Vance is a field application scientist for Olink Proteomics, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he supports academic researchers and professional scientists in population-scale proteomics to uncover biomarkers across diverse disease areas.

He remains an engaged UK alumnus and passionate advocate in providing mentorship and visibility for underrepresented scientists. He has served on the boards for Mount Sinai oSTEM (Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and the NYBC Research Fellow Advancement Group.

He has served as an alumni mentor for the Pigman College of Engineering and is a member of the Pigman College of Engineering Young Alumni Philanthropy Council. He is president of the New York City UK Alumni Club, where he leads efforts to expand outreach and alumni engagement in the nation’s largest city.

The UK Alumni Association is committed to fostering lifelong engagement among alumni, friends, the association and the university. For more information about the UK Alumni Association, visit www.ukalumni.net or call 800-269-2586.