Burch Young Alumni Award Goes to Amelia Brown Wilson
LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 12, 2011) -- Amelia Brown Wilson of Lexington recently received the 2011 Joseph T. Burch Young Alumni Award. The award is named for a longtime University of Kentucky administrator who spent the better part of his life in service to UK students.
Wilson has served on the Fayette County UK Alumni Club Board of Directors and for the last two years has been president of the Fayette County Young Alumni Club. She was elected to the UK Alumni Association Board of Directors in 2009 and currently serves on the Scholarship/Great Teacher Awards Committee.
Wilson is a three-time graduate of the University of Kentucky, earning a bachelor’s degree in family and consumer sciences in 2003, a master’s degree in career, technical and leadership education in 2006, and a doctorate in higher education in 2010. While attending UK, she was part of the Emerging Leaders Institute, vice president of Delta Gamma sorority, a member of the Student Government Association, and was selected as one of the five UK Ambassadors. Wilson was named UK Homecoming Queen in 2003 and received the Sullivan Award Medallion in 2004 for her commitment to community service.
Upon graduating from UK, she served as a 4-H Extension agent in Fayette County where she coordinated countless programs for children and served as a mentor through the Turner Leadership Academy in the College of Agriculture. She recently accepted a new position with Mid-Continent University as director of Student Services. Wilson is an active alumna of Delta Gamma sorority and was named National Agricultural Alumni and Development Association representative on the UK College of Agriculture Board of Directors in 2009.
In 2005, Wilson received a liver transplant. Her life experience has made her an advocate for organ donation. While awaiting a liver transplant, she started the “Gift of Life Challenge,” a competition between UK and University of Louisville during basketball season that raises awareness about organ donation. In addition, she has been involved with numerous other community service projects. In June 2010, she married Allen Wilson, a two-time UK graduate.
A nominee for this award must be an alumna or alumnus who is an active member of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association, who is 10 years or less out of college at the time of nomination and who has worked on behalf of young people through the university, the association, their alumni club or in the local community in these or other venues:
- Raising funds for scholarships and/or awarding scholarships for students to attend UK;
- Working with local high school students through club-sponsored event and/or Preview Nights to interest students in attending UK;
- Working to educate youth in the local community, whether through tutoring, coaching or other means to keep them interested in learning; and
- Assisting in efforts to support the Student Alumni Association through mentoring or other means.
For more information, contact Christina Noll of the UK Alumni Association at 859-257-4439,