Honoring the 2024 St. Olaf Alumni Award winners
The winners of the 2024 St. Olaf College Alumni Awards were celebrated during a ceremony on campus November 15.
Sylvia Strobel ’88, the president and CEO of Twin Cities PBS (TPT), received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Ward Sutton ’89, an award-winning editorial cartoonist, and Lazarus Letcher ’14, a scholar and musician, received Alumni Achievement Awards. John Hegg ’63, a school counselor, and Cal Husmann ’90, an advancement professional, received Outstanding Service Awards.
The Alumni Awards are given each year to Oles whose service and leadership exemplify the ideals and mission of the college. In honoring these graduates for their exceptional achievements and professional contributions, they become an integral part of college history and a testament to St. Olaf’s tradition of excellence. Any member of the St. Olaf community may nominate an Ole for an Alumni Award. Awardees are selected by the Alumni and Family Board, with final approval by the St. Olaf Board of Regents.
“This year’s winners honor the college and their fellow alumni with their personal and professional accomplishments. They embody St. Olaf’s commitment to vocation, innovation, and community,” says Director of Engagement and Alumni and Parent Relations Ellen Draeger Cattadoris ’07. “It was a joy to present each of these talented Oles with this award.”
Ward Sutton ’89 discusses his work with staff members of the Olaf Messenger, the college’s student newspaper. Photo by Steven Garcia ’20 
Lazarus Letcher ’14 speaks to students in Associate Professor of Practice in Religion Trish Zimmerman’s class. Photo by Steven Garcia ’20 
Cal Husmann ’90 and Sylvia Strobel ’88 answer questions from students in Director of Business and Management Studies Sian Christie’s class. Photo by Steven Garcia ’20 
Sylvia Strobel ’88 and Cal Husmann ’90 answer questions from students in Director of Business and Management Studies Sian Christie’s class. Photo by Steven Garcia ’20 
John Hegg ’63 speaks with students in Associate Professor of Social Work and Family Studies Wendy Anderson’s class. Photo by Steven Garcia ’20
While on campus to receive their awards, the Alumni Award recipients visited classes and spoke with small groups of students interested in their career field. Read more about each of this year’s award winners below.
“This year’s winners honor the college and their fellow alumni with their personal and professional accomplishments. They embody St. Olaf’s commitment to vocation, innovation, and community.”
— Ellen Draeger Cattadoris ’07
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD WINNER
Sylvia Strobel ’88 has served as the president and CEO of Twin Cities PBS (TPT) since February of 2020. She has worked for more than 30 years in the public media industry as an executive and attorney, with positions at ideastream, American Public Media Group, Pennsylvania Public Television Network, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Her passion and dedication to public media was developed in her first public media role as an intern in TPT’s legal department — making it fitting that she has now returned to lead the organization.
Strobel has served on numerous national boards and commissions, including the board of NPR, the Alliance for Women in Media, the Association of Junior Leagues International, and the FCC’s Advisory Committee for Diversity in the Digital Age. She currently serves on the boards of the MacPhail Center for Music, The Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, the Mary T. and James J. Hill Library Foundation, and Latino Public Broadcasting.
She majored in biology at St. Olaf before going on to earn her Juris Doctorate from Mitchell Hamline School of Law and her Master of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business.
ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNERS
Ward Sutton ’89 is an editorial cartoonist whose work has earned him the prestigious Herblock Prize (2018) and Berryman Award (2022) for cartoons he created for The Boston Globe. His work has also appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, MAD Magazine, and many more. Sutton Impact: The Political Cartoons of Ward Sutton was published in 2005.
In 2006 Sutton created the fake cartoonist Stan Kelly for the satirical newspaper The Onion as a parody of editorial cartoons. Kelly: The Cartoonist America Turns To (TM), was published in 2016. The New Yorker declared Kelly “Brilliantly Wrong” and The Washington Post called him “The Best Bad Cartoonist In America.” Kelly debuted his fine art in fall 2024 in Los Angeles.
Sutton has designed posters for John Leguizamo’s Broadway show Freak, the Sundance Film Festival, and musicians such as Phish, Pearl Jam, and Beck. He created animation for the Comedy Central cult hit “Strangers With Candy.”
At St. Olaf Sutton majored in art and spent countless, happy hours working on The Olaf Messenger, where he edited the Back (Humor) Page, authored the weekly comic strip “Ole Road,” and won a Minnesota Page One Award for one of his editorial cartoons. St. Olaf is also where he met his wife of 30 years, Sue Unkenholz ’89, with whom he operates Sutton Impact Studio in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Lazarus Letcher ’14 is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at the University of New Mexico, focusing on linking homophobia and transphobia to white supremacy culture and examining art as resistance. Letcher has written for Autostraddle, them, El Palacio, and the occasional dry academic journal. They’ve taught courses like Southwest Studies, Race and Ethnic Studies, and Peace and Justice Studies.
Letcher plays viola in the environmental justice folk band Eileen & the In-Betweens and for art installations/durational performances with the group Stages of Tectonic Blackness. With the support of a National Performance Network Grant, Stages of Tectonic Blackness set out to the New Mexico desert to create a film, Blackdom, performing on and connecting with the land of an abandoned all-Black ghost town. While working on Blackdom, the group connected with descendants of this former utopian experiment and shared their stories in an exhibit at New Mexico State University. Stages of Tectonic Blackness’ work has been shown at the NMSU Art Museum, Armory Center for the Arts, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and other museums across the U.S.
In addition to this work, Letcher is a trainer for Sins Invalid, a performance-based disability justice organization. After surviving a murder attempt involving an assault weapon in 2023, Letcher has used their voice to push for gun safety and to support other survivors of gun violence. Letcher also volunteers as a court-appointed special advocate in the Indian Child Welfare Court, fighting to keep Indigenous foster children happy, healthy, and connected to their families and culture.
OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD WINNERS
John Hegg ’63 devoted his career to serving adolescents as a professional school counselor for the Sioux Falls School District. His impact on students and the community was profound. The South Dakota School Counselor Association named him the Middle School Counselor of the Year, and the South Dakota Counselor Association named him the Counselor of the Year and awarded him its highest honor: the Marvin Kemp Award for Outstanding Service to the Counseling Profession. South Dakota Voices for Children named Hegg a Champion for Children, and the NFL and National Dairy Council inducted him into the South Dakota Hall of Fame for his efforts to create a healthier school and students.
During his career, Hegg served on the boards of the South Dakota School Counselors Association, South Dakota Counseling Association, South Dakota Afterschool Network, Sioux Falls Concerts Association, South Dakota Youth Symphony, Music and Worship at First Lutheran Church, and Sad Isn’t Bad, a grief support program for children. He also served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland, University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University, and Augustana University.
Hegg was asked to co-chair a task force defining the major risk factors impacting youth, and he was not surprised when the findings showed that the No. 1 issue was poverty and the No. 1 factor in breaking the cycle of poverty was education. This work motivated him to get involved at St. Olaf in roles that help the college meet the financial needs of all students and break the cycle of poverty. Hegg is a long-time class fund agent, a member of the St. Olaf Fund Board, and served as the co-chair of the Class of 1963 Gift Committee for the 50th, 55th, and 60th class reunions.
Cal Husmann ’90 is a first-generation college student from Hibbing, Minnesota, who thrived in the liberal arts environment at St. Olaf, where he embraced opportunities for learning, leadership, development, fun, and broomball. After graduating, he joined St. Olaf alumna Jeanne Kunau Narum ’57 at The Council of Independent Colleges office in Washington, D.C., launching his career in development.
Husmann earned a master’s degree in English from Georgetown University before joining the development team at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1994 as a grants writer. Over nearly 30 years at Lawrence, he held various roles, including major gift officer, vice president, senior vice president, head hockey coach, and, currently, senior principal gifts officer. Husmann also spent two years on St. Olaf’s Advancement team.
In 1995 Husmann met Jim Mahn, and after 27 years together, they eloped in Las Vegas in 2022 with their son, Hayes Husmann Martinez, serving as best man, maid of honor, ring bearer, and bartender. Husmann’s many hobbies include discussing literature with classmates in the St. Olaf Class of 1990 Book Club, which formed during the pandemic, and staying connected with fellow Oles.
Grateful for his St. Olaf experience, Husmann is a loyal donor to the St. Olaf Fund. He also honored his family — especially his parents — by establishing the Husmann Family Scholarship at St. Olaf. To commemorate his 25th reunion, he got a tattoo of the St. Olaf lion.