2009 Young Alumni Award Winners
Kelly Kisiday '04
Boston, Mass.
Kelly Kisiday has been a leader since her days as a UVM student, having been elected class president while an undergraduate and representing the Class of 2004 on the UVM Alumni Council. After graduation, she joined the Young Alumni Committee and helped with fundraising efforts among her classmates and other young alumni classes. As an alumna, she has been the volunteer class secretary for the Class of 2004, and in that role, over the past five years she has been dedicated to gathering news of her classmates and sharing it in each issue of Vermont Quarterly. She has been a valued participant in her class's 5th Reunion Committee as committee co-chair. Kelly works for Healthworks Fitness in Boston and is the Sales Director for the Chestnut Hill club.
Caitlin McPherran '04
Boston, Mass.
Caitlin McPherran has been an active UVM volunteer since her graduation five years ago. As a member of the Washington, D.C., Regional Board for three years, she participated in several admitted student receptions and student sendoffs in the Washington area. Even when she was no longer a member of the Regional Board, she volunteered to staff UVM events at Glen Echo Park. When she moved to Boston in the summer of 2008, Caitlin offered to help recruit alumni to bring new enthusiasm to UVM's effort there. She has attended numerous activities and usually volunteers her time at those events as well. Now as a member of the Class of 2004 Reunion Committee, she is applying her talents in a new role as a Gift Committee volunteer.
Marissa Stokes '99
Burlington, Vt.
Marissa Stokes has been an exceptionally loyal and dedicated alumna since graduating from UVM a decade ago. She was on the UVM Alumni Events Committee in Los Angeles, helping to get other young alumni involved with UVM. As coordinator and leader of UVM's Los Angeles Alumni Chapter, she planned numerous events, from social gatherings to cheer on the Catamounts at nationally televised hockey games to a beach clean-up, where she mobilized twenty-five alumni to demonstrate UVM community spirit by helping to tidy up Will Rogers Beach. She has been actively engaged in planning for her 10th UVM Reunion and has proven herself to be a dependable volunteer with creative ideas and selfless motivation to help the University in any way she can. A native Vermonter and a third-generation UVM alum, Marissa recently completed a master's degree in counseling and guidance at Loyola Marymount University and works in higher education financial aid with Vermont Student Assistance Corporation.
(for UVM staff)