Meet the distinguished K-Staters honored at our first Alumni Awards Evening
By Ashley Pauls
K-State Alumni Association
The K-State Alumni Association recently invited five exceptional K-Staters to a special
evening of celebration and purple pride, both to commemorate their career achievements
and to thank them for the ways they have made the world around them a better place.
In October, the Alumni Association hosted its inaugural Alumni Awards Evening, recognizing the recipients of the Alumni Excellence Award, Distinguished Young Alumni
Award, and the Flinchbaugh Family Wildcat Pride Award.
“This was a great evening to recognize the talent and world-class caliber of our alumni,
faculty and staff,” said Adam Walker ’04, ’09, Alumni Association president and CEO.
“These K-Staters are at various stages of life and thriving in their respective fields.
Our K-State community brings a tremendous amount of achievement to the table. This
first-ever ceremony combined three awards into one evening and allowed us to celebrate
and recognize the many areas in which K-Staters excel.”
Learn more about this year’s Alumni Awards Evening honorees through the profiles below:
Alumni Excellence Award
Epifanio Elizondo, Ph.D. ’88
Before he retired in 2016, Rear Admiral Epifanio “Epi” Elizondo was a U.S. assistant surgeon general in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public
Health Service. He served as the regional health administrator for Region VI, which
includes Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
Elizondo served as deputy commander for the Hurricane Rita response, commander during
the Hurricane Katrina response, and most recently as commander during the U.S. Public
Health Service Ebola response in Liberia.
He has received numerous professional awards, including the Surgeon General’s Exemplary
Service Medal, Public Health Service Meritorious Medal and Commendation Medal, Navy
Reserve Meritorious Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal,
and the Federal Executive Boards Public Health Service Award for “Leadership, Direction
and Support” during the response to the West Africa Ebola outbreak.
Prior to joining the Public Health Service, Elizondo served in the U.S. Navy, U.S.
Army and the U.S. Air Force.
The Alumni Excellence Award recognizes a K-State graduate whose career, service and achievements exemplify the
spirit, values and excellence of the university. The recipient’s career endeavors
have achieved national and/or international recognition, and they exhibit the highest
standard of integrity and character. The award is made possible by the generosity
of the Curt ’73 and Sherry ’73 Frasier family of Beloit, Kansas.
Distinguished Young Alumni Award
Hayes Kelman ’15 and Ryan Urban ’21
Hayes Kelman is the founder and CEO of Boot Hill Distillery and president of Kelman Farms Inc.
A fifth-generation western Kansas farmer, Kelman combined his agricultural roots with
entrepreneurial vision to create a soil-to-sip distillery that uses grain grown on
his own farm to craft award-winning spirits.
“What I enjoy most about my career is getting to see the full story come to life —
from planting the grain in our Kansas soil to pouring someone a whiskey made from
that same crop,” Kelman said. “There’s something incredibly rewarding about turning
hard work and heritage into hospitality. Doing it alongside my family and good people
who care just as much makes every part of it meaningful.”
Boot Hill Distillery has also partnered with K-State through officially licensed spirits,
including K-State branded whiskeys and vodka. Kelman was one of the first in the craft
spirits industry to establish university-licensed products, with proceeds directly
supporting K-State programs and initiatives.
“My time at K-State shaped the way I see the world,” he said. “It wasn’t just about
classes or degrees — it was about learning how to work hard, think creatively, and
rely on the people around you. K-State taught me to take pride in where I come from
and to believe that big ideas can grow from small towns. Those lessons followed me
back home to the farm and into Boot Hill Distillery. The friendships, mentors and
experiences I had there gave me the confidence to take risks and build something lasting
in my community.”
Since graduating from K-State, Ryan Urban has worked in mass marketing, teaching and technical theatre. He teaches strategic
communication research and advertising campaigns at the University of Missouri–Kansas
City and works at the major venues in Kansas City for touring productions. He is currently
the marketing manager for Naturion, an agribusiness company in mitigation banking.
“Currently, I enjoy the feeling of helping the earth,” he said. “While no restoration
or green alternative is 100% perfect, I love that we can take natural habitats, and
save them. And, I love the opportunity to tell the stories of those projects.”
He also advises and volunteers with student and nonprofit organizations, including
serving as assistant alumnus adviser for the Upsilon-Psi Chapter of Kappa Sigma at
UMKC; serving on the Kappa Sigma National Communications Commission; and volunteering
at the McCain Auditorium and his Masonic Lodge.
He credits K-State for teaching him the skill of perseverance.
“If one door closed, a purple one would open — and that was the correct door for you,”
Urban said. “I learned skillsets regarding management, leadership, forethought and
so much more. I'm grateful to K-State for the opportunities I was given!”
The Distinguished Young Alumni Award honors K-State graduates age 35 or younger who are excelling in their professions
and contributing to their communities. The program is sponsored by the K-State Alumni
Association’s board of directors and Student Alumni Board.
Flinchbaugh Family Wildcat Pride Award
Nancy Becker ’19 and Richard Becker ’91, ’95
Nancy Becker, enterprise IT security analyst, and Richard Becker, director of infrastructure
security architecture, have worked for K-State’s Division of Information Technology
for nearly 40 years. Jeanine Lake, the K-State Alumni Association’s senior director
of information services, nominated them for the Wildcat Pride Award in recognition
of their continued efforts to support the K-State Alumni Association’s mission and
to secure our data and communications.
Nancy Becker manages administrative security requests for access to university information systems
(student/financial/human resources) and supports eID administration and identity security.
Born and raised in Manhattan, Nancy began her K-State career as a student employee
at the Computing Center.
“Having this opportunity allowed me to develop skills and network with faculty and
staff as I built relationships that led to opportunities to advance my career,” she
said. “My pivotal point was being offered the applications programmer position which
is what I was going to school for — from there I advanced to an enterprise mainframe
system analyst before joining the K-State Webmaster team. Today I support and manage
access to a majority of our central systems across all of our campuses. None of this
would have been possible without the people and mentors I’ve had the opportunity to
work with throughout my career.”
And that career continues to grow and evolve today.
“Having a career in the computing world can be challenging with how fast computing
has grown and continues to grow. Being able to multitask and meet these challenges
has been exciting for me,” Nancy said. “The work I do behind the scenes gives our
faculty, staff and students the tools they need to be successful in their jobs. I
love what I do — and that passion drives me to provide the best support I possibly
can for the entire university — our K-State family.”
Richard Becker plays a critical role in overseeing security for the university’s complex and constantly
evolving network infrastructure, ensuring secure and seamless connections for classrooms,
research labs, administrative offices and affiliated entities throughout K-State.
Richard also started his K-State career as a student, working in the computer repair
shop and also supporting dial-in access and connectivity to university computing resources.
As a student employee, he had a unique opportunity to be involved in the early days
of building the campus network.
“The engineering technology program helped me grow my critical thinking and troubleshooting
skills,” he said. “Networking and security are tightly coupled, so my progression
into the security field was another opportunity K-State gave me to advance. I have
had the benefit of having great mentors at K-State, both as faculty and coworkers,
who supported my growth to become who I am today. People are why I stayed at K-State
after graduation, and they still are.”
Richard said that each day brings new challenges and opportunities, and he loves serving
in a role that allows him to be part of a team and support K-State’s mission for outreach
and education.
“I carry a strong responsibility for protecting anything K-State,” he said. “I am
passionate about investing in and helping others. Being part of the K-State family
and having the opportunity to work with some of the most talented and caring people
continues to be a blessing that I never want to take for granted. I love being in
higher education, and any time I see accomplishments by K-Staters, whether it be students,
faculty or staff, it gives me an overwhelming sense of pride.
The Flinchbaugh Family Wildcat Pride Award commemorates a current or emeritus K-State faculty or staff member for advocacy of
alumni relations, with a special emphasis on support and participation in alumni programs
that engage members of the Wildcat family. The award is made possible by the generosity
of the Barry Flinchbaugh family.