Lander University's Alumni Association has chosen four graduates with health care and medical credentials as the 2016 recipients of its highest annual awards.
The honorees are: Drs. Lorraine Angelino, Usha Menon, and Amanda Wagoner; and Danita Washington.
Angelino, a Greenwood resident and contracts management coordinator for Self Regional Healthcare, is the recipient of the Grace Iler Norman Award, recognizing significant achievements within the Alumni Association and Lander. She has undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of South Florida, and a doctorate in educational leadership from Clemson University. In 2005, she graduated from Lander's health care management certificate program and went on to teach three courses in the program.
Angelino is active in Rotary, having held leadership positions in Greenwood's Emerald City Rotary Club and at the district and zone levels. In 2015, she received a Rotary citation for meritorious service.
She is a member of The Lander Foundation Board of Trustees and the Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Dr. Usha Menon, a 1992 graduate from Lander's William Preston Turner School of Nursing, was chosen to receive the Distinguished Alumna Award, given to graduates who gain distinction in their careers. She is an associate dean of research and global advances at the University of Arizona College of Nursing.
A native of India, Menon received a Ph.D. in nursing science from the University of Indiana, becoming the first Lander nursing graduate to earn a doctorate. She is recognized as one of the leading nurse researchers in the country, specializing in changing health behaviors to reduce disparities in cancer prevention. She is a member of the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame of Sigma Theta Tau, the national nursing honor society, cited for research that has improved the nursing profession and the people it serves.
Danita Washington and Dr. Amanda Wagoner are the recipients of the 2016 Young Alumni Awards.
Washington, of Charlotte, N.C., graduated from Lander's School of Management in 2006 with a business degree with a health care management emphasis. She has a master's in health care administration from the University of Phoenix and is employed as an auditor with HMS, a health care cost containment firm in Charlotte.
Prompted by her lifelong hearing loss, Washington created the DKW Hear Me Speak Foundation to increase awareness of hearing loss among North Carolina residents. The foundation offers free audiology screenings and raises money to help hearing-impaired individuals with the expense of purchasing hearing aids.
She is also the founder of DKW Consulting for Women, providing women with personal and professional coaching and mentorship. In 2014, she was recognized as one of Raleigh's Black Women in Business.
Amanda Wagoner, graduated in 2007 with a biology degree after completing the university's pre-professional program in veterinary medicine. The graduate of Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine completed a one-year surgical internship at a veterinary hospital in Denver, Colo., and she is a surgical resident on the staff of the Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Center in Levittown, Pa.
After finishing her residency, Wagoner plans to join the Animal Emergency and Referral Center, in Flowood, Miss., as a small animal surgeon.
Her family has created the Amanda Wagoner Scholarship for freshmen biology majors who follow in her footsteps and pursue studies in Lander's pre-veterinary medicine program.
The awards will be presented at an Alumni Association luncheon honoring Angelino, Menon, Washington and Wagoner on Saturday, April 23.