Washburn Alumni Awards

This award recognizes alumni who have made personal and professional contributions to society, demonstrated exemplary support to the Washburn University Alumni Association and the community, been of service to humanity, distinguished themselves in their careers and brought honor to Washburn through their accomplishments.

Artist, educator and supporter of the arts Judith Sabatini worked at Washburn as assistant director of the Mulvane Art Museum and assistant professor of photography, earning the Ned Fleming Excellence in Teaching Award in 1997. Sabatini owned Studio 521 Photography before retiring and has her photographic works in several public and private collections throughout the United States. She is a founding member of Tallgrass Ranchers and is involved in preservation of the Flint Hills. She served on the board of directors of Mid-America Arts Alliance and has volunteered with Let’s Help, Topeka Public Schools Foundation, Meals on Wheels and the Collective Art Gallery. She earned an honorary doctor of fine arts from Washburn in 2006 and has been a Washburn University Alumni Association and Foundation trustee since 2004. She gives generously to the Mulvane Art Museum with an endowed fund in her name, and she was involved in the creation of the Judith Lennox Sabatini ArtLab at the Mulvane, which bears her name.

How has Washburn contributed to your life and career: As an older returning student to Washburn, the most difficult part was taking those first steps onto the campus. It turned out to be a silly fear. After that, anything seemed possible. It was the beginning of a lifelong experience which I am grateful for every single day.

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This award recognizes alumni who have made personal and professional contributions to society, demonstrated exemplary support to the Washburn University Alumni Association and the community, been of service to humanity, distinguished themselves in their careers and brought honor to Washburn through their accomplishments.

Jere Noe built a 60-year career as a CPA, retiring in 2019 as a partner at Wendling, Noe, Nelson, and Johnson, a Topeka accounting firm. He served his profession as a past president of the Kansas Society of CPA’s and the Northeast Kansas Chapter of CPAs. He currently serves on the Kaw Valley Bank board of directors and the Washburn University Alumni Association and Foundation board of trustees. He previously served on the boards of directors of Family Service and Guidance Center, the Washburn University Alumni Association and Foundation and the Topeka Civitan Club. Noe received an honorary doctor of commerce from Washburn in 2010 and the Garvey Trustee Award in 2011. Noe and his wife, Carol, have supported Washburn with gifts to the School of Business, the baseball and golf teams and other areas.

What are your favorite memories of Washburn: Dr. Dale Marcoux was especially impactful on my education. He taught me that human wants are insatiable; no matter how much you have, you always want more. He guided me on my decision to either take a part-time job with a local CPA firm since I wanted to be a CPA or go out for the basketball and baseball teams since I wanted to do that. He also was the one who informed me I was the Outstanding Business School Student and selected to Tau Delta Pi as a junior.

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This award honors women who have distinguished themselves as teachers, instructors, administrators or benefactors at Washburn and also have given service to the community and/or their chosen professions. The award is named after suffragist, lawyer and publisher Lilla Day Monroe.

Professor Emeritus Judy Diffley retired from Washburn in 2007 as program director and professor of office administration in the School of Applied Studies. She spent 25 years teaching at Washburn, starting in 1982, and was chair of the office, legal and technical department from 1986-1997. Before that, she was a tenured assistant professor in the College of Business at Missouri State University for nine years. At Washburn, she also advised business education majors and supervised their student teaching at area high schools their senior year. She received the 1996 Kansas Postsecondary Business Educator Award, and in 1998 she earned the Mountain-Plains Business Education Association University Teacher of the Year Award. From 1997-2006 she served as dean of the Institute of Education for the International Association of Administrative Professionals. In 1997, she received the Distinguished Service Award from the Kaw Chapter of IAAP. She served as director of Kaw Chapter, International Association of Office Professionals from 2001-07. Diffley is vice president of the International Center of Topeka board, which welcomes international students to Washburn. She has been a Washburn basketball season ticket holder for 40 years and created the Gary and Judy Diffley Basketball Scholarship to honor her late husband at his death in 2004.  She continues to make annual gifts to the scholarship, as well as to other areas at Washburn.

What are your favorite memories of Washburn: My fondest memories involve my students. I had so much joy and excitement when they told me they had successfully passed their certification exams. We celebrated together. Seeing their progress and interest in their classwork motivated me as a teacher.  I truly loved teaching at Washburn.

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This award honors men who have distinguished themselves as teachers, instructors, administrators or benefactors at Washburn and also have given service to the community and/or their chosen professions. The award is named after Col. John Ritchie, who donated the land on which Washburn is built.

Richard Vaughn has built a multi-decade career in executive channel sales, serving currently as national partner sales manager with ASUS Computer International since March 2023. He was senior director of U.S. channel sales at Dynabook Americas (formerly Toshiba America Information Systems) from 2021-23 and also worked for UX2D and Security First. He started his channel sales career at Toshiba America Information Systems in 1997, leaving the company after 19 years in 2016 as director of channel sales. CRN magazine named him one of the 50 Most Influential Channel Chiefs of 2016. Vaughn has served the Washburn University Alumni Association and Foundation as a trustee and director and an Alumni Association board member.

How has Washburn contributed to your life and career: Had it not been for my time at Washburn, I would not be where I am today both professionally and personally. On a professional level, Washburn ignited my passion for business. One of my favorite classes was International Marketing taught by Prof. Andrew Honeycutt. His classes provided a global understanding of dealing with different cultures, understanding of multi-international challenges and being able to adopt to a variety of business climates. I still use many of those lessons today. On a personal level, I met my wife of 37 years, Nancy Vaughn. Additionally, both of our times spent with our respective Greek organizations, Alpha Delta for me and Zeta Tau Alpha for Nancy, provided us with the opportunity to develop incredible friendships that remain in place today.

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This award honors recent Washburn graduates who demonstrate leadership in career or civic endeavors and loyalty to Washburn. Recipients of the award must have graduated within the past 10 years.

Tara Dimick has been a partner and co-owner of Compass Marketing & Advertising Partners since 2022, helping clients grow their business through strategic planning, marketing, branding and advertising. Dimick became owner and publisher in 2009 of TK Business Magazine, which highlights professionals and businesses in Topeka. She was previously chief business development officer from 2019-22 and senior vice president of business development from 2016-19 at Envista Federal Credit Union. Dimick is a tri-chair for Momentum 2027, the community strategy for Topeka and Shawnee County, and serves on the Greater Topeka Partnership chairs council. She is the chair of the Women’s Fund and immediate past chair of the Topeka Community Foundation. Dimick serves on the boards of directors for the Kansas Chamber and the Topeka Civic Theatre and the advisory boards for KTWU and Stormont Vail Foundation.

How has Washburn contributed to your career: In the moment, you don’t always realize the impact a place and its people have on you. Washburn was and is transformative for my life. The softball coaches inspired me to walk on, thanks to the support of scholarships from the School of Business. Washburn also attracted my now-husband, Braden, to play baseball, which gave me a best friend, three amazing children and four loving and supportive in-laws. The School of Business faculty were exceptionally supportive, specifically my advisor, Kirk Haskins, in securing financial support crucial to my academic success. Adjunct Instructor Chris Keeshan hired me and set me on my career path. All these connections gave me a strong foundation.

Acceptance Speech

This award honors recent Washburn graduates who demonstrate leadership in career or civic endeavors and loyalty to Washburn. Recipients of the award must have graduated within the past 10 years.

Brail Watson became worship pastor at Fellowship Hi-Crest in January 2022, where he runs Studio 104 and acts as the liaison between the church and its feeder schools. He is a classically trained vocalist, cellist, songwriter, rapper, clinician and producer. He continues to work toward his mantra to “change the world through music,” by leading youth programming, performing, leading teams of volunteers, recording and speaking. Watson earned a master of music from Berklee College of Music in Spain, where he performed with and networked with several artists and engineers in Europe. There, he came in at the top of his class, which he attributes to his undergraduate studies in Washburn’s incredible music program.

What are your favorite memories from Washburn: My fondest memories of Washburn are enjoying time on the beautiful campus, playing my cello outside and hanging with friends in the practice rooms of Garvey.

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This award is given to individuals who are not graduates of Washburn University, but whom we recognize for their steadfast support of Washburn by way of their time, talent or treasure.

Mike Jauken worked at Washburn University from 1993-2022, retiring as chief of groundskeeping, a position he held all 28 years. He and his team maintained the outdoor space at Washburn with groundskeeping, horticulture, maintenance of the waterfall on the northeast corner of the main campus and the pond at Leland Harvey Gardens, trash and recycling removal, parking lot and street repairs, snow removal on sidewalks and driving surfaces and several other duties. He helped set up commencement ceremonies, athletic events, athletic field renovations, the Mulvane Art Fair, new building ground breakings and ribbon cuttings and other special events. During that time, Washburn built or renovated several buildings and structures on campus. He won an Outstanding Service Award from Washburn in 2007. Jauken started his career as manager of the garden department at Whelans lumberyard in Topeka.

What are your favorite memories of Washburn: I always tell the new guys you have to let Washburn get into your blood. The people, the administrators, the athletics, the coaches – I enjoyed all of it. And seeing how much Washburn has grown since 30 years ago has been amazing.

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