Awards and Recognition
Honorary Alumnus Award
Demonstrated continued interest in and exceptional loyalty and service to The University of Arizona by a nonalumnus
Homecoming 2008 Award Winners
James Christenson
James A. Christenson joined The University of Arizona in August of 1989 as associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of Cooperative Extension. He continues to serve in this position and as such, is one of the longest-serving directors of cooperative extension in the nation.
With 19 years of loyal service to the UA, James, also the associate vice president for outreach, serves as the eyes and ears of the university throughout the state. He travels Arizona extensively, visiting with clientele, faculty, and staff in the 26 offices located statewide.
In addition to being an outstanding ambassador for the UA, James takes the pulse of Arizona, enabling the university to respond in a timely manner to the myriad of problems identified by its citizens.
James is affiliated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Science Advisory Board and he is the coauthor of a major study, Lifelong Learning and Higher Education, and the coauthor or editor of five books.
In recognition of his exemplary loyalty and service to the UA, we are pleased to present the Honorary Alumnus Award to James A. Christenson.
Douglas Goodman
Over the past decade, Douglas Goodman has played a special role in advancing the research and educational mission of the University of Arizona Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Doug is the president and CEO of Ridgetop Group, a Tucson-based high-tech company that focuses on electronic prognostics, predicting systems failures before they occur.
Doug earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from California Polytechnic State University and an M.B.A. from the University of Portland. Although he has no formal ties with the UA, he is a staunch supporter of its students. Under Doug’s leadership, Ridgetop Group has sponsored several student design projects, providing both financial support and project mentoring. These projects help students learn teamwork, design skills, and gain real-world engineering experience. Ridgetop Group also has hired many of the college’s students, keeping them in Arizona and contributing to the local economy.
Ridgetop Group also fosters several research collaborations with the college, including serving as one of the founding members of Connection One, a research partnership involving the National Science Foundation, university researchers, and private industry that promotes technological innovation.
Doug also is the founder and chair emeritus of the Arizona Nanotechnology Cluster, a business-development organization founded to promote growth in the nanotech industry, create more high-tech jobs in Southern Arizona, and promote a key growth technology of the future.
In 2003, Doug was recognized by the Eller College as an Eller Entrepreneurial Fellow. This award honors the best entrepreneurs in Arizona. He was also given the Chairman’s Award at the Arizona Governor’s Celebration of Innovation in 2006.
Doug’s leadership skills and drive to promote technology is a tremendous benefit to Arizona, and his support of the engineering workforce of the future is exemplary. The University of Arizona Alumni Association and the College of Engineering are proud to present the Honorary Alumnus Award to Douglas Goodman
Albert L. Picchioni
Albert L. Picchioni joined the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy in 1952 and served as a professor of pharmacology until 1987. Early in his tenure with the college, physicians across southern Arizona began calling Albert for advice regarding young patients suffering the poisonous effects of household cleaning products. A lack of good information about those products was becoming a deadly problem.
With the help of faculty volunteers, Albert developed a card file listing ingredients in household products. With Albert’s guidance, pharmacy faculty regularly updated the information and volunteered to answer emergency calls.
By 1955, calls were coming in at the rate of about seven per week, forming the nucleus of the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, the first Center of Excellence at the college. Today, the center Albert pioneered answers more than 65,000 poison and drug information calls a year from across Arizona.
Along with advancing the service of poison information, Albert guided the Poison Center’s research in toxicology, including some of the earliest studies on the use of activated charcoal as a universal antidote for poisonings. He served as head of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology from 1972 to 1980 and led the college for two years as acting dean. He also served in numerous leadership positions with the American Pharmaceutical Association, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and many other peer organizations.
Albert retired in 1987, but has remained an active participant in the college via his service on the national advisory board. In 1988, friends, family, and Albert’s former students established the Albert L. Picchioni Student Leadership Scholarship Fund for third-year students to recognize leadership, professionalism, and responsibility. And each year, Albert delights in meeting and mentoring the scholarship recipients.
Fifty years after first joining the college, Albert continues his selfless dedication to the pharmacy profession. Pharmacists across the nation and the faculty, staff, and students of the college owe much to a man who always gives his best.
In recognition of his high level of leadership and loyalty to the UA, the University of Arizona Alumni Association and the college of Pharmacy are proud to present the Honorary Alumnus Award to Albert L. Picchioni.