Each year, the Shenandoah University Alumni Association honors deserving alumni with the Distinguished Alumni Awards. To be selected, alumni must make significant achievements in their chosen profession; contribute to the betterment of their community, state, nation, or the world; or demonstrate ongoing dedication to the university.
The 2022 recipients were honored at the Alumni-Owned Business Networking Reception & Awards Recognition on Friday, Sept. 30, during Homecoming & Family Weekend 2022. Below are this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award recipients.
If you would like to nominate a Shenandoah University alum for a 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award, visit https://bit.ly/3bN9YiK.
Ashley Dunbar Carson ’18
Hornet Hero Award – COVID-19
Carson graduated in 2018 with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and is an active member of Sigma Theta Tau. Her professional and career achievements include working alongside physicians in numerous healthcare centers and hospitals as well as working on COVID-19 crisis assignments providing care in IC and PCU settings to COVID-19 patients. She traveled to New York City to be an ICU float nurse, and said, “I felt pulled to help after watching how the media portrayed the NY hospitals. This is my calling, to help others. This is why I became a nurse! Thank you Shenandoah University and all my professors who have taught me at Eleanor Wade Custer School of Nursing. You have prepared me for this moment. I couldn’t have done it without your help!”
Maura Sherlach Schwartz ’06
Hornet Hero Award
Schwartz graduated in 2006 with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She is in her 14th year as a high school choir director/teacher. She is also the executive director of the South Jersey Chapter of Mary’s Fund, which raises awareness to aid mental health social organizations as well as scholarships for local high school students. Schwartz has presented and spoken to numerous community and school groups about her experience in losing her mother at the Sandy Hook massacre, which prompted the Mary’s Fund that was created in the aftermath of the massacre. Her mother’s life mission was to support student mental health and Schwartz is dedicated to continuing her mother’s legacy through the Mary’s Fund.
Desirèe S. Dabney ’14
Young Career Achievement Award
Dabney graduated in 2014 with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Acting. While teaching in the Richmond Public School system she noticed that there were no theater programs offered in middle school and made it her mission to bring theater to the schools by starting a program from the ground up. Dabney later became the first black woman to join the Virginia Theater Association as a board member and also joined the Virginia Department of Education curriculum instruction and steering committee. As a professional actor, she filmed a national commercial for Google, performed in a show on Apple TV and was in the first-ever virtual showing of Dreamgirls. When the pandemic began Dabney saw the impact it had on her students and immediately began reaching out to their families to help them set up Zoom. She offered over 100 theater classes virtually, which gained attention and she was asked to teach/mentor 100 teachers in Virginia on how to teach virtually. Dabney is now the head of musical theatre at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, creating a new Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in musical theatre and rewriting curriculum.
Tavan N. Mair ’04
Service to the Community Award
Mair graduated from Shenandoah in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology. In 2017, he started a non-profit called Connected Communities in Winchester, Virginia. Connected Communities provides mental health and community-based services to children and adults in Clarke, Frederick, Loudoun, Shenandoah, and Warren counties and the City of Winchester. Those services include TF-CBT, outpatient therapy, family therapy, mentoring, parent mentoring, residential deviation, intensive in-home services, CSOTP therapy, and psychosexual assessments. Over the last year, the organization has been able to impact the lives of more than 200 youth. For the 2021-22 school year, Mair partnered with members of the Winchester community to provide school supplies, shoes and haircuts to more than 375 youth at the Back 2 School event hosted by the Town of Middletown, Virginia, F&M Bank, and Planet Fitness. Connected Communities plans to open its second location in Front Royal, Virginia, October 2022. He is currently pursuing his MSW at Virginia Commonwealth University and has his Master’s in human services from Liberty University. Mair is also a qualified mental health provider for adults and children through the Board of Counseling and a certified sex offender treatment provider through the Board of Psychology. He also currently sits as the private provider for the Clarke County Community Policy & Management Team.
Mary-Colleen Hightower Ensogna ’09
Professional Achievement Award
Ensogna earned a Bachelor of Science degree in History from Shenandoah University in 2009. After graduating, she studied Renaissance Art and the History of Modern Italy at the Santa Reparata School of Art in Florence, Italy. Mary is the supervisory paralegal for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Middle East District.
The Middle East District is responsible for providing engineering, construction, and related services in the Middle East, Central Asia, and other areas as required. Its work includes designing and constructing facilities for use by U.S. forces, performing engineering activities for other U.S. government and foreign agencies, and providing operations and maintenance services for various customers.
Since 2009 Ensogna has held various positions within the Middle East District (TAM), including Legal Intern, Legal Assistant, Paralegal, and most recently, Supervisory Paralegal Specialist. In addition to providing paralegal support to TAM, she currently leads the Paraprofessional Facilitators Group responsible for curating paraprofessional training opportunities across USACE. From April 2010 to October 2011, Ensogna deployed to Kabul as a paralegal for the Transatlantic Afghanistan District– North, during Operation Enduring Freedom. Throughout her 13 years with the agency, she has provided support in areas including pre- and post-award contractual issues, fiscal issues, employment law, Foreign Military Sales, and other legal issues. With a primary focus on litigation, she has supported the agency in resolving various federal contingency and non-contingency contracting issues, including bid protests, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Contract Disputes Act (CDA) compliance, requests for equitable adjustments and claims, and litigation involving the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals. She continues to manage the litigation support for TAM’s cases involving multi-million dollar government agreements for U.S. Central Command, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom.
Throughout her legal career with the USACE, she received numerous awards, including Support Staff Member of the Year, Commander’s Award for Civilian Service, Achievement Medal for Civilian Service, and USACE Legal Services Keystone Award. Among her many accomplishments, Ensogna is most proud of formalizing the USACE Legal Internship program, providing future internship opportunities to Shenandoah students. Outside of work, she is a board member of Celebrating Patsy Cline Inc., which is responsible for preserving Patsy Cline’s historic home in Winchester, Virginia, and keeping Cline’s legacy alive.
Thomas A. Wilkins ’78
Lifetime Achievement Award
Wilkins is an alumnus of Shenandoah Conservatory, graduating in 1978 with a double major in music education and voice. In 1982, he received a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from New England Conservatory of Music. Wilkins has served on the music faculties of North Park University (Chicago), the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He was appointed Music Director of the Omaha Symphony in 2005, and 2007/08 marked his second season with that orchestra – this will be his final year in that position. The 2007/08 season also marked his eighth season as Resident Conductor of the Detroit Symphony. Wilkins is also a principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and was formerly the family and youth concerts conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). In March 2020, he was promoted to a newly created position as the BSO’s artistic adviser for education and community engagement. In his new role at the BSO, Wilkins will expand his presence in the Boston Public Schools and lead master classes with students participating in a program called BEAM (Bridge to Equity and Achievement in Music), among other responsibilities. He was recognized as a Shenandoah Conservatory Alumnus of Excellence in 1998 and received a Honorary degree from SU in 2003