FAU Honors 2026 Hall of Fame & Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients

Florida Atlantic University recently hosted its annual Hall of Fame & Distinguished Alumni Award Ceremony and Reception.

Florida Atlantic University recently hosted its annual Hall of Fame & Distinguished Alumni Award Ceremony and Reception. The annual event brought together alumni and community members to celebrate the accomplishments of their outstanding peers, with graduates from nine of Florida Atlantic's colleges honored for their career accomplishments.

"Florida Atlantic boasts an outstanding network of alumni, and these honorees exemplify that excellence through their professional achievements," said Katie G. Burke, Ph.D., '08, '10, '15, '17, assistant vice president for alumni and community engagement. "We are thrilled to recognize these remarkable individuals, who continue to leave a lasting mark in their fields and represent our university with distinction."

Maria Jasin, B.S. '78, a graduate of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, was introduced as the 2026 Hall of Fame inductee, representing the pinnacle of career impact and industry success. Jasin is a biomedical researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where she holds the William E. Snee Chair in the Developmental Biology Program. Jasin has received several recognitions for her work, including the 2022 Jill Rose Award from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and most recently, the 2025 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize from Rockefeller University recognizing outstanding women in biomedical research.

Representing nine of Florida Atlantic's colleges are the following distinguished alumni:

• Michael Balter, MBA '89, College of Business
• Kirk Brown, B.A. '98, College of Social Work and Criminal Justice
• Melissa Emerson, BSN '04, MBA '18, Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing
• Jose E. Garcia Jr., BGS '25, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
• Jaclyn Klimczak, M.D. '16, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
• Patrick Martin, B.A. '16, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
• Madeline Pumariega, M.Ed. '97, College of Education
• Harrison Stubbs, B.A. '14, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
• Ajay Vasanadu, MCE '94, College of Engineering and Computer Science

For more information on this year's Hall of Fame & Distinguished Alumni Award honorees, visit faualumni.org/hall-of-fame.

-FAU-