Distinguished Alumni Awards 2025

The Distinguished Alumni Awards are conferred annually at a signature event that celebrates the achievements of each recipient. The 2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards dinner was held on Friday, April 25, in the Sutton Center on Wake Forest’s Reynolda Campus. The 2025 honorees are visionary dreamer Syd Kitson (’81, P ’08) and barrier breaker Barbee Oakes (’80, MA ’81).

View photos of the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards on Flickr

Read more about the recipients

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Syd Kitson (’81, P ’08)

A career in the National Football League is something millions of kids have dreamed of, and Syd Kitson lived that dream for parts of five seasons. Kitson’s second act, a combination of business acumen, entrepreneurial spirit and a zeal for responsible stewardship of natural resources, led him to buy 91,000 acres of land — a tract larger than all of Atlanta, Miami, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and several other major cities. Kitson turned most of it over to the state in the largest land-preservation agreement in Florida’s history. With the rest, he built Babcock Ranch, America’s first solar-powered city. His dreams ended up powering a lot more than blocking skill.

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Barbee Oakes (’80, MA ’81)

Barbee Oakes knew about the interaction of mind and body through her academic research. Then she put the spirit of those studies to work in a new way: crafting transformational programs for diversity and inclusion at two research institutions thousands of miles apart: Wake Forest and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Just as the body benefits from different forms of exercise, a community benefits from the different life experiences that all its members bring to the group. Her dedication has made her a pathbreaking, difference-making leader throughout academia and beyond.