Four BSOS Alumni Presented with 2024 Alumni Excellence Awards

Each year since 2020, the University of Maryland Alumni Association has presented select Terps with Alumni Excellence Awards; specifically, EnTERPreneur, Rising Terp, Research, and Legacy awards that recognize these individuals' accomplishments and honor them with distinction.

Below, meet the four BSOS alumni who were presented with 2024 Alumni Excellence Awards.

Steven Krein CCJS '92, EnTERPreneur Award Winner

Honors an entrepreneurial alumnus/a whose company has made a significant impact on the university, the state and/or the nation

photo of Steven Krein

Around the globe, 8.75 million people are afflicted with Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that can cut life expectancy by 20 years or more.

Steven Krein is helping to lead the charge for a cure.

Since founding New York-based StartUp Health with longtime business partner Unity Stoakes in 2011, Krein, the CEO, and his team have assembled a worldwide network of founders, funders, innovators and industry leaders to prevent, manage and cure not only Type 1 diabetes, but also to collaborate on 13 health “moonshots,” including Alzheimer’s disease, a disorder of progressive cognitive and memory decline now affecting more than 55 million people globally.

Oneyda Hernandez SOCY '23, Rising Terp Award

Honors an alumnus/a under 30 years old who has distinguished themselves personally and professionally

Oneyda Hernandez

Oneyda Hernandez’s mother taught her many things, but one in particular has become the mantra of the work she does to support people in need: The community takes care of the community. El pueblo cuida al pueblo.

Hernandez founded the Audelia Community Response Team (ACRT) to address food insecurity in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. What began as an effort by Hernandez and three of her siblings, who were working in a physical therapy clinic at the time, to help a patient impacted by COVID-19 has grown to a robust Latinx-centered organization serving more than 1,400 families annually.

Margaret Moose Swallow SOCY '75, Terp Legacy Award

Honors an alumnus/a who has made a significant impact on their community over their lifetime

Margaret Moose Swallow

Every year, people around the globe drink 400 billion cups of coffee.

Thanks to Margaret Moose Swallow ’75, millions of women who help drive the industry—nearly all of them in developing countries—are finally reaping the rewards of a $495.5 billion industry that, as an exported commodity, is second to oil.

“Women haven’t had a voice,” says Swallow, a former associate director of food and beverage for the consumer goods corporation Procter & Gamble. “They’ve been invisible. The good news is that’s changed over the last 20-plus years.”

Swallow spent 23 years at P&G, starting in 1979 as a brand assistant for Folgers coffee, a job that focused on marketing. Two days after her 2002 retirement, she launched a second career, becoming executive director of the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI).

The nonprofit helps coffee farmers in developing countries—30% of whom are women—produce higher-quality beans. That, in turn, has translated into higher prices and more economic prosperity.

Chip Sollins CCJS '82, Terp Legacy Award

Honors an alumnus/a who has made a significant impact on their community over their lifetime

Chip Sollins

When Chip Sollins graduated from Maryland with a criminology degree, he was struck by the weight of his experience.

“It was my first time leaving home, and Maryland taught me how to get around, how to maneuver, how to meet friends, and how to get out of my comfort zone,” he says. “It’s a place that gave me a great foundation.”

Which is why Sollins didn’t think twice about volunteering for his alma mater for 14 years after graduation. Starting in 1998 he served as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Governors, two years as president, and also as an Alumni Association regional alumni network leader. Additionally, he was an appointed and elected trustee of the University of Maryland, College Park Foundation, and he was a major donor to the Hall of Friendship in the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center.

“I’m a big believer in giving back, and so that’s why I made the decision to get involved with the school and to help in every way that I could,” Sollins says, noting that it’s a sensibility instilled in him by his parents. “You try to give back where you can.”

Sollins grew up in Baltimore and planned to go to law school after getting his undergraduate degree, but higher education is a journey of discovery, and he changed his trajectory. He decided instead to become a businessman.

Sollins lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where for 15 years he’s been president and CEO of Garden Home Management Services. The business manages high-end homes in Palm Beach County—mainly second homes—providing handyman services, hurricane preparedness, housekeeping, window washing and pressure washing, among other services.

Photo of a bronze Testudo in front of the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center is by John T. Consoli

Published on Thu, Mar 21, 2024 - 12:53PM