Five DePauw alumni to be honored with prestigious university awards
During Old Gold Weekend on Friday, October 2, 2026, DePauw University will honor the 2026 recipients of the Old Gold Goblet, Young Alumni Award, and Alumni Citations.
Sue Ansel ’82 will receive the 2026 Old Gold Goblet, the university’s most prestigious award recognizing eminence in life’s work and service to alma mater. Sue is a visionary corporate leader, a trailblazer in the American real estate sector, and a deeply dedicated champion of DePauw. Currently serving as the president and chief executive officer of Dallas-based Gables Residential, as well as managing director, head of housing platform, and portfolio manager for Clarion Partners, Sue is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in the multifamily housing industry.
A proud second-generation Tiger, Sue’s deep-rooted relationship with DePauw began on campus as an active member of Delta Gamma and the daughter of alumni Don B. Ansel ’52 and Irene Koebke Ansel ’52. After graduating in 1982 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, she maintained an enduring commitment to her alma mater through extensive volunteer service and strategic governance. As a Partner member of the Washington C. DePauw Society, she established a scholarship in honor of her parents. Ansel brought her stellar corporate acumen to the Board of Visitors from 2010 to 2013 before her election to the DePauw University Board of Trustees in 2013, where she continues to shape the institution's strategic future.
Rachel Hanebutt ’15 will receive the 2026 Young Alumni Award honoring an alum under the age of 40 who has demonstrated leadership in career and civic associations and has shown strong loyalty to DePauw. She is an assistant professor of psychiatry and the Holt Family Rising Professor at the Thrive Center for Children, Families, and Communities at Georgetown University. As a developmental and community psychologist by training, her trailblazing academic scholarship focuses on digital equity, digital wellness, adolescent digital health, and teen relationships with technology. Her research specifically examines how these spaces intersect with adolescent identity development and interpersonal violence prevention, including bullying and digital harm.
Beyond her groundbreaking research, Rachel exemplifies a profound, lifelong commitment to DePauw through extensive institutional service, financial stewardship, and leadership. She dedicated eight years of strategic service to the GOLD Alumni Board, driving engagement and programming for recent graduates, and stands as a loyal donor consistently supporting The Fund for DePauw.
Three graduates will receive Alumni Citations recognizing outstanding professional achievement. The 2026 Alumni Citation recipients include Thomas Kneeland ’14, Kathleen “Kate” Baldwin Leipprandt ’84, and David Manly ’77.
Kate Baldwin Leipprandt ’84 is a highly certified wealth manager, owner, and managing director of Baldwin Financial Advisors, LLC, an independent registered investment advisory firm based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. With over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, she specializes in fee-based financial planning, consulting, and wealth management, dedicating her career to making complex financial concepts transparent and easy for her clients to understand. Her professional leadership is backed by premier industry designations, including Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®), and Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®). As a loyal donor and dedicated alumna of DePauw University, she consistently invests her time and expertise into fostering the next generation of leadership. Her distinguished career and commitment to excellence were formally recognized when she was selected as a Darnall Alumni Fellow, returning to campus in October 2017 to deliver the university's prestigious McDermond Lecture. During this headline address, she shared high-level executive wealth management insights with an audience of eager students and faculty members.
Thomas Kneeland ’14 is an award-winning Afro-Cuban poet-scholar and author who writes at the intersection of ancestry, intergenerational healing, and ecological memory. He is the author of the chapbook We Be Walkin' Blackly in the Deep which, among many places, can be found in the Library of Congress. A recent recipient of the Edward Stanley Award for poems published in Prairie Schooner, his work appears, or is forthcoming, in a number of prestigious literary journals, including Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, Southern Humanities Review, Columbia Journal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and The Rumpus. Kneeland is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and was recently nominated for Hayden’s Ferry Review’s Best of Small Fiction Anthology. As a member of the writing faculty for the Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA) Aspects of Leadership Summer Institute (of which he is a Cohort 5 Alum), Kneeland spends summers at Princeton University and Yale University teaching rising high school seniors elements of college writing as they prepare to enter the college admissions cycle. His innovative work in academia and student mentorship earned him national acclaim as one of The EDU Ledger's 2025 Emerging Scholars. Kneeland is currently a tenure-track Assistant Professor of English at Anderson University.
Dave Manly ’77 is a prominent consumer products executive, board advisor, and author. He is best known for his pivotal role at Keurig, Inc. (2002–2014). Serving as vice president and general manager, and later as senior vice president of new business creation and digital marketing, he helped steer the company's explosive growth from a $25 million business into a $5 billion industry giant. Dave's career is defined by a series of corporate turnarounds where he repeatedly revitalized and scaled major consumer brands. Throughout his career, Dave has maintained a deep commitment to his undergraduate alma mater, returning to serve in key leadership roles on the DePauw Management Center Board of Advisors (2005–2012) and the university’s Board of Visitors (2013–2016).
Nominations for these honors are due annually on March 31 and are awarded for the following year. To nominate an alum to receive the Old Gold Goblet, Young Alumni Award, or Alumni Citations, please complete this online form.