lumni Humanitarian Award
The Alumni Humanitarian Award, established in 2001, is bestowed upon alumni of the University of Illinois by the Alumni Association, on behalf of the University of Illinois. It is presented to those alumni who, through their outstanding involvement and dedication, have made a significant contribution of volunteer leadership or service which has improved or enriched the lives of others and the welfare of humanity, and whose accomplishments reflect admirably on or bring honor to their Alma Mater.

Betty Burch Mohlenbrock is honored for her mission of helping families achieve intimacy through books. In 1989, she established the Family Literacy Foundation, the forerunner of United Through Reading, an organization that arranges to record and send home DVDs of deployed military parents reading to their children. This program has reached thousands of members of the military at sites throughout the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as incarcerated prisoners in San Diego. A former elementary school teacher and private reading tutor, Mohlenbrock has observed that “research has shown that the single best predictor of success in school is whether a child was read to at home. The second best predictor is if the child sees parents reading.” Mohlenbrock earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Illinois in 1962 and a master’s degree in education in 1964.

Previous Recipients

2007
Kenneth Braid ’74 AHS
Colleen Malany Braid ’74 AHS

2006
Eugene Hamilton ’55 LAS, JD ’59 LAW

2005
Susan Nagele '78 LAS

2003
Penny Panayiota Deligiannis '87 COM, MS '92 COM