Alumni Achievement Awards

Marriott School of Business

Jay Meldrum Jr

BS ’98 Finance

Lecture: Transact to Transform
Time: Thursday, October 10, 11 AM
Location: W408/410 TNRB

Jay Meldrum (BS ’98) is a PwC Consulting Principal focused on deals in Dallas, Texas. Jay has more than 25 years of experience in deal advisory work for a variety of purposes, including acquisitions, divestitures, tax reorganizations, and strategic transformations for both corporate and private equity clients. His expertise is focused on helping clients understand key drivers of value and their impact on decision-making. Jay is PwC’s lead relationship partner for Brigham Young University. He is an active alum and serves on both BYU Marriott’s School of Accountancy Board of Advisors and National Advisory Council. Jay earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from BYU Marriott and his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He enjoys backpacking, playing sports, scuba diving, and spending time with his family. Jay and his wife, Jenn, have five children, two daughters-in-law, and one grandchild.

David O. McKay School of Education

Lecture: Practicing Together
Time: Thursday, October 10, 11 AM
Location: Garden Court, WSC

Lorie Reese (BS ’98, MS ’06) earned her BS in linguistics and her MS in communication disorders from BYU. Lorie is currently in her ninth year as District-Level Specialist of Speech-Language Pathology Services in Utah’s Nebo School District, where her capable team of 85 clinicians provide speech-language pathology services for approximately 4,000 students ages 3-22 district-wide. Prior to that, as a practicing speech language pathologist Lorie was privileged to see communication breakthroughs in the lives of those she worked with. She has mentored approximately 120 new SLPs entering the field, including many from BYU. In 2019 the Utah Speech-Language Hearing Association named Lorie the Utah School Speech-Language Pathologist of the Year.

Lorie grew up in California, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico, then with her family also lived in Oregon and Tennessee. For the past twenty years she and her family have made Springville, Utah their home. Her happiest moments are spending time with her family, her nearly-perfect children, and her completely perfect grandchildren.

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering

Robert Wallace

Lecture: Duct Tape and Dad Jokes - Constructing a Successful Career
Time: Thursday, October 10, 11 AM
Location: JSB Auditorium

Dr. Robert M. Wallace (BS ’92, MS ’95) is a proud graduate of Brigham Young University, whose most important roles are husband to his wife Sheri and father to their five children. He earned two degrees from BYU in Civil Engineering and then earned his PhD in Civil Engineering from Purdue University in 2002.

Dr. Wallace is a Senior Scientific Technical Manager, serving as the Technical Director for the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) within the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). In this capacity, he provides technical oversight for the 400-person ITL, which annually conducts more than $550 million in cutting-edge research for the U.S. Army. Additionally, he directs a multi-laboratory research area that applies data science, decision science, and computational science to solve the Department of Defense's (DoD) most challenging computational problems. Dr. Wallace has 32 years of experience leading computational science and engineering projects, with particular emphasis on multi-physics simulations, water resource engineering, graphical user interfaces, geographic information systems, mobile computing, and data analytics.

College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences

David Holland

Lecture: Of History, Human Nature, and Hope
Time: Thursday, October 10, 11 AM
Location: B192 JFSB

David Holland (BA ’98)) currently serves as the John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History and as Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs at Harvard Divinity School. His scholarship and teaching focus on the intersecting theological commitments and cultural changes that shaped American life from the early seventeenth century to the late nineteenth. He earned a history degree at BYU and graduate degrees in history at Stanford University.

His first book, Sacred Borders: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011. His volume in the Brief Theological Introductions to the Book of Mormon series appeared in 2021 and his editorial project, The Oxford Handbook on Seventh-day Adventism, was published this year.

Holland is currently working on a co-authored volume, Ideas and Ideals in the American Past, commissioned by Oxford, and a comparative biography, A Particular Universe: Ellen Gould White, Mary Baker Eddy and the Nineteenth Century United States, to be published by Yale University Press. He and his wife, Jeanne, are the parents of four children.

College of Fine Arts and Communications

Brent Anderson

Lecture: Make Something Wonderful: A Life Lesson from Apple
Time: Thursday, October 10, 11AM
Location: Concert Hall, MB

Brent Anderson (BA ’99) is the Global Chief Creative Officer for TBWA\Media Arts Lab, the global network of creative agencies dedicated solely to Apple. Previous to Media Arts Lab, Brent was CCO of TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles. Brent’s career has been punctuated by thoughtful, pointed creative leadership and by impactful, iconic advertising that has vaulted forward some of the most successful brands in the world: Apple, Gatorade, AirBnB, adidas, Visa, Nissan, and others. During Brent’s tenure, Media Arts Lab has been named Agency of the Year multiple years by various global publications; Apple has been named Brand of the Year on multiple occasions by various industry award shows and juries.

Brent is a native of Salt Lake City, Utah and served his mission in Sapporo, Japan. Brent met his wife Michelle at the BYU Jerusalem Center. They are the parents of 4 wonderful daughters: Emma, Brielle, Sadie, and Eden—all of whom love to both surf and ski. Their family is completed with their two dogs, Darth Vader and Frank.

College of Humanities

Allyson Condie

Lecture: Created to Create: Your Divine Birthright
Time: Thursday, October 10, 11AM
Location: B092 JFSB

Ally Braithwaite Condie (BA '01) is the number one New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the Matched series, Summerlost, The Unwedding, and many other books. Her work has been published in over thirty languages and featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, People Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times, chosen for Reese's Book Club, and optioned for film. Ally holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and is the founder and director of the non-profit WriteOut Foundation, which runs writing camps for teens in rural areas. At Brigham Young University, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in English teaching, and credits this time for her love of writing young adult and children’s books. She is the mother of four children, and loves hiking with her family and friends in the mountains near her home on the Wasatch Front.

J. Reuben Clark Law School

Wilford Andersen

Lecture: The Nuance of Knowing
Time: Monday, October 14, noon
Location: 303 JRCB

Wilford W. Anderson, of Mesa, Arizona, served as a missionary in the Argentina South Mission from 1968 to 1971 and married Kathleen Bennion in 1975. Together they have nine children and 38 grandchildren. At BYU Anderson earned his bachelor’s degree in business management and minors in economics and Spanish. His next adventure was earning a JD in 1976 from the J. Reuben Clark Law School. As a lawyer, Anderson worked as in-house counsel for the Bank of America and as a managing partner of Anderson Investments until he and his wife became mission leaders of the Mexico Guadalajara Mission. He was later called as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving in the Caribbean Area Presidency and in the Temple Department at Church headquarters. He was released in 2019. Anderson has served in other capacities as well, including volunteering for the Mesa Public School Board, Rotary International, the YMCA, Judicial Evaluation, and the Mesa Easter Pageant.

College of Life Sciences

Britlyn Orgill

Britlyn D. Orgill, (BS ’11) MD, MS-HPEd is from Belmont, Massachusetts. She graduated from BYU in biology in 2011 before attending medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She then completed her surgical internship and anesthesiology residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School.

While in residency, she co-founded the BYU Summer Premed Research Internship program with Joshua Jaramillo, MD, to help BYU premed students have research experiences with faculty at leading medical schools in the country. The program has grown to help 200 students over the 8 years.

Orgill remains passionate about medical education, recently completing a master’s degree in Health Professions Education at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She is an instructor at Harvard Medical School and a clinical anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital specializing in medical simulation. Out of the hospital, she enjoys the outdoors and doing improv comedy. She serves as her stake’s young women’s president and delights in being the camp doctor at girl’s camp.

College of Nursing

Amanda Orme

Lecture: Inspiring the Journey To Nursing Leadership
Time: Thursday, October 10, 11 AM
Location: Alice Louise Reynolds Auditorium (1060 HBLL)

Amanda Orme (BS ’98, MS ’05) has 25 years of service at Primary Children’s Hospital, with the time standing as a testament to her unwavering commitment to pediatric care. She received her master’s from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2005, her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from Rush University in 2021, and was certified as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in Acute Care. She pursues excellence in pediatric healthcare and brings expertise and compassion to her work. Amanda’s leadership skills are exemplified by her role as the Advanced Practice Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Primary Children’s Hospital where she leads with strength and empathy to advance the field of pediatric emergency care.

Amanda is also a highly regarded instructor for graduate students in the Emergency Department at Primary Children’s Hospital. Her recognition as “Preceptor of the Year” highlights her dedication to mentoring and shaping the next generation of nursing professionals. Her commitment to supporting and mentoring fellow graduates fosters a strong sense of community.

College of Computational, Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Travis Oliphant
BS BS ’95 Math and Electrical Engineering, MS ’96 Electrical Engineering

Lecture: Finding the Courage to Build a Better World
Time: Thursday, October 10, 11 AM
Location: 1170 TMCB

Travis E. Oliphant (BS ’95, MS ’96) is a luminary in the Python and AI communities. He started the SciPy project in 1999 as a student at the Mayo Clinic and built NumPy in 2005 while a professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at BYU. These libraries have been adopted throughout the scientific and business world. His work enabled Python to become the number one computer language in the world and the foundation for modern AI.

Travis earned a BS in Math, BS in Electrical Engineering, and an MS Degree in Electrical Engineering—all from BYU. He then studied and earned a PhD in biomedical engineering at the Mayo Clinic in 2001. He founded Anaconda and Quansight, and co-founded OpenTeams. He’s passionate about the future of AI and technical computing, currently working for the startup Zyphra which is bringing advanced AI models, workflows, and capabilities to businesses.

Travis lives in Austin, TX with his wife, Amy. They have 6 children. Travis is also a (part-time) service missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies

Christina Tomlinson
BA '90 International Relations

Lecture: Advancing the Power and Promise of American Diplomacy
Time: Thursday, October 10, 5 PM
Location: 238 HRCB

Christina Tomlinson (BA ’90) has been a career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State for 26 years, and now serves in the Office of the Secretary of State as Deputy Executive Secretary. She has led U.S. government interagency communications at the U.S. missions to Italy, the European Union, and Pakistan, and also advanced America’s national security objectives abroad during assignments in Türkiye, Hungary, and China. In tours in Washington, Christina directed strategic communications in Europe, served in the office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and worked in the 24/7 Operations Center.

Before joining the Foreign Service, Christina worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce and the United Nations Information Centre. Born in Provo when her parents were graduate students at BYU, Christina grew up in Reston, Virginia. She holds a BA from BYU in International Relations, an MA in International Affairs from George Washington University, and an MSc in National Security Strategy from the National War College.