The University of California, Davis, Cal Aggie Alumni Association has announced the recipients of its 2026 Alumni Awards, honoring exceptional alumni and friends whose leadership, innovation and service have strengthened communities locally and around the world.

This year’s honorees are advancing global health, driving business innovation, championing equity and transforming the future of science and food systems. Across industries and continents, they pair professional excellence with a deep commitment to UC Davis — expanding opportunity and shaping a better future for all.

With a network of more than 323,000 alumni, the Cal Aggie Alumni Association is proud to recognize:

• Aggie Service Award: Jacqueline Herbert Beckley ’72
• Emil M. Mrak International Impact Award: Woutrina Smith, D.V.M. ’01, M.P.V.M. ’01, Ph.D. ’04, and Brian Bird, Ph.D. ’08, D.V.M. ’09
• Outstanding Alumni Award: Kirk DeClark ’01
• Young Alumni Award: Aron King, M.S. ’21
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Deborah J. Neff ’76
• Distinguished Friend of the University Award: Elena B. Weaver 

Aggie Service Award

Jacqueline Herbert Beckley is a dedicated volunteer leader, mentor and ambassador whose decades of service have strengthened UC Davis across disciplines and generations.

Beckley holds a Bachelor of Science degree in food science and an MBA from Dominican University. She is the founder of The Understanding & Insight Group, a boutique consultancy known for advancing business and innovation, as well as U&I Digital, which develops tools for understanding conversations through proprietary applications that utilize AI and machine learning.

An 18-year veteran of the UC Davis Food Science and Technology Leadership Board, Beckley has helped shape the department’s future through philanthropy and hands-on leadership. She values building relationships with faculty and staff to ensure the campus remains a place that alumni are proud to return to and invest in. As a member of the UC Davis Women & Philanthropy Advisory Council, Beckley helped launch an initiative to honor an outstanding faculty or staff member each year through a $25,000 Impact Award. 

At the heart of Beckley’s service is a deep commitment to students. She has championed scholarships, expanded funding for professional experiences, and partnered with her husband to create lasting endowments that open doors for future Aggies. Beckley’s leadership advanced the Robert Mondavi Institute and energized collaborative efforts like the UC Davis Hub for Sensory and Consumer Science.

A tireless connector, Beckley enjoys mentoring students and bringing alumni together through industry events and immersive experiences. As a trustee of the UC Davis Foundation Board and member of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Dean’s Advisory Council, she is helping shape the future of UC Davis.

Emil M. Mrak International Impact Award

Woutrina Smith and Brian Bird are internationally recognized leaders in infectious disease research whose careers reflect the global vision and collaborative spirit that define UC Davis’ enduring impact on health, science and humanity. 

As alumni and now faculty leaders at the UC Davis Joan and Sanford I. Weill School of Veterinary Medicine, Smith and Bird have dedicated their professional lives to strengthening health systems worldwide. Their work advances science while building lasting international partnerships grounded in trust, training and shared leadership.

A three-time UC Davis graduate, Smith serves as associate dean for Global Programs and executive director of the UC Davis One Health Institute. Her research and educational collaborations span Africa, Asia and the Americas, where she leads multidisciplinary teams addressing infectious disease transmission, food and water security, and the connections between climate change and public health.

Smith recently directed a $60 million USAID initiative partnering with more than 100 universities across 17 low- and middle-income countries to train more than 60,000 professionals on the One Health approach, strengthening global health security through locally led solutions.

Bird earned his Ph.D. and D.V.M. at UC Davis after training at Johns Hopkins University in public health and service as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan. He went on to serve as a veterinary medical officer with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deploying to multiple hemorrhagic fever outbreak responses across Africa. In 2014-16, Bird helped lead the CDC’s field laboratory for Ebola disease detection in partnership with the Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone during what became the largest Ebola epidemic in history.

Today, he is director of the UC Davis One Health Institute Laboratory, where his team is working to advance a vaccine candidate into human clinical trials for Rift Valley fever, a devastating disease of animals and people across Africa. Using other One Health approaches like strengthening disease detection in wildlife and increasing public awareness, his group works to reduce the impact of emerging diseases globally.

As married partners and longtime research collaborators, Smith and Bird exemplify the power of science without borders. Through research, education and enduring international partnerships, they have advanced solutions that help safeguard communities around the world.

Outstanding Alumni Award 

Kirk DeClark is a business leader and entrepreneur whose career and service reflect the curiosity, adaptability and drive he fostered at UC Davis. With dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in economics and communication, DeClark has built a dynamic career at the intersection of finance, strategy and relationship-building. 

Over more than two decades in real estate finance and investment, he has led complex acquisitions, guided asset strategy and cultivated investor partnerships across commercial portfolios. After founding his own mortgage consulting firm at age 23, DeClark went on to earn his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. 

He now serves as director of investments at LRG Investors, where he helps guide investment strategy and growth. Separately, he and a fellow UC Davis alum are working to launch a startup, a telehealth platform focused on women’s and men’s midlife wellness, which they expect to launch later this year. 

DeClark’s professional path has been defined by exploration, a value he traces back to his undergraduate years, when he discovered the power of pairing analytical thinking with strong communication. Today, he channels that same mindset into mentoring and alumni engagement.

As vice chair of the College of Letters and Science Dean’s Advisory Council, DeClark plays a central role in shaping alumni engagement and philanthropic strategy. He has championed initiatives that offer financial support for students, such as Beyond the Classroom and the San Francisco Young Alumni Senior Awards, and he established an endowment dedicated to helping recent graduates navigate the transition from college to career.

Young Alumni Award

Aron King is a nationally recognized leader whose work is advancing health equity across Sacramento and beyond. As the director of the Magnet Program at Kaiser Permanente in Antioch and a doctoral student at the UC Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, King is focused on bridging clinical excellence with community-engaged research. 

Widely recognized for his ability to bring people together, King is a gifted facilitator and mentor who trains health care providers to identify and mitigate bias, opening dialogue in spaces where equity conversations are often difficult, but essential. He is the architect of the Barbershop Health Talks model and co-creator of the grant-funded Cut to the Chase program, which provides free, licensed group therapy in historically underserved neighborhoods. In just two years, the program has reached more than 800 Black men, reducing stigma around mental health care. 

As founding executive board member and current historian of the Capitol City Black Nurses Association, King also helped launch the annual Breaking Down Barriers to Nursing Conference in 2020, expanding opportunities for underrepresented students and strengthening pathways into the profession. 

In 2025, King was among the Sacramento Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 honorees. Other recent recognitions include the UC Davis Civic Engagement Graduate Student Award; the American Association for Men in Nursing’s Inclusion and Diversity Excellence Award; and the National Black Nurses Association’s 40 Under 40 and Spirit of the Founders awards. 

Lifetime Achievement Award 

Deborah J. Neff is a visionary executive, philanthropist and lifelong champion of UC Davis. Her career and service reflect a deep commitment to improving lives through advancing science, expanding opportunities and giving back to her community. 

A veteran of the global life sciences sector, Neff has led multiple life science and medical technology companies that have advanced research and improved clinical outcomes. She built the industry’s leading cellular analysis business as worldwide president of BD Biosciences, driving global growth and advancing innovation to better understand immune system responses to disease. 

As CEO of Pathwork Diagnostics, she led the launch of an FDA-cleared oncology test that identified the origin of difficult-to-diagnose tumors, a breakthrough that changed treatment decisions for patients. Since stepping away from full-time executive leadership in 2020, Neff has focused on advising life sciences organizations through DJN Consulting and serving on corporate and nonprofit boards, continuing to influence the field through strategic leadership.

Neff’s connection with UC Davis spans nearly 50 years, beginning as an undergraduate student studying physiology. Since making her first gift in 1982, she has become one of the College of Biological Sciences’ most generous supporters. Her landmark $8 million gift in 2023 to endow the college’s deanship and support neuroscience research will shape discovery and student success for generations. 

As the current chair of the UC Davis Foundation Board and a member of the Chancellor’s Board of Advisors, Neff is lending her strategic expertise to help guide the university’s future. 

Beyond UC Davis, Neff chairs the board of directors for Guide Dogs for the Blind and serves on several company boards, extending her leadership and vision to organizations and causes she is passionate about. Her commitment to volunteer service also includes support for the Yosemite Conservancy, reflecting her belief in preserving opportunity and access for future generations.

Distinguished Friend of the University Award

For more than 15 years, Elena “Lin” Weaver has been a dedicated campus leader and advocate. A trustee emerita of the UC Davis Foundation and longtime member of the College of Biological Sciences Philanthropy Leadership Council, Weaver has helped shape strategy, inspire philanthropy and strengthen donor engagement.

Born into a bilingual Italian and French family and raised across Europe, she developed an early fluency in language and global culture. Weaver earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Geneva and later completed a master’s degree in French literature at Tufts University. Over her career, Weaver has worked as a translator, court interpreter and educator, traveling internationally in the technology sector.

Today, she brings that global perspective to her work as a linguist, multimedia journalist and software developer. She served as an associate producer for Capital Public Radio’s Insight and as host of In the Studio with Davis Access Media, producing stories that highlight UC Davis research and innovation. She has also partnered with campus leaders to amplify UC Davis scholarship at international forums. 

In 2007, Weaver and her three sons established the David L. Weaver Endowed Lecture Series in Biophysics and Computational Biology in honor of her late husband. For nearly two decades, the series has brought Nobel laureates and National Academies members to campus. The family later established the David L. Weaver Award at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, a travel grant supporting junior faculty and graduate students researching stroke and traumatic brain injury.