The Boise State Alumni Association recently honored Distinguished Alumni and Distinguished Alumni Service Award recipients at the annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Gala on Friday Nov. 3 in the Simplot Ballroom of the Boise State Student Union. This year’s gala also celebrated 50 years of the Boise State Alumni Association.
The Distinguished Alumni Award honors those with outstanding professional and personal accomplishments within their chosen profession. This year’s honorees from the College of Health Sciences were Kelly Buckland and Tamara Pascoe.
Kelly Buckland, executive director of the National Council on Independent Living in Washington D.C., was a 1978 graduate of the School of Social Work at Boise State. Buckland is a well-known advocate for people with disabilities who displays leadership qualities in promoting and fighting for the rights of those with disabilities. Buckland worked previously as an executive director for the Idaho State Independent Living Council and the Living Independence Network Corporation.
Through his efforts, Buckland has changed laws and social policies nationwide and has promoted the lives of people with disabilities internationally to create a more accessible place to live. Buckland, who was inspired from his own spinal cord injury, focuses on the fight for those with disabilities by also inspiring and coordinating the efforts of other disability advocates. Furthermore, Buckland is well known for his contributions for survivors of domestic abuse and older adults to create a respected and supported way of life in communities for these individuals.
Tamara Pascoe, staff physician and athletic team physician for University Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst was a 1990 graduate of the Athletic Training Program and also received her masters in 1999 from the School of Allied Health Sciences Department of Kinesiology at Boise State. Pascoe previously worked in the Department of Kinesiology and was the associate head athletic trainer for Boise State. While serving in Idaho, Pascoe was very popular among many patients. She then moved on to become a family medicine physician and medical director for the Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center in Worcester, Massachusetts where she provided supervision to all aspects of clinical care to ensure procedures and policies were carried out properly.
In her current role, Pascoe serves as the Walk-in Clinic Lead Physician. She also demonstrates many personal accomplishments for establishing collaborations through multiple grant activities, scholarships and partnerships.