GOLD & Bold recognizes Panther innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders and change makers. Recipients are a UNI graduate of the last decade (GOLD) who has boldly made exceptional educational, career or personal achievements since their graduation. Congratulations to the following alumni who were recognized at a ceremony this month.

Daniel Laudick graduated from UNI in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. Danny is the founder and executive director of Red Cedar, a public-private partnership to support entrepreneurs and new business startups in the Cedar Valley. Danny has been recognized through the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier’s 20 Under 40 and with the Entrepreneur award from Cedar Falls Utilities for the work of Red Cedar. In addition to Red Cedar, he has helped to create several businesses & community initiatives. He was elected Cedar Falls mayor in November 2023.

Nicole North is a 2019 chemistry graduate currently pursuing her PhD at the Ohio State University. After being accepted into NASA’s Planetary Summer School, Nicole earned NASA’s Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) fellowship and became a NASA Principal Investigator on her own research project. Nicole has authored five academic papers in the area of astrochemistry and analytical chemistry, and is currently the principal investigator on her own project studying Saturn’s moon, Enceladus. Read more about Nicole.

Jessica Mwanza graduated from the UNI in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Disorders and in 2017 with Master of Arts in Speech Language Pathology. After graduation, she worked as a speech language pathologist with an Iowa AEA before joining the Special Hope Network in Zambia. Jessica works to improve access to much needed therapeutic services like speech-language therapy and maintains her relationship with the university by sharing with faculty and community members about the work and inviting them into partnership in sustaining life-changing work for individuals with intellectual disabilities.