The University of Missouri-Kansas City Class of 2025 Alumni Award recipients include a CEO and founder of a company frequently mentioned in the Kansas City Business Journal, and a family that has made a significant impact in dental healthcare.
Each year, UMKC recognizes a select group of alumni for their inspirational accomplishments. The event is one of the university’s largest events to support student scholarships. In the past decade, the Alumni Awards event has garnered more than $1 million in scholarships and immediate student aid for UMKC.
The Class of 2025 awardees will be honored at a celebration on April 25 at the Student Union.
Alumnus of the Year: Nathaniel Hagedorn
Nathaniel Hagedorn (BBA ’02, MBA ’04) has had a 22-year career in commercial real estate. In 2012, he founded NorthPoint Development, a Kansas City-based commercial real estate development company focused on industrial, multifamily and data center projects. As the CEO of the firm, Hagedorn is responsible for strategically ensuring NorthPoint remains an innovator in data science and technology.
NorthPoint has grown to a team of 400 team members with nine offices across the country and has become the largest industrial developer in the United States, serving most Fortune 500 companies. The company has also invested in more than 8,000 apartment units and is developing several multi-billion-dollar hyperscale data center campuses. NorthPoint has been recognized by the Kansas City Business Journal as a Best Place to Work in Kansas City for 11 years running.
Hagedorn also serves on the NorthPoint Foundation board, which focuses on charitable efforts to support children in need across Kansas City and in the other communities NorthPoint serves across the country.
Spotlight Award: James Mitchell
James Mitchell (B.M./B.A. ’13) has always been passionate about music and the environment. He majored in cello performance and environmental studies and is currently a leading expert in the field of climate finance whose work has shaped the climate strategies of some of the world’s largest banks and investors. He started his career as a researcher at the University of Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, where he published novel research that exposed climate and environmental risks in high-emitting industries.
In 2019, Mitchell built a global coalition of banks that adopted a first-of-a-kind climate change standard, the Poseidon Principles, while working at RMI, formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Institute. The Poseidon Principles are the most successful voluntary climate standard in the financial sector by market share today. In 2020, he became the founding director of the Center for Climate-Aligned Finance, which is now a leading center of excellence in the field of climate finance.
Mitchell is a senior expert at RMI and Head of Impact at the Center for Climate-Aligned Finance. He also serves on several climate finance advisory boards. His work is incorporated into the strategies of some of the world’s largest funds and financial institutions and has been featured in publications such as the Economist, Financial Times, Guardian and New York Times.
Mitchell also has a significant music career. Him and his folk band, the Infamous Flapjack Affair, launched Confluence, a musical documentary that explores social and environmental issues along the Colorado River in 2018. The film has since received several awards.
Defying the Odds: Diana Kander
When Diana Kander (B.A. ’02) was just 8 years old, she and her family escaped the Soviet Union, entered the United States as refugees, and resettled in Kansas City without money or the ability to speak English. And yet it is from these humble beginnings that Kander became a Georgetown-educated attorney, a university professor, the founder of 10 companies, a consultant to Fortune 500 companies and government leadership teams, and a New York Times bestselling author whose books have been taught in more than 100 universities and translated into many languages.
Kander credits UMKC with resetting her expectations for herself. Between a debate scholarship and the opportunity to accelerate her studies and graduate in two and a half years, UMKC made her experience possible by making it affordable. But beyond affordability, UMKC granted her unusual freedom to build a course of study, setting her on a life course built around pursuing passions and outsized goals.
Legacy Award: The Mahaffey Family
For three generations, the Mahaffey family has made an impact on the dental profession with oral healthcare throughout Missouri.
Charles Mahaffey graduated from the UMKC School of Dentistry in 1972. He has served as the president of the Dental Alumni Association at UMKC. Though Charles is now officially retired, the family dental practice continues to thrive under the leadership of his family.
Following in his footsteps, his son, Darren Mahaffey graduated from UMKC School of Dentistry in 2005 along with his wife, Sarah (Brown) Mahaffey. Darren and Sarah had a vision of bringing a large-scale dental clinic that would provide free oral healthcare to patients of all ages who cannot otherwise afford or have access to care in Missouri. They launched the first Missouri Mission of Mercy (MOMOM) in 2011, which saw 1,856 patients, gave over $1 million in care and had 1,100 volunteers.
Sarah currently serves as vice president of the Dental Alumni Association. She also created a new dentist conference in conjunction with the Missouri Dental Association called Connect4Success, to mentor and support dentists.
Samantha Mahaffey, granddaughter to Charles and niece to Darren and Sarah, graduated from the UMKC School of Dentistry in 2022. Prior to entering dental school and throughout her time as a dental student, Samantha participated in several MOMOM events, embodying the family’s legacy in providing care and service to the community. She is pursued an Advanced Education General Dentistry residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and is now working at the family practice.
School Alumni Achievement Awardees
Conservatory: John Jenkins (DMA ’12)
Executive Director, Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra
School of Dentistry: Jessica Meeske (DDS ’96)
Senior Partner, Pediatric Dental Specialists of Greater Nebraska
School of Education, Social Work and Psychological Sciences: Terry Ward (Ph.D. ’12)
Principal, Doolin Ward Consulting (retired)
School of Science and Engineering: Nidhi Hegde, (M.S. ’98, Ph.D. ’00)
Associate Professor, University of Alberta
Henry W. Bloch School of Management: Paula Petersen (EMBA ’07)
Executive Director, Consumer Segment and Strategic Services, Commerce Bank
School of Humanities and Social Sciences: Steve Revare (M.A. ’07)
Co-Owner, Tom's Town Distilling Co.
School of Law: Justice Melissa Taylor Standridge (J.D. ’93)
Supreme Court Justice, State of Kansas
School of Medicine: Amy Hara (B.A. ’93/M.D. ’94)
Professor of Radiology and Board of Governors Member, Mayo Clinic Arizona
School of Nursing and Health Studies: Donna Young (BHS ’18)
Chief Operating Officer, Powell Gardens, Inc.
School of Pharmacy: Erica Mahn (Pharm.D. ’12)
Executive Director of Community Pharmacy Services, Alps Pharmacy
Tickets for the 2025 Alumni Awards can be purchased here.