Alumni Achievement Award recipients are recognized in the following areas: Service to the University, Professional Achievement, Public Service and Emerging Leader. Tickets for the event are available on the University of South Dakota Alumni Association website.

This year, the award recipients are Jim Clement of Rapid City, South Dakota (B.A. ’88 in political science) for Service to the University; Dr. Richard Holm of Brookings, South Dakota (B.A. ’71 in biology (botany), M.S. ’73 in medicine) for Professional Achievement; Deb Peters of Hartford, South Dakota (B.B.A. accounting, ’97) for Public Service; and Tyler Tordsen of Sioux Falls, South Dakota (B.S. ’15 in economics and political science) for Emerging Leader.

Clement is a senior vice president-financial advisor with RBC Wealth Management, residing in Rapid City. His service to the university began as a member of the USD Alumni Association board of directors, a position he held for eight years. Clement is an ardent supporter of USD Athletics, contributing to the Sanford Coyote Sports Center and DakotaDome renovations, and as a member of the Howling Pack. Currently, he is a USD Foundation Trustee staying active with the USD Foundation and Howling Pack boards of directors.

Holm remains highly involved with the USD Sanford School of Medicine through his time mentoring USD students and with his financial support of the School of Medicine. Holm has more than 36 years of practicing medicine in South Dakota. Along with being an M.D. at Avera Medical Group, Brookings, Holm has served as the host for 16 seasons of “On the Call with Prairie Doc” on South Dakota Public Broadcasting, writes weekly columns for 57 South Dakota newspapers and is president of the Healing Words Foundation, an organization he started with his wife to promote wellness and medical literacy.

Peters is a certified public accountant and owner of a consulting firm, Central Valley Accounting Solutions. Her passion led her to the South Dakota Legislature, where she has served the past eight years in the Senate and previously in the House of Representative from 2005-2010. She is the primary sponsor of 2016 Senate Bill 106, which won states the right to collect sales tax from internet retailers in a United States Supreme Court decision. She is the immediate past-president of the National Conference of State Legislatures and co-chair of the Governmental Operations and Audit Committee. Peters has also been the national president of the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board. She was previously recognized by the Wall Street Journal as a Top 40 Under 40, received the USD Accounting and Finance Division’s Outstanding Service Award in 2015, delivered the 2014 Winter Commencement address and was the 2016 honoree for Governing Magazine’s “Public Official of the Year.”

Tordsen is a lifelong South Dakotan who was born in Sioux Falls, grew up in Rapid City and is an enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe. After graduation, he began his career in public service working for U.S. Senator Mike Rounds as a special assistant, working on constituent services, focusing on outreach and specializing in tribal relations and local governments. In March 2017, Tordsen was promoted to southeast regional director for Senator Mike Rounds. His role includes helping South Dakotans with issues involving the federal government, promoting communication and overseeing the operations and management of Rounds’ Sioux Falls office.

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