Michael C. Holen Leader in Residence
Michael C. Holen Leader-in-Residence Award
The Michael C. Holen Leader-in-Residence Award honors outstanding individuals who are exercising leadership in a range of organizational, professional and civic settings. Recipients come to campus to share experiences and engage in rich and challenging conversations with our students and the Kansas State University community. The award recipient exemplifies the Staley School of Leadership mission statement and the following tenets:
- Service to the common good is the goal of leadership.
- Leadership is a process and is not defined simply by position or authority.
- Collaboration is the primary method of teaching and developing leadership.
- Successful leaders are committed to and have the ability to engage in leadership with those of many backgrounds and cultures.
Originally named the “Lifetime Leadership Award,” the award was later dedicated in honor of College of Education Dean Emeritus, Michael C. Holen for his tremendous support of Leadership Studies and then paired with the Leader-in-Residence initiative, originally sponsored by the Stephens family, to both honor outstanding leadership and bring leaders to campus in service to our students' learning. Mary Lynn and Warren Staley were the inaugural Michael C. Holen Leader-in-Residence recipients. The award is presented each year at the Spirit of Leadership.
Past recipients
2026 Beth Ward '93
Beth Ward is an experienced global executive in supply chain and operations. 
An authentic leader, Ward is deeply rooted in her core values. With 30 years of global supply chain experience, she serves as a catalyst and change agent at organizations that align with these values… meaningful purpose, capable teams, and people-focused cultures.
Recently, Ward served as COO at Smart Warehousing and SVP supply chain and corporate officer at Hallmark, successfully leading through the most tumultuous years for supply chains in modern history. Currently, she is a professor of the practice for the SELF Engineering Leadership Fellows program in the School of Engineering at the University of Kansas (KU).
Ward’s duties and responsibilities include serving as an integrator to cultivate trusted relationships across silos, organize resources to achieve impactful results, and communicate strategy and context to rally stakeholders around the organization’s vision and mission. She listens, ask questions and advises leaders on people and business challenges. She connects with employees and gains their buy-in by consistently demonstrating credibility, courage and care. Throughout her career, Ward has honed skills to solve complex challenges, build capable teams, and ‘make things clear’ for individuals at all levels.
Ward holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial and manufacturing systems engineering from Kansas State University and a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Kansas. She has been an active community servant, currently serving as a board member for K-State Olathe. In recent years, Ward also served as vice-chair for the MoKan Goodwill board and chair of the advisory council for the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering at Kansas State University. In 2025, K-State honored Ward as the College of Engineering Alumni Fellow.
Both K-State engineers, Ward’s 30-year spouse, Dr. Ken Ward (’91, ’93) is an associate teaching professor at KU. Their son, Ryan, is a senior at Indiana University in the Kelley School of Business.
2024 Mary and Carl Ice
2023 David Chrislip
2022 Aaron and Rebecca Graham
2021 David and Ellie Everitt
2019 Max Finberg
2018 Representing DECLIC, an organization of Ziguinchor, Senegal, West Africa: Haby Diallo, Salif Kanoute, Demba Kande, Jennifer Gbari, Francisca Napama and Adolphe Gomez.
2017 The first class of leadership studies graduates: Maggie Barlow, Patrick Carney, Michael Hodgson, Justin Kastner, Piper Niemann, Aaron Otto, Aubrey Patterson, Casey Carlson, Molly Crowe, Renee Fisher, Jonathan Freeman, Kate Jiron, Lindsay Sutton Weir Larson, and Melinda McMillan-Miller.
2016 Shante J. Moore, Silvia Diaz de Moore
2015 Kevin Lockett
2014 Mary Jo Myers
2013 Nebeeha Kazi Hutchins
2012 Paul Maina
2011 Mary Lynn and Warren Staley
2010 Tom Hawk
2009 Amy Button Renz
2008 Suzanne Mayo-Theus
2007 Atina Hanna
2006 Carol Gould
2005 Ruth Ann Wefald
2004 Grace Y. Hwang
2003 James R. Coffman
2002 Linda P. Thurston
2001 Deb Patterson
2000 Page and Nancy Twiss (Lifetime Leadership award)
1999 Buck O'Neil (Lifetime Leadership award)
Staley School of Leadership
252 Leadership Studies Building
1300 Mid-Campus Dr. N.
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-6085
leadership@k-state.edu