Cauthron graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in English. She also earned her master’s degree in education from the University of Central Oklahoma and attended the OU College of Law, where she received her Juris Doctorate.
Appointed by George H.W. Bush to a United States District Judgeship in April 1991, she later became Chief Judge in 2001. She was the first woman in the state of Oklahoma to be named to the federal trial bench. Previously, she had been the first woman to be appointed to full-time Magistrate Judge in the six-state Tenth Circuit. She also has been a state judge and practiced law in a private firm in Idabel, Okla. Judge Cauthron has participated in leadership positions in numerous county, state, and national legal organizations, and has chaired the United States Judicial Conference Committee with oversight of indigent criminal defense in the federal courts. She founded and chaired the Oklahoma State-Federal-Tribal Judicial Council. She currently serves on the Judicial Conference of the United States and its executive committee.
Mardis graduated Phi Beta Kappa from OU with a bachelor of science degree in zoology. She then completed her master’s and doctoral degrees from OU in chemistry and biochemistry in 1989. Following graduation, Mardis became a senior research scientist for four years at BioRad Laboratories in California. In 1993, she joined The Genome Center at the Washington University School of Medicine. As director of technology development, she helped create methods and automation pipelines for sequencing the human genome. She currently orchestrates the center’s efforts to explore next-generation sequencing technologies and to transition them into production sequencing capabilities.
Mardis has research interests in the application of DNA sequencing to characterize cancer genomes. She also is interested in facilitating the translation of basic science discoveries about human disease into the clinical setting. She serves on several National Institutes of Health study sections; is an editorial board member of Genome Research; and acts as a reviewer for Nature and Genome Research. She serves as chair of the Basic and Translational Sciences for the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group. Mardis recently received the Scripps Translational Research award for her work on cancer genomics.
Wilson graduated from OU in 1986 with a doctoral degree in chemistry. Following his graduation, he worked as a research fellow at California Institute of Technology before joining the research faculty at the Washington University School of Medicine in 1990
He has been named a member of the National Human Genome Research Institute National Advisory Council, co-chaired The Cancer Genome Atlas executive committee, and has been a fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Originally from Kent, Ohio, Wilson was inducted into the Kent City Schools Hall of Fame in 2005.
Additionally, he is a member of the Senior Leadership Committee at the Siteman Cancer Center; a member of the American Association for Cancer Research; chair of the scientific advisory board at The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research; and chair of the Tumor Sequencing Project Management Committee.
Bernard Albaugh graduated three times from OU, earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology, master’s degree in social work, and master’s degree in public administration. Albaugh served six years in the U.S. Army. He began his career with the Oklahoma State Department of Child Welfare, where he became an assistant director, and also served as a child therapist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. While with the Indian Health Service, he developed a treatment methodology for addiction that became one of the most widely used treatment approaches for Native American alcohol and drug addicts throughout the United States and Canada. Later, he consulted with the Oklahoma State Department of Mental Health to obtain funding and develop the community mental health service programs for the northwest quarter of the state.
Albaugh was chief of behavioral health services for the U.S. Public Health Service Indian Health Hospital in Clinton, Okla., retiring after 22 years. Following retirement, he contracted with the Laboratory for Neurogenetics at the National Institutes of Health to be the co-principal investigator for a series of studies concerning the genetic and environmental interaction related to the development of complex mental disorders and addiction.
He has been an adjunct professor in mental health studies for OU, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, the University of Southern Colorado, Washington University, the University of Utah, and Columbia University. He also has served as a board member for numerous programs and agencies, including the Board of Visitors, Zarrow School of Social Work, OU; Oklahoma State Planning Commission for Alcohol, Drugs, Mental Health and Domestic Violence programs; and the Oklahoma State Advisory Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.
Dennis Kimbro graduated from OU in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and in 1973 with a master’s degree in human relations. Currently, he is on staff at the Clark Atlanta University School of Business Administration; a speaker; and author of several books.
In 1992, Kimbro was named director of the newly created Center for Entrepreneurship at Clark Atlanta University. A subdivision of that university's School of Business and Administration, the Center for Entrepreneurship was designed to encourage young African-Americans to start their own companies or small businesses.
In 1996, he served as one of eight national judges for the prestigious Ernst & Young USA Today Entrepreneur of the Year held in Palm Springs, Calif.
He is the recipient of the Dale Carnegie Personal Achievement Award and the Award of Excellence from the Texas Association of Black Personnel in Higher Education. His speaking engagements keep him on the road all year, speaking to a worldwide audience about the power of human potential.
Craig Adkins is currently president and a member of the Board of Directors for Bank 7. Prior to joining Bank 7, Adkins served as general counsel and corporate compliance officer for Innovative Capital Management. He previously spent ten years in private practice with McAfee & Taft, where he practiced in the areas of corporate, commercial, and real estate law. He received a J.D./M.B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1996, where he served as a note editor for the Oklahoma Law Review and was named to the Order of the Coif and Phi Kappa Phi. He graduated magna cum laude in 1991 fromOU with a B.A. in Asian Studies and a B.A. in Economics.
Adkins is being recognized for his service to the college for the three years he served as chair of the College Board of Visitors.
Badaroux was born and educated in France, and holds a culinary degree from the Clermont Ferrand Hotel School and a Hotel Business degree from the Paris Hotel School. After an internship at the Dulles Marriott in 1973, he joined Marriott’s French operations in 1975, and after Marriott’s divestiture in 1977, worked for the successor companies until 1982.
In 2003, he was appointed general manager of the NCED Conference Center in Norman, Okla. The NCED Conference Center is a 1,000 room facility serving the needs of the USPS technical staff and management staff.
Badaroux is being recognized for his service to the College of Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors and the Kaleidoscope Evening, which he has co-chaired for several years.
