CHS Alumna Named Burch Award Winner
A College of Health Sciences alumna was recently named the winner of the University of Kentucky's Joseph T. Burch Young Alumni Award.
Congratulations go out to Michaela Taylor, a 2019 graduate of UK where she earned her bachelor’s of health sciences in clinical leadership and management.
The Burch Award is named for a long-time UK administrator who spent the better part of his life in service to UK students. The purpose of the award is to honor a select number of young alumni who are active members of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association and currently work on behalf of young people through the university, the association, their club or in the local community. This year’s inductee brings the total to 25 honorees.
Nominees for this prestigious award should have:
- Raised funds for scholarships and/or awarding scholarships for students to attend UK
- Worked with local high school students who are interested in attending UK, through club-sponsored events and/or university-sponsored preview nights
- Worked to educate youth in the local community, whether through tutoring, coaching or other means to keep them interested in learning
- Assisted in efforts to support the student alumni association through mentoring or other means
Michaela Taylor has met all of these criteria and more.
During her time as an undergraduate, she was active with the Wildcat Marching Band, Alpha Gamma Delta, the UK Alumni Ambassadors and she served a single term as vice president of the UKSGA.
In 2023, she graduated from the College of Public Health with her master’s in health administration and from the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law where she received her J.D. She has started her legal career as an associate at Bricker Graydon, LLP in the firm’s employee benefits and executive compensation practice group.
She continues to be actively involved in the alumni association as an LAC member and serves on the Dragonfly Foundation Ambassador Board in Cincinnati. She got engaged to her fiancé Dillion Sheppard (EN ’21) in front of Memorial Hall last summer. They have two dogs, Woodford and Weller.
Again, congratulations Michaela!
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.