Harry Zlokower ’63, the founder and head of public relations agency Zlokower Co. in New York City, has been elected the 2012 president of the New York chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. The chapter has more than 700 members and is one of the largest chapters in the country.

Freddie Fu ’74, DMS’75, co-founder of the Center for Sports Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), has received the 2012 Sports Leadership Award from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Dapper Dan Charities for his efforts to keep students safe. Fu, chairman of the orthopedic surgery department at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC, was cited for advocating reforms to high school athletics, such as requiring every school to have an athletic trainer on site at football games.

Katie (Fesus) Zanto ’94 has earned an Outdoor Hero Award from L.L.Bean for her work in founding and running Adventure Risk Challenge, based in Truckee, California. She was honored for creating the innovative program, which integrates wilderness challenges with literacy and leadership curriculum for high school students.

Bill Bender ’78 and his company, Sola-flect, have been awarded an almost $1 million contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to develop “concentrated solar power” technology. Bender, who turned his Norwich, Vermont, home into a test site set with mirrored panels that concentrate sunlight, says his design cuts costs by using 65 percent less steel than traditional panels.

Peter McBride ’93 has earned “Best Short Mountain Film” honors at the 2011 Banff Mountain Film Competition—as well as “Best Environmental Film” at the San Francisco Frozen Film Festival—for his tribute to the Colorado River, Chasing Water.

Greg Jensen ’96, co-CEO and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates of Westport, Connecticut, has been ranked No. 3 on Fortune magazine’s 2011 “40 Under 40” list. Fortune cited Jensen’s work overseeing research at the world’s largest hedge fund—with $125 billion in assets under management—whose flagship fund was up 25 percent.

Beth Robinson ’86 of Ferrisburgh, Vermont, has been sworn in as associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. In 1999 she successfully argued that same-sex couples had the same rights as heterosexual married couples, then went on to lobby the Vermont legislature for the nation’s first civil unions (passed in 2000) and the 2009 state law that legalized same-sex marriage.

Joe Whitworth ’91, president of the Freshwater Trust, a Portland-based nonprofit that restores rivers and streams throughout Oregon, has been named one of “The Twelve Apostles” by The Drake, a magazine devoted to fly fishing. Whitworth was also named “CEO of the Year” in the nonprofits category by Portland Business Journal, in part for his recently patented StreamBank software, which helps determine whether proposed projects meet state and federal requirements.

Ali Crocker ’06, an astrophysicist at UMass-Amherst, was named one of Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” in November after she swept three women’s open events—the spring, middle-distance and long-distance events—at the U.S. individual orienteering championships. Last March she was eighth in the world ski orienteering championships, the best American finish ever.

Trumbull Barrett ’96, Th’98, owner of Barrett Tree Service East Inc. in Somerville, Massachusetts, has been named one of “Top Ten National Best Contractors” for 2010 by Angie’s List. It’s the second time he’s made the list.