Meet the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award Winners
Career Impact Award Winner – Robert Pepper
Robert Pepper is a Senior Fellow at the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership (GDIP), where he advises governments, international organizations, private sector players, and NGOs on connectivity and infrastructure technology, trends, and policy.
Before joining GDIP, Pepper helped lead Meta’s connectivity and technology policy agenda, focusing on new technology development, deployment, and adoption, including teams designing and deploying global subsea, terrestrial, and edge networks, including for data centers, as well as mobile and wireless technologies.
Before joining Meta, Pepper was Cisco’s Vice President for Global Technology Policy for more than a decade, working with governments globally, helping them develop digital strategies including ICT and development, broadband plans, IP-enabled services, wireless and spectrum policy, security, privacy, and Internet Governance.
Before the private sector, Pepper served more than two decades in government including 16 years as Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development at the US Federal Communications Commission where he helped develop policies promoting the development of the Internet, as well as leading teams designing and implementing the first U.S. spectrum auctions, implementing telecommunications competition, and planning for the transition to digital television.
Prior to the FCC, Pepper’s government service also included Acting Associate Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and initiating a program on Computers, Communications and Information Policy at the National Science Foundation. He is currently an advisor to the Commercial Law Development Program at the Department of Commerce.
He is a board member of the Pacific Telecommunications Council and the UK’s OFCOM Spectrum Advisory Board. He has been on the boards of the Internet Society, the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute, the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy, and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee.
His academic appointments included faculty positions at the Universities of Iowa, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and as a research affiliate at Harvard University. He serves on advisory boards at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Columbia University, and Michigan State University. Pepper received his BA and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Early Career Award Winner – Lindsey Pipia
Lindsey Pipia is a five-time Emmy-nominated, Edward R. Murrow Award-winning White House producer for MS NOW. Based in Washington, D.C., she covers the second Trump administration, collaborating with network television correspondents and reporters to deliver reporting and analysis to millions of MS NOW viewers from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. She covers events involving the president and members of his administration, domestically and abroad, asking officials questions that matter most to American voters.
Prior to her time in Washington, Pipia was at the center of NBC News’ 2024 presidential election coverage. She spearheaded network coverage for major election cycle milestones, including the Iowa caucuses and the Democratic and Republican national conventions. She also worked on the campaign trail as a producer, covering rallies across the political spectrum – from Donald Trump and JD Vance to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Pipia also worked at NBC’s National Network Desk at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where she covered domestic and era-defining breaking news, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Uvalde school shooting, and Hurricane Ian. She launched her career in broadcast journalism after graduation as a desk assistant for “Nightly News with Lester Holt” and developed her passion for politics while interning for Andrea Mitchell during her undergraduate years.
A proud native of Brookfield, Wisconsin, Pipia is a 2018 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts (Radio, TV, & Film) and Journalism.
Service Impact Award Winner – Scott Broetzmann
Scott M. Broetzmann is founder, president, and CEO of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting (CCMC), a boutique research and consulting firm that helps companies turn the “voice of the customer” into better business decisions and more profitable customer experiences.
Scott has worked with more than 500 companies worldwide across nearly every major industry sector, bringing a grounded, results-focused perspective to customer experience strategy and measurement. His research and commentary have been featured in leading outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Business Week, Forbes, Money, CNN, MSNBC, CBS News, and other major media.
A lifelong Badger, Scott earned his B.A. in Communication Arts in 1982 and his M.A. in Communication Arts in 2018, both from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has also served on the Communication Arts Partners (CAPS) advisory board since 2009, including as its first board chair.
Scott lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife, Jennifer, and delights in time spent with their three adult children and first grandchild.
Research Impact Award Winner – Henry Jenkins
Following his graduation with a PhD from Communication Arts in 1989, Henry Jenkins rose through the ranks and became a full professor at MIT, where he founded and was the co-director of the Masters Program in Comparative Media Studies. Sixteen years ago, he left MIT to become the Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Art at the University of Southern California, where he also has honorary affiliations in Education and East Asian Language and Culture. He converted his dissertation into his first book, What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetics, at Columbia University Press. He has since published more than 25 other books, including Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activists, Comics and Stuff, Where the Wild Things Were: Boyhood and Permissive Parenting in Postwar America, and the Frames of Fandom book series. He co-hosts the How Do You Like It So Far? podcast and is senior editor for the Pop Junctions blog.