College of Arts and Sciences MVPs

 

By Micaela Myers

UPS CEO Carol Tomé

When Carol Tomé came to the University of Wyoming to study communication, she planned to take over the family bank in Jackson upon graduation in 1979.

“In my last year of graduate school, my father sold the bank, but when one door closes, another one opens,” Tomé says. In fact, she went on to open many doors: starting at Colorado’s largest bank and going on to serve as chief financial officer of The Home Depot for nearly two decades before taking 
on the role of chief executive officer of United Parcel Service in 2020. 

“My UW degree focused on organizational communication, which was really helpful to me,” says Tomé, who went on to earn her MBA in finance at the University of Denver. “When I went into the workplace, I understood how organizations work and how to optimize those organizations, which has been instrumental in running large companies. I really credit UW for that learning.”

Tomé also made lifelong friends and networks in Laramie and met her husband, Ramon. Ramon worked for more than two decades at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Air Protection Branch and is now retired.

Taking over UPS at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges and opportunities. 

“We kept essential goods moving while people were sheltering in place,” Tomé says. “We were the first carrier to deliver COVID vaccines, and we delivered a billion vaccines in a year commercially as well as from a philanthropic perspective, including delivering vaccines in Rwanda using drones.”

UPS delivers 6 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and 2 percent of the world’s GDP daily. The company operates in over 200 countries and territories worldwide and employs more than 400,000 people. Tomé plans to grow UPS in strategic areas, including internationally and 
in complex health-care logistics. 

“I think the impact that I’ve had on people and their development is my No. 1 accomplishment,” she says of her career. This includes 21 former employees Tomé mentored who are now either CFOs or CEOs of publicly traded companies. 

Her honors include UW’s 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award, the 2009 CFO of the Year Award by the CFO Roundtable, and ranking No. 16 in Forbes magazine’s 2008 list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

Throughout their impressive careers, Carol and Ramon have always stayed connected to UW. “We think that the university is doing some really wonderful things for students, and it’s critically important to the state,” she says. 

The Tomés have generously supported a number of initiatives at UW, including establishing the Carol and Ramon Tomé Student Admissions Center in the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center and contributing to the Mick and Susie McMurry High Altitude Performance Center and the UW Alumni Association. They also created the Tomé Scholars to Fellows Program, which provides full-ride scholarships and transformational experiential learning experiences to multiple students in UW’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.

“We met at the university, and it’s very important to us. My parents, sister and one nephew also went to UW,” Carol says, adding that she and Ramon plan to spend more time here upon retirement. “Our heart is in Wyoming.” 

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Successful Author Kali Fajardo-Anstine

 

Originally from Denver, Kali Fajardo-Anstine earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Wyoming in 2012. In 2020, her debut book “Sabrina & Corina: Stories” was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction and went on to win the prestigious American Book Award. Her 2022 debut novel “Woman of Light: A Novel” became a national bestseller and won the 2023 WILLA Literary Award in Historical Fiction. In 2022–24, Fajardo-Anstine served as the Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University and a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow. We sat down with Fajardo-Anstine to chat about her time at UW and what’s next for her. 

 

How did your writing grow during your time in UW’s MFA program?
One of the ways my writing grew is how often I utilized Coe Library and the abundance of resources there. Libraries are such an important aspect of my process, and Coe is an exceptional institution. I really love that Coe Library offers library cards to community members who aren’t affiliated with the university. Many years after my time at UW, I moved back to Laramie for several years. I was one of those community members who often used the library, and I wrote there too!

 

How did the program help you on your very successful journey?
During my time at UW, I began to deeply understand how my ancestral connection to the region is foundational to my voice as a writer. In graduate school, I volunteered at the Wyoming Girls’ School in Sheridan, and I met many young women from small towns across the state. Later, as my love of the wilderness grew, I even tried my hand at fly fishing and got to know more about myself in relation to the landscape.

 

How was the experience of writing and publishing your first two books?

I love that both my books have their own readers and fans. “Sabrina & Corina” is a collection of short stories, and 
I receive many notes from teachers and students that they study these stories in the classroom. With my follow-up novel, “Woman of Light,” I hear from readers that the characters rooted to the Rocky Mountains remind them of their own ancestors. It’s such an honor to have passionate readers and from so many different backgrounds and experiences.

 

What are you working on now? 
I recently signed a two-book deal with Penguin Random House for two new novels. The first novel is currently titled “Mountains South” and is set in both Colorado and Wyoming in the near future after a second civil war. My protagonist is a young archivist who was involved with a genetics experiment as a child. The book deals with themes of class, regionalism, the quest for immortality and the deep bonds of sisterhood.

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American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear

The trucking industry moves 73 percent of the freight in the United States and accounts for one in every 18 jobs. At the helm of this vital industry is University of Wyoming alumnus Chris Spear.

“I’ve been in this role for 10 years, leading an industry that’s 8.5 million strong that maintains our place as the No. 1 economy,” he says. “Everything we eat, drink and wear touched a truck, and I’m very proud to represent this hard-working industry.”

Spear led the industry through the COVID pandemic, ensuring the nation’s supply chain stayed intact. 

“I attribute a lot of my success to UW,” says Spear, who grew up in Auburn, Neb., and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1992 and a master’s degree in public administration in 1995. 

At UW, Spear learned about organizational and personnel management as well as legal and regulatory considerations, which were instrumental in helping him succeed in public service and in the private sector across five continents. 

In the federal government, Spear worked for U.S. Sen. Al Simpson and Mike Enzi, served as the assistant secretary of labor for policy under former President George W. Bush and then became deputy representative for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. He received the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Civilian Service Medal. In the private sector, Spear was vice president of government affairs for Hyundai Motor Co. and vice president of emerging markets and vice president of global government relations for Honeywell International, where he earned Honeywell’s Premier Achievement Award.

Throughout his international career, Spear and his wife, Michelle, maintained a close connection with Wyoming, keeping a home in Centennial and establishing two endowments at the university. 

“Al Simpson was someone who always set an example for how important it was to give back to the university,” Spear says. “That’s an example that we want to live, too. Wyoming is a special place for us. Two of our four children go to UW, and we have one more considering her undergraduate degree in Laramie.”

Spear also maintains a professional connection to UW through the American Trucking Associations’ Trucking U program, which invites top business students to receive mentorship and to learn about leadership opportunities in the industry. 

“Since 2018, we’ve had 140-plus students attend, including students from UW,” Spear says. “A lot of those students were hired by my industry, and they’re doing very well.”

In addition to his professional work, Spear serves on the board of the Laramie-based Louisa Swain Foundation. The foundation is named for the first woman to cast a democratic electoral ballot in the United States — in 1870 in Wyoming — and is dedicated to fostering education in the areas of democracy, human rights and suffrage. In 2020, the American Trucking Associations created a Louisa Swain truck to commemorate the 150th anniversary.

“We had four of our women drivers drive it from the U.S. Capitol to Cheyenne, where Gov. Gordon received them,” says Spear, who also serves on the Transportation Research Board and Trucking Cares Foundation. “I think it’s important to remain engaged with organizations that really make a difference in people’s lives. I learned a lot of that when I was going through school in Laramie, and it remains with me today.” 

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Judge M. Margaret McKeown

Casper native M. Margaret McKeown earned degrees in international studies and Spanish from UW in 1972. She went on to study law at Georgetown after working for U.S. Sen. Clifford Hansen. For more than 25 years, Judge McKeown has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, earning national honors along the way including the American Inns of Court Lewis F. Powell Jr. Award for Ethics and Professionalism. We spoke with McKeown about her time at UW and her impressive career. 

 

What are some of your best memories from your time at UW? 
I was a “joiner” and loved student government and other organizations. I organized a campus-wide debate between two candidates for the U.S. Senate that was covered by the New York Times. My standout experience was a semester at the University of Madrid. Having the international exposure and becoming fluent in Spanish led to a law practice that included international law and also to my judicial work in rule-of-law issues around the world. I now serve on the board of the World Justice Project and as vice chair the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative.

 

What have been the highlights of your career?
Following law school, I joined the law firm of Perkins Coie in Seattle and became the firm’s first female partner. I also co-founded the firm’s Washington, D.C., office and, on returning to Seattle, established the intellectual property and antitrust group. It was the beginning of the digital age, and I was fortunate to represent clients as diverse as Boeing, Nintendo and Amazon.

 

As White House Fellow, I served as special assistant to the secretary of interior and also special assistant in the White House Office of Policy Development.

I dreamed of going into public service, and my appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in 1998 was a dream come true. The opportunity to participate in such a dynamic and important court — which stretches from Alaska to the Mexican border and from Nevada to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands — is an honor every day. Our court is in the slipstream of the digital economy and in the middle of significant constitutional, environmental, administrative, intellectual property, immigration and other challenges.

 

What motivates the other facets of your career?
I have always enjoyed teaching, and it is energizing to work with students and to keep current on legal trends. I am an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and the University of San Diego, where I am jurist-in-residence. 

Writing a book was another dream, but I couldn’t find the time until COVID. Through an unexpected discovery at the Murie Ranch at Teton Science Schools, where I serve on the board, I learned about Justice William O. Douglas’s connection with conservationists Olaus and Mardy Murie in the Tetons. That sent me on a mission to UW’s American Heritage Center, the Library of Congress and various university libraries.

 

Apart from Douglas’s career as the longest-serving justice, he set the stage for the conservation movement of the 1950s–70s. In 2022, my book “Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas: Public Advocate and Conservation Champion” came out, and I’ve enjoyed speaking about it at UW and many other venues.