ASU Alumni Association honors Sun Devil leaders with 2016 Homecoming Awards

The ASU Alumni Association will honor Sun Devil leadership at halftime during the upcoming Oct. 22 homecoming game, which will pit ASU against the Washington State Cougars. The Alumni Association will recognize Art Martori ’65 B.S., owner of Martori Farms, with its Alumni Service Award, and Dr. Wyatt Decker, M.D., vice president and trustee of Mayo Clinic and the CEO of Mayo Clinic Arizona, with its Alumni Appreciation Award, presented annually to a non-degreed alum and friends of the university. Kathy Duffy Ybarra ’81 B.A., the 2015-16 chair of the organization’s board of directors and National Alumni Council, also will be honored for her service to the organization.

Alumni Service Award: Art Martori ’65 B.S.

Martori, the owner of Martori Farms and founding executive director of Sunkist Kids Wrestling Academy, is being honored for his long-standing commitment and contributions spanning more than four decades to ASU’s NCAA wrestling program.

Martori was an accomplished student-athlete during his time at ASU,winning the Western Athletic Conference wrestling title for the university in 1965. His Sunkist Kids Wrestling academy is recognized as one of the best international wrestling clubs in the United States; it has mentored and provided funding for U.S. Olympic wrestling hopefuls, producing eight Olympic champions and more than 60 world medalists.

In 2016, Martori was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame and also admitted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame. He is an active supporter of ASU’s wrestling program as an Olympic-caliber program and an Olympic Regional Training Center. He has been a strong advocate of developing athletes who balance leadership abilities with discipline, integrity, loyalty, and who make lasting contributions to their sports and their communities.

Alumni Appreciation Award: Dr. Wyatt Decker

Wyatt Decker

Decker is a vice president of Mayo Clinic and CEO of Mayo Clinic in Arizona. He is being recognized for his leadership role at Mayo, which has been ranked the No. 1 hospital in Arizona by U.S. News & World Report multiple times. Dr. Decker is an internationally recognized speaker in the fields of emergency care, change management and leadership development. He holds a medical degree from Mayo Medical School and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University.

Decker has worked for Mayo for more than 20 years, holding positions including professor of emergency medicine and chair of the Mayo Clinic Department of Emergency Medicine. He has been instrumental in forging Mayo’s alliance with ASU, which is providing a comprehensive new model for health care education and research that aims to improve patient care and delivery, accelerate research discoveries, and transform medical education. The Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care draws on more than 80 joint faculty appointments and shared space on both ASU’s and Mayo Clinic Arizona’s campuses. In early 2017, construction will begin on a 150,000-square-foot Health Solutions Innovation Center adjacent to Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix.

Past Chair’s Award: Kathleen Duffy Ybarra ’81 B.A.

Kathleen Duffy Ybarra

Duffy Ybarra is founder and CEO of Duffy Group Inc., a global research and recruitment firm headquartered in Phoenix. Prior to starting her own business, she worked as the director of research for Tirocchi-Wright Inc., a nationally retained executive search consulting firm. She is being honored for her service as the chair of the ASU Alumni Association’s board of directors and National Alumni Council during 2015-16. During her term, the association presented the Sun Devil 100 event, a celebration of alumni-owned and managed businesses, for the first time, and she greatly expanded its career services program and its chapter and club network. Ybarra is a regular keynote speaker on recruiting and research and is a founding member of the Arizona Human Resource Executive Forum. She is a member of the ASU President’s Club, a member of the HR advisory committee for the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center, and on the board of directors for the International Management Search Association.

For additional information about the ASU Alumni Association’s celebration of Homecoming week, visit https://alumni.asu.edu/homecoming.

Save