On Friday, October 24, James R. Wick Sloane ‘71; P’03 returned to campus to accept the 2025 John and Elizabeth Phillips Award — the Academy’s highest honor recognizing an Exonian whose life and work have advanced the welfare of community, country or humanity. Sloane has dedicated his career to improving opportunities for low-income students and veterans in higher education. Through his writing and advocacy, he has brought national attention to issues such as homelessness, hunger, and access to education. Read more about Sloane and his impact: exeter.edu/educator-and-activist-honored-with-john-and-elizabeth-phillips-award/ (fb)

Exeter is thrilled to announce that Toby Kiers '94 is one of 22 recipients of this year's MacArthur Fellowships. Kiers was recognized for her work as an evolutionary biologist investigating symbiotic relationships among plants, fungi and other microbes and their role in planetary health. She is university research chair and a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She also co-founded SPUN — the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks — in 2021 to map and protect the Earth’s underground fungi. Each of the MacArthur Fellowships is "an $800,000, no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential." There is no application for a fellowship. Instead, the MacArthur Foundation annually receives and reviews anonymous and confidential nominations. Since the award's inception in 1981, 1,175 people have been named MacArthur Fellows. (fb)