The University of Wisconsin–Platteville Foundation and Alumni Association has named Bridget Wallace as its next executive director, effective April 6, 2026.

Wallace, a 2015 graduate of University of Wisconsin–Platteville, currently serves as chief of staff to Chancellor Tammy Evetovich. In this role, she has worked closely with campus leadership to advance strategic initiatives and strengthen partnerships that support student success and institutional growth.

Prior to serving as chief of staff, Wallace spent three years as a senior development officer with the foundation, where she partnered with alumni and donors to grow philanthropic support for the university. Before returning to her alma mater, Wallace held advancement roles with several nationally recognized nonprofit and higher education organizations, including St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the American Cancer Society, and the UW–Madison Foundation and Alumni Association.

The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents presented the Regents Business Partnership Award to MSA Professional Services, Inc. at a ceremony Thursday at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. MSA is a Baraboo-based multi-discipline engineering company, dedicated to the sustainable development of communities. 

“MSA and UW-Platteville have developed a true collaboration over the past several decades,” said Regent Tom Palzewicz, who presented the award. “These partnerships are critical to solidify and grow the collaboration and connectiveness of each of our universities in their respective communities." 

Now in its third year, the Universities of Wisconsin Regents Business Partnership Award honors dynamic university–business collaborations that drive progress in academic programs, workforce readiness and community growth. 

The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents honored A.Y. McDonald with the Regents Business Partnership Award on Oct. 30, recognizing the company’s longstanding support and impactful collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. The award celebrates businesses that positively affect Wisconsin through their generosity and collaboration with the universities.

“A.Y. McDonald has been a longtime and valued partner of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville,” said Regent Jack Salzwedel at the ceremony.

In a recent show of its continued support of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Construction Management and Construction Safety Management programs, Miron Construction Co., Inc. donated a mini-excavator – giving UW-Platteville students greater access to hands-on experience in the programs.

This donation is the latest milestone in a longstanding partnership between UW-Platteville and the Neenah, Wisconsin-based company. Miron Construction plays an essential role on UW-Platteville’s Construction Management and Construction Safety Management Advisory Board and provides internships to UW-Platteville students. More than 30 UW-Platteville alumni are currently employed at Miron Construction.

More than 35 industry and academic leaders from greater Sauk County gathered at UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County for the second in a series of group meetings to target and expand the role of the campus with the area’s engineering enterprises. Organized by Acting Dean of UW-Platteville’s College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science Dr. Phillip J. Parker, the ongoing series of discussion and action sessions will forge a stronger partnership among engineering businesses in and around Sauk County and the many decades of engineering education strength that UW-Platteville brings to the area. 

Attendees participated in guided brainstorming on different topics, with a shared focus on choosing a decisive set of actions to “build a campus that meets the workforce needs of the region,” according to the charge from Parker.  

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is the recipient of a 2023 DRA Core Grant that will help sponsor a men’s basketball tip-off classic tournament on the UW-Platteville campus. The grant will award $25,000 per year, for the next three years.

DRA Core Grants focus on people attraction – population growth, retention and tourism in the tri-state area. The tournament is anticipated to bring in more than 1,500 visitors for the weekend and will provide an opportunity to promote sites to visit in the tri-state region. As the largest public institution in Southwest Wisconsin, UW-Platteville is a driver of economic growth and athletics plays a large role in this already, hosting more than 400 home athletic events each year. UW-Platteville is home to 16 NCAA varsity programs and competes in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – one of the most recognizable conferences in Division III. 

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville celebrated a new milestone in its longtime partnership with Plexus Corp. at last week's naming celebration event and ceremonial ribbon-cutting of the Plexus Women in STEM Center. The new Plexus Women in STEM Center opened last fall and offers a supportive community to help women prosper at both UW-Platteville and in their careers. 

“We’ve had an incredible first year in the new Plexus Women in STEM Center in Sesquicentennial Hall,” said Kim Sargent, senior program manager for the Women in STEM Program. “The Women in STEM Program is honored to partner with Plexus in our mission to recruit and retain more women in the STEM fields.” 

The center is a hub of mentoring, outreach and success programs that engage UW-Platteville students and thousands of students in grades 5-12. 

Sub-Zero Group, Inc., manufacturer of leading luxury kitchen appliance brands Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove, continues to show its dedication to engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with a $100,000 gift to support the new Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove Engineering Instrumentation Lab in Sesquicentennial Hall.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science is collaborating with John Deere Dubuque Works for a unique opportunity, teaching a software engineering course to the company’s engineers on John Deere’s campus.

The process started last summer, when John Deere reached out to UW-Platteville to inquire about software engineering classes. UW-Platteville faculty met with John Deere and determined that their needs covered material not taught in any singular class but spread out over multiple classes. Faculty in UW-Platteville’s Computer Science and Software Engineering Department identified the topics John Deere was looking for and created a new, 16-weeklong class specifically for John Deere employees. The new class – Introduction to Embedded Programming – launched last fall and is taught by Dr. Joshua Yue, associate professor of computer science and software engineering.

In its latest show of support to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Construction Management and Construction Safety programs, Findorff donated a telehandler, to be used in the university’s Construction Lab. Officials from UW-Platteville celebrated the arrival of the new equipment last week and remarked on the impact it will have on students’ experience in the program.

“We pride ourselves on experiential learning. We pride ourselves on those hands-on experiences, and this construction lab does exactly that,” said UW-Platteville Interim Chancellor Dr. Tammy Evetovich, speaking to a crowd of UW-Platteville faculty, staff and students and Findorff representatives at the Construction Lab. “Without the support of our corporate sponsors and donors, I don’t think we could do this alone.”

Now in its third year, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s bi-annual Construction Networking Event has been growing in popularity, with last month’s spring event hitting record attendance. Both UW-Platteville organizers and participating companies credit the success to the unique format of the event.

Thirty-five construction companies and more than 150 construction management and construction safety management students attended this spring’s event. Students had the opportunity to network with company representatives and learn about their projects, company culture and job and internship opportunities.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville Construction Management program announced the official kickoff of its Construction Lab Campaign, thanks to lead donations from Findorff and Portzen Construction, including monetary support, equipment and scholarships.

UW-Platteville is home to a one-of-a-kind Commercial Construction Lab that provides students an opportunity, each year, to build a two-story commercial building from architect- and engineer-designed plans. Students experience operating and working around heavy equipment, fabrication, welding, scaffolding and other common practices, as well as work with industry-standard safety equipment and project management software.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville has a big supporter in Hensel Phelps – a commercial contractor and construction company headquartered in Colorado. The company comes to construction events, career fairs and has partnered with the university to speak to classes and host alumni Zoom events, providing faculty and students with insight into the construction industry and what the changes and challenges are.

“The benefits of partnering with Hensel Phelps are endless,” said Gretchen Bockenhauer, program coordinator and assistant professor in the construction management program at UW-Platteville.

UW-Platteville alumni at Hensel Phelps are part of UW-Platteville’s advisory boards, which help give direction for changes in the construction management and construction safety management programs.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is the recipient of a 2022 DRA Core Grant that will help sponsor a men’s basketball tip-off classic tournament on the UW-Platteville campus this year.

DRA Core Grants focus on people attraction – population growth, retention and tourism in the tri-state area. The tournament is anticipated to bring in more than 1,500 visitors for the weekend and will provide an opportunity to promote sites to visit in the tri-state region. As the largest public institution in Southwest Wisconsin, UW-Platteville is a driver of economic growth and athletics plays a large role in this already, hosting more than 400 home athletic events each year. UW-Platteville is home to 16 NCAA varsity programs and competes in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – one of the most recognizable conferences in Division III. 

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville was recently awarded the Anderson Corporate Foundation Grant in the amount of $5,000 for Women in STEM K-12 outreach and programming.

“Grantmaking through the Anderson Corporate Foundation extends the reach of our company’s community impact to more people and more communities,” said Anna Bosak, community relations and corporate giving manager at Anderson Corporate Foundation. “We are fortunate to be able to give back and make a difference through the foundation and are proud to support organizations working every day to empower people and communities to achieve their full potential.”

The We Energies Foundation recently donated $5,000 to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Women in STEM program to support outreach and programming efforts. 

UW-Platteville’s nationally-recognized Women in STEM program offers many programs and events for young women and girls from fifth grade through college, in order to create a supportive community where women prosper at UW-Platteville and in their future.

“Women in STEM program individual and corporate partner support are essential in helping to create a diverse workforce for the future,” said Tammy Salmon-Stephens, Director of the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science Student Success Programs at UW-Platteville. “Our students benefit greatly from the engagement with these partners.”

In a year and a half, the Women in STEM program has grown from serving 15 majors to 35 majors, doubling the number of women on campus who benefit from the program to more than 1,000.

Growing up on a small dairy farm in Northeast Wisconsin, Liz Rehberg, a 2010 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, always knew she would be involved in agriculture. From a young age, she watched a crop scout come to her family’s farm and walk the fields—advising on everything from managing weeds to insects to disease—to help her dad make decisions. 

“I saw what that agronomist did with my dad and the support he was able to provide, and I thought, ‘what a great way to work with farmers and help them,’” said Rehberg.

Now, in her eighth year with Pioneer, Corteva Agriscience’s flagship seed brand, she has found her own way to help farmers. “I love the depth of services and resources that we have to help farmers,” said Rehberg, who is a strategic account manager, now living in Whitewater, Wisconsin. “Every farm is different, and having all these resources in our back pocket and the team and services to support our customers is amazing.”

JP Cullen continues to support its long-time relationship with the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Construction Management program.

"JP Cullen has partnered with UW-Platteville through student scholarships, advisory committees, program donations, engineering and construction clubs, and guest lectures for 30 years,” said Laura Cullen, fifth-generation owner of JP Cullen. “With over 40 UW-Platteville alums currently on our team and many interns every summer, we recognize UW-Platteville students as hard workers, team players and leaders.”

The partnership started in 1992 when, in celebration of their 100-year anniversary, JP Cullen started giving scholarships to UW-Platteville students. The scholarships are funded through the JP Cullen Foundation, which was formed by Mark, David and Richard Cullen in honor of their father, J.P. Cullen.

A dozen University of Wisconsin-Platteville students recently competed against each other, while helping local Platteville businesses reduce their carbon footprint and save money, as part of Trane Technologies’ inaugural Carbon Reduction Energy Blitz Challenge at UW-Platteville. 

The week-and-a-half-long challenge partnered four teams of three UW-Platteville students with a faculty mentor and a mentor from Trane. Students worked with a Platteville business to identify ways it can reduce its carbon footprint, exploring all areas from energy use to waste to habits and culture. Participating businesses included Los Amigos, Barbershop Rock, Driftless Market and The Mining and Rollo Jamison Museums.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville recently hosted the 2022 Spring Construction Networking Event. Held twice a year, the event allows UW-Platteville students to network with company representatives and learn about their projects, company culture, and job and internship opportunities. More than 200 students attended the spring event, networking with more than 23 companies. 

“Both the spring and fall Construction Networking Events were a huge success,” said Gretchen Bockenhauer, lecturer and program coordinator of the Construction Management program. “We heard from the companies in attendance that they appreciated the opportunity to network with students in a more informal setting. They found the opportunity to sit around a table and engage in deeper conversation with students to be more meaningful than just a 30-second elevator pitch from each side.”  

University of Wisconsin-Platteville engineering students have had a hand in some of the new or redesigned household appliances recently hitting the market and industry trade shows, thanks to a partnership between Spectrum Brands and the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science’s Senior Design program. 

The Senior Design program pairs groups of engineering students with industry partners to solve real problems or create new products under the supervision of both the industry partner and a faculty member. Over the past five years, Spectrum Brands has partnered with UW-Platteville on more than 25 projects. Products that students have worked on include a cold brew coffee maker, smart blender, griddle, hair dryer, hair straightener and a pressure cooker, among others.  

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville Foundation is the recipient of a $3,000 grant from the Green Bay Packers Foundation. The grant will help to enhance the Pioneer Leadership Institute, thereby having a direct impact on Pioneer student-athletes’ leadership and career development opportunities.  

Unveiled in 2020, the Pioneer Leadership Institute is a collaborative partnership between the Department of Athletics and the greater campus community. Its mission is to develop, challenge and support students and staff via leadership and career development initiatives, interactive workshops and impactful peer mentorship programming.

Hundreds of high school students from across the Midwest packed the University of Wisconsin-Platteville campus for the third annual Construction Career Day held on Oct. 6. The event featured nearly 300 students from 14 schools and dozens of construction companies. Construction Career Day gives ninth through 12th-grade students the opportunity to learn about careers within the construction industry.

“It was a huge day for the UW-Platteville Construction Management program,” said Gretchen Bockenhauer, lecturer and program coordinator. “We had over 30 sponsors from all different construction companies. Students participated in hands-on activities, went off-site, did hands-on labs and companies got to do hands-on activities with them.”

Community partners have stepped up to provide support for the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s new FIRST LEGO League, a program that introduces STEM to children ages 4 to 16. Corporate and organization donations so far have included $1,750 from Walmart, $1,500 from Veridian Homes, $1,000 from the Rotary Club of Southwest Wisconsin and $250 from Kraemer North America. In addition to these monetary donations, Envision Tees has also agreed to be the FIRST LEGO League T-shirt sponsor. Five individual donors have contributed a combined amount of more than $400.

"Walmart is proud to be part of the Platteville community and strives to be a part of its development whenever possible," said Josh Ovsak, general manager of Platteville Walmart.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville, in partnership with the Southwestern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, will host the grand opening of the new IDEA Hub Accelerator on Monday, Oct. 4 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. The IDEA Hub 3D Launch is open to the public to attend virtually or in person at the Platteville Incubator. 

The grand opening event will feature pitches from 10 promising startups throughout Southwest Wisconsin. These startups recently completed an eight-week accelerator program led by Idea Hub Director Maia Patrick Donohue; Dr. Marcia Harr-Bailey, assistant professor of business; and Platteville Incubator Director Kate Koziol. 

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, in conjunction with UW-Platteville Corporate Relations, is bringing real-world engineering projects to students, faculty and friends of the university, through the fall 2021 EMS Engineering Seminar Series. Free and open to the public, the series will highlight six engineering projects and insight from top experts in the field.

“A total of six seminars will be offered, two more than the traditional four seminars,” said Dr. Danny Xiao, associate professor of civil engineering at UW-Platteville and an organizer of the event. “Topics will include municipal, transportation, environmental, structural, construction and geotechnical. We hope the new hybrid format and increased content can further serve UW-Platteville’s mission: empower each student to become broader in perspective, intellectually more astute and contribute wisely to our community.”

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville received a donation on Friday from Kimberly-Clark totaling more than 280 boxes of diapers and period products, benefiting several campus and community programs. The donation will be distributed to The Red Basket Project at UW-Platteville, Pioneer Provisions, the Children’s Center, and partners of the Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program, Inc (SWCAP).

According to Stephanie Young, UW-Platteville Dining Services registered dietitian, The Red Basket Project and Pioneer Provisions provide free period products in all women’s and non-gendered restrooms across UW-Platteville campuses.

The $5,000 grant will support new programs from UW-Platteville’s Continuing Education Institute (CEI) helping high school students connect with the campus, and with local business and industry.  

UW-Platteville Richland will be expanding three of its new Professional Pathways programs, thanks to a new grant from the We Energies Foundation. The $5,000 grant, all targeted for the UW-Platteville Richland’s service area, will fund outreach efforts for programs for area high school students, particularly in traditionally underserved communities working toward enrolling in college, according to Rebecca Powell, continuing and strategic program manager with UW-Platteville Richland.  

“We Energies’ gracious grant will help us grow these new programs, and serve the Richland County area’s underserved families,” said Powell.  

Husco International, a manufacturing and engineering company in Waukesha, Wisconsin, is giving University of Wisconsin-Platteville mechanical engineering students the opportunity to work full-time while pursuing their education. It is part of the Husco Scholars Program, through which the company will pay 100% tuition assistance for students earning degrees through UW-Platteville Engineering Partnerships. Husco Scholars are mentored and work on a rotational basis, applying their coursework to hands-on applications. In return, students continue to work at Husco full-time for at least three years upon graduation. Ariosto Lopez Rodas is the first Husco Scholar.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville was recently designated as an official Mid-America OSHA Education Center training site, making it one of the only universities with a construction management program to be designated as such.  Hosted through the Department of Industrial Studies’ Construction Management and Construction Safety Management programs, this designation will allow industry partners to send employees to UW-Platteville to be certified in Occupational Safety and Health Administration courses.

University of Wisconsin-Platteville alumna Morgan Hartman, a 2018 industrial engineering graduate, credits her experience as a student-athlete with giving her the tools to become a marketing engineer for centrifugal water-cooled chillers at Trane Technologies in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Hartman describes her position as a multi-faceted role where she provides pre-sale support, meets with customers and helps the sales force team strategize and understand the market. 

A longtime supporter of University of Wisconsin-Platteville students, Alliant Energy recently furthered its commitment by pledging continued support to several College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science programs for 2021–22 and signing on as a premier corporate partner with UW-Platteville Intercollegiate Athletics.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville School of Business recently announced a new partnership with Foster MSP. The collaboration will offer students a unique apprenticeship opportunity, providing them with a valuable, rare skillset to give them an edge in a growing field.

Foster MSP is based in Phoenix, Arizona and Naperville, Illinois, but serves a range of clients nationwide, providing information technology, information systems security and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. ERP is a rapidly growing field that helps companies fully integrate and coordinate all aspects of their business processes and resources.

The growing interconnectedness of smart devices – known as the “internet of things” – is changing the way the manufacturing industry operates and the products it produces, and the University of Wisconsin-Platteville is continuing to lead the charge of ensuring that the next generation workforce is prepared for these changes.

At the start of 2019, UW-Platteville jointly hosted an Internet of Things (IoT) Curriculum Workshop to kick off the initiative to develop a series of IoT modules that can enhance existing curricula in engineering and related courses. The work was funded by a grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and the University of Wisconsin System.

When Hannah Exner, a senior mechanical engineering major at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, accepted a summer internship offer last September, she expected to spend the summer of 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, working for Thermo King – a Trane Technologies brand. But when the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold last spring, Exner, who is from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, began to worry about the possibility of her internship being canceled, as she saw happening to others. Thanks to longstanding relationships with UW-Platteville, many industry partners like Trane Technologies, made it a priority to honor these internship commitments, finding creative solutions to provide meaningful experiences.

As hundreds of Pioneers participated in Welcome Weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, one area business is helping to keep students safe as they embark on the fall semester. Lands’ End, headquartered in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, partnered with the university to donate more than 1,000 face coverings to help protect against COVID-19. The blue facemasks feature the UW-Platteville and Lands’ End logos.

Students received the masks as they checked into their residence hall. This has been a project Corporate Relations Development Officer John Fick and Lands’ End worked on throughout the summer. Fick emphasizes the importance of the collaboration between the company and the university.

“It’s really neat to finally see this play out,” he said. “It takes everyone. It takes the community, businesses, students, faculty and staff. Everyone has to be a part of this. It was neat to find a corporation to have the means to help out.”