GRADUATION

Lauren Baugher has taught physical education, health, and wellness since 1998 at Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts, where she is the varsity softball head coach and varsity field hockey coach. She has developed curriculums, served on panels and committees, led summits, served as a facilitator, coached other varsity and junior varsity sports, and for five years served as assistant dean. In the Newton community she founded the K–8 Newton Youth Field Hockey program. Previously Baugher was an assistant softball coach at Boston College. Inducted into the University of Delaware Athletics Hall of Fame for field hockey, lacrosse, and softball, she is on the Master’s USA World Cup team and has been a member and captain of the USA Women’s World Cup field hockey team since 2018. Winner of her school’s Brenda Keegan Award, Baugher received the Massachusetts Interschool Athletic Association’s Massachusetts Women in Athletics Distinguished Service Award. “She absolutely transforms the lives of all students who enter Newton North High School,” says student nominator Anabel Marre of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Baugher holds a BS in health and physical education from the University of Delaware, an MEd in human movement from Boston University, an MA in educational leadership from Framingham State College, and certifications in physical education, principal/assistant principal administration, and mediation.

Shawn Gudmunsen has been the director of grade 7–12 vocal music for Wisconsin’s St. Croix Falls School District since 2000, conducting five school choirs and teaching courses in music theory, music history, and theater. He was a leading advocate for constructing the district’s Fine Arts Center and serves as its director. Gudmunsen is also an instructional academic staff professor of music education at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls. Previously in Wisconsin he taught vocal and general music for three years in the Osceola School District. Active in statewide music organizations, he has served as the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association’s All-State Choir coordinator, the Wisconsin School Music Association’s middle-level tenor coach, and the Wisconsin Music Educators Association’s research chair and choral chair. Gudmunsen has also appeared as an honors clinician throughout the state and has given presentations at state and national conferences. A 2020 Kohl Fellowship recipient, he was named the STAR Education Foundation’s 2018 Teacher of the Year and won the Wisconsin School Music Association’s 2023 Award for Excellence in Teaching Music. Student nominator Andrew Opel of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science says, “His impact on me as a role model, teacher, and friend makes him one of the most influential people in my life.” Gudmunsen earned his BMEd and MSEd from UW–River Falls.