Legends & Leaders Distinguished Alumni Awards Banquet

Sheryl Doering Meshke

Doering Meshke is the first woman to be named CEO of a U.S. dairy cooperative. In January 2023, she was named president and chief executive officer of Associated Milk Producers Inc., the largest cheese cooperative in the country. She had served as co-president and CEO for the prior eight years. The cooperative makes about 10% of the nation’s American-type natural cheese and butter.

Raised on a farm near Good Thunder, Minnesota, Doering Meshke began her career with AMPI in 1991 as communications director. Government relations was added to her duties in the mid-1990s, and, in 2008, she became vice president of public affairs. Other executive positions followed before being named co-CEO in 2015.

Charles Gullickson

Gullickson has practiced law at Davenport, Evans, Hurwitz & Smith in Sioux Falls since 1980 and has been a partner since 1984. His focus is on financial institutions. Gullickson serves as executive director and general counsel for the South Dakota Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association. Gullickson is a strong supporter of the arts in South Dakota.

He grew up on a Moody County farm, earned a Briggs Scholarship to attend SDSU and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in political science. He then attended New York University School of Law.

Rich Helsper

Helsper was a prominent Brookings attorney who also served as chief legal counsel for SDSU from 1982 until 2017 while maintaining his own practice. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and his juris doctorate from Southern Methodist University in 1977, when he returned to Brookings to begin his legal practice, and started his own firm with George Mickelson in 1984. After his partner was elected governor, Helsper served in different capacities and as chief liability counsel for the state of South Dakota.

Helsper’s community service included serving on the South Dakota Department of Transportation and South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks commissions, as well as on the Council of Trustees for the SDSU Foundation (now known as the SDSU Alumni & Foundation) and the State College Development Association, which works with university leadership to secure and transfer private properties into SDSU’s hands for strategic purposes.

Jill Janecke

Janecke, founder of Rising Hope Counseling, launched her practice in 2013 in Pierre. It has grown to nearly 80 clinicians across 30 locations in four states. A nationally recognized entrepreneur, she was named a 2025 Remarkable Woman of South Dakota and earned back-to-back Inc. 5000 honors. She is also a speaker and advocate for brain health and clinician wellness.

Raised in rural southwest Minnesota, Janecke began her counseling career after earning her degrees from SDSU. From 2005 to 2012, she worked as a behavior therapist at the South Dakota Developmental Center. By 2019, her solo practice began growing into a thriving group practice.

Hon. Alan G. Lance Sr.

Lance was in private law practice in Idaho from 1978 to 1994, when he was elected Idaho attorney general. He served in that capacity for eight years and then was an active judge for the federal Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims from 2004 to 2017. In 1999-2000, he served as national commander of the American Legion, the only SDSU graduate to do so.

The Ohio native enrolled at SDSU as a pre-law major in 1967 and earned degrees in history and English, as well as receiving an Army ROTC scholarship. Following graduation from the University of Toledo School of Law in 1973, he was sworn into the Ohio Bar in 1974.

Dawn Tobacco-Frank

Tobacco-Two Crow-Frank — Taoyate Winyankapi Win – Her People See Her — made history in 2022 as the first seated female president of Oglala Lakota College. Born and raised in a remote area of the Pine Ridge Reservation, Tobacco-Frank is an Oglala Lakota College alumna who rose from student to college president, shaping education rooted in Lakota values. 

She completed her doctorate in biological sciences through SDSU’s Prairie Ph.D. program. Since joining Oglala Lakota College in 2005, she has led with vision and action, first directing graduate studies in Lakota leadership. In 2013, Tobacco-Frank became vice president for instruction, a role she held for nine years.
 

Written by Dave Graves, University Marketing and Communications