Two Alumni Honored with 2018 Professional Achievement Awards

Two Arts & Letters alumni will be honored with 2018 Professional Achievement Awards during Idaho State University commencement exercises on May 5. The two winners from the College are William Olson, Boise – Fine Arts and Humanities; Janice Jean, Pocatello – Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Professional Achievement Award recipients are alumni who have made important contributions to their careers or profession, to the social, political or economic well-being of the world around them and have shown continued community and civic involvement in addition to their association with and contributions to ISU. Individuals selected for these prestigious awards have been out of school at least 10 years and have excelled in their chosen field, attaining significant success and accomplishments.

William Olson, Boise, College of Arts and Letters – Fine Arts and Humanities

Olson was born and raised in Idaho and began his college education at ISU where he served as Associated Students of ISU president and earned a journalism degree in 1956. He earned his law degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis in 1959.

Following college, Olson was employed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho in Boise for two years, and then began his illustrious career as a top-tier litigator in Pocatello in June 1962. During his career, he was admitted to all of the Idaho Courts, to the U.S. Court for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and to the U.S. Court for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

During Olson’s career he represented countless Idaho residents, and tried numerous jury trials defending Idahoans. He served as the president of the Sixth District Bar from 1969 to 1970, he was a member of the Bar Examination Committee for the Idaho State Bar from 1969 to 1973 and served as a member of the Character and Fitness Committee for the Idaho State Bar. He was a state representative for the Civil Justice Reform Act for the Federal Courts. Olson was honored with the Distinguished Lawyer Award from the Idaho State Bar in 2008.

Janice Jean, Pocatello, College of Arts and Letters – Social and Behavioral Sciences 

Jean earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from ISU in 1998. A nontraditional student, she enrolled in ISU full time in her 40s after raising her family. After graduating from ISU, she successfully completed the graduate degree program in occupational therapy from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.

She began her professional career in Pocatello experiencing several facets of the occupational therapy field, working home health, outpatient and inpatient therapy at Portneuf Medical Center and working at the local Veterans Administration Hospital. She then joined the Center for Orthopedic Rehabilitation in Pocatello, where she found the field she loved - hand and upper extremity therapy. In 2009, he started her own business, Hand and Upper Extremity Center (Handx), which provides service locally and has a regional client base that extends from the Magic Valley to Idaho Falls.

Jean later began working for the Idaho Hand Institute. In 2013 she earned the Certificate of Advanced Practice in Hand and Upper Quarter Rehabilitation from Drexel University in Philadelphia and passed the Certified Hand Therapy national exam in 2014. She has successfully mentored a number of occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant candidates, including two who currently work for her.