Pamela McClelland, retired partner from the accounting firm Kerber, Eck & Braeckel (KEB), came to the university at a moment of sudden change in her life. Formerly a farm wife, when Pam was almost 40, she became a single mother who needed a different livelihood. Good with numbers, she enrolled at UIS not for a degree but merely to refresh her bookkeeping skills. With encouragement from accountancy professors like Don Stanhope, Pam soared and before long, having graduated with highest honors, she not only passed the four-part certified public accountant exam but won the Elijah Watts Sells Award, bestowed on students who score in the top five percent nationally on the CPA exam. She joined KEB and as she worked toward becoming a partner, she also earned a master's degree from UIS. Her many contributions to UIS have been remarkable. She has served on several alumni boards, helped initiate Student Aid through the Vollintine Trust, and arranged for KEB to donate two accountancy Student Aid. In 2004, she received the University of Illinois Distinguished Service Alumni Award. In 2015, she received the William E. Winter Award for Outstanding Advocate Leadership for UIS from the University of Illinois Foundation.