Lifetime Excellence Award
2011 Recipients

Beth Baier '79

Beth Baier, who graduated in 1979 with degrees in journalism and Spanish, will receive the Lifetime Excellence Award, which is presented to alumni who have demonstrated longtime and successful commitment to their careers and communities. Recipients have made positive and dramatic impacts through dedication to service, and have lived their lives as a testimony to UW-Eau Claire's motto, "Excellence."
Baier serves as senior vice president of business affairs and general counsel for Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. in Burbank, Calif. She leads the legal department of Warner Home Video, the home video distribution arm of Warner Bros.
"I have traveled a long way from Wisconsin to California," Baier said. "Yet I have not lost the strong Wisconsin work ethic — focus, dedication and responsibility."
 That work ethic and the education she received at UW-Eau Claire led her to California and a successful legal career.
"UW-Eau Claire awakened my intellectual curiosity, strengthened my self-esteem and honed my analytical skills," Baier said. "Without these gifts, my path might have been much shorter."
Baier credits UW-Eau Claire for giving her opportunities to experience different cultures such as a literature course that took her to a Native American reservation and a study abroad program in Mexico.
"I developed confidence and independence that I would not have otherwise experienced," Baier said. "I learned I could operate successfully outside my comfort zone and in multicultural environment. Those experiences have served me well in a business position that requires international negotiations and travel."
Baier earned a law degree from the University of San Diego in 1984. She spent six years with a private international law firm based in Los Angeles before joining Warner Bros. in 1992.
"Landing a job in the entertainment industry was challenging because of the competition," Baier said, noting that the skills she developed at UW-Eau Claire helped her get hired and became a senior-level executive and legal adviser.
"The job has provided me with opportunities I could not have imagined, from working on the creation and launch of the DVD format to opening a video distribution office in China," Baier said. "I am delighted to work for Warner Bros.; I smile every day as I drive to the lot, even after 19 years."

Faye Deich '79

Faye Deich, who graduated in 1979 with a nursing degree, will receive the Lifetime Excellence Award, which is presented to alumni who have demonstrated longtime and successful commitment to their careers and communities. Recipients have made positive and dramatic impacts through dedication to service, and have lived their lives as a testimony to UW-Eau Claire's motto, "Excellence."
As the senior vice president of divisions operations and chief operating officer at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Deich oversees operations at two acute care hospitals within the Western Wisconsin Division of Hospital Sisters Health System. She has held various leadership positions at Sacred Heart Hospital since 1994, and has worked in leadership positions in medical facilities since 1984. She served in staff nursing roles from 1979-1984.
Deich received the Distinguished Services Award in 2009 from the Wisconsin Hospital Association, and was named one of the top 52 Women Hospital & Healthcare Leaders by Becker's Hospital Review. Helping develop leadership skills in others within her organizations, and advancing nursing education and professional certification at Sacred Heart Hospital are among her greatest professional accomplishments, Deich said.
The high-level of competition to enter UW-Eau Claire's nursing program and the high standards set for those who were accepted into the challenging academic program helped shaped her professional philosophy, Deich said.
"The standards the faculty set were very high and they developed a culture that could be expressed best as patients deserve nothing less than your very best," Deich said. "My goal was to become the very best nurse that I was capable of becoming. Since that time, I have held myself  to that standard whatever the role or the responsibilities I have held. I have expected nothing less from myself than my very best. UW-Eau Claire gave me the foundational education on which I have been able to build over time."

View the list of past recipients of this award.