You know her work even if you don’t know her name.

Ann Lowe, the brilliant Black fashion designer who dressed the Rockefellers, inspired Christian Dior, designed Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding dress, and received scant recognition during her lifetime, graces the latest cover of UD Magazine.

Now in mailboxes and online, the publication highlights a novel partnership between the University of Delaware and Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library: the largest exhibit of Lowe’s work to date. Running at Winterthur from Sept. 9, 2023, through Jan. 7, 2024, Ann Lowe: American Courtier will feature 40 of her signature dresses, as well as a UD-created replica of the gown she designed for the Kennedys’ wedding in 1953.

“This is a dress full of glamor and drama,” said fashion instructor Katya Roelse, who spent more than 250 hours recreating it, with assistance from three undergraduates. “But it’s much more than a dress. There are the stories you see — and so many more below the surface.”

Telling stories of UD excellence, influence and impact is the very mission of UD Magazine.

In addition to Lowe’s history — and the Blue Hens bringing her unsung work to light — the publication features a story on biopharmaceutical science, a rapidly growing area of UD expertise and worldwide significance.

Alumnus Keith Morgan first discovered the groundbreaking field as a fifth grader whose father was diagnosed with blood cancer. Biopharmaceuticals, better known as drugs made from living cells, would save his life. They would also lead Morgan to UD and to a career as an associate scientist with AstraZeneca.

“I’m so grateful for the education that’s allowing me to help people in a very real way,” said Morgan.

Today, UD’s global leadership centers on the processes needed to manufacture these life-saving medicines faster, safer and at greater scale.

Home to a central hub where more than 200 partners from academia, industry, nonprofit and government collectively discuss challenges in creating biopharmaceuticals, UD offers students a front-row seat to this transformative work via a master’s program developed in partnership with leading industrial giants AstraZeneca, Bristol Myer Squibb, Janssen and Co., and Merck. This unique collaboration — the only one of its kind in the country — underscores UD’s critical role in revolutionizing the future of manufacturing medicine.

“These are the individuals who are going to lead companies or research institutes in the future,” Class of 1991 alumnus David Elkins, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Bristol Myers Squibb, said of today’s Blue Hens. “It’s highly likely these students will change the world.”

And changing the world through education — inside the lab and well beyond — is at the heart of the University’s purpose. In the Whitney Athletic Center, student-athletes develop into leaders. State-of-the-art facilities and collaborative spaces help drive this player evolution, but it’s the values instilled on and off the field that lead to ultimate success.

“It’s about more than winning,” Athletic Director Chrissi Rawak said. “It’s asking, ‘What are the behaviors that define us?’ ” Or as men’s lacrosse head coach Ben DeLuca puts it, “We’re trying to produce winners more than wins.”

That broad and ultimate goal — producing winners, leaders and change agents across the globe — has been overwhelmingly fueled by philanthropy and more than 113,000 investments in UD’s innate humanitarian mission.

Delaware First: The Campaign for the University of Delaware has achieved a feat shared by only 53 publicly supported universities: raising $1 billion in institutional support. This milestone, the largest, most transformative fundraising campaign in UD’s 280-year history, is also highlighted in the current UD Magazine.

To view the full issue online, visit this Magazine website. To submit a letter to the editor, email magazine@udel.edu.