For Immediate Release
June 3, 2007
Contact:   Melanie McDonald, director of media relations, 574-284-4579

Merck senior manager wins prestigious award from her alma mater

NOTRE DAME, Ind.--Sarah Sullivan Bigelow, senior manager of planning and support for Merck & Co. Inc. in Kansas City, won her alma mater's Outstanding Young Alumna Award. The award is presented annually to an alumna who has exhibited leadership in her personal and professional or volunteer accomplishments, as well as for her commitment to Saint Mary's College (Notre Dame, Ind.). Recipients are chosen from among those who have graduated within the past 15 years.

At Saint Mary's College, Bigelow served as student body president and graduated with honors with a degree in biology and a minor in chemistry. She has worked for Merck pharmaceutical company ever since her graduation from Saint Mary's in 1996. By way of several promotions that took her from South Bend, Ind., to Chicago and then to St. Louis, Des Moines, and now Kansas City, she is currently a senior manager at the company.

In 2004, Bigelow was elected to serve as one of the youngest president's of the Saint Mary's College Alumnae Association, and she served that term concurrent with a two-year term on the Saint Mary's College Board of Trustees.

Bigelow received her award during reunion weekend at Saint Mary's June 1-3.

Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Ind., is a four-year, Catholic, women's institution offering five bachelor's degrees and more than 30 major areas of study. Saint Mary's College has six nationally accredited academic programs; a large number for a school of 1550 students. The accredited programs are: social work, art, music, teacher education,

chemistry and nursing. "U.S. News & World Report" ranks Saint Mary's #1 among Midwest Comprehensive Colleges offering bachelors degrees. Sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, the College was founded in 1844.

###