Helgenberger and Hill join Advisory Board

(L-R) Board members Hixson-Lied Endowed Dean Charles O'Connor, Mike Hill, Susan Varner Wilkins, Marg Helgenberger and Deon Bahr tour the Temple Building with Production Manager Brad Buffum (second from right) during their April 27 Hixson-Lied Board meeting.
(L-R) Board members Hixson-Lied Endowed Dean Charles O'Connor, Mike Hill, Susan Varner Wilkins, Marg Helgenberger and Deon Bahr tour the Temple Building with Production Manager Brad Buffum (second from right) during their April 27 Hixson-Lied Board meeting.

Helgenberger and Hill join Advisory Board

calendar icon09 May 2013    

Emmy Award-winning actress Marg Helgenberger and Academy Award-winning film editor Mike Hill have joined the Hixson-Lied Advisory Board.

The Hixson-Lied Advisory Board was created to review and react to proposals for funding support from the Hixson-Lied Endowment to benefit the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts and its affiliated organizations.

They join board members Deon Bahr; Terry Fairfield of the University of Nebraska Foundation; Christina M. Hixson of the Lied Foundation Trust; Heather Jones; Hixson-Lied Endowed Dean Charles O’Connor; Associate to the Chancellor William Nunez; James Strand; Frank Tirro; and Susan Varner Wilkins.

The board met on April 27 for its spring meeting and approved the following grants:

  • A renewal of the Hixson-Lied Graduate Fellowship Program for six years at $121,500 per year.
  • Support for Sheldon Museum of Art’s “ArtWork: Art and Labor” Exhibition, $29,300.
  • Support for the School of Music to bring guest artists Max Carl and The Jazz Knights to the Nebraska Music Educators Association Conference in November, $5,000.
  • Support for travel expenses for the Skyros String Quartet and Pianist April Sun to perform concerts in China, $10,000.
  • Support for the Midwest Society of Photographic Education Conference to be held at UNL in October, $5,000.
  • Support to underwrite UNL student admissions to the Met Live in HD and National Theatre Live for 2013-2014 at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, $5,000.
  • Support for the Department of Art and Art History’s Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist Series, $105,000 ($35,000 per year for three years).
  • Support for the Department of Art and Art History’s Eisentrager-Howard Gallery program, $30,000 ($10,000 per year for three years).
  • Support to the Lied Center for Performing Arts to purchase up to 200 complimentary tickets for Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts students to attend the Cleveland Orchestra performance on Feb. 27, 2014, $10,000.

Marg Helgenberger
Photo of Marg Helgenberger

Helgenberger recently ended her 12-year run on the CBS drama “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” in 2012, for which she earned two Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. In 2005, she won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Female Television Star, and “CSI” received the Screen Actors Guild’s Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award. She earned an Emmy Award in 1990 for her role as K.C. on “China Beach” and was also on the daytime drama “Ryan’s Hope.” She has also appeared in the feature films “Erin Brockovich” and “Species.”

Helgenberger grew up in North Bend, Neb., and attended the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She received her degree in speech and drama from Northwestern University.


Mike Hill
Photo of Mike Hill

Hill is a film editor who won an Academy Award for the film “Apollo 13.” Hill and his editing partner, Dan Hanley, have had a longstanding, notable collaboration with Director Ron Howard, having edited all of Howard’s films since “Night Shift” in 1982. In addition to “Apollo 13,” Hill and Hanley have been nominated for Academy Awards for Howard’s “A Beautiful Mind” (2001), “Cinderella Man” (2005) and “Frost/Nixon” (2008). His other editing credits include “Backdraft,” “Cocoon” and “The Da Vinci Code.”

Hill was raised in Omaha and received a criminal justice degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is a member of the American Cinema Editors (A.C.E.).



About the Hixson-Lied Endowment

In January 2000, Hixson and the Lied Foundation Trust announced a gift of $18 million to the University of Nebraska Foundation to support the UNL College of Fine and Performing Arts. Half of the fund’s income provides support to programs in the college and the college’s affiliated organizations. The other half is split between faculty and student support. Since 2002, the Hixson-Lied Endowment has distributed more than $6 million in grants with a total impact of more than $11 million for the College.

More information about the Hixson-Lied Endowment can be found at go.unl.edu/hlendowment.