W&L Announces 2025 Distinguished Young Alumni Award Winners Wilson Hallett ’15 and Jillian Katterhagen ’15 will be recognized during Young Alumni Weekend.

Office of Alumni Engagement
September 3, 2025

Washington and Lee University’s 2025 Distinguished Young Alumni Award winners, Wilson Hallett ’15 and Jillian Katterhagen ’15, will be celebrated during Young Alumni Weekend, Sept. 19-21. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to W&L, community service and personal and professional achievements.

Wilson Hallett ’15

Wilson Hallett graduated magna cum laude from Washington and Lee University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics. While attending W&L, he served as a peer counselor, vice president of the Squash Club, a member of the Williams Investment Society, Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and co-head of Kathekon. His academic and leadership achievements were recognized through inductions into Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa. He also received the Adrian L. McCardell Scholarship for his interests in banking and finance in the Williams School of Commerce, Economics and Politics.

Before W&L, Hallett attended Woodberry Forest School and received the English-Speaking Union Scholarship, which allowed him to study for one year at Bromsgrove School in England.

After graduating, he joined Goldman Sachs in the leveraged finance group, focusing on consumer and retail, restructuring and middle-market industries in New York and London. Since 2021, he has worked in Apollo Global Management’s capital solutions business, focusing on debt capital markets for its private equity funds.

Hallett remains closely connected to the W&L community. He chaired the Senior Gift Committee in 2014-15, serves as a Career and Professional Development volunteer and career trip host and is a member of the 10th Reunion Committee for Young Alumni Weekend 2025. He is active in the New York Chapter and recently helped organize a W&L squash affinity event in New York. He actively fosters and supports the W&L alumni network.

He and his wife, Julia (“KJ”) Hallett ’15, a member of the Alumni Board, live in New York.

Jillian Katterhagen ’15

Jillian Katterhagen graduated magna cum laude from Washington and Lee University in 2015, earning a Bachelor of Arts in history and politics. While at W&L, she was elected to Omicron Delta Kappa (serving as president), Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa and was a member of Chi Omega sorority. She captained the women’s track & field team, earning the Marjorie Berkley Award as the top female scholar-athlete in her senior year. She was also named the ODAC nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year award. Katterhagen was a six-time ODAC champion in the pole vault, collecting 10 All-ODAC citations. She also competed in the 60-meter hurdles, 100-meter hurdles and the long jump and was a member of the 4×100-meter relay team. She previously held the school record for the outdoor pole vault at 3.60 meters. Beyond athletics, she was a peer counselor, peer tutor and editor of the Washington and Lee Political Review. She also performed with the Washington and Lee Repertory Dance Company, appearing in New York, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee and at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, and choreographed original works for the company.

Katterhagen earned her law degree from Stanford Law School in 2018. She served as an editor for the Stanford Law and Policy Review, as a student attorney in Stanford’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic and as a member of the Stanford Naturalization Pro Bono Project. She also produced and choreographed the Stanford Law School Musical.

She is currently a senior associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where she practices in the firm’s Litigation Department, focusing on congressional investigations, white-collar defense and global anti-corruption and anti-money laundering matters. She assists clients in navigating congressional investigations, including responding to committee requests, briefing congressional staff, preparing CEOs and other individuals to testify before Congress and preparing executive branch appointees for Senate confirmation hearings. She also guides clients through the high-profile public reporting that often accompanies such events.

Katterhagen has represented financial institutions, multinational companies and individual clients in investigations conducted by the U.S. Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, the Canadian Parliament and other regulators. She has led internal investigations involving alleged securities and accounting fraud, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, anti-money laundering laws and the False Claims Act. Additionally, she has significant litigation experience, having represented clients in proceedings before administrative agencies. She also serves on Gibson Dunn’s hiring committee and is active in recruiting, mentoring and the firm’s summer associate program.

She remains active and in touch with W&L, serving on her 10th Reunion Committee for Young Alumni Weekend 2025. She and her husband live in Washington, D.C., where she is a member of the Washington Ballet Jeté Society and a NextGen Friend of the Kennedy Center.