Budge is an associate professor with the School of Education’s Department of Counseling Psychology and head of the Trans Research Lab (TRL). Her research and activism efforts focus on transgender and gender diverse people.

The GSCC, founded to honor faculty, staff, or community members who have been a strong partner to their mission, unanimously chose Budge to receive this award. She is being recognized for her work championing and advocating for and with TBLGQ+ students and staff at UW-Madison.

Budge will receive her Honorary Rainbow Degree on May 9 at a ceremony and reception held at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.