Claudia Ann Stepke

Claudia Ann Stepke passed away on April 8 at the age of 62. She is survived by her loving companion, John Glover, as well as her brother, Kurt, and her sister, Krysten. Claudia grew up in Oak Creek outside of Milwaukee, WI. In high school, everyone had a 'Claudia' story; she was the top of her class, prom court, head cheerleader. Claudia worked odd jobs to pay her way through the University of Wisconsin—Madison; including early work at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Madison Bureau, graduating with a double major in Journalism and Zoology. After college, Claudia moved to Maine to work in communications for state Senators in Augusta and UNUM Life Insurance in Portland, which, among other things, led to her producing stories for NPR's "All Things Considered." After accepting a job offer from KPMG in New Jersey, she found her final home—the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Claudia eventually left KPMG to hone her public relations skills with Howard Rubinstein and, later, Dan Klores. Along the way, she worked with luminaries such as Mario Cuomo and Michael Jackson, and found that her true passion was promoting charities that advocated for, among other things: civil rights, reintegrating ex-convicts back into society, the homeless, at-risk children, the disabled and those with chronic debilitating diseases.

Claudia was, above all, an animal lover. Claudia briefly went into debt paying her vet bills and often remarked "My dogs will always have the best—I will go hungry first". Claudia always saw the best in people and sought to make everyone feel at ease. In lieu of flowers, please send donations in Claudia’s name to Integrative Biology Department Fund (https://integrativebiology.wisc.edu/), through the University of Wisconsin Foundation to support women in science.