The Energy Award

The Energy Award

The Energy Award recognizes an individual who embodies the spirit of the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation’s (UMDF) mission — promoting research and education for the diagnosis, treatment, and cure of mitochondrial disorders, along with supporting affected individuals and families.

The Energy Award recognizes an individual who embodies the spirit of the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation’s mission — promoting research and education for the diagnosis, treatment, and cure of mitochondrial disorders, along with supporting affected individuals and families.

We are proud to recognize the Kallaos family — William, Connie, Bill Jr., Bonnie, Olivia, and Liam — with the 2026 Energy Award.

The Energy Award honors individuals who embody the spirit and mission of UMDF, and there is no family more deserving of this recognition than the Kallaos family. Their commitment is deeply personal, rooted in love and strengthened by purpose through Olivia’s diagnosis with Leigh syndrome. What began as a family’s journey has grown into a shared mission to bring hope, progress, and change to the mitochondrial disease community.

For the Kallaos family, giving back is not an occasional act — it is a way of life, passed down and carried forward together. Bill Kallaos, Jr., has served on the UMDF Board of Trustees – including leadership roles as treasurer and finance committee chair – since 2017. His wife, Bonnie, and children Olivia and Liam, are passionate participants and leaders of the Energy for Life Walk in St. Louis, which raised more than $50,000 for mitochondrial disease research in 2026 alone. William and Connie made a founding gift to The Mito Fund, UMDF’s venture philanthropy arm that invests directly in biotech innovation and therapies for mitochondrial disease.

What makes their impact so powerful is not only what they have given, but how they have given it — together, as a family united in love, resilience, and hope for Olivia and for all those affected by mitochondrial disease. Their energy is steady, generous, and enduring, creating ripples of change far beyond their own story.

Previous Energy Awardees