Meg returns to Fredericksburg to visit Molly Jones ’75, sister of Madelin Jones Barratt and one of three Jones sisters to graduate from Mary Washington. Molly is mentor/godmother to Meg’s Aizen, who lives and works in New York City. While working near Burlington, Vt., Meg enjoyed several meals with Matt Welz ’03, who studied math in the University of Vermont’s graduate program. On a trip to Jacksonville, Fla., Meg stayed with Mary Moody Kress, who started in the Class of ’73, received a degree in journalism from VCU, retired as financial editor of the Jacksonville newspaper, and delights in barrel race competition. Meg sends greetings of peace to each of you. Margaret “Fred” Brown Douglas lives in Ashland, Va., which she says is a hidden treasure. “It’s very much like the 1950s still in Ashland, in all the most positive ways. When you get sick, neighbors bring a pot of chicken soup and the Fourth of July parade comprises kids on bicycles with playing cards pinned to their spokes. We love it!” Fred lives in an old home adjacent to Randolph-Macon College with husband Jack. In 2001, she finished a George Washington University program in landscape design, which she practices with Jack, a landscape architect. They design commercial, residential, and municipal projects on the East Coast, from Pennsylvania to South Carolina. Fred also continues to do part-time management consulting for the Navy. Jack is an adjunct faculty member at U.Va’s School of Architecture. Fred’s daughter, Lucy Mears, graduated from the College of William and Mary and was completing the Master’s International Program at George Mason University, spending 27 months in the Peace Corps. Jack’s daughter, Courtney, lives in Italy and manages a Tuscan villa. His son, Hurt, lives and works in Asheville, N.C. Mary Ruth Burton of Richmond still operates her seven-person consulting firm, Burton-Fuller Management, which provides organizational development, executive coaching, and training services to companies in Virginia and across the country. Mary Ruth’s daughter majored in international political science and sociology at Christopher Newport University, where she was in student government and a sorority. Mary Ruth’s son majored in
Alumna’s Devotion to Public Health Pays Off in Africa In 1976, Lisa Nichols ’80 had it all planned out. She wanted to attend Mary Washington because of its small size and proximity to her Richmond home, so she applied nowhere else. She wanted to work in the U.S. Congress, so she studied political science, interned, and became a legislative aide to Sen. Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa. Her rise to program director of a U.S.-sponsored health project in Mali, Africa, more than 30 years later wasn’t in the plan. But it does illustrate how an education that encourages broad-mindedness and diverse experience prepares you to change your life – and the lives of others. While working for Hayakawa, Nichols was inspired by Peace Corps volunteers returning from abroad. “I was interested in doing something completely different, something that had the potential to contribute to someone else’s path in life,” she said. She left her job in the Senate, and, in 1982, joined the Peace Corps to teach high school English in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. During the African drought of 1985, she went back to the continent with a nongovernmental international organization to provide emergency food relief. “I was eager to return because, when I left, I felt I hadn’t finished the challenge,” Nichols said. “Every day is different. The environment is very complex, so the challenges are sometimes enormous and yet sometimes very subtle.” Now in Mali, Nichols, 52, maneuvers through the political system and foreign language of the former French colony for Abt Associates, a social science research company contracted by USAID Mali. She manages a $22 million budget and four subcontractor organizations with 60 employees, 59 of whom are Malian. She meets with Ministry of Health and other officials to discuss obstacles to and strategies for improving public health in every region of the country. Nichols’ project works to facilitate vaccination, better nutrition, malaria prevention, family planning, and more. It focuses on women’s health, a key factor in changing the course of a country’s development.
Though she didn’t pursue the career she’d originally planned, her Mary Washington education gave political science major Lisa Nichols ‘80 the foundation she needed to excel in her role as program director of a U.S.-sponsored health project in Africa. “It’s fulfilling to see the maternal mortality rate and the infant mortality rate going down,” Nichols said. In her career, Nichols has worked in Cambodia, Haiti, and a host of other countries. She became fluent in French and briefly returned to the United States to earn a master’s degree in public health. “I always say that I stopped planning my life once I finished the Peace Corps and just went through the doors that were opened to me,” Nichols said. “So, in effect, international development and public health chose me.” Mary Washington gave Nichols policy background that helped her understand and address the complex issues involved in public health, and it also nurtured her passion for it. Nichols said the expectations of her professors helped her learn to think on her feet, be creative, and be able to negotiate in diverse environments. “At Mary Washington, you were asked to defend your opinion, articulate in your own words what you had read, and draw your own conclusions … to go beyond just learning the facts,” Nichols said. “I can say I was pretty narrow in my thinking about what I wanted to do in life, but, thankfully, my UMW education helped me when I finally branched out.” – Lorna Webster