SECTION HEADER
SPRING/SUMMER 2020 DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
News and features about and for the Dominican community
The Dominican Community Responds to COVID 19 page 1 THE TORCH | SPRING 2020
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In Memory of Dr. Joseph R. Fink President, 1988 – 2011
“The accomplishment of which I am most proud is that we worked hard and successfully to respond to the demographic changes taking place in California, raising millions of dollars for financial aid, and providing an opportunity for thousands of students who may never, otherwise, have had a chance to attend to attend a school such as ours.” — Dr. Joseph R. Fink When we are able, we will gather to honor Joe's remarkable life and legacy.
DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Spring/Summer 2020
In This Issue
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Dominican Responds to COVID-19
10 News 16 20 Years of Conlan
The Torch The Torch is a publication presenting the news, people and progress of Dominican University of California. The symbol of the flaming torch, representing truth, is rooted in the history of St. Dominic. The University’s motto is “Truth, a flaming torch.” The torch is carried by one of the “hounds of the Lord,” or, in Latin, “Domini canes.”
President Mary B. Marcy, DPhil
Lead Editor Jessica Jordan
17 Dr. FranÇoise Lepage And
Dr. Denise Lucy: Leaving Their Legacy
18 Alumni Profiles 20 Shelter-in-Place Must Reads From Dominican Librarians
Art Direction/ Production Margaret Wylie
Editors Marly A. Norris Sarah Gardner Sierra Alvis Robinson
Writers Dave Albee Mary Bussi Sarah Gardner Victoria Grajeda Mark Jaime Jessica Jordan Tricia Lacy Marly A. Norris Spencer Shamo Holly Werly
Photographers
21 Class Notes 26 In Sympathy
Dave Albee Dia Rao
Published By Dominican University of California 50 Acacia Ave. San Rafael, CA 94901 (415) 485-3239 dominican.edu
Greetings Penguin Family, I hope all of you and yours are doing well in the midst of the current global situation. As I write this letter, my term as president of the Alumni Association is coming to an end. I have felt so blessed to serve as your president for the past two years, and I want to thank my fellow alumni board members for this honor and privilege. The memories and friendships made will be with me forever. There’s something special about being a Dominican alumnus/a. As Penguins, we are connected to each other, regardless of our graduation year or major. All 17,000+ of us share the experience of having spent life-changing years on this campus. I believe all of our lives are enriched not only by this past connection to Dominican, but also by a continuing relationship with the University and fellow alumni. There are so many ways to stay involved with Dominican, from attending an event, to reading the monthly Penguin Postcard e-newsletter, to spreading the word about Dominican to your network — especially those thinking about college or grad school. Please visit dominican.edu/alumni regularly to stay updated on all things Dominican alumni! I am especially proud of how Dominican has weathered the COVID-19 crisis and provided support for students as well as the greater community. As you’ll read in the pages ahead, many members of the Domincan community were on the front lines responding to the crisis — I hope you find their dedication as inspiring as I do. Our University remains focused and energized around our four pillars — study, reflection, community, and service — which are incorporated into President Mary B. Marcy’s vision across a myriad of successful initiatives, many of which have garnered nationwide accolades. One of those initiatives includes the Dominican Experience, our signature academic model where every undergraduate works with an integrative coach, completes signature work, builds a digital portfolio, and engages with the community. Rooted in proven educational methods that directly correlate with what today’s employers are looking for, the Dominican Experience ensures that all undergraduates have the tools they need to succeed after graduation. You can read more about how we’re enacting the community engagement theme with students’ work in hard-to-count communities for Census 2020, on page 12. As I hand the reins of Alumni Association president over to Cady Marsh ’07, MBA ’09, I thank you for allowing me to serve you and Dominican. Warmest regards,
Marcia Barahona ’10, MBA ’15 Go Penguins!
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Reflections in a Time of Crisis By President Mary B. Marcy Christiansen, our students were paired with WMSS clients on regular calls addressing nursing, health and social issues. In our Occupational Therapy Department, Dr. Gina Tucker-Roghi adapted a course to allow her students to work with clients of the local nonprofit organization Marin Villages. Students and clients created “Personal Life Profiles” that will help personalize care should their clients become unable to speak for themselves. In our Education Department, Dr. Katie Lewis and Dr. Rebecca Birch provided resources on ways parents can work with their children during remote access.
In the months since our world suddenly changed, the Dominican community has pulled together in ways that highlight both our strength and our humanity. If we were to adopt a fifth pillar to sit alongside our enduring values of community, service, study and reflection, it surely would be resilience. As we end an academic year like no other, there is value in the tradition of taking stock. I am fortunate to lead a campus with a strong mission and a community of faculty and staff that share a deep commitment to student success. Our work creating a “new normal” this spring was focused on one thing: helping our students continue to reach their educational goals in as safe and equitable an environment as possible. The creativity, adaptability, and yes, the resilience of our faculty and staff has been remarkable.
A few highlights from an unusual spring semester: Our health sciences students were faced with limits on their ability to complete their clinical work and graduate on time. In response, our Department of Nursing secured approval for senior nursing students to meet clinical requirements by providing one-on-one telehealth support to elderly and at-risk clients through our ongoing partnership with West Marin Senior Services (WMSS). Led by Dr. Ellen
In the Barowsky School of Business, Dr. Jacob Massoud engaged his Entrepreneurship & Strategic Management students by providing real-time feedback on student business plans and simulation projects using cloud-based software platforms. A newly established Student Success Working Group — staffed by personnel in the Student Success Center and Student Life — began working online and remotely to provide support and guidance to students. In addition to academic guidance and support, we developed opportunities for students to engage with their peers and communities — albeit virtually — to foster interaction and promote well-being. Of course, this being Dominican, our campus community was quick to respond to the needs of our greater community. When we heard that local hospitals needed vital PPE equipment, we donated more than 750 masks and other PPE supplies to Marin Public Health to distribute where the need was greatest. We also donated more than 1,000 test tubes and swabs urgently needed for COVID testing. Within hours of Governor Gavin Newsom announcing the California Healthcare Corps, more than 100 of our nursing students signed up to volunteer in our county hospitals.
When the Red Cross asked if they could hold a blood drive on campus, we gave them full access to the Conlan Center for a day-long blood drive. Appointment slots filled within hours. We are providing housing support for our community partners — mainly first responders and medical staff who have a need for temporary housing.
Of course, this being Dominican, our campus community was quick to respond to the needs of our greater community. Together, our campus community continues to learn how to live out our Dominican Values in a new way. Our online and remote work does not change the nature of our community, or lessen the value of our mission. Our work remains guided by our commitment to the Dominican Experience, our transformative educational model that prepares every student for a complex, diverse, and rapidly changing world. Dominican was founded 130 years ago on little more than faith, a belief in education, and a good eye for real estate. It was decades before we conferred our first degree. We have conferred thousands of degrees since, and we will confer thousands in future years. We will work through this challenge together. I have tremendous confidence in the values, integrity, and significance of the Dominican community. Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones, and know that, although it is temporarily in a virtual space, our community and our work continues.
In partnership with the Marin County Office of Education, our Education Department has developed free programs to help K-12 teachers improve their online teaching skills, which have now reached hundreds of teachers.
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Compassionate MBA Student Means Business During COVID Crisis
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han Pham ’19 has his hands full lately as he pursues his MBA in Healthcare Leadership. He is answering the hotline at the COVID-19 Call Center in Marin County while continuing his work as a support service worker and case manager for the county’s Behavioral, Recovery, Integrated and Dedicated to Growth and Excellence (BRIDGE) program. How does he do it? “Communication and compassion are skills I learned from Dominican that are helping me navigate through work and school,” he says. Pham started working full time in Health and Human Services in Marin last December, seven months after he received his undergraduate degree from the Barowsky School of Business. He had interned for Behavioral Health and Recovery Services of Marin in the spring of 2019 as part of his Community Action and Social Change (CASC) minor through the Service-Learning Program and that led to him being recommended for a position with the BRIDGE program because of his involvement with the Vietnamese community and his knowledge of mental health issues.
Communication and compassion are skills I learned from Dominican that are helping me navigate through work and school.
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DOMINICAN/COVID When the spread of the Coronavirus started making in-roads to Marin County in March, Pham was asked to answer questions, provide resources, and listen to concerns from community members on the call line, in addition to performing his normal duties at BRIDGE of checking in with his clients, providing outreach to new clients, and supporting his clients during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Pham has stayed on track toward completing his MBA this summer. “I am able to manage my work with the Call Center and BRIDGE plus school because it is very rewarding,” Pham says. “Working at the Call Center is rewarding for me because I can be a part of the workforce who is helping the community during this pandemic. Working at BRIDGE is fulfilling because I am a part of the recovery journey of my clients, who are struggling with mental health. Working on finishing my MBA in healthcare policy is enriching because I am able to work toward a goal that I have always wanted to accomplish and use the degree to enrich other people’s lives.” Transferring to Dominican halfway through his freshman year was a transformative decision that set Pham on a path toward leadership roles both on and off campus with internships that nurtured his interests in the world of business and global learning opportunities that expanded both his personal and professional network. Pham, a graduate of Santa Rosa’s Elsie Allen High School, transferred to Dominican after spending his first semester attending a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. “I realized that it was important for me to study somewhere that was closer to home and closer to where I want to eventually work and live,” he says about his decision to transfer to Dominican. Almost immediately after arriving as a freshman, Pham immersed himself in both the Dominican and Marin County communities. Enrolling in a Service-Learning course freshman year he says was a game-changer. “The Service-Learning program gave me purpose in my college career,” Pham says. “I learned how to be a leader in our community, I learned how to speak up for people in the community, and most importantly I made connections through the programs of several community partners.” Pham first service-learning opportunity was working with the Canal Alliance, a local nonprofit that works on behalf of immigrants challenged by a lack of resources and an unfamiliar environment. He started with Canal Alliance's English as a Second Language (ESL) program, where he had his first exposure to the multicultural immigrant community in San Rafael. After working with the adults, his second semester with Canal Alliance provided him with an understanding of the younger members of the Canal immigrant community through its University Prep (UP!) program. Besides Canal Alliance, Pham also worked with Health Hubs, a food distribution and health advocacy program coordinated by Marin Community Clinics. He gained a deeper awareness of the daily challenges of immigrant families in this county — not only cultural and linguistic challenges, but also the gaps toward families having adequate nutritional support and healthcare access. In his senior year, Pham did an internship with Marin Asian Advocacy Project, a non-profit that has been providing social services for the local Asian community for the last two decades. An immigrant to
the United States from Vietnam with his parents, Pham was instrumental in helping to organize a weekly social gathering for Vietnamese elders in San Rafael. The relationships he built with the elders, and the conversations he had with them, changed his perception of his own ethnic community. “I realized that many of the people in Marin’s Vietnamese community experienced social isolation — even after being here for many years,” Pham says. “My experiences were different. It is sad to look at your own community and realize isolation is an issue, living in poverty is an issue, and finding support is an issue.” His experiences in the Service-Learning program led Pham to the CASC minor. “I gained so much from these experiences. I learned how to be a compassionate and understanding person.” Inside the classroom, he says he has appreciated the mentorship of several faculty in the Barowsky School of Business, particularly Dr. Christopher Leeds.
The Service-Learning program gave me purpose in my college career. I learned how to be a leader in our community, I learned how to speak up for people in the community, and most importantly I made connections through the programs of several community partners. “Dr. Leeds taught me so much about how to write and communicate in a business setting. He taught me how to give a presentation — about the flow of your message and how to speak in public.” With a busy schedule, the business student also gained leadership experience through internships and on-campus leadership positions. A marketing internship with HealthNet gave him insight into many facets of marketing, from brand image to effective communication. An internship with the Rafael Racquet Club taught him how to be an independent leader in a much smaller organization. Working as an RA and RA liaison to ASDU taught him how to communicate with students, peers, friends, and coworkers with humility and respect. In his junior year Pham studied business at Nord University in Norway through Dominican’s Global Education Office. This exposure to global business is serving him well as he continues his studies in Dominican’s MBA program. “Dominican is a dream made possible because of this diverse community,” Pham says. “I am a first-generation immigrant student who studied abroad, was an RA, was a part of student government, and has a major and a minor. Without this community, I would not have had any of these experiences.”
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The Dominican Community on The Front Lines Members of the Dominican community working in education, nursing, medicine, and science share how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their work and their lives, and offer tips for navigating our new normal.
Katie Lewis, PhD Assistant Professor of Education and Director of Multiple Subject Credential Program
Rebecca Birch, EdD Assistant Professor of Education and Director of Single Subject Credential Program
Lynn Sondag, MFA Associate Professor of Art; Honors Program Director
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onsidering the nature of this abrupt change (i.e., a pandemic of disease, fear, uncertainty, and grief), we believe that a trauma-informed approach to teaching and learning is most appropriate. Trauma is an exceptional experience in which powerful and dangerous events overwhelm a person’s capacity to cope. We all have different capacities to cope with sudden changes in our lives and this approach recognizes the many ways people react to and interpret lived experiences. In other words, trauma-informed teaching and learning is about acknowledging that trauma is real and affects our lives and that each of our students will cope in different ways. Families across the nation are adapting to the evolving changes in daily life caused by the COVID-19 crisis. Teachers are learning to navigate the challenge of quickly transitioning to online learning. Parents are faced with assisting their families to adjust to the new normal. This is not an easy task, but it helps to stay focused on what is possible in order to reinforce a sense of control for students and families. In taking a trauma-informed approach, we prioritize relationships and well-being, establish clear routines and communication, and embrace student-driven assignments.
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oremost on our minds is how to make the now virtual classroom learning experience as accessible, positive, and successful as possible. Students in my class are 100 percent on board to help make this happen. Within 24 hours of mailing packages of supplies, I welcomed email responses such as, “I’ve received the materials and am excited to get started on my assignments!” In the first synchronous class, all students joined Zoom on time with full participation.
My service-learning course, “Art Fundamentals: Concept to Creation,” is designed to explore what the arts teach and how the arts are an integral part of educational equity. And now more than ever, there’s a unique opportunity to delve into both of these issues. Students enrolled in this class are pursuing degrees in education, nursing, psychology, and pre-med. My hope is that despite this sudden disruption, or even because of it, the course will provide opportunities for students to reflect on the numerous benefits of art and creative expression, and who has access to these benefits. Students are diligently working on their assignments at home and sending jpegs of work in progress for feedback. One nurse shared this message: “I’m finding working on my creative assignment very therapeutic.’”
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ue to the necessary focus on Coronavirus, I am concerned that we may see a significant resurgence in malaria morbidity and mortality in the coming year in Africa, wiping out some of the gains that were Roland Cooper, PhD made over the last decade to reduce the burden of this disease. Currently, our long-term malaria field studies have come to a grinding halt with the shelterProfessor, Natural Sciences in-place orders in Uganda and Burkina Faso. Keeping families together in tight and Mathematics quarters indoors could result in increased malaria transmission, as the mosquitoes that transmit the disease are indoor feeders. Also, nobody knows what a co-infection with both pathogens will look like. Interventions for malaria such as bednet distribution and spraying households against mosquitoes are expensive endeavors that may be side-tracked as governments need to invest their limited resources in strategies to mitigate COVID-19 effects. This is a hold-your-breath moment for sub-Saharan Africa.
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Dr. Elicia Fernandez, ’13 Resident Physician, UCSF Fresno Psychiatry Residency Program
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his pandemic has impacted my training in that in order to comply with social distancing guidelines, we have transitioned to telehealth visits. Before we had set up the telehealth technology, we completed visits over the phone. This is forcing us to adapt to a new way of approaching mental health care. Telehealth is already an emerging method of delivering psychiatric care, but this pandemic forced us to implement it when we may not have done so quite yet.
I can also say that this pandemic is significantly affecting my patients. The response to this virus has impacted our lives and is causing a significant amount of stress for everyone, particularly those who are already predisposed to anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues. It's difficult to know how to soothe someone else when we ourselves are also living in a state of uncertainty.
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hen COVID-19 first began to look like it would be a pandemic here in the U.S., several things at my hospital/residency happened all at once. The credentialing body for Family Medicine/GME relaxed Dr. LCPT K. Tasha requirements for graduation (i.e., the number of patients in clinic we need to Pellegrini, ’11 see; the number of babies we have to deliver) to allow us to respond to the pandemic. All the residents have been assigned to contingency operations on Third-year Resident, the inpatient wards — day and night — to cover COVID and sick-but-not-COVID Family Medicine and patients. Those of us who cannot take care of those patients (e.g. pregnant or Captain in the U.S. Army elderly staff), have been assigned to "clean" clinics to take care of our well or Medical Department non-COVID-sick elderly and our OB patients. Many of the specialty clinics have closed until at least April, and possibly longer. I've already been quarantined after exposure to a potentially positive patient. Daycares have been reduced to "mission essential personnel" only, and everyone is expected to be able to work from home. Travel further than 50 miles outside of the city is prohibited, and all of our pending assignments this summer (which we call PCS in the military) have been placed on hold. Though once we graduate...I wouldn't be surprised if we got sent all over to support our civilian brothers and sisters during this time of crisis. What have I learned? Family medicine is highly adaptable and in high demand in the hospital because we're the most comfortable with the most challenging things. I have colleagues in other specialties who haven't touched a mechanically ventilated patient in years, and though I don't pretend to be anywhere near a critical care expert, I'm not frightened of a vent. Less flattering things? I've learned that I'm worried about going to work and bringing home this virus to my family. That working from home is monstrously difficult. That I feel guilty when people thank me profusely when I haven't really done anything yet, other than my job.
Jan Ashley Escosio First-year Nursing Student
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lthough my time on campus this semester was cut short due to the pandemic, I have seen this experience as an opportunity to teach me to be flexible, adapt, and remain calm under stressful and confusing situations. I believe that these traits are important for every nurse to have because they cannot be taught and are instead learned through experience. Now, more than ever, I see the amazing resilience, strength, courage, and compassion nurses and all of the medical frontliners display.
Transitioning to online learning was very challenging. Throughout my academic journey, I have been accustomed to learning in a classroom environment where I got to establish relationships with my teachers and my peers. It is the environment where I best learn and focus. I have grown used to a life of school where I learned and my home/dorm was the place I would do homework, study, and relax. Through online learning, I lost that separation, which at times was kind of stressful. However, I think online learning helped me grow as a student and a person because it helped me become my own source of motivation and discipline when it comes to learning and taking breaks. I realized how vital it is to know how our actions have greater effects outside of ourselves. More importantly, I've learned to live with an attitude of gratitude, realizing that it's the simple things in life that makes it beautiful and special. I'm especially grateful for all of my professors who always check up on us, make sure that we are okay physically and emotionally, are easy to communicate and get in touch with, and adjust the curriculum to fit our learning needs and personal circumstances. I am also extremely grateful for technology because it allows me to maintain communication with my friends. Having Zoom meetings, texting, FaceTiming, or messaging them through Instagram are the main ways that I am able to keep in touch with them, creating as close a sense of normalcy as possible. Although this is a challenging time for all of us, I hope we can see it all as a time to better ourselves to be selfless, strong, and loving people.
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Iceland Field Trip Adventures
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t was early in the morning on March 11 — just before a group of students and faculty were ready to start the journey to Akureyri, the Capital of North Iceland — that biology professor Dr. Vania Coelho received urgent emails from President Mary B. Marcy and Global Education Office Director Kati Bell. “The emails said that the United States was going to start restricting flights from Europe in the next few days, but we were assured that the University was already doing everything it could to make sure that we would be okay,” Coelho recalls. When the group of 13 left in early March to study biodiversity and sustainability issues in Iceland, coronavirus was a slowly growing but still faraway concern. “We really did not think it was an issue at the time; although, many of us believed that it could become an issue in a few months,” Dr. Coelho says. When they arrived in Iceland, the group quickly embarked on a busy schedule touring natural sites and meeting with local experts. Each evening, when they arrived back at their hotel following dinner, they were too tired to tune into the news. The hotel’s spotty Internet also made online surfing all that much harder. “We were so busy visiting wonderful sites and hearing about how Iceland was tackling issues related to global climate change,” Coelho says. “Many of us really didn’t have time to go onto the internet to read the news — we were exhausted!”
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From orca sightings to exploring ice caves located within glaciers, the group spent their days learning about the country’s beautiful, but harsh, landscape. They also witnessed climate change in action when visiting Diamond Beach, a strip of black volcanic sand along the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon on the South Coast of Iceland. “We saw how the melting of the glacier creates small icebergs across the lagoon that connect out to the ocean,” Coelho recalls. Many icebergs had washed up on the shore, creating a contrast with the black sand. “It was an out-of-this-world sight to see. Just amazing and stunning.” Political science major Julia Reinhard ’22 says visiting the glaciers helped her better understand the fragility of ecosystems in Iceland and around the world. “Two of my favorite highlights were when we walked on the Mýrdalsjökull glacier and when we explored ice caves located on the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier,” Julia recalls. “These memories stand out to me because they were unique experiences that illuminated the need for bold climate change mitigation efforts to not only save Iceland’s glaciers, but to preserve fragile ecosystems around the globe.” The visit to Iceland was a field trip component of a semester-long course, BIO 3505 International Field Biology, in which the students examine many issues facing Iceland, from local biodiversity threats, to problems with salmon farming, over-tourism and whale hunting, among others.
“Iceland is the perfect place to learn about important global events,” says Coelho. “They are tackling so many issues on a grand scale, from past deforestation and their difficulty in remediating this issue to the challenges they face preserving native species in an environment particularly sensitive to climate change.” During their visits, the Dominican group stayed together and observed self-protection — washing hands and using hand sanitizer and everyone on the trip remained healthy and in good spirits. “Toward the end of our trip, when I received the emails from Dominican, I was able to tell all the students that we were going to be just fine — and that the University had our backs. Everyone remained calm, and no one panicked, as we knew we were in good hands.” The return trip was largely uneventful. However, being met at the airport by officials in Seattle wearing hazmat suits was jarring. “They were checking for people showing symptoms — fever or cough. Luckily, no one on our flight had a cough — that’s actually really unusual for this time of year!” The group immediately went into isolation upon return, giving Coelho time to switch her in-person coursework to online delivery when the spring semester resumed on March 23. “I feel really fortunate and thankful that our group had such a marvelous learning experience and felt very supported by the university, knowing that Dominican had really stepped up to offer support,” Coelho remarked.
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Alumna on the frontline of COVID-19 crisis as an ICU Doctor At Dominican, Rubin felt a strong desire to help others throughout her education. As a biology major in the School of Health and Natural Sciences, she made humanitarian trips and medical missions during winter and summer breaks to assist people all around the world. In her junior year, while she was studying biology in Sweden, she made a side trip to the North Pole. Rubin’s travels took her to Panama, Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, Jamaica, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, and places all across the U.S. working on projects such as building huts, HIV/AIDS awareness programs, water purification seminars, or providing food and water to third-world countries.
I am who I am because of the people that blessed and inspired me with love, knowledge, and compassion.
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n this time of crisis, people are connecting more than ever — from a safe distance via social media. They are sharing information and resources, coming up with solutions to urgent problems and, despite the disruption caused by COVID-19, sharing insights and reflections. Dominican alumna Dr. Ashley Rubin ’11 reconnected with one of her Dominican faculty mentors, Julia van der Ryn, via social media, where they reminisced about their shared time at Dominican. Rubin is now an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) physician at Methodist Hospital in Sacramento, while van der Ryn is the executive director of Dominican’s Center for Community Engagement. Rubin shared what she appreciates about working on the frontline of the COVID-19 epidemic in her social media post.
She said she is “thankful to be working in the ICU/first-line medicine work during such a crazy time for medicine. I’m seeing things we couldn’t have imagined in America. Learning new things daily.” Rubin also remarked that these times also brought “a pleasant reminder of the amazing family and friends I am blessed to have in my life that are constantly supporting and loving me.” Van der Ryn immediately praised her inspiring words and important work. To which Rubin replied: “I am who I am because of the people that blessed and inspired me with love, knowledge, and compassion. I still have all of the books I bought for your class and those times inspired me to be who I am as a doctor and woman. Thank you for inspiring [other] young me’s in the world.”
She also worked in collaboration with the National Park Service on various projects, including the Marine Ecosystem of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. During an interview with The Torch magazine in 2011, Rubin said, “This is my focus in life — to be with people I’ve never met or heard of and help them.” After Dominican — and with a hearty letter of recommendation from van der Ryn — Rubin enrolled in the MS in Global Public Health program at the University of California San Francisco. She then earned her DO from The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. “She was an amazing student,” van der Ryn said. “She continues to be an amazing doctor.”
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DOMINICAN COVID-19 TIMELINE DEC.
JAN.
FEB.
A virus of unknown origin in Wuhan, China is first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) office in China.
WHO declares the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.
WHO announces a name for the new coronavirus disease: COVID-19.
30, 2020
31, 2019
MAR.
MAR.
MAR.
A “shelter-in-place” order is issued for Marin County and other Bay Area counties.
Governor Gavin Newsom announces a “stay at home” order for the entire State of California.
Dominican donates 750 N-95 masks and 1,000 sterile 15-milliliter tubes needed for COVID-19 testing, and additional protective equipment supplies to Marin Public Health.
17, 2020
APR. 7, 2020
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19, 2020
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Approximately 95 percent of all Americans are under some form of lockdown as a result of state, county, or city orders.
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11, 2020
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20, 2020
APR. 8, 2020
Dominican co-sponsors a Red Cross blood drive in the Conlan Center to help maintain a sufficient supply of blood for the community.
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MAR. 9, 2020
Marin County reports its first case of COVID-19.
MAR. 26, 2020
President Marcy announces that Dominincan will offer two Commencement events — a virtual celebration on May 16, and an in-person event in the fall of 2020.
MAR. 13, 2020
President Mary B. Marcy announces that all classes that can be taught remotely will move to online course delivery for the duration of the emergency.
MAR. 26, 2020
President Marcy announces that the remainder of the spring 2020 term will be completed via online course delivery.
MAR. 16, 2020
The Pacific West Conference cancels the remainder of its conference and all athleticrelated activities through the end of the spring national championships.
APR. 3, 2020
Dominican partners with the County of Marin to set aside dorm rooms for first responders who need to quarantine apart from their families.
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NEWS
Inaugural Marin Teachers of Color Scholarship Recipient Named Currently the award amount covers 50 percent of tuition in a semester while the student is completing the Teaching Credential portion of the MS in Education degree. It's awarded as a scholarship to the student and goes directly to the student's account towards tuition charges for the term. A student can receive both this scholarship and a Graduate Admissions Scholarship if selected for the former and if they meet the qualifications at time of admission for the latter. “We are grateful that a generous donor provided this opportunity to our students of color who want to teach in Marin schools,” said Vickie Alleman, vice president for Enrollment and Marketing. “As Marin County demographics continue to shift it’s important for students to have teachers who reflect their values and culture.” Dacas has been teaching in private schools for 23 years since she graduated from San Francisco State in 1995 and entered into the Multi Cultural Alliance, an organization which helps place teachers of color in private schools. She attended public schools in San Rafael and Novato and now wants to pass along her positive public school experience to others.
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“I would like to go back to my roots and to be able to teach children who I feel are more in line with how I went to school,” Dacas said. “I am feeling the need to teach in public schools and support children in the community who share similar experiences with my upbringing." ominican received a $300,000 grant to fund a new scholarship program designed to address the shortage of teachers of color working in Marin County’s public schools.
Established by anonymous donors, the Marin Teachers of Color Scholarship is to benefit underserved students, with preference given to African American and/or Latinx students living in Marin County who intend to teach, or currently teach, at a Marin County public school and are working on the teaching credential portion of the MS Education degree. According to a 2018 report by the Canal Alliance, there are only 5.6 non-white teachers per 100 non-white students in Marin. “This is an imbalance in representation of significant proportions,” the report notes. As the inaugural scholarship recipient at Dominican, Dana Dacas is ready to transition from being a private school to a public school teacher. “It is the most perfect scholarship I could have gotten because it supports my education, and it will help lead me in the direction that I want to go in my career,” said Dacas, who is seeking her MS in Education and Teacher Preparation at Dominican. The scholarship award is renewable while the student is completing their teaching credential courses, providing the student maintains a 3.0 minimum cumulative GPA.
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Dacas originally looked at online programs to obtain her teaching credential and master's degree. But Dominican is convenient for her since she lives nearby, and when she attended a graduate program open house, she said she “fell in love” with the campus and the program. “I told myself I am going to do whatever I can to go there.” Now Dacas is back on the path to earning her teaching certificate and master’s degree. “I started in 2004 newly married getting my credential, but never finished my last semester because I had my first child,” she said. “My oldest son is now 13 and I was finally at the stage in my life that I was able to go back to school. In order to teach in public school, I really need to get my credential. I could stay in private schools without a credential, but it’s not really the direction I want to spend the next 20 years of my career.” Dacas at first was wary that she might not be able to afford to attain her goals, but the Marin Teachers of Color Scholarship is helping her to fulfill this dream. “This is maybe my last experience going back to school and I really want it to be a positive one,” Dacas said. “I have only eight people in both of my classes. It’s phenomenal. I am just so thankful to have this experience and be able to be here. It has been such an overwhelmingly positive and beneficial experience.”
NEWS transformed in so many ways over the past several years. We needed a website that could highlight our growth and connect with new audiences.” The site relies heavily on professional photography of our campus and students, accompanied by shorter blocks of text that are search engine and mobile- friendly. The site design follows all current best practices with regard to accessibility, usability, and search engine optimization (SEO). Menus provide a clearer, simpler path to the vital information that students and alumni need, and features like a campus directory will make it easier to connect with staff and faculty.
Dominican Launches New Website
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old images. Responsive mobile design. Audience-driven navigation. If you have visited dominican.edu in the past few months, these are just a few of the changes you may have noticed on the redesigned website.
Launched on Feb. 13, the site is the result of a two-year, campus-wide effort to redefine how Dominican University of California is viewed online. “It was time to significantly change the way we were representing ourselves online, primarily to support enrollment growth,” said Sierra Alvis Robinson, Dominican’s Executive Marketing Director. “Dominican has
A project team led by the Marketing Department and consisting of staff from across campus worked in consultation with Oho Interactive, a Boston-based web design firm, to develop the new site. “The web is often where potential students gain their first impression of the University,” said Alvis Robinson. “Getting that right is vital to our future success.”
Civic Action Fellows
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s the state faces new and growing challenges — certain to be exacerbated by the corona outbreak — mobilizing Californians to serve in their communities has become a state priority. A new program co-designed by Dominican can help. In February, the State of California and a coalition of eight public and independent universities — led by Dominican — launched a statewide program that draws on public service as a way to help pay for college. The Civic Action Fellowship integrates service and academic work with a focus on career preparation and community engagement. California Volunteers announced the Civic Action Fellowship in partnership with President Mary B. Marcy and leadership from the University of the Pacific, CSU Stanislaus, Cal Lutheran, Cal State LA, UC Berkeley, UC Merced, and San Jose State University. Each partner university is designing its own program within the California Volunteers model. The Fellowship is modeled after
the “Reimagining Citizenship” initiative that in 2018 launched a partnership between Dominican and the City of Novato while California Volunteers Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday was serving as the city’s mayor.
Fellows will take two courses in their first semester to learn how to identify community needs and understand key theories in community engagement and social advocacy.
Dominican will award each first-year Fellow up to $100,000 in scholarship support over four years. All Dominican Fellows will also receive a $1,600 AmeriCorps education award after completing one semester of service.
In the second semester, Fellows will complete their AmeriCorps service in the form of a 10-unit fellowship for academic credit, performed while enrolled in a course that will connect theory to practice and deepen students’ learning about public policy and effective policy change.
“Dominican’s program provides a path for students to receive financial support and academic credit for college in return for public service,” President Marcy said. “Fellows are simultaneously engaged in service projects while developing skills for careers, graduate school, and a life of civic engagement.” Expanding the Reimagining Citizenship template, Dominican has developed a twosemester academic sequence to prepare Civic Action Fellows for their internship and support them while working in the community.
Dominican’s pilot will focus on three key areas identified by the state as priority areas: education, economic opportunity, and healthy futures. Depending on the community partner, the service provided by the Dominican Civic Action Fellows will include financial literacy, workforce development, health and nutrition education, and housing advocacy and support.
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NEWS
Count Me In!
Back row: Mariah Ashby, Malachia Hoover, Erika Vaughn, Cornelius Hoover, Robert Burton II Front row: Aisha Hoover, Royce McLemore, Ibrahim Hoover
Dominican students, faculty and staff engage with “hard-to-count” communities in Marin to conduct outreach and help increase participation in Census 2020. Both a cornerstone of the Dominican Experience and a Dominican University of California core value, meaningful engagement in the community is at the heart of the student experience at Dominican. Grounding theoretical concepts in reallife experience enables students to put classroom learning into practice, providing rich opportunities for critical thinking and personal growth while enriching our campus and community organizations. Developed to strengthen the link between campus and community, as well as the important relationship between education and civic life, Dominican’s campus-wide community engagement theme has become an effective framework for guiding and unifying this work across the institution.
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Throughout the academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19, when the theme was Democracy & Equity, students, faculty and staff participated in town hall forums with local congressional representatives, lunchtime forums and evening panel discussions on topics such as homelessness, racial violence, and education equity. State of the Union viewing parties, voter registration drives, and voter information sessions were undertaken with the goal of increasing participants’ understanding of individuals’ rights, roles and responsibilities in civic life. This year’s theme, Everyone Counts: Census 2020, is a natural and fitting extension of the work of the past two years. With tens of millions of dollars in federal funding and pivotal congressional
policies at stake, Dominican students, faculty and staff are engaging with community partners and residents in census activities aimed to reach and include every person living in our community. This is an important opportunity for Dominican to participate in Marin County’s civic sphere in a significant way while educating students on the implications related to an undercount and raising awareness of the challenges that hardto-count people and communities face every day. A central tenet of American civic life dating back to 1790, the decennial survey of our country’s population is, on its face, a simple practice — enumerating who lives where at a particular point in time. Yet this simplicity in purpose belies both
NEWS the complexities involved with ensuring a complete count, as well as the profound implications the practice holds for local communities for years at a stretch. Demographic data collected through the census serves as the basis for determining the flow of funds from the federal government back to state and local communities. Healthcare, education, transportation and fire-fighting assistance — are but a few areas of the more than 10 dozen programs with funding allocations tied to the census; it cannot be emphasized enough that census data impacts lives on a daily basis. Moreover, undercounting intended beneficiaries creates an irrevocable, decade-long budget deficit for service provision. So who is at risk of not being counted in this year’s census? Historically, across the country, these people and communities are the most likely to be undercounted: socially and geographically isolated elderly, children under the age of five, ethnically diverse individuals, renters of all ages and economic status,
and immigrants. In Marin, this national trend is very much reflected in the census tracts (i.e. small, relatively permanent subdivisions of a county with 1,200 — 8,000 inhabitants) identified as “hard-to-count” communities in the county: West Marin, Marin City, the Canal Area of San Rafael, Terra Linda, and a portion of Novato adjacent to the westside of Highway 101. The census represents the opportunity to paint a “family” portrait in which all members are represented and honored. It is important in recognizing all the people that make up our country, states and counties. As one Census Bureau representative says, “If you aren’t counted, you don’t exist.” An undercount of these populations in Marin is dehumanizing and takes significant dollars off the table for the county, to the estimated tune of $77,964,490 over the next 10 years. Through Everyone Counts: Census 2020 the Dominican community is engaging with the broader county initiative and partners in the following ways, all to support a complete count in Marin.
Community Engaged Art Through out fall 2019, Professor Lynn Sondag’s service-learning honors class, Creating Insight: Community Engaged Art, collaborated with the Performing Stars of Marin to create a series of art projects illustrating that “Marin City Counts.” Dominican students and elementary and middle school students from Bayside Martin Luther King, Jr. K-8 Academy worked together to create art inspired by their own friendships, heroes, and Marin City history. This intricate and inspirational work is now prominently displayed along the streets and within several housing complexes in Marin City. It will remain displayed throughout the year to encourage census participation and remind all residents that Marin City matters.
Census in the Curriculum Dominican classes have been engaged in a series of projects to support an accurate census count in Marin’s hard-to-count communities. The chart below provides a sampling of what faculty and students are engaged in:
Professor
Course
Student Action
Community Partner(s)
Jennifer Lucko
Cultural Anthropology
Students conducted interviews with community members about their current understanding of the census.
Ritter Center, RotaCare, Health Hubs, Canal ESL, and Coleman Elementary School
Caroline Umeda
Educational Principles and Practices in Occupational Therapy
Students designed a "Census Story," an storybook that provides a basic introduction to the census in a format accessible for elementary school children with developmental disabilities.
Marin County Office of Education
Steven Polacco
Graphic Design
Students created visually engaging, bilingual artwork for use in local census flyers, posters and promotional materials.
Marin Census 2020, Canal Alliance, Parent Services Project
Katie Lewis
Complexities of Teaching in Schools, II
Students are reading a Census Social Story to elementary and middle school students and leading a discussion about Census 2020.
Schools in Marin County’s hard-to-count tracts
Emily Wu
Power of Compassion and Forgiveness
Students are conducting bilingual outreach to Pickleweed Community Center, promote census participation through tabling at Canal Alliance, Parent Service Project, Health Hubs agency and neighborhood events, food pantries, and tax preparation centers.
Michaela George
Health Research Methods
Students are engaging in census promotion at public events and serving at Questionnaire Assistance Centers to support census outreach and completion.
First 5 Marin, Young Moms of Marin, HeadStart, Parent Voices
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NEWS Hosting Trusted Messenger and Enumerator Trainings Addressing barriers to responses associated with hard-tocount communities — including apathy, lack of trust, language obstacles, and, new to 2020, the digital format of census surveys — Dominican is supporting the work of community partners the Canal Alliance and Community Action Marin. These trusted organizations are taking the lead in working toward a complete count in Marin by hosting trainings here on campus. A trusted messenger is any person deeply rooted in the community or within trusted institutions (such as schools, medical clinics, and service programs) who relays the importance and impact of the census to facilitate participation, particularly within hard-to-count populations. At trusted messenger trainings, participants gain knowledge about the census process, confidentiality of data, and community benefits. Enumerators, also known as census takers, collect household and demographic information by canvassing assigned areas. Enumerators are temporary employees of the U.S. Census Bureau who travel to designated households and conduct interviews with residents. They identify themselves and help individuals complete a census form, often assisting residents by reading forms and answering questions about the census. Dominican students, faculty and staff were encouraged to apply for enumerator positions.
“Marin City Counts” street banners displayed along Donahue Stree in Marin. Art work created by elementary and middle school students from Bayside Martin Luther King, Jr. K-8 Academy, in collaboration with students from Dominican
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While guaranteeing a complete count of Marin County is beyond the purview of Dominican’s community engagement theme, the work that students, faculty and staff are engaged in through Everyone Counts: Census 2020 has been an important opportunity to learn from and with community partners. Equally, it has been a very positive experience for faculty, staff and students to come together from different departments to focus on a shared community goal.
Although Marin is one of the wealthiest counties in California and the United States, there is a lot of disparity in terms of the equality. It’s not only about the funding. It’s about empowering our communities and restoring humanity by being counted through a constitutional right. — Karla Hernandez Navarro ’20, Business Administration
NEWS
Kamari Hoover, Shannon Bynum Jr., Keyari Hoover
“Marin City Counts” street banners
Back row: Felecia Gaston, Kahaya Adams, Ida Times, Valerie Preston Front row: Leoma Thomas, Kelly Carol Thomas
Why Does the Census Matter in Marin? Hard To Count Tract
Population
2010 Return Rate
Potential $ Loss Per Year*
Marin City / 1290
2686
33.10%
889,066
Canal / 1122.01 and .02
12307
26.10%
3,403,893
Terra Linda / 1082
6376
20.10%
1,281,576
Novato / 1022.03
5737
25.80%
1,480,146
West Marin / 1330+
2991
24.80%
741,768
30,097
$7,796,449
TOTAL
Potential $ Loss Over 10 Years
$77,964,490
*For each person missed in California in the 2020 Census, our communities will lose $1,000 per person for 10 years.
Via Everyone Counts: Census 2020, students (as well as faculty and staff) have had the incredible opportunity to work alongside our community partners, engage with community members, and gain a critical analysis of the larger social, political, cultural, and economic contexts related to the census. We have all experienced the energy of our collective action and increased our capacity to contribute to the civic well-being of our county. — Julia van der Ryn, executive director of Dominican’s Center for Community Engagement and assistant professor, Philosophy and Social Justice
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ATHLETICS
20 Years of the Conlan Center
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his year marks a special anniversary for the Penguins — it’s been two decades since the Sister Samuel Conlan Recreation Center opened its doors and ushered in a new era in Dominican Athletics and campus life. On February 22, more than 160 alumni joined students, neighbors, friends, faculty and staff to celebrate 20 years of the Conlan Center. The event featured an open house and reception during the Penguins’ women and men’s basketball games against Pacific West Conference rival Azusa Pacific. Former student-athletes, coaches, and athletic directors were recognized in on-court ceremonies at halftime. The open house and basketball doubleheader were the highlights of an entire #ConlanTurns20 weekend, also featuring alumni basketball and softball games, lacrosse matches, and a softball doubleheader. Kicking off an era of remarkable transition, the Conlan Center was officially dedicated on April 29, 2000, the same day that Dominican announced its name change from Dominican College of San Rafael to Dominican University of California. Named in honor of Sister Samuel Conlan, Dominican’s fifth president and retired professor of English, the recreation center was the
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first new campus building in 37 years and was part of a broader vision for athletic success and community engagement. Nicknamed “The Igloo,” the Conlan Center can accommodate a capacity crowd of 2,098. Returning Penguins, some of whom practiced in “The Barn” (with its three rows of bleachers) and played their home basketball and volleyball games at Marin Catholic or College of Marin, enjoyed reminiscing about their home court challenges, while more junior alumni were proud to return to the site of their athletic achievements. Now headquarters for the Penguins’ 11 NCAA intercollegiate sports, the Allen Sports Club, Dominican Recreation Sports, and Dominican Summer Sports Camps, the Conlan Center is a vital hub of activity, playing host to everything from lectures and academic conferences to rap concerts to Commencement. During the Northern California wildfires of 2017, the Conlan Center even served as a staging area for 200 American Red Cross staff and volunteers who assisted in relief efforts. The past two decades have brought remarkable changes to the Dominican campus. It’s impossible to see the future of our athletics, recreational, and community programs without seeing the Conlan Center. Thanks for a great 20 years, Conlan!
ADVANCEMENT
Dr. Françoise Lepage and Dr. Denise Lucy: Leaving Their Legacy So many students, faculty and staff have benefitted from the positive influence of Lepage and Lucy. Mel Atkins, BS ’06, MBA ’10, and current Trustee of the University, sums it up like this: “Fran and Denise have played many roles in my own personal and professional development over the years, from being mentors to me as an undergraduate to now being friends and supporters in my role as trustee. They have been integral to mine and countless others’ Dominican experience by their unrelenting dedication to helping their students believe in themselves and achieve their fullest potential. They exemplify what makes Dominican so special.”
I hope students remember me as faculty who taught them to believe in themselves in their quest to develop both personally and professionally.
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or anyone who has so much as stepped a foot into Bertrand Hall over the past decades, Dr. Françoise Lepage and Dr. Denise Lucy are the familiar and friendly faces of the Barowsky School of Business. Lepage came to campus in 1976 to teach an American Politics class — and never left. Blessed to have Sister Samuel Conlan, Dominican’s fifth president and retired professor of English, as a mentor in her early days of teaching at Dominican, Lepage spoke of how Sr. Samuel always challenged her, “with her high expectations of me!” In her 44 years at Dominican, Lepage has witnessed the evolution and growth of the campus while going through her own growth, from faculty to first dean of the School of Business and International Studies, and back to faculty as the Sarlo Distinguished Professor. Lucy began her academic career at the University of San Francisco. She remembers the first time she visited Dominican to interview for an associate dean position. She was charmed by the peaceful and lovely campus, hearing students practice violin as she walked past Angelico Hall. Her interview committee — which included Sr. Samuel — persuaded her that Dominican was the place to be. In her 27 years on campus, Lucy remembers many mentors fondly, names that resonate for so many at Dominican, like Sr. Aquinas Nimitz. Denise was the first recipient of the Sister M. Aquinas Nimitz, O.P. Distinguished Service Award, which honors those who have distinguished themselves through outstanding service, commitment and dedication to all members of the Dominican community. Like Lepage, Lucy has built a storied career at Dominican, serving as Dean of Liberal and Professional Studies and Vice President for Academic Affairs, before founding the Institute for Leadership Studies.
—Dr. Françoise Lepage When asked about how they would like to be remembered, Lepage says, “I hope students remember me as faculty who taught them to believe in themselves in their quest to develop both personally and professionally.” Lucy echoes that sentiment, saying, “I hope my students will remember that I was dedicated to their well-being, and my high expectations of them to be ethical in mind and spirit, and to lead with character.” The University feels blessed to have them both for so many years, sharing their intellectual curiosity, their generous spirits, and their humor and looks forward to their continued positive influence on students for many years to come. Lepage and Lucy have decided to show their affection for Dominican by establishing an estate gift, one of the largest in the University’s history. Lucy says: “I know Dominican is committed to being a vibrant, diverse campus, the most important educational asset in Marin County, and among the finest private universities in California. We’re happy to support that commitment.”
Build Your Legacy If you're interested in learning more about including Dominican in your estate plans, contact Marly A. Norris, Vice President for Advancement and Public Affairs at (415) 257-1396 or marly.norris@dominican.edu
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ALUMNI NEWS
Dominican MBA Launched CEO Career: Heather Kernahan Heather Kernahan’s journey to recently being named the CEO of a global communications agency began about a decade ago as an MBA student at Dominican, when her finance professor in the Barowsky School of Business challenged her to think big. “One day my professor was talking me through a financial spreadsheet,” Kernahan recalls. “He said ‘If you were a CEO, here is what you would look for in this document.’”
“I felt inferior in terms of what was going on with U.S. business,” Kernahan said. “I knew that I needed to gain more marketing skills and to do that, I would need an MBA.” The key selling point for Kernahan choosing Dominican was its curriculum focused on practical skills that would prepare her to work in more strategic business areas.
“I replied, ‘What do you mean if I were a CEO? Do you think I could be a CEO?’” The professor’s reply became Kernahan’s ah-ha moment. “He said `Yes, of course you can be a CEO. Why else are you here?’ “This professor helped me set my sights on a CEO title.” That goal became a reality in December, when Kernahan was promoted from her three-year role as president of Hotwire North America and Australia to CEO, with some of the biggest names in the tech industry as clients. Kernahan enrolled in Dominican’s MBA program in 2006, shortly after moving to Marin from Canada with her husband and young daughter, when the Toronto firm she was working for was acquired by Autodesk. Autodesk hired Heather to join its global communications team in San Rafael.
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Your education will serve you the rest of your life, and that every day you will use some of the tools you learned. It’s worth it. Raising a young family, working in a demanding industry, and studying for an MBA was challenging, she admits, but well worth the effort. “I always felt welcomed and supported with my decision to take some time off [to raise my family] and then come back at my own pace. I ended up taking one course per semester and Dominican made it work for me.” After several promotions at Autodesk, Kernahan joined Eastwick Communications in 2013 and moved to Hotwire in
2016 after it acquired Eastwick. Over the years Kernahan developed a reputation as a global marketing tech expert and business leader. She’s been featured in top business magazines and was named one of B2B News Network’s Top Influencers. Heather continues to draw on the skills she learned in her MBA course. “Dominican provided an understanding of different leadership frameworks to apply in different situations. I learned about the four styles of leadership to use in times of stress and crisis — and often make sure that I am responding in the way I need to respond.” Her advice for incoming MBA students? “Be very clear about what you want to get out of your degree and want you want in your career to make sure that earning a degree will help you meet your longterm career goals.” And, be realistic. “Whatever you think it will take in terms of time, double it. Be prepared to say no to a lot of things and to miss out on some things. But, also realize that your education will serve you the rest of your life, and that every day you will use some of the tools you learned. It’s worth it.”
ALUMNI NEWS
The Perfect Pairing: Chase Goulart
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riginally from Granite Bay, CA, Chase Goulart ’18 was looking for a college that checked every box: a convenient location, quality programs, and an opportunity to continue his career as a soccer player. To his pleasant surprise, Dominican University of California exceeded his expectations. With the support and guidance of campus leaders including Chris Leeds and Phillip Billeci-Gard, Goulart was able to thrive as a person and professional in the world of corporate finance and accounting. “The most important thing I learned while at Dominican was how to have a work/life balance,” said Goulart. “Before college, I was the type of student who relied heavily on others to get me through. Once I arrived in San Rafael, I learned how to embrace life and make the most out of every experience.” While climbing the ladder to his current role as associate financial consultant at Charles Schwab, Goulart was introduced to his mentor, Wade Cheatham, through Dominican’s mentorship program. Cheatham was instrumental in Goulart’s career path by helping him identify finance as the field he wanted to pursue, and their relationship opened granted opportunities for Chase that he never knew existed. In reflecting on his career path, Goulart said, “I was lucky enough to be paired with Cheatham after a few conversations with him I learned about a program called the Financial Consultant Academy. I picked up my entire life in 2018 and drove out to Dallas, Texas for a developmental rotational program that prepares individuals for a career as a Financial Consultant in one of Schwab’s branches. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse.” Cheatham, too, found his professional relationship with Goulart to be extremely rewarding. “The benefit of mentorship was the fulfillment of working so closely with someone, and being there every step of the way as Chase reached his career milestones,” said Cheatham. “It was awesome to be a small part of his journey.” Today, Goulart has transitioned back to the Bay Area, and works in his first-choice branch in San Francisco with Cheatham’s office 10 floors above him. Speaking about their continued relationship, Cheatham said, “We were able to transition and continue the relationship well beyond its lifespan as designed. Dominican has the perfect recipe for a mentorship program because it offers the right balance of direction and autonomy.” Cheatham is hopeful that Goulart will have the opportunity to become a mentor to someone someday.
Seizing Opportunity: Chris O’Mara
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n high school, Chris O’Mara ’10, MS ’18 knew he wanted to pursue a career in health sciences and research, but didn’t know which school would help him achieve this goal. One evening while delivering pizzas in his hometown of Vallejo, CA, he received a call that would set the course for his professional career: his acceptance into Dominican University of California. During O'Mara’s first summer as an undergraduate student majoring in Biological Sciences, he traveled to South Africa and studied international field biology with Dr. Sibdas Ghosh and Dr. Vania Coelho. Upon returning, O'Mara immediately hopped back on a plane to complete a breast cancer research internship at the University of Skövde in Sweden. These opportunities laid a solid foundation for O'Mara’s career in health sciences and research, and were key to landing his next breakthrough, an 18-month internship at BioMarin Pharmaceuticals. While seizing each and every opportunity at Dominican, he realized his friends who were attending larger, well-known schools weren’t developing the same connections with their faculty. O'Mara said, “My college experience taught me that it’s not the name of your school that is most important for success, but the opportunities and networking you pursue while you’re there.” O'Mara went on to describe his career path as opportunistic. He took advantage of his proximity to one of the largest biotech hubs in the world, the San Francisco Bay Area. His research experience in academia and industry, coupled with his experience supporting families impacted by childhood cancer with a local non-profit, the Okizu Foundation, led O'Mara to become a clinical research coordinator (CRC) at UCSF's Helen Diller Cancer Center. As the primary CRC for Merck's KEYTRUDA clinical trial, O'Mara was invited to attend the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference for his contributions to melanoma and lung cancer research, which led to a publication in the New England Journal of Medicine. O'Mara is extremely proud of this accomplishment, saying,“Many people work their entire lives and never have an opportunity like this. Since it happened so early in my career, I knew I was on the right path.” Since his time as a CRC, O'Mara continued his career in the biotech industry and obtained his MS in Biology at Dominican under the mentorship of Dr. Maggie Louie. O'Mara is now living in Salem, Massachusetts with his fiancé, Ashley, and their rescue dog, Emma, and working as a senior clinical operations manager and consultant for biotech startups focused on rare dermatological diseases. O'Mara fondly reflects on his time at Dominican, and said, “Dominican means so much to me. It put me on the path to success and was the best experience I could have imagined.”
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LIBRARY
Shelter-in-Place Must Reads from Dominican Librarians A favorite section of Dominican’s Alemany Library is dedicated to books recommended by our librarians for leisure reading. Many members of our Dominican community enjoy settling into an armchair or a bean bag chair in the cozy ground-floor reading room to get lost in a book. We asked them for some reading recommendations during this shelter-in-place period. Here are their selections: Gary Gorka, University Librarian Dry by Neal Schusterman and Jerrod Schusterman I am going to recommend a book I didn’t read, but my 13-year-old daughter Elyse just finished. A thrilling, realistic, and ultimately uplifting adventure tale of a Northern California family and their friends as they struggle to survive a widespread — wait. Well, this sure isn’t escapist literature, is it? Actually it is. My daughter was swept away to a different world to watch how heroic (and not-so-heroic) teenagers deal with an unexpected but terrible California drought. It will definitely help your teenagers put their minds on something else, even if that something else is suddenly-all-too familiar. Elyse found it empowering and exciting and it even helped her appreciate her family a little — a great accomplishment at this age.
Kenneth Fish, Coordinator of Interlibrary and Consortia Lending Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock A collection of loosely interconnected short stories that the reader assembles as they go along. At times violent and always gritty, each character feels like someone known from your hometown. That poor soul. That family from the other side of the tracks,and so on. The author — the king of the wrong side of the tracks himself — makes these characters come to life, befriending you long enough to steal your wallet, then disappear into the night like a bad dream. Definitely the best of the worst.
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Nnekay FitzClarke, Reference and Instructional Librarian
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
As the coronavirus unfurls, I cannot help thinking about N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. The setting of Jemisin's trilogy is a planet that sometimes has a “fifth season.” These are periods when the planet becomes inhospitable to life due to climatic or geological events or plagues. During a fifth season, communities and empires are unprepared and cannot adapt to breakdown. The humans in Jemisin's world are divided into rigid castes, and some humans, called orogenes, have the power to harness geological energy to stop earthquakes and move mountains. Although the orogenes are powerful, they are brutally oppressed, feared, and treated like slaves. The trilogy follows the lives of several oregenes before and during a fifth season. As the society breaks down, normally hidden social/power structures in the society become visible. As the Coronavirus tears through different countries today, we see these different social/ power structures in our world too.
A pulpy page turner that highlights the trials and tribulations among four women of varying economic status. The book starts with a mysterious fire but ends with a deep dive into the racial and political landscape of our country. It is currently a series on Hulu, if you would like to follow up the book with a visual companion.
Ethan Annis, Head of Access and Technical Services, Librarian Evicted, Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond This Pulitzer Prize winning book chronicles two landlords' experiences and the plight of eight poor Milwaukee families as they constantly struggle to find housing. Evicted provides an intimate view of poverty in this country. Families often pay 70-80 percent of their income to live in dangerous slums where there are holes in the windows and sewage on the floors. Tenants are too scared to complain and fear retaliation. These stories show that the uncertainty and fear that many middle class and wealthy Americans are experiencing due to the coronavirus epidemic is experienced every day by Americans who are living in poverty. In addition to winning a Pulitzer Prize, Evicted was named one of The New York Times top 10 books of 2016. If you want an intimate, engaging, readable, thoroughly researched book that shows how our country treats its most vulnerable, I wholeheartedly recommend Evicted.
For three consecutive years, each book in the trilogy won the Hugo Award; an honor never before achieved by another author. A lengthy article on Jemisin was featured in the January 27, 2020 issue of The New Yorker magazine. From the perspective of world building, the trilogy is a fictional masterpiece, and so much more. It highlights the racism we have in the US today and our structural inequalities from a perspective that is inaccessible through non-fiction.
CLASS NOTES
Cher Aguinaldo, Cris (Recto) Ricafort, Eli (Nelle) White, ’70
Eleanor (Nelle) White ’70
Jeanne DeFazio ’72
1950s
1970s
Virginia (Markham) Davenport ’51 was married to her late husband Stephen for 63 years, and had the opportunity to travel the world with him. Her two boys, grandchildren, and great grandchildren keep her busy. Missing many old classmates, including Sr. Richard and Sr. Patrick, and still playing tennis at 90 — but not as vigorously! Busy with charitable groups and enjoying life.
Cher Aguinaldo ’70 reminisced with classmates Cris (Recto) Ricafort and Eli (Nelle) White about their time at Dominican. They will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary Reunion in May, 2020.
Helen (Condon) Sitchler ’59 was recently honored as “Volunteer of the Quarter” at China Camp State Park in San Rafael where she has volunteered in the China Camp Museum and led tours of the historic shrimping village for over 20 years.
1960s Susan Keeney ’64 met her soulmate in 1977 and was finally able to marry her in 2013. They will soon be celebrating their 44th year together. Alice (Small) Munley ’65 volunteers weekly with one of her therapy dogs in the first grade reading program of a local elementary school.
Sue Stephenson ’70 has a lot to celebrate. Two of her children recently married, and the third will tie the knot in April. She is also thrilled to announce that her first grandchild arrived in October, 2019. Rita (Lago) Furnanz ’70 lost her husband Les in January. They had recently celebrated 50 years of marriage in October 2019. Eleanor (Nelle) White ’70 formed Ava’s Kitchen, a feeding program for children in a depressed community of Malipay in the Philippines, after her family spent years battling for custody of her granddaughter Ava. Each Saturday, Eleanor and her family deliver food for almost 200 children every week. They have also organized medical missions, brought mascots and treats, and received countless donations of books and school supplies for children in need. This volunteer activity has enriched Eleanor’s life and provided valuable lessons to everyone involved.
Janet Adam, Mary Wahlberg ’73
Jeanne DeFazio ’72 completed her latest book, Specialist Fourth Class John Joseph DeFazio: Advocating for the Disabled American Veterans. Additionally, her book Keeping the Dream Alive was featured in the 2019 Harvard Magazine Holiday Edition booklist. Janet Adam and Mary Wahlberg ’73 hosted a memorial service at Dominican in September to honor Eileen Schiller Paine ’73. Guests attended mass in Benincasa Chapel in Edgehill Mansion and then unveiled a plaque in Eileen’s memory, blessed by Fr. Bob Haberman, in Angelico Concert Hall. Mark Jordan ’75 played music at Mass and at the plaque unveiling. Eileen’s husband Bob and daughter Carie were also in attendance, along with Frederick Adam ’74. Yolanda Sanchez-Peterson ’75 is now living in Bend, Oregon with her husband Dennis. As grandparents, they enjoy being a part of their daughter’s extended family. After volunteering with one of the first Threshold Choirs in the Bay Area for 12 years, she has now begun a Threshold Choir chapter in Bend. Being associated with this amazing organization and singing for hospice patients has been a deeply enriching experience.
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CLASS NOTES
Dr. Julie Jordan ’75
Mirjam (Mimi) Rang ’81
Dr. Julie Jordan ’75, pianist, Steinway Artist, Founder and Artistic Director of the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, has supported countless international soloists from leading conservatories and universities as they debuted in prestigious venues abroad in the Julie Jordan Presents series. Additionally, Julie has showered her community with wonderful concerts and connected musicians from across the U.S. and globally. Presently, Julie Jordan is offering masterclasses at Pace University for the Global Asia Institute which features local adult students and music teachers. Deborah (Simmons) Kespert ’77 has been blogging for five years at The Outspoken TULIP, a Christian blog post for women. She writes about Reformed Theology, discernment and current evangelical trends, and weekly Bible Studies. Blogging has been emotionally, spiritually and sometimes even financially rewarding for her. She applies many of the writing skills she gained from Dominican and illustrates the blog posts with her own digital art creations.
1980s Mirjam (Mimi) Rang ’81 attended Medical School in Germany before eventually specializing in Radiology. She is happily married with three daughters and her own practice in the center of Frankfurt. Mirjam’s oldest
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Brigid Richards ’87
daughter will soon graduate with a Master of Music from UNC Fine Arts which has brought her back to the U.S. a couple of times. Being back in the U.S. still feels like home to her, and she hopes she can eventually participate in an upcoming Reunion. Carla (Martini) Ferris ’84 has four children who are all married. Her education has progressed to a Master’s degree in Public History which will be completed in 2021. Meg (Bagley) Sabini ’85 earned a degree in Nursing from Creighton University in 1987. She worked as an Surgical ICU Nurse for 11 years at UC Davis Med Center before returning to school for her Masters in Nursing Degree from Rush University, Chicago. She has practiced anesthesia as a CRNA until this present time. Meg married Maurizio Sabini in 2003 and they have two children; Cherie and Robby. After 10 years in Ohio, Maurizio accepted a promotion as a professor of Architecture and Urban Design, and the family moved to Springfield, MO, where they currently reside. Brigid Richards ’87 retired from Terra Linda High School, San Rafael, California, after almost 40 years as a public school teacher. Since retiring, she has been listening to audio books, editing her novel about Ireland (where she was born), and her house is cleaner than it’s ever been.
Patricia (Bedrosian) Dorward ’95
Tara (Gillen) Shetz ’99
1990s Janet (Mikulin) Giddings ’92 teaches Religious Studies and Applied Religious Ethics at Santa Clara University and Philosophy of Religion and Applied Ethics at San Jose State University. She was recently a panelist at the Women’s Interfaith Peace Symposium on “Faith and Loyalty to Nation.” She is currently working on a book about the American socialgospel poet, Edwin Markham. She and her husband rescued a cat last year. Whiskers is very vocal and bossy, and they absolutely adore him. Patricia (Bedrosian) Dorward ’95 completed a second BS degree in Nursing and is entering into her fifth year as a registered nurse. Her daughter, Ryn, will be turning six in July. Lisa (Biddle) Dedmore ’98 has earned three degrees spanning 15 years. The impact of her Dominican education has become more apparent year after year. The perspective she gained from the professors of honors religion, Sister Patricia’s art history class, and Dr. Rande Webster has contributed to her efforts as a fierce advocate of the under-served. Her 16-year-old daughter is now considering earning her Bachelor’s degree from Dominican and she could not be happier. She knows she will be nurtured, challenged, and will thrive in young adulthood should she choose Dominican.
CLASS NOTES
Kelly (Stovall) Mayer ’04
Dean Aclan ’04
Brandon Davis ’06
Cristina (Ponce) Canete ’05
Tara (Gillen) Shetz '99 and Matthew Shetz were married on December 7, 2019 in The Woodlands, Texas.
neighbor happens to be DU Alumna Tiffany Hermosa Padilla ’03. Tiffany also has twins and a young daughter.
2000s
Sabrena McCarley ’04, MBA ’09 was chosen to receive The American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. (AOTA) Roster of Fellows, which recognizes occupational therapist members who through their knowledge, expertise, leadership, advocacy, and/ or guidance have made a significant contribution to the profession. She received her award at the Annual Awards and Recognitions Ceremony on March 28 in Boston.
Heather Steil ’03 is a career diplomat with the State Department. After serving at U.S. embassies in numerous overseas assignments, she is currently on loan to the Defense Department as a Foreign Policy Advisor to the Commanding General of Central Command in Tampa, Florida. Kelly (Stovall) Mayer ’04 married the love of her life in 2014 and welcomed her first child, Maddox, in 2017. Due to a complicated childbirth, Kelly underwent a massive blood transfusion and surgery but is now doing very well. She is still using the knowledge she gained from Dominican in her work as a pediatric occupational therapist, and is writing a book about her near-death experience in her free time. She plans to use the book as a platform to advocate for women’s health. Dean Aclan ’04 has twin boys and a young daughter, and will be celebrating 10 years of marriage to his wife this year. He has been an occupational therapist for 15 years, and currently works at Kaiser Permanente. He keeps in touch with many Dominican alumni, specifically as part of a fantasy football league for nearly 10 seasons. Dean recently moved to a new home in San Marcos, California where his
Brian Moore ’05 launched a marketing and business development consulting firm, Brian J Moore & Company, and has connected with Elizabeth (Allison) Thurman ’06, who started a career and talent development consulting company, Ignited Career Consulting. Ignited has become a client of BJM & Company and Brian and Elizabeth are looking forward to their continued work together. Liz (Bradley) Nix ’06 married Damian Nix in 2007, and they have three children. Liz was the director of web production at a California internet marketing agency, and then became a freelance web developer while residing in Puerto Vallarta, MX for 18 months. She is currently one of the principle web developers in one of the fastest growing companies in Texas.
CPT Michael Ungureanu BA '06
Eugenia Lucas Wandela ’06 is a lecturer at Jordan University College in Morogoro, Tanzania. In January 2020, she was appointed to Director of the Jordan Francis Fund for students who have financial constraints. Her main responsibility is to raise funds that support students in tuition payments and additional fees. Brandon Davis ’06 and his wife, Melissa, welcomed their son Nathan on November 20, 2019. Cristina (Ponce) Canete ’07 has been working as a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse at magnet hospitals in the Bay Area for 12 years. She is also a board-certified lactation consultant. She lives in Cupertino, married to her college sweetheart Mattie, and together they have three kids and two cats. Cristina enjoys volunteering for Project Cornerstone, watercolor painting, and participating in quality improvement projects in hospital NICUs. CPT Michael Ungureanu BA ’06, MBA ’07 , is currently deployed in support of the Global War on Terrorism. He is supported at home by his wife, Thera BS ’06, MSOT ’07, and children Jack and Preslie (ages seven and five).
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CLASS NOTES
Jason Davis ’10
Merriam Saunders ’10
2010s Jason Davis ’10 is an assistant professor of English at Mendocino College. He primarily teaches Critical Thinking and transfer level Reading/ Composition courses. He loves teaching. He is thankful to Dominican University for the excellent education he received. Additionally, Jason has a full and immensely satisfying life as a father and husband. Merriam Saunders ’10 wrote her first children’s book, My Whirling, Twirling Motor (Magination Press/ APA), and received a starred review from the School Library Journal. Her second book, My Wandering, Dreaming Mind, comes out in April. Both books feature characters with ADHD, as does her middle grade novel, Trouble With a Tiny T, which will be released in 2021. In addition to practicing psychotherapy and writing, she is an adjunct instructor in the Counseling Psychology Department at Dominican. Casey Lee Thorne ’10 has continued to pursue a career in dance since graduating. She founded Inside Out Contemporary Ballet in 2012, was awarded a 2014-2015 Fulbright Fellowship to Israel, graduated with her MFA in Dance from Mills College in 2018, and became a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Dance at Southern Utah University in 2019. She is a proud Penguin!
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Casey Lee Thorne ’10
Alejandro Moreno ’11
Alejandro Moreno ’11 helped relaunch Venture Greenhouse Accelerator 2.0 in 2015, graduated a cohort of nine startups and co-founded VenturePad, a coworking space in downtown San Rafael, which turns three-years-old in March 2020. VenturePad won the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce Best Green Business Award 2018, Best Shared Workspace and Best Event Venue in the Marin IJ 2019 Reader’s Choice Awards, and Pacific Sun’s Best of Marin 2019 for Best Coworking Space and honorable mention for Best Green Business. VenturePad also won the North Bay Biz Magazine GameChanger 2018, the first startup ever to be named for the award. Alejandro also co-produces the Marin Sustainable Enterprise Conference every fall. Alejandro also builds websites in Squarespace, translates English-Spanish, and helps startups with business plans, strategy, marketing and website content. He has an organic olive tree farm in Tuscany where he spends several weeks a year working on the farm. Derrick Wilkinson ’11 reached nine years at Moss Adams LLP public accounting firm in July 2019. He is always looking for DU accounting students to intern. He lives in Windsor, California with his three-year-old son and five-month-old daughter.
Laurel Druke ’12
Laurel Druke ’12 and long-term partner Jesse Taylor-Vermont got engaged in January 2020. Laurel is working for a nonprofit based out of San Rafael called Beyond Differences, and is Dominican’s Women Leadership and Philanthropy Council Marketing/ Comms co-chair. She is very active in Marin county as a longtime volunteer and activist. Francesca Whitcomb ’12 just welcomed her first grandchild, James August Carsley, born on January 10, 2020. She was so excited to be there for his birth and described the moment as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. February 2, 2020 also marks her 20th year of working in education. She started at Novato Unified in the office at Lu Sutton Elementary, and is currently in her fifth year as HR Manager at Healdsburg Unified School District. Laurel Roberts-Meese ’12 opened her private psychotherapy practice in San Francisco late last year. She works with adults around anxiety and trauma, and is trained in EMDR. She is carving out a niche for herself treating food-related anxiety.
CLASS NOTES
Monica Rizzo ’13
Maggie Hibert ’15
Lauren Emenaker ’13 recently received her MBA from the University of Vermont with a focus in Sustainable Innovation. She joined the Vail Valley Partnership in CO this past fall and is supporting the efforts of local businesses and nonprofits in the area. Monica Rizzo ’13 spent nearly five weeks traveling across India as a Fulbright-Hays honoree. She had the opportunity to visit NGOs, schools, and cultural sites, meeting with educators policy makers and members of the U.S. diplomatic corps. Her cohort explored the intersectionality of caste, class, and culture in India. The trip included starkly contrasted visits to the shanties along the railroad tracks above the slums of Kolkata and the world-famous Taj Mahal. Rizzo’s experience will inform her teaching of ancient India to her sixth-grade humanities students at Willow Creek Academy in Sausalito. Maggie Hibert ’15 joined Kodiak Cakes in December as the creative team’s Design Coordinator. With her background in marketing, graphic design, and working in the food industry, Maggie is pursuing her dream to perform creative project management for packaging. Uprooting from the Bay Area to Park City, Utah, she thoroughly enjoys eating their 100 percent whole grain flapjacks and becoming the linchpin between product development and packaging design by managing projects. Kodiak
Arielle Abelon ’15
Cakes is one of Utah’s Business’ Best Companies to Work For, offering her the opportunity to experience exponential growth within a company. Arielle Abelon ’15 discovered her passion for makeup and used her degree to start her own freelance makeup artistry business after spending a year in the tech industry. She has worked with companies such as 2K Games, Curology, and was even Yoko Ono’s personal makeup artist in 2019. Since studying abroad in France, Arielle maintained a taste for adventure and continues to travel solo in her spare time. Diana Putterman ’19 graduated from Dominican with a Masters in Humanities and began teaching English as a Second Language to foreign students. While lesson planning in the teachers’ room, an opportunity presented itself that she had been waiting for — working with the ever-growing refugee population. Today, Diana is writing this class note from Lesvos, Greece, the site of 20,000 refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iran. She is teaching beginning English to refugee teen boys at Gekko School, run by Better Days, one of many NGOs in Lesvos attempting to relieve this human diaspora. REAL, Refugee Education and Learning, is a local northern California NGO, formed by college professors from the Bay Area who recruit teacher volunteers
Diana Putterman ’19,
for this effort. Diana is in Greece for a six-week teaching assignment. She recently visited the Moria Refugee Camp with Alison Terry-Evans, the founder of Dirty Girls, an NGO that collects discarded safety vests left behind by refugees who make the treacherous trip across the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece. Alison has been collecting the vests and repurposing them into shopping bags and satchels for sale to help provide clean blankets, sheets and pillows for the many unaccompanied minors that arrive daily to Greece. Delainey Boyd ’19 is a scheduler in Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher’s DC office. She is excited to help the office maintain the congresswoman’s schedule and cultivate relationships throughout DC and Texas. Matthew Albert ’20 is employed full-time at Mike’s Bikes, working between the marketing and operations departments. He currently lives near Dominican and stays involved with the community as much as he can.
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In Sympathy ALUMNI
Bonnie Bell ’76
SYMPATHY TO
Virginia Roche Rossi ’43
Belinda Holmes Hayes ’81
Marie Taylor Bettencourt ’47
Florence Cavallo Brown ’82
Winnie Brisbois Buckley ’52
Joan Johnson Smith ’83
Mary K. Malley Dooling ’64 and Margaret Malley Taddeucci ’61 for the passing of their husband and brother-in-law, Joseph “Jack” Dooling
Ritajean Hartung Butterworth ’53
Maria Howard ’85
Barbara Salmina Gay ’54
Mario Lamorte ’89
Diane Lucas ’59
Judith Eagle-Cain ’93
Sharon Bell Smith ’61
Anne Tillotson ’95
Sandra Meagher Dowling ’62
Nicola Meehan ’98
Valerie Scatena Silvestri ’63
Amanda Stoltz Arconti ’01
Connie Callan Molino ’64
Kellie Nora Michelle ’03
Martha Palacio Tornberg ’65
Daniel Melligan ’05
Sister M. Bernadette Wombacher, OP ’66
Jacqueline Wilson ’12
Susan Reardon Conley ’67 Mary Lou Bordoni Dennis-Strathmeyer ’69
Michelle Perryman ’19
FACULTY Mary Ann Sinkkonen
Suzanne Simard Miller ’70
Marie Kerpan
Patricia Archdeacon Holland ’71
Louise Nelson
Margaret Herrington Bremer ’73 Sue Canfield Colton ’75
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FRIENDS Amanda Metcalf, former trustee
Mary K. Drennan ’57, Kathleen Augustus ’84, Suzanne Aranson ’88, and Joe Drennan ’88 for the passing of their husband and father, Jim Drennan Karen Vogel Hazlehurst ’72, Holly Hazlehurst Werly ’99, Heather Hazlehurst Donovan ’00, and Paulette Goursau Vogel ’49 for the passing of their husband, father and son-in-law, Richmond Hazlehurst Dayle Antongiovanni Reilly ’57 for the passing of her son, John Reilly Cathy Lavaroni Hall ’74, Peter Lavaroni ’82, John Lavaroni ’83 and Lori Robotti Lavaroni ’83, for the passing of their mother and mother-in-law, Barbara Lavaroni Tracy Rose Vogel ’92 for the passing of her husband, Dr. Richard Vogel Mary Colleen Needham ’97 and Nicole Needham ’13 for the passing of Dorothy Dempsey, mother and grandmother
Your Gift to Dominican Changes Lives I love Dominican. I love how I can find little nooks and crannies on campus to just sit in nature and breathe after an exam. I have made life-long friendships with people of all different majors and more memories than I could have imagined for myself as a young girl applying to the nursing program at a small college located in Marin. Dominican has changed my life. — Melissa Barroso Senior, Nursing
There are many ways to support Dominican Return the envelope dominican.edu/makeagift 415-257-1396
Include Dominican in your estate plan. Get started today: contact Marly A. Norris at 415-257-1396 or marly.norris@dominican.edu
Melissa Asuncion Barroso is a senior Nursing major from South San Francisco. She is a recipient of the Mother Mary Raymond Scholarship which provides assistance to students who are relatives of Dominican alumni.
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NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID
50 Acacia Avenue San Rafael, California 94901 dominican.edu Address service requested