Mills Quarterly, Spring 2023

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Mills Quarterly Spring 2023

Nicole Guidotti-Hernández The first Mills Institute director

“It wasn’t just a textbook.

It was a lot of real-world learning that broadened my understanding.”

—Tomia Patterson ’23 Major: History, Culture, and Law

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first-generation college student and mother of three, Tomia Patterson ’23 wasn’t thinking about a study-abroad program when she entered Mills, but when newly merged Mills College at Northeastern University offered a faculty-led tour of Israel through Northeastern’s Dialogues of Civilization program, she was quick to hop on board—and was able to do so through a Mills alum gift.

“I had to pay for my flight and food, but a Mills alum paid the majority of my tuition. I wouldn’t have been able to go otherwise; there was no way,” says Patterson, who heard firsthand of differing stances on Israel from Jewish and Palestinian leaders during her trip—an experience that will inform her perspective in a career as a public policy negotiator.

While a unique alum gift made this experience possible for Tomia and a handful of other continuing Mills students, just imagine how awards from the Mills College Annual Fund—powered by donors like you—could open the door to real-world opportunities for many more students. By making a gift to the Mills College Annual Fund, you can help scholars based on the Mills campus take advantage of these life-changing experiences.

Bring learning to life: Your gift to the Mills College Annual Fund supports Mills-based scholars exclusively, inside the classroom and out.

Please make a gift by calling 510.430.2366, visiting alumnae.mills.edu/give, or returning the enclosed envelope.

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CONTENTS

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SPRING 2023 9

Mills Quarterly Reader Survey 2023

Share your thoughts on what you want to see in this magazine!

13 “I Am Committed to the Mills Legacy” by Allison Rost

As the first head of the Mills Institute, Nicole Guidotti-Hernández has a lot to say about where Mills goes from here.

18 Is DEI Work Here to Stay? by Sarah Stevenson, MFA ’04

After renewed interest in creating equitable spaces post-2020, the DEI industry is at a crossroads both for trainers and trainees.

32 Sizing Up Works of Art by Emily Withnall

The love for art history that Nan Chisholm developed at Mills has led her down a fascinating path—including to PBS.

Departments 3 Opening Message 4 Mills Matters 22 AAMC News 24 Class Notes 29 In Memoriam

On the cover: Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, the inaugural executive director of the Mills Institute, photographed outside Mills Hall on February 16. Photo by Ruby Wallau.

Letters to the Editor

Volume CXII, Number 3 (USPS 349-900) Spring 2023 Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement Nikole Hilgeman Adams

I WAS GLAD TO SEE the three recipients of the 2022 Alumnae Awards featured in the winter 2023 Quarterly. The people who nominated and introduced two of them were mentioned, but this was not the case with Shanta “Shay” Franco-Clausen, who received the Recent Graduate Award.

Darcy Totten ’03 and I nominated Shay, and I introduced her during the ceremony.

I am also the recipient of the 2009 Recent Graduate Award. I would greatly appreciate it if this could be added as a correction or addendum to the next Quarterly.

–Angela Adams DeMoss, MA ’99, Stockton, California

TODAY, I RECEIVED A COPY of a magazine titled Mills Quarterly. When I was a student at Mills College, we used to sing: For you girls belong to Mills And Mills belongs to you.

This publication does not tell about my Mills, the Mills that belonged to me. I read through it carefully. Now I understand that it is a publication of Northeastern University at Mills.

Mills College remains in my heart. I have to mourn the loss of Mills College at Mills.

–Jane Robinson Shoemaker ’64, Coquitlam, British Columbia

Managing Editor Allison Rost Design and Art Direction Nancy Siller Wilson Editorial Assistant Danielle Collins ’24 Contributors Lila Goehring ’21 Sarah Stevenson, MFA ’04 Ruby Wallau Emily Withnall The Mills Quarterly (USPS 349-900) is published quarterly by Mills College at Northeastern University, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613. Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, California, and at additional mailing office(s).

Postmaster: Send address changes to the Office of Institutional Advancement, Mills College at Northeastern University, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613.

Copyright © 2023, Mills College at Northeastern University Address correspondence to: Mills Quarterly 5000 MacArthur Blvd.

Oakland, CA 94613 Email: quarterly@mills.edu mills.quarterly@northeastern.edu Phone: 510.430.3312

Share your thoughts

Submit your letter to the editor via email to quarterly@mills.edu, online at quarterly.mills.edu, or by mail at: Mills Quarterly 5000 MacArthur Blvd.

Oakland, CA 94613 The Quarterly reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity.

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M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

In our winter 2023 issue, in relation to our feature article on couples that met at Mills, we asked alums who met their husbands through mixers on campus in the ’40s/’50s to share their stories. Here are two we received. –Ed. I HAVE A GREAT STORY of my life with Dick Lee! We met at a Mills/ Stanford mixer in Orchard Meadow Hall in 1953. Our relationship was kept alive by Tish Thoreson Teeter ’57, who grew up with Dick in North Dakota. We had frequent commutes between Stanford and Mills, and I announced our engagement at Mills in 1956. We were married in the old Mills chapel by the gate (later a coffeehouse) one week after graduation, in June 1957, with a reception at Reinhardt Alumnae House afterward.

In fact, we celebrated our 50th anniversary at RAH in 2007. In all, we were married 63 years, during which Dick loyally attended Mills events in New York City, Sacramento, San Francisco, and on campus.

–Patricia Taylor Lee ’57, San Francisco

I LIVED IN MILLS HALL all four years, and on a Sunday in September 1949, there was a “tea” dance in the big living room there. I met my future husband, Bernard (with me in both photos), at that dance. He was not from Cal or Stanford, but the Naval Air Station in Alameda. We were married June 1953 and were together for 52 years when he passed away in July 2005.

–Beatrice Sarett Tesch ’52, Middletown, Rhode Island

A Letter from the Managing Editor of Mills Quarterly

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s a so-called “Elder Millennial,” I got the best of both worlds.

When I took high-school photography in the late ’90s, I learned how to develop my own film and create hardcopy prints, but I also received instruction in the basics of Photoshop. I started learning how to type on my mom’s old typewriter, but I really perfected my keyboarding skills while speedily using AOL Instant Messenger in college.

And most importantly for this job, I love a good print publication. Like many of you, I get much of my news online, but there’s just something about a Sunday spent diving into the weekend paper that can’t be replaced. When I was a kid, I devoured everything I could—from Highlights and Zillions to the stacks of Reader’s Digest at my grandmother’s house. I even started my own magazine in the third grade. (It was all hand-lettered, and I produced exactly one issue.)

In a world where anything and everything is online, it’s only natural there’s a movement back toward the analog. Trend stories have recently popped up about Gen Z photographers turning toward film cameras—not to mention the huge resurgence of vinyl records over the past 15 years— and MediaPost reported last year that the number of new print magazines launched in 2021 was up more than 200% from the year before. We’re starting to bear that out at the Quarterly; while in recent years, we’ve developed a standalone website for the Quarterly and branched out into social media through accounts on Instagram and Twitter, our next steps bring us back to the paper product you’re holding right now.

Well before the pandemic, we’d already started looking at how we could refresh the print version of the Quarterly. Like everyone else, we got stuck trying to keep our heads above water for a while, but we’re finally moving forward. One way we’re doing that is by reconfiguring the magazine’s style, possibly through fonts and layouts that call to mind Quarterly issues of the past. With the reputation and history

of printing and publishing on the Mills campus, it’s only natural to reflect that in our pages. Look for an updated Quarterly later this year or early in 2024.

The second way is through determining what it is that you, our readers, want to see.

The Quarterly last ran a magazine-specific survey long enough ago that thousands of alums have graduated since then. We are well overdue on checking in with our readership, and I invite you to turn to page 9 to get started. This is your chance to make your voice heard for the Quarterly now and in the years ahead, and I truly hope to receive a wide swath of opinions from all corners of the Mills community.

In recent months, I’ve been asked why we don’t print more letters to the editor or Class Notes, and the reason is simple: We don’t receive that many. Similarly, for this survey, don’t assume that someone who shares your opinion will send it in for you—if nothing else, please take a quick moment to share your thoughts in one of the open text fields. As we enter a new era on campus, let’s demonstrate our continuing enthusiasm for a Mills-focused publication and make sure it reflects what the Mills community wants.

In addition to the reader survey, this issue also includes an interview with newly arrived Mills Institute Executive Director Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, as well as a story by Sarah Stevenson, MFA ’04, about alums who work in the diversity and inclusion space. It felt like the right time to publish the results of an audit we’ve been conducting over the past several years to gauge racial representation in the pages of the magazine. We’ve looked at who we feature, who writes for us, and who shoots our photos—basically everyone whose name appears somewhere in each issue of the Quarterly. Turn to page 21 to take a look.

We don’t think that publishing this information is the endpoint of this work; on the contrary, we’re digging into more specific data (e.g., by section, by constituency group) and examining what we can do to make the magazine as representative of

Allison Rost

the true makeup of the Mills community as possible. The results from the survey should also provide guidance in this regard, as you may notice from the question on the first page. We hope both of these efforts will help us make measurable progress!

I marked my four-year anniversary at the Quarterly last fall, which means that by the time you read this, I will have been here longer than I’ve ever been at one job. (Isn’t job-hopping another thing Millennials supposedly do?) Most of those changes were the result of my employers relocating, or big geographic moves of my own, but it recently got me thinking: Was I starting to feel restless? Did it feel like time for another big move? And it took me about .2 seconds to realize that the answer is no.

And that’s because we’ve done a lot during my tenure at Mills, but there’s still so much potential out there for the Quarterly.

I’m really excited to help realize it.

Many thanks to Mari Matoba ’03, whose market research expertise helped shape our survey questions; my student assistants past and present— Lila Goehring ’21; Tri-an Cao ’21, MFA ’22; and Danielle Collins ’24—for their meticulous data processing in examining representation in the Quarterly; and my colleague Alison Ross in Advancement Services for pulling info about the demographics of the full alum community. (Yes, our names really are that similar. We dressed as each other for Halloween.)

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Mills Matters Merger updates

On February 28, Congresswoman Barbara Tutt Lee ’73 put the rumors to rest by announcing her candidacy for the California US Senate seat to be vacated by Senator Dianne Feinstein at the end of her term in early 2025. After releasing a video online, Lee held her first campaign rally at Laney College on February 25, with Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, and Assemblymember Mia Bonta in attendance.

Earlier this year, as Lee’s name was floated as a possibility for Feinstein’s Senate seat, she spoke with Jezebel to say that any announcement would be made with due respect to Feinstein, and that she hopes to repeal the Hyde Amendment while still a member of the House of Representatives. She has long credited her time at Mills with nurturing her political aspirations; she encountered Representative Shirley Chisholm on campus during Chisholm’s 1972 presidential campaign and later worked on Chisolm’s primary campaign.

A week later, Lateefah Simon ’17 announced that she would run to replace Lee in California’s 12th Congressional District. She earned her Mills degree in public policy, received a MacArthur Genius Grant at the age of 26—before she enrolled at Mills— and worked for now-Vice President Kamala Harris when Harris was the San Francisco district attorney.

She currently serves as the director for District 7 on the BART board of directors.

Simon, who is legally blind, has long advocated for public transit in her 25-year career in community organizing.

On January 18, Northeastern’s Faculty Senate voted to admit Mills College as the 10th college at Northeastern with a vote of 29-0-1. The vote officially gave Mills College at Northeastern University the authorization to grant degrees, and it creates a pathway for Mills faculty to serve on the Faculty Senate and the University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.

In the meeting, Provost David Madigan said that Mills faculty members will continue to go through Mills promotion and tenure processes. ►The admissions process for the fall 2023 entering class is underway, with Northeastern’s Office of Enrollment Management reporting a goal of 150 fouryear students to join the Mills campus in August. Approximately 1,000 undergraduate applicants to Northeastern overall expressed interest in studying in Oakland (35 submissions came in for graduate-level study), with 1,800 offers going out. Admissions offers are also being sent to students interested in one of the four Northeastern programs available this fall: computer science, business administration, health science, and biology. ►In addition, the Global Scholars program will take place on the Mills campus this fall, with two cohorts of approximately 425 students spending alternating semesters in Oakland and at Northeastern’s London location. ►The Oakland-based Northeastern admissions staff is growing, with two positions for assistant director and a senior recruiter slot open as of press time, in anticipation for recruitment that’s more personalized to the Mills campus and upcoming new programs in fall 2024. ►According to Michael Fleming, the longtime director of planning, analytics, and effectiveness on the Mills campus, the fall 2022 semester saw 168 returning Mills undergraduates and 25 returning graduate students.

S T E V E BA BU L JA K

S T E V E BA BU L JA K

Alums running for Congress

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M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

Students find support in major gifts Mills College at Northeastern University gratefully acknowledges the following members of the community for their gifts, grants, and pledges of $50,000 or more, received between July 1 and December 31, 2022.

• The estate of Linda M. Johnson ’66 for its unrestricted bequest, which will help the Mills campus respond to urgent financial demands and meet student needs.

• Mei Kwong ’70 and Laurence Franklin for their support of the Dialogues of Civilization Summer Program, which will enable students to study abroad for specific subjects in locations such as Ireland (for literature and film) and Vietnam and Cambodia (food and culture).

• The PG&E Corporation Foundation for its donations to the Upward Bound Gift Fund and the Educational Talent Search Program, both of which support local students from under-resourced high schools who want to pursue higher education.

Special classes pop up on campus Subjects such as book art, dance, and media studies are finding new life on the Mills campus this year in the form of pop-up classes. These unique one-credit electives are offered to students at no additional charge, and accommodate 10 to 20 participants who generally meet for a handful of sessions rather than a full semester.

Visiting Associate Professor of Biology Helen Walter volunteered to oversee this special slate in the fall semester in conjunction with her role in coordinating global Northeastern programs for the Oakland campus. She reports that seven pop-ups are happening this spring—from Postcards, Mail Art & Zines to Can Comedy Save Democracy?—with surveys among Mills faculty members happening now to set up classes for the fall.

“We’ll probably offer eight to 10 [next semester], and we’ll likely offer a different selection in the spring when we have different students,” Walter says. “They’re designed for situations in which a student needs to drop a class, but they need another add-in to still be considered full time.”

Pop-up classes are already part of the Northeastern academic experience, and they’re making an appearance on the Mills campus (for continuing students as well as new ones) with the support of the College of Arts, Media, and Design (CAMD) in Boston. But they’ve largely flown under the radar thus far, and Walter acknowledges that the process of communicating their existence to possible participants has been tough—but will see improvements going forward. “Really, the best way is for us to give information to students at registration,” Walter says. “They don’t have to choose right then, and they may come across something later they may want to take, but we can impress upon them that these classes are a way to add on to their college experience.”

One pop-up class that took place last semester was Creation to Performance, a dance class in which four Northeastern first-years participated and Mills dance alums choreographed.

“Our pop-up was a wonderful opportunity for incoming Northeastern students to quickly get a deeper feeling for the extraordinary history of dance at Mills,” says Sheldon Smith, chair of the Department of Dance and Theater Studies. “And it was so great to get to know these students and realize that there are many more just like them who want to dance, make dances, and share in an artistic community.”

Ambassador alum to speak at Commencement Michèle Nichols Taylor ’88, who is the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council, will address the Class of 2023 as this year’s Commencement speaker (Commencement is on April 30; see the back cover for more information.).

She is a daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who has been a longtime activist for human rights.

Taylor has previously served on the board of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council, and as a member of the Anti-Defamation League’s Southeast regional board.

“I have danced my whole life in a variety of styles, I love performing, and I wanted to stay active in college.

I loved performing at Mills because I was able to take advantage of the wonderful theater and studio, and meet a lot of Mills alumnae/i.

I’m so thankful I was part of the class.”

–Sophia Fettig, Northeastern first-year

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After the College auctioned off its copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio in fall 2019, many wondered what other treasures were held in the Mills archives. David Nordham with Northeastern Global News sat down with Director of the Library and Special Collections Janice Braun in the Heller Rare Book Room to learn more about what those items might be.

A few of them: • Several remarkable Bibles, including a leaf from a Gutenberg Bible, printed in 1454; an annotated second edition of the King James Bible, also known as the “she” Bible, from 1611; and a Martin Luther translation of the Bible from 1539.

• A 1481 version of Dante’s La divina commedia from Florence that includes notes from the philosopher and artist Cristoforo Landino and hand-drawn engravings.

• Thirty-six titles from the Arts and Crafts-influenced Kelmscott Press, which operated in London between 1891 and 1898, including a full collection of Geoffrey Chaucer’s works.

RU BY WA L L AU

Precious items still part of the Mills archives

• The herbal, or, Generall historie of plantes from 1633 by John Gerard, one of the first chronicles of botany in the English language.

• The archives of Beate Sirota Gordon ’43, who helped write the new Japanese constitution post-World War II; former music professors Pauline Oliveros and Darius Milhaud; and world-famous musician Patti Smith.

Previous Quarterly stories have delved into several of those collections housed at Mills, as well as that of Senate candidate Barbara Tutt Lee ’73 and opera singer Emma Nevada, who graduated from Mills Seminary in 1876. Read those articles at quarterly.mills.edu.

The Mills archives are available for alums and members of the community alike to peruse. Visit library.mills.edu to learn more about how to access them and the other collections that are housed in F. W. Olin Library.

Calendar

Mills College Art Museum The museum is open 11:00 am–4:00 pm Tuesday through Sunday and until 7:30 pm Wednesday. Admission is free. Visit mcam.mills.edu for more information.

Murmurations: 2023 MFA Exhibition ■ April 22–May 28 Graduating MFA candidates with concentrations in studio and book art showcase their work.

A+P+I Artist Talk April 4 ■ Heesoo Kwon Heesoo Kwon, current artist-in-residence in our Art+Process+Ideas artist residency, started making art to shed the burdens of patriarchal society, initiating an autobiographical religion Leymusoom as an ever-evolving framework to explore her family histories and communal feminist liberation. 12:00 pm, Danforth Lecture Hall at Jane B. Aron Art Center.

Mills Music Now Concert Series Visit performingarts.mills.edu for more information on times and tickets.

April 16 ■ Music of Barbara Strozzi, Venetian Virtuosa

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Campus kudos A selection of recent achievements by faculty, staff, and students

Victor Talmadge

in December 2022 about co-founding the new Student Disability Alliance on the Mills campus. “I just want to engage with as many people as I can, disabled or otherwise, because as long as people are talking about it, it’s not going to disappear,” she told the publication.

Professor of Theater Studies Victor Talmadge spoke with The New York Times in January regarding Alec Baldwin’s indictment for involuntary manslaughter of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer on the movie “Rust.” Talmadge is also an actor who has worked with firearms on New Mexico sets and said that he thought the incident wouldn’t result in lasting change in the film industry.

PHOTOS BY MARLENA SLOSS

As mentioned in a Berkeleyside article on December 6, 2022, the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business is partnering with the City of Berkeley’s Disaster and Fire Safety Commission to prep local residents for potentially unpopular elements of the city’s Safe Passages Program, which will likely restrict parking in hilly neighborhoods Yulia Pinkusevich Cliff Lee upon implementation.

Professor of Spanish Carlota Lee is also the program director of the Caulfield’s “Ghromyt,” a 2022 work Educators for Liberation, Justice, and Joy. blending text with visuals that she coProfessor of Art Yulia Pinkusevich created with J.M. Calleja, was included had a piece on display as part of In Search in Red Fox Press’ new compendium on of the Miraculous, an exhibition at New experimental poetry.

York’s Marlborough Gallery, from January Assistant Adjunct Professor of 24 to March 11.

Communication Keli Dailey performed Christina Rodriguez, EDD ’25, was a monologue on “What would you featured in an Al Día article about the do if this happened to you on Muni?” program she founded, Latinas with on stage as part of Muni Diaries Live Masters. The organization supports its on November 3, 2022. The website members with career and job searching Muni Diaries then released Dailey’s advice and connects them with profesperformance as a podcast episode on sional opportunities. Rodriguez also December 14. speaks and consults on diversity, equity, Professor of Education Cliff Lee’s new inclusion, and belonging topics, and she’s book, Code for What? Computer Science started a Latinas with Masters podcast. for Storytelling and Social Justice, was Ivy Sigerson ’25 spoke with The Scope published by MIT Press on January 10.

The renowned activist Angela Davis made a return to the Mills campus on March 2 for “We Are Enough: A Guide to Collective Action with Angela Davis” in Littlefield Concert Hall. She appeared in conversation with Cierra Russell, the director of the Mills Center for Student Leadership, Equity, and Excellence, as the keynote speaker of Peace and Social Justice Week.

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Conference kicks off new Black Reparations Project

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he Lorry I. Lokey School of Business and Public Policy, in conjunction with Northeastern Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) and UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, held its first Black Reparations Conference online on February 23-24. Speakers included California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber and California Reparations Task Force Chair Kamilah Moore as part of a robust agenda that brought together municipal leaders and community organizers to discuss the various issues of what can often be a charged topic—but also gave credence to self-care and joy.

The impetus behind the conference, whose theme was “Learning, Challenges, and Strategies in Reparations Work,” was the newly formed Black Reparations Project (BRP) at Mills, which grew out of a course first taught during the 2020 summer session. The class, titled The Case for Reparations: Responding to Racism in the United States, hit the schedule at a fraught moment for race relations in the United States: “We had already planned to teach the class and then, as it happened, it became all the more timely,” said former Mills professor (and current UC Berkeley faculty member) Erika Weissinger.

“It went so well that we turned it into a full semester class, and then we thought that we could hold a conference and do even more,” added Associate Adjunct The Womanist, the Mills feminist literary magazine, celebrated its 30th anniversary with a release party for its fall issue on January 26 at Reinhardt Alumnae House. The journal’s editors staged live readings on the issue’s theme of metamorphosis: “A memorial to our past, an awareness of our present, and the anticipation of our future.”

The Womanist began in 1992 as a project of students of color in what’s now the Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies Department as a way to provide publishing opportunities to writers of color.

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Professor of Public Policy Ashley Adams, who is one of four BRP co-chairs with Weissinger; Professor of Practice Darcelle Lahr, MA ’17, EDD ’18; and Lokey Director of Graduate Programs and Alum Engagement Ife Tayo Walker. “The ideas just started flowing, so we brought together the community of people we were already working with to improve the lives of Black people.”

The concept of reparations to the descendants of American chattel slavery and its aftermath is not a new one, but it has received more attention in recent months and years, especially since those Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. One point of debate is what reparations could look like—for example, the City of San Francisco is considering giving funds directly to those affected by the legacy of slavery, while other proposals have included housing assistance and scholarship funds. The BRP aims to encourage the conversation and the many directions it could go.

“There are a lot of different opinions and beliefs about how reparation should be approached, and we want to explore all of the different ways that folks are thinking about this,” Lahr said. “There really is no one single answer.”

In that way, the BRP chairs want to grow beyond this first (and anticipatedto-be annual) conference to become a repository and a starting point for institutions, particularly in the Bay Area.

Among other colleges and universities,

Northeastern is doing the work through CRRJ on the East Coast, and UCLA is concentrating on Southern California. “One of the things we’re seeing is every time a municipality decides it’s interested in pursuing reparations, there’s quite a bit of reinventing the wheel and engaging in factfinding missions,” Weissinger said. “We’re eager to provide the technical expertise and help these different groups connect with each other, but also learn from what the others have already found.”

“The conference is an initial coming together of voices, and then we want our project to continue and deepen the conversation. We can offer a central place where minds and hearts can come together,” Lahr added. Putting the conference together was a start to that strategy; the BRP held listening sessions in the fall to craft the event and solicited feedback from professionals already deeply immersed in the topic.

The number of schools doing this work also paves the way for collaborations. Adams reported that the BRP is working with two Black Reparation Fellows as part of their capstone projects at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School, and she also credited CRRJ head and Northeastern Professor Margaret Burnham for Burnham’s immediate support.

The BRP invites anyone interested in keeping up with the initiative’s work to fill out the form at reparations.sites .northeastern.edu/join. Lahr, as an alum, is already working with members of the Alumnae of Color Committee of the AAMC. “There is enormous intergenerational harm and pain that folks are suffering across the board. We want to make sure that’s upfront and centered, and to bring to light many of the reasons why this conversation needs to be had,” she said.

“We all know there were hundreds of years spent creating the systems that we have in place now, and it will take more than just one class, more than one conference, to create the world we want to see,” Weissinger added.

Mills Quarterly Reader Survey 2023 We appreciate you taking the time to tell us your thoughts about the Quarterly. The demographic questions on this first page are completely voluntary, but your answers will help us determine whether we’re meeting the needs of everyone in the Mills community. Questions about the content that appears in the magazine start on the next page.

The due date for this survey is June 1. Once you have finished filling out the survey, please cut out these two pages using the marks along the margin, fold them in thirds, and either use the remit envelope included in this issue to send in your survey, or use your own envelope to mail it in at: Mills Quarterly 5000 MacArthur Blvd.

Oakland, CA 94613 If it’s more convenient, you can submit this survey online. Visit quarterly.mills.edu, and make sure you have the ninedigit code (beginning with an A or a B) that appears above your name on the back cover of this issue to access the link.

If you need assistance, email us at quarterly@mills.edu.

Demographic Questions What kind of degree did you receive from Mills? (Select all that apply) m Undergraduate (e.g. BA/BS) m Graduate (e.g. MFA/EDD) m Certification/credential (e.g. SAS/PMC) m No degree completed m I’m not a Mills alum

If you attended/graduated from Mills, how long have you been a member of the alum community? m 0-10 years m 11-20 years m 21-30 years m 31-40 years m 41-50 years m 50+ years

How do you racially identify? If you identify as multiracial, please select all races that apply to you. m Asian m Black m Hispanic m Native American or Alaska Native m Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander m Middle Eastern/from the Arab World m White m Race not listed/unknown m Prefer not to say

Do you identify with any of the following communities? (Select all that apply) m Bent Twig m Disability m LGBTQIA+ m Neurodiversity m Resumer m Other: SPRING 2023

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Quarterly Content Questions Please respond to the following statements regarding your reading of the Quarterly.

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I know what’s happening on campus.

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Opening Letter (previously President’s Letter)

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Mills College Annual Fund promotion

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Letters to the Editor

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Mills Matters (news from campus)

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AAMC News & Notes

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Gifts in Honor/Memory

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Class Notes

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Bookshelf

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In Memoriam

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What topics would you like to see covered in future issues of the Quarterly?

Who in the Mills community deserves recognition in the Quarterly, and why?

How interested would you be in regularly seeing the following kinds of content in the Quarterly?

Very interested

Somewhat interested

Not at all interested

Poetry/creative writing

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Alum/student art

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Faculty profiles

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Faculty projects

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Unique class offerings

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Student profiles

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Student projects

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Vintage Mills photos

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Games (e.g. write your own caption, guess the location)

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How-tos/advice*

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Recipes

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Event recaps

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Mills trivia

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*(e.g. how to make book art at home or negotiate a higher salary)

What other suggestions do you have for recurring features in the Quarterly?

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Have you submitted a Class Note within the last five years? (Circle one) Yes No I don’t recall

If no, why? (Select all that apply) m I don’t know how m It’s too difficult m I haven’t had any news to report m I’m already connected with the classmates with whom I wish to share news m I use Facebook or other social networking sites to keep up with my fellow alums m Other:

Have you logged into alumnae.mills.edu to view Class Notes? (Circle one) Yes No I don’t recall

Have you visited the Quarterly website (quarterly.mills.edu)? (Circle one) Yes No I don’t recall

What possible Quarterly website enhancements would you find useful? (Select all that apply) m Audio versions of stories

m More extensive archives

m Online exclusive stories

m Email notifications when new issues are available

m Other:

If you have any additional comments to share with the Quarterly editorial team, please do so here.

If you wish to provide the Quarterly with your contact information in case the team has additional questions or if you have interest in serving as part of a possible focus group, please do so here.

Name/grad year Email address Phone number

Thank you for participating!

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“I Am Committed to the Mills Legacy” Nicole Guidotti-Hernández shares her thoughts and initial plans on her new role as the inaugural executive director of the Mills Institute.

By Allison Rost Photos by Ruby Wallau

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I

F YOU WALK into the Mills Hall living room

from the Oval and turn to the right, you’ll soon find suite 128. In previous years, it’s served as the headquarters for Graduate Literary Studies and the Institute for Civic Leadership, and of course, it may have once been residential space. It’s a collection of rooms that, at least in February of this year, doesn’t contain much save for some modular furniture and a conference table.

Except for the center office. The new digs of Mills Institute Executive Director Nicole GuidottiHernández are already chockablock with papers and publications, but like much of the Institute’s framework, the larger space is waiting for her plans to come to fruition.

In a career that’s taken her from Ithaca and Tucson to Austin and Atlanta, she’s fought against structural sexism in the academy in ways that are likely familiar to many Mills alums—and have driven her to this new opportunity to build up the Mills Institute into a launching pad for social justice efforts. In a wideranging interview on February 2, she spoke candidly about that, though we recommend catching GuidottiHernández in person as she visits various regional Mills clubs or online in a Zoom alum forum on April 18. What may not translate on the page is the sheer conviction and enthusiasm she’s bringing to the table.

Mills Quarterly: How are things going so far? I didn’t realize you had this much space.

Nicole Guidotti-Hernández: I’m still not entirely unpacked, but I’m excited that this space is starting to shape up. The Mills Institute’s plan is to grow, and we’ll fully embrace the Northeastern model of hoteling and flex space. We’ll expand into new spaces, or be in our space but also connect to other places nationally, globally, etc. I fully anticipate that folks from across the Northeastern network will be traveling here to work with us, and we’ll have plenty of space to accommodate them. At the same time, we’re also using the historic space of Mills Hall. It will become a curated space because we are the institutional container of the Mills legacy. We want to make sure that people see pieces of the historic Mills in this suite and not just in our programs. We’re going to rotate images from the archives of the College and the museum, and we’ll use this as a gallery space—not just for Mills pieces, but for prominent women artists.

You’re starting to staff up, with positions open for grant writer and assistant program director (as of early February). There could also be student workers and people traveling from other spaces.

What do you envision this space looking like?

Those two roles will be hybrid for now. We will also hire an associate director full-time. The program

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coordinator will be the most public facing aside from myself and the AD. We’ll also hire an admin assistant who will be at the front desk all the time. And a student worker.

Eventually, we want to have a social media person.

We’re working on a coherent marketing and social media campaign that includes a logo and brand distinction, so people understand where we sit within Northeastern and where we are in relationship to the historic Mills College.

I’d like to use the Mills archives to write about concrete topics related to the College. When Aurelia Reinhardt was president, there were several interned Japanese women who wrote to ask about how to start preschools in the camps. I want to write about them, and how Mills was seen in that internment moment as a model for early childhood education. When we’re up and running, and we have the capacity—I’m hoping that’s in two years—then I can really start this historical work that will put the Institute on the map.

This isn’t the first time you’ve been the inaugural leader of an organization. I wanted to ask you about your experiences at the University of Texas at Austin with the new Department of Mexican American and Latino/a Studies there.

In retrospect, I think I can take away from the experience what not to do. While I faced some generational sexism, I did have really good mentors.

I learned donor stewardship while I was there. I learned how to talk to people about ethnic studies as something that’s valuable and useful, not just about making people feel better. I built a department in a year. I learned a ton and it was super useful, but I was too ambitious and too visionary as a Mexican American woman who went to school on the East Coast and wasn’t from Texas. I’m from California and I’m mixed-race, so I didn’t fit in. I had the support of President Bill Powers, but once he stepped away, I decided to move on.

You grew up in the Salinas area, right? How did that background affect your experiences with higher ed? Were you a first-generation college student?

My mom and I graduated from college the same year: she from San Jose State and I from UC Santa Cruz.

I encountered sexism when I was in high school.

My counselor was a Mexican American man, and he was very nice, but he did not encourage me to go to a four-year university. He was like, “Just go to Hartnell (College, in Salinas), mija, it will be fine!” I didn’t think about applying to college until my senior year, and I applied to one place—University of San Francisco.

I had no guidance whatsoever, and I didn’t get in. I

was a kid who grew up in the gifted and talented program, but if I’d had a different high school counselor, maybe things would have gone differently.

Unfortunately, I did not know about Mills until I was already in graduate school, but I would have been a great Mills undergraduate. Clearly, the problems that I had by confronting authority as a young woman had to do with my feminist leanings and the fact that I wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Instead, after community college, I went to the other hippie school, and that was life-changing, because we were treated like intellectuals. It was the best decision ever. I found my footing, I found my people, I found my community. I was trained to follow interests that are so interdisciplinary that I’m just agnostic. I read in every field, and I’ve taught history, women’s studies, and English. UC Santa Cruz opened those doors for me.

How did you get from there to Cornell?

My undergraduate mentor, Margo Hendricks, was one of five Black Shakespeare scholars. She said, “You’re going to graduate school, but you’re only going to go to a top 25 program or you’re not going. Your parents don’t know what you’re doing—they think you have to get a job. Figure out

where you’re going to apply, but if you get in and don’t get funding, you’re not going.” So, I did.

I applied to about 25 programs, and I was admitted to six. I was narrowing it down between Wisconsin and Washington and hadn’t heard from Cornell, but one of my mentors said I should call.

I did, and I was on the wait list. When they told me they had a spot for me, they invited me to visit, and they got out all the students of color in the department for me to meet. But I decided to go, and some of my oldest and dearest friends now were in that group.

Of course, it was still really hard, and when I called my parents, they asked, “What’s it like?” I said, “I don’t know. It’s like Home Alone: I’ve never seen anything like this before, but I’m going to do it.”

And it happened! Cornell has amazing resources, though it didn’t necessarily know what to do with us as students of color. I became a part of the activist community around ethnic studies. It was very DIY; I have a whole archive of material from when we were agitating for Latinx studies that I’m eventually going to write about. We wrote a 25-page report where we mapped out a 10-year plan for how they should build the program. I chalk up those experiences to

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why I’m a good administrator because I was already thinking structurally as a student.

You just wrapped up four listening sessions with the Mills community. How did those go?

We had two in person and two online. Eighty people participated, and it was 70% Mills people and 30% from the Northeastern network, which was exactly what I wanted. We didn’t capture enough from students, but we’re going to go back and do a mind-mapping session with them so they get their space to think about what this place means to them. But back to the sessions: I don’t think people knew what to expect. We flipped the tables and asked folks to pitch ideas to us. That was

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my way of signaling that I want to harness their creativity, their intellect, their experience, their concerns, and make sure they show up in the strategic plan. It was a little unorthodox, but I think the sessions modeled what is to come.

We will eventually hold an unveiling of the strategic plan, and we will say, for example, “Susan Baker from the Class of 1980 proposed this idea and we’re moving forward with it. Susan, we want to publicly acknowledge your work, your thoughtfulness, and your engagement with the Mills Institute.”

What was the thinking behind the listening sessions? How did you approach them?

My thinking was that we need to have a space where people can say what they need to say and make their feelings known without feeling like they have to say what they think I want to hear. That’s why I went to the listening sessions, introduced myself, and left. Good leadership isn’t just about walking the walk, but also about knowing when to step away and give people the space to do and say what they need to in an unencumbered fashion.

For me, acknowledging the labor of people, particularly of women, is vital. BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ folks often do all kinds of behind-the-scenes work that doesn’t get compensated. I would like the Mills Institute to be the soft-landing place that says, “We know historically what your labor has been. We’re acknowledging it here and we want to move forward with you.”

There may not be a concrete answer to this yet, but what specific kinds of roles would alums be able to play in the institute?

Learning for the life cycle is going to be one of our key concepts. So, for alumnae, that means mentoring folks, developing programs under that rubric, fundraising for those programs, participating in those programs, attending launches and conferences, etc.

The other place where I see alumnae interfacing is in our community partnerships, broadly defined. I’m talking about those partnerships as glocal: thinking globally but acting locally.

For instance, Mills once had a historic partnership with Ewha Womans University in South Korea. I want to reignite that, and I want alumnae who participated in that exchange or roomed with people in that exchange to help us think about and reimagine what a partnership between our students and their students looks like in the 21st century. Would alumnae want to do a one-week intensive gender-studies course in Korea with Korean faculty? Would our undergrads want to go?

And would we want to add in a greater component for girls in the Oakland Unified School District?

Those are the kinds of partnerships I’m thinking about, spanning generations and creating a place for inter-generational knowledge production by nonbinary folks, women, and girls.

Another strand coming out of planning is that we will need alumnae to help us cultivate a pipeline of what I’m calling advocacy professionals.

Those are people who essentially engage in work around advocacy—most Mills graduates are advocates, right?—and how we can formalize advocacy work that’s often uncompensated. That’s not firm yet, but that’s where I’m heading.

And we’ll need alumnae to help us populate user networks, locally and nationally, to find professionals who already have bachelor’s degrees but are looking to make a career pivot. The Mills Institute charter specifically mentions educating women and girls in transition. So, let’s say someone’s been a software engineer for 20 years, and they want to become a DEI officer in their company and earn a certificate because they want to learn how to use DEI data to drive hiring practices. Or there’s a woman of color in an organization who is assigned the role of DEI officer because of osmosis… maybe we can help her earn a credential that allows her to ask for more money to leverage her knowledge so she can stand with authority and not be dismissed.

We have alumnae who are in tech. We have alumnae who work with a variety of organizations.

We need those connections.

So what does the first year of the Mills Institute look like? What’s the building-up process?

It’s about information intake, data collection, capacity-building, branding, populating the staff, and building trust. Once the staff is in place, then we’re going out and seeking those partnerships and other opportunities for connections.

In addition, I’m hiring a grant writer to enable the Mills Institute to become self-sustaining longer term. While generous funding from Northeastern is in place for the next several years, the best thing we can do to fortify the Mills mission is to create financial stability for the Institute in a way that couldn’t be done before. So, that grant writer is essential. That grant writer is going to drive our project model.

My idea is that once we get one grant, we’ll take the data and deliverables from that grant, and then we’ll leverage for another grant that allows us to expand our staff, deepen our reach, publish, serve more students, and make concrete moves.

I want us to be known for providing signature educational opportunities for women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ folks. And if we’re going to have a globally recognizable slate of curated programs,

research projects, and deliverables, we can’t do it on a shoestring. But I also don’t expect Northeastern to foot the bill, which is why we must be a revenuegenerating agency. It’s got to be a full-scale operation. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from feminist struggles in this country is that financial independence is key to our collective liberation.

What do you think the relationship will be between the Institute and Northeastern? What kind of symbiosis will there be, if that’s something that’s quantifiable yet?

The nature of my position already indicates that it’s a top priority for the network—I report to [Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs] David Madigan and [Senior Vice President for Global Network and Strategic Initiatives] Mary Ludden, and I’m meeting with them bi-weekly. That attention means they have really high expectations of us, but I like that: This is a system where if you can dream big and show impact, they will fund it or they will help you find a way to fund it.

I don’t just think about tomorrow, I think about five years from tomorrow. So, what does thriving look like? I think that Northeastern wants that for us too, and I want us to be the shining diamond in the network that models the importance of women and girls’ leadership, and BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ inclusion. I want others across Northeastern to look to us when they need to do a better job of getting a more diverse population in a program: “What is the Mills Institute doing? What models do they have in place?

Can we collaborate with them?”

Oakland is a deindustrializing port with lots of poverty. So is Portland, Maine [where Northeastern’s Roux Institute is located]. We may be thousands of miles apart, but we have more similarities than on the surface. I think my other job as director is to figure where those synergies are.

How can we model and create industry-standard programs that then we multiply across the network, but then maybe also take to our university partners?

We will be as visible and as important in the network as we can be, but people should know that the Institute is top of mind. We have a real opportunity to take everything that made Mills special but couldn’t do before because of financial burdens and make it all more visible and well-known.

What else do you want this audience to know that we haven’t already discussed?

I want them to know that I am available, that I am committed to the Mills legacy, and that I want to earn their trust. I don’t believe in making promises I can’t keep.  SPRING 2023

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Is DEI Work Here to Stay?

W

Between shifting politics and worker burnout, the professional diversity, equity, and inclusion space can be fraught. Three Mills alums weigh in.

hen George Floyd was murdered in 2020, millions of people took to the streets to raise their voices in grief, in protest, and in mutual support. In the wake of the public outcry came a reckoning, and a renewed push to address the deeply ingrained systemic inequities that tend to keep all but the most privileged Americans from fully thriving. One way that manifested was organizations from private companies to public education institutions taking an unflinching look at how they too might be part of the problem—and part of the solution.

Though anti-racism and anti-bias education already had a foothold, 2020 gave these efforts new life and a more widespread name: diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Also called DEIB (with the B standing for belonging) or IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, and access), the intention is to ensure that organizations are welcoming to a variety of employees, that those workers’ unique experiences and contributions are valued, and that this takes place at all levels and every step of the way—not just at the occasional required diversity training.

Diversity itself is a complicated set of ideas that encompasses not only race and ethnicity, but also gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, age, abilities/

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By Sarah J. Stevenson, MFA ’04

disabilities, socioeconomic status, religion, language, and more, as well as how those identities intersect. Equity ensures that all of us—in all our complexities— benefit from just policies and fair access to opportunities.

In practice, this might take the form of workshops for executives and management, coaching for HR leaders, or staff trainings— the traditional approach—or it might entail providing space for employee groups to work toward their visions of equity in the workplace. It might mean working with leadership to implement specific strategies, such as flexible scheduling that considers the realities of employees’ lives—if they are parents, for example, or rely on public transportation to get to work.

DEI can also include more creative, tailored strategies. Kirstyne Lange ’12, a consultant who owns her own DEI business, has found that she’s often expanded clients’ awareness of what was possible for their organizations—for instance, advising engineering firms that they could increase

“In order for practitioners to stay relevant, they have to stay true to the work at its core—not fall into the industry trends.”

–KIRSTYNE LANGE

workforce diversity by recruiting from engineering programs at historically Black colleges, or encouraging them to partner with local high schools with high numbers of students of color on STEM initiatives.

“For a number of companies that I work with, they had a hard time realizing that was a necessity, and they had a hard time implementing that into practice,” she says.

Simply put, though, diversity is good for organizations. Per the journal Research and Markets, inclusive and diverse workplaces are better able to lead change and innovation, earn 2.5 times more per

employee, and are 35% more productive.

But times and attitudes have changed.

Is the growth in DEI initiatives sustainable in a political climate that is, in some places, increasingly hostile to any efforts at anti-racism or anti-bias work? Is the worthiness of the task enough to ensure that those workers in charge of DEI stay the course in the face of burnout and lack of institutional support?

The numbers seem to indicate continuing enthusiasm: Inside Higher Ed reported a 60% increase in membership in the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education between 2020 and 2022. Over the three months that followed Floyd’s killing, the hiring of DEI experts reached an all-time high, with the largest public companies tripling their employment of chief diversity officers, according to an analysis cited by PBS NewsHour. US companies paid an estimated $3.4 billion on DEI efforts in 2020 alone.

Nevertheless, high turnover rate and fluctuating interest are ongoing problems in the field.

“I have a number of friends that work in DEI in tech who’ve gone from onboarding monumental global programs to unemployment,” Lange says. The initial urgency from a precipitating event may die down, but the desperate need for change is still there, leaving those who remain in DEI positions overextended and frustrated.

There can be other challenges, too: hostile workplace culture, inadequate funding, and insufficient support. They can even include racism and misogyny, which can— consciously or unconsciously—bias people against receiving training from, say, a Black woman. (And many DEI workers, as this article shows, are BIPOC themselves.) All these present obstacles to the core purpose of DEI: building trust and community within an organization and training employees to work across difference.

For that level of community-building to succeed, “DEI has to be part of all the work we do,” says Chiany Dri ’22, director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. In that way, she says, “It becomes part of everyone’s work and everyone’s set of expectations, and second nature for every department, as opposed to just one per-

son who drives all of it alone. I don’t think that’s sustainable.”

Sometimes, that means restructuring of core organizational systems from the ground up—a level of overhauling that companies and institutions can be reluctant to commit to, either financially or time-wise.

But it’s that wholehearted dedication

“For some people, it’s just a cost-benefit analysis,” says Muse, who is the director of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), as well as its interim chief operating officer. “‘How much do I want to pay out in settlements?’ versus ‘How much do I want to change the culture for people to actually come and thrive?’ That is a choice of the people at the top.”

When that shift does happen successfully, it means that “people across gender

“For me, this work is like planting

a seed and waiting to harvest what comes from it, as opposed to wanting quick results.” –CHIANY DRI

that ensures the success of DEI work; perfunctory attempts and stopgap solutions won’t effect lasting change, nor will treating the work as an afterthought or addon. When employees are forced to choose between attending a training or doing their jobs in the limited time they have, it’s going to be challenging to get them engaged.

To generate that engagement, management needs to be just as committed to change as the individual employees under their supervision. And change is clearly necessary—more 65% of employees feel that their managers aren’t fostering an inclusive environment, according to Research and Markets.

“What I think is important for this work to stay relevant moving forward is for all organizations to come to the table and really say, ‘We are committed to ensuring that all our employees belong. Full stop. Period.

And we will do the work to unpack the systems that are creating harm,’” says Lange.

“Everyone has a shared responsibility.”

Not only that, training in diversity and inclusion has to be just as fundamental as any other type of training, such as teaching employees how to file expense reports or navigate the company’s finance system.

Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case, according to Anyania Muse ’08, MA ’14.

and race and socioeconomics [have] the same ability to go into an organization, to have their voices heard as employees, and to do the work that they are expertly hired to do in the same ways as their privileged counterparts.” That, Muse adds, is a model for sustainability: “Your employees feel good about showing up to work, they feel good about the work they’re doing, and they trust their ability to come to a place and give value to it.”

She also points to the importance of consulting with people who have the lived experiences of a particular group in order to better address the issues faced by that group. At OSF, Muse employed experts from outside organizations such as the World Institute on Disability to help build out policies and practices around access and accessibility, and to find ways to engage a wider range of non-traditional audiences—from hiring ASL interpreters for the deaf and hard of hearing to arranging pre-performance tours of the sets and stages for audience members with low or no vision.

“That’s an investment,” she says, but it’s one that can pay dividends. One hearingimpaired patron, after talking with Muse about the work she was doing at OSF, came back and wrote a $25,000 check to continue the organization’s DEI efforts.

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DEI framework. But it’s not easy—it is work, and it can be emotionally exhausting work at that. Persevering over the long haul demands a lot of intrinsic motivation. For Muse, Dri, and Lange, much of that motivation stems from their personal experiences and early exposure to social justice issues.

Muse—the daughter of former Mills professor Daphne Muse—grew up in a house of activists and started engaging in welfare policy and equity conversations while still an undergraduate at Mills. She began consulting on welfare-related issues with many organizations, including the Institute on Women’s Policy Research, the National Crittenton Foundation, and the Mills Women’s Institute. At Cal State East Bay, she ran an equity program for BIPOC transfer students called Sankofa Scholars. She went on to be the first African American woman hired for the County of Marin as its first-ever as director of equity. In a way, she was involved in DEI work from the very beginning—long before it had a name.

Lange also grew up in an activist family—her uncle was a Black Panther—and, like Muse, she was drawn to equity work through an interest in public policy. At Mills, she helped tutor local high school students as a member of the Black Women’s Collective, and advocated for more equitable, inclusive, and accessible practices in the NCAA as part of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

After several years of working in a medical office, Lange returned to academia, helping support equitable student services in private, independent schools.

But her work wasn’t without its challenges, even at her dream job at Vistamar School in Los Angeles, where more than half of the student body were students of color.

“Not all the adults were prepared to empower the students, the employees of color, and the parents of color to navigate the system of the school, and that was difficult to endure,” Lange says—an observation that echoes some of the challenges faced by DEI professionals in general. When she left Vistamar, she decided to go into business for herself, not wanting to feel beholden to organizations or institutions in order to make a difference.

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“For some people, it’s just a cost-

benefit analysis. That is a choice of those at the top.” –ANYANIA MUSE

Dri also spent time as a DEI consultant from 2018 to 2021 before landing in her current position at Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles. Prior to her work in DEI, she wrote curricula for anti-racism training programs, but it was one of her community-college courses—Racism in America—that first opened her eyes to the possibility of equity work as a career.

She hadn’t necessarily planned on going to college at all—she gave birth to her daughter at age 18—but after attending community college and then Mills, she discovered a passion for equity work.

“I remember sitting in class and being, like, ‘Wow, this is all the language and concepts and theory that I know I’ve been experiencing, but didn’t have the language for,’” she says. “It was a really empowering moment for me.”

Sharing that sense of empowerment is one of the rewarding parts of the job, even if change isn’t always rapid. “Gears move slowly in a big organization,” Dri says.

“For me, this work is like planting a seed and waiting to harvest what comes from it, as opposed to wanting quick results.”

Perhaps that’s because the work at its core is about connecting at a very human level, and building relationships across differences is a process that takes time— and sometimes means going out of your comfort zone. Dri once worked with a director whose resistance to concepts such as trans inclusivity and Black health disparities was immediately obvious.

“They were an active participant, they shared and all of that. But it was clear that it was really hard for them, like they didn’t want to be there.” Then, two weeks later, they returned to Dri’s office and acknowledged that they’d kept thinking about the DEI training and what they’d gained: “‘I

learned about myself,’ they said. ‘I am a child of immigrants, and I never thought about how that impacted my life until a couple weeks after your training.’”

For Dri, it was an important moment, but it didn’t happen right away. “We sometimes forget that this is a process, the work is a process, and these ideas are a process for a lot of people,” she says.

The inability to guarantee results on demand is the nature of the job, but it can also be a challenge for those evaluating the work’s effectiveness and whether it’s worth paying for—especially as DEI becomes more politically charged. “So many industries are just not properly funded to do full-blown equity work,” Lange notes. And when there isn’t enough funding to devote to the task, it’s difficult to create lasting, measurable progress.

Still, Lange remains hopeful for the future of the industry. Though she foresees a dip in growth for DEI, she says, “I’m a critical optimist, and I do believe that there’s room for DEI to thrive.

“I think in order for practitioners to stay relevant, they have to stay true to the work at its core—not fall into the industry trends to get buy-in on another wave.”

Truly sustainable DEI work, then, operates beyond the fluctuating rise and fall of interest that follows the news cycle. DEI training has to be personal. It can’t magically erase people’s biases, but it can create a space where people feel safe sharing their stories and are willing to listen to others. Ideally, they can then take that experience of shared community out beyond the structured environment of the training, beyond their relationships with fellow employees, and out into the world—making it a more inclusive and equitable place to exist, bit by bit, person by person. 

Racial Representation Report Card

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he charts on this page show levels of racial representation in Mills Quarterly over the last five years, from the start of the 2018–19 academic year through the winter 2023 issue. These figures were determined by cataloguing everyone* who’s appeared in each issue of the Quarterly and cross-referencing them against our database.

The classifications below reflect those in our database, which largely reflect the classifications required when reporting statistics to the US Department of Education. (For instance, the Mills database includes a “Bi-/ Multi-racial” category, which the Department of Education does not require.) These reports, which consist entirely of data reported by members of the Mills community themselves, were only required within the last 50 years, so there are gaps in our data as a result.

The number of people who are marked Unknown do not have an ethnicity marked in our database (or do not appear in our database at all, as they are outside the Mills community), so it’s tough to perform a definitive analysis of these statistics.

That aside, the data at hand do show that the Quarterly’s representation of individuals who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or People of Color) over the last five years has evolved in ways that more accurately depict the makeup of the overall population of Mills alums. Representation within that group has fluctuated over that same time period, indicating that a more consistent approach in outreach to our various affinity groups is needed.

We recognize that not every issue can be an exact microcosm of our readership. But we do strive to ensure an overall balance that fully illustrates every aspect of the alum experience—work that is never truly finished.

* These statistics include each individual who was interviewed or highlighted in a story or column, or credited with writing, photography, or graphic design. If the person was mentioned in multiple items, they were counted for each separate appearance per story or column. For instance, if an alum appeared in a feature article and in Class Notes, they were counted twice.

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AAMC NEWS & NOTES A Message from the AAMC President and Board of Governors Spring greetings, fellow alumnae!

The month of torrential rains in January in Northern California is thankfully behind us as the bounties of spring unfold. But come rain or shine, your AAMC Board of Governors has been busy working to find paths toward the shared goals that emerged during our comment period.

As we move forward, we remain focused on what has unified our membership. Since the last Quarterly, AAMC leaders have met with key members of Mills College at Northeastern University, including Senior Vice President for Global Network and Strategic Initiatives Mary Ludden, Mills Institute Executive Director Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, and Senior Vice President for University Advancement Diane MacGillivray. On April 12, we will meet with Interim Dean Beth Kochly. In these meetings, our team has worked to establish lines of communication and to find common ground regarding our continued use of Reinhardt Alumnae House (RAH), the status of the 2017 Memorandum of Collaboration between the AAMC and Mills College (now Mills College at Northeastern), and how we might work together toward our shared goals.

Former President Hillman previously stated that the AAMC’s residence at RAH was only guaranteed through July 1, one year after the merger was finalized. However, we are optimistic that our residence could continue well beyond that.

As outlined in my last Quarterly letter, an options vote has been deferred due to the many questions that surfaced during that period—namely our continued use of RAH, and more details about what opportunities with Mills College at Northeastern University and the Mills Institute could develop.

The Board of Governors agreed in December to first focus on the shared key concerns expressed by the majority of the 770 responses received: the importance of maintaining our presence at RAH, supporting current Mills students, and actively continuing the legacy of Mills College.

A vote must be a fair and educated one, so I hope you agree that postponing that monumental decision and working first to find answers with Mills College at Northeastern University is a progressive and realistic step. We are also researching the feasibility of an independent AAMC as outlined in Option 1. It is the Board’s intention to provide more concrete and accurate answers to many of your questions before the annual meeting, which will take place on June 24 via Zoom. More details about the meeting are on the facing page.

The Bylaws Committee, under the guidance of the Mill Law Center, also plans to have an update, if not the final version of new bylaws presented at the annual meeting. A vote of the membership will follow, and a date and further details will be forthcoming.

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Our committees have also continued to connect and support Mills alums. On January 28, the Los Angeles Mills College Alumnae (LAMCA) held a forum on Zoom (detailed on the facing page) featuring speakers Suzette Davidson, MA ’94, and Karen McNeil. The need to place the El Campanil as well as other Julia Morgan buildings on the National Registry of Historic Places surfaced at this meeting, and a group is now working towards this goal.

While difficulties and wounds still exist, there are new opportunities and avenues for the AAMC to explore. In that vein, I ask you—our loyal alums—to keep the faith, and to continue to support the Board of Governors, with patience and an understanding that there is now time for us to find the answers you seek.

Stay posted through the Quarterly, our email communications, and our website at aamc-mills.org to share in the journey.

Sincerely, and best wishes, Debby Dittman ’68 president@aamc-mills.org 916.544.2147

Due to Mills at Northeastern’s commencement date being earlier than Mills’ traditional one, the AAMC Annual Meeting has been scheduled for Saturday, June 24, via Zoom. Check aamc-mills.org for information about registration, and about our secure voting mechanism. Email updates in April and May will contain this information as well.

We still encourage all local alumnae to support legacy Mills College students by attending Commencement on April 30, and to join the AAMC for a reception co-hosted with the Office of Alumnae Relations at Reinhardt Alumnae House following the ceremony. More details to follow.

ALUMNAE AWARDS CALL Nominate honorees for the AAMC’s coveted alumnae awards, presented at Reunion in October. We are seeking qualified candidates for: ►Distinguished Achievement, for distinctions in professions, arts, and sciences; ►Outstanding Volunteer, for commitment in serving the AAMC; and ►Recent Graduate, for volunteer efforts that exemplify a spirit of caring and community.

To nominate candidates, please send information about their achievements to info@ aamc-mills.org or to AAMC, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., MB #86, Oakland, CA 94613.

Nominations must be received by July 15.

© BOB M I N K I N PHOTOGR A PH Y

SAVE THE DATE: ANNUAL MEETING

LAMCA HOSTS VIRTUAL EVENT ABOUT MILLS HISTORY AND JULIA MORGAN On January 28, the Los Angeles Mills College Alumnae (LAMCA) held a forum on Zoom featuring speakers Suzette Davidson, MA ’94, and historian Karen McNeill. Davidson shared from the project she cofounded in 1993, “Fires of Wisdom: The Mills Alum as Oral History Project.”

The stories collected were from interviews with alumnae classes of 1916 to 1944, the era of Aurelia Henry Reinhardt’s presidency of Mills College.

McNeill is a historian specializing in historical architecture, with a particular focus on Julia Morgan. She shared what makes the Julia Morgan buildings on the Mills campus (six structures designed between 1904–1925) so very important in local Oakland history and within the larger history of women’s education. A recording of the presentation is available at aamc-mills.org.

NEW YEAR, NEW EMAIL ADDRESS Please contact the AAMC at info@aamcmills.org. Our old email, aamc@mills.edu, is no longer in use as of this issue.

THE AAMC HOSTS A CONCERT FUNDRAISER On Saturday, February 4, more than 25 alumnae and friends (plus many more via livestream) attended a concert at Reinhardt Alumnae House featuring alumna Melanie Phippard ’83, along with folk rock legends The Rowan Brothers. Melanie is a longtime local singer who has studied and performed all over the world. Her website states, “Her warmth and lilting tunes lend themselves to a comforting and delicious listening experience.” This proved to be true during “An Afternoon of Music at Reinhardt Alumnae House.” Attendees enjoyed singing along to Melanie’s catchy (and relevant) song, “Polar Bear Blues.”

The Rowan Brothers also appeared at the event. The group moved to the West Coast to pursue music in 1971 and opened for the Grateful Dead as its first gig in San Francisco.

The crowd enjoyed beautiful harmonies by brothers Chris and Lorin Rowan.

This event raised more than $3,000 for the AAMC, which will be used for operational costs and technological infrastructure, and go towards the AAMC’s collective goal to support students. We hope for this to be the first in a series of events highlighting the groundbreaking musical legacy of Mills College, featuring our alumnae.

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Class Notes do not appear in the online edition of Mills Quarterly.

Alumnae are invited to share their news with classmates in the Mills College alumnae community.

To submit notes for publication in the next available Quarterly, send your update to classnotes@mills. edu.

Class Notes do not appear in the online edition of the Mills Quarterly.

Alumnae are invited to share their news with classmates in the Mills College Alumnae Community, alumnae.mills.edu. To submit notes for publication in the next available Quarterly, send your update to classnotes@mills.edu.

In Memoriam Notices of deaths received before January 3

ANITA ARAGON KREPLIN ’63

To submit listings, please contact alumnae-relations@mills.edu/ mills.alumnaerelations@northeastern.edu or 510.430.2123

There may not be any other Mills alumna who has ever been so connected to the College post-graduation as Anita Aragon Kreplin ’63.

Frances Colby Allee ’40, December 2, 2022, in Albany, New York.

After Mills, she went on to Johns Hopkins, where she completed a master’s in English literature in 1943 and a PhD in 1948. She spent two years teaching at Ohio State University before settling at what later became the State University of New York at Albany, serving on the faculty there until her retirement in 1980. Frances wrote poetry herself, eventually publishing two books: Seasons, Voices, A Collection of Poetry (1998), and Mark: A Story (2009), and she expressed her love for literature through yearly trips to the Shakespeare Festival in Canada and frequent visits to the theater.

She also sewed costumes for UAlbany’s plays. In 1985, she married Jack Allee, a widower and longtime friend with two sons, who became her devoted family, and she enjoyed traveling, cooking, and teaching Sunday school in her later years. She is survived by two stepsons, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

She used her Spanish degree (and a master’s from Case Western) to teach the language at Mills from 1970 to 1974. Her first husband, the late Darl Bowers, was a biology professor at Mills for 38 years, and she was introduced to her second husband (and survivor) Karl Kreplin through a classmate her sophomore year. Her stepdaughter, Jeannette Bowers Bose ’84, is an alum as well—and Anita’s experience as a Mills stepparent was one she spoke of often. And she served on the AAMC’s board of governors for three terms, including as president during a particularly fraught era, and she was once executive director of the AAMC.

Eleanor Perry Merrick ’45, December 26, 2022, in Medford, New Jersey. She was predeceased by her husband, Samuel.

Dorothy “Dottie” Baier Shindler ’47, September 22, 2022, in Anacortes, Washington. She majored in music as therapy at Mills, even sharing a practice room with Dave Brubeck, MFA ’46. Dottie married her high-school sweetheart after graduation, and her growing family lived in various places around the Pacific Northwest.

She was a devoted pursuer of social justice, pursuing solutions for homelessness and supporting refugees through religious groups, and she transferred her musical skills to play the organ at her local parish. She is survived by nine children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The news of her passing on December 26, 2022, was a thorough shock to the Mills community, almost certainly due to how omnipresent Anita was at alum events over the years. Reactions on social media were not at all restricted by graduation year.

Classmate Susan Miles Gulbransen ’63 noted, however, that Anita was particularly dedicated to her graduating class. She adds that she’s grateful the members of the Class of 1963 were able to resume their semi-annual on-campus lunches last fall after a long COVID pause. “Anita, always active and knowledgeable, and an important

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DA N A DAV IS

June Holden Schneider ’43, December 29, 2022, in Washington, DC. She cared for people, especially those who were challenged and faced hardships, loved art, and traveling the world. June surprised her family in helping children with autism communicate through art.

She wanted to leave this world quietly, but contributed her body to science, if it could benefit those who remained in the world. She is survived by a son.

“I remember how Anita would break into a song when we, as AAMC leaders, were facing difficult decisions. With her song and smile, she would break the tension and move us ahead,” said Susan Brown Penrod ’71. “She was friendly, calm, practical, and forward-looking— she optimized the magical madness of Mills.”

Joan Shull Phillips ’49, November 13, 2022, in Boulder, Colorado. She met her late husband at Mills while he was a student at Stanford.

Joan taught while he worked on his graduate degree at Princeton, then the two moved to Venezuela for a short time before returning to her hometown of Sioux City, Iowa. There, she was a member of Portfolio Book Study Club, Sioux City Junior League, and First Presbyterian Church of Spirit Lake. In 2013, the couple moved to Boulder to be close to family. She is survived by three sons, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Ann McKinstry Micou ’52, December 30, 2022, in West Caldwell, New Jersey. She spent a good portion of her life abroad, editing publications in Turkey and Iran, and traveling frequently to South Africa and nearby countries for her work with anti-apartheid causes. Ann later earned a master’s in nonprofit management from the New School in New York in 1982, and she completed her doctorate in American literature at Drew University at the age of 84. She also shared her talents at Northern State Prison, tutoring those studying for their high-school diplomas. She is survived by two sisters, Evelyn “Muffy” McKinstry Thorne ’48 and Sarah “Sally” McKinstry Hall ’50; two children; five grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and, among other nieces and nephews, Virginia Hall Yanoff ’66.

“She was friendly, calm, practical, and forward-looking— she optimized the magical madness of Mills.”

– Susan Brown Penrod ’71

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Anita Aragon Kreplin, continued from page 29 T ER E SA TA M

Mills support, led us up to date: ‘We’ll have to talk faster and more since we’ve missed lunches the past three years!’ Gulbransen said. “She has added so much to our lives with her rich, positive thoughts and fun ideas.”

Former AAMC President Lucy Do ’75 first met Anita as a student when Anita was teaching Spanish at Mills. Anita later recruited Do to replace her as leader of the AAMC. “She was a wealth of knowledge not only of the AAMC but of the greater community, and the history of all subjects concerning Mills College,” Do said.

“She will be greatly missed as a beacon and role model for all Mills women.”

Anita retired from Oakland High School as vice principal in 2004—after departing her position at Mills, she also taught Spanish at San Francisco University High School. Her volunteerism also extended beyond Mills, where she won the AAMC’s Outstanding Volunteer Award in 2014, including the development of a church group to discuss literature and social issues. And she was a dedicated practitioner of meditation; Do said that it was the reason behind Anita’s trademark mindfulness and calm.

In addition to scores of grateful former students and many Mills admirers, Anita is survived by Karl and three stepchildren.

Jocelyn “Joci” Levi Straus ’53, October 8, 2022, in San Antonio.

She was a celebrated philanthropist and volunteer in San Antonio, helping to restore several historic theaters and founding the Women’s Leadership Council of United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County. Joci also created the Las Casas Foundation, which grants scholarship funds to high school students who participate in local theater every year at the Joci Awards. She also volunteered for political campaigns, and she had the honor of once meeting Rosa Parks. She is survived by her husband, three children, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Pauline “Polly” Quam Fisher ’54, December 17, 2022, in Santa Rosa.

After Mills, she returned to her home state of North Dakota to marry her teenage sweetheart and start raising her family. Post-divorce, she came back to the Bay Area looking for a new challenge, and she found it in the role of general manager of the Santa Rosa Symphony, where she worked for 19 years. The symphony dedicated a series of concerts this past winter to her memory. Polly also loved traveling, studying the classics, and film. She is survived by two siblings, three sons, and four grandchildren.

Margaret Gerber Cheyne ’56, October 22, 2022, in Klamath Falls, Oregon. At Mills, she majored in interior design and later owned her own firm in addition to substitute teaching. Margaret and late husband Charles raised cattle and grains on land once cultivated by her great-grandparents. She loved to travel, and among her various volunteer organizations, Margaret was the longtime co-chair of the AAUW Klamath Chapter’s Antique Show & Sale. She is survived by sister Marilyn Gerber Livingston ’56, two sons, three grandchildren, and a great-grandson.

Sylvia Gerber Bruce ’58, October 10, 2022, in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

She was a chemistry teacher until her marriage, first moving to Idaho with late husband Max to document portions of the Oregon Trail, then moving to Yuma, Arizona. There, she involved herself with the local PEO chapter and the First Presbyterian Church, and she made sure her children grew up loving horses and the ranch life she enjoyed as a child. Sylvia’s family notes that she was quick to share her opinions, and she never left home without her lipstick. She is survived by sister Marilyn Gerber Livingston ’56; two daughters; four stepchildren; 15 grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren.

Constance “Connie” Ward Herr ’60, November 7, 2022, in Vero Beach, Florida. She is survived by cousin Joanne Peyton Ward ’58.

Gifts in Memory of Received September 1, 2022 – November 30, 2022 Meg Patten Eaton ’62 by her husband, Sidney Eaton For information about making a tribute gift, contact 510.430.2097 or donors@mills.edu.

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Marilyn Foster Duffield ’61, October 30, 2022, in Portland, Oregon.

After Mills, she married her late husband Mike, raising her family in Glenview, Illinois. In her later years, Marilyn and Mike returned to Oregon, where she was born and raised, and they enjoyed spending time all around the state, especially Camp Sherman on the Metolius River. Her family says that she was a wonderful mother whose heart was as big as her smile. She survived by cousin Mary Macy Sogge ’57, three children, and seven grandchildren.

Carol Conlee Caughey ’66, November 1, 2022, in Portland, Oregon.

She first taught elementary school before transitioning to interior design, initially working with firms in San Francisco and across the country. Carol then went into academia, teaching interior design at Butler University before moving to Oregon State, where she started the interior design program. She was also a dedicated Mills volunteer, spending many years leading the Oregon Mills Club.

She is survived by her spouse, Don; two children, including Elin Caughey Sanders ’95; and two grandchildren.

“I have tried to be honest rather than sincere. The sincerity of our age is making us sick. Honesty is the work of a lifetime.”

–Jennifer Hicks Stone ’55, from her book of essays, Stone’s Throw

Claudia “Candi” Christiansen Baker ’71, December 7, 2022, in Columbus, Nebraska. Candi is survived by her husband, Paul; two daughters; and three grandchildren.

Phillip Faight, MFA ’73, October 3, 2018, in El Sobrante, California. He came to Mills for a graduate degree in studio art after earning his bachelor’s degree at what’s now Dominican University, and he was the longtime co-owner of the Toshi Union Square Salon in San Francisco.

Anne Griffin Baker ’76, October 27, 2022, in Mountain View, California. She took her degree in administrative and legal processes to New York, starting with the Marsh & McLennan Agency before returning to the Bay Area and a finance career. After raising her children, Anne earned a master’s from the New England College of Business. She was a devout Christian and a volunteer with Leadership Sunnyvale, Toastmaster’s, and the Kiwanis. She is survived by her husband, Alonzo; three children; and two brothers.

Marilyn Rosenfeld Magidoff ’76, December 6, 2022, in Ross, California. After Mills, she continued her study of social work at UC Berkeley and graduated with an MSW. She used those degrees as director of a home healthcare agency, then changed paths and opened a hat store in Ghirardelli Square. In later years, Marilyn loved creating mosaic artworks for her loved ones. She is survived by two brothers, two daughters, and three grandchildren.

Elisabeth Engan ’79, August 5, 2022, in Point Richmond, California. She majored in music at Mills, even studying abroad for a semester in Florence, and she spent her entire professional life as a musician. Elisabeth performed as a soprano soloist in the 1989 Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice and with a variety of ensembles across the Bay Area. She also taught classical and folk music privately and for several elementary schools in the East Bay. She is survived by her spouse, Mark Mueller; two children; her mother; and two brothers.

Barbara King, MA ’86, November 21, 2022, in Boise, Idaho. She earned a graduate degree in dance at Mills after graduating from Rockford College in Illinois in 1974. Career-wise, Barbara worked in publishing, and she volunteered for The Mentoring Network, the Learning Lab, and the Ada County Library, all in the Boise vicinity. She also loved gardening, cooking, and listening to classical music and ’70s rock. Barbara is survived by her husband, Mark Kailer; two siblings; and two nephews.

Terrilyn Chun ’88, July 27, 2022, in Vancouver, Washington. She began working for the Multnomah County Library immediately after graduating from Mills, starting as a public affairs specialist and rising to the position of deputy director, retiring about a month before her death. Terrilyn also received a master of library science degree from Emporia State University in 2009. She is survived by four nieces and nephews, her dog Brooklyn, and many friends and colleagues.

JENNIFER HICKS STONE ’55 A broadcasting legend at progressive Bay Area radio station KPFA, Jennifer Hicks Stone ’55 died on December 4, 2022, in Berkeley.

She was born in Tucson, Arizona, and grew up with a single father after her mother died in Stone’s teens. It was her father who sent her to Mills, where she earned a degree in theater arts before moving to New York to study acting. After a brief marriage that produced her two sons, she relocated to Berkeley and worked as a public school teacher while raising her children by herself and trying to make it as a writer.

Stone’s literary career began as a film critic for The Berkeley Monthly and a television columnist for women’s newspaper Plexus, which quickly blossomed to positions with other publications. Her fiction started to appear in Mother Jones and other more underground titles, leading to novels such as Over by the Caves (2012). Other releases included Telegraph Avenue, Then (1992) and Mind Over Media (1988).

The latter shared its name with one of her long-running KPFA shows. It was in the 1980s that Stone turned to radio—she told Berkeleyside that she did it “when I lost my looks, honey”—and she eventually rounded out more than four decades with keen, witty observances on culture and feminism on her shows “Mind Over Media” and “Stone’s Throw.” She only wrapped up her broadcasting career within the last few years as her health started to falter, but as tributes showed after her passing, her legacy on the airwaves will continue for many years to come.

Stone is survived by two sons.

Jean Woodard ’90, September 22, 2022, in Kerrville, Texas. A Massachusetts native, she came to Mills after raising her family in Marin County, graduating with a degree in art history and later receiving a master’s certificate in arts administration from Golden Gate University. Jean worked as an exhibition coordinator for the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, and she was an artist of oil pastels and pen and ink drawings herself. She was also an innovative cook, a lover of Point Reyes National Seashore, and the owner of an infectious laugh. She is survived by three children, four grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

Malina Gomez ’96, September 2022, in San Diego. At Mills, she majored in dramatic arts, played on the soccer team, and participated in the Summer Academic Workshop. After Mills, Malina worked as a newswriter for Channel 4 San Diego. She is survived by her partner, Traci.

Spouses and Family

Peter Steketee, spouse of Joan Thoran Steketee ’62, March 31, 2022, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Nan Chisholm (right) appraises a 1930 Percy Gray landscape watercolor in an Antiques Roadshow episode taped in Woodside, California, that airs on May 15. Photo by Katherine Nelson Hall for GBH.

Sizing Up Works of Art

By Emily Withnall As an art consultant and appraiser, Nan Chisholm ’73 works like a detective. For Chisholm, the history and context for the paintings she has appraised and sold over the years are what she enjoys learning about the most. Her expertise in 19th- and 20th-century American paintings is undergirded by a deep understanding of the stories we can find in art—and in our everyday lives. Whether it’s tracking down a particular painting for a client, or conducting research to identify a painting’s value, the stories of both the art and the owner become integral to her process.

Chisholm began her career at Sotheby’s in the mid-1970s soon after graduating from Mills College and ended up there for more than 20 years. She remembers many significant moments from her time at the multinational corporation, such as selling a George Caleb Bingham painting for more than a million dollars.

“I began my career just at a time when the American paintings market was starting to really establish itself as a major market,” Chisholm says. “I was extremely lucky. I was in the right place at the right time.”

When the American PBS series Antiques Roadshow started in 1997, she began touring with the production as an American paintings and drawings appraiser, a gig she continues to this day. She says the series only shows the best things that people unearth from their closets—but part of the fun lies in digging through the commonplace objects to find the treasures.

Understanding which stories are true and which aren’t can take some detective work, too. “People might say, ‘We’ve had this in our family for 200 years,’ but you look at the piece and say, ‘Well, this painting is from the early 20th century,’” Chisholm says. “You have to take what people tell you with a grain of salt because family history can get muddled over the years.”

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at Sotheby’s and the people who bring art to Antiques Roadshow.

The family stories behind the art she appraises are often as rich and interesting as the story of the artist.

Chisholm continues to tour with Antiques Roadshow and has filmed in locations across the United States. She says the filming days are very long and involve looking through a lot of items.

“What you see on TV is the crème de la crème; we get a lot of junk,” Chisholm says. “And I see Rembrandt’s ‘The Man with the Golden Helmet’ almost every place we visit. There are many reproductions.”

Chisholm majored in art history when she attended Mills. A Kansas City native, she began her college career at Goucher College in Baltimore, but she transferred when she learned that she could study abroad through Mills. Chisholm credits her six months abroad in Italy and her art history courses at Mills for her career path as an art appraiser and dealer.

“I took a year-long survey course in art history with Alfred Frankenstein that covered American art starting in colonial America. I ended up focusing on American art as a result,” says Chisholm. “He really piqued my interest in studying further, and when I worked at Sotheby’s for many years, for part of that time I worked in the American paintings department.”

Chisholm started her own company in 2003 in New York City, and she enjoys helping buyers find rare works of art to add to their collections. More recently, Chisholm has returned to Kansas City and has become a regular writer for the arts and culture magazine KC Studio. Over the course of the pandemic, interviewing people about art conservation, community art classes, and local art has helped her become reacquainted with her hometown.

“It’s meeting people and hearing their stories that I really love,” Chisholm says.

AAMC Travel Cotswolds’ Escape

2023

September 21–29

Soak up the fabled magical charm of the English countryside when you visit the Cotswolds! Unpack for seven nights in the Georgian town of Woodstock, then meander along floral pathways amid storybook scenery evoking a quiet beauty. Spend a day amidst the limestone houses, stone bridges, and shop-lined streets of Cotswold villages, including Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Campden. Travel to Oxford to stand beneath the ivory towers of its storied university. Uncover the lives of William Shakespeare and Sir Winston Churchill in Stratford-upon-Avon and the stately Blenheim Palace. Engage with a Cotswold family at their traditional farm, and visit Bath, a UNESCO World Heritage city that’s filled with archeological wonders and beautiful Georgian architecture. This handcrafted, small-group journey features first-class accommodations and an extensive meal plan.

Grandeur of Iceland July 31–August 8

Behold the majestic landscapes of Iceland during this unforgettable seven-night adventure! From our base in the cultural capital of Reykjavik, we’ll journey through lands of unspeakable beauty to encounter unique land formations, waterfalls, hot springs, and authentic, charming villages.

Watch as fascinating history and culture are brought to life at a storytelling performance and learn how the country has become a world leader in sustainability and green living.

During an ocean cruise, scan the horizon for magnificent breaching whales and thrill to darling puffins as they glide on gentle sea breezes. At the mystical Golden Circle, marvel at bubbling mud pools and geysers. This small-group adventure features seven nights at a first-class hotel in Reykjavik, with an extensive meal plan.

For more information, including a full itinerary for this and other planned trips for 2023, please visit the AAMC travel program web page at aamc-mills.org/travel-programs.

New era of Pearl M pins

This new, more affordable alternative to the traditional Pearl M pendant is handcrafted by women in a small village in India. Half of all proceeds go towards helping these women sustain their families and send their children to school. Priced at $140, these pendants include 24-karat gold plated metal beads and pins, with real pearls.

Join the waitlist for these new pendants by emailing info@aamc-mills.org with the subject line NEW PEARL M. Traditional Pearl M pendants are still available to order for $360 at aamc-mills.org/aamc-merchandise.

Mills Quarterly

Mills College at Northeastern University 5000 MacArthur Blvd.

Oakland, CA 94613-1301

S T E V E BA BU L JA K

510.430.3312 quarterly@mills.edu www.mills.edu

Commencement 2023

J

oin us to celebrate the continuing Mills students who are part of the Class of 2023 on Sunday, April 30. Congregate at Reinhardt Alumnae House starting at 8:00 am for breakfast, then robe up to process down to Holmgren Meadow for the ceremony, which will include traditional elements such as: • The singing of Mills anthems, including “Fires of Wisdom.”

• A keynote address, this year from Ambassador Michèle Nichols Taylor ’88 (see page 5).

• Confetti cannons!

After the ceremony, stick around for the strawberry reception and Bent Twig photos, and then join the Office of Alumnae Relations and the AAMC for a reception at RAH. Mills Institute Executive Director Nicole Guidotti-Hernández will deliver remarks.

Learn more and register at alumnae.mills.edu.