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Mills Quarterly WINTER 2026

MILLS QUARTERLY

WINTER 2026, VOL. 115 NO. 2

Contents

Doing the Research: Mills Alums on the Forefront of Science by Sarah J. Stevenson, MFA ’04

Healing at the Edge: Suegee Tamar-Mattis’ Journey from Street Patrol to Psychedelic Medicine by Arya Samuelson, MFA ’19

Hot and Bothered About the Menopause Industry by Mary MacWilliams Hunter ’72

DEPARTMENTS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR / 2 OPENING MESSAGE / 3 ON THE OVAL / 4 OVER THE WIRES / 8 CAMPUS PHOTO: What’s now the Vera M. Long Building for the Social Sciences started its life as the Norman Bridge Health Center, and then spent quite a few years as the Children’s School until the new education complex opened in 2000. The unique design and tile features earned the structure honors from the American Institute of Architects. Photos by Ruby Wallau for Northeastern University. ON THE COVER: The sheer beauty of what you see under a microscope pales in comparison to the power of what the research it supports can accomplish. Photo by Kreangkrai Indarodom.

A SLICE OF QUARTERLY HISTORY / 9 November 1979 AAMC NEWS & NOTES / 30 FROM THE ARCHIVES / 33 Mills College Children's School CLASS NOTES / 34 ALUM PROFILE / 37 Kate Swartz-Means ’08 MEDIA LAB / 38 IN MEMORIAM / 40 SALON / 44 Book art by Ellen Schmidt Melchiondo ’87

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Alumnae Association of Mills College let us know that a fall 2025 letter to the editor contained several misrepresentations about its recent elections. A response to that letter from the Board of Governors appears below. –Ed.

MILLS QUARTERLY ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT Nikole Hilgeman Adams MANAGING EDITOR

Allison Rost DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION

Nancy Siller Wilson

As chair of the Nominating Committee (NomCom), I appreciate Lisa Kremer’s concern for the AAMC and for the integrity of our governance. To clarify the record: The candidate nominated for president had already been vetted and interviewed through the NomCom process and was actively serving on the board. When the NomCom recommended leaving the presidency vacant instead, the board faced a choice between an extended leadership gap or exercising its bylaw authority to affirm an already-qualified candidate. After consultation with our professional parliamentarian and legal counsel, the board chose continuity. Lastly, Kremer was not a member of the board or the NomCom at the time, meaning her account is based on others’ interpretations. It’s understandable that details may have been lost, but those gaps have created a narrative that implies misconduct where there was, in fact, a difficult but responsible decision made under the bylaws. The board takes seriously both the role of the NomCom and the trust our alumnae place in us. I hope this context reassures readers that the decision regarding the presidency was grounded in our responsibility to the AAMC, not a desire to circumvent our own rules. Members with questions about AAMC governance are welcome to contact the board directly. Any member may address the board at a regular or special meeting by submitting a written request at least two weeks in advance. As we enter 2026, the AAMC remains focused on our mission: strengthening alumnae engagement and serving this community with integrity.

CONTRIBUTORS

A note from the editor As of this issue, we are now pulling our mailing list from a new combined database with Northeastern. We’ve done painstaking work on it, but with more than 20,000 people on the list, there are bound to be some changes we missed. If you or a Mills friend are affected, please accept our apologies and get in touch! Hello, as well, to new recipients of the Quarterly. Our mailing list includes everyone who has made a donation to a Mills- or Oakland-related fund within the past three years, and it was a delight to discover that this group now includes some Northeastern grads. We hope you stick around, but if you’d rather not receive the Quarterly in the mail, just let us know. It’s also available online at quarterly.mills.edu.

Zac Borja Jessica Lipsky Mary MacWilliams Hunter ’72 Josue Murrillo Arya Samuelson, MFA ’19 Ellen Schmidt Melchiondo ’87 Sarah J. Stevenson, MFA ’04 Kieran Turan ’90 Ruby Wallau ............................................................................. 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: Oakland University Advancement, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613. ............................................................................. Copyright ©2026, Mills College at Northeastern University Address correspondence to: Mills Quarterly 5000 MacArthur Blvd. Oakland, CA 94613 Email: mills.quarterly@northeastern.edu Phone: 510.430.3312

–Glodean Champion ’06, Chicago

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OPENING MESSAGE

It’s only appropriate that I write the opening letter in the issue of the Quarterly that covers Reunion 2025, because we had such a great time this past September. The weather was perfect, the campus looked beautiful, and the schedule was packed with fascinating workshops and panels. Attendees learned about Maya Angelou’s 1975 Commencement address and the Katherine Dunham dance technique and its history at Mills, and everyone’s favorite professor, Bert Gordon, gave presentations about Mills history and—of course—French wine. Over the past few years especially, we hear from alums who admit that they weren’t sure about coming back to the campus as it is now, that it would be too difficult. But once they’re here, and they see that it’s full of life and learning, they’re glad they did it. They share with us and their classmates all the different versions of Mills—the music, the activism, dance, the education department, the old swimming pool outside the Tea Shop. The richness of all these experiences and stories make for a wonderful weekend that fuels our work all year round. I also heard several questions about how things are organized on campus these days, which is understandable. We’ve created the graphic on this page—which is quite a simplified view—to hopefully make things clearer. Around the edges, you’ll see red bubbles representing Northeastern colleges that offer degree programs on the Oakland campus, with the subject areas for which degrees are available listed underneath. Those colleges all operate in Boston as well, hence their placement on the periphery, and while we kept both Mills at Northeastern and the Mills Institute within the Oakland framework, they both offer programming in Boston and online! Similarly, there are many courses under those other colleges being taught in Oakland—such as art, English, and history—that aren’t available here as full majors. Thanks for continuing to engage with us in this new era. As always, you can find me at n.adams@northeastern.edu. I look forward to seeing you on campus for Reunion 2026, September 24 to 27.

Nikole Adams

From the associate vice president for advancement WINTER 2026

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Chung leaving Mills Institute for provost position On October 30, 2025, Northeastern Provost Beth A. Winkelstein announced that Christie Chung, executive director of the Mills Institute, would depart her position for the role of provost and vice president of academic affairs at Palo Alto University, an institution that focuses on behavioral health. Chung is a cognitive psychologist who first joined the faculty at Mills College in 2007 as a psychology professor, later taking on associate dean and associate provost positions before transitioning to the Institute’s top job in 2023. She begins her new job on January 20.

“After 18.5 years at Mills, I can say that this community has shaped me in profound ways. It’s been a privilege to learn, teach, and lead alongside people who believe in the power of education to change lives,” Chung says. “As I transition to my new role, I am confident that the Mills Institute will continue to evolve and flourish. The foundation is strong, the mission is clear, and the work will continue to thrive with a dedicated and visionary community.” Her team—Associate Director of Research Lisa Arellano, Associate Director of Programs Lynn Santopietro, Program Manager Quinn Prado Diaz , Grantwriter Dyana CurreriErmatinger, and Executive Assistant Jennifer Arthur—will continue the Institute’s work and programming while awaiting a transition and leadership plan. During her time with the Institute, Chung oversaw numerous new projects, including the development of the Next Level Success program for women executives, the

relaunch of Research Justice at the Intersections, and various partnerships globally, around the Bay Area, and across campus.

In other Institute news… • November 6 marked the inaugural Mills Institute Day, which was commemorated with an evening banquet, a panel discussion, and meaningful directed conversations at each table about maintaining the Mills legacy. • This fall, the Institute released an impact report covering the last two years of programming and events. Visit tinyurl.com/mills-instituteimpact-report to check it out. • The slate for the first semester of the 2025–26 academic year included a new set of participants in the Inspired Leader in the Age of AI program and a visit from Frank W. Wu, Chung’s longtime mentor and the president of Queens College.

“ As I transition to my new role, I am confident that the Mills Institute will continue to evolve and flourish. The foundation is strong, the mission is clear, and the work will continue to thrive with a dedicated and visionary community.” –Christie Chung

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Mills College releases impact report This past fall, the Dean’s Office for Mills College at Northeastern published an impact report covering the 2024–25 academic year. Read it online at tinyurl.com/ MCNU-impact-report.

Highlights include: • The rollout of new minors in creative writing and interdisciplinary sustainability, with coursework in both debuting in fall 2025, as well as the launch of the MA in educational leadership and a graduate certificate in AI applications. • A total of 19 approved undergraduate and graduate courses. • Grants and awards both from external organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for Humanities as well as those internal to Northeastern. • Northeastern’s granting of tenure to Associate Professor of Sociology Mario Hernández. • The launch of a LinkedIn page for Mills College at Northeastern, and the relaunch of the Mills YouTube page with recordings from lectures and academic events. • Busy schedules for the Black Reparations Project and the Center for Transformative Action. In a more recent development, a new Undergraduate Research Badge with Mills at Northeastern already has more than 100 Oakland-based students participating. Associate Dean and education professor Priya Shimpi Driscoll oversaw the process behind the program.

ART MUSEUM CELEBRATION Works from the permanent collection of the Mills College Art Museum came to life as alums, artists, neighbors, and Oakland campus leaders, staffers, and students came together to celebrate its centennial on Saturday, October 4— the exact date of its 1925 opening. On a warm day, attendees gathered just outside the museum’s entrance to enjoy hors d’oeuvres and drinks and hear from MCAM Director Stephanie Hanor, among others. Many former employees from over the years —including those who were student workers—joined the festivities. The centennial exhibit, 100 Years of Creative Visions, was open for viewers.

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And the family-friendly crowd also had the chance to participate in a photo booth with a selection of several recognizable backdrops, as well as to color in blank renderings of items from the collection thanks to the reproduction and enlargement services of the nearby Makerspace.

News in brief  An additional 10 graduates of local high schools received full scholarships to Northeastern as part of the second year of the Oakland Opportunities Scholarship Program. The students—five women and five men—moved onto campus several days before most firstyears as all are also participants in Trailblazers, formerly known as the Summer Academic Workshop. All will spend their first years in Oakland with the option to continue here or transfer to Boston.  Northeastern’s Oakland campus has entered a partnership with NVIDIA to work on furthering the possibilities for American Sign Language (ASL) within AI technologies. Faculty and staff referred students to participate in “Jam Sessions” to work through datasets in the Signs AI platform to bolster accessibility and functionality.  Associate Professor of Marketing Kate Karniouchina led a class of students through an exercise in research and consulting when the City of Emeryville got in touch and asked for assistance in surveying minority-owned businesses in town. The undergraduates contacted 206 businesses and ultimately interviewed 16 owners in-depth, leading to insights and recommendations that were approved by the city’s business committee and later went before Emeryville’s city council.  The AscenDance Mural Project launched on October 28, 2025, in conjunction with a screening of the 2020 film Alice Street on the Oakland campus. The project is a collaboration between various students, staff members, and Northeastern colleges in Oakland, and it aims to document the honorees of local murals through digital storytelling. Alice Street itself showcases the role the arts played in the gentrifying area near the former Hotel Oakland, now a senior living community.

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Creative writing meets AI in new course

his January 12, Associate Teaching Professor and Creative Writing Program Head Stephanie Young will represent Mills at Northeastern at College for a Day near Denver. This is the first in-person participation by a Mills professor in the program since 2019. Young will speak on the topic of “Writing Creatively in the Age of AI,” which is also the name of a course she teaches as part of the new creative writing minor for Mills at Northeastern. (The minor is available online to all Northeastern undergrads.) Young covered the subject in presentations for longtime donors at Reunion 2025 as well as for Mills at Northeastern faculty members this past fall. “The dangers of conversing with AI as one’s only audience are becoming increasingly clear,” she said. “Creative writing classrooms provide space [for students] to talk with AI and then to talk with each other about that conversation.” Young highlighted the confusion that today’s college students face when it comes to AI: they’re rightfully encouraged not to use it when crafting their own work, but employers want a certain level of proficiency—and policies often differ from instructor to instructor. Instead, her coursework interrogates AI as a tool and technique similar to those in the past, such as the mathematical rules that drove the work of the French-speaking writers known collectively as Oulipo and tape delay in Pauline Oliveros’ electronic music.

Assignments begin in the analog space, with students writing about a personal experience and then reworking it in two additional styles. “I ask them to hold off [on AI] and pay close attention to the choices they made on their own, and in my experience, they do,” Young said. “AI acts as a sort of highlighter, revealing which parts of the experience students find valuable, and which parts they do not.” When coursework does involve AI, parameters are set—no one can prompt a chatbot to create a piece in a specific writer’s style. One assignment: Students feed prompts to two different commercial LLMs (large language models) to compare and build upon the results—and to test the limits of what those LLMs can produce. They also use AI to detect patterns in the feedback they receive, an action Young called one of its most effective uses. She is well aware of AI’s limitations and faults: it’s unregulated in many ways, it can perpetuate biases, data centers monopolize energy and water. But an academic critique of the technology may also puncture the myth of AI as a miracle solution. “So far, no machine-made novel or poem has captured the cultural imagination the way human-authored works have. Right now, I don’t think that’s possible, but if that day comes, it will likely be created by someone of [this] generation,” she said. “This class may begin to lay the groundwork for that possibility, but more importantly, it lays the groundwork for working with AI more critically and responsibly.”

New entrepreneurial program with City of Oakland

Named professorship becomes student program

The Kapor Foundation and Northeastern’s Oakland campus have partnered to create the Oakland Social Innovation Lab, a collaboration built on creating educational pathways for students into responsible technology and supporting social venture creation. Working with the City of Oakland, the goal is to establish Oakland as a hub of innovation and responsible technology. The Oakland Social Innovation Launchpad is the first major program under the venture creation pillar—a 10-week startup accelerator supporting early-stage entrepreneurs building tech-enabled solutions to local challenges. Applications for the inaugural cohort were open through December 19, with two cohorts planned annually. “The Oakland Social Innovation Lab represents a new model for university-community partnership—one that meets entrepreneurs where they are while creating pathways for students to build careers in social impact,” said Carrie Maultsby-Lute, MBA ’11, head of partnerships for Northeastern in Oakland. “With the Kapor Foundation, we’re investing in Oakland’s future as a hub where innovation and access to opportunity go hand in hand.”

With a welcome dinner in early October, the new Chan-Norris Experiential Learning Program in Science & Sustainability launched with an inaugural cohort of 26 students. The series of co-curricular activities and enrichment is the reworking of an endowed visiting professorship sponsored by Annette Chan-Norris ’65 and her husband, Dr. Evan Norris. Associate Professor of Biology Sarah Swope, oversees the program as part of Mills at Northeastern’s growing curriculum in sustainability. According to Swope, 69 students applied, and the selected group represents a variety of science-related majors and educational backgrounds. The first related activity was an excursion to The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito on November 1, 2025, where students took a behind-the-scenes tour. Additional gatherings will include similar off-campus trips, including overnights; group projects; guest speakers; and networking events. “We are thrilled with how Professor Swope has been able to enrich the learning experiences of the students in this program and hope that our endowment will continue to be used to attract students to study the sciences,” Chan-Norris says.

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ON THE OVAL

CALENDAR Admissions Oakland Campus Highlights  January 20, 4:00 p.m. A virtual presentation about the academic, extracurricular, and professional resources available to graduate students in Oakland. Campus Conversations: Oakland • February 3, 8:00 a.m. An online discussion with a campus guest about what graduate students can expect. Visit graduate.northeastern.edu for more information.

Tech Intersections: Women of Color in Computing Community is Resistance: Building Tech Together  January 24, 9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

The 2026 conference returns to the Lorry I. Lokey School of Business and Public Policy and Littlefield Concert Hall at a time when the tech industry is going through massive layoffs, particularly among Black women. Visit techintersections.org for complimentary conference tickets.

Mills Music Now Feldman at 100: Triadic Melodies  January 28, 4:30 p.m. Amy Williams performs Morton Feldman’s monumental Triadic Memories in celebration of the composer’s centennial. In Littlefield Concert Hall.

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Mills College Art Museum 100 Years of Creative Visions  Through April 26, 2026 The centennial of the Mills College Art Museum is commemorated with this expansive exhibition with selections from throughout the permanent collection—with an emphasis on works that exemplify the strength of creative communities and the bonds between artists themselves. MCAM is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with late hours on Wednesday until 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.

Visit performingarts.oakland. northeastern.edu to register.

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OVER THE WIRES

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Press mentions and honors for Mills alums and Oakland professors The Nicodemus Historical Society has a new president: Assistant Teaching Professor Ashley Adams. She studies the historically Black town and is descended from its founders. Lisa Arellano, who is the associate director of research for the Mills Institute, appeared on the panel “Ms. + Sister Feminist Archive Collections” at the launch of Ms. Magazine’s digital archive in Los Angeles on September 13, 2025. DanceTeacher, the publishing company behind magazines such as Dance Magazine and Pointe, named Lori Belilove ’84 one of its four Dance Teacher Award winners for 2025. She is the artistic director of the Isadora Duncan Dance Company in New York, which is gearing up for the 150th anniversary of Duncan’s birth in 2027 with a full slate of workshops, films, and performances. Calia Brencsons Van Dyk ’90 has received special recognition in the 2025 Women Who Empower Innovator Awards through Northeastern.

She is the founder of Caliativity Productions and Creative Agency, which crafts and oversees media projects for its clients—and she provides coaching services in areas such as leadership, branding, and public speaking. The dance publication fjord conducted a Q&A with Nora Chipaumire, MA ’00, MFA ’02, last summer. Read “Nora Chipaumire Moves to Break Boundaries” at tinyurl.com/nora-chipaumire-2026. In August, the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library named Assistant Teaching Professor Keli Dailey as a 2025– 2026 Brown-Handler Writer in Residence. She also appeared in conversation with journalist Jeanne Carstensen at the University of San Francisco on October 15, 2025. The music of Xopher Davidson— a.k.a. Christopher Davidson, MFA ’95—got a shout-out from experimental music legend Thurston Moore in Hero magazine. Check it out at tinyurl.com/ christopher-davidson-2026. James Genone, who is the senior vice chancellor for learning strategy in Oakland, was on a panel at StartEd’s EdTechWeek. “The

The late Stacey Park Milbern, MBA ’16, a renowned disability rights activist, has been immortalized on quarter coins issued by the United States Mint, making her the first Korean American on U.S. currency, and the first with a visible wheelchair.

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Pedagogical Shift is Here: What Educators and Businesses Can Learn from Each Other About Leveraging AI Fluency for Growth” took place on October 20, 2025. The Oakland Post profiled voice performer Tee Jay Jetson, MFA ’09, in an article that was posted on September 21, 2025. Read the piece at tinyurl.com/tee-jay-jetson. The Women’s Tennis Association honored the “Original 9,” women’s tennis players—including Kristy Pigeon ’73—who broke away to form their own tour, on the 55th anniversary of their contract signings. Read the tribute at tinyurl.com/kristy-pigeon-2026. A big year for Daniella Pineda ’09 continued with a September 2025 feature in Diablo Magazine. Read more about her Hollywood career and bringing her Mexican heritage to her work at tinyurl.com/daniella-pineda-2026. On October 21, The Jewish News of Northern California highlighted the story of Julie Rosewald, the first known woman cantor in the United States. Rosewald taught singing at Mills between 1894 and 1897. Read more about her at tinyurl.com/julie-rosewald. Assistant Teaching Professor Truong Tran headlined the inaugural Foreward Literary Festival in Dallas from October 8 to 11. The festival aims to highlight the queer Vietnamese American literary community. Daisy Wong ’13 works at The Art Institute of Chicago as a frame conservation technician, and on September 25, 2025, she starred in an Instagram video from the institute that demonstrated how she rejuvenates old frames and creates custom ones.

A SLICE OF QUARTERLY HISTORY: NOVEMBER 1979

Changes Made at Children’s School True to Traditions

By Children’s School Director Marilyn Watson

URING THE 53 YEARS OF ITS EXISTENCE, the Mills College Children’s School has, quite properly, seen many changes; the most recent one being the opening of a kindergarten. With this innovation, as with others over the years, a basic and sound philosophy has been maintained. We have kept what has been proven to be excellent while adding what is necessary to be even more effective with changing times. Here, to prove the point, is a recent scene at the Children’s School: “No, Mark! I’m playing with this!” Four-year-old Ann screams as she wraps her arms around the light blue, genuine (but not connected) telephone. Mark, eager to have the real telephone, steps back but does not give up. He sees a dark blue plastic play phone, and his eyes light up with inspiration. He holds it out to Ann. “Here, Ann, you can have this dark blue phone. I need the light blue one for my building.” Ann is not fooled by this change of focus. “No!” she screams again, holding onto the real phone with even more determination. Mark puts his developing quantitative sense to work. Seeing a second dark blue play phone, he runs across the room and gets it. “Here, Ann,” he says in a pleasant voice, “You can have two dark blue telephones, and I’ll just take this one old light blue one.” Ann, concern showing in her eyes and her tense body, tightens her arms around the real phone and says desperately, “No, I want this one.” Mark, his patience exhausted, reaches out and starts to pull the real phone away. As the struggle begins, a teacher intervenes and gently prevents the phone from being yanked away from Ann. She explains to Mark that Ann wants the real phone (though this is not news to Mark). She says that in our classroom, children can play with something until they are finished. Reluctantly, Mark relinquishes his hold on the phone. The teacher tells Ann to let Mark know when she has finished with the telephone. She walks off with Mark to help him find something else to use in his building.

This scene could just as well have taken place in 1926, except that telephones were not light blue; and none were available for play. It was in 1926 that the Children’s School was founded, on principles that remain binding today: 1.) spontaneous play is one of the most effective means by which children learn, and 2.) a good program for the education of young children must be based on a profound respect for, and understanding of, the way children naturally develop and learn. While operating on these principles, the Children’s School has experienced many changes—in location, population, purpose, and materials. From Olney Hall to Toyon Hall, to Geranium Cottage (where the student-run Infant Toddler Center now is); to its current site in the remodeled Norman Bridge Health Center, the Children’s School has maintained its essential identity while growing and changing to meet the new demands of changing times.

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Doing the Research: Mills Alums on the Forefront of Science When medical research makes headlines, the news can be sensational: the discovery of a deadly disease, for instance, or finding a new cancer treatment. As for the research itself, though, the meticulous process of the scientific method can appear drawn-out and costly. Progress seems incremental, and newsworthy results are few and far between. But even in a time when their work is under threat from funding cuts and shifting political agendas, researchers are committed to seeking out new cures and discoveries that can improve everyone’s health. “There’s not a lot of flashy moments where it’s, like, an overnight sensation,” says Christin New ’11, a clinical research coordinator in orthopedic surgery at Stanford Medicine. But, she adds, “I love my job, because it’s kind of a surprise every week as to what I’m doing. It’s not the same thing over and over.” Everything is fair game: higher-level organizational tasks, meeting with patients interested in clinical trials, working on databases for patient outcomes, or even retrieving human tissue from the operating room and processing it in the lab. She compares the research process to the Wizard of Oz pulling levers behind the velvet curtain, helping to coordinate all the different aspects of a clinical trial: “I have relished the ability to be in this field of work, and actually see the fruition of hundreds, thousands of people who work on a single clinical trial, a single drug, a single biological agent, and it coming to be the standard of treatment.” Being a research coordinator wasn’t part of New’s original plan. While at Mills, she started as part of a pre-nursing cohort, then switched her major to psychology, intending to continue on to nursing or medical school. After graduating, she decided to take time away from academics to gain real-world experience, which she did through a one-year contract position at the Palo Alto Medical

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WORDS BY SARAH J. STEVENSON, MFA ’04

Foundation Research Institute. She then jumped to a similar short-term position at Stanford, working on community and clinical interventions for youth at risk of obesity. Near the end of that year, a former co-worker mentioned a research coordinator opening at Stanford’s cancer center. “I think I realized, at that point, ‘I’m in this for the research side of things. I don’t think medical school is for me,’” New says. Over the 13 years she has spent in the field—initially in pediatric hematology and oncology, then orthopedic tumor surgery— she has overseen the entire process of clinical trials from start to finish, gaining a perspective that she would have missed if she’d seen research as simply a stepping stone. At the same time, she feels connected to the practice of medicine in a different, even more integral way. “As a physician, you hear all the time about this catchphrase of ‘evidence-based’ care or medicine. How do you get that evidence?” she says. “You get it through building it up, through clinical research. You have to understand why you’re doing something in order for you to understand why that’s the best thing to do for a patient.”

Building up clinical evidence is also part of the job for Robin Cumming ’09, director of the UCSF Radiopharmaceutical Facility and director of research development for the Department of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging. The lab she directs oversees virtually every stage of the process of developing and producing radiopharmaceuticals: substances with radioactive molecules attached that are made to be injected into a person. These drugs can then be used for diagnostic imagery—such as in a PET scan, which uses a radioactive sugar molecule—or for therapeutic treatment. Cumming’s initial major at Mills was chemistry, but it was a prestigious summer school program in nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry with the U.S. Department of Energy that set her on track for her current career. She’d always been interested in the medical field, and when the program spent a week on nuclear medicine—the use of radioactive substances in diagnosing and treating disease—she thought to herself, this is it. She did an internship at UCSF during her senior year, then worked in the nuclear medicine lab there for two years before pursuing her PhD in biomedical engineering at UC Davis. She credits her advisor at Mills,

“I have relished the ability to be in this field of work, and actually see the fruition of hundreds, thousands of people who work on a single clinical trial, a single drug, a single biological agent, and it coming to be the standard of treatment.” –Christin New ’11

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“We actually had a nuclear chemistry class at Mills. Barely anybody in the country had that.” –Robin Cumming ’09

Elisabeth Wade, with pointing her in the direction of radiochemistry in the first place. “We actually had a nuclear chemistry class at Mills,” Cumming says. “Barely anybody in the country had that.” She also praises the amount of personal attention offered by the College’s small classes. Mills has a long tradition of encouraging students with an interest in science, offering research opportunities such as the Russell Women in Science Leadership Program, now part of the Mills Institute, and the Jill Barrett Undergraduate Research Program in Biology, which enables undergraduates in the biological sciences to work on a full-time summer project mentored by a faculty member. Through the Barrett Program, faculty in Oakland as well as Northeastern’s Nahant campus supervise small groups of undergraduate students participating in biology research projects. Professor of Biology Jared Young, who is currently codirector of the program, says that one of the greatest benefits students derive is an authentic scientific experience, with a lot of responsibilities and the chance to carry out every aspect of the research work. “Students learn how to be rigorous scientists,” he says. “How to design a good experiment, how to execute a

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good experiment, how to analyze data and make sense out of the experimental results.” Participants are also regularly encouraged to explain and present their work, and they can participate in workshops on other professional skills, like how to apply to graduate school or how to put together a curriculum vitae. Besides those programs, Mills alums like Robin Cumming readily participated in research fellowships and internships off campus. She says being able to participate in a summer school program with the American Chemical Society—the country’s leading professional organization for chemists— was “transformative.” Now, her lab is involved in a wide range of research projects to develop drugs that more effectively target different diseases, such as prostate cancer, HIV, and long COVID. “We have a particle accelerator called a cyclotron,” she says. “We create the radioactivity, we create the drug, we make the drug, and then we bring it up into the clinic.” The lab produces drugs that are already FDA-approved, as well as 20 to 30 drugs that are still in clinical trials. To date, Cumming has overseen three new applications that have been approved by the FDA, including the first-ever PET drug targeting prostate cancer. “We probably have some of the most research of any academic radiopharmaceutical facilities in the country,” she says. “I think that’s probably what I’m most proud of: really building up the team and the program up to what it is.” Despite the challenges of the radiochemistry domain, which range from sexism and ageism to funding and staffing cuts at the federal level, Cumming is excited about the future of the field, which she says is booming. As a recently elected member to the board of directors of the Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Council, she hopes to find better ways that academia, the FDA, and the pharmaceutical industry can work together to get new radiopharmaceuticals into the clinic.

It’s a complex process that requires revision at the systemic level—which can be a hard sell when it comes to voters and legislators, who may not be aware of how the levers of funding and research approval work. Much of what scientific researchers accomplish happens behind the scenes, which creates a messaging challenge. Convincing the public why it’s so important to fund specific areas is difficult when people aren’t knowledgeable about how research relates to tangible results. One field where this is particularly thorny is public health—especially after the last six years. “One of the challenges that we have as a field is that the work of public health, if done well, is work that you should never see,” says Mary Campa ’99, who is the manager of the Research and Evaluation Branch of the Office of Health Equity at the California Department of Public Health. This leads to a lack of understanding of what public health truly does. Campa points out the general assumption that public health can be simply synonymous with healthcare. “Public health is prevention,” she says. “How do we prepare people in advance, so that when a disaster comes, everybody knows what’s happening, the system is set up, and we’re getting all the support we need?” It’s part of Campa’s job to answer those questions in a science-driven way: to do the research, gather the data, and evaluate the effectiveness of the programs that exist. Campa, who majored in psychology at Mills, started on the research path thanks to her advisor and mentor, Professor of Psychology Dean Morier. His classes inspired her to explore more deeply the questions and issues behind human inquiry itself. “The strategies around logic and thinking, what is evidence, and what isn’t

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evidence—he really lit my fire in that space,” Campa says. “How do we know that what we’re hearing is accurate? Our brains are designed to simplify and categorize just to make sense of the world, and so how do we protect ourselves against those types of decision-making or logical fallacies?” After doing her senior thesis with Morier on understanding the impact of sport participation in adolescent sexual behavior— a topic important to Campa, who herself was a young parent—she went on to work with Carol George, an expert in attachment theory, and George’s co-researcher outside of Mills, Judith Solomon. During her graduate work at Cornell, Campa conducted research into the effectiveness of the Nurse-Family Partnership Program—a home-visit model supporting child development and family functioning. Along with her mentor John Eckenrode and others involved in the program, she helped produce the first-ever mediation analysis looking at 15 years of collected data, asking pointed questions about how and why specific interventions succeeded in reducing child abuse and neglect. “I really got into this piece around evidence-based practice and program evaluation,” Campa recalls. “How do we take what we’re learning in academia, in the community—observations about what works—and then design a way to test it and see if we get what people need?” After earning a PhD and spending a handful of years teaching in upstate New York, she decided to return to California, wanting to bring her skills and knowledge back to her home community: “I didn’t feel that I was making the kind of impact in the world on people who were like me, grew up like me, looked like me, had similar experiences and challenges.” In the 14 years since, Campa has worked at the California Department of Public Health, with an overarching goal in mind: how to integrate scientific research with

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information and observations from people’s lived experience to find solutions that truly improve the community. “In doing public health, I think the biggest challenge is that the system was not designed to be responsive to the people,” she says. “We need ways to bring the expertise and the wisdom of community into government.” Her work at the Office of Health Equity is addressing that challenge, in addition to other financial and structural barriers unique to a huge and diverse state. Legal constraints can make it difficult to allocate funding, for instance, and government-level decisions can at times be driven by politics more than science. Unfortunately, the funding situation has been worsening rather than improving, making systemic reform even more uncertain. “Especially at academic institutions,” Cumming says, “we don’t have all the billions and billions of dollars that pharma companies have.” New sees this happening in pediatric oncology too. She points to recent federal funding cuts for projects like the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium—which directly led to fewer opportunities for childhood cancer research, less money to invest in new equipment, and fewer people to do the work. “It’s a very sad, cold, and misguided attempt at trying to overhaul government finances,” she says. There are also obstacles at the state level. For the California Department of Public Health, its mandate is broad—the state has 58 counties and 61 local health jurisdictions—but the budget is limited. Juggling the needs and challenges of each individual community is not an easy feat. That’s where Campa’s familiarity with research methodology and program evaluation comes in. Her experience has put her in a unique position to help develop a data-driven way of directing services and funding to the communities that need them most.

“Ultimately what we found is that there needs to be a real balance between identifying communities that can support the type of programming you’re doing and providing services to the maximum number of individuals who need those services.” Campa compares this work to her ability to live on the Mills campus (and send her son to school there), which was a huge advantage in helping her finish her degree, especially after she lost welfare support from the state: “That is a real challenge: How do we support a community who is in need today? We cannot abandon people. They’re in need now.” The opportunities provided by being a Mills student were invaluable to New and Cumming, too: small classes, attentive faculty, accomplished mentors, and, of course, the chance to explore research projects hands-on. Those programs have inspired plenty of alums to pursue careers in science. For many, it provided critical educational experience that paved the way for medical school or a similar career trajectory. Beyond that, though, students who acquire the research skill set gain a wider perspective on how to think about questions using a scientific approach. “Being able to use the kinds of skills in a scientific research project—gathering evidence, evaluating evidence, coming to deductions, weighing different sources of information, and doing that in a rigorous way—is just a valuable thing for life,” Young says. “And that’s a broader benefit that anyone who came through the program would get.” He adds: “This is a good time to emphasize that science is valuable.” 6

“How do we take what we’re learning in academia, in the community— observations about what works— and then design a way to test it and see if we get what people need?” –Mary Campa ’99

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Healing at the

Edge 16

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WORDS BY ARYA SAMUELSON, MFA ’19

Suegee Tamar-Mattis’ Journey from Street Patrol to Psychedelic Medicine N THE 1980s, long before she became a physician, Suegee Tamar-Mattis ’95 walked the streets of San Francisco’s Castro District as part of a street patrol group protecting LGBTQIA+ folks from violence. It was during those patrols that she came to understand something fundamental: the people living at society’s margins needed more than protection. They deserved healing that went deeper than what conventional medicine could offer. This understanding has shaped everything about Tamar-Mattis’ more than 20 years of practice in family practice and community health. As a physician who has dedicated her career to serving communities that have been “medically misserved”—transgender folks, Native Americans, unhoused people—Tamar-Mattis has learned that the most powerful medicine often exists beyond mainstream healthcare. Today, as the co-founder of a ketamine therapy clinic, she holds cutting-edge science in one hand and what she calls “the sacred unknown” in the other, offering her patients doorways to healing and transformation. As psychedelic therapy moves from the fringe toward more widespread legitimacy, she’s working to ensure that the people who need it most aren’t left behind.

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Tamar-Mattis says she always wanted to be a doctor. Born with an intersex condition and deeply embedded in the intersex and transgender movements since the 1980s, she knew her calling early on: “I wanted to go to medical school to work for my communities.” But getting there required persistence. She’d accumulated credits at several different colleges over the years, but when she finally decided to pursue medicine, she needed to complete her bachelor’s degree. Mills College unlocked that door by accepting all of her previous undergraduate credits, allowing her to complete a degree focused exclusively on the sciences. “That was such an amazing thing—they took my previous educational work seriously,” she says. For Tamar-Mattis, Mills provided more than academic opportunity—it represented a philosophy that resonated with her own values. “One of the great things about Mills was how it encouraged women to work in science, especially at a time when we were even more underrepresented in medicine,” she says. Among her most formative experiences at Mills was studying under chemistry professor John Vollmer, whose own story seemed almost too remarkable to be true. He had escaped from Soviet-controlled Germany and went on to play an instrumental role in developing various medical technologies—as well as the minds of Mills students. “He escaped an authoritative, fascist government and then made it to safety,” Tamar-Mattis reflects. “But he was such a kind and giving person. He would patiently explain concepts as many times as it took for a student to understand.”

A Different Kind of Medicine When it came time for medical school, Tamar-Mattis opted for osteopathic medicine over traditional programs. “The MD schools look at different parts of the body as separate systems,” she explains. “But that didn’t make sense to me, because the body is one living organism.” Osteopathic schools, with their more holistic approach, aligned with her understanding of health as interconnected and whole. She attended Touro University in Vallejo and then entered the UCSF residency program in Sonoma County, graduating board-certified in family medicine. 18

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From the beginning, Tamar-Mattis’ practice focused on underserved populations—people experiencing high levels of depression, anxiety, and trauma. She worked with community centers in Sonoma County and the Sonoma County Indian Health Project, providing full-scope services from delivering babies to caring for elders. She also worked with unhoused communities, serving folks with significant psychiatric needs. But some of her most groundbreaking work came before she even finished her residency. In 2006, Tamar-Mattis founded a transgender clinic in Sonoma County, which has been running continuously since then as part of the Santa Rosa Community Health Centers. The clinic offered hormonal access, but more importantly, it provided something many transgender people had been systematically denied: basic, routine medical care delivered in an environment of safety and respect. She recalls one transgender man with chest pains who said he’d rather die than go to the ER. His fear wasn’t irrational; Tamar-Mattis cites research showing that not only have many transgender people been refused medical care, but approximately 20 percent have been physically attacked. “The big thing that I did was to build trust between the transgender community and the medical community,” Tamar-Mattis explains. She created a space where people didn’t have to choose between their safety and their health, where they could receive care from someone who understood their experiences and advocated fiercely for their well-being. Reflecting on the broader shift in cultural attitudes, Tamar-Mattis notes both progress and ongoing vulnerability: “It’s been amazing to see this change from trans people being marginalized even within the LGBTQIA+ community to now being supported by both queer and straight populations. We’re not talking anymore about gays in the military, or gay marriage—we’re talking about trans people, and all these different people are standing up for them.”

When Medicine Isn’t Enough Throughout her decades of practice, TamarMattis observed a troubling pattern: “I kept seeing that medications aren’t working as well as they could—and for conditions like depression,

“We hold the science in one hand, and the unknown — the sacredness — in the other.” they’re not really working at all, not for a lot of people.” She saw that the conventional tools of psychiatry—SSRIs, mood stabilizers, anxiety medications—were failing significant portions of the patients who needed them most, particularly those dealing with treatment-resistant depression and complex trauma. Then, as new research began emerging around 2013, Tamar-Mattis attended a Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) convention and learned that San Francisco’s California Institute of Integral Studies was offering a nine-month certification in psychedelic therapies and research. She enrolled, then completed an additional eight months of study specifically focused on ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Of all the psychedelic medicines being researched, ketamine became Tamar-Mattis’ focus for several practical and ethical reasons. Notably, ketamine was the only federally legal psychedelic available. But beyond that, a strong base of evidence persuaded her. Ketamine has a long medical history. Developed in 1962 as an anesthetic, its psychedelic properties were recognized immediately. Researchers wanted to call it a “dream state anesthetic” but settled on the more clinical descriptor “dissociative.” It’s now the most commonly used anesthetic for children outside the operating room in the U. S., and the World Health Organization has listed it as one of the top five medicines every country should have access to, in part because of its safety profile in protecting airways. Ketamine has been used extensively as a battlefield anesthetic, proving its reliability in the most challenging conditions. For Tamar-Mattis’ patient population, ketamine offered another crucial advantage: “It doesn’t care what psychiatric medications you’re taking, as opposed to many other psychedelics that require weaning off psych meds.” This distinction matters enormously: MDMA, for instance, necessitates that patients taper off psychiatric medications, which can be deeply destabilizing—especially for people in crisis— and may take months or even years. For someone

in the grip of treatment-resistant depression or acute trauma, ketamine could offer a path forward without that dangerous interruption of care.

A Space of Possibility In 2021, Tamar-Mattis co-founded Liminal Medicine in Sebastopol with three other clinicians. In enacting her vision for Liminal, she thought carefully about set and setting—the psychological and physical environment that would shape each patient’s journey. The name itself, “Liminal,” refers to a transitional or threshold state, a space of possibility between what was and what could be. As she says: “We hold the science in one hand, and the unknown— the sacredness—in the other.” The clinical model that Liminal developed is intentionally rigorous, addressing concerns that have emerged around ketamine therapy: issues around inadequate screening, treatment without therapeutic support, and risks of dependency. In founding Liminal, Tamar-Mattis drew from research about the three most important conditions for positive ketamine outcomes: the medicine needed to be administered at a psychedelic range, be accompanied by therapy, and include integration work afterward. At Liminal, patients go through three intake sessions: a medical evaluation, a psychological assessment, and a preparation session designed to ensure they know what to expect. Trust is not assumed; it’s cultivated: “We want to give people enough time to trust in us.” The physical space also reflects this attention to psychological safety, offering a calm and welcoming environment with plant-filled rooms. “The office is a medical office that doesn’t look like one,” she says. “We work with lots of people with medical trauma, so we tuck away the equipment so it’s not the main thing they see. Everybody walks in and says, ‘Wow, I feel so relaxed!’” WINTER 2026

“ It usually feels like being pulled out of your body. People will often experience the sense of flying, swimming, or standing and talking with creatures or people. A lot of the time it’s with loved ones who died.”

As patients arrive and get centered with their therapists, they discuss intentions for the session, such as reducing anxiety, processing grief, or alleviating trauma. They settle into reclining chairs, put on eye masks to facilitate an internal experience, and wrap themselves in blankets. Calming music plays as Tamar-Mattis administers a first injection of ketamine, which quiets the amygdala—the brain’s fear center. Then comes a second injection that induces the psychedelic space. “It usually feels like being pulled out of your body,” Tamar-Mattis explains. “People will

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often experience the sense of flying, swimming, or standing and talking with creatures or people. A lot of the time it’s with loved ones who died.” Often, the psychedelic state of ketamine offers space for grieving or lovingly making peace with past wounds. She shares the story of a woman whose husband had died five years earlier. During her ketamine session, the woman experienced connecting with her husband, who assured her that he had a place for her on the other side. “She had such a resolution of her grief, just from that one episode,” Tamar-Mattis recalls.

Ketamine has been shown to be deeply effective in healing trauma, though it often requires time and persistence. She mentions one patient who experienced himself as a child on a beach, before his traumas had occurred. He was able to hug that child and offer reassurance. “Being able to have that perspective as an adult was incredibly, incredibly healing,” she says. Still, Tamar-Mattis is clear that ketamine is not a panacea. The medicine opens doors, but patients must still walk through them, often confronting difficult emotions and memories in the process. Integration—the work of making meaning from the experience and applying insights to daily life—remains challenging and essential, which is why each medicine session includes follow-up sessions with a therapist to allow the healing process to keep unfolding.

Making Medicine Accessible Given her lifelong commitment to medically misserved communities, Tamar-Mattis has struggled with a painful paradox. “I want to see [psychedelic therapy] become more affordable to everyone,” she says. “Often, the people who most need it can least afford it.” In 2022, Liminal began offering group sessions, drawing on the historic use of psychedelics in collective settings. “In a community setting, you get this immediate connection to all the other people there,” she explains. “In this post-pandemic moment, we’ve lost so much connection, which is such an important part of healing.” But group sessions were only a first step. Tamar-Mattis wanted to create a model that could serve people on Medicaid and Medicare— those with the fewest resources and often the greatest need. For a year and a half, she met monthly with a Federally Qualified Health Center, doing unpaid work to develop a partnership. They recently completed their first partnership medicine session as part of a pilot

program serving people with treatment-resistant depression who are on public insurance. “This has been my dream—to bring this medicine to the people who really need it—and I think we’ll really be able to turn it into an exportable model that other ketamine clinics can replicate,” Tamar-Mattis says. The vision is ambitious but concrete: a scalable, replicable blueprint that remains emergent and adaptable to different communities. Clinicians from the community health center will be trained to administer the treatment themselves. “Then anybody else can approach us, and we can train them. That’s the plan, that’s the dream,” she says.

The Future of Psychedelic Medicine As psychedelic medicine stands on the brink of wider acceptance—with ongoing research into MDMA, psilocybin, and other compounds— Tamar-Mattis is clear about what distinguishes ketamine and other psychedelic medicines from conventional treatments. They are not just another pill to swallow, another pharmaceutical to add to the daily regimen; they require intention, preparation, and a willingness to confront what lies beneath the surface. When asked about the future of psychedelic medicine—and the future she wants to see—her response is both hopeful and cautionary: “I want to make sure that we don’t lose the sacredness.” At this crucial juncture in the psychedelic field, Tamar-Mattis stands as both innovator and guardian, expanding access while protecting what makes these medicines powerful. In doing so, she continues the work she began decades ago. From a non-traditional student at Mills to a physician pioneering the future of mental health treatment, she has traveled far, but her destination has never changed: ensuring that the most vulnerable among us can access medicine, healing, and transformation. 6

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Hot and Bothered About the

Menopause Industry

HAT GOT ME SO RILED UP? Numerous women in my social orbit were diagnosed with breast cancer while using hormone therapy (HT). Their cancer diagnoses spanned several decades, but most occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s. Examination of pharmacy claims indicates that up to 42 percent of US women used HT at that time, most taking estrogen and progesterone in combination. My sense of alarm about these cancer diagnoses spiked after several friends told me they felt more upset about having to stop estrogen than having to deal with breast cancer. One lamented, “Now I am going to look like other women my age!” Another talked her doctor into prescribing enough vaginal estrogen cream to smear on her face and body after he refused to write more prescriptions for estrogen pills. Healthcare providers are targets for pharmaceutical marketing, including that which echoes the menopause industry discourse. During the 1980s and 1990s, I received at least monthly, both at work and in my home mailbox, expensively produced literature from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, now owned by Pfizer, informing me that I should be prescribing HT for all pre-menopausal, menopausal, and post-menopausal patients. Nearly all the women’s health conferences I attended were sponsored by Wyeth, the manufacturer of Premarin, and many of the continuing education courses I was required to take were authored by physicians with close ties to Wyeth and other HT manufacturers. As a reader of feminist literature, I developed a focused interest in the topic of menopause, partly due to the overpromotion of HT. Ever more ubiquitous messages about HT benefits made me ever more skeptical. After working for many years as a nurse practitioner, I decided to be trained to conduct research. An award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) helped support my training at the UCSF School of Nursing, where I obtained my first nursing degree in 1980.

Study of Menopausal Hormone Therapy Decision-Making While earning my PhD in nursing, I conducted a qualitative study to explore users’ perceptions of the risks and benefits of menopausal hormone therapy to learn who influences treatment decisions and understand how that 22

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influence is exerted. Data collection started with a pilot study in 2013 and interviews continued through 2018. To meet inclusion criteria, the 30 participants were required to be over age 60 and to have used systemic HT beyond the five-year period considered relatively safe by panels of experts, such as the International Endocrine Society and the North American Menopause Society. Most participants had used HT for longer than 15 years, and their ages ranged from 60 to 80. Women were recruited with posters and on Internet message boards in the Bay Area and a small city in the Rocky Mountain region. In hour-long interviews, participants were asked to talk about what they recalled feeling and thinking as they approached menopause and why they started HT. If they needed

WORDS BY MARY MACWILLIAMS HUNTER ’72

prompting, I inquired about information sources that had influenced their decisions to continue using HT and whether they had any concerns about risk. Because most participants were storytellers, asking a clarifying question or “Can you tell me more about that?” was generally all I needed to do to keep a narrative moving along. Enthusiastic HT advocates, many told me they volunteered to be interviewed because of their positive experiences. A major theme was that estrogen gave these women a sense of control. Many had used oral contraceptives, and some transitioned directly to HT. They appreciated hormonal contraception for giving them control of their fertility and regulating menstrual bleeding, and it was not a mental stretch for them to believe that hormones were a reasonable way to manage any problems menopause might present. Hot flashes were reported to be a primary indication for starting HT. Only one had attempted to quit, and many stated a belief that hot flashes would recur if HT was ever discontinued. These women had received the message that HT could help them resist aging and prevent disease. Believing that, they feared and strongly resisted quitting. Rather than recognizing their innate attributes, most gave credit to HT for their attractiveness, mental acuity, athleticism, and vitality. When asked about risk concerns, typical responses reflected skepticism about risk information, which was characterized as inconsistent and conflicting. Warnings that long-term use could potentially lead to cancer, cardiovascular disease, or dementia were not convincing or even concerning to these women. Disbelieving evidence that prolonged use could harm them, none had plans to quit. It was an educated group, and several were medical professionals; they were confident in their ability to process risk information. Participants usually brought up disease prevention when I asked about risk concerns. They calculated that any potential risk from HT was balanced by disease prevention. At the close of interviews, participants were told where on the Internet they could obtain current information about its risks and benefits. Most of these long-term users talked about the fear of being denied HT. They had gone to great lengths to find providers who were willing to continue prescribing HT when they aged past 60. They were the primary drivers of prolonged use; their doctors had not urged them to continue. Taking HT, I concluded, was perhaps more a habit than a decision. As one woman, age 80, the wife of a medical doctor, put it, “Taking Premarin has just been part of my life for so long.”

Risks of Long-Term Systemic HT Although HT is effective in reducing the frequency and intensity of hot flashes and relieving vaginal dryness, this relief comes at a potential cost, especially if systemic

hormones (pills or patches) are used. Studies conducted primarily to determine whether HT prevents cardiovascular disease and dementia were funded by the NIH and the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a randomized controlled trial in the U.S. that enrolled more than 27,000 participants, found that users of HT experienced excess rates of breast cancer, blood clots, cardiovascular disease, and dementia, and these rates rose with length of use. The Million Women Study (MWS), a prospective investigation that enrolled one in four of all UK women born between 1935 and 1950, confirmed the WHI’s findings. Notably, the MWS clarified that long-term estrogen-alone therapy increases the incidence of breast cancer, an issue not resolved by WHI data. Although initial reports from the WHI and MWS were published more than two decades ago, causing a dramatic decline in the prescription of HT, an ever-increasing number of hormone products are used by millions. Systemic HT risks are now known to include breast and ovarian cancer, heart disease, blood clots, thromboembolic stroke, gallbladder disease, dementia, and incontinence. When HT is used for five years or less, the increased risk for any of these conditions is WINTER 2026

small. Vaginal estrogen, used as directed, is superior for treating vaginal symptoms, and the associated risk is low enough that long-term use is not discouraged by panels of experts. Systemic HT risks increase over time, which is why prescribing guidelines discourage using it longer than five years or after age 60. Nevertheless, at least one-third of HT prescriptions in the U.S. are written for women over age 60 who have used it for longer than five years and bear the greatest risk.

A Short History of the Hormone Industry Before surgical infection-control measures were employed, risky surgery to remove the uterus and ovaries was sometimes performed to manage “hysteria” and other physical and psychological maladies. By the early part of the 20th century, ovarian extracts (from cows or women who underwent the surgeries just mentioned) were administered to treat symptoms such as hot flashes, sexual disinterest, and irritability. In that some women dosed with ovarian extracts had survived ovariectomies that yielded extracts for others, one might conclude that there was an element of economy in this practice model. Starting in the late 1930s, companies in Canada, the U.S., the UK, and Germany invested in research to develop commercial hormone formulations. One of the most successful was Ayerst/American Home Products (Canada), whose biochemist James Bertram Collip developed the estrogen drug Premarin. Initially, Collip and biochemists at several other companies attempted to produce oral estrogen using human urine, but Collip found that horse urine produced a less odorous and better-tasting pill. With this innovation, Ayerst got a head start in the HT market, and Premarin was off and running to become the most profitable brand-name drug of the 20th century. Adolf Butenandt, who worked for Schering (Germany), utilized human urine as a base ingredient for a product marketed as Progynon, then switched to mares for an improved version. Schering’s Progynon2 initially competed with Premarin, but Butenandt eventually succeeded in patenting two of the mostused non-animal-based estrogen compounds, estriol and ethynyl estradiol. Butenandt’s patents were issued when Germany was performing experiments on prisoners, some of which utilized Butenandt’s estrogen compounds. As word spread about his successful development and patenting, biochemists in 24

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England rushed to produce a competing non-animal-based oral estrogen. The product that resulted from these efforts is diethylstilberstrol (DES), a non-steroidal synthetic estrogen that is inexpensive to make and very potent. DES was not patentable after the inventor, Edward Charles Dobbs, published the formula in the journal Nature. That made the drug attractive to other chemical companies wishing to compete in the hormone market. In the U.S., a group of drug manufacturers worked together to pressure the FDA to approve DES. Dobbs suspected it was carcinogenic, and he did not recommend this drug, or other forms of synthetic estrogen, for treating symptoms of normal (distinct from premature) menopause. Nevertheless, manufacturers of DES and other estrogens hired advertising firms to create a larger market, and by targeting healthy, middle-aged women, they created a new conceptual model of menopause—a medical model. This was around the time that the word “menopause” was first used as a medical diagnosis. DES was initially marketed to treat menopausal hot flashes; however, the side effect of pronounced nausea prevented widespread use. Without research to support using it to prevent miscarriage, or any evidence of safety or efficacy, DES was FDA-approved and repurposed for use by women with threatened or prior spontaneous abortion. Prescribing it to pregnant women from 1940 to 1971 resulted in cancers and genital malformations in both female and male offspring. DES has also been used extensively in livestock feed, further exposing humans to this potent carcinogen through food sources and groundwater.

Anti-Aging Claims, Cancer, and Celebrity Endorsements The development of a commercial estrogen market helped physicians grow their medical practices, and this is precisely how Premarin was initially promoted in medical journals. Later advertisements depicted menopausal women as ugly hags, torturing their families, and harassing doctors. Contrasting images showed attractive women on Premarin dancing with husbands, laughing with children, and smiling at doctors. In the late 1960s, Ayerst (later acquired by Wyeth), a company that spent a million dollars annually on HT advertising, secretly paid gynecologist Robert Wilson to write the bestselling book Feminine forever. According to Feminine forever, menopause is a degenerative disease that requires treatment of all older women, women who are otherwise “castrates.” Wilson stated that HT prevented cancer, and he adamantly denied clear evidence that estrogen was carcinogenic. Feminine forever helped create a lasting discourse that successfully sold the concept and product known as “hormone replacement therapy.” Wilson’s efforts to pathologize and medicalize menopause contributed to a fear that still pervades society in much of the world, and

it promoted the compelling belief that estrogen could slow the aging process. By conceptually relating serum estrogen levels to the value and self-esteem of women, Wilson helped cement in the American consciousness a connection between HT, health, and youthfulness. Wilson once remarked to Barbara Seaman of the feminist women’s health movement that his older patients on estrogen looked attractive in tennis outfits. She countered by suggesting that perhaps it was the tennis. With patients essentially serving as test subjects, Premarin gained popularity and came to dominate the U.S. market. The fact that estrogen is a carcinogen became increasingly clear as HT prevalence grew and alarming numbers of women using Premarin developed endometrial cancer. Although Ayerst/Wyeth initially denied that its product caused cancer, the evidence was incontrovertible, and the company eventually responded by adding a progestin to its estrogen-only formulation to protect the lining of the uterus. This innovation allowed the company to regain the trust of Premarin users, and sales of Premarin and other HT products rebounded. By the end of the 20th century, the prevalence of HT use among women aged 50 to 74 in the US was well over 30 percent based on insurance claims for filled prescriptions. Premarin consistently dominated the HT market. Attractive women prominent in popular media have spoken about how they benefited from HT. Lauren Hutton,

Suzanne Somers, Jane Fonda, and Oprah Winfrey endorsed HT on television and in books and magazines. These women are presumed to embody prima facie evidence of estrogen’s cosmetic efficacy and HT’s contribution to health and fitness. This type of messaging appears to work well. A woman in my social circle in the 1990s brought a book by Somers to a group luncheon and dominated the conversation with her own endorsement of HT. Sadly, some celebrities who have endorsed hormones have developed breast cancer, and some long-term users have died from it, including Somers. Numerous studies have shown that women who believe HT helps them resist aging and prevent disease are more likely to use it. Not surprisingly, HT users are more likely to have cosmetic procedures than non-users, and they spend more on beauty products. Contrary to popular belief, no peer-reviewed research has demonstrated that HT has anti-aging or cosmetic efficacy, and it is not recommended for the purpose of disease prevention. Why do so many women believe otherwise? 6 The piece was excerpted from Women’s Health and Corporate Marketing: Our Bodies, Their Business, a collection of essays published in 2025. Hunter edited the volume in addition to writing the chapter on menopause. Find more information at womenshealthandcorporatemarketing.org. Vintage advertisements courtesy of the Ebling Library for the Health Sciences Collection at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Reunion 2025 To download your class photo, visit bit.ly/class-photos-2025.

1955 Frances “Francie” Mixter Lloyd and Shirley Page Altick

1960 Sue Stanton Smegal and Joan Cutler Rondinelli

1965 Top row: Jill Tarlau, Barbara Ahmajan Wolfe, Kristin Ritter Carver, Ann Rubenstein, Molly Upton Second row: DJ Miller Bestock, Peggy Weber, Susan Zimmerman Whitney Third row: Kay Chalmers Kewley, Tracey Franklin Corbett, Margaret Clarke, Lyn Flanigan, Jill Bluethenthal Cody Front row: Jane Trinkaus Pomeroy, Sharon Young Woo, Annette Chan-Norris, Nita del Regato Peters

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PHOTOS BY ZAC BORJA & JOSUE MURRILLO

50th Reunion 1975 Top row: Pamela Stewart Levy, MA ’77; Deborah Wood; Elizabeth Kendall; Victoria “Vicki” DuVall Luibrand, NDO ’82; Kelly Piner, MA ’77; Judith Gottlieb; Sue McKinney Second row: Barbara Sachanko Dalmau, Nan Roche, Peggy Cross, Lynette Castille-Hall, Kit Rault, Marian Hirsch, Nancy Brenn, Lucy Boyd Adams, Shirley Bruton Front row: Lydia Tong Gan; Denise Jeong; Soosan McCauley Kirbawy; Reyes Guerrero Briones; Yvonne Payne Daniel, MA ’75; Yvonne Hom Lee; Nafsica Zotos; Beth Nusbaum Majchrzak, EDD ’15; Dawna Jonté; Beth Heidell Underwood

1980 Top row: Adrienne Bahlke Jardetzky, Robina Royer, Kathy Roskos, Nina Taylor Brownson Front row: Rachel Flaith, MBA ’06; Thomasina S. Woida; Lila Abdul-Rahim; Pat Jenkins Weisel; Marianne Gray Johnson

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1985 Top row: Beth McLaughlin Robson; Suzanne Patterson Jones; Liz Parker; Cassandra Sletner Haigh, NDO ’86 Front row: Gina Salaices Ney; Melodie Beylik, MFA ’85; Melora Gardner, NDO ’93; Olivia Martinez Lovett; Sabrina Tompkins Stewart; Beth Woolbright; Tracy Bunzel Giles

1990 Top row: Marady Conner Hill, Leah Zippert, Nancy Sackett-Goss, Lisa Kremer Front row: Donna Nishiyama Hovie Chan, Lisa Bach, Kelly Ryan, Sally Moses

1995 Miki Hong, PMC ’95; Tandy Tillinghast; Melanie Hilario; Nicola Place; Kim Baker

MILLS QUARTERLY

CLASS PHOTOS

2000 Hannah Bluhm, Amy Horstmann Orgain, Morguine Sefcik, Jordan Harrison

2015 Top row: Adrienne Sigeti, Mariana S. Mendoza Perez, Alice Hewitt, Amanda Ridley, Leah Holt Front row: Gabriella Amberchan; Melanie Vega, MA ’16; Tiffany Watson; Maria Aguilar; Berenice Mosqueda

2020 Lena Liu

2025 Anna Ettlinger

WINTER 2026

AAMC News & Notes A MESSAGE FROM THE AAMC PRESIDENT Three months ago, at our Board of Governors retreat, something I’d waited three years to see finally happened. After presenting our new mission and vision—synthesized from 900 alumnae responses—the board didn’t hesitate. No lengthy debate. Just unanimous approval. After years of doubt and uncertainty, this board did what we’d struggled so long to do: We decided. In that moment, we transformed from an organization questioning its future to one claiming it. That clarity freed us to stop defending our right to exist and start building. Since August, we’ve channeled resolve into the demanding, often unseen work of organizational transformation. Mills taught me that mission requires more than ideals; it requires rolling up sleeves, confronting what’s broken, and committing to make it work. What building looks like • Financial backbone: We discovered our financial systems needed complete restructuring. Rather than patch problems, we brought in specialists to rebuild accounting from the ground up. A new bookkeeper began last month. We’re strengthening our endowment strategy to provide reliable operating revenue. • Operational focus: Finding excessive merchandise inventory in storage, we pivoted to a sustainable model. The board established an ad hoc group to examine our 20-committee structure—a framework from a different era. Which functions are mission-critical? Where will volunteer energy create maximum impact? • Capacity for impact: Streamlining creates capacity to launch our signature initiative in 2026—a flagship program owned entirely by AAMC, allowing us to lead on our own terms. Securing our assets and voice Our September meeting with Northeastern underscored the importance of formalizing longstanding arrangements. Reinhardt Alumnae House has been AAMC’s home since 1948, built through donor-restricted funds for our exclusive use. The alumnae database that the AAMC built—and in 2005 agreed to share under formal access agreement with Mills—represents decades of relationship building. These assets now exist in uncertainty. The board authorized

Kieran Turan comprehensive review to ensure these resources and rights remain protected. This complex institutional reality reinforced why AAMC’s signature initiative is essential. While we continue pursuing partnerships, the most direct way to honor Mills’ legacy is through programs designed by alumnae themselves. This fall, the board began shaping initiatives with alum feedback, ensuring they reflect values we cherish. This isn’t retreat from collaboration, but recognition that we are Mills’ living legacy—with responsibility to ensure it thrives. If collaboration is truly a guiding principle, Mills alum voices deserve recognition collectively. The Alumnae Association should help shape initiatives carrying Mills forward—including selecting the next director of the Mills Institute. Leadership must reflect not only institutional priorities but the lived experience of those embodying Mills’ values. Momentum and meaning At Reunion’s AAMC update, I presented our strategic direction to 70 engaged alumnae. Their response—dozens of continued on page 32

MILLS QUARTERLY

CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE: 2025 AAMC ALUMNAE AWARD RECIPIENTS Each year at Reunion, the AAMC honors alums whose achievements embody the Mills spirit of leadership, creativity, and service. This year’s honorees illustrate the extraordinary range of Mills excellence—from Grammy-nominated artistry to nonprofit governance, alumnae leadership, and community empowerment. Their accomplishments show how the education Mills gave us continues to spark innovation and equity across disciplines and geographies, reminding us that the values we carry from Mills are not only enduring but transformative in the world. Distinguished Achievement Award: Barbara Higbie ’79 Barbara Higbie ’79 is a Grammy-nominated, Bammy Awardwinning pianist, composer, violinist, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist whose artistry has touched audiences worldwide. She made history as the first female instrumentalist signed to Windham Hill Records and has performed on all seven continents with luminaries including Bonnie Raitt, Pete Seeger, Carlos Santana, Linda Tillery, Holly Near, Teresa Trull, and the Kronos Quartet. With Darol Anger, she recorded Tideline, one of Windham Hill’s earliest successes, and later led a group recording at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Her solo album Signs of Life was named one of the year’s top 10 by The Washington Post in 1990. Beyond her musical achievements, Barbara serves as cochair of Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage, curates performances that elevate women artists, and recently produced the soldout Four Pianists concerts. Her extraordinary artistry and generosity of spirit make her a transformative force in music and community. Barbara holds a BA in music from Mills. Outstanding Volunteer Award: Karlin Sorenson ’92 Karlin Sorenson ’92 is the executive director of represented compensation at Kaiser Permanente, where she has served for more than 26 years. She began her career as a compensation consultant at Wells Fargo before joining Kaiser, bringing expertise in compensation strategy and leadership. A dedicated alumna, Karlin has been an active leader in the AAMC since joining the Board of Governors in 2006. She has served on the Human Resources, Bylaws, and Finance Committees, led revisions of key bylaws, and was treasurer from 2010 to 2012. She played a pivotal role in developing the 2017 Memorandum of Collaboration, strengthening the partnership between the AAMC and Mills College. Today, she continues to serve on the Finance Committee, contributing historical knowledge and financial expertise. Karlin holds a BA in economics from Mills and an MBA from the University of Minnesota. Recent Graduate Award: Naima McQueen, MBA ’18 Naima McQueen, MBA ’18, is the executive director of the Alliance for Community Development, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to increasing access to capital for underresourced communities. Through free ecosystem navigation and events, the organization supports business owners, entrepreneurs, and service providers across the Bay Area.

From left: Debby Campbell Dittman ’68; Barbara Higbie ’79; Wendy Ng ’79; Naima McQueen, MBA ’18; Viji Nakka-Cammauf, MA ’82; Kieran Turan ’90; Associate Professor of Marketing Kate Karniouchina

A cross-sector management, strategy, and convening consultant, Naima’s expertise spans event production, financial empowerment curriculum design and facilitation, and business education instruction. She specializes in advising mission-driven start-ups and growth stage organizations in both California and New York, helping them build sustainable strategies for impact. Naima holds a BA in psychology and African American studies from Mount Holyoke College and an MBA from the Lorry I. Lokey School of Business and Public Policy at Mills. She is also an alumna of the Coro New York Fellows Program in Public Affairs and the New York StartingBloc Institute. Closing Note These remarkable Mills alums join a distinguished tradition of AAMC Alumnae Award recipients who demonstrate that Mills graduates don’t simply succeed—they redefine their fields and strengthen their communities. Their achievements affirm that every alum carries forward the enduring power of their Mills education, shaping change across art, governance, and social impact. In honoring them, we celebrate the collective legacy of Mills alums everywhere. Special thanks to the Alumnae Awards Committee—Chair Wendy Ng ’79, Debby Dittman ’68, and Catherine Ladnier ’70—for their thoughtful work in selecting this year’s honorees. Looking Ahead to 2026 Do you know an alum whose achievements deserve recognition? Nominations for the 2026 Alumnae Awards will open in March. Watch for details in the spring newsletter and consider nominating someone whose work inspires you. Every nomination helps us celebrate the full breadth of Mills’ excellence. Visit aamc-mills.org to learn more about past recipients. WINTER 2026

AAMC

AAMC PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE, continued

feedback cards with concrete ideas—reminded me why this work matters. Alums aren’t asking us to recreate the past, but to be worthy stewards of Mills’ transformative spirit. Governance is the quiet engine of transformation: contract reviews, inventory reconciliations, negotiating for rights we thought settled. Building redundancy so no failure halts progress. Creating policies outlasting any presidency. Transformation takes root in patient victories that compound into larger change. Walking Mills’ campus this week, I remembered arriving here—entering a space where transformation felt possible. That feeling lives through our commitment to what Mills represents: education developing the whole person, leadership rooted in ethics and creativity, a legacy the world needs. We’re shaping the framework to carry that forward— not just preserving but activating it for new generations. In 2026, transformation takes tangible form through stronger partnerships, new programs, and an independent voice ensuring spirit of Mills thrives. The work continues. Warmly, Kieran Turan ’90, President, AAMC

Mills Spirit for the New Year Start 2026 wrapped in Mills pride. We’re kicking off the New Year with winter sale pricing on Mills classics as we prepare for a streamlined merchandise system launching later this year. Highlights include classic tees, elegant accessories, and timeless Mills favorites that make meaningful gifts (or a well-deserved treat for yourself). Featured items include our beaded Pearl M pins, handcrafted by skilled women artisans in India through a fair-trade partnership that supports their economic independence along with AAMC programs. Every purchase directly supports AAMC initiatives and our work connecting alumnae across generations. Inventory is limited. Visit aamcmerch.square.site to browse the collection and take advantage of our winter sale pricing.

MILLS QUARTERLY

TRAVEL WITH PURPOSE:

AAMC 2026 ADVENTURES

Join fellow alums for extraordinary journeys that blend cultural immersion with Mills community. Our 2026 travel program offers three carefully curated experiences: Apulia: Undiscovered Italy (September 2–10, 2026) Discover Italy’s sun‑kissed southern coast, where whitewashed villages meet azure seas. Explore Alberobello’s trulli houses, stroll Bari’s seaside promenade, and savor authentic cuisine among olive groves and vineyards. Spain: Andalucía in a Parador (Sept. 24–October 2, 2026) Experience the romantic spirit of southern Spain while staying in historic paradores. Visit Córdoba’s iconic La Mezquita, Sevilla’s Alcázar, and Ronda’s dramatic gorge. Along the way, enjoy wine tastings and flamenco performances that capture the soul of Andalucía. Journey to Southern Africa (October 4–19, 2026) Embark on an unforgettable adventure through South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. From Cape Town’s vibrancy to Victoria Falls and Rovos Rail, witness breathtaking landscapes and extraordinary wildlife with expert guides leading the way. Every trip directly supports AAMC programs while building lasting friendships. Space is limited—reserve your spot at mills.ahitravel.com/. Full itineraries and details are available on our travel site.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

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For nearly 100 years,

the Mills College Children’s School has not

only provided education to local children, but also real-world training for Mills students interested in pursuing teaching as a profession. As this photo from 1944 shows, child development major Mary McArthur Holland ’45 did exactly that with youngsters David Graham and Mary Marvin French. Photo by Frances-Ruth Armstrong ’31.

WINTER 2026

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ALUM PROFILE

PUBLIC HEALTH TO PAINTING:

HOW KATE SWARTZ-MEANS TACKLES TOBACCO & MORE By Jessica Lipsky Swartz-Means—an excitable, effusive, and “aggressively pleasant” (per her business card) researcher to this day—thrived in Mills’ convivial, collaborative atmosphere. Psychology professor Elizabeth Bachen required her students to conduct informational interviews with people in their career paths, so Swartz-Means headed to the documents’ home: UCSF. There, Swartz-Means met with the university’s Pam Ling and Stan Glantz—both of whom “helped facilitate my career for years and years and years.”

As an undergrad, Kate SwartzMeans ’08 found solace and inspiration at Mills Hall, sneaking in late at night so her muse would find her in the quiet hours. That was where, while researching a paper for her health psychology class, she encountered the tobacco industry document library online. Today, Swartz-Means is a lauded tobacco researcher based in San Diego who specializes in reviewing industry documents for law firms that are suing tobacco companies. While she intended to pursue advertising in college—and designed her psychology major/economics minor coursework around it—that assignment put her on a different path. The library, known as the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, informed a paper Swartz-Means wrote on how the tobacco and anti-tobacco industries need each other to grow advertising. She was inspired by the research: “[It was] like a Mulder-andScully, investigating the bad guys approach—and I love a mystery.”

Bachen also encouraged SwartzMeans to pursue further studies in public health; Swartz-Means graduated from USC with a master’s degree in health communication in 2010. While there, she presented to the FDA’s Tobacco Product Scientific Advisory Committee about the ways menthol is designed to addict children to tobacco. Swartz-Means’s passion for this research took her to some of the scientific world’s highest echelons, including the World Health Organization and Stanford. When she wasn’t working with major organizations, Swartz-Means founded an anti-tobacco advocate website called Street Fighters of Public Health. “Tobacco is really fascinating. It’s political, it’s biological, it’s chemical, and there are all these strong champions throughout the world who benefit this cause,” she says. One of the highlights of SwartzMeans’ career came from a connection first made during her undergrad years. UCSF’s Ling was involved with the posthumous case of San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn, who died of cancer in 2014 at 54 after

a well-known addiction to smokeless tobacco. Swartz-Means was brought onto the case to research previously confidential documents to ascertain if the tobacco industry had targeted baseball players or young Black men. Swartz-Means can’t discuss the outcome, but it led to continued consultation work. In between jobs, Swartz-Means worked on developing her long-held interest in drawing. She’d always sketched (a habit she formalized while studying abroad in France) but began formulating a portfolio of drawings and paintings under the brand The Kate Lab: “The whole goal is to do whatever I want. I love a Crayola marker and acrylic pens; my favorite kind of pen is one you’d steal from the post office.” She’s since illustrated three children’s books, exhibited in multiple solo and gallery shows, and illustrated for Mills Quarterly, and she regularly does live paintings at upscale events (as well as decidedly less fancy places like the San Diego Zoo). She recently began a volunteer role as an archaeologist and museum show curator at the Bonita Museum. That success in art—something Swartz-Means considers completely separate from her work in tobacco research—also has its roots at Mills. “When I couldn’t find a job in public health, I would find the number one person I wanted to work for, do an informational interview with them, and eventually that turns into jobs,” Swartz-Means says. “I use that same energy [for art]: Find the thing you want to do the most and find who’s in charge, and then ask for it.” WINTER 2026

M E DI A L AB New releases, publications, and performances by Mills alums and professors Lisa Bach ’90 published The Ultimate Golf Journal through Chronicle Books in March 2025. On September 13, 2025, Drowse—the musical project by Kyle Bates, MFA ’21—performed at the bar Rozz-Tox in Rock Island, Illinois. Alexandra Friedus, TCRED ’04, MA ’07, is the author of Unequal Lessons: School Diversity and Educational Inequality in New York City, which NYU Press released in August 2025. She is on the faculty at the University of Connecticut and participated in its 10 Questions feature; read it at tinyurl.com/alexandra-friedus. Calumet Editions released Echoes of a Global Life, a memoir by Kathleen Gamble Pilugin ’78, last summer. The book details her experiences as the child of a nomadic family, which gave her experiences in Burma, Colombia, Nigeria, and Russia—and everywhere in between. Harpist Stephan Haluska, MFA ’14, performed alongside percussionist Adam Shead, also at Rozz-Tox in Rock Island, Illinois, on August 9. Necessary is the new poetry collection by David Harrison Horton, MFA ’01, which he celebrated at an event in his adopted hometown of Beijing on September 13, 2025. He spoke about it with the website The Beijinger; read the Q&A at tinyurl.com/david-harrison-horton. Amid a busy fall at various festivals and speaking engagements, Assistant Teaching Professor Susan Ito, MFA ’94, did a one-woman performance during an in-person recording of the Adoption: The Making of Me podcast in late September. Professors Mario Hernández and Natalee Kehaulani Bauer ’97, MA ’07, joined forces to co-write the article “Reclaiming space: the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and the struggle for identity through urban placemaking,” which appeared in the journal Urban Geography on July 18, 2025. Happy and Gay is the newest exhibition of art by the late Professor Emerita of Art Hung Liu, which was on view at the Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania from August 15 to October 26, 2025, and is opening at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art January 22 through May 31. Works by former music professor Pauline Oliveros and Steve Reich, MA ’63, were performed at the Bours de Commerce in Paris on October 22 and 23, 2025. Michelle Smith Johansen ’81 wrote a catalog of prose and poetry that was performed through dance last June in Cautionary Tales: A Reflection on 2025 Through Prose and Movement. She also published a chapbook with writings from the performances, titled Cautionary Tales: Evocative Prose and Poetry to Contemplate for 2025, as well as an essay for The Sun’s July print magazine. Work by Sionnan Wood ’04 appeared in The Irish Contemporaries {iv} exhibition at the Contemporary Irish Art Center Los Angeles in June 2025.

 Share your recent release with the

readers of Mills Quarterly! Send a press kit, including high-resolution images, to mills.quarterly@northeastern.edu.

MILLS QUARTERLY

Centennial Celebration, October 4, 2025

For one hundred years the Mills College Art Museum has served as a student and artist focused space that engages audiences and communities in critical and creative thinking about the world we live in. When you donate to the Art Museum Gift Fund, you give life to pioneering exhibitions and lectures, artist commissions, and online access for all to enjoy. You also enable students to build skills in museum practices that they can use in their careers while boosting the museum’s impact on the Bay Area art scene. Help drive the Mills College Art Museum’s mission forward. Make your gift today at bit.ly/artmuseum-gift . WINTER 2026

IN MEMORIAM 666666666666666

This section includes notices of death received before October 10. Submit a listing on behalf of a member of the Mills community at mills.quarterly@northeastern.edu or 510.430.3312.

ALUMNAE Dorothy Miller Brecunier ’43 • June 15, 2025 • Thousand Oaks, California After Mills, she graduated from the University of Iowa and married her late husband, Richard, that December. They raised their family in Waterloo, where she volunteered for nonprofits such as Meals on Wheels, Friends of the Grout Museum, and the Waterloo Center for the Arts. Dorothy loved participating in cross-country skiing and tennis, and she and Richard visited more than 35 countries in their post-empty nest travels. She is survived by three sons, seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Her cousin was the late Bevo Johnson Zellick ’49. Armilda Boone Harley ’48 • August 2025 • Long Lake, Minnesota She attended Mills just as her mother did. After graduating, Armilda moved to Seattle to work for Northwest Airlines, where she met her first

husband. The two eventually moved to Minnesota and divorced, then Armilda was with her second husband from the 1990s until his death in 2010. She was an adventurer who learned to play the ukulele late in life, climbed a portion of Mount Everest, and earned her certification as a small plane pilot. She is survived by her companion, Louis Oberhauser, and seven nieces and nephews. Barbara Waldron Waldie ’48 • August 28, 2025 • Iowa City, Iowa She traveled by train to attend Mills at the suggestion of her parents, and after a year, she transferred home to the University of Nebraska. That’s where she met her late husband, Bill, and she was a homemaker to their two children as well as a volunteer for the Children’s Nebraska and Methodist Hospitals in Omaha. Barbara was also an enthusiastic bridge player. She is survived by a son, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Gifts in Memory of Catherine Pillar Clark ’65 by Eileen Kurahashi ’65 Sandra MacDonald Cuza ’57 by Kathy Gallant ’90

MILLS QUARTERLY

Linda Hamilton Carr ’50 • July 10, 2025 • Lewiston, Idaho She and her second husband, Don, worked various ranches before starting a cattle ranch that eventually numbered more than 3,000 acres near Kooskia, Idaho. Linda was hands-on, working on horseback, but also kept a beautiful home for her four daughters and loved entertaining friends and neighbors. After selling the ranch in 2016, the couple moved to a retirement community, where Linda participated in trivia contests and started a poker club with her usual verve. She is survived by Don, four daughters, four grandchildren, and eight grandchildren. Genevieve Prust Karnes ’54 • October 17, 2023 • Desert Hot Springs, California She majored in English and was a longtime consultant with the Brain Gym Program. She is survived by her husband, James. Sallie Dunn Shippen ’56 • August 10, 2023 • Tualatin, Oregon After Mills, she graduated from Portland State University, later earning a divinity degree from Church Divinity School of the Pacific. Sallie was ordained in the Episcopal Church of Western Oregon in 1983, and after serving as rector at churches in Astoria and

Oakland, she became the first woman to take that role with the diocese. She also loved teaching guitar, appreciating music, and producing artwork and books that were celebrated in the title Art State: Washington. She is survived by two sons, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Lawrence “Toni” Putnam ’57 • May 10, 2025 • Garrison, New York She eventually graduated from the University of Rochester, where she transferred after her mother was diagnosed with cancer, and she also studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. With her second husband, she co-founded what became the Polich Tallix foundry, which was known for its higher-silica bronze. Toni later left to pursue her own art full-time; she specialized in mythic symbols in paintings, sculptures, masks, and prints that were exhibited throughout the Hudson Valley and in New York. She is survived by three children and six grandchildren. Joy Glascock Harvey ’60 • November 19, 2024 • Tyler, Texas While at Mills, her lifelong passion for Chinese art took hold, and she studied both at UC San Diego and the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. Brush painting and calligraphy became her vocation; she opened the studio Ahn Luh Arts in Springville, California, in 1994, and exhibited her work around Tulare County. Joy was also an elder in her local Presbyterian church prior to moving to Texas. She is survived by two children. Laura Dawn Loberg Doscher ’60 • June 15, 2025 • Napa She entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1962, serving in France, Martinique, and Belgium prior to coming

Professor Emerita of American History Marianne Sheldon Just a few months after marking her retirement, Professor Emerita of American History Marianne Sheldon died in Oakland on October 11, 2025, after experiencing a fall. She is survived by a daughter, two grandchildren, and her brother. Marianne came to Mills in 1975 with her master’s and PhD from the University of Michigan, and she quickly became an indelible part of the College. Over the years, she took on numerous roles: dean of the Division of Social Studies, director of graduate studies, associate provost, secretary to the Board of Trustees. She also assumed responsibility for the work of ensuring that Mills kept its accreditation with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. And, of course, she taught American history to generations of Mills students, garnering many fans and devotees along the way. As Marianne said at her retirement celebration in May 2025: “I feel like I’ve been at Mills long enough to be a part of its history. I’ve enjoyed every generation of students, and I’ve been honored to be able to teach. I’ve appreciated every moment.” Her Mills colleagues describe her as “irreplaceable.” Outside of teaching, she enjoyed traveling, with preferred destinations including Lake Tahoe and Hawaii, and she tended to her pet parakeets and finches with great affection. Above all, though, Marianne adored her grandchildren and showing them her support at their various engagements. A tree will be planted in her memory at the Mills Community Farm, and plans are underway for a campus gathering this spring.

home to Northern California. However, Dawn was drawn back to working abroad, returning to service and witnessing history in what’s now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Laos, and Norway. It was on assignment in Ecuador where she met her late husband, Chuck, and they worked together in Turkey and Washington, D.C. before retirement and caring for family. She is survived by her twin brother. Ann Markewitz ’60 • September 15, 2025 • Tucson, Arizona She later earned a master’s degree in public administration from the former Cal State Hayward and put it to work in her career in nonprofits:

first with Girl Scouts of the USA and Planned Parenthood, and later as the founder of her own consulting firm. One of Ann’s proudest accomplishments was helping to create a nursing care facility for the Tohono O’odham Nation. She also participated in the Mills Longitudinal Study. She is survived by her wife, Patricia; two daughters; six grandchildren, including Rachel Dorney ’16; and five great-grandchildren. Patricia “Pat” Sloneker Upton ’60 • July 11, 2025 • Southampton, New York She was well-known as the licensing agent for Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, a role that paved the way for modern branding and licensing, and she later wrote children’s books and WINTER 2026

IN MEMORIAM Marion Hellyer King ’54 and Natalie Hellyer Gordon ’58.

Barbara Johnson Lewis ’56 The “ever-loving, ever-faithful” class secretary for the Class of 1956, Barbara Johnson Lewis died on September 11, 2025, in South Jordan, Utah. She is survived by a son, two stepsons, four stepdaughters, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. An Oakland native, Barbara was an inspiring school music teacher all her life. She taught on both coasts, retiring in 1990 from the school system in Greenwich, Connecticut, after exposing countless children to performances through the Lincoln Center Arts in Education program. Upon retirement, she purchased the historic Chase House Bed and Breakfast in Cornish, New Hampshire, which she ran for more than 10 years—first, with late husband Bill, and then, after his death, with Ted Doyle, whom she married several years later. As the 1956 class secretary for more than 10 years, Barbara led her class through the isolation of the COVID years through an annual Zoom reunion, which still took place this past October in her memory. Many of her classmates also attended her landmark 90th birthday party in 2024, when she gathered more than 80 friends and family at the same Utah theater that supported her “Music in Motion” creative aging program.

helped to create the American Girl doll-and-book series. Pat also enjoyed playing golf, keeping up on current events, staying close with her family, and renovating Manhattan real estate. She is survived by her husband, Robert; two children; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Cornelia “Cornie” Young ’60 • June 18, 2025 • Everett, Washington She worked for the Washington State Employment Security Department for her entire career, starting as a counselor (later earning a master’s in counseling from the University of Oregon) and moving into management before retiring in 1994. Cornie never met a dog she didn’t love, and among her many adventures she celebrated her birthday every 42

MILLS QUARTERLY

year at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Mills alums might remember her for her bright red hair. She is survived by a daughter, a niece, and cousin Mary Dana Korman ’60. Tirrell Hellyer Kimball ’62 • July 14, 2025 • Falmouth, Maine When she married, she and her new husband moved to Italy for his Air Force posting. Upon their return to the U.S, Tirrell became the director of religious education at a Unitarian Universalist church in Portland, Maine, a position she relished for 27 years. Writing curricula led to the couple creating their own publishing company, and Tirrell loved to sing even as Alzheimer’s took over. She is survived by her husband, two sons, five grandchildren, sisters Connie Hellyer ’59 and Doro Hellyer Oliver ’60, and cousins

Mary Caroline “Carrie” Kellogg McDonald ’63 • September 6, 2025 • Lawrence, Kansas She spent her career in many different roles: a tournament manager for men’s professional tennis, a property manager and real estate broker, wedding coordinator and bartender. Carrie also volunteered for the Junior League in Denver and helped to found the Redstone Art Foundation. She retired as the office manager for the University of Kansas’ Western civilization program and remained in Lawrence, where she loved to cook and entertain her friends and family. She is survived by three children, four grandchildren, and five siblings. Sharon “Shari” Smart Kellum Neuman ’64 • October 2, 2023 • Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico After Mills, she graduated from the University of New Mexico, and she returned to the Bay Area and studied for a PhD at Cal while her late husband earned his law degree. After his death, Shari took the role of managing editor at the Latin American Research Review. She re-married in 1994, the couple splitting their time between New Mexico and the Bay Area, and she loved to quilt, play the piano, and take continuing education classes. She is survived by her second husband, a son, two stepchildren, and three grandchildren. Susan Ford Blomberg ’67 • October 7, 2024 • San Francisco She departed Mills early and later graduated from the University of San Francisco with a degree in organizational behavior. Susan met her late husband, William, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church,

and she nursed him through his diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. She also enjoyed cooking and entertaining. She’s survived by several nieces and nephews. Aida Garcia Resendiz ’79 • July 10, 2025 • Oakland In the early 1980s, she married her husband Robert and then graduated with a master’s degree in public health administration from the former Cal State Hayward. Aida took that degree into dental and optometry practices throughout the Bay Area as an office manager until retirement in 2019. She was a devout Christian and proud of her Mexican heritage, traveling south often to visit with family. She is survived by her husband, three children, four grandchildren, and sister Alma Escobedo Garcia ’80. Mary K. Smith ’86 • November 27, 2024 • Riverside, California After Mills, Mary earned her master’s degree from Cornell’s Historic Preservation Planning program, then worked in New Jersey and Ohio before returning to her native California as an environmental planner with Caltrans. An avid lover of the state’s landscape and architectural and transportation history, Mary evaluated historic resources and championed their preservation as part of her work; she was also a passionate student of jewelry design and gemstones. She died of pancreatic cancer just shy of retirement and is survived by her two sisters and a niece. Emily Clark Farrell, MA ’98 • September 9, 2021 • Truckee, California She graduated from Pepperdine University before coming to Mills for her master’s degree in child life. Inspired by a love for flowers she picked up from her godmother, Emily established her own floral business, Tahoe Blooms, providing décor for many local weddings. The competitive streak she discovered as a cross-country runner in high school continued

Marilyn Knowlden Busnardo ’47 Before she came to Mills, Marilyn Knowlden Busnardo ’47 had already lived quite a full life. As a child actress in the 1930s and ’40s, she attained fame through her work, with names such as Katharine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, and Irene Dunne playing her mother in various works. She portrayed little Cosette in the 1935 film production of Les Misérables, and the DVD cover for that version still bears her visage. Before she graduated from Mills, she married her late husband, Richard Goates, and moved with him to China and Japan, where she contributed her talents to the Armed Forces Radio Service. Upon returning to the U.S., Marilyn acted in San Diego-area community productions of Arsenic and Old Lace and My Fair Lady, and she wrote an autobiography, Little Girl in Big Pictures, that was published in 2011. She is survived by three children, three grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.

through her love of tennis, and she also enjoyed skiing and boating. She is survived by her husband, Ron; a daughter; her parents; and two brothers.

Viola DeCoudreaux, parent of President Emerita Alecia DeCoudreaux • August 30, 2025 • East Falmouth, Massachusetts

FAMILY & FRIENDS

James Gregory, parent of Leah Gregory ’03 • May 4, 2025 • Dallas, Texas

Richard Ahrons, spouse of Marian Hirsch ’75 • June 4, 2025 • Santa Clara, California Frank Baxter, spouse of Kathy Stacey Baxter ’61 • July 15, 2025 • Pacific Palisades, California Vernon Burrows, spouse of Janet Bottimore Burrows ’56 • June 16, 2025 • Yuba City, California William Custard, spouse of Linda Pitts Custard ’60 and parent of Laura Custard Hurt ’94 • March 4, 2025 • Dallas Belva Davis, the first Black woman newscaster on the West Coast • September 24, 2025 • Oakland

Robert Hughes • August 11, 2022 • Emeryville, California Philip Kirjan, spouse of Noel Butler ’79 • September 24, 2022 • Sunnyvale, California Bob Odermatt, spouse of Diana Birtwistle Odermatt ’60 • August 8, 2025 • Altadena, California Harry Ramsey, spouse of Anne Brooks Ramsey ’60 • August 1, 2025 • Sedona, Arizona

FACULTY & STAFF Eva Corredor, former assistant professor of French • July 4, 2025 • New York City Daniel Siegel, former graduate instructor • July 2, 2025 • Oakland WINTER 2026

SALON

BOOK ART BY ELLEN SCHMIDT MELCHIONDO ’87

LLEN SCHMIDT MELCHIONDO ’87 studied studio art at Mills and co-founded The Women Lifers Resume Project in 2014 to support women who receive life sentences in prison throughout Pennsylvania. Through that work, she has helped such convicts with their applications for commutation, and to bring awareness to their cause, she’s created short films and written numerous articles. This piece is a memorial book that Melchiondo created out of the pieces of mail, including envelopes, that she received from one woman she assisted through the project: Naomi Blount. Melchiondo helped Blount with her application, which was granted in 2019 and gave Blount five years on the outside before her death in 2024. Melchiondo used the knowledge she gained from her book art class at Mills to put the piece together. “The book has pockets to store bits of letters and photographs,” she says. “To this day, I use the tools and methods that Kathy Walkup taught.”

Salon features artwork and creative writing by Mills alums and professors. Submit your work for consideration by reaching out to mills.quarterly@northeastern.edu.

MILLS QUARTERLY

MILLS QUARTERLY 5000 MacArthur Blvd. Oakland, CA 94613-1301 510.430.3312 mills.quarterly@northeastern.edu quarterly.mills.edu

“You have to understand why you’re doing something in order to understand why it’s the best thing to do for a patient.” –CHRISTIN NEW ’11, CLINICAL RESEARCH COORDINATOR AT STANFORD MEDICINE (READ MORE ON PAGE 10)