Ohio Women fall 2018

fall 2018

for ALUMNI and FRIENDS of OHIO UNIVERSITY

Resilient leadership When we look back through history and see the impact women have had on American society, we discover that there is more power in womankind than some people may realize.

As just one example, during World War II, groups of women took over working in factories, while others served in the armed forces overseas. Others selflessly cared for their children or tended to their emotionally or physically wounded husbands upon their return from battle. In whatever capacity a woman chose to support her country, her family, or her fellow citizens during that difficult time, America needed her.

For generations, regardless of race, faith, or national origin, women—including those you’ll read about in this issue—have been steadfast in managing their homes, advancing their careers, and advocating for equal treatment under the law.

Over the course of my career in academia, I have had the opportunity to work with some truly remarkable women, each with her own strengths and special gifts. Their leadership through times of uncertainty, as recessions beleaguered our country, or adapting to the changes to literature and the way it was accessed through technological advances, was inspiring. The women I’ve met at OHIO are no different.

We have seen the resiliency and persistence exhibited by women for centuries, and I am excited to see what will be accomplished by the next generation of women leaders.

RUTHIE NELLIS Ohio University First Lady

ON THE COVER: Read about Francine Childs, OHIO’s first tenured black professor, on page 20 and watch a video of her life and home at ohiotoday.org.

Photo by Madeleine Hordinski, BSVC '20. LEFT: OHIO

First Lady Ruthie Nellis has witnessed first-hand the progress and challenges many women face. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel , BSVC '02

features 10

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Voices of change

In her footsteps

Three ’70s-era OHIO women reflect on what has changed, and what hasn’t

A young Bobcat follows her lifelong mentor’s path to OHIO

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Got your back

A place to gather

Women engineering and tech students band together against the odds

Professor Emerita Francine Childs opens her heart and home to students

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04 Aunt Flo’s heroes 05 Wellness for all 08 Here to be heard

Read on and discover stories of women who found their voice at OHIO and learned to use it to fight injustice, correct inequality, and improve the world for us all.

—Editor Peter Shooner

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Michelle Poler, co-founder of the empowerment movement Hello Fears, shared her journey facing 100 fears in 100 days with OHIO women at the 2018 Celebrate Women Conference at Ohio University Lancaster.

Photo by Ty Wright, BFA ’02, MA ’13

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Aunt Flo’s heroes When is the last time you talked about periods? At OHIO, those discussions are as regular as the topic itself thanks to students who are championing menstruation conversation and ensuring access to menstrual products.

Illustration by Louisa Cannell

Members of The Period Project (TPP) are philanthropists and advocates, providing menstrual products to those in need and initiating dialogue about menstrual health.

Moved to act after encountering a peer unable to afford menstrual products, Maddie Sloat, BSC ’19, founded the student organization in 2016. Since then, TPP

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members have donated countless products to a local homeless shelter, school districts, and assistance programs, and worked to establish permanent Student Senate funding to stock products in Athens campus restrooms.

“I had never realized [access to menstrual products] was something that people are concerned about and something

that is really impacted by poverty—because we don’t really talk about it at all,” Sloat says.

TPP’s efforts spread far beyond the bricks of Athens, and its mission extends far beyond providing pads and tampons, also incorporating activism and education.

Members have advocated to end the luxury tax on menstrual products and have facilitated conversations and information sessions designed to end the stigma associated with menstruation and educate women and men on menstrual health.

Inspired and, in some cases, guided by TPP, branches of the organization have sprouted up everywhere from the University of Akron to India. “[The Period Project] has allowed me to have conversations with people literally all over the world,” says TPP President Karinne Hill, BA ’19. “It’s really encouraging that people from all over the world are aligning with this mission and wanting to bring the same kind of thing to their area.”

—Angela Woodward, BSJ ’98

Wellness for all For nearly 25 years, the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine has been steadily increasing access to health care for thousands of community members across 22 Southeast Ohio counties.

The College’s Community Health Programs (CHP), which began in 1994, today comprise 15 programs and initiatives, including the women-focused Family Navigator and the Breast Education Screening and Navigation programs. These programs fill the health care gaps created by high costs, cultural norms, and lack of convenience.

“I always say [CHP] is the outreach arm of the Heritage College,” says Carole Merckle, assistant director of CHP and Area Health Education Center.

Strategically using a combination of funding sources, such as grants from the Ohio Department of Health and Susan G. Komen Columbus, CHP staff are able to ensure no one is turned away because of their inability to pay.

A permanent clinic in Athens and a mobile health unit that logged more than 10,000 miles last year setting up same-day clinics at libraries, worksites, and other public spaces bring care to patients where they are—circumventing a primary obstacle for patients, Merckle says.

“A lot of women don’t have the time. It’s a convenience factor,” she says. “These same-day clinics are a convenience factor because they can get all their gynecological cancer screenings done in one visit.”

What’s more, CHP Director Sherri Oliver says, these services don’t fit common stereotypes associated with free clinics.

“This is free health care, but it’s really high-quality health care,” she says. “Our staff are able to spend more time with each patient than what is typical in a traditional health care setting.”

—Peter Shooner, editor, Ohio Women

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What were you wearing?

This question, too often asked of survivors of sexual violence, was answered by a powerful exhibit in Baker University Center’s Trisolini Gallery this fall. Displaying more than 40 stories submitted by Athens-area survivors alongside clothing representing what each was wearing at the time of the incident, the exhibit proved that clothing does not cause sexual assault. Visit ohiotoday.org to see a detailed photo gallery of this stirring exhibit.

Photos by Ellee Achten, BSJ '14, MA '17

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Here to be heard When Kirsten Pribula, BFA ’18, lived on campus and needed a late-night ride back to her room, she sometimes would call CATS Late Night, a free shuttle service provided by the University. There was just one problem: Deaf since age 3, Pribula relied on a call service for deaf individuals that can sound like a phone call from a telemarketer, and several times, the CATS Late Night operator hung up on her.

Then, the graphic design major was invited to become an accessibility liaison through the Presidentially Appointed Committee on Disability and Accessibility Promotion. Her first goal?

Change the CATS Late Night call system. The accessibility liaisons met with Transportation Services, which fixed the problem within days by adding a texting option for all campus ridehailing services.

“I felt sad because I couldn’t make a simple call and do something for myself instead of having another person to help me,” Pribula recalls.

“It was a great feeling,” Pribula says, adding that the texting option is popular among hearing students as well. This outcome is an example of “deaf gain,” where society as a whole benefits from having deaf people in it.

Pribula’s life experience informed not only her accessibility advocacy, but also her art. Through her senior thesis project, “Hear What I See,” she invited others to experience the challenges of lip reading, a skill Pribula says is acquired only through practice and patience.

She’s quick to point out, though, that there’s much more to her story—and those of all people living with a disability.

“I’m more than just the ‘deaf girl.’ I’m Kirsten. I’m a graphic designer, a photographer, I’m from Ohio,” Pribula says, explaining that she wishes everyone would learn to reach out to those with disabilities.

Kirsten Pribula, BFA ’18 (OPPOSITE), shares her experiences living with deafness through both stalwart on-campus advocacy and thought-provoking art. Opposite photo by Elle Achten , BSJ ’14, MA ’17. A bove photo courtesy of Kristen Pribula , BFA ’18

“Get to know their story and find out who they really are and look beyond the disability. It’ll surprise you.”

—Mary Reed, BSJ ’90, MA ’93

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Voices of change College campuses surge with activism and dialogue when national issues of the day arise, and Ohio University is no exception. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, unrest regarding race, gender, and war shook the small college town in the Appalachian foothills. This tumult, a microcosm of American society at the time, spurred dramatic change toward inclusivity and altered the lives of OHIO students then and today.

Anti-war rally, 1972. Photo courtesy of Ohio University Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

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This era of disruption and growth was of particular interest to two-time OHIO graduate Frank Robinson, MA ’93, PHD ’00, whose dissertation explored issues facing women at OHIO in the 1960s-70s by interviewing 38 individuals who lived them.

to OHIO’s MBA program. “There are still a lot of men who don’t like to see women succeed, and in some cases the women in their lives feel the same way.”

Today, 50 years since their experiences on campus and 20 years since Robinson’s interviews, three of his subjects—all of whom played unique roles in the feminist movement at OHIO—reflected on the still unfinished arc of women’s progress.

“We thought when we opened the door it would all work out, but we underestimated how deep the resentment is toward strong women,” says Beverly Jones, BSJ ’69, MBA ’75, the first female admitted

During the late ’60s, gendered rules of conduct on campus were barriers for equal treatment.

For instance, there were curfew hours and dress codes, and women were permitted to smoke only so long as they remained seated. Of course, none of these rules applied to men.

“The standards were so different for men and women, and no one questioned it,” Anne Goff, BA ’69, MED ’71, recalled with Robinson in 1998. “It was silly, but I don’t remember being too enraged over it.”

After leaving OHIO a more equitable institution than she found it, Beverly Jones has pursued a career as an attorney and, more recently, an expert in leadership coaching in Washington, D.C. Photo by Susana Raab , MA '10

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En Loco Parentus, the idea that the University act in the place of parents to protect its students, was accepted at the time. Jones suggested that it was OHIO’s intent to prepare young women for the pressure they would be under in the workforce.

“These rules for behavior were very common in adult life,” Jones says. “Women had to have a certain level of polish in order to even get into the room, and employers were looking for someone who knew how to be a lady.”

“I’ve always felt like I belonged, like I deserved a seat at the table.

I’ve lived with my elbows out, and I never allowed a feeling of secondclass citizenship to permeate me.”

—Susan Reimer, BSJ ’73

Change was imminent, however. Jones and Goff founded the Women’s Information Group (WIG), which gathered young women who had almost no female role models in positions of leadership on campus, to discuss women’s issues.

While women across campus eagerly joined to civilly dialogue about books and theories, the assembly seemed to make some men on campus uneasy.

“They would look at us as a guerilla group; it amused us terrifically,” Jones remembered in 1998. “I knew there were guys waking up in the middle of the night thinking, ‘Oh my God, what are these women going to do?’ It was all bluff really— but perception is reality. We recognized it as a tool we could use to get something symbolic done fast.”

Jones sought change at the highest levels of the administration, eventually publishing at President Sowle's request the Report on the Status of Women at Ohio University, 1972, which documented many of the inequalities of the time and influenced significant changes on campus: increased funding for women’s athletics, re-admittance of women to the marching band, and changes in attitude toward women students, faculty, and staff.

Post alumna Susan Reimer received the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism’s L.J. Hortin Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016 after retiring from The Baltimore Sun, where she reported for 36 years.

Photo by Susana Raab, MA '10. OPPOSITE: Sit-in, 1970. Photo courtesy of

Ohio University Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

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Women's Center meeting, 1976. Photo courtesy of Ohio University Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

Susan Reimer, BSJ ’73, covered all sides of women’s issues as a writer for The Post. When she started her career as a sports writer just as women were first allowed to conduct interviews in the locker room, she found her own tactics for breaking through that industry’s gender barriers.

“Clothing is camouflage,” Reimer says. “[In my role], the players resented our being there; so, I dressed like a boy. That way I could be mistaken for just another guy or at least it would be clear that there was no chance that I was there to flirt.”

seat at the table,” Reimer says. “I’ve lived with my elbows out, and I never allowed a feeling of secondclass citizenship to permeate me.”

Yet today, as these three OHIO women reflect on half a century of progress and setbacks, the importance of unity and support remains clear.

“When we started reaching out to others [to form WIG], it was transformational,” says Goff.

“You have to find a collection of people that will understand where you are coming from and have your back.”

All women engaged with the feminist movement differently. Some found the companionship and support of likeminded women overruled feelings of insecurity or fear. Others were simply wired for the resiliency that the spirit of feminism demands.

Visit ohiotoday.org to hear more from these voices of change, in conversations from both 1998 and today, in the latest Ohio Today radio podcast episode.

“I’ve always felt like I belonged, like I deserved a

— By Hailee Tavoian

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After a 24-year career with the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, where she was vice president of research, Anne Goff continues to share her expertise in university and nonprofit research writing as a consultant in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Photo by Susana Raab, MA '10

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In her footsteps “Did you tell your special teacher?”

Anna Bekavac’s father has asked her that question countless times. The answer? Always “yes.” That special teacher? Kay Dauphin-Falkenhan, BSJ ’74, whose role in Bekavac’s life extends far beyond that of her grade school teacher.

Over the past 15 years, these two OHIO women have learned from and supported one another and, in recent years, have nurtured their shared Bobcat connection.

When Bekavac, BMUS ’18, was researching colleges, she reached out to her special teacher turned friend and mentor to ask about a place she had just learned of: Ohio University. Before long, Dauphin-Falkenhan was taking Bekavac on her first college visit and herself on a walk down memory lane.

“I showed her the OU campus through my eyes,” DauphinFalkenhan says.

“Everywhere we went, Kay was talking about how much she loved OU,” Bekavac

recalls. “I wanted to love my college as much as Kay loves OU.” Bekavac chose OHIO, following— at times quite literally—in Dauphin-Falkenhan’s footsteps.

When applying for OHIO’s inaugural class of Margaret Boyd Scholars, Bekavac wrote of Dauphin-Falkenhan in her essay about a woman she looked up to.

When she was assigned a room in Bryan Hall, which houses second-year Margaret Boyd Scholars, Bekavac was placed in the same room DauphinFalkenhan had occupied.

“We were the closest we’ve ever been when I went to OU,” Bekavac says.

Dauphin-Falkenhan’s son Justin, BSC ’04, graduated from OHIO, but her relationship with Bekavac provided her an opportunity to reconnect more fully with her own experience as an OHIO woman.

“It was fun to go through it again with Anna, although Anna’s experience at OU and mine were very different,” Dauphin-Falkenhan says, adding

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that while she didn’t feel held back as a woman at OHIO, her professional life was a different story.

“There were definitely glass ceilings. There were definitely some of the things that the Me Too movement is now addressing,” she says. “That’s why I was so proud of Anna for being chosen for that inaugural group of Margaret Boyd Scholars. I felt very strongly that we had made progress when Anna told me about that.”

Now both OHIO graduates, Dauphin-Falkenhan and Bekavac’s special relationship continues.

When Bekavac recently passed her music therapy certification exam, she immediately reached out to her special teacher who, more than 1,000 miles away, was waiting anxiously by the phone.

Visit ohiotoday.org to see where other members of the first Margaret Boyd Scholars cohort have gone since graduation—and how the program helped them get there.

—Angela Woodward, BSJ ’98 Photo by Richard Wilson, BSVC ’90

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The future (of engineering) is female Ohio University students studying engineering and technology know to expect rigorous course work and lots of career options. The field’s female students know to also expect a huge gender gap.

“It’s shocking when you sit in a classroom and realize there’s only eight or something girls in the class,” says Jelena Mrvos, a senior studying mechanical engineering. “I remember being shell-shocked about that freshman year.”

Women hold only 24 percent of jobs in STEM fields, according to a 2017 study by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In engineering, that number shrinks to just 14 percent.

Undiscouraged, Mrvos found support in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), a student

group that provides professional development opportunities and local outreach programs for women in the field.

“I heard it was a great place to go to meet female peers in my major, and in engineering in general, because we all knew going in that it was going to be male-dominated,” says Mrvos, who went on to serve as SWE’s president last year.

From the chapter’s informal mentoring program that pairs younger students with junior and senior members in their major, to regular regional and national conference attendance, SWE builds its members’ skills and professional networks, while also reaching out to the young girls who will follow in their footsteps.

At annual events for Athens’ Girl Scouts, Brownies, and Daisies, girls as young as 6 are asked

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to complete various challenges using engineering techniques.

Mrvos says it’s important to introduce students to STEM fields during their formative years.

Although the industry might seem male-dominated now, those “elementary school kids building circuit boards” will grow up some day.

“It’s going to take years until those kindergartners who are on their iPads playing engineering games get all the way through college,” Mrvos says. “It’s a slow process and slow change, but I think we’re absolutely headed down the right path.”

Learn more about how SWE is equipping its members to become the next generation of women engineering and technology leaders at ohiotoday.org.

—Cat Hofacker, BSJ ’18

“I heard it was a great place to go to meet female peers in my major, and in engineering in general, because we all knew going in that it was going to be male-dominated.”

—Jelena Mrvos, BSME '19

Chemical engineering senior and Society of Women Engineers President Ashley Weitzel (RIGHT) helps an Athens-area Girl Scout assemble a Rube Goldberg machine at the groups’ “Buildings, Brains, and Boxes” design contest this spring. Photo by Ashley Stottlemyer

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A place to gather Francine Childs, HON ’97, EMERT ’05, is many things to many people.

Ohio University’s first tenured black professor, she’s a stalwart social justice advocate. On campus and in the community, she’s a symbol of perseverance, selflessness, and spunk. To her students, she’s simply “Doc,” or more affectionately, “Mama Childs.”

“The one person who directly had the greatest influence in me being a scholar, in me being a successful businessman, it directly correlates to Dr. Francine Childs,” says her former student Lyman Montgomery, BSH ’91.

Childs’ journey into the hearts and minds of countless OHIO students began long before her 1974 arrival in Athens.

Living under her grandmother’s roof in the small town of Wellington, Texas, she spent her youth pulling cotton, studying her schoolwork, and watching her grandmother welcome into their home community members, college students, church patrons, and even strangers off the street.

“Our house was like the gathering place. People would just gravitate there,” she remembers.

After graduating as valedictorian of her high school class, she pursued her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, driven by her family’s tradition of education to become a teacher herself.

“My grandmother’s father was a principal. Her mother was also a teacher. Her sister was a teacher. So, my grandmother was a great advocate for education,” she says.

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Francine Childs’ Elliott Street home has been a community hub for more than 45 years. Photo by

Madeleine Hordinski, BSVC ’20

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Starting at OHIO as an associate professor in the then-Black Studies Program, Childs saw an opportunity to improve the breadth and depth of the program’s academic offerings. She taught courses like The Black Family, The Black Child, Techniques of Teaching in Innercity Schools, and the Afro-American Personality, and advised several black student organizations.

Childs advanced through faculty ranks to chair what became the African American Studies Department, but she remained dedicated to developing personal, profound connections with her students.

“I started putting pressure on students to want to excel, don’t just do enough to get by. I became their friend, their mother, the policeman,” she says. “If they got in trouble, I was up there at the courts.”

Over the years, Childs’ Elliott Street home became a gathering place for many as she echoed her grandmother’s principles of hospitality and good works.

“I’d have groceries and things all on the porch,” she says. “I’d just put bags and stuff out on my porch and [students] knew they could just come on the porch and get what you need.”

Childs (LEFT) presents the 2017 Francine Childs Diversity Leadership Award to Diarra Ndiaye, who graduated in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in neurosciences. Photo by Kaitlin Owens, BSVC ’17

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Photo by Madeleine Hordinski, BSVC ’20

Every year, Childs hosted a Christmas dinner for those who were unable to travel home for the holidays.

“She did not want any student left alone, didn’t care about your religion, your race, your gender—none of that mattered,” Montgomery says. “She wanted to make sure that if you were a student there, then you were welcome to come and sit at the table.”

Winsome Chunnu-Brayda, MA ’04, PHD ’09, the associate director of OHIO’s Multicultural Center and a former student of Childs’, still brings new students and faculty to “Doc’s home” to acquaint them with Athens.

“It’s a space where we can bring the new people and say, ‘Here we are. We’re a community. We can help you,’” she says. “She’s that one presence that is calming and welcoming for people, as well as reassuring, because she’s been here so long.”

Visit ohiotoday.org to learn more about Childs’ life and home in a video titled “A Place to Gather.”

—Julie Ciotola, BSJ ’20

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Women's Basketball's Amani Burke commands the court at OHIO's game against Central Michigan in February. Matt Starkey, BSVC ’20

Calendar Dec. 8, 2018

Jan. 30, 2019

March 22, 2019

Akron Women’s Club Holiday Luncheon Join this devoted group of OHIO alumnae for a holiday get-together featuring keynote Shawna Bolin, associate vice president for University Planning.

Scripps 90-Minute Series A panel including three OHIO alumnae will discuss “Women in the Workplace” as part of the Scripps College's “90-Minute” speaker series.

Celebrate Women Ohio University Lancaster will host its 13th annual conference in Brasee Hall, gathering OHIO women and community members from around the state.

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Mission statement Ohio Today informs, celebrates, and engages alumni, faculty, staff, students, and friends of Ohio University. Ohio Women is its annual publication for female Bobcats.

Editor, Associate Director of Content, Advancement Communication and Marketing Peter Shooner Art Director Sarah McDowell, BFA ’02 Contributors Ellee Achten BSJ ’14, MA ’17 Louisa Cannell Julie Ciotola, BSJ ’20 Cat Hofacker, BSJ ’18 Madeleine Hordinski, BSVC ’20 Ruthie Nellis Ohio University Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections Kaitlin Owens, BSVC ’17 Kirsten Pribula, BFA ’18 Susana Raab, MA ’10 Mary Reed, BSJ ’90, MA ’93 Kelee Garrison Riesbeck, BSJ, CERT ’91 Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02 Matt Starkey, BSVC ’20 Ashley Stottlemyer Hailee Tavoian Richard Wilson, BSVC ’90 Angela Woodward, BSJ ’98 Ty Wright, BFA ’02, MA ’13

Assistant Vice President for Communication and Chief of Staff, Advancement Jennifer Shutt Bowie, BSJ ’94, MS ’99 Senior Director of Creative Services and Digital Communication, Advancement Communication and Marketing Sarah Filipiak, BSJ ’01

Ohio Women is published annually.

Its digital companion is ohiotoday. org. Both are produced by University Advancement with funding from The Ohio University Foundation. Views expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the opinions of University staff or its policies.

Ohio University President M. Duane Nellis Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations, Executive Director of the Alumni Association Erin Essak Kopp

Copyright 2018 by Ohio University. Ohio University is an equal access, equal opportunity, and affirmative action institution.

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Director of Content, Advancement Communication and Marketing; Editor, ​ Ohio Today, ohiotoday.org Kelee Garrison Riesbeck, BSJ, CERT ’91

The mailing address for the editorial office is Ohio University, Ohio Women, 111 McKee House, 1 Ohio University Drive, Athens, OH 45701. Send questions, comments, story ideas, and submissions to that address, by email to ohiowomen@ohio.edu, or call Advancement Communication and Marketing at 740.597.9082.

Make address changes at ohio. edu/alumni or via Ohio University, Advancement Services, 1 Ohio University Drive, 168 WUSOC, Athens, OH 45701.

Proofreader Emily Caldwell, BSJ ’88, MS ’99

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Visit ohiotoday.org to hear from Susan Reimer (RIGHT) and two other OHIO women who experienced and expedited change at OHIO during the 1960s-70s. Listen to their recorded reflections from 1998 as well as conversations from today in Ohio Today radio’s latest podcast episode.

Photo by Susana Raab , MA '10

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