WINTER2015 - Chatham University · Scott Carter, MSUS ’16; Jared Haidet, MSUS ’16; Joshua...

WINTER2015

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Bill Campbell

MANAGING EDITOR Cara Gillotti

DESIGN Brown Advertising and Design, Inc.

DESIGN CONSULTANT Krista A. Terpack, MBA ’09

CONTRIBUTORS Cara GillottiKate Luce Angell

PHOTOGRAPHY Annie O'Neill

The Chatham Recorder is published biannually by the Office of Marketing and Communications, Dilworth Hall, Woodland Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15232. Letters or inquiries may be directed to the managing editor by mail at this address, by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at 412-365-1335.

FRONT COVERMosaic Garden atEden Hall Campus

THIS PAGEStudent studying inrenovated Carriage House

FSC Logo

2Eden Hall Residence

Hall

4University

News &Events

8A Traditionof Change

10Sustainability at Home and

Abroad

mailto:[email protected]

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IN THIS ISSUE

14Brushes with

History

18Interdisciplinary

Healthcare inEcuador

24Chatham: A

Transformational University

45Tribute to

ElsieHillman

22Chronicle Interview

44In Memoriam

28Class Notes

CHATHAM UNIVERSITY • RECORDER • WINTER 20152

EDEN HALL

Life at Eden Hall

his fall, the first students moved into Eden Hall Campus’s Orchard Residence Hall, where electricity is powered and hot water heated through solar panels on the roof and rooms are heated and cooled through the Campus’s

geothermal heating system. When not in class, students have been joining events at Shadyside Campus, playing board games, enjoying group activities in the Lodge, and, of course, eating.

“It’s phenomenal. I expect it to be good, because I know it’s local. Last night we had honey-roasted potatoes and flank steak with tomato pesto.”CATHERINE GILES ’15, MSUS ’17

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UNIVERSITY NEWS

News “NET IMPACT” CHAPTER LAUNCHES

This new graduate and undergraduate chapter is a 501 (c)(3) that serves to inspire a new generation of leaders to use their careers to make social and environmental change within and beyond the business world.

CHATHAM AGAIN RECEIVES BEST COLLEGE RANKINGS FROM U. S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT

With this ranking, Chatham improves three spots over the previous year, and continues to be the category’s highest ranked institution in the Pittsburgh region.

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CHATHAM RANKED AS A TOP 5 BEST ONLINE COLLEGE IN PENNSYLVANIA

Chatham University’s online programs were selected as a Top 5 “Best Online College” in Pennsylvania by Affordable Colleges Online.

MFA PROGRAM RECEIVES NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS GRANT

The grant will support a creative partnership between the MFA in Creative Writing program, Allegheny County Jail, State Correctional Institution Pittsburgh, and Sojourner House, a residential drug and alcohol treatment facility for mothers and children.

More information is available at chatham.edu/newschatham.edu/inthenews

Bachelor of Sustainability students exploring the Eden Hall Campus trail system.


UNIVERSITY NEWS

CHELSEA MCGRAW, MSCP ’16, WINS FULBRIGHT AWARD

Master of Science in Counseling Psychology student Chelsea McGraw (’16) has been awarded a prestigious yearlong Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to teach English in Malaysia in 2016. She’s looking forward to establishing an arts program in the school, so that students can use English outside of an academic context.

McGraw saw how religion impacted learning styles through prior teaching abroad experience—specifically Islam in Morocco and Buddhism in Nepal. Malaysia has significant populations of each of these religions. “I’m interested in how Islam and Buddhism intersect in the classroom, and what the best way to teach is,” says McGraw.

News“And being Malaysian is its own culture, too. I want to understand that, and be able to separate cultural differences, and give the children the best experience based on what

I learn.”

After her degree at Chatham, McGraw plans to pursue either further education in clinical psychology or psychiatry. “I want to be able to carry out

mental health initiatives globally, for women and children in particular,” she says.

Advice for other students applying for a Fulbright? “The essays are very important,” she says. “Have as many people as possible look at them. Your grades are important, but for this scholarship, your character is more important.”

“Being Malaysian is its own culture, too. I want to understand that, and be able to separate cultural differences, and give the children the best experience based on what I learn.”

CHELSEA MCGRAW, MSCP ’16

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“Have the courage to move intothings that are challenging. You’ll learn a lot and feel better about yourself as a clinician.”DR. JIM WITHERS, OPERATION SAFETY NET

UNIVERSITY EVENTS

1. On October 13, the Chatham University Nursing Program’s Chi Zeta Chapter Honor Society of Nursing and Sigma Theta Tau International held a Mental Health Awareness Symposium, open to all students and community members. The symposium featured “Awareness across America: The Strength of a Story,” a presentation by Ian Cummins, RN, a documentary featuring three stories related to people living with schizophrenia, and “Bridges of Hope,” a presentation by Associate Professor Michelle Doas, Ed.D., MSN, RN.

2. Also on October 13, the tenth annual Think Big Forum, hosted by the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Chatham University, focused on “By Women, For Women: Celebrating 10 Years of Entrepreneurship in Pittsburgh.” Speakers included women entrepreneurs from Greater Pittsburgh whose products or services have made a difference for women in particular.

3. On September 17, the Interprofessional Education Task Force kicked off the year with a talk by Dr. Jim Withers of Operation Safety Net, a Pittsburgh-based organization that provides medical services to Pittsburgh’s homeless population. Students in Chatham’s counseling psychology and health sciences programs are participating in the program.

Events

For more information, visitchatham.edu/views


The Women’s LeadershipLiving Learning Community Preserving tradition, opening minds

A TRADITION OF CHANGE

lthough things at Chatham are changing, one thing is staying the same: Fickes Hall will continue to be a single-sex residence hall for

women. However, Fickes Hall is also home to something new – the Women’s Leadership Living Learning Community (LLC).

One of the initiatives of the Chatham University Women’s Institute, the LLC is a place where “women can come together and learn to empower themselves,” says senior Kelly Nestman, who is also the first Resident Assistant (RA) for the LLC.

LLC programming isn’t just for the women who live in it, she adds. Instead, it’s intended to bring the message of women’s empowerment to the broader campus. Nestman says they’re just getting it off the ground, but one of their first events was a “Jeopardy” game, where all the questions were from women’s history. She also plans an all-campus athletic event inspired by the “Run Like a Girl” ad campaign, which questions stereotypes about women and girls.

Even Nestman admits she was a clear first choice for the LLC RA. With a major in women’s studies and minor in business, she’s participated in both the student coed transition team and the selection committee for the Women’s Institute Director, and is very active in women’s groups on campus, including Feminist Activists Creating Equality (FACE), which Nestman herself reactivated in the spring of 2015. FACE brings women’s organizations onto campus, holds fundraisers for them, and provides opportunities for volunteering.

By Kate Luce Angell

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Nestman is also leading a tutorial on Chatham’s coed transition at the Association for Women in Psychology (AWP) Annual Conference, which will come to Pittsburgh in March. As someone who came to Chatham because it was all women, and has participated in its transition to coed, she feels she has a good sense of what the Chatham community looked like before, and where she’d like to see it go.

In talking with incoming male students, she says they’re excited to participate in Chatham traditions – “but we’re going to have to reach out. There needs to be effort from both sides to maintain the experience we love.”

The challenge to maintaining the “long purple line,” she feels, is also the opportunity to educate all students in women’s empowerment. “Once you educate not just the women, but the men too, it will change the way they think. We help them grow.”

She sees signs of that new community already. At the student activities fair in the fall, 40 of the 100 people expressing interest in the newly reinvigorated FACE group were male students.

“If Chatham can continue this work,” says Nestman, “we can become a unique campus.”

KELLY NESTMAN

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CHATHAM UNIVERSITY WOMEN’S INSTITUTE

Under the leadership of inaugural Institute Director Dr. Jessie Ramey, the Women’s Institute:

• Serves as an umbrella over the University’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship (CWE), Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics (PCWP), and the women’s and gender studies department.

• Offers students opportunities including a Women’s Leadership Certificate; new academic courses; grants for research and conference presentations; funding to bring speakers, films, and artists to campus; and expanded internship and mentorship opportunities.

• Gives faculty access to training in how to foster gender equity in the classroom and grants to support research and conference presentations related to women’s studies. There are plans to establish a scholar-in-residence program and to solicit gender scholar applicants for the Fulbright international exchange program.

• Connects alumnae and alumni to students in a meaningful way. “There are so many ways for them to be involved,” says Ramey, noting that they might host students presenting at conferences in other cities, serve as mentors, or lead a reading group to prepare for upcoming Institute-sponsored speakers.

The official launch of the Women’s Institute was marked by a sold-out, half-day symposium on November 7 featuring snapshots of current work by 35 gender scholars and activists and attendance by many of Chatham’s partners from community organizations that focus on women and girls and gender equity.

Visit www.chatham.edu/cwi

JESSIE RAMEY

Jessie Ramey, Ph.D. has been working as an educator in women’s and gender studies for 25 years and,

during that time, she’s taken on a wide range of challenges. Trained as an historian in U.S. women’s history,

she is the founding director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Undergraduate Research Office, and has been

a member of Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s Task Force on Education. She has founded both a theater

company focused on producing new works by women and a nationally known blog on educational justice

issues. Most recently, she was a visiting scholar in women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh and an

adjunct professor in history and in the Humanities Scholars Program at Carnegie Mellon.

Follow on Twitter @JessieBRamey

On November 7, the Women’s Institute was formally launched with a half-day symposium featuring 35 Pittsburgh-area gender scholars and activists.


Pittsburgh Port Authority owns a large parking lot in Millvale adjacent to Girty’s Run that has gone largely unused since the bus route was shut down. One team of students – Scott Carter, MSUS ’16; Jared Haidet, MSUS ’16; Joshua Lewis, MSUS ’16; Carla Limon, MSUS ’16; Kimberly Lucke, MSUS ’16; Jessica

Chatham students and faculty are doing incredible things around sustainability on our campuses, but it goes much further than that. Here are

two recent Falk School courses, one of which focuses on a Pittsburgh neighborhood, the other on a tropical rainforest.

WATER MANAGEMENT IN MILLVALE

Bundles of three molecules can cause a lot of problems, especially in a city like Pittsburgh, where land is hilly, wastewater treatment inadequate, and urban development not always environmentally concerned. Last year, a course from the Falk School of Sustainability – Urban Planning and Political Ecology – put students on the forefront of addressing real problems in real communities.

Pittsburgh is rainy: We get an average of 146 days of precipitation compared to a national average of 100 days. On those days, excess water – water that is neither collected nor absorbed by the ground – flows into storm drains. Underground, the stormwater system joins with our sewage system, and sewage and water travel together to be treated at the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority wastewater treatment plant, which processes up to 250 million gallons of wastewater daily.

This system worked when it was built at the turn of the century, and it still works in dry weather. But the population has grown, and now whenever it rains more than ¼ inch, the system becomes flooded. Sewage flows into our rivers, streams, and creeks, carrying debris, chemicals, bacteria, and animal waste.

SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainabilityat home and abroad

As you might imagine, this most impacts communities located downstream, like Millvale, a small, working-class borough along the Allegheny River. Millvale is located at the base of Girty’s Run – 18 miles of streams and tributaries spanning boroughs north of Pittsburgh. In 2004 and 2007, severe flooding of Girty’s Run has left damage that’s still visible today.

Students were tasked with developing a proposal for one of two projects that contribute to Millvale’s PIVOT Project, a community-based vision for how to “rehabilitate and rejuvenate” this once thriving mill town. Under the guidance of former Chatham professor Michael Finewood, students acted as consultants, with the Borough of Millvale as the client.

By Cara Gillotti

“Green infrastructure” refers to depressions filled with vegetation –like rain gardens in a park orbioswales along the side of a road – that help water infiltrate into the ground, keeping it out of the sewers. They also work to filter the water,are aesthetically pleasing, andmay host wildlife,contributing to vibrant park spaces or recreational areas.

Tain, MSUS ’15; Joshua Zivkovich, MSUS ’16 – was tasked with developing a proposal to convert it into a multi-use space that would benefit the community in three ways: 1) by bringing green infrastructure to help with stormwater management, 2) linking a bike corridor to the riverfront park, and 3) creating a public space that would help to change residents’ views of Girty’s Run from a risk to an asset.

At the end of the term, students had produced thoroughly researched project proposals that included community demographic and needs assessment, project design, action plan including implementation steps and scope of work, a long-term maintenance plan, and a list of necessary and potential community partners. Recommendations included converting most of the parking lot to green infrastructure that would mitigate flooding by absorbing water, provide recreation to residents, and encourage bike riding over the use of cars. There might be a farmer’s market on weekends, and an overlook recasting Girty’s Run from a threat to an asset of nature. Ample trashbins were also part of the plan.

“There are so many components with a project like this,” says Zivkovich. “When we started out, we had this vision of what we could do, but then we realized there are all of these policies and other factors that kind of restrict what you can do. It’s not as easy as it sounds. It takes lots of planning and communication, and you have to involve the community, because they’re the ones who are going to be using it.”


in the cacao fields, learning about diseases that afflicted the plants and how to manage them organically, for example, by cutting off diseased pods. Students also explored EARTH students’ organic research projects. “It was amazing to see the diversity of projects going on in such a small space,” says Kuhn, citing as example topics shade-grown cacao, black fly larvae, composting, a seed bank, tilapia, sugar cane, and bananas.

One oft-named highlight of the trip is the weekend they spent living and working on two small, family-owned and -run farmsteads, one that grew cacao and one that tended livestock. Kuhn describes it as “half-work, half-play”: “We spent a lot of time helping out with work that they needed to have done, but they provided so many other opportunities for us, too. In the morning we

GLOBAL AGRICULTUREAT EARTH UNIVERSITY

This summer saw the Falk School of Sustainability’s inaugural Global Agriculture course. It’s a multi-disciplinary course that examines agro-ecological, socio-economic, and political issues in tropical agriculture, and centers on a two-week visit to EARTH University in Costa Rica. It was led this year by Assistant Professor of Food Studies Nadine Lehrer and Assistant Professor of Sustainable Agroecology John R. Taylor, and eight Falk School students, undergraduate and graduate, participated.

Over the course of the experience, students’ notions of sustainability were both expanded and simplified. “When they said we were going to visit a community water system, we thought it would be a plant,” says Christine

SUSTAINABILITY

Kuhn, Master of Arts in Food Studies ’16. “But then Omar, this little old guy, took us hiking into the rainforest. We hiked to a spring coming out of the side of the mountain. It provides water to lots of families in the community, but it gets really contaminated, and also the land is protected. But the Costa Rican government granted them access to go to the top, purify the water, and deliver it to over 1000 families who are members of the cooperative organization. The process is completely community-driven. Omar is the gatekeeper.”

Falk School students participated in fieldwork; toured livestock farms and organic farm organizations; and tasted varieties of bananas that neither you nor I will ever see. One morning they joined their EARTH compatriots as they worked

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an accelerated one-year masters program specifically for EARTH students (with two enrolled), and Chatham hopes to continue to expose Falk School students to topics in tropical agriculture and new applications of sustainable principles.

“The next time I bite into my favorite fancy chocolate bar, “ reports Cassandra Malis, MAFS ’16, “I will not do so without thinking about the implications of my purchases, the farmers whose incomes I am affecting, and the hard work that goes into maintaining and protecting cacao fields all over the world.”

To read more about the students’experiences, visit their blog at https://earthtochatham.wordpress.com.

might be feeding tilapia, and then they’d take us horseback riding. At the end, the families got together and made food for us, brought in a professional singer, and taught us dances. We had a party.”

“During our group reflections, we realized that this trip was having a profound effect on our world view and the way we look at food and agriculture,” Kuhn continues. “I had never considered myself ‘business-minded’ before, but after learning about EARTH’s entrepreneurship projects, I

found myself fascinated by the breadth of knowledge and skills these students come away with, and how important these are to create lasting change. My fellow students on the trip commented on how their ideas of ‘sustainability’ and ‘organic’ were challenged after learning about EARTH’s commitment to what they simply call Responsible Agriculture.”

The Global Agriculture course is part of an educational collaboration between Chatham and EARTH. This year, Chatham is piloting

“During our group reflections, we realized that this trip was having a profound effect on our world view and the way we look at food and agriculture.”

CHRISTINE KUHN, MAFS ‘16


RESEARCH IN THE LIBERAL ARTS

Brushes with History

BRUSHES WITH HISTORY

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From the 1910s to the 1950s, Homewood—a neighborhood of one square mile about five miles from downtown Pittsburgh—was

more or less racially balanced. Irish, Italian, German, and African American families knew each other as neighbors, schoolmates, and customers. In the 1950s, the City of Pittsburgh displaced thousands of less affluent African Americans when it bought land in the Lower Hill District. Many of them moved to Homewood, creating a significant racial disparity that triggered white flight. During the ‘90s, national crime data pegged Homewood as one of the most violent places in the country.

Today, media mentions of Homewood are still overwhelmingly focused on violence, and that’s what comes to mind for many Pittsburghers when they hear the name. But Homewood has a robust and vibrant history that deserves to be known, and that’s where

Assistant Professor of History Lou Martin, Ph.D. comes in.

For the past two years, Professor Martin has offered a Maymester course called HIS 207: Oral History, Neighborhoods, and Race in Pittsburgh. During the first week, students discuss topics like segregation, urban history,

civil rights, and the African American experience in Northern cities. Martin puts a special emphasis on the urban history of Pittsburgh, leading to the second part of the course – conducting oral interviews of graduates of Homewood’s Westinghouse High School.

“Westinghouse High School, probably around that time, out of twenty years maybe lost two (football) championships. And so they were rated something in the neighborhood of number four or number five in the country. And so they were known all over the country sports-wise. When I went to the barbershop, I never paid for a haircut because I was a ball player. If I went to the donut shop on Homewood Avenue, I paid for one and they gave me one for free and then I stole the third one [laughs in the background].” JOHN BREWER

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By Cara Gillotti


This year, 14 undergraduate students participated in the course, interviewing subjects in teams of two. The students rehearsed interviewing best practices, practiced with the recording equipment, listened to recorded interviews from the year before, and talked about what to do if the subject became emotional. Martin also coached them in how to use body language to encourage people to talk, and to be good listeners. “You want to leave three seconds after they have finished their answer,” he says. “They might have more to say.” Behind the scenes, Martin worked with prominent Homewood community members to recruit interview subjects.

“Real, individual lives complicate the flat narratives that we get of situations,” notes Lisa Cuyler ’17. “None of their experiences were the same at all, but so many talked about what it was like living in a community that was once predominantly Italian and then became predominantly African American, and disparities of wealth, and just day to

“But when I did go to Westinghouse High School, I didn’t see what they were talking about on the news. I saw a bunch of young men and young ladies and they conducted themselves in such a way that they were role models themselves. They were clean, they didn’t get caught up on designer clothes, but they were proud of their appearance…And you know, even if you had hand-me-downs they were clean. And you had your grooming down. It was very few kids that would come to school without good grooming, you know, just looking any kind of way.” VALERIE BULLOCK

BRUSHES WITH HISTORY

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day being excited about the football team. I gained an appreciation of how complicated peoples’ lives are.”

Today, community organizations are dedicated to revitalizing Homewood, preserving its culture and working to make it a safer and more economically secure neighborhood, including the Homewood Renaissance Association, Operation Better Block, the Homewood Children’s Village, and love front porch. The interview transcripts are stored in the library in Homewood, as a living record of local culture.

“Lena (Potter ’48) talked about how after graduation, people in her community knew that as a woman of color, she’d never go to college,” says Jorjanna Smith, ‘18. “She got married, and her husband yelled at her and gambled away their money. She left him, and he was the sole provider. She told us that we are stronger than we think, and that we can stand up for ourselves. Lena was quiet, but what she said mattered.”

IN 2015, CHATHAM STUDENTS INTERVIEWED:

• Valeria Bullock, founder of the Westinghouse High School Wall of Fame

• Dr. Dwight Mosley ’69, retired from Pittsburgh Public School system

• Leslie Parr ’67, author of a screenplay about Westinghouse in the 1960s

• John Brewer, football player, owner of the Coliseum in Homewood and founder of an oral history program focused on Homewood

• Kilolo Lucket, author of a biography of Naomi Sims (first black supermodel and Westinghouse grad)

• Monté Robinson, current Westinghouse football coach

• John Wilborn, author of a book about Coach Pete Dimperio, Westinghouse football coach from the 1940s through the 1960s

• Lena Potter ’48

• Dr. Nelson Harrison, jazz musician and professor of music

• Esther Bush, WHS grad and executive director of the Urban League of Pittsburgh

• Carmen Pellegrino, WHS grad and author of a history of Westinghouse

“I never spent five minutes in a music school because I learned my music in this community and music schools still don’t know what we know, they have no clue. So when I found out I could make five dollars playing a gig, I got rid of my paper route and I’ve been doing it ever since. It helped pay for my tuition at Pitt; my Doctorate is in clinical psychology, I had a year of med school in 64, they threw me out for playing jazz.” DR. NELSON HARRISON


GLOBAL FOCUS

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Interdisciplinary Healthcare in Ecuador

By Cara Gillotti

or many of the twelve School of Health Sciences students, it would be their first time treating patients in such a context—navigating different

cultures, different specialties, even different languages. And if that weren’t novel enough, they’d be doing it in Ibarra, Ecuador.

This August, a team of Chatham masters students from two different programs—six each from physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT)—teamed up to provide a week of interdisciplinary care for patients in three different institutions in this small city in northern Ecuador, near the Columbian border. They were accompanied by Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy

Ingrid Provident and Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy Sue Perry, and joined by Professional Doctorate in Occupational Therapy (OTD) candidate Elaine Keane.

Chatham’s OTD program is mostly online, which is how it’s able to count Keane among its students—she lives in Ibarra, where in 2013, she opened a clinic called CRECER (Centro de Rehabilitación, Educación, Capacitación, Estudios y Recursos, and also the Spanish word for “to grow”). CRECER provides free OT services to children and adults in the community, and it’s where our story begins.

At the CRECER clinic, cultural differences were almost immediately apparent. “In the

U.S.,” says DPT student Laura Thompson ’15, “the very first thing we do is to look at the chart to learn the diagnosis. But many of the patients at CRECER haven’t been diagnosed; they’re just showing up with symptoms, which sometimes resemble those of cerebral palsy or Down syndrome.” OT and PT students paired up to work with each individual. “It was a great opportunity to be able to co-treat for an entire day,” she says.

The second location was FUNHI, a daycare center where adults in their 20s and 30s spent their mornings. At FUNHI, the clients were mostly non-verbal, some in wheelchairs, with differing levels of physical or intellectual disability. Over the course of the week, students and clients did crafts, held a

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GLOBAL FOCUS

birthday party, played horseshoes, and kicked around a soccer ball. Some of the PT students noticed that one client’s wheelchair didn’t fit appropriately, and decided to fix it. They were able to adapt it with duct tape, and even provide the client with a cushion, fashioned from a piece of foam found on the side of the road that they cleaned and covered.

Students found noticeably different attitudes in Ecuador. “In the U.S., the main cause of amputation is diabetes,” says Thompson. “In Ecuador, it’s trauma. In the U.S., we often hear ‘Why did this happen to me?’ but here the attitude is much more ‘Okay, this has happened, how can I move on, what can I do to keep working?’ Which is interesting because it seems their acceptance toward children with diseases or disabilities not great compared to the U.S. They tend to blame the mother, and the child isn’t integrated into the community as well, which is why it’s great to have CRECER and FUNHI, where they can go and feel accepted.”

The third location was a nursing home. Students knew that the residents lead relatively sedentary lives, so the plan was to get everyone engaged in big group activities. Students and residents danced together—which they loved, noted Thompson—and played balloon volleyball and pin the petal on the flower. Whenever possible, they found ways to incorporate individual therapy, such as when they helped a stroke victim tap the balloon with his affected hand. “We helped one gentleman with Parkinson’s walk

around,” says Thompson. “I’m not sure how often he gets the chance to do that.”

At the end of the week, the students gave presentations to the staff of a nursing home in a nearby city. Topics included helping patients with osteoarthritis, how to make items like heating pads and ice packs out of everyday materials, and building awareness of the experience of elderly individuals with low vision and hearing. For this, students distributed glasses to the audience that mimic the effects of eye diseases such as glaucoma and cataracts. Then they passed out magazines, strings and beads, and the audience realized how hard it was for some of their clients to do such simple things. Near the end of the presentations, the mayor of Ibarra came in, told the audience members how valuable the information they were hearing was, and thanked the Chatham students for their help.

“Something that has really stuck with me is how much more severe the diagnoses can be there,” says Thompson. “We’d be working with someone with cerebral palsy, and I’d think about care in the U.S., where he would have been receiving care from day one, and there’d be a continuum of care throughout his life. Would his current condition be different if he had grown up in the U.S.?”

In the end, one of the students’ biggest takeaways was how much can happen when you approach a situation with flexibility, creativity, and an open mind, as MOT student Hannah Huffman ’16 witnessed while working at the nursing home. “We made a shuffleboard game with duct tape on the floor, a balled-up sock as the puck, and a PVC pipe as the stick,” she remembers. “We wanted the residents to get up and stand in line to play. They wanted to hit the ball from where they were already sitting. So we made it so that they could get up one at a time to play, and the others would cheer.”

For more information about CRECER, visit crecerecuador.wix.com/crecer.

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“This is about creativity, thinking on your feet, and what you can do with limited resources.” ELAINE KEANE, OTD ‘15


SARA HEBEL: Hi. I’m here with Esther Barazzone, the president of Chatham University. Welcome.

ESTHER BARAZZONE: Thank you. Delighted to be with you.

SARA HEBEL: You are in your last year of your presidency after 23 years. Tell me what’s changed the most about the higher-education landscape since you first started.

ESTHER BARAZZONE: I think the biggest change is the recognition that great change is needed. And I think that it’s good that there is serious national attention now on the questions of the importance of higher education, the value of higher education. Of course, today, it’s pretty clear that they are greatly important to the country as well as to the students. But there’s an engagement with the question nationally that I think is really important.

SARA HEBEL: You’ve made big changes at Chatham. What’s the most difficult thing about shifting a campus as you have? You’ve made it coed, added graduate programs, done some other things there.

ESTHER BARAZZONE: The most difficult thing is running up against tradition. One

of the things that I advise people who are thinking about change is try not to worry too much about tradition because it will always sort itself. So that I think is the hardest. And, not facetiously, the hardest is to make sure the change, in an appropriate way, reflects tradition. Because in tradition, are, of course, buried deep values and important values. So you do need to think about how change is not just wholesale difference but is in some way demonstrably continuous with the purposes of the institution.

SARA HEBEL: What’s one example of how you made that happen there?

ESTHER BARAZZONE: I think coeducation at Chatham is an example of that, though everyone may not yet see it that way, as we looked at the necessity, the financial necessity, of becoming coeducational as our undergraduate enrollment became one-quarter of our total enrollment due to the growth of graduate programs. It was very important to us, nonetheless, to really honor the mission to women’s education and to women’s leadership.

So we thought very hard about how could we be coeducational in a way that honored the needs of the men who came here, but

what was also continuous with our tradition to women’s leadership. So we studied places that, while they weren’t women’s colleges, seemed to do a very good job with women’s leadership, such as Rutgers University.

And so we chose to be an intelligent follower about some of those things. So while we’re not a women’s college any longer, we definitely still have a mission to women’s leadership.

SARA HEBEL: Speaking of women in leadership, how has that landscape changed

fter 24 years as President of Chatham, President Barazzone will retire in the summer of 2016. The search for her successor is currently underway, led by a Presidential Transition Committee made up of Trustees, faculty, students, staff and alumni. The co-chairs of the committee are Jane Burger ’66 and Jane Murphy, Ph.D. ’68.

In recognition of her leadership and management of change over the past two decades, Dr. Barazzone was interviewed in September by the Chronicle of Higher Education as part of their Leadership & Governance video series. Watch the video of President Barazzone’s interview at chatham.edu/OnLeadership.

CHRONICLE INTERVIEW

It’s Been ThrillingPresident Barazzone retirement

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in higher education since you’ve been there, and why do you feel it’s important to have more women in roles such as yours?

ESTHER BARAZZONE: Well, it’s really pretty exciting to see the president of Harvard be a distinguished female historian. To have seen the president of Duke be the president of Wellesley, a women’s college. That I think was all really important. But it’s terribly important for everyone. People need to see people like themselves in leadership in order to believe

that that kind of growth and capacity is really possible.

SARA HEBEL: Why have you stayed in the job for so long?

ESTHER BARAZZONE: Because it’s been thrilling. Sometimes I have teased that times were either too hard or too bad or too good to go. But Chatham is a wonderful place, a very high-quality place, where, really, everyone at the institution has been engaged with the question of what is the best education for the 21st century? And how can we fight all the odds that are out there against small institutions, particularly small liberal arts institutions? Which we know about. Standard & Poor’s codified it with downgrading all of us last year.

And Chatham’s been aware of those challenges probably longer than most and has been having very philosophical, meaningful discussions, not just knee-jerk program development or intensified recruitment, about change in higher ed. So it’s been a very stimulating place. And Pittsburgh is a very encouraging place for all the institutions in it, where we’re made to feel that we matter. So we’re also part of the fabric of the community. So it’s been really a gratifying place to be.

SARA HEBEL: Finally, I ask you — what would you do differently?

ESTHER BARAZZONE: Oh, many things I’m sure. Many things. But all in all, I’m quite satisfied with what we’ve been able to accomplish at Chatham, and I feel very good about the foundation that is left for a new president. And I’ve chosen the time to leave when I felt the institution was stable and on a rise. Our enrollments are growing.

“We thought very hard about how could we be coeducational in a way that honored the needs of the men who came here, but what was also continuous with our tradition to women’s leadership.”PRESIDENT ESTHER L. BARAZZONE

Visit chatham.edu/presidentsearch for the latest updates on the search, to submit your feedback to the search committee and for facts about Dr. Barazzone’s time here at Chatham.

We have almost two times — more than two times — the incoming first-year class than we had. We have a brand-new campus, the world’s first carbon-neutral campus. And so we’re doing some very important things that I think will just be a wonderful platform for a new president to think even further about what higher ed needs in the future.

SARA HEBEL: Thanks for being here.

ESTHER BARAZZONE: Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you.


The first history of Chatham, Chatham College: The First 90 Years by Laberta Dysart, was published in 1960, and it is safe to say that much has changed. A new history is being written by author Mary Brigano that captures both the complexities of our institution and the simple truths that have guided us over the decades. It will be available in 2016. The following pages are an excerpt from the book.

BOOK EXCERPT:

Chatham: A TransformationalUniversity 1869-2015

CHATHAM: A TRANSFORMATIONAL UNIVERSITY

MAY 1994: Board of Trustee member Jane Burger ’62 and President Esther Barazzone at Commencement

25

A t a meeting on November 7, 1991, the board of trusteesvoted unanimously to appoint Esther L. Barazzone, Ph.D., the 15th president of Chatham College. With this vote, the modern history of Chatham began.

CHANGE AGENT

Esther Barazzone had “very quickly understood that Chatham was an institution seeking change, and I had been either a change agent or seeking places that were change-oriented ever since I went to New College.” Raised in the coal-mining region of Bluefield, West Virginia, and in Florida, she was one of five Charter Scholars in the first graduating class of this nontraditional, student-centered liberal arts college in Sarasota, where she earned her BA in philosophy and history. Her Ph.D. in European Intellectual History was from Columbia University, where she wrote her doctoral dissertation on the Scottish Enlightenment, an 18th-century era when thinkers challenged reigning orthodoxies. She also studied at the Wharton School of Business Administration and at Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management.

Dr. Barazzone’s first teaching job was at the all-women Kirkland College, later merged with Hamilton College, where she helped start the women’s studies program. After administration positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College, she became vice president and dean of the faculty at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science (renamed Philadelphia University in 1999). There she developed a new, four-year liberal arts component that involved building classrooms, research laboratories, student residences, and athletic facilities-in addition to revising faculty hiring, review, and tenure procedures, and building the faculty.

This combination of management skills and dedication to academic achievement was just what Chatham wanted-as was Dr. Barazzone’s comfort with change. “As an administrator, I have never assumed that tradition or habit should dictate how something should be done,” she said in 2008. “That has often led me down a path that others have sometimes called innovative. This approach was just as natural as breathing to me.”

What attracted her to the challenges of Chatham in 1991? “I was very excited by trustees who told me that change is what they wanted, and I was drawn by Chatham’s quality,” she said. “Chatham seemed to me like the fabulous antique you find in a garage that has a coat of white paint slapped on it. But you know that under that white paint, it is stellar.”

SO MUCH TO DO

Dr. Barazzone arrived in Pittsburgh in January 1992 to “reinterpret Chatham’s past” and “create a school that everybody wants to attend because it’s so interesting.”

She had a lot of ideas-and a lot of bad news to process and deliver. The country was still recovering from the 1990-91 recession brought on by the savings and loan crisis in 1989. Chatham’s operating deficit had reached $3 million. The endowment had to grow. Before rebuilding could begin, she would have to make some painful fiscal cuts, and let go of 20 percent of the faculty and administrators in some departments. Announcing these cuts in a campus-wide meeting certainly did not enhance her popularity, but with the board’s backing she forged on.

There was so much work to do. Management and administrative information systems for better decision-making had to be developed. Academic equipment and capital funding had to be secured through foundation gifts. More traditional students needed to be recruited for better parity with Gateway students, who then comprised almost 40% of the student population. The composition of the faculty had to change, gradually transitioning from half-time professors with full benefits and to more full-time teachers and more adjuncts-hiring trends that were duplicated at hundreds of colleges beginning in the 1970s.

The faculty quickly understood that they were dealing with a very different administration from those of Chatham’s past. “We are clearly used to considerably more autonomy and input than the current administration is comfortable with,” commented one of the members of the faculty executive committee meeting in 1993. But the teachers also understood that, as Sigo Falk said later, “This place was going down the tubes if we did not do some radical things.”

LIBERAL ARTS ... AND MORE

Course offerings had to expand. “We knew we had to invest in programs,” said trustee Murray Rust. “You can’t cut your way to prosperity. We wanted to grow out of this problem, not shrink back into what we had become.”

Dr. Barazzone had always been committed to the liberal arts as “critical for professional success as well as personal development and the fulfillment of our citizenship obligation.” But, the president said, “We very quickly decided liberal arts were not the only thing women needed.” Acting on the board’s vision of “a broad range of learning opportunities ... geared to the needs and aspirations of today’s women,” the College undertook new market research to learn what attracted students to Chatham and the kinds of careers they pursued after graduation. She envisioned a college dedicated at the undergraduate level “to helping young women empower themselves. We help them train themselves to work as leaders in politics and society, and also in the environment and global community.”

Fiscal belt-tightening helped provide money to invest in new programs that would bring in fresh revenue. Fifteen new programs were in

Continued


CHATHAM: A TRANSFORMATIONAL UNIVERSITY

development by 1993-including six graduate programs, the first in the history of the college. Many of the new undergraduate majors, such as accounting, environmental studies, women’s studies, administration of justice, arts management, European studies, human services, and media arts, were in the fastest-growing fields identified for women. The goal was to offer relevant course opportunities that students wanted and needed, tapping into the existing faculty’s resources and creativity.

And by 1994 the school had signed seven collaborative agreements with local colleges and universities so that Chatham students could pursue even more majors. The affiliation with the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, for instance, gave students the opportunity to begin graduate studies toward a master’s degree in environmental or occupational health as early as their junior year. The College also introduced additional certificate programs, such as the Rachel Carson Institute’s certificate program in conservation ecology.

Adding its own graduate programs was important because Chatham had been acting as a feeder to other local colleges and universities while failing to reap the benefit of the newest trends in higher education: the fact that women now exceeded men in their pursuit of graduate degrees. Adding graduate programs was consistent with Chatham’s historic quality niche as well.

These new majors and programs built on and did not replace Chatham’s historic commitment to liberal arts education. All the programs, including the graduate offerings, were rooted in some way

to the college’s historic strengths or values. “Women’s colleges have to change as the world changes,” Dr. Barazzone said in 1994. “There has been a dramatic shift in expectations because of women’s drive for financial independence. There is a difference between the traditional women’s college and the contemporary women’s college.”

A COLLEGE THAT CAN SOAR

These advances happened on “Chatham time,” the term the College came to use to describe how quickly and flexibly it learned to move. The first graduate programs, a Master of Education and a Master of Liberal Arts, got underway in 1993. At Chatham’s 125th anniversary in 1994, the college introduced master’s programs in health sciences—physical and occupational therapy. Both were among the fastest-growing occupations in the nation, and physical therapy in particular attracted many students who previously never would have considered Chatham--or had a reason or an opportunity to attend.

Even more groundbreaking was the admission of men to these graduate programs. There was never any question that the graduate courses would be coed. In order for the college to be eligible for federal money, men as well as women had to be able to study there. The first four men ever to earn Chatham College degrees graduated with the occupational therapy class in 1996.

Excerpt from Chatham: A Transformational University 1869-2015 by Mary Brigano. Publishing in 2016.

“There has been a dramatic shift in expectations because of women’s drive for financial independence. There is a difference between the traditional women’s college and the contemporary women’s college.”PRESIDENT ESTHER L. BARAZZONE

27

OCTOBER 1994: Professor Jerry Caplan, President Barazzone, and Tom Hollander at the dedication of the Metamorphosis sculpture in honor of Barbara Stone Hollander ’60


42 Jean Burchinal Purvis is still active with the

Community Health Clinic of Butler which she helped found. She is the secretary of the Board of Directors. She is the first Board Member Emeritus of the Butler County Community College Foundation Board.

Dorothy Vale Roberts lives in El Paso, TX with her daughter Heather. Her other daughter, Pam, resides in Boston, MA. In October Dorothy celebrates her 95th birthday, and looks back on a rewarding life as an air traffic controller (her history is archived) and school teacher. She taught part-time until age 91. She is a member of Mortar Board, a founder-contribution of the International Museum of Art in El Paso. She enjoys ULTRA HDTV and her Labrador, Abigail (named after Abigail Adams). She and Cecil (he passed away in the early 2000’s) were married over 50 years; he is dearly remembered. She is proud of her alma mater and still reads the Recorder.

43 Amy McKay Core’s life has come full circle from

birth to retirement years at Passavant Community where she has been painting and writing. She is working on memories for family and friends with granddaughter, Sara, doing the editing.

44 Ruth Weston Anderson says after her second

husband died in 2007, she moved to Milwaukee, WI to be near one of her daughters and her family. She is now 93 years young and is active in clubs and church. She can boast good health. She would love to hear from her classmates!

45 Margaret Reckard Santorilla says, as they say,

“No news is good news.” She is still ’hanging in’ and she hopes that all of the 45’ers are doing the same.

Marian Updegraff Sunnergren says it was truly a picture-perfect day driving to Chatham for the 70th reunion of the class of 1945. Once parked, a golf cart came cruising toward us and my daughter, Amy Sunnergren, and I were whisked to Mellon Hall. Soon we were ushered into an intimate dining room (10 of us) and what a pleasant surprise. We were seated next to Ginger Carlson (class of ’48) and her daughter, Erika Van Sickle (class of ’80) where we enjoyed several hours of reminiscing. Ginger and I had grown up in Mt. Washington and had several childhood friends in common. However, my big shock came when I discovered I was the oldest reunion attendee and the only one from class of ’45. It was a lovely two-day visit to a city I love and a college with treasured memories. A wish from the perpetual optimist: hope to see all of you at our 75th.

46 Dorothy Groves Carson says her memories of college

days at PCW are happy ones. It is pleasant to be proud of the college it was and still is.

47 Elizabeth (Betty) Fleck Hendrickson’s most exciting

event was celebrating her 90th with a Rhine Cruise with the family. Wonderful trip, but the best part was being with the whole family. Viking exceeded expectations and everyone had a good time. She is looking forward to hearing class news. She sends love and greetings to all.

Alice Kells, encouraged by Dr. Phyllis Martin, spent the 44 years after graduation (until retirement in 1991) in the field of biology – in labs, in the field, and in the classroom on the East Coast and the West Coast, and in the U.K. (for one year). She still has a great interest in the latest biology/medical advances and volunteers at her local community hospital. She has read every book by and about Rachel Carson (one of her heroes

CLASS NOTES

29

along with Charles Darwin). Some of her experience as a lab tech was in biochemistry and cancer research. The best years before retirement were as a biology teacher in a large independent boarding school – a good life! Many blessings!

Else Greger Miller is in great shape, even though she is now 90 years old. She is grateful to have moved into Forwood Manor Retirement Community. Bob is an invalid and requires round-the-clock care. She has him in their apartment. With the help of the aides, she is one busy lady! In October 2014 she and Bob welcomed their fifth great-grandchild – all girls!

Alene Hutton Sage is still living at the Riley Apartments. After 75 years of singing in church choirs, she retired. On October 18th she was honored for her many years of service. She does not have a trained voice, but was fortunate to sit between two sopranos who do. One is her cousin, Sandra Smith Lyter, who graduated from PCW eight years after she did. Of her two roommates at Fickes Hall, the only one she is still in touch with, is Evelyn Mock George who spent her junior and senior years at the University of Pittsburgh. Alene is now facing hip surgery October 27th and then weeks of therapy. Her four children live all across the country. Her daughter, Alisa Christine Sage, lives in Columbus, OH; her son, Bill, in Tyrone, PA. She has seven grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

Virginia Toy Schenck says at age 90 she is the oldest one in her Silver Sneaker exercise classes and she keeps up with her fellow seniors.

Doris Sampson Trimble celebrated her 90th birthday in September. In

honor of the occasion she visited the campus with her three children and 13 grandchildren. She would enjoy hearing from former classmates at [email protected] or 528 Azalea Lane, Bridgeville, PA. Her picture is below.

48 Helen Suckling Beckert moved in June from her

condo to C. Woods Village and she is loving it there. It’s beautiful, the people are wonderful, and she loves her apartment. Golf, tennis, and bowling days are long since gone but she still walks two miles and plays a lot of bridge. It would be great to hear from her fellow classmates.

Ruth Shaffer Loughney-Mook had a memorable March. Her son, P. Loughney, took her and some of his grandchildren to Orlando, FL where her sister-in-law, Velma Loughney, came from Brazil with some of her family to meet us. Then, her daughter, Ellen Loughney, came from South Carolina to meet her and they traveled together, visiting her son and his family in South Carolina and Tennessee. Great summer.

Elizabeth “Betty” L’Hote Robin and Randy Doug, former roommates, have become reunited over the past few years. We talk at least once a month reminiscing about good times during our four years at PCW and are thankful for our good health.

After 20 years, Amy S. Gage Skallerup sold her home in Ormond Beach and moved to “Independent Living” at Bishop’s Glen. She had much appreciated assistance from Janet, her youngest. Tom, her oldest, returned from a year of teaching English in Russia in July. Susan, her middle child, continues as the managing editor for Woodbine House, a publisher in Bethesda, MD.

Ruth Zucker Bachman says it’s kind of scary to realize how “old” we have become and what has transpired since we graduated! From Pediatric

To Submit

To submit a Class Note or photo for

publication in the Chatham Recorder,

visit chatham.edu/classnotes.

For more information, contact the

Office of Alumni Relations at alumni@

chatham.edu or 412-365-1255.

Submissions may be edited for length

and clarity.

Nurse Practitioner in a research study to pediatric instructor in the medical school at Pitt as well as balancing personal health problems and the joy of indulging 13-year-old and eight-year-old great grandchildren—all this keeps me going as well as 24/7 caregivers. I can’t walk independently, but with the planning of Emily, my granddaughter, I attend theater and dance productions. I am so fortunate.

49 Mary Lou Tite Hawkins had a good move to Columbus as

her daughter, Peg, is only seven miles away. Judy lives in Houston, TX. Mary Lou exercises three times a week to keep her mind sharp. Peg has two boys – one married and the other engaged. Next year, Mary Lou will be going to three grandchildren’s weddings. Growing up in Pittsburgh has helped her to tolerate the cold and snow. She is going to the symphony and is a strong Buckeye fan for Ohio State.

Janet Couch Himmelrich is just wondering how many of the Class of 1949 are still around. She is enjoying living in a retirement community in Naples, FL near one of her three children.


is a sports writer for the Washington Post in DC and covers the Washington Nationals baseball team. Betty is still a P.E.O sister.

Lenore Corey Hanson says P.E.O. and creative writing dominate her life in her 8th year. As a past State President of Washington P.E.O., she continues to support educational opportunities for women. Otherwise, she writes short stories. She has a fantasy trilogy in the works, gives inspirational talks, and belongs to a local writer’s group. Several years ago she published a chronicle of her mother’s life. She lives in a small manufactured house in a retirement village. She loves being in the Northwest – friendly people, fir trees, Puget Sound waters, mountains, clear air, sunshine, and, of course, rain to keep Washington green!

Lenore (Lennie) Rothschild Klein is enjoying her great-grandson, Logan, who is a precious addition to her family. She is pleased to say that all is well with her.

Barbara Illig Rahenkamp is in good health for her age. She is enjoying family and friends. The last three summers have had a local grandchild married – fun. Bob is in a local veteran’s home with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. It is a state-run facility and a model for good care – loving staff. He is doing well and is content.

Mary Jane Crooks Rech says when she and Bill retired they selected a new location that their children might like to visit, Cape May, NJ, where they lived for 20 years. Sadly, Bill passed in 2012. Mary Jane still loves Cape May and is dedicated to her church, especially the Christmas Bazaar that she started in 2004. She sings in the choir, plays bells in the bell choir, and volunteers with the East Lynne Theater Co. with the Jazz Vespers Group, but the best part is the amazing number of church friends she has made who love and support one another!

Elizabeth Walker Hyser says hello to her fellow college classmates. Good times, good friends. God Bless Chatham.

Kathryn (Katie) Tench Pittman can’t believe how old she and Frank are. They live in Sherwood Oaks – a retirement community. They now have four grown grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, Isla-Kathryn, who is two weeks old now. Frank is having a memory problem and she has two new knees and a painful back, but they are still able to get around and enjoy life.

50 Martha L. Scott Bennett says a great plus in her

life is the continuing contact with her classmates, Gail McConner Mumma, Jean (“Pert”) Trecartin, and Nancy Gardow Hoop. They share a lot of ache and pain comparisons balanced by updates on their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Her other lifetime friends live nearby. The same is true of her family: all four of her kids live within a few miles of her apartment. Her oldest granddaughter is a Penn State student. She is a third generation. Each of the seven grandchildren are active in sports such as swimming and soccer. Two of her grandchildren are on swim teams and life guard and teach swimming as well. Five of the girls play on two soccer teams almost year round. Marissa (15) is also a soccer referee. Academically, they shine.

Betty Langer Feathers is now living at Redstone Highlands Senior Community in Greensburg, PA. Her husband of 63 years, Bob, died in March 2015. Her daughter, Nancy, and her husband, Garth Janes, live in Longmeadow, MA. Her son, Eric, and her daughter-in-law Scarlett, live in Trafalgar, IN. Her grandson, Spencer Janes, graduated from Dartmouth College, Phi Beta Kappa, in June. He is a writer and now lives in Los Angeles. Her granddaughter, Chelsea Janes,

51 Jean Thomas Hillman passed away peacefully at home in

Lakewood Ranch, Florida on August 31, 2015.

Gwendolyn Bach Lammert says 2015 has been a year of surprises for her. Her right shoulder has gone bad, so normal actions are a bit challenging. She has shrunk a bit due to scoliosis in her lower spine. Therapy sessions have helped that. She developed a calcification in her right breast that led to a biopsy and lumpectomy. No further treatment was required. She remains active in her church, her P.E.O. organization, and in four bridge clubs. Her Chatham daughter, Amy, is a professional actress and teaches at Point Park University in Pittsburgh. Her daughter, Cynthia, is an administrator in the School of Art at CMU. Her son, Steven, is a computer technician in Pittsburgh.

Suzanna Blair Murray celebrated 64 years of marriage with Roger in June. They are both in good health. She had a knee replacement in September (her second) with two hip replacements and now two knee replacements… She is a bionic woman! She is blessed with eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren and gets to see them fairly often. Life is good!

52 Evangeline “Vange” Seitanakis Beldecos is

pleased to say that she and Nick are celebrating 60 wonderful years of marriage this year!

Martha McLaughlin Ellers always looks forward to Class Notes. She and her husband are still in relatively good health and enjoyed their summer at Chautauqua and Rehoboth, DE. She is still active with AAUW and her county historical society.

Barbara Mills Foresti’s life has been good and exciting. Her trips to see Lois in Florida included Michael and Erica’s wedding, Mike’s PhD graduation as an Environmental Engineer, and meeting Caylie Hardin, born 1.6.15,

CLASS NOTES

31

her first great-grandchild! (Lois’ Cocoa Beach condo has great views of ocean sunrises and cruise ships at Cape Canaveral!). Her trips to see Carl in New Jersey included Lydia’s wedding to Dr. Ian Martinez and a recent trip, with Lois, to greet Eve, her second great-grandchild, born 7.23.15! Carl’s second daughter, Abi, an RN at a Rochester, NY hospital, is recently engaged! Sam and Ben are Rutgers students with jobs. All is well here. Best wishes to all.

53 Lois Glazer Michaels is proud of the progress

Chatham has made under the leadership of Esther Barazzone. She is keeping busy with her classes at Pitt, tending to her sensory garden, enjoying visits with family and friends, and spending her winters in Sarasota.

Mary Ann Schmitt Goodrum lives in Nashville with her son and grandson. One of her daughters lives “down the street.” Rose Mary and Rick have eight children so she has plenty of family near. Also three other sons and their families are in Nashville. Five grandchildren and their families live about 20 miles from town. Another daughter and son and their families are in Charlotte, NC. The oldest girl teaches in Nevada. Harold lives in his home about 25 miles from town and they are divorced, but still remain friends. Neither remarried.

Ann Matlack Wieland now lives in a wonderful retirement community in Chagrin Falls, OH. Her partner, Pete Heller, has been gone for two years and she spends her time between Dorchester, England, Sassafras River in Maryland, and California (where everyone but she and her oldest son and his wife live). She has a darling dog named Parker who keeps her walking rain or shine and keeps her company day and night. Life is good!

Nancy Moore Whitney lives at Longwood at Oakmont with Bob and loves it! There is lots to do and it is easy. She definitely recommends it to anyone interested.

54 Barbara Bolger Collett moved December 1st to

The Village, a retirement center part of Santa Fe healthcare. She is ten minutes away from her Gainesville home at Haile Plantation, a lovely 2 bedroom apartment near her son Tom, his wife, and grandchildren, Will (age 9), and Haden (age 7). Her daughter Dionne lives in Golle, her other daughter Debbie and her husband Randy are living in Ocala, FL. Her son Cory will marry in February and her son Brett is talking the LSAT for University of Florida Law School – a Gator through and throughout. As of June 23 she will be married 60 years! She and her husband recently became great grandparents to a Laina Jane Gates in October 2014.

Barbara Young Hopkins has nothing too exciting to report. She is still working, believe it or not, two hours a day with kindergarteners and first graders, which she enjoys. She will head to Gilbert, AZ in January for the winter again. Nice place to be out of the ice and snow.

55 Linda Cunningham Bhame’s life is good in

Georgia! She and Carl enjoy living in Sandy Springs, a suburb of Atlanta, and at their farm in historic Madison, GA – historic because Sherman did not burn it! Both of their children and six grandchildren live nearby so they have lots of family dinners. While they are both dealing with cancer, they feel blessed to have such good medical care. They stay very active with lineage societies for they both have roots to the Pittsburgh area and the American Revolution. In fact, she has 15 American Revolution ancestors who all settled in Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties, and never learned of this until the advent of personal computers. She joined DAR and Carol is in SAR. So – y’all come see us sometime!

Marilyn Campbell Bowling has decided instead of attending grief

seminars after the loss of her beloved, John, she would write a book and sprinkle it with lots of pictures, telling some of their many exciting adventures together. It has been a wonderful life and she would like to share it with their families.

Jean Craig Byron completed her education in California in 1955 with a teaching credential. She taught high school in Southern California until 1965.

Carla Norberg Gaut is busy with learning activities at her senior retirement home, “The Buckingham,” on campus and off. Her experience is being put to good use as she chairs Flower Show Judges School, serves on Life Styles Committee, and holds responsibility for the Duplicate Bridge group. She enjoys lectures at Rice University and making new friends.

Barbara Beacham Johnston is enjoying her seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. She and her family enjoy weekends at their farm in Fayette County, which grows organic food and supplies Nemacolin Woods Resort, the Stone House Restaurant, and California State College with eggs and many vegetables.

Mary Jo Irwin Kelly says she and Dick are celebrating 60 years of marriage this year! What a life it has been! They have been richly blessed with eight wonderful children, 22 beautiful grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. For all of her classmates, she hopes all life experiences have been happy, healthy ones.

Ruth Oberheim Webb sends greetings to her classmates. She and her husband celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary last September. Their daughter, Tina, and her husband bought a house in Titusville and will use it as a vacation home until they retire. Ruth says she and Duke are bumping along very nicely.

Nancy McCafferty Watts says these


CLASS NOTES

granddaughters, Sayge (13), a soccer player, and Nikki (11), a competitive dancer. Greetings to all her classmates and she hopes all are enjoying retired life.

Marilyn Miles Oliphant is living in Central Virginia close to both of her daughters. She is enjoying good health and pursing hobbies of painting and gardening. She sends her greetings to all classmates.

57 Dorothy Dieckmann Harman and her husband

Dave live in Wheeling, WV and spend their summers at Geneva-on-The-Lake, OH. Their three grandchildren are all teenagers now so they have many happy family gatherings. Hello to classmates.

Jane S. Pattie says, as a new octogenarian, she is coping not only with unwanted aging but with the loss of family and friends, but on the opposite side she is enjoying the coming of age of several grandchildren just entering adulthood with both hope and anxiety. Personally, she keeps active at her own speed. She continues to volunteer in hospice and for the local PBS station’s fund drive answering phones. Travel is limited to local visits or beyond when friends allow. She enjoys book groups and local community ladies groups, as well as family visits. Greetings to classmates. Much love, Jane.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Russell Pugh says she and Emerson are both well, enjoying Cold Spring and its easy access to New York City. She spent summer in Michigan, and took a trip to France last spring and has another trip planned for spring 2016. Greetings to all.

58 Jennine Johnson Jackson is sad to report her husband,

Jerry, died November 2014, after 55 years of marriage. Life is full of changes and this is a major one. Her adult children have been wonderful.

She would love to have visitors in Tucson!

Nancy Galley Roderick says in August she and Bill attended the wedding of Charles Benjamin Botkin, the oldest grandson of her first husband, Dr. Robert F. Botkin and his bride, Jillian Cathay. It took place in the wine country of California at the Kenwood Ranch near Sonoma. It was a lovely affair and enjoyed by all who attended. She is now enjoying her first great-grandson, Tyler Ferketie, who is presently one and a half years old and a very busy little boy. In August, she attended the annual family reunion at Pike Run Country Club where she enjoyed the pool and visited.

Barbara Goodstein Selbst is happily retired from many years of doing parenting support groups. She keeps up with Chatham friends regularly.

59 Doris Redman Foster says 2015 finds her still living in

Meadville in the house she has lived in since 1968. She is a widow. Her husband John died in 2005. Her older son practices law in Pittsburgh. Her younger son lives with his wife and two daughters (ages 10 and 12) in Beaufort, SC. She has been retired from teaching since 1998. She spends as much time as possible during the summer at Ahmichake in Ontario. Her proudest achievement (aside from her family) is still volunteering at Women’s Services, an organization that operates a shelter for women. She helped found WSI in 1977. Fond greetings to classmates!

Anna Mary Frye sends a greeting to her classmates of 1959 and to the Chatham community as well.

Martha Campbell Lane says greetings from Mystic! The tourists have found this corner of the world and things are lively. I’m still working at the Seaport, running the Children’s Museum, and after 25 years it’s still fun. The five children and 12 grandkids are thriving and span

years you just “go with the flow” and trust the Lord. The best news is that she is up to her fourth great-grandchild! She can’t handle making Christmas presents for the whole family anymore! She has more doctor appointments than cruises in her calendar. Bill is too much of a physical problem for her to handle and he is now in Assisted Living. Their prayers are with a new test they hope will take place soon. Her cancer, multiple myeloma, is under control as of this date. Their daughter, Leslie, has moved from home and has a business as a seamstress in Louisiana to come help take care of Nancy.

56 Elizabeth Reed Dann only writes because she

appreciates when others do. She just finished a lovely summer in Canada, but no garden because mosquitos took over the outdoors. It’s great to see Class Notes in the area. Buffalo is a great place!

Ann Hawthorne Lewis is still living in the same place in Texas. Since Bill died in 2014, she has been working on house maintenance and trying to make up her mind about whether to stay where she is or move back East (she is thinking about the Williamsburg, VA area). She sees Martha Freu when she travels to Virginia/Maryland and talks to Joanne Ellery every once in a while on the phone. She can’t believe they are all as old as they are! She just completed her 35th year as a library volunteer.

Patricia Egry Wilson continues to stay active with hiking and skiing. Her travels this year included Morocco, Disney World with family, Italy, and a hiking trip in Scotland. Her winter was spent skiing in Sun Valley, ID. Her volunteer work included the Arts and Jazz festivals in Sun Valley. When at home, she enjoys yoga and hiking in the mountains. Family time includes trips and activities with two active

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series. They do wonderful author lectures for adults as well. She is also volunteering with Pittsburgh Opera, doing some committee work for the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, and visiting her children and grandchildren. She hopes to get back to England in 2016. Life is just busy enough with all the music, theater, and dance in Pittsburgh and New York.

Milanie Souza Matthews is thoroughly enjoying retirement. She can only travel locally due to her husband’s health issues, but she has become quite involved in photography and is loving it.

Marcia Rosenthal continues to work as an art advisor. Lots of fine art appraisal work comes her way. She finds watching the new generation with its sameness and then its differences to be of great witness.

Nancy Cohen Stein says this is the year of weddings. There are four and they are all in the family.

Joanne Kretz Weiss and her husband, Frank, started out the year celebrating at the beautiful, traditional Panamanian wedding of their son, Eric, and his bride, Elizabeth, in her home town of Boquete, Panama. With all the excitement of the wedding, it was wonderful to enjoy the 80 degree temperature and relax at the pool on New Year’s Day. More recently, Joanne was joined by Patty Evans Burns and Arlene Campbell Timmons for lunch at the home of Penny V. Cherpes, who had been their classmate for their freshman and sophomore years. They reminisced and Penny’s husband, Lou, did the cooking. Way to go Penny!

61 Robin Askin De Kleine has had a good year – grandkids

are mostly college age or high school. She and Bill traveled to Machu Picchu and the Galapagos this year – yes, they actually were at 9,000 feet in

nursery school to college senior. Miss Calvin, but life is good.

Sandra Smith Lyter says the past year has not been the best due to Irv having knee replacement surgery in March and it becoming infected. To date, it has not been replaced because it is still infected. There are several issues for which they hope to get answers soon. They do have good news in that they have their first great-grandchild and a second one due in March. She wishes the best to you all.

60 Lee Davidson, editor of the Bermuda Rose Society,

was awarded the Literary Award by The World Federation of Roses at the group’s meeting in Lyon, France for the book, Roses in Bermuda.

Lucy Gray Gilligan says busy is good! She is involved with local town politics and DAR. She is still riding the Harley with Errol, but not the 200-mile rides anymore. Her family is scattering. Her son is in Florida, her oldest daughter is in L.A., and her oldest granddaughter is in Medical School. Her next grandchild is in grad school, the next four are in colleges and her youngest is 13. The most exciting news of the year was that her oldest grandson got his commercial pilot’s license and her middle daughter is building a house across the lake from her. They can visit each other by boat!

Annina Rhoades Jenkins’ time is spent waiting for summer to come to visit her grandchildren up north. She had a wedding for her last son to celebrate during this summer – it was a great event. Other times, she is still knitting with the world’s largest yarn stash. She will never get to all of the things in her closet of yarn – half of the fun is looking at it. She sends her best to all.

Amy Markus Kellman says, as a children’s literature consultant, she has been working with Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures on their Kids and Teens

the Andes. She and Bill are both still active in their local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity and Robin is now chairman of the Board of Directors.

Susan Engel Golden and her husband are both retired and enjoy spending time with their six grandchildren. They travel a lot as their goal was to visit all seven continents, and they have done so. Susan also volunteers in a local hospital as a Patient Advocate which she really enjoys.

Mary Sendek Jakabcsin says she, Dottie Seifkapp, and Carol Lemke Keil had lunch in July with Betsy Waite Prine in Betsy’s lovely home. Conversation was great; they had fun. Her sons, their wives, and all her grandchildren are doing well. She and Jake have five grandchildren, ages 10 to 19. The oldest, Haley, is a sophomore at Northwestern, and her sister, Nicole, is a freshman at Stanford. Last month Mary and Jake took a river cruise from Paris to Normandy; it was so wonderful. Their 50th anniversary was in June and they celebrated with family and friends. Last winter, they took two cruises to the Caribbean to get away from the dreadful cold. Best wishes and happiness to all!

Judith (Judy) Hicks Musser still lives in Somerset, PA part-time. She lives in Boca Raton, FL for winter months. She is still actively exhibiting paintings in both locations and has a studio in both locations. Both sons and families are happy and healthy. She takes her four grandchildren on short, fun trips when her arthritic joints allow! Usually art-related activities. Best regards to her classmates!

Frances Keenan Pizza enjoys Western Pennsylvania from May to mid-October. She is still teaching part-time at Valencia College and enjoying semi-retirement with her husband, Dino.


Arizona with Charlie. They didn’t miss the awful winter in New England. She is very involved in the local Food Bank and she and Charlie are both in Rotary. Their daughter, Kristen, her husband, Rich, and their granddaughter, Lilly, live nearby and her son, Jason, is just up in Las Vegas so they see the family quite often. She and Charlie celebrated 51 years together in August and she had her second knee replaced. They find that their area has much to offer ’oldies’ and they have a ’list’ of things they’d like to do and see (only an hour from Mexico). Visitors welcome. She is sorry she missed the Reunion, but family got first preference.

Janet Saperstein Slifkin says, “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be…” Good things do happen in older age. She fell in love with a wonderful man and got engaged last December. She is looking forward to a Mediterranean cruise next month. Her granddaughters, Emmy and Lucy, are living in Pittsburgh and she sees them often. Her grandson, Amos, is a child of NYC. and lives in the village. She has a grandcat and a beautiful Cavalier King Charles granddog. The only thing missing is Sodini’s!

Karen Blomquist Struckman says hello classmates! She and Russ visited a new area for themselves and had a delightful learning trip this year starting in Charleston, SC including Ft. Sumter. They sailed on a small ship from Charleston through the Intra Coastal Waterway to Baltimore. The highlight was a visit to Kitty Hawk, NC. One of Karen’s uncles was a barn stormer and manufacturer of wooden propellers. They read David McCullough’s The Wright Brothers in preparation. Karen and Russ, their daughters, sons-in-law, and grandkids are all well and active, knock on wood!

65 Beverly Miller Blessinger says her life changed this

September when her husband of 47 years died. He had had chronic

CLASS NOTES

62 Sara Westlake Caldwell made a visit to Minneapolis

this June to surprise Dottie Crestman Lilja for her birthday and enjoyed several days touring the beautiful area. Her bead shop, Blue Santa Beads, continues to thrive in an ever-changing retail environment. She has traveled to bead shows and is working on her website and the ’techie’ is none other than former President Paul Anderson’s son, Bayard. The world is ever so small!

Mary Loughran Fell loves retirement and still loves the North Carolina mountains! She has three grandchildren in Chicago and San Francisco. They keep her hoppin’! She is surprising them at Christmas by arriving in her Santa hat on the 24th. Only her son-in-law and daughter-in-law know the plan. Does anyone have news of Hap Dietz? She has called and emailed with no response for a year. Please email her at [email protected] with any information. Best to everyone – “Lock”

Carol Ann Baumann Knox continues to work at the MBLWHOI Library Herbarium and is an active member of the Botany Club of Cape Cod Islands, The Upper Cape Camera Club, The Falmouth Artists Guild, and The Conservatory String Ensemble. She and Walter are blessed with three granddaughters and two great-granddaughters. Life on Cape Cod is good!

Arlene Koegler’s hip surgery in October went well, and after a vacation at home – it’s Hawaii, remember – she will return to a job she has enjoyed for 26 years; director of Kilohana Preschool in Honolulu.

Faith Buchner Zarro says life is fine at Spring House Estates, a CCRC outside of Philadelphia. She and her husband have limited mobility, so her scooter/wheelchair make it easy as pie to get around. She plays bridge, canasta, and mahjong weekly and is the treasurer of Spring House

Questers. She will be presenting a program on Firsts by First Ladies next spring. Her eldest son Joe is in Boston and doing some traveling this year: California, Amsterdam, and Pittsburgh. Her son Jim and his wife teach in Arlington, VA and Mike earned his Ph.D. at Drexel this year in Information Technology. Her three granddaughters are growing up too fast. She enjoys hearing about all their activities. Can you believe we are/almost are three quarters of a century old?

63 Susan Hunt Roose is enjoying her grandchildren

and traveling. She also takes adult classes at George Mason University – still learning!

64 Susanne Pollack Boitz family road trip from Chicago

to Seattle this past summer.

Nancy Beal Mostow enjoyed a residency to paint in Chianti, Tuscany this summer and will have an exhibition of paintings at the Blue Mountain Gallery on 25th Street in New York City. She and her husband, Michael, have the great pleasure of helping with their grandchildren who live in Brooklyn. Her book, The Art of Teaching Art to Children, published by FSG, is now in its 12th edition.

Julianne Givner Reppenhagen is loving her new life in Southern

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life and the experience and wisdom to expand her horizons.

Marjorie Friday Roberts is still working with reduced hours and loving it. I am working on my own research project on women who work past usual retirement age and their reason for this. If you have interest in a conversation with me about this on the phone or email I would be delighted: 617-755-0720 or [email protected]. I have four grandchildren and love thinking of activities for us or participating in activities they like.

Donna Kwall Smith is looking forward to her 50th Chatham Reunion in October 2016. So she hopes that everyone will make the effort to attend! Was in Pittsburgh briefly in mid-October 2015 and the campus looked beautiful.

67 Marry Ellen Goodwill writes to say that her novel, The Girl

Who Lived in the House by the Hill is available on Amazon. Its sequel, Beebs, will be available by December 2015.

Beverly Blazey Palmer is continuing her private practice in Torrance, CA as a clinical psychologist as well as coordinating and teaching in the sport and fitness psychology certificate program at California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she is also Emeritus Professor in the psychology department.

Janet Lois Walker happily retired after 39 years of teaching French and Mathematics at Chatham. She is now teaching Scottish country dance workshops all over the U.S. and Canada. She is also doing volunteer work at hospice.

68 Chilton Knudsen has recently been appointed

to assistant bishop to the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

leukemia for years, but it suddenly became a monster and took him quickly. Fortunately, she has her daughters, Karen and Kelly. Even though Karen is in Michigan and Kelly is in Louisiana, they have been a tremendous help to her in Tennessee.

Diane Browarsky Levine says, after teaching for thirty-seven years at Bryn Mawr and another ten at a variety of community colleges part-time, she ’graduated’ from teaching in 2014. She has to admit that she is still missing the students, but not the papers and the grading. She is currently contributing her time to a co-op fitness center with a terrific group of women. She is busier than ever, but she doesn’t have to get up early. She loves that part of her retirement.

Ingrid Detweiler enjoyed seeing her classmates who made it to the Reunion. While much has changed, the main campus is lovely and the evening spent at Eden Hall Campus gave her and the others an opportunity to learn more about what is planned.

Ronya Janette Sallade Driscoll says while the Chatham College that she experienced was perfect for her, it is fascinating to see the ideas, structures, and accomplishments in the new Chatham University. As nothing stays still in time, including aging, she sends her fellow alumnae wishes for health and peace.

Jill Squire Keech says she and Mike continue to adore living in the colonial capital (Williamsburg). She retired from the world of the day job in November 2014. In March 2015, her mother died 17 days before her 102nd birthday. Jill is still doing some freelance writing and nonprofit development consulting. Visits with

her children and ’grands’ are the best.

Dorothy Raymond Matsui says the 50th Reunion was wonderful – so nice to see classmates and catch up on where life has taken them. The visit to Eden Hall was very interesting. She is looking forward to the next one.

66 Nancy Ross Delatush has been happily retired for many

years. She and her husband, George, are on a quest to see as many National Parks as possible. In 2015, they have ventured to Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, not just seeking out National Parks that are close to them, but also revisiting some of their favorites.

Emily (Berry) Marshall Hoak celebrated her improved health with Dale with a trip to England with their 16-year-old granddaughter. She saw where her father was born in Cambridge and visited their favorite sites in London including Hampton Court, where Dale participated in the 500th for Henry VII. Emily is part of a trial at NIH for Aplastic Anemia and she responded to only two transfusions this year instead of every four to five weeks as it has been for the past three and a half years. Lucy has brothers, George (14) and Peter (5). Her daughter has Jacob (3). She enjoyed a week with her son’s family in the summer and she will see her daughter’s family at Christmas.

Barbara-Lee Hewitt Orloff is looking forward to the 50th Reunion and seeing her classmates again. Sharing news and photos is a wonderful way to stay in touch. Each year she rejoices that her Chatham education gave her the knowledge she needed to enjoy the cultural riches of


continuing her involvement in her professional organization.

Pamela Gast Holmes retired in June after 45 years in the Somerville Public Schools. The last six years, she was the Principal of the Capuano Early Childhood Center with 375 Preschool and Kindergarten students. It was a wonderful way to finish her career. She is now enjoying retirement. In a moment of craziness, she decided to get a second dog, so a very energetic Labradoodle puppy is now part of her household. Her eight year old Labrador is tolerating her presence. Pamela is also in the midst of planning her daughter Allison’s wedding which will take place in May, 2016. She is living in San Francisco now so it is a definite plus that she has the time to help.

Phoebe Morse is working in Washington, DC for a couple of years for the FDIC – primarily on consumer legal policy. Her daughter, Nona, graduated from Mount Holyoke last year and is living with her in DC. Her daughter just finished an internship at the National Portrait Gallery and is thinking about graduate school.

Anne Firestone Ungar has become a drama critic for the website thefrontrowcenter.com. She reviews New York City theater productions periodically, and is pleased to add this job to her schedule as she continues to assist former U.S. Senator George Mitchell at the law firm DLA Piper. She’s delighted to find herself back in the theater, having been a professional actress with a BA from Chatham in Theater and an MA in Theater History and Criticism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her companion of two decades is Bill Getz, a bookseller. Together they enjoy music, gardening, movies, and of course, the theater. Her book group recently celebrated 32 years of reading together, and she retired as its coordinator of many decades.

CLASS NOTES

Eleanor (Lea) Wait is excited that the first time her Mainely Needlepoint Mystery series (Kensington Publishing) Twisted Threads, made the USA Today’s bestseller list! The second in the series, Threads of

Evidence, was also published this year, and will be followed by Thread and Gone in December. Her Living and Writing on the Coast of Maine, a series of essays on her current life, was also published this past summer. For more about her writing, see her website, www.leawait.com, and she invites all Chatham alums to friend her on Facebook and Goodreads.

69 Jean Robinson Andrews is still in her first marriage after

44 years. She is still in awe of her two daughters and her six grandchildren. She is still working as a realtor and is still enjoying it! She is still loving to travel near and far and is healthy and so appreciative. Life is good!

Bobara De Caulp celebrated the marriage of her daughter Sara to Nat McCormick last September in Maui, and the birth of their child, London Elizabeth, in August. They are all looking forward to a new generation at Christmas. Bobara does some legal practice and takes courses at local schools. She and Gary enjoy traveling and plan to do more after his retirement next year.

Lynn Stewart Hillman’s year has been different from last year. She spent only two weeks in Delaware, OH at her second home. She will be there for the last two weeks of October. Colby raced at Sebring in February and Willow Springs and Coronado, both in CA. She returned

to the Redwoods Monastery for six days in August and then went on a trip up the Oregon coast and down the middle of Oregon. Both race cars are now here in Roseville, and they’ll be at Indy and Mid-Ohio in June, if anyone wants to come. Colby races in SVRA, Senior Vintage Racing. They may be at Sebring again in March and maybe Amelia Island the same month. They’ll see. They are hoping to get back to Prague or Paris, but racing schedule keeps them busy.

Maryann Majewski Lenkoski and her husband, Peter, split the year between Martha’s Vineyard (May through October) and San Clemente, CA. While in San Clemente, their home is only three miles from their daughter’s family. Their son Alex lives in Norway and his family is very excited to spend Christmas 2015 in California – hopefully it will be sunny.

Vivian Garbuny Prunier says: “What’s new about me? Plant dahlias; play the accordion; go to music camp with my grandchildren; drive 60 miles to chorus practice? Yup. All of the above.”

70 Evelyn Lewis Freeman says it was wonderful to see

classmates at the 45th Reunion. She is honored to serve as President of Chatham’s Alumni Association and represent alumni on the Presidential Search Committee. She also serves on a board of an international children’s literature organization based in Switzerland and attended the fall board meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia, a very interesting city. She and her husband, Harvey, accompanied their older daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren to Disney World. It was special to experience the magic through their eyes. Their younger daughter is also married and has a son who turns one on October 15.

Patricia Williams Mason-Browne retired in June 2015 after 40 years at the University of Iowa. Plans include home renovation, travel, and

37

Karen L. Kiefer’s daughter, Johanna, is a senior in high school and is starting the college admissions process which brings back fond memories of Chatham for Karen. They will be visiting the campus soon!

75 Cindy Kanterman Speck’s daughter, Erin, and son,

Alex, are both married to wonderful spouses. In August Erin had a beautiful baby boy named Cole. Cindy is enjoying her life as a first-time grandmother. There is nothing like it.

76 Sharon Citron Elman and her husband, Barnett, are still

busy working their private practices of General Dentistry and Psychology, respectively. Their oldest child, Emily, is turning thirty this year. She is an environmental attorney living in Hoboken, NJ with her husband, Ronny. Sharon’s youngest son, Noah, owns a MacTools franchise and remains in Cleveland. Sharon would love to connect with other Chatham alumnae in Cleveland.

Betty Jo Hirschfield Louik finds it hard to believe she began her practice of General Dentistry 30 years ago. She was nominated once again as one of Pittsburgh Magazine’s Top Dentists. Outside the practice, Betty Jo serves on the board of the Denis Theater Foundation, a non-profit organization to rebuild the main-street art house theater in Mt. Lebanon. Fundraising is in full swing, and the designs call for turning a 1938 building into a fully accessible and sustainable center for film and art. For Betty Jo’s community involvement, she was honored with Mt. Lebanon’s Great Alumni Award. Bicycling still takes her and her husband past the Eden Hall campus, where her heart always skips a beat in excitement with the development. Granddaughter #2 was born in September, Yea!

71 Lita Rothenberg sold her dental practice several months

ago, after over 25 years as a business owner. She is now working as an independent contractor in the office of the dentist who purchased her practice as a merger. She is enjoying contracting and doing her dentistry rather than running a business. She has adjusted to a completely computerized office that she didn’t have before. She and her husband just returned from a Mediterranean cruise. They were joined by her daughter (who still lives in London), her husband, and their 15-month-old daughter.

Elizabeth Cotsworth says her summer was bookended by the wedding of her eldest daughter, Ariel, over Memorial Day weekend followed by her graduation from Harvard Medical School. Elizabeth also had a downsizing move in late August to a condo, still in her longtime home community of Arlington, VA.

Dr. Mary Ann Shannon Portman and her boyfriend, Barrie Lucas, visited Martha Jean Hughes and her husband, Don. They took them all over Washington DC and wined and dined them royally! Now Mary Ann and Barrie are expecting a visit from them to Florida this winter.

72 Sue Galloway traveled to Dallas, TX in 2014 to meet

her great niece, Ella Clerc Galloway, named for her mother and for Laurent Clerc, the first deaf teacher of the deaf in America – and her great-great-great- grandfather. She and her sister flew to France in May to take part in a celebration honoring him. They visited Clerc’s home town of La Balme (near Lyon), saw the house he lived in, the church where he was baptized, and the school he attended in Paris. They also got the chance to meet a first cousin and shared Clerc’s genealogy chart with him. Sue has just started her 25th year as a librarian at the Oklahoma School of the Deaf

and plans to retire in May, after a 41-year career as a children’s librarian. Scrapbooking, reading, making cards and crafts takes up her free time. Can’t wait to see what happens next!

Karen E. Roberts Sellman says her family is fine. She and Jerry are continuing to work with no retirement in sight. She is still a substitute teacher and helps with her two granddaughters. She and Jerry were in San Francisco, Napa, Sonoma, and Yosemite in May and are going to Denver and the Rocky Mountain National Park in October. Good health; good life.

73 Mary Ann Hood Slavin continues to enjoy travel and

various fun jobs in her retirement with Neil. Their daughter, Melanie, has three kids now, and is busy keeping track of them. She still lives in Atlanta. Their son, Scott, lives in LA enjoying the sunshine. They recently were in Little Cayman scuba diving and taking in the sun before returning to fall in New England.

Barbara Wilhelm is still busy working in office and nursing homes. She is now also the medical director for a local hospital group. She continues to write, and says to check out her website, BEWILHELM.com for the book she’s written about Chatham titled In Your Dreams. She’d love a visit from any classmate in the area. If anyone is headed to Ohiopyle or Nemacolin, drop in - she is close by!

74 Janice Johns Engleman, after many years in New

York City, has returned home to Pittsburgh. She married and has two sons, (12 and 10)! She is a currently unemployed social worker and she remains very involved in community affairs and organ donor recipient issues. She maintains close contact with her “Chatham Sister,” Felice Miller ’76.


assistance. I am also still the mayor of Oakland, finishing my sixth year.

Teri Sobolik Meyers is enjoying working as a Clinical Psychologist at Allegheny General Hospital (now part of the Allegheny Health Network!). She has been there for almost 15 years. Her five children are all grown and doing well, and she is experiencing empty nest syndrome with her husband, Jerry. Her most exciting news is that her oldest daughter, Helen, is expecting a baby boy with her husband, Changgeon, in December 2015. It will be her first grandchild and she is thrilled!

Gail Henderson-Staples has been in private practice of law for 31 years. She is blessed with a wonderful spouse/business partner for 31 years, three beautiful daughters (ob-gyn resident, law student, college freshman). Looking forward to retiring from law practice and possibly teaching college law and/or nonprofit work.

82 Susan Peirce bought a sweet (tiny) 1941 bungalow in Fort

Lauderdale. Once again braved chilly waters to complete the Erie Bay Swim. For 31 years she has been raising money to advance higher education, and she owes this crazy career all to Chatham!

83 Sharon Germano Miller lives in Smithville, NJ with

her husband, Bob, and their dog, Eddie. They will celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary in December. Sharon is employed at a construction company as an administrative assistant. She enjoys Zumba, painting, gardening, and singing on her church praise team. Bob has his own distribution business and takes Sharon fishing a lot. Greetings to all!

84 Deirdre Webster Cobb is finally preparing for

retirement! She downsized her house

CLASS NOTES

Rachel Richman is the policy political director of a public sector labor union in the San Francisco Bay Area. Earlier this year, she was named a Senior Fellow with a public sector budget analysis training program hosted by Working Partnerships USA. She was honored to be appointed by the Board of Supervisors to a funding oversight committee for the Alameda County public and nonprofit hospital system. Rachel continues to live in Oakland, CA with her partner, Jim. They recently took a road trip up the Northern California coast to see the Redwoods and spend as much time as possible at their place in Mendocino County. With the 2016 elections just around the corner, next year promises to be exceptionally busy. She stays in touch with Rosanna Lane.

77 Lisa Colbert-Brown returned home last year

to assist her mother in staying in her home. She has been blessed to reconnect with her and her own daughter, Whitney, who is living in Buffalo as well. Lisa spends her time volunteering at her church, Unity of Buffalo, and Voice Buffalo, a non-profit organization focused on social justice. Her adult ’kids’ are doing great – Whitney is involved with post-doctoral position at University of Buffalo Center for Addiction; Jordan is finishing his Masters in Sports Conditions and Jerry Jr. is working part-time at Stop n Shop. They are all blessed!

78 Claudette Smith Cooper says all is well in Colorado.

Her children are scattered in NH, WA, and Panama. Her new grandson in Panama is way too far away from her. Best wishes to all.

Shirley Hartman’s husband, John, passed away and she closed their consulting business, retired, sold their dream home in Pittsburgh, and bought a home near the beach on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She is now living the dream that both she

and John shared. She keeps busy with church activities, bowling, and social outings with friends. Also, the move brought her closer to her son, Robert, a marketing executive living in New Jersey. Shirley loves her life at the beach – so peaceful and relaxing.

Heidi Kanterman Freedman says it has been a busy couple of years! Her granddaughter, Madelyn, is turning two in December. Time flies! Her daughter, Hillary, and her husband, Danny, live in Connecticut while her son, Andrew, is in New York working as a police officer. He is engaged to be married in September 2016.

Dani Martin Meyers says she is now Nana Spike! Welcome to Lucie Mac!

80 Susannah Colt is still serving as Caretaker/

Caregiver at Pobiz Farm in Warner, NH, the subject of many poems and essays and a new memoir by renowned poet, Maxine Kumin, who died in February 2014. She reunited with President Alberta Arthurs at Maxine’s funeral as they were close friends and Alberta introduced her to Maxine back in 1981. Maxine’s widower, Victor, still lives on the farm and is fit as a fiddle at the age of 94. When she is not mowing and stacking wood, she is busy ballroom dancing in Concord, NH. She entered her first dance competition in September 2015 at the Provincetown Same-Sex Dance Trophy and lived to tell the tale.

81 Beverly Levine is so happy to report that her granddaughter,

Schuyler, has transferred to Chatham and will join the Class of 2017.

Peggy Jamison says after 30 years working for Garrett County Government, she retired June 30, 2015. However, she is still busy as she took a part-time job as the Circuit Rider for Garett County Municipalities. The work involves assisting the towns with grant writing and management and other technical

39

works in the real estate industry. Feel free to drop her a line if you set out to the “Sin City”! – Margo

89 Robin Ross Smith started a new adventure at the

DeBruce Foundation after spending 25 years at the Urban Institute working on housing and community development programs and policy. She is part of DeBruce’s research and social collaborative. Check it out at www.wethinkshift.org

90 Jamie Bails Richardson lives near Pittsburgh with her

dear husband, Erik, her three children, James (2), Diana (10), and Elizabeth (5). Jamie owns an ERP consulting firm and spends time juggling work with family, sports, activities, church activities, community volunteer work and snuggling with her family pets. Jamie would love to hear from her classmates and hopes that everyone is well!

91 Cheryl Harrison Ananda achieved an MA in philosophy

in Texas and then went on to get a masters in Occupational Therapy. She is recently retired from full-time OT work which she enjoyed doing for 18 years. She lives in Crowley, TX with her spouse, Andy, also of 18 years, and two cats.

Kathleen Reedy McClelland finally sold her house and moved into an apartment with her two companions, Baby and Simba. She is very happy there. She has been traveling a lot since her retirement. She and her sisters went to Utah in an RV for 10 days – beautiful state. She is planning a trip to New Orleans next.

Dana Sanfilippo Vento is excited that her daughter Kallie is attending Chatham. She loves that she gets to chat to Bridgey daily on Facebook – social media is great! She says to drop her a note via her website danavento.com. She would love to hear from anyone.

into a town home and scheduled herself for the state’s retirement seminar. Hopefully, it will be a goodbye to the state government and hello to private industry by the end of 2016. It’s great looking to the future with 18 years of marriage and her only child now 15 years old preparing herself for college.

85 Myrna Ogden Hill is still in Pittsburgh, retired, and

active in her church volunteering. She is currently executor of her cousin’s estate, selling the home and dealing with day to day problem solving. She is currently in a relationship with a man whom she has known since grade school and re-met at their high school reunion ten years ago. He enjoys traveling and has an interest in antique cars – they have a model A Coupe 1931 and a 1965 Ford Mustang, which they enjoy with the local club. In addition, they are actively remodeling their home in Greenfield area of Pittsburgh. Life is good – she is grateful for her daughter, her health, and her life.

Grace Gikas Montgomery has retired from teaching science and now coordinates the Pasadena Distribution Center for the Amgen Biotech Experience. The efforts made by the center have served over 50 schools, 90 teachers, and 9,000 students.

Lisa Welch Tallant cannot believe she is taking college tours with her daughter, Julia, who is a high school senior. Lisa relocated her office so she could bring her therapy dog, Velcro, who is beloved by her patients. Velcro is part of “The Dog Project” at Emory University. He is trained to lie quietly in an MRI machine while performing tasks to study his brain responses. He prefers praise to a food reward. It’s nice to be loved by a dog.

86 Mary Beth Belsito has been with Acura for the

past 24 years; 18 of those with the Baierl organization as the Sales and

Marketing Director in Wexford. Her lovely daughter, Sarah, was married in 2013 and she welcomed her first grandchild into the world on March 23, 2015, Paige Elizabeth Wolff.

Heidi Hoffman Bros celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary with Andrew with a trip to England and Ireland. They went to small villages and towns, but did not miss London or Dublin. Heidi did continue her role on the committee for the Burnsville Relay for Life this past summer and her team “Heidi’s Hope” smashed her goal! Jon (17) is looking at colleges. He wants to get a BFA in Stage Management. Heidi is still working at United Pain Center in St. Paul. She has been working at United Hospital for 14 years now. She says hello to all.

87 Pamela Hess is currently working as a nurse case

manager senior specialist with Cigna Group Insurance. She is keeping up to date with all the Chatham changes and updates and finds them very exciting! She recently celebrated 21 years of marriage with William Jones, Jr. and the adventure with him continues. She would love to hear from fellow classmates and welcomes all correspondence.

88 Anne Morton Forrest has a new job as an outpatient

therapist at Mercy Behavioral Health in Pittsburgh. Her 16-year-old daughter, Molly, is continuing the family tradition of theater by directing “Arms and the Man” for her tenth grade project.

Margaret Hiller says a great big hello to the class of ’88! She has been busy these past nearly three decades. She got married, got divorced, had two beautiful boys, Maximillian Lee Polster (age 16) and Mitchell Joseph Hiller (age 12), and got married again. She currently lives in Las Vegas, NV and she spends a significant amount of time at her family home out in Fox Chapel. She waits on her family and


her husband, Adam, and two sons, Malcolm (age 6), and Alex (age 3). After running a consulting business for five years, she recently assumed a full time role at Comcast as Director of Program Management where she oversees the development of broadband and home automation technology. She loves her team and appreciates the opportunity to work with very talented engineers in the Silicon Valley, Austin, and Taiwan. There is not much free time these days and she relishes every opportunity to hang out with her family. They spend most weekends traveling, hiking, and kayaking or at local museums.

00 Stephanie Fantauzzo Johnson quit her

management role as Inpatient Rehab OT Team Leader to be a ’partial’ stay-at-home mom to her New Year’s Day baby, Sofia, and her day after Christmas baby, Lucia. Needless to say, her last few holidays have been busy. She currently works PRN as an OT and is building her own Shaklee health and wellness business, writes for Dayton Moms Blog, and still dabbles in photography. She misses the Chatham College of old, but hopes to continue to stay in touch with all her Chatham ladies. XO.

Kristan Buck Ferguson has had many reasons to celebrate recently. On August 1 Kristan and her husband celebrated their first wedding anniversary. After 10 years of subbing, she’s officially a contracted teacher in the Clairton City School District. She is enjoying her first year as a kindergarten teacher. In her spare time, Kristan has been remodeling her 135-year-old home.

Emily Busse Schwartz lives in Pittsburgh with her husband, Kevin, daughter Phoebe (7), and son Cyrus (2). She is a realtor with Northwood Realty Services. Emily spent the past six months working to save her first college, Sweet Briar, from unnecessary closure. She continues to fight for

CLASS NOTES

92 Jane Dvorak Moffitt earned her undergraduate degree

at Chatham and graduate degree at Duquesne University. She loved both experiences! She is now enjoying family – including four grandchildren – and is also enjoying alumni participation in her alma maters. Love and best wishes to Chatham University!

93 Jodi Leese Glusco and her husband, Luke, welcomed

their first grandchild, Calvin Lucas, and celebrated the wedding of Luke’s daughter, Amanda, in 2014. 2015 brought foot surgery for Luke and radiation treatment for breast cancer for Jodi. By the year’s end, they are happy to put all these ailments in the past! Jodi continues to apply the hard work principles learned at Chatham as an award-winning newsroom leader at WRAL-TV in Raleigh.

95 Wendy Burtner-Owens moved back to Pittsburgh

in 2014 after 18 years in Virginia. She is the Chief Operating Officer of Steeltown Entertainment Project – an economic and workforce development nonprofit working to expand and improve the entertainment industry in Southwestern Pennsylvania. She would love to hear from any old classmates.

Najaa Young has had an interesting year with her family filled with heartache and triumph. She moved to Atlanta and began teaching digital filmmaking courses part time at American InterContinental University last October and absolutely loves it. Her feature film, Blood First, shot on location in Pittsburgh, was released in November. In January she was privileged to attend the inauguration of Muriel Bowser ’94 who became mayor of Washington, DC, along with Regina Pettus ’93, Majorie McFarlane ’95, Tamara Watkins ’95, and Esther Madzivire ’94. Her father, after a brief illness, passed away suddenly in July and my mother moved to the Atlanta

area to live with her. It’s been a little rough, but she is thankful they have each other and their faith to sustain one another. They are healing well!

96 Vanessa Hardman Williams has been working

as director of Catonsville Presbyterian Church Child Care Center for the last three years. Prior to this, she had been working with the Baltimore

County Infants and Toddlers Program. She has two boys, Wesley and Isaac. Wesley comes to preschool with her and attends a nature-themed class and Isaac attends second grade at a local elementary school. She keeps in touch with other classmates on Facebook, and visits with Caroline Banks and Heidi Sheppeck when she is in Pittsburgh.

97 Cynthia Bradley-King is still working at Pitt as a faculty

member in the school of social work.

98 Julianna Glista Goisovich works as an out-patient

physical therapist at Crichton Rehabilitation in Ebensburg, PA. She and her husband, Brian, have one son, Evan, who is three years old.

99 Sarah Tambolas Weinstein resides just outside of

Philadelphia in Narberth, PA with

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Hubert Heitzer. They both celebrated a special event with the birth of Mr. Heitzer’s thirtieth great-grandchild, Anngston, born in September! Rosie is a great-aunt to twenty-five nieces and nephews!

07 Angela Vincent is currently employed in private practice

as a licensed professional counselor at Pediatric Counseling Services, a private practice located in Dormont. Since graduation, she has worked at Children’s Hospital of UMPC Pittsburgh, Mars Home for Youth, and Samaritan Counseling Center. Recently, Angela has begun film studies in hope of pursuing a second career in documentary filmmaking.

08 Ava Baran just got her MS in Clinical and Counseling

Psychology from Chestnut Hill College in August 2015. She is now working for a community counseling agency in Philadelphia.

Shawnte McMillan Elbert is the director to the new Office of Health and Wellness Promotion at IUPUI. The link the press release of her new appointment is here: http://inside.iupui.edu/spotlights-profiles/faculty-staff/2015-08-11-health-wellness-director.shtml.

Melissa Morse has started a new position as the clinic director of Milowicki Physical Therapy in Cecil, PA. She loves having an impact on people’s lives and being able to help them regain function, decrease pain, and has fun while she is working. She also would like to share that her husband, Ken, is still fighting brain cancer. They are holding a fundraising walk on October 10th at Twin Lakes Park in Greensburg to raise money for the National Brain Tumor Society. The society is committed to finding better treatments, and ultimately a cure for people living with a brain tumor today and anyone who will be diagnosed tomorrow. She loves reading updates from other alumni, even if they don’t see each other anymore.

women’s education and hopes her daughter will follow the same path.

01 Natalee Palmer is enjoying her 11th year of teaching

visual art. She currently teaches grades K-6 in a historic elementary building once attended by the-one-and-only Fred Rogers! She is making her own jewelry and abstract paintings. She also loves to travel, and spent this past summer in New York City, Jamaica, and the sunny beaches of Florida. She welcomes contact from Chatham sisters at [email protected]

02 Gretchen Pohaski graduated from the MPAS

program in 2003 (completed the 3 + 2 accelerated program). Moved to Las Vegas, NV after graduation and lived there for ten years. Worked in Family Practice then in Geriatrics. Met her husband while living in Vegas and was married in 2008. She then relocated to Orlando, FL in 2012. She is currently working as a PA in research conducting phase 1-3 clinical drug trials. No children yet – maybe in the future. She and her husband enjoy cycling and also traveling within the US and internationally. She still stays in touch with fellow alums, Heather Santillo (maiden name), Tara Thompson, Magdalina Bigos, Alison Ruthkowski, and Amanda Vickodil (maiden name).

Anne Schneider Robinson and her husband, Chris, just celebrated 12 years of marriage! They have four children and are still living in the Butler area. Anne has been working as a crisis worker for over five years. Anne encourages those that know her to send an email!

04 Christina Thomas is currently serving with the

U.S. Peace Corps for nine months in the Republic of Georgia as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer (PCRV). As Fundraising and Advocacy Specialist for Kutaisi-based Ngo,

Women Wellness Care Alliance HERA (founded and operated by women) she is working closely with their Executive Director to generate revenue and funding, to expand its local, national and international network, and to establish a more impactful communication plan. At the close of

her service in March 2016, sister MBA 2005 Alumna, Suzie Franklin, will join her to tour Europe before returning to the States. Chatham’s emphasis on civic engagement among women and international culture exchange have made her well prepared and grateful for this role. (Above picture: wearing “Chatham purple” next to another Peace Corps volunteer before a ten-hour hike into Borjomi National Park).

05 Dana Scotti and her fiancé, Wesley James Donaldson,

welcomed their son, Luca James, on February 8, 2015. She will be married on May 20, 2016. She and Wesley continue their careers in Pittsburgh in the midstream division of the energy sector.

06 Jamie Hodgson Flynn is practicing at a private

family practice – Family Practice Medial Associates South in McMurray. She lives in Mt. Lebanon with her husband, three wonderful children, Michael (5), Allison (3), Kellan (2), and her dog. They all keep her very busy. She enjoys exercising, reading, and traveling in her free time.

Rosemary “Rosie” Heitzer is working with special needs students from the MIU4, Grove City. She also cares for her father, 93-year-old


piano and voice instructor in the City of Pittsburgh. She is a wife of an electrician, Richard Sr., and a mother of two boys, Richard Jr. (4), and Ryan (2) and has an unborn child who is due in March 2016.

Amanda Chovan Richardson and her husband Jim welcomed their first child, James David, on December 5, 2014. She currently works at Barber National Institute in Erie, PA.

Rebecca Rodgers continued to use Pennsylvania as her home base while traveling near and far. While tech writing for Epic Systems in Madison, WI, she satisfied her creativity by having pieces published on ToTheWell.org and in The North Dakota Quarterly. She’s recently begun blogging about her travels at BeccaInTransit.wordpress.com.

11 Samantha Stitzel is pleased to announce her engagement to

Zachary Adams. She currently resides in Canonsburg, PA and is planning a May 2016 wedding. Samantha currently works for NHS Human Services as the program director of the Dual Diagnosis Treatment Team.

Lisa Story is a licensed professional counselor in the state of Pennsylvania, worked as a spiritual/bereavement counselor in hospice, has become a certified Thanatologist, and holds a certificate in addictions counseling and horticultural therapy. She continues to run and manage Hope Grows for Caregiver Support, a non-profit that she founded during her academic studies at Chatham. She has been an invited speaker on the topics of compassion fatigue, caregiver issues, and horticulture. She has been married now for 33 years to Charles Story, is a mother of four and recently welcomed her fifth grandchild into her life. She continues to develop healing and restorative gardens at her residence and soon-to-be bed and breakfast for caregivers.

CLASS NOTES

09 Dr. Catherine Bishop is an oncology nurse practitioner

(NP) who joined the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center at Sibley

memorial Hospital in 2012. She manages a variety of cancer patients and participates in clinical research trails. Dr. Bishop is published on topics such as breast cancer, hematological malignancies, as well as articles advocating for the NP. She is a board certified Family Nurse Practitioner and is an Advanced Oncology Certified nurse Practitioner.

Penny Schnarrs, MBA, was recently appointed Assistant Vice President of Constituent Relations and Resources in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations at Point Park University.

Hallie Arena Stotsky tied the knot on June 13, 2015 to Brad Stotsky, DPT ’08. The couple first met in the Athletic and Fitness Center on campus, where later Brad proposed to Hallie after a 1:1 basketball game in the gym. It was only fitting that they tied the knot right here on campus. Hallie is now the coordinator of the Stress Zone at the University of Pittsburgh as well as a yoga instructor at several locations around the Pittsburgh area (including

Chatham). Brad is a physical therapist at Panther Physical Therapy in

Wexford; he’s been with the company ten years when he started as a tech in PT school. The Stotsky’s reside in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, are members of Chatham’s W.R.A.P. Mentorship Program, and enjoy cheering on Chatham athletics.

10 Ryan J. Albert’s time at Chatham was eye opening.

The excitement of discovering a film program at a smaller school was immeasurable. Because Pittsburgh was an emerging filmmaking oasis, it was imperative to have firm education and network. The early days at Chatham were considerably tough, the workload was heavy, but it was worth it. What was really hard was the resistance initially received from fellow peers. The university was undergoing sweeping changes and it was obvious that Ryan’s presence on campus and in classes was not considered warranted by many. However, professors and deans opened their minds and hearts to Ryan. After a while, peers realized Ryan’s passion. Ryan has made several close friends and still works with many of them.

Kelly Gardner Jones graduated with BA in Music & Arts in Chatham University. Kelly is a local musician, songwriter, and an independent

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medication management, and clinical consultation services. She has served on the Board of Directors for two non-profit organizations, Small Seeds Development, Inc. and Gwen’s Girls, and was recently appointed to the position of Executive Director at Gwen’s Girls in August of 2015.

Marian Feil reached a career milestone by being promoted to assistant professor at Thomas Jefferson University, Jefferson College of Nursing in July 2015. Her fellowships include: 2015-2016 Fellow, Leadership for Academic Nursing Program, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Washington, DC.

Darayu Wilson received the Darmasiswa scholarship from Indonesia’s Ministry of Education to study traditional medicine for her gap year (2014-2015). She enjoyed living there and discovering her second heritage. So much so, she accepted a seat at the University of Indonesia for their international medical dual degree program. She’s looking forward to reading her 2014 peers’ updates in the next Class Notes!

12 Elizabeth Dorssom earned a Master of Public

Administration degree in Public Sector Management and Leadership with distinction. In order to graduate with distinction, students must earn a minimum of a 3.885 GPA; she graduated with a 3.97 GPA. In the months following earning her master’s degree, she’s worked as an Operations Manager for a nonprofit that assists people who are unsafe at home following coming out as LGBTQ or as a result of domestic violence. She has one year left on her appointment to Omicron Delta Kappa Student Advisory board and Strategic Alliances Committee. When she is not working, she spends her spare time reviewing books. She recently received a press kit and pre-release copy of Rosemary Kennedy and the Secret Bonds of Four Women by Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff. The publisher sent her a copy because she regularly reviews books regarding the Kennedy family.

Robin Greenberg would like to announce to her Chatham sisters and classmates that she has finally graduated from Stony Brook University with her doctorate of physical therapy! Seven years from the start at Chatham and she has accomplished her goals.

Elizabeth Hixson Smith was recently promoted to the Associate Director of Annual Programs – Telefund at the University of Pittsburgh.

13 Julie Fleckenstein is now working for CCAC south

campus as an adjunct faculty member and she is also an adjunct faculty member at Penn State Greater

Allegheny. Julie was named one of Mon River Fleet’s Women of Achievement in Recreation for 2015. Julie is getting married on October 31, 2015 to Dan Hayes at her parish, Saint Mark in Port Vue.

Jane June is currently the Dean of Healthcare at Quinsigamond Community College. She also works as an Administrative Coordinator at St. Vincent Hospital. She was recently elected to the Board of Commissioners for ACEN. She is the grandmother of three boys, Brenton (9), Logan (7), and Travis (3), and visits them in Santa Barbara frequently. She hopes all her classmates are doing well.

Ashley Walch Reilly and her husband, Bryan Reilly, are happy to announce the birth of their son, Logan Maxwell, on September 9, 2015. His arrival happened just a bit more than a month ahead of Ashley and Bryan’s one-year wedding anniversary, which they will be celebrating on October 11th of this year. Her photo is below:

14 Dr. Kathi R. Elliott, DNP completed her dual master’s

degrees in nursing and social work from the University of Pittsburgh in 2008 in addition to earning her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Chatham. She has had many years of experience in social service, community and individual mental health treatment. She has worked as manager of the Juvenile Justice and Community Outreach and Education Units at the Center for Victims. Dr. Elliot has a private practice, Comprehensive Behavioral Health Services, LLC, where she provides psychiatric evaluations,


IN MEMORIAM

Marilyn Black Auchterlonie ’51

Joseph A. Batiz, MAcc ’13

Carol Bowie Brandt ’72

Barbara Logan Brown ’53

Martha Coate Challener ’46

Kimberly Ann Cox, MAT student

Nancy Davidson, MOT ’01

Marlene Suran Davis ’58

Luceille Egan Fleming ’45

Dorothy Paxton Gosden ’50

Ethel “Gail” Hillard ’66

Elsie Hilliard Hillman ’93, HA

Jean Thomas Hillman ’51

Mary Xerocostas Iatridis ’49

Janny Beck Jameson ’45

Mary Wells Karlson ’46

Jane Blattner Kreimer ’44

Betty Gahagen Lindsay ’42

Jean White Markell ’46

Sally Head Mulcahy ’59

Elinor Bissell Offill ’40

Beth-Anne Marie Owens, IMH Certificate

Marilyn Clark Rauch ’52

Janet Brewster Reynolds ’45

Alice Steinmark Rightor ’41

Amanda Harris Stamas ’44

Norma Jean Gittins Stoffer ’51

Barbara Shullman Young ’63

Dr. Helen Faison, Former Professor and Directorof Pittsburgh Teachers Institute

Susan Lau, Former Professor

Shirley Stark, Former Chair of the Art Department

Raymond M. Vock, Former Campus Police Officer

In memoriam

Information about deceased alumni may be submitted to the Office of Alumni Relations at

[email protected] or by mail to Chatham University, Office of Alumni Relations, Woodland

Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15232.

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It was with great sadness that the Chatham University community learned of the passing on August 4 of Elsie Hilliard Hillman, the nationally renowned and admired Pittsburgh philanthropist, civic leader, champion of political engagement and moderation, and tireless worker on behalf of causes of great importance to her – including the rights of women.

Elsie and the Hillman and Hilliard families have enjoyed a long and close relationship with Chatham. Her late brother Tom Hilliard was for many years a Chatham Trustee before becoming an Emeritus Trustee, a position he held until his passing last year. And Elsie’s grandson, Henry Simonds, is currently a Chatham Trustee, carrying on the Hillman and Hilliard families’ legacy at Chatham.

Elsie’s and the Hillman family’s generosity to Chatham includes endowing the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics

at Chatham University, a leader in the effort to engage more Pennsylvania women in the political process, as well as the Elsie Hillman Chair in Women & Politics, which brings women leaders of national and international stature to Chatham. Elsie is an honorary Chatham alumna, having received an honorary Doctor of Public Service in 1993.

Elsie was also personally engaged with Chatham – and especially with Chatham students – on many fronts. Just this past spring, she took part in the Pennsylvania Center for Women & Politics New Leadership program, which prepares college-age women from around the state for leadership roles. Earlier in the spring, she participated in the campus visit by newswoman Cokie Roberts, whose lecture and appearance on campus was made possible through the Hillman Chair. Her passing is not just a loss for the Hillman family, her many friends, and the political world, but a loss of a piece of Pittsburgh’s heart as well.

Tribute to Elsie Hillman, 1925-2015

ELSIE HILLMAN TRIBUTE

Beatty HouseWoodland RoadPittsburgh, PA [email protected]

AS A CHATHAM GRADUATE, YOU HAVE ACCESS TOA RICH ARRAY OF BENEFITS:

• Exclusive access to Career Development services at no cost.

• Watch live-streamed events featuring renowned speakers, authors and dignitaries at chatham.edu.

• Connect with classmates and friends at alumni events in Pittsburgh and around the country.

• Save the date for the Alumni Reunion Weekend, October 14-15, 2016, (celebrating classes ending in 1 and 6).

• Join President Barazzone and other alumni on a 13-day adventure, March 11-23, 2016, through Southern Africa. Chatham’s journey will stop in Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa and Damaraland and Grootberg in Namibia.

Success for the Alumni Association hinges on your involvement and engagement. Please send us your suggestions on how we can make our Alumni Association a stronger, more engaged organization to [email protected].

THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION IS SERVED BY THE CHATHAM UNIVERSITY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS (AABD). THIS YEAR, THE BOARD HAS:

• Provided each new student at Orientation a purple water bottle as a welcome gift from the Alumni Association.

• Continued to work with the Office of Admissions to personally connect with all deposited students via phone calls, letters, and e-mails.

• Partnered with the Office of Career Development to provide mentoring support for new students.

• Co-sponsored the Women’s Institute Launch on November 7

• Participated in the Annual Fund to provide much needed scholarship support and other initiatives that enhance the student experience.

Get Involved with Our Alumni Association!

WINTER2015 - Chatham University · Scott Carter, MSUS ’16; Jared Haidet, MSUS ’16; Joshua...

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