Mills Quarterly spring 2001 by Mills Quarterly

Mills Quarterly Spring 2001 Alumnae Magazine

From

Saudi Arabia

to the

United Nations O N E

Elect Your Alumna Trustee

College for a Day

W O M A N ’ S

S T O R Y

Advancing Women’s Careers in Health Care

Reunion 2001 by Jane Cudlip King, ’42

ail the Ghosts of Graduations Past! If your class year ends in a 1 or a 6, you are especially to be hailed as you enjoy a class reunion. Clear your calendars now so that you will be available from September 14–16, and if you are to become a Golden Girl (members of the Class of 1951), you get an extra day on Thursday, September 13. Pack for layered clothing—September can be tricky weather—and remember the sunblock, sunshades, and comfortable shoes. On Friday morning you’ll be taking part in Convocation, for which you’ll wear academic robes (adding to the ghostly look but without the chains. It’s not a re-enactment of the old Ghost Walk.) It’s exciting to enter the Greek Theatre and hear the assembled seniors cheer as we file past. That afternoon is devoted to a colloquium and later the President’s Garden Reception, followed by an all-alumnae dinner, followed by the Darius Milhaud annual concert, the endowed gift of the Class of 1945, and the Jazz Café. Saturday we’ll hear the State of the College address by President Janet Holmgren. The class pictures are taken before the picnic at noon, and then our talented reunioners who are artists in many fields will be featured in the third annual Celebration of the Arts, one of the most successful Reunion endeavors ever. Much to see,

much to admire, much to enjoy. This year the incoming Golden Girls will have their own art show in Mills Hall. Class dinners will be held on Saturday night, with the incoming Golden Girls having theirs on campus as the guests of the Alumnae Association. Additionally, there will be panel discussions, Jane’s Stroll, informal hall visits, visits to new buildings on campus, and time for tennis, swimming, and running. Reunion officially ends with the AAMC President’s Brunch on Sunday morning. This year we plan particularly to ensure that you have ample time for old friendships and new ones. To this end, we remind you that while organized events can be designed for the reunioning classes, they are rarely exclusively so; every alumna is more than welcome at Reunion. This includes—and this is a plea—people who want to volunteer their services to help things run smoothly behind the scenes. If helping is your cup of tea, please contact Gail Indvik, Director of Alumnae Relations, at (510) 430-3363, or by email at <gindvik@mills.edu>. When your Reunion brochure arrives in June, please reply soon. This helps the Reunion Committee’s planning immensely, especially for space requirements, and it will mean that you will be accommodated even if later we have to hang the “No Vacancy” sign over Richards Gate. Reunion numbers grow every year. Don’t be left out!

Mills Quarterly

CONTENTS SPRING 2001 9

College for a Day: Lively Learning and Spirited Discussion in Denver Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68

Advancing Women’s Careers in Health Care: National Symposium Held at Mills Michelle Smith, ’81, MD

Education is the Key: Thoraya Obaid’s Journey from Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Ann McKinstry Micou, ’52

Elect Your Alumna Trustee

D E PA R T M E N T S 2

Letters

Inside Mills

Mills Matters

Book Shelf

Passages

SENIORS FROM THE CLASS OF 1951 gathered in the concert hall for this photo along with underclass students. The class of 1951 will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of their graduation from September 13–16, 2001.

Mills Quarterly Volume LXXXIX Number 4 (USPS 349-900) Spring 2001 Alumnae Director Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68 Editor David M. Brin, MA ’75 dbrin@mills.edu Editorial Assistant Kelli Parrish, ’01 Design and Art Direction Benjamin Piekut, MA ’01 Quarterly Board Marian Hirsch, ’75 Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Ariel Eaton Thomas, ’63 Lynette Williams Williamson, ’72 Class Notes Writers Barb Barry, ’94 Laura Compton, ’93 Barbara Bennion Friedlich, ’49 Sally Mayock Hartley, ’48 Laurel Kirby, ’00 Cathy Chew Smith, ’84 Special Thanks to Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Board of Governors President Sharon Kei Tatai, ’80 Vice Presidents Lupe Pedler Griffiths, ’46 Karen May, ’86 Treasurer Lynne Bantle, ’74 Alumnae Trustees Harriet Isom, ’58, Judy Greenwood Jones, ’60 Estrellita Hudson Redus, ’65, MFA ’75 Governors Georgian Simmonds Bahlke, ’51 Doreen Bueno, ’97, Laura Compton, ’93 Leone Evans, MA ’45, Robyn Fisher, ’90 Lynn Eve Fortin,’87, Christina Littlefield, ’74 Leah MacNeil, MA ’51, Patricia Lee Mok, ’81 Stefanie Moreno, ’04, Jennifer E. Moxley, ’93 Kirsten T. Saxton, ’90, Louise Hayes Vanderliet, ’53 Sarah Washington-Robinson, ’72 Peggy Woodruff, ’58, Sheryl Wooldridge, ’77 Regional Governors Elizabeth Kelley, ’86, Eastern Great Lakes Susan Shapiro Taylor, ’63, Middle Atlantic Albertina Padilla, ’78, Middle California Catherine Foster Koko, ’85, Midwest Katie Dudley Chase, ’61, Northeast Loadel Harter Piner, ’50, Northern California Joanne Regalia Repass, ’66, Northwest Sally Matthews Buchanan, ’64, South Central Candace Brand Kaspers, ’70, Southeast Carole Joseph Silva, ’54, Southern California Ann Markewitz, ’60, Southwest The Mills Quarterly (USPS 349-900) is published quarterly in April, July, October, and January by the Alumnae Association of Mills College, Reinhardt Alumnae House, 5000 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94613. Periodicals postage paid at Sacramento, CA and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Mills Quarterly, Alumnae Association of Mills College, P.O. Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613-0998. Statement of Purpose The purpose of the Mills Quarterly is to report the activities of the Alumnae Association and its branches; to reflect the quality, dignity, and academic achievement of the College family; to communicate the exuberance and vitality of student life; and to demonstrate the world-wide-ranging interests, occupations, and achievements of alumnae.

Letters to the Editor Thank you for the article on Japanese American internment during World War II. I serve on the board of directors for the June Watanabe Dance Company and was pleased to see her work, as well as Ruth Okimoto’s research and Patricia Wakida’s book, recognized in the Winter 2001 issue of the Mills Quarterly. While I was attending Mills, many of my student colleagues were surprised to hear that the U.S. government imprisoned Japanese Americans. I wondered if they believed me because the Japanese American internment was never covered in my history classes. I knew it happened because my family experienced it. Last June, at a meeting in Sacramento for the CCLPEP (California Civil Liberties Public Education Program) grantees, I heard reports given by the grantees from the prior year’s awards. I was struck by the intensity of feeling each grantee expressed during his/her report. This intense emotional feeling was foreign to me, as my family had kept quiet about internment for all these many years. I went to “camp,” but I don’t have a memory of these years, and my parents and other relatives still, for the most part, refuse to talk about the “camp” experience. Besides June, Ruth, and Patricia’s projects, Mills College can be proud of the number of other associations it has with the CCLPEP. Another project was a quilt depicting the internment of Japanese Americans designed and constructed by Bess Kawachi Chin, mother of Vivian Chin, ’89. Vivian Chin is now a professor of ethnic studies at Mills. Many of the women who worked on the quilt talked about how making this quilt brought some resolution to their internalized rage over the injustice of the internment. My aunt, Haruye Sagimori Ng, the mother of Wendy Ng, ’79, author of the

article, also worked on this quilt. In her square, she cleverly manipulated the fabric to capture the bleakness of the camp while conveying uncertainties as two individuals looked out of barbed wire at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Mills freshwoman Clare Abe’s father, Frank Abe, has just completed the documentary, Conscience and the Constitution, that aired nationally on PBS in November, 2000. His work told the hidden story of draft resisters at Heart Mountain internment camp. With the CCLPEP, educating the public about this period will prepare us to recognize why and how this injustice occurred and, more importantly, to prevent injustices such as internment from happening to anyone in the future. Thank you for allowing such an important topic to be a major topic of this past issue of the Quarterly. Patricia Y. Orr, ’63 World War II was an ugly, fearful, and confusing time. And I am very grateful that the AAMC is paying tribute to our American citizens of Japanese descent who were interned in this country. And as we pause to remember this injustice, let us also take a moment to remember other injustices that were part of the stories surrounding the War in the South Pacific. My father, Tom McFarland, cleaned out his savings and gave every cent he had to send me to Mills. He never went to college; he went to war. He was a Marine aboard the USS Houston when the Japanese military sank it during World War II. He was in the water for 24 hours when he was picked up and made a slave of the Japanese for 43 months. British engineers estimated it would take seven years to cut through the 265-mile long jungle of solid bamboo and mountain, to clear a path for the Burma railway. Instead the

Japanese military (ignoring their signed agreement with the Geneva Convention) had it built in 13 months by hand, using American, Australian, Dutch, and British prisoners of war, as well as the Burmese people themselves. All were held captive and forced against their will into the slave camps. One hundred and ten thousand lives were lost during the 13 months that the railway was built. One life for every railway tie. It was a grueling existence and if you weren’t dying that day from tropical disease or starvation you were tortured until you worked. One cup of sour rice and bugs was the daily fare. And if you got infections from the beatings or the bamboo, then leeches or small piranhas would eat your wounds clean. My father was moved from Java to Japan. POWs were forced to lay on low shelves in the ships’ cargo bays for weeks at a time, side by side with the dying, the dead, and those with dysentery. In Japan they were made to stand for hours in the snow with nothing but loincloths. My father was interned outside Nagasaki when the bomb was dropped on that city. My father sailed off to war under the Golden Gate Bridge. He was handsome, proud, 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. He returned under that same bridge 1300 days later weighing 90 pounds. For those POW’s fortunate to return, all faced life-long health problems and disabilities. Unfortunately, the challenges of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome were not understood or treated at the time. Those who returned home reclaimed their lives with patriotic grace and incomparable elegance. But they would also remain forever fragile and haunted, as would their families. To this day as the last of these great men and women die away, very many of their children continue to struggle with addiction, depression, homelessness,

or other disabilities. My father spent my childhood writing of his war. Burma Bagpipes was one of the first accounts written of the Pacific’s POWs, and as a result the U.S. State Department requested that it be shelved for a number of years to allow U.S./Japanese relations grow. This request moved my father’s manuscript into a closet, negating both publishing contracts and a movie deal. Shortly thereafter his life began to unravel. Tragically in later years, he was forced back into captivity once again, by a body depleted and debilitated from the traumas of war. He did visit the Golden Gate Bridge one last time, when I proudly became

a Mills graduate. In 1996 my father was given a hero’s burial. No one paid him for his lost years, or ours, and his manuscript still sits unpublished on his office shelf. It was at Mills that I finally was able to begin to rise above the war ghosts of my childhood. Both Mills and my parents gave that opportunity to me. Yes, let us please acknowledge the injustices of war against our citizens, but let us also remember my father and all our veterans who gave their lives, so that all America’s children, regardless of their cultural background, could know the privilege of freedom and life, and the dear price that was paid for it. Cynthia (CK) McFarland, ’73

On this Issue This issue tells the stories of women who have overcome obstacles to take their rightful place in society. Ann McKinstry Micou, ’52, writes about Thoraya Obaid, ’66, a woman from Saudi Arabia who has recently been appointed to a prestigious job at the United Nations. Until she came to Mills at age 17, Thoraya had never been alone on a city street. She is now Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. Gender inequity is all-pervasive in our culture. In her report on the symposium at Mills, “Advancing Women’s Leadership in Medicine, Health Sciences, and Health Care,” Dr. Michelle Smith, ’81, quotes one of the participants who planned her delivery date to coincide with a rare four-week vacation during her medical training. “I didn’t want my femaleness to be a detriment to fulfilling my obligation as a resident,” explained Dr. Judith Leong Mates. Unfortunately for many women, femaleness has been a detriment. Virginia Woolf called the problem “the angel in the house,” described by Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68, in her article on “College for a Day” in Denver. Mills College is often central in stories of women who overcome obstacles; in addition to providing opportunities for women to take important positions and model them for others, the College educates women to fulfill a wide variety of roles when they become Mills alumnae.

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY S P R I N G 2 0 0 1

inside mills REPORT FROM PRESIDENT JANET L. HOLMGREN

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY S P R I N G 2 0 0 1

Dave Brubeck

RICHARD PEARLMAN (2)

On March 6, 2001, more than two hundred Mills alumnae, parents, and friends braved inclement weather to attend the Mills Sesquicentennial Campaign celebration in New York City. It was a magical Mills moment featuring a private performance by Dave Brubeck, a graduate student at Mills in 1945, with his sons Chris and Dan at The Tavern on the Green in a snow-covered Central Park. Jennifer Marx Gruenberg, ’64, and Cristine Russell, ’71, co-chaired the event together with their husbands Bud Gruenberg and Ben Heineman. Iola Brubeck, ’47, was Honorary Chair. Thank you to the Brubecks, the co-chairs, the alumnae volunteers, Trustee Carolyn LeRoy, ’96, and her father, the late Warner LeRoy, owner of The Tavern, for making the evening such a success. With great enthusiasm, I welcome Cristine Russell, ’71, to a new leadership role for Mills. Cris has agreed to serve as a Co-Chair of the Mills Sesquicentennial Campaign. As you will read in her profile, Cris has been an active alumna in the New York area and has been a member of the Mills Board of Trustees since 1993. As a science writer, Cris has been a strong voice for the advancement of women in science and technology—the topic of my report. Mills’ preeminence in educating women depends in great part on our ability to maintain and strengthen opportunities for our students to pursue careers in fields where women are under-represented. Over the past decade, the Mills science faculty has found that the College’s physical facilities are not adequate for the present and future pedagogical and research needs of their respective departments. At its meeting on October 27, 2000, the Mills Board of Trustees reached consensus to move forward with a multi-year, phased project to improve teaching and laboratory space for the sciences, mathematics, and computer science at Mills. I invite you to read about the proposed project on the following pages. As a women’s college, Mills assumes a leadership role in addressing pipeline issues in mathematics and science education at every level from kindergarten through college. For the past 17 years, Mills has sponsored an annual conference to stimulate and encourage the interest of girls, grades 6 through 12, in the sciences. Entitled “Expanding Your Horizons,” each year the conference attracts over 600 girls who have the opportunity to interact with professional women in the sciences. More than twenty years ago, Mills was the first women’s college in the country to offer an undergraduate degree in computer science. In 1993, the National Science Foundation awarded the Education Department at Mills a $3 million grant over five years to transform the teaching of science in the Oakland public schools. In 1994, the Mills Women’s Leadership Institute convened fifty-two of the country’s leading women scientists for the first national Women in Science Summit. Participants in this historic summit created an action plan called Advancing Women’s Leadership in Science. Just this year, the Mills Women’s Leadership Institute hosted a summit of women in the health sciences. You can read about this symposium in the article by Dr. Michelle Smith, ’81, found on page 10. Our rigorous undergraduate science curriculum in combination with a dedicated faculty of teacher-scholars prepares women at Mills for leadership in the sciences and mathematics. Nationally, fewer than one-quarter of science and engineering faculty members are female. The presence of women faculty role models has a direct correlation with higher rates of persistence for women science students. We are proud that one-half of the tenured and tenure-track faculty teaching biology, chemistry, math and computer science at Mills are women who earned their PhD degrees at top quality institutions such as Harvard, Princeton, MIT, the State University of New York, UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Barbara. Moreover, the faculty-student ratio of 1:12 ensures

BELOW: ARIEL EATON THOMAS, ’63; RIGHT: RICHARD PEARLMAN

S E S Q U I C E N T E N N I A L C A M PA I G N N E W S

a high quality program of small classes and close personal interactions between students and professors. Many members of the faculty involve students in their own research projects. Collaborative learning, which has been shown to be especially effective for women, characterizes science education at Mills. Mills is ready to move forward with state-of-the-art teaching facilities for improved instruction in the sciences and mathematics. Top quality teaching programs supported by top quality facilities at women’s colleges are essential to help address the under-representation of women in science professions. Graduates of women’s colleges are more than twice as likely as the graduates of coeducational colleges to receive doctoral degrees in medicine and science. Mills students develop skills, knowledge, confidence, independence of mind, and personal voices. These qualities are important in all types of endeavors but are crucial for high achievement in the sciences, where the pursuit of uncharted avenues of research is an essential key to discovery. When this courage for discovery by a woman scientist is combined with the courage to be a strong advocate for her work, the potential for strengthening our society is limitless.

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President Holmgren with Dave Brubeck and his wife, Iola Whitlock Brubeck, ’47.

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Mills Sesquicentennial Campaign Adds a Co-Chair

RISTINE RUSSELL, ’71, has joined Caren Harvey Prothro, ’63, and Trustee Glenn Voyles as a Co-Chair of the Mills Sesquicentennial Campaign. “I am extremely excited to have this opportunity to help Mills celebrate its 150th birthday,” says Cris. “It is important as we look back at its history, to remember that Mills needs support to build and strengthen programs and facilities that will help prepare women for a future that will present new and different challenges. Today, more than ever, I am convinced that Mills can continue to play a significant leadership role in educating women in a liberal arts setting that encourages individuality, creativity, personal growth, and giving back to the community at large. The Sesquicentennial Campaign gives all of us a chance to give back to Mills and help it grow and flourish in the years to come.” A biology major at Mills, Cris is a freelance writer who has been covering science and medicine for more than two decades. Now a special health correspondent for The Washington Post, she was formerly the national medical/science

reporter for The Washington Post and earlier for The Washington Star. She was a panelist on the Public Broadcasting System show “Washington Week in Review,” starting in 1978. She wrote the “Health and Disease” update for the Encyclopedia Britannica yearbook. Cris is a recipient of numerous national science writing awards including the National

Association of Science Writers “Science in Society Award” for a series on modern maternity. She was the first woman to win the American Chemical Society’s James T. Grady Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public. She was a member of the Commonwealth Fund Commission on Women’s Health from 1993–1999. Already working on the Sesquicentennial Campaign, Cris was one of the Co-Chairs of the New York event on March 6, featuring Dave Brubeck. She has been a member of the Mills Board of Trustees since 1993, currently serving as Chair of the Student Life Committee. She also served as a Recent Graduate Trustee from 1974 until 1977. In 1994, Cris served on the Advisory Committee for the Mills Women’s Leadership Institute Summit on Women in Science. Cris is an active member of the Mills College Club of New York. Cris and her husband, Ben Heineman, live in Darien, Connecticut, and have two sons: Harvard undergraduate, Zach, age 20, and high school senior, Matt, age 17, soon to be a freshman at Dartmouth College. M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY S P R I N G 2 0 0 1

inside mills A NEW PLAN FOR SCIENCE FACILITIES AT MILLS

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the CPM Building. Computer science faculty and students curhe sciences at Mills have grown over the past few years, rently work in improvised classrooms and laboratories that cancreating a need for additional teaching and research not support new trends and innovation in this important field of space. Science majors available to undergraduate instruction. A learning environment for mathematics and comwomen at Mills include biology, biochemistry and molecular puter science that incorporates state-of-the-art use of electronic biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and psymedia in classroom teaching would not only advance the chology. A new major in environmental science is nearing department’s programs but would provide a much-needed implementation. In addition, Mills now offers a five-year engiresource for other instructional programs. neering program in conjunction with the University of Southern Structural evaluations of the Chemistry, Physics, and California. During the first three years at Mills, students take a Mathematics (CPM) Building conducted in 1995 and 1997 prescribed set of basic science and mathematics courses. Each revealed that the cost of upgrading the CPM Building to student in the program who achieves at least a 3.0 grade point respond to current seismic and programmatic needs is nearly average at Mills is eligible to spend her last two years at USC equivalent to the cost of new construction. in the engineering program. Students completing the program A committee made up of representatives from each science will receive bachelor’s degrees from both institutions. department, trustees, and the College administration has been In addition to undergraduate majors, the College offers a working for the past two years on development of a science two-year Post-baccalaureate/Pre-medical Program that prepares facilities plan. The SmithGroup, a San Francisco architecture students with bachelor’s degrees in disciplines other than sciand urban design firm, was retained to undertake architectural ence to enter medical school. The program enrolls 60 students each year, and more than 95 percent of the LOCATION OF THE NEW MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE BUILDING. graduates of this program are accepted immediately to medical or veterinary LUCIE STERN schools. The Biology and Chemistry/Physics Departments currently are located in two MILLS HALL MA separate buildings, a situation that impedes DRA student/faculty collaborations and undergraduate research that support interdiscipliSAGE THE nary courses in environmental science, OVAL molecular biology, and biochemistry. Biology is located in the Life Science Building while CARNEGIE Chemistry/Physics is located in the CPM EL Building, half a campus away. Bringing the CAMPANIL biology and chemistry students, faculty, classrooms, and laboratories together would represent a major contribution to the New Mathematics establishment of the stronger intellectual Computer Science Building community that we envision. A unified natural science complex would support new LA Existing CPM Building IRD modes of teaching favored by members of AV To Be Demolished E. the science faculty at Mills, involving a more investigative, problem-solving model for science education that more closely parallels what our students will encounter when they leave Mills. M AU The Mathematics and Computer RIT AN IA AV Science Department currently is located in K O O

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M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY S P R I N G 2 0 0 1

programming and a conceptual design study. In October, 2000, the Mills College Board of Trustees reached consensus on a plan consisting of five phases: 1. Construction of a new building adjoining the Life Sciences Building for biology, chemistry, environmental science, and physics 2. Construction of a new building facing the Oval for mathematics and computer science 3. Renovation of the Life Sciences Building for continued use by the Psychology Department 4. Renovation of the Biology Department space in the Life Sciences Building 5. Demolition of the vacated CPM Building The new buildings are designed to contain classrooms, seminar rooms, state-of-the-art laboratories, and faculty offices.

The laboratory spaces will be designed flexibly so that students can move from lab work to instruction or group discussion in a seamless fashion that enhances collaborative learning. The new facilities will have centrally located faculty-student research labs near faculty offices and conference space, thus creating exciting learning and research communities. Flexible furnishings in the classrooms will support the information technology infrastructure to be integrated into the design. Science facilities are a prominently featured goal of the Mills Sesquicentennial Campaign. The overall Campaign goal of $100 million includes a $15 million goal to construct a new science centerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the first phase of the science facilities plan. Gifts totaling more than $2 million already have been designated for this purpose. For more information please contact Sally Randel, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, at <sallyr@mills.edu> or (510) 430-2101.

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M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY S P R I N G 2 0 0 1

MILLS MATTERS Alumnae/Student Career Night

NEWS OF THE COLLEGE

New Provost Announced

n March 29, President Holmgren announced that Dr. Susan M. Steele will assume the position of Provost and Dean of Faculty on June 1, 2001. Dr. Steele has served as Vice Provost at the University of Connecticut since 1998. She has a PhD in linguistics from the University of California, San Diego, and served as Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arizona from 1990–94. She has conducted research on Luiseño, an American Indian language spoken in Southern California, and has written on language universals, syntax, and morphology. Dr. Steele says she views her appointment to the position of Provost and Dean of Faculty at Mills as an “opportunity to interweave my administrative skill and experience with an expression of my passion for the advancement of women in an ethnically diverse society.”

Curriculum Enhancement Barbara Sher signs her book, I Could do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was, for Cassandra Anderson, ’00, at Alumnae/Student Career Night.

by Shirley Weishaar, Director of the Career Center he Student Union was alive with anticipation as 145 alumnae and students gathered for the annual Alumnae/Student Career Night. Barbara Sher, author and career counselor, was the featured speaker. Ms. Sher used group techniques suggested in her books that encourage participants to overcome obstacles in identifying and getting what they really want in life and work. Barbara Sher’s books include: Wishcraft, I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was, It’s Only Too Late If You Don’t Start Now, and Team Works. “Success Teams” are springing up among participants. If you are interested in joining a group, email Shirley Weishaar at <shirleyw@mills.edu>. Among the many rave reviews, an alumna commented, “It has really inspired me. I have come up with a new business idea that incorporates my life loves, and am going to pursue it and see where it goes, despite my Mom’s worries. I know it’s her job to worry but I am not going to let that stop me from pursuing the dream.” This event was successful because of the support of many, including the co-sponsors, the Alumnae Association and the Career Center, with funds also donated by ASMC; alumnae Martha Rueca, ’96, of World Ground Café, who donated coffee and tea and Suzanne Corson, ’95, of Boadecia’s Books, who donated 10% of book sales. Student, staff, and alumnae volunteers lent their help in dozens of ways.

COMMENCEMENT 2001 Mills’ 113th Commencement will be held at Toyon Meadow on Saturday, May 12, beginning at 9:45 a.m. It is preceded by Baccalaureate on Friday, May 11, at 7:30 p.m. at the Chapel, and followed by the AAMC Annual Meeting at Danforth Lecture Hall on Saturday, May 12, from 2:00–4:00 p.m. For more information about these events, call (510) 430-2110, or email <aamc@mills.edu>.

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY S P R I N G 2 0 0 1

hanks to a three-year grant from the James Irvine Foundation, Mills was able to develop courses and modify existing courses to offer students a multicultural perspective in their fields of study. Known as the Multicultural Curricular Enhancement Program, the grant of $634,000 enabled Mills faculty to deepen their knowledge and introduce new perspectives into their courses. Between June, 1997 and May, 2000, new courses in race, ethnicity, gender, and women’s leadership were developed. Service learning and undergraduate research at Mills were enriched through the grant, which also enabled outside experts to present lectures and performances to the Mills community. “The Multicultural Curricular Enhancement Program posi-

tioned Mills as a national leader in reshaping the liberal arts curriculum to meet 21st century needs,” says President Holmgren. “We are educating future women leaders with curricula and other substantive campus activities that reflect the many perspectives of our multicultural world.” The program is directed by Ramon Torrecilha, PhD, Vice President for Planning, Research, and Multicultural Programs. He met with nearly every faculty member to explore ideas about multiculturalism and discuss how to advance the vision of multicultural education at Mills. Professor of Sociology Bruce Williams summed up Mills’ achievement by commenting, “I don’t know of any other college or university that has made this level of commitment to multiculturalism and carried it through.”

Wall of Fame

he Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation will be constructing a “Wall of Fame” to honor and celebrate the history of health, physical education, recreation, and athletics at Mills. The department is seeking donations of photos, programs, brochures, books, pins, uniforms, and miscellaneous memorabilia to place in the permanent display. If you have any items that you would like to contribute, please contact Colette Bowler at (510) 430-2395 or <colette@mills.edu>.

COLLEGE FOR A DAY Lively Learning and Spirited Discussion in Denver by Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68

Originally established by alumnae from the “Seven Sisters” colleges, the annual College for a Day event has been providing the greater Denver community with a forum for in-depth lectures and stimulating discussion for the past 32 years. In the mid 1980s, Mills alumna Trista Kline Conger, ’43, finally convinced the organization’s leaders that a quality liberal arts education for women could be provided west of the Rocky Mountains, and Mills College was brought into the fold. Today the sponsoring colleges include five of the original group—Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Wellesley, and Vassar—in addition to Mills, Connecticut, Skidmore, and Sweet Briar Colleges. Held in January, the format each year is the same: three professors from the participating colleges present challenging and thought-provoking lectures, followed by question and answer sessions. A typical College for a Day event draws around 250 alumnae and their guests, as well as the public; this year’s program attracted an audience of more than 300. Profits from the event go toward scholarships at the participating schools. This year’s event was particularly exciting, clearly fulfilling the advance “P.R.” that it would be a “day of lively learning and spirited discussion.” The planning committee, led by Mills alumna Mary Lou Steenrod, ’70, proclaimed the event the most successful they had ever organized. The reason for the success? Dynamic professors who presented lectures that informed and touched the audience on a personal level. The first talk was given by Dr. David Rabeeya, a visiting lecturer at Bryn Mawr College, was born in Iraq, the son of an Arabic Jew. His talk was called “Confrontation and Cooperation between Jews and Arabs from Mohammed to the Modern Age.” Dr. Rabeeya has written: I respect Arabic culture and history. It is sufficient to say that my views about the Israeli-Arabic conflict put me in a very difficult situation vis-à-vis the Israeli establishment. I’m a controversial figure, summed up by a wonderful

Left to right: Mary Lou Steenrod, Dr. Ruth Saxton, and Lydia McCollum at College for a Day in Denver.

Arabic proverb “the flesh cannot say good-bye to the bone.” I was born in Iraq, one of twelve children. My father, an Arabic Jew, was a member of the Iraqi parliament. He believed that Jews, Arabs, and Christians could all live together. We were uprooted from Iraq when I was fourteen. We faced a lot of difficulties in Israel. Our Jewish traditions differed from the European Jewish traditions. Our Arabic background, instead of being a bridge between Jews and Arabs, worked against us.

The next speaker was Dr. Ruth Saxton, MA ’72, Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Professor of English, and Dean of Letters. She is one of the most popular professors on campus, both because she studies and discusses issues that resonate with women, and because of the force and warmth of her personality. Dr. Saxton’s lecture was entitled “The Angel in the House,” referring to Virginia Woolf’s mandate that “any woman who wishes to be a writer must kill the angel in the house.” While the audience did not know at first who or what the “angel in the house” was, once described, everyone immediately recognized her and understood the role she had played in our own families and lives.

The angel in the house is intensely sympathetic, immensely charming, and utterly unselfish. “She sacrificed herself daily,” writes Woolf. “If there was chicken, she took the leg; if there was a draught she sat in it—in short she was so constituted that she never had a mind or a wish of her own, but preferred to sympathize always with the minds and wishes of others…. (She would have) whispered: Be sympathetic; be tender; flatter; deceive; use all the arts and wiles of our sex. Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own.” Woolf writes, “Had I not killed her, she would have killed me. She would have plucked the heart out of my writing.” The final speaker, Dr. James Oles, Assistant Professor of Art at Wellesley College, has a PhD from Yale, as well as a JD degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. One of the subjects of his research is the interaction between Mexican and American artists in the 1930s and ’40s. Professor Oles teaches at Wellesley in the spring and lives in Mexico the remainder of the year, where he works as an independent art historian. He is a regular art critic for Mexico’s daily newspaper Reforma. Dr. Oles’ lecture was called “A Distant Conflict: Mexican Artists and the Second World War.” In contrast to artists in the U.S. at the time, who were discouraged by New Deal funding to comment on the war, Mexican artists had no such deterrent. Frida Kahlo’s Lucha Maria, a portrait of an innocent young girl in white holding a camouflaged fighter plane, and Diego Rivera’s Post-War, a depiction of an old gnarled tree in an arid landscape from which a young green shoot emerges, are allegorical references to the “distant conflict.” More overt were the clear criticisms and exposés of fascism seen in Diego Rivera’s Mussolini and José Clemente Orozco’s The Militarized Mass and The Dictators. The Arab-Israeli conflict, the “angel in the house,” and political commentary in Mexican art: what do they have in common? A listing on the program of one of the most fascinating College for a Day programs, truly a “day of lively learning and spirited discussion.” Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68, MSW, MBA, is Executive Director of the Alumnae Association of Mills College.

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Advancing Women’s Careers in Health Care by Michelle Smith, ’81, MD

In a 1995 report from the Council on Graduate Medical Education entitled Women in Medicine, gender bias was singled out as the greatest deterrent to women physicians achieving their full potential in every area of the medical profession and across all stages of medical careers. Ethnic minorities have had a double burden to bear. Today average enrollment for women in medical schools is nearly 50 percent (in contrast to 10 percent of all medical students in 1970). Yet only 20 percent of practicing physicians and 24 percent of academic faculties are female. After several years of advancement toward gender equity, it is apparent that women remain behind their male colleagues when it comes to positions of leadership and influence in medicine. A national symposium entitled Advancing Women’s Leadership in Medicine, Health Sciences, and Health Care, sponsored by the Women’s Leadership Institute of Mills College on January 12 and 13 of this year, was designed to address issues of gender inequity in health care and the health science fields. The prestigious list of speakers included Cora Tellez, ’72, CEO and President of Health Net; Marie Kuffner, MD, President of the California Medical Society; Echo Heron, RN, activist and published author; Deborah Campbell, RN, Director of the West Contra Costa County Hospital District Board; Catherine Gillis, Dean of the Yale School of Nursing; and Pamela Dyne, MD, Director of the UCLA Emergency Medicine Residency Program. These remarkable women attempted to identify strategies to improve postgraduate education and advance the careers of women in health-related fields.

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President Janet L. Holmgren captured the essence of this dynamic group in her introductory comments. “Every woman’s path is unique. . . . We’ve shared many obstacles to advancement.” The specialty areas and symposium topics were as varied as the women present. Challenges and opportunities for working in community health programs, underserved areas, and nontraditional fields such as naturopathic medicine were among subjects of interest. Other topics included stress, chemical dependency, and depression among practitioners; coping with the dying patient; and leadership opportunities for nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. Discussions centered on the lack of role models and mentors; surviving and thriving in one’s career; integrating personal and professional life; and seizing opportunities for career advancement. Cora Tellez reported that over 90 percent of workers in the health care industry are women. Yet in her position as CEO and President of Health Net, it is apparent that “very few women rise above middle management . . . and achieve high corporate positions.” According to Dean Gillis, fewer women have enrolled in a basic nursing bachelor’s program during the last five to six years. Barriers in nursing careers that lead to dissatisfaction in the professional environment have contributed to the “graying” of nurses, whose average age is 47. Among the concerns most frequently voiced at the conference were demands placed by family life on a woman’s pursuit of a career in medicine, and the need for balance. Barbara Staggers, MD, MPH, FAAP, Director of Adolescent Medicine and Multicultural Affairs at Children’s

Hospital in Oakland, observed that women who take on leadership positions often feel undeserving of support in their personal and professional lives. Whereas most married male physicians have a spouse who is not employed full-time outside of the home, the opposite is true for their female counterparts. Professional women with families feel their lives are replete with responsibilities and find it difficult to incorporate leadership opportunities. It is not unusual to experience conflict around distribution of time between family and patients. When Dr. Judith Leong Mates, delegate to the California Medical Association and newly elected chair of the Women’s Caucus of the American Medical Association, was planning a family during her medical training, she was careful to aim for a delivery date at the beginning of a scheduled four-week vacation. “I didn’t want my femaleness to be a detriment to fulfilling my obligation as a resident.” In a study of faculty perceptions of gender discrimination in academic medicine, “Female faculty were 2.5 times more likely than male faculty to perceive” gender bias. The study concluded, “Despite substantial increases in the number of female faculty, reports of gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment remain common.” Dr. Kuffner poignantly summarized the experiences of many professional women when she said, “Let’s face it: men are . . . easily threatened by bright women.” Strategies to counteract assumptions that discourage young women from pursuing scientific and medical careers were discussed. Although lack of skills or credentials is not the major reason women are disproportionately represented in the

upper academic ranks or other positions of leadership, many conferences and recommendations have focused primarily on developing these capabilities. Progress in achieving gender equity in leadership positions in medicine and other health careers is occurring, albeit slowly. Suggestions for acceleration of progress were numerous at the conference. Much of the advice centered on taking initiative and building a strong support system. Emphasis was placed on willingness to take risks and seize opportunities, and

leadership roles will provide expanded opportunities for them to mentor students effectively and shape the future of women’s health care. Mills has done much to encourage women to excel in medicine and science. The Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program at Mills prepares students who were not science majors in college to go to medical school. About 80 percent of the students in the program are women. In addition, the Expanding Your Horizons in Science and

them to envision careers in science and technology. She emphasized that women are needed in these fields not only because of the shortage of professionally trained workers, but because of the unique contributions women can make through leadership in more holistic thinking, problem solving, and setting a different agenda in priorities for policy making. Other speakers at the December 7 meeting included Dr. Kristie Boering, specialist in atmospheric chemistry at UC Berkeley; Dr. Jill Fabricant, ’71, former

“Let’s face it: men are easily threatened by bright women.”

women were encouraged to expand to areas outside of their comfort zone. Women can benefit from the experiences of men by establishing self-confidence and learning to network early. Involvement with a national organization and political astuteness were recommended as useful measures to become familiar with the leadership community. Men should not be excluded from mentoring roles for young women, as they hold the majority of higher positions of authority. The entire spectrum of health care providers including physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners, health care administrators, and hospital administrators should be encouraged to participate in the advancement of women. Community leaders and women’s organizations should also be encouraged to help. Increased representation of women in

Mathematics conference is held every year at Mills. The one-day program for 6th–12th grade girls and young women gives these students a rewarding experience with science and mathematics and encourages them to take more science and math courses. The Women’s Leadership Institute has sponsored several other forums on women in science. On December 7, 2000, a panel of distinguished women talked about strategies and directions for women’s leadership in science and technology. The keynote speaker, Dr. Jaleh Daie, Director of Science Programs at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, spoke on the importance of helping girls achieve in science, and encouraging

Director, NASA Technology Commercialization Center and currently Director of Medicine for Humanity; and Nancy Ramsey, author of Nuclear Weapons Decision Making and co-author of The Futures of Women: Scenarios for the 21st Century. The January symposium emphasized a basic tenet: the need to nurture and integrate other passions. They key to balance is finding the courage to carve out a niche, and to participate in activities that regenerate energy. This principle was best exemplified by her concluding remarks when Cora Tellez emphatically queried, “If you can’t find passion in what you’re doing, what the heck are you doing it for? Life is too short!” Dr. Michelle Smith, ’81, is a board-certified medical doctor and has practiced internal medicine since 1988. She was born in Oakland and graduated from Mills with a BA in chemistry. She attended medical school at the University of Southern California and completed her internship and residency at Highland Hospital in Oakland. She has served on the Human Services Commission for the City of Hayward and on the Diversity Committee of the AAMC. She has participated in a variety of mentoring programs for local colleges and is currently writing a novel.

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In September of 1951, when Thoraya was seven years old, her father took her to the American College for Girls, a boarding school in Cairo. “When he started to leave, I began to cry,” she says. He told Thoraya later that he wanted very much to take her back home with him, but “he knew that if he gave in to that emotion he would spoil my whole life.” Thoraya stayed in the school in Cairo from first grade through high school, spending winter breaks and summers at home. The Dream of College At an early age, Thoraya knew that she wanted to get a college education. “But how?” she asked herself. “Where?” “How shall I convince my father?” She says, “I had learned not to fight small battles—only big ones.” As a teenager, she accepted the social

Education is the Key Thoraya Obaid’s Journey from Saudi Arabia to the United Nations

by Ann McKinstry Micou, ’52

n January 1, 2001, Dr. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, ’66, assumed the post of Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with a rank of Under Secretary General. UNFPA is the world’s largest international source of assistance to programs for family planning, reproductive rights, maternal and child health, sex education, provision of contraceptives, and HIV/AIDS. Since it began operations in 1969, the Fund has provided over $5 billion in assistance to more than 150 developing countries. The Fund’s objectives are to assist governments in providing quality reproductive health and family planning services on the basis of individual choice and to formulate population policies to deal with their countries’ population growth. Key to this approach is empowering women and providing them with more choices through expanded access to education, health services, and employment opportunities.

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Thoraya Ahmed Obaid in 1966

restrictions at which other girls her age were chafing. She didn’t ask permission to wear high heels or make-up; she had decided to wait for something important, like going to university. From her parents’ point of view, the notion of their daughter’s going to a coed university was inconceivable. And there were no women’s colleges in Arab countries except one in Beirut, which her father had ruled out. With her teachers’ encouragement, Thoraya began to explore options in America,

FROM THE MILLS CREST, 1966

Childhood Thoraya Obaid’s parents were both born in Medina, the most significant religious city in Saudi Arabia after Mecca. The mosque was the center for education. Thoraya’s father was educated in the madrassa and raised in a religious context. “His religious education also created his vision of the potential for human life,” says Thoraya. Her mother completed only a third-grade education. Both her parents had the same vision: they must educate their girls, as well as their boys, as “the key to opening life” for all of them. Thoraya points out that if her mother had been committed to this course, and not her father, her mother would not have prevailed. It was in this early lesson, she says, that she learned a precept that influences her life and work today: “A partnership between men and women is essential to equality of life and the attainment of rights for both.”

applying to places like Smith, Wellesley, and Mills. Thoraya chose Mills because one of her brothers was living and working in Chico, California, and was married to an American woman. “I used this as an excuse,” she says. At this time, America was largely unknown in Saudi Arabia, except for a “movie version.” All that summer of 1962, friends of her parents came to their house and said the same thing: “How can you send her to America?” Thoraya was unsure what her father would decide, but finally he upheld his own commitment to education. “He believed in me and trusted me,” Thoraya says. At that point, she says she didn’t think of herself as a feminist, “but as a woman. Everyone should exercise her or his right to education. It is a human right.” One older brother accompanied Thoraya to America and, in the company of the other brother already in America, “they delivered me to Mills and then left—one back to Saudi Arabia and one to Chico!” Virtually the first thing she did was to take a bus to downtown Oakland and walk by herself for three or four hours. “It was the first time I had ever walked alone in the streets.” She suddenly realized that she was really on her own, and a special feeling of freedom came over her. She was exhilarated, but she was also aware of the great responsibility of freedom. “This is what freedom with accountability means,” she thought, “I am going to have to be very careful.” She was seventeen years old. Life at Mills She finds only positive things to say about her Mills stay. First of all, she was housed in Mills Hall and, because it was the oldest residence, she was charmed by its history and tradition. Secondly, she found that the Big Sister Program made her feel very secure right away. Marilyn Schuster, ’65, a sophomore and French major, guided her and helped her to adjust. Early in her time at Mills, Thoraya made friends who stayed close for the whole four years. Two of these friends were Kathy Wakiji, ’66, from Japan, and Linda Bridges, ’66, from New Mexico. “We took care of each other,” Thoraya says. She also became close to a young African American woman, Gwen Jackson Foster, ’67. Gwen was “my first introduction to the race issue in America . . . . Our experiences in our lives were similar and we were able to take positives from both cultures and make our own identities.” Another positive influence was the small size of the classes and the accessibility of the faculty, who were “like parents to me.” She was particularly close to Dr. Alice Walker, who encouraged her to major in English. Finally, she said that the College administration, at Christmas holidays, found a family— the McCarthys—with whom she could stay in Piedmont, California. Thoraya calls them her family away from home. She is still in contact with them. In sum, she says that she does not remember anything unhappy at Mills, “except the food,” she teases. “It was the happiest time of my life. It was a rich experience in an ideal setting—too ideal for the real world, perhaps. I was embraced by staff and faculty and felt that I belonged. There was no resentment against me, no anti-Islamic feelings.”

“THE AMAZING PART ABOUT ISSUES OF WOMEN IS THAT THERE MAY BE DIFFERENT LANGUAGES AND CULTURES, BUT THE MESSAGES ARE UNIVERSAL.” While her major was English, she minored in sociology and studied with Dr. George Hedley. In the summer of 1965, Dr. Hedley initiated a student intern program. Thoraya was placed at a Planned Parenthood office in East Oakland, where she worked with black communities and women on welfare. It was the first time she had ever thought about population issues. Thoraya’s father came to Mills for her graduation ceremonies in 1966. The proud father was dressed in all his Saudi Arabian splendor—a white robe, a camel’s hair shawl embroidered with gold thread, and a white cover for his head topped with a braided circlet. She informed him then that she was going to graduate school at Wayne State University in Detroit to get a PhD. Graduate School and Beyond Thoraya’s doctoral dissertation was on the stereotype of the Moor in English Renaissance drama. She points out the relevance of her topic in current circumstances. The stereotype of the Moor is the image of the Muslim, just as it is in the best sellers of today. “Look at the negative stereotypes: violent, untrustworthy, voluptuous, deceitful, no heart.” She believes that “we need to examine our internal perceptions of others.” Racism is often an ingrained position that is simply passed on, especially by the media. She finds the racist statements about Arabs on talk shows “amazing.” She says that two factors, ignorance and the media, form perceptions in peoples’ minds, but she does think that “Arab-American sociologists are beginning to point out these stereotypes.” By the time Thoraya finished her PhD in 1974, she was married to a Lebanese student whom she met in America and with whom she moved to Lebanon. Her marriage was not by arrangement but by choice. They have two daughters.

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Saudi Arabian women thank him for that.” Once the appointBeginning a Career at the UN ment was announced, Saudi Arabia celebrated. Newspaper Thoraya’s 25-year career with the United Nations began in articles were written about her and her family; men and 1975, which was International Women’s Year. The United women wrote to acknowledge the achievement. “It was a Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia matter of national pride.” Thoraya became the first woman, (ESCWA) wanted to initiate a program on women for the Arab “covered or uncovered,” whose photo appeared in a Saudi region, and she was hired for it. A good program was eventuArabian newspaper. Her head was uncovered. ally established, she says, but it required gentle and careful She considers her new position a huge responsibility and development to win over both governments and non-governan obligation on her part to succeed on behalf of all Arab mental organizations. Throughout this period, 1975–1980, women. “There are lots of expectations. Lots of eyes are lookLebanon was engulfed in various kinds of violence, both intraing on me. I will be judged.” As an Under Secretary General, and inter-state wars. Thoraya thus “learned what war means,” she attends a weekly meeting, “rather like a big cabinet meetbut managed to survive with her family. ing,” with Kofi Annan and the other Under Secretaries In 1980 ESCWA was moved from Lebanon to Iraq, “yet General. The gender count is about fifty-fifty. another country living in war,” and Thoraya moved with it. Her husband left teaching and joined the United Nations there as A Voice for Women well. In August, 1990, due to the second Gulf War, ESCWA The goals of the International Conferences on Population and was moved to Jordan. During that period, Thoraya participated Development, held every five years, are “majestic,” in her in two of the Secretary General’s missions in Afghanistan, one words, but what specific mechanisms will help to bring them establishing a framework for assistance to the country and one about? Thoraya answers that focusing specifically on gender. everyone at UNFPA believes “The amazing part about “A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN a critical element in advancissues of women,” she says in MEN AND WOMEN IS ESSENTIAL TO ing any cause is that the describing what she learned, people themselves, at the “is that there may be different EQUALITY OF LIFE AND THE community level, “must own languages and cultures, but ATTAINMENT OF the process and the issue.” the messages are universal.” RIGHTS FOR BOTH.” They must participate in the These messages are the need planning, the delivery, and for education, work, and health the benefits; the programs must be “their own expression of services, with a reproductive health component. hope and achievement.” Thoraya sums up her beliefs about one of the main roles of “If I am to be a leader in the international women’s movewomen. In wars and famine and disasters, women think first of ment,” she responds to a statement to that effect, “I would the children and the aged. Women are the ones the family hope that I could accomplish four aims.” First, she would like depends on. They cross borders and cultures to preserve their to be a voice for women, to take their messages from the families, and thus, “they can be peace builders.” She regrets community and bring them up globally. Second, she would that women are often portrayed in the media merely as victims hope to translate global messages and make them understood of war, without recognizing their vital role as heads of houseby the people, using the local organization as the bridge. holds and as peace builders. “We in UNFPA recognize their Third, she would hope to help safeguard whatever achievemultiple important roles.” ments have been made in women’s rights and move them forward. And, fourth, she would hope that she could draw men in In New York with the UN to support women and create partnerships with women. In 1993, she became Deputy Executive Secretary of She gestures to a large framed photograph on the wall, ESCWA, and in 1998 she moved to New York to assume the taken by a Saudi friend. It depicts a vast expanse of orange post of Director of Division for Arab States and Europe at desert, stretching into infinity. In the foreground, miraculously, UNFPA. Having been divorced in 1986, in May, 1998 she a clump of grass is growing out of the sand. “You see,” she remarried, to an Egyptian university professor who was a says, smiling gravely and warmly at the same time, “Even in United Nations regional advisor on energy and is now a the desert, grass grows. There is always hope.” freelance consultant. When Thoraya was a candidate to head UNFPA, she used Ann McKinstrey Micou has retired from professional life and to say to herself, “Even if I don’t get the post, the support of now lives in Vermont with her husband, Paul Micou, Vice my government for my nomination is sufficient to make me Chairman of the United States Committee for UNFPA, which feel gratified.” She thinks the selection process itself was very seeks to educate Americans about the aims and accomplishprofessional because the Secretary General decided to interments of UNFPA. In her last job, Ann was Director of the view a short list of five candidates for the post in order to Southern African Information Exchange at the Institute of ensure that he was making the correct choice. International Education in New York. She traveled to At the press conference in which UN Secretary General Southern Africa about 40 times and produced over thirty-five Kofi Annan announced her appointment, she said that “the publications about development resources in and related to Secretary General has broken another glass ceiling for women the region. in Saudi Arabia, allowing us to move even higher, and we

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BOOK SHELF

BOOKS BY MILLS AUTHORS

The Go-Girl Guide: Surviving Your 20s with Savvy, Soul, and Style by Julia Bourland, ’93. Contemporary Books, 2000. he title says it. Julia Bourland, in direct and lively prose, begins with the most important challenge of being 20: how to seek, land, and make the best of a job. She provides additional advice on advancing in the work place, and on when and how to change jobs. Ideally, one would learn from those chapters before leaving college. The guide, cheerful without glossing over the mistakes one makes all along the way, covers friendships, finances, fitness, sex, and wardrobes. Bourland’s sources are books, interviews, and experiences: her own and those of a hundred others whose stories make up part of the narrative. The guide is having good luck finding its readers. I’ve seen it for sale in stores where the young (and those who shop for the young) are buying. I recommend Bourland’s work to young women and as a good gift for older relatives and friends; it’s a lively cultural guide to the world of twenty-somethings. — Judith Gorog, MA ’63

Uneven Land: Nature and Agriculture in American Writing by Stephanie L. Sarver, ’91. University of Nebraska Press, 1999. hether you’re an occasional clodhopper, serious environmentalist, or literary critic, Uneven Land: Nature and Agriculture in American Writing offers gems of insight into the nature writings of Frank Norris, William Ellsworth Smythe, Hamlin Garland, Liberty Hyde Bailey, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Spare, lyrical literary examples are scattered throughout and offer the reader an all-American meal. The heart of the work explores the ways nature and the development of our country’s earliest agriculture were perceived by seminal writers of a by-gone era. The philosophical polarities between the works of Emerson, Garland and Bailey, and Norris and Smythe reveal the significant way in which symbolic nature is at once revered for its mystical connection to human beings, and how nature is connected to the economy and the unfolding of human dramas. I couldn’t help but note the absence of an African American writer to offer insight into the former slaves’ economic relationship to nature and farm. This is a work to explore on a favorite spot of land or by a library’s night-lamp. — Yon Walls, MFA ’00

I’m Taking a Trip on My Train by Shirley Neitzel, illustrated by Nancy Winslow Parker, ’52. Greenwillow Books, 1999. ’m Taking a Trip on My Train is an entertaining journey with a child and his train. Parker and author Shirley Neitzel describe each new element of the train trip on the left-hand page and then list the previous lines on the right, substituting pictures for key words, such as locomotive, caboose, and trestle. The writing is rhythmic and picks up steam as the story is built page after page. Parker’s illustrations are meticulously researched, colorful, and very clear. They are cheerfully appealing to both children and adults. Being from Wyoming, my four-year-old daughter, Emily, and I were delighted to find “Central Wyoming” written on the side of the green gondola car. After reading it together this morning, Emily said, “I think this book should be in bookstores because it is so good and I like it so much.” — Amy Brandjord Shaw, ’89

Contemporary Ceramics by Susan Peterson (Susan Harnly Peterson-Schwarz, ’46). WatsonGuptill Publications, 2000. n outstanding survey of contemporary ceramics, with more than 260 full-color illustrations representing as many artists from all over the world, including “Fade to Tracy” by Ron Nagle, Professor of Studio Art at Mills, and two works by the author. The introductory chapter offers a succinct history of ceramic art; the other chapters group contemporary ceramics under topics such as “objects and non-objects,” “symbolism and narrative,” and “survival of traditions.” The book is lavishly illustrated and delights the eye with the exuberance and variety of ceramic art in the 20th century. As an author, Susan Peterson is best known for her definitive book, The Craft and Art of Clay. Now in its third edition, it details everything the artist working in clay needs to know. — David M. Brin, MA ’75

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Elect Your Alumna Trustee Please vote for one of the three candidates.

SARA McCLURE, ’81 Current Residence: Albuquerque, NM Mills Major: Music Student Activities: ASMC President, Olney Hall President, Jud Board and Freshman rep. Numerous student, faculty, and staff committees. Employment/ Volunteer Experience: 1996 to date— Development Officer, College of Fine Arts, University of New Mexico; 1993–96—Manager of Major and Planned Giving, American Heart Association/New York City Affiliate; 1991–92—Director of Annual Giving, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center; 1990–91—Executive Director, New Orchestra of Westchester; 1989/90—Orchestra Management Fellow, American Symphony Orchestra League; 1986–89—Director of Annual Giving, Alumnae Association of Mills College; 1984–86—Prospect Researcher, Mills College Development Office; 1982–84—fundraiser, Mills College Art Gallery/Tour Coordinator, Fukusa Exhibition; 1981–82—volunteer, Mills College Art Gallery. Throughout my paid working time, I have also spent considerable time as a volunteer. My current non-Mills work includes board member and presidentelect of my professional organization, (Association of Fundraising Professionals [formerly NSFRE]), and board member for Friends of Music and Friends of Dance here in New Mexico. In New York I was on the board of the Festival Chamber Music Society, and had various other smaller “assignments.” AAMC Involvement: Currently I serve as the “coordinator” for the New Mexico Alumnae—there is no formal branch

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structure here. In New York I served on the alumnae board from 1990–1996, with the last two years as President. I served on the board of the Oakland Mills Branch—first as telethon chair and then as President for a couple of years. I have been a class agent. How My Mills Education Has Affected My Life: It was the genesis of my becoming a truly strong, able leader and independent thinker. I was encouraged by my teachers, peers, and administrators to push myself just a little further than I thought I’d be comfortable going, which then emboldened me to go even further. However, my life as an alumna, now nearly 20 years, has also added tremendously to my “Mills Education”— the Mills women and men I meet, and the opportunities afforded, add immeasurably to my life. On the Future of the AAMC: We must try to find a common thread to tie together 15,000 women who, as students, were encouraged to find their own way in the world and march to the beat of a different drummer. The Alumnae Association should be involved in: Raising Funds—The financial health of any college is dependent upon ongoing contributions from its alumnae. Teaching the value of philanthropy and support of one’s alma mater is an important role for the Alumnae Association. Communication—Communication from Mills (for instance, through the Quarterly) to its alumnae is important. It’s a great way to keep Mills in the forefront of alums’ minds. Being Inclusive—My experience as President of two branches has confirmed how important it is to have a strong branch structure—and one that is inclusive. The more people we are able to include, the better the experiences for the alumnae.

On the Significance of our Alumnae Association’s Independence from the College: It’s a good thing! Having separate governance is an asset to both the College and the Association. One important aspect of the separation—the Board of Governors gives its members the chance to have true fiduciary responsibility, not just responsibility for programmatic functions. My Hopes and Expectations for the Future of Mills College: That Mills remain a women’s college at the undergraduate level. That it continues to be internationally known for its arts programs and for the women who graduate from all its programs. That it continues to recruit traditional-aged students, and encourage resumers to come back to school. I want Mills to remain a leader in women’s issues. On the Role of Women’s Colleges in Higher Education: There is certainly a need for women’s colleges as an educational option. Women’s college education is as relevant today as at any time in history. Look at the women holding prominent leadership positions in corporations and elected government—the overwhelming majority are women’s college graduates. While this is only one way in which to measure the relevancy of a women’s college education, it’s an impressive way. Getting the women’s college message out to prospective students is the challenge. If the women who are the beneficiaries of this unique education will continue to set an example for others by their achievements—and write regular, generous checks to keep their alma maters going, there should always be women in the pipeline ready to take advantage of this wonderful educational opportunity.

NANGEE (NANCY-GENE) WARNER MORRISON, ’63 Current Residence: Los Angeles, CA Mills Major: Art Student Activities: ASMC Vice President; World Affairs Conference Committee; Mills Hall Tea Chair Employment/ Volunteer Experience: Current employment: Clinical Director, Airport Marina Counseling Service, Los Angeles; Marriage Family Therapist and Art Therapist Registered; Clinical Supervisor, Loyola Marymount University, Marital and Family Therapy (Clinical Art Therapy). Pervious employment: Art Therapist, Program site coordinator, Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, Culver City and Gardena, Day Rehabilitation Programs for chronically mentally ill; Didi Hirsch Homeless Center, established and developed Homeless Day Center, obtained United Way Grant Funding; Served as co-chair of a regional Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Quality Improvement Committee and on the countywide QIC. Volunteer: Lupus Foundation of America, Southern California Chapter; Arthritis Foundation, Southern California Chapter Community Service Award for LAC/USC Medical Center Rheumatology

Outpatient Clinic; graduate studies in painting, exhibits and collections, art teacher. AAMC Involvement: Student referral/ Alumnae Admissions Representative; AAR area manager; Alumnae Admissions Advisory Committee; Mills Campaign Network; Consistent Annual donor to the Alumnae Fund; Class Agent, two terms; DuCasse Scholarship Committee; New England Branch Board; Los Angeles Mills College Alumnae Board, 1969–present, including President; Women for the New Century Conference Committee in February, 1998. How My Mills Education Has Affected My Life: Among the most important ways Mills has impacted me was learning that women can do anything. The educational experience gave me increased self-esteem and self-confidence, and taught me to think clearly, synthesize material, speak and present material in public, and work collaboratively. The strength of the arts and working creatively at Mills will always be a part of my life. I take joy in learning and exploring material that enriches my life, and I have life-long friends from Mills. On the Future of the AAMC: The Alumnae Association must remain independent and work with the diverse alumnae of the College to represent the combined strength of Mills. I would like to see the Association develop more conferences for

BALLOT for Alumna Trustee for 2001–2004

alumnae such as the Women of the New Century Conference. I know the Association is working with the diversity of the alumnae population and I would like to see more changes occur to include recent alumnae as well as earlier graduates working together, especially in areas away from campus. In the future we must continue to increase the rate of participation in annual giving. The rate of alumnae participation is a factor in ranking colleges. On the Significance of our Alumnae Association’s Independence from the College: If it were not for the independence of the Alumnae Association, Mills College would no longer be a women’s college. The strength of the alumnae of the college helped to reverse the vote for co-education. Since there is a separation of governance and administration between the College and the Alumnae Association, the alumnae of Mills College have a voice, can express their voices, and be heard. My Hopes and Expectations for the Future of Mills College: My hopes are for Mills to remain strong educationally and fiscally, with innovative programs keeping up with our changing world and technology. At the same time, Mills College needs to continue to maintain strength in the creative arts and core educational curriculum in order to provide a challenging and supportive educational institution for women.

Ballots must be received at Reinhardt Alumnae House by 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 8, 2001, to be counted. You may use the Alumnae Fund envelope enclosed to mail in your ballot. Only ballots cut from the Quarterly will be counted. Faxed ballots and call-in votes cannot be counted.

Please indicate your choice for alumna trustee: Upon request, the AAMC will send a Spring Quarterly to replace the one from which you have cut this ballot.

The Role of Women’s Colleges in Higher Education: Women’s colleges are a very important option in higher education. I feel very strongly that Mills needs to remain in the forefront of this field. At a women’s college, women gain leadership ability, the ability to take an active role in all that they do and will do in the future, and they strengthen their ability to work collaboratively. There are opportunities for self-discovery, for working creatively, and for the development of critical thinking. An education at a women’s college is the one time in women’s lives that they find themselves in a woman-centered environment, with many women as role models and the time and opportunity to develop their self growth and independence. Research has shown that graduates of women’s colleges excel in leadership, graduate school, research and discovery, as well as in the arts. Mills is unique in the west as a true women’s college and needs to continue to excel as an institution for women with a woman-centered environment and educational curriculum.

GAYLE ROTHROCK, ’68 Current Residence: Tacoma, WA Mills Major: American Civilization Student Activities: As an undergraduate it was twice my privilege to be a student officer. Also, I was active in college sports and recreation programs. Occasionally I spoke to prospective students and families in California cities and in my hometown of Portland, OR. Employment/ Volunteer Experience: For nearly 30 years I’ve been involved in public interest work through employment and volunteer work. For 20 years my career was largely with state and local government entities in the state of Washington. I worked for the United States Senate as well. My employment specialty is quasi-

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY S P R I N G 2 0 0 1

judicial review of land use, environmental impact, community development, and energy facility proposals. Able to work with a variety of people, I was selected by governors three times to serve on state governance and review councils. Charitable foundation management and board of trustee service have also been a significant part of my career and community service. I was Director of the Northwest Fund for the Environment for 5 years following service on their board. In academia I have 14 years experience with college teaching, including five years on the faculty of the Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA). I hold a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Washington. The most significant training I undertook was in mediation. It has proven to be invaluable in my employment and community life. Public radio special broadcasts and Mistress of Ceremonies duties are on my resumé. I served on the board of Washington Women United, the local chapters of the World Affairs Council, and Audubon Society, the regional chapter of the American Society for Public Administration, and on local Disabled Citizens Services and Help for the Homeless committees. AAMC Involvement: I have made annual gifts to the AAMC regularly, even during years of adversity. It has been my pleasure to attend more than half of the campusbased reunions of my class. While in Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia I was active with the National Capital branch of the AAMC. While residing in Vancouver, WA, I was active with the Greater Portland (OR) branch of the association. Currently I am the President and Treasurer of the Mills College Alumnae of Puget Sound. How My Mills Education Has Affected My Life: My education at Mills formed me into a believer that my life was full of possibilities for public service and thoughtful participation in community affairs. While at Mills I realized I could think and act with others in effective

ways if I remained an open-minded woman with convictions. On the Future of the AAMC: My hope for the AAMC is that it continues to configure itself to help alumnae experience a supportive and satisfying relationship with the College, caring about its integrity, its future, and the welfare of its students, faculty, and staff. The Association can thrive if it uses a variety of means to help graduates and other alumnae stay in touch with the historic, present, and future life of Mills and with one another for mutual social, economic, and political benefit. The AAMC must regularly address how it is helping alumnae experience the tie that binds. On the Significance of our Alumnae Association’s Independence from the College: The Mills-AAMC partnership appears to work better than “captured” alumni associations or other auxiliary groups at many colleges and universities. The separation makes sense in that it allows each body to exercise its powers and develop appropriate strategies for action. My Hopes and Expectations for the Future of Mills College: It is my hope that Mills College will remain a modest-sized undergraduate and graduate institution rooted in the liberal arts tradition, catering to women undergraduates and always open to students from around the world. However, it must be an entity willing to offer graduate professional degrees and educate its students and alumnae with time-honored teaching and research techniques while taking even better advantage of high technology and the Internet. The Role of Women’s Colleges in Higher Education: The College must continue to provide inspiration and strong academic and personal support for women who desire to have fulfilling and successful lives, whatever their field of endeavor. Girls and women in this world will forever continue to benefit by education and training which changes their self-concept and readies them for an ever-changing world.

PASSAGES Gifts in Honor of Doree Allen, ’78 by Yvonne Dechant Lorvan, ’78 Gertrude Feather Anderson, ’53 by Dr. Reynold and Helen Wik Jocelyn Batko by Peggy Weber, ’65 JoAnne Bernstein by Laura Johnson Grey, ’84 Dan and Rebecca BoltonSteiner, ’98, by Bob Whitlock and Peggy Weber, ’65 Kay Miller Browne, ’53, by Carol Barkstrom Carney, ’53 Robert Carlson by Ann Carlson, ’80 Naomi Caspe, ’87, by Virginia Morris, ’86 Donna Nishiyama Chan, ’90, by Beth Johnson, ’84 Class of 1948 by Nancy Butts Whittemore, ’48 Mary Cochran by Peggy Weber, ’65 Kevin Coffee by Sharon Tatai, ’80 Doris Dennison by Rebecca Fuller, MA ’54 Barbara Evans, ’63, by Barbara Hunter, ’57 Virginia Hale Feldner, ’64, by Susan Wolf Kaufman, ’64 Nancy Gallagher, ’01, by Peggy Weber, ’65 Teresa Godfrey, ’00, by Peggy Weber, ’65 Mary Graulau, ’00, by Peggy Weber, ’65 Susan Miles Gulbransen, ’63, by Dr. Reynold and Helen Wik Carrie Hall, ’00, by Peggy Weber, ’65 Aileen Ivazes by Beth Johnson, ’84 Dr. Roberta Copernoll Johnson, ’70, by Beth Johnson, ’84 Jane Cudlip King, ’42, by Barbara Hunter, ’57, and Sue Bengston Steele, ’42 Mary Ann Childers Kinkead, ’63, by Rebecca Fuller, MA ’54 Georgia Lee by Peggy Weber, ’65 Ashlin Mahood, ’00, by Peggy Weber, ’65 Kathleen McCllintock McCormick, MFA ’85, by Rebecca Fuller, MA ’54 Jessica Middleton-Detzner, ’00, by Peggy Weber, ’65 Mills College Club of New York by Sharon Tatai, ’80 Edna Mitchell by Kathleen Hixon, ’01

Emi and Mas Miyamura by Koh, Tomoye, and Sharon Tatai, ’80 Dale Murdock by Sharon Tatai, ’80 Wendy Ng, ’79, by Henry Ng Meridel Nordley-Knox, ’00, by Peggy Weber, ’65 The Northwest Region Golden Girls by the Puget Sound Mills College Alumnae Jocelyn Parker, ’90, by Joseph Parker, Jr. Cecily Peterson, ’88, by Beth Johnson, ’84 Sonja Piper, ’92, by Karilee Wirthlin, ’92 Nicola Place, ’95, by Sharon Tatai, ’80 Barbara Berger Pratt, ’53, by Carol Barkstrom Carney, ’53 Sally Millett Rau, ’51, by Jane Rule, ’52 Edward and Elise Feldman Rosenfeld, ’47, by Erwin and Emma-Jane Peck White, ’35 Pearl Saad by Peggy Weber, ’65 Julia Storke, ’00, by Peggy Weber, ’65 Neil and Anna Melby Strain, ’92, by Bob Whitlock and Peggy Weber, ’65 Muffy McKinstry Thorne, ’48, by Hilary Perkins, ’83 Erika Waday, ’00, by Peggy Weber, ’65 Mary Ann Carver Weaver, ’53, by Carol Barkstrom Carney, ’53 Emma-Jane Peck White, ’35, by Florence Selvin Drake, ’35 Dr. Reynold Wik by Nan Wright Winn, ’57 Ann Sulzberger Wolff, ’42, by Katherine Zelinsky Westheimer, ’42 Edith Mori Young, ’51, by Jane Rule, ’52 Patti Peters Zussman, ’74, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club

Gifts in Memory of The Reverend Elspeth McAlpine Alley, ’46, by Anne McMillin Lightbody, ’46, Paula Merrix Sporck, ’46, and Alice Hughes Weber, ’46 Elizabeth Lord Bergquist, ’40, by Priscilla-Joy Everts, ’40 Marilyn Bettendorf by Marilyn Ennis Barrett, ’75, Katherine Brose by Jane Van

Rysselberghe Bernasconi, ’53, and Dr. Roussel Sargent John Burr by John and Sara Amodei Grosskettler, ’58 Marian Campbell by Rebecca Fuller, MA ’54 Evelyn Chee by Patsy Chen Peng, ’51, MA ’53 Willa Wolcott Condon, MA ’32, by Ann Condon Barbour, ’69 Richard Copenhagen by Walt and Yvonne Steele Byron, ’50 John Curtiss by Arnold and Ann Sulzberger Wolff, ’42 Mary Virginia Davies by Irma Cummins Johnson, ’34 Evelyn Deane, ’41, by Mary Hart Clark, ’42, Margaret Deane, and Ruth Gillard, ’36 Betty Jane Miles Dietz, ’41, by Phyllis Carman Marling, ’41, and

Norma Godfrey Vermilion, ’41 Henry Doerr by Robert Whitlock and Peggy Weber, ’65 Burham Enersen by Mary Lanigar, ’38 Gary Erickson by Elizabeth Erickson, ’82, Mary Ann Doty Erickson, ’82, and Patricia Erickson, ’79 Alfred Evans by Isabelle Hagopian Arabian, ’45, Walt and Yvonne Steele Byron, ’50, Lucile Pedler Griffiths, ’46, MA ’47, Leah Hardcastle MacNeil, MA ’51, Bill and Peg Hudelson Scherer, ’49, and Bill and Marge Miskelly Thomas, MA ’67 Joan Poole Foley, ’40, by MaryLee Lipscomb Reade, ’41 Margaret Megill Fouchs, ’35, by Irma Cummins Johnson, ’34

Alfred C. Evans ALFRED C. EVANS, husband of Leone La Duke Evans, MA ‘45, passed away on January 23, 2001. Mr. Evans was an accomplished jazz pianist. He grew up in Nebraska but became an avid sailor when he moved to the Bay Area. He was also a cowboy; for about 35 years he rounded up cattle at the ranch of Don and Audrey Coker Robinson, ’52, in Merced. As the husband of alumna and faculty member Leone La Duke Evans, Mr. Evans spent much time at Mills attending concerts and helping at events. He was a founding member of the Mills MUGS (Undaunted Gentlemen Stooges). The group was made up of husbands of devoted Mills alumnae, and they tended bar at Mills events and generally helped out with whatever their wives needed.

Patricia Ann Brauel PATRICIA ANN BRAUEL, Dean of

Students at Mills for 16 years, died on December 28, 2000 in Sonoma, CA. She had degrees from Pomona College and Stanford University and had worked in administration at UC Berkeley and Northern Illinois University before coming to Mills in 1958. She retired in 1973. She is remembered as a gracious hostess to students, colleagues, and friends. She was an avid and curious traveler to such places as Africa, Egypt, and the Cayman Islands. She raised Abyssinian cats and was a Master Member of the American Contract Bridge League. According to her college friend Mary Ann Fisher, “Pat was an unfailingly cheery and generous friend. Canny and practical, she was also enthusiastically adventurous with a sense of humor that kept her from taking herself too seriously.” Patricia Brauel is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Charles and Bonnie Brauel of San Diego, two nieces, and a nephew. M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY S P R I N G 2 0 0 1

Passages Roy and Melba Gillogly by Karen Gillogly Lang, ’74 Marcia May Griffin by Melissa Howden, ’79 Patricia Fallows Hammond, ’36, by Barbara Bundschu, ’38, Ruth Gillard, ’36, and Eleanor McDonald Meyer, ’36 The Reverend George Hedley by Sally Mayock Hartley, ’48 Rebecca Sheldon Herbert, ’47, by G. Arthur Herbert Dr. Francis Herrick by Sally Mayock Hartley, ’48 William Hewlett by Carolyn Clothier Killefer, ’45 Marjorie Manheim Hirschler, ’30, by Muriel Coleman, and Leon and Elinor Mandelson William Holloman by Ruth Gillard, ’36 Donna Hunt by John Detmold Edith Peterson Hutcheon, ’32, by Virginia Peterson DuMont, ’38, and Richard Jenevein Hugh Kennedy by Phyllis Cole Bader, ’35, Carolee Rodgers Finney, ’48, Sally Mayock Hartley, ’48, Barbara Hunter, ’57, Helen Dencker Osborne, ’48, and Mary Alice Garms Ramsden, ’48 Jean Bush Lathrap, ’45, by Philip Lathrap

Eleanor Lauer by Rebecca Fuller, MA ’54 Sally Krusi Mark, ’35, by Florence Selvin Drake. ’35, Francis and Margaret Thompson Stryble, ’35, and Erwin and Emma-Jane Peck White, ’35 Eloise Randleman McCain, ’57, by Leonard McCain Jean McClintock by Archie McClintock Mr. and Mrs. Howard McMinn by Margaret McMinn Phillips, ’41 Toni Minvielle by Lorraine Grady Carole Morgan, ’95, by Lauren Bruder, ’82 Elizabeth Schohr Morton, ’50, by Louis Morton Robbyn Panitch, ’79, by Betsey Shack Goodwin, ’76 Reba Brace Perkins, ’45, by Richard and Marilyn Morris Campbell, ’54, Marilyn Wilson Newland, ’48, and the Puget Sound Mills College Alumnae Evelyn Harder Perschbacher by Louise Harder Perschbacher, ’31 Naomi Salas Pineda by Alfredo and Barbara Sandoval Terrazas ’73, Yasuharu and Shizuko Toyoda, and Tita Vargas Dr. Elizabeth Pope by Jane Rule, ’52 C. Vincent Prothro by Marion

Tonkon Kaufman, ’51, Mary Lanigar, ’38, Marc and Terry Hinkle Fairman, ’68, Fraser and Helen Drake Muirhead, ’58, Drewry Hanes Nostitz, ’70, and Bob Whitlock and Peggy Weber, ’65 Margaret Quigley, ’63, by Mary Margaret Fay, Amy FranklinWillis, ’94, Mary and John Hidalgo, Marilyn Schuster, ’65, Bill and Marge Miskelly Thomas, MA ’67, Ella Trussell, and Peggy Weber, ’65 Aurelia Henry Reinhardt by Ruth Gillard, ’36 Betty Clapp Robinson, ’34, by Judith Robinson, ’61 Mary Deans Salvatori, ’35, by Joan Gross McCusker, ’46 Evelyn Shepard Ross, ’43, by Nancy Rosenblatt Lowe, ’44 Ellen Steinberg Schuppli, ’41, by Norma Godfrey Vermilion, ’41 Dorene Burton Settle, ’45, by Isabelle Hagopian Arabian, ’45 Ileen Sandwick Shields, ’48, by Cynthia Taves, ’48 Julia Sjolund by Victoria Sjolund Cortlund, ’63 Elizabeth Campbell Skinner, ’38, by Barbara Bundschu, ’38, and Esther Rosenblatt Landa, ’33, MA ’37

Elinor Kilgore Snyder, ’38, by Georgian Simmonds Bahlke, ’51 Irma Tam Soong, MA ’35, by Robert and Betty Chu Wo, ’46 Margaret Wessel Stearns, ’48, by Sally Mayock Hartley, ’48 Drusilla Farwell Strehlow, ’36, by James Strehlow Jean Thomas Taylor, ’25, by Nina Keats Ball, ’60, and Anne Teunis Ruth Perkins Turner, ’31, by the Wilson Turner Family Kathleen Wahl, ’58, by Ellen Locke Crumb, ’59 Margaret Witte Wellman, ’39, by Capt. Alonzo Wellman Donald White by Ruth Gillard, ’36 Eleanor Pyle Winant, ’30, by Helen Howe, ’30

Marsha Martin King, ’72 Oakland, CA. Marsha earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Mills in May, 1972. She was the first African American woman to serve as President of the Associated Students of Mills College. She was a phonathon volunteer and served on the Board of Governors of the AAMC from 1985 to 1989. She was on the White House Commission on Aging and a respected member of Spectrum. Marsha was married to Charles King, owner of King’s Boxing Gym here in Oakland. The Gym was her passion. At the Gym she was known affectionately as “Mom” to all the guys and gals active there. She was not only a mother to them, but a counselor and confidant. Her husband described her as his “soul mate, the flower of the Gym, and someone who can never be replaced.” Marsha’s business acumen brought King’s worldwide respect. She made all connections for the young and older participants. She traveled all over the world with the 12- to 18-year olds. She was the business expert there and became as knowledgeable as her husband in the many fine points of boxing. She is survived by her parents, four siblings, her husband Charles, and all the guys and gals at King’s Boxing Gym. — Sarah Washington-Robinson, ’72 Marsha Martin King in 1972

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY S P R I N G 2 0 0 1

FROM THE MILLS CREST, 1972

MARSHA MARTIN KING died on November 3, 2000, in

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October 23 - November 6, 2001 with the Mills College Alumnae Association FOR RESERVATIONS AND MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Adrienne White at Reinhardt Alumnae House at (510) 430-2110 or e-mail <adriw@mills.edu>.

Keep in touch with a friend ◆ Recycle ◆ Take the bus ◆ Smile ◆ Explore your local farmer’s market ◆ Thank someone ◆ Vote ◆ Plant a tree ◆ Ride a bike ◆ Take your dog for a walk ◆ Read a book to a child ◆

Support your alma mater Small actions have a ripple effect. Last year, Alumnae Fund donors who gave gifts of less than $250 provided nearly $250,000 for student scholarships and faculty support. Please give to the Alumnae Fund before our fiscal year ends on May 31. Even a small gift makes a big difference!

Mills Quarterly Alumnae Association of Mills College Reinhardt Alumnae House Mills College PO Box 9998 Oakland, CA 94613-0998 510 430-2110 aamc@mills.edu www.mills.edu

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