Mills Quarterly, Winter 2024

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Mills Quarterly Winter 2024

BARBARA LEE SPEAKS AT REUNION

THANK YOU for participating in

! g n i v i G ills

#M

We are grateful to the donors who made gifts and inspired their friends to do the same during our annual day of giving on November 28, 2023. These gifts send the message that you are invested in the legacy and future of the Oakland campus as a space for pursuing academic excellence and championing gender and racial equity.

Did you miss #MillsGiving? Make your gift today by calling 510.430.2366, visiting alumnae.mills.edu/give, or mailing a check payable to the Mills College Annual Fund, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613.

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CONTENTS WINTER 2024 18 Reunion 2023

It was a hot weekend packed full of activities and get-togethers as 250 alums and guests gathered to celebrate their years at Mills.

10 And the Show Goes On… by Rachel Howard

Graduates of the Mills dance program continue creating unique companies and work that celebrates social justice.

14 The Joy of Defeat by Shelley Moench-Kelly

Hitting rock bottom (or something like it) can often be a launchpad for something just as rewarding—or even better.

29 Joy Finds Joy by Jill Robi Joy Nordenstrom ’95, MBA ’07, finds purpose in helping others perfect their love stories.

32 Maui Strong by Angela Knight ’01

After Lahaina was destroyed by fire, Lauren Knobel ’84 put her career as a veterinarian to work to rescue and treat displaced animals.

Departments 12 Letters to the Editor 13 Opening Message 14 Mills Matters 18 AAMC News & Notes 26 Class Notes 30 In Memoriam On the cover: Congresswoman Barbara Lee ’73 joined her classmates for their 50th Reunion class dinner in the Student Union on Saturday, October 7, 2023, and regaled the gathered alums with tales of her time at Mills. Photo by Ruby Wallau.

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Letters to the Editor

Volume CXIII, Number 2 (USPS 349-900) Winter 2024 Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement Nikole Hilgeman Adams Managing Editor Allison Rost Design and Art Direction Nancy Siller Wilson Editorial Assistant Danielle Collins ’24 Contributors Rachel Howard Angela Knight ’01 Shelley Moench-Kelly Jill Robi Kieran Turan ’90 Ruby Wallau

Thank you for keeping alumnae informed about our alma mater during this time of great transition. I find that I pick up the magazine from my pile, intending to just read the faculty and alumnae updates—then I read it practically cover to cover! In the summer issue, I especially appreciated the articles “The View From Here,” “The Long (and Short) History of the Senior Paint Wall,” and the straightforward message from AAMC President Debby Dittman.

I’m looking forward to the results of the reader survey, but just wanted you to know how much I enjoy the current version of the Quarterly!

–Gwen Jackson Foster ’67, Oakland

Welcome Back!

In lieu of the annual Taco Tuesday event for new students, the AAMC and the Office of Alumnae Relations co-hosted a welcome reception for returning Mills legacy students on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. The group of attendees, mostly juniors and seniors, enjoyed snacks and beverages in the backyard of Reinhardt Alumnae House and heard from members of the Alumnae-Student Relations Committee on their wishes for this special group of Millsies in the new academic year.

The Mills Quarterly (USPS 349-900) is published quarterly by Mills College at Northeastern University, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613.

Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, California, and at additional mailing office(s). Postmaster: Send address changes to Oakland University Advancement, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613.

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

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

Share your thoughts Submit your letter to the editor via email to mills.quarterly@ northeastern.edu, online at quarterly.mills.edu, or by mail at: Mills Quarterly, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613 The Quarterly reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity.

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A Letter from the Interim Executive Director of the Mills Institute

RU BY WA L L AU

Hello, Mills alums! As the interim execuars, community partners, and industry Christie Chung tive director of the Mills Institute, I am to co-create solutions and complete prothrilled to write this letter to you in the grams together. It doesn’t make sense for Quarterly—after meeting many of you at us to just build up and continually add our open house during Reunion, I know new people when these causes have builthow eager you are to hear more specifics in armies who are already putting forabout what we’re planning to do. ward amazing efforts—and often, these But first, a quick introduction: I am a are members of the communities that the cognitive psychologist who taught as a work benefits. psychology professor at Mills for more A stands for Advance New Research. than 14 years before joining the former I want the Mills Institute to be a place provost’s office as an associate provost that brings scholars together to find solufor undergraduate education and stutions. We’re in an academic environment dent success in 2021. In that role, I helped already, with many experts in gender and guide our continuing Mills students racial justice work, and I see the Institute through their paths to graduation during as a place where new research areas can the merger, and since then, I’ve also been be cultivated and then spread worldwide with three students on setting up salons serving as the associate dean who oversees under the Mills name. surrounding screenings of TED talks, two research, scholarship, and partnerships.

And D stands for Develop Impactful of which have already happened as of this You’ve previously heard from me in these Programs. Mills already boasted a number writing. We’re also hoping to pages talking about the bring a TEDx speaker develMills Cognition Lab and The Mills Institute is committed to the advancement of gender opment series to the Oakland research projects hapand racial justice through programs and partnerships that support campus that would provide pening on campus. transformative teaching and learning, research, and career development for women, gender nonbinary individuals, and historically marginalized training for faculty, staff, and I’ve been at the helm racial and ethnic communities. students in becoming effective of the Institute since July public speakers. On February 2023, and after several If you’re interested in joining the Mills Institute’s mailing list, or have a 24, I will serve as the keymonths of hard work suggestion to offer, send an email to mills_institute@northeastern.edu note speaker at the flagship with a small-but-mighty or visit oakland.northeastern.edu/mills-institute.

TEDxNortheasternU event in team in Oakland as well Boston. as colleagues across Third, we’re designing something we’re the Northeastern network, we have put of those, and several of them—such as calling the Global Experiential Leadership Upward Bound and Mills Education together a five-year strategic plan that builds Program, which is inspired by our campus’ off of Northeastern’s academic plan. Given Talent Search (METS)—will move under theme of experiential entrepreneurship. my field of study, I appreciate something the Institute’s umbrella. (Read more about This will be a unique mentorship wherein that’s easy to remember, so our first Mills one of those programs, Russell Women in the mentor and mentee would co-design a Institute strategic plan can be summed up Science, and how it’s moving forward on six-month partnership to identify and coin one word (and acronym): LEAD. page 4.) But others are in the works right create a solution that advances a cause in L stands for Leverage Northeastern’s now or have been unveiled quite recently. the diversity, equity, and inclusion arena.

Global Network. There are a number of So, what are they? What’s tangible about At the end of those six months, an award institutes in the Northeastern network the Institute’s work so far? will be given to the pairing with a winning already—Roux in Maine, which focuses on Firstly, on November 16, we held an idea to fund the project’s development. technology and life sciences; others that Innovation Lab both in person and online This is just the beginning, though. When specialize in cybersecurity, sustainability, to bring people together to talk about my team and I welcomed alums to our space gender and racial equity through the etc.—but there are none that look like the in Mills Hall—one that once served as the lens of humanics, or the kinds of literaMills Institute. The Institute is devoted to Women’s Resource Center and is decoadvancing women’s leadership and chamcies—technological, data, and human—in rated with artwork by Catherine Wagner which fluency is necessary for students to pioning gender equity and racial justice, and Ralph Du Casse—we gave out seed and there are so many resources in the netevolve with a changing world. We will hold packets. That’s how we view this work, as work already that we can simply harness. another on January 18. something with unlimited potential to grow.

E stands for Equity-Focused Partners.

Second, the Institute has started proAnd I look forward to working with you, our The work we want to do cannot be done gramming that goes hand-in-hand with Mills alums, as we embark on this journey.

TEDxNortheasternU. I’ve been working alone. We need to collaborate with scholWINTER 2024

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Mills Matters Roundup of Reunion leadership session On Saturday, October 7, administrators on the Oakland campus continued a Reunion tradition by briefing attendees and answering questions in Lisser Hall.

• Associate Vice President of Institutional Advancement Nikole Adams kicked off the conversation by talking about the legacy Mills endowment, reassuring alums that money donated to funds pre-merger will still benefit programs and scholarships they were designated to benefit on the historic Mills campus— and that no changes will be made to any of those terms without conversations with the affected donors. She also spoke about integrating fundraising operations with Northeastern’s Boston campus, and noted that Northeastern’s alumni relations offers support and services to Mills alums.

• Vice President of Operations Renée Jadushlever mentioned that it had been a busy summer on campus preparing

for an influx of residential students, and that all residence halls and apartments are currently full. Facilities officials are taking a look at seismically compromised Ethel Moore and how to repair that structure, as well as considering plans for building a new residence hall (location TBD) that could house 800 to 1,000 students, and other new structures. She also answered a question about upgraded campus security measures, saying that the campus remains open to the community with identification required upon entering.

• In addition to talking about academic offerings under development for Mills College at Northeastern (see next page), Interim Dean Beth Kochly mentioned that there were 800 first-year students on campus. About 300 were Global Scholars who were heading to London or Boston for the spring semester, and about 500 were first-year students who

have options to major in biology, health sciences, computer science, business, or combined majors.

• Assistant Vice Chancellor of Planning and Innovation in student life Allie Littlefox, MA ’20, EDD ’22, spoke about legacy Mills students and the impact they’re having on student government, as resident assistants, and in other capacities around campus. Club sports are also gaining more participants in activities that were around pre-merger, such as soccer and swimming, but also in new arenas like rock climbing and badminton. As part of Northeastern, students are now able to access 24/7 mental health therapy online in addition to the on-site team.

Christie Chung, interim executive director of the Mills Institute, also spoke at the event, addressing topics she discussed in this issue’s Opening Message on page 3.

Russell Women in Science Leadership Program plans expansion

Cristine Russell ’71, for whom the program is named, is a longtime science journalist and senior fellow at Harvard who has pledged a new commitment of $750,000, which—when combined with her previous donations to the program’s endowment—will provide nearly $1.5 million to support the next five cohorts of scholars as well as the pre-eminent lecture series. Russell has said that her gift is intended not just to bolster the program in its new position with the Mills Institute, but 4

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Cristine Russell ’71

T ER E SA TA M

One of several bridge programs making the transition from the historic Mills College to the Mills Institute, the Russell Women in Science Leadership Program began in 2014 as a way to help underserved student populations find their footing in scientific fields. And plans are afoot to potentially grow the program to other locations in the Northeastern network.

Academic development update

Interim Dean Beth Kochly

In addition to providing information about students enrolled on the Oakland campus this year at Reunion, Interim Dean Beth Kochly added details on the evolution of academics for Mills College at Northeastern, which exists as one of 10 colleges within the university: • The first course under the Mills umbrella is starting in the spring, titled California and the Global Economy, to be taught by existing Lokey School faculty.

• Starting in fall 2024, education will relaunch four graduate programs with the approval of state accreditors. Those are master’s degrees in educational leadership and early childhood education, and teacher education, each with an associated credential.

• Of the various academic degree programs under development, the furthest along in the process are a critical ethnic and gender studies undergraduate program and a STEM-certified MFA degree that would combine traditional arts disciplines with technology.

RU BY WA L L AU

The organization of Mills College at Northeastern has also been announced, and it’s taking the form of four separate units: • Arts & Writing • Humanities & Education • Lokey Business & Social Sciences • STEM & Health

Two new admins join Oakland campus

to help it expand throughout the Northeastern global network.

“What it [originally] meant to me was making an opportunity for students to be able to get the best out of Mills. I’m very proud it has been chosen by the Mills Institute to be a cornerstone,” Russell says. “We have [an] opportunity to not just be based here on campus, but all over the world.”

For nearly 10 years, the Russell Women in Science Leadership Program has paired summer sessions, in which participating students work closely with various science faculty members on their ongoing research projects, with a spring lecture series facilitated and staged by those same scholars. In the past, participants have also taken part in article or journal reviews and made presentations at conferences about the subjects they studied over previous summers.

As programs continue to grow—including Mills College at Northeastern—two officials have joined the community to oversee students and academics campus wide. They are: • Waleed Meleis as interim vice provost/academic lead for Northeastern in Oakland. Meleis is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering who already serves as vice provost for graduate education across the Northeastern network.

He has been on the faculty at Northeastern since 1996. In this role, Meleis will support all academic programs and research activities in Oakland, which span a variety of Northeastern colleges— from Khoury College of Computer Science and Bouvé College of Health Sciences to Mills College and beyond.

• Katie Wildman as vice chancellor for student life, overseeing programs such as residential life, campus recreation, and learning support for all students on campus no matter their academic program. She most recently worked in Qatar as the senior student affairs officer for Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Arts outpost, and she has also spent time with the Semester at Sea/Institute for Shipboard Education program, Colorado State University, and the Danish Institute for Study Abroad, among others. Wildman earned her PhD at the University of Iowa.

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“Executive-in-residence” speaks in Student Union Ally Legend Siegel, a Northeastern alumna and the vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion for Expedia, shared her story in an appearance at the Student Union on October 18, 2023.

A journalism major who made her way out to the Bay Area after graduating in 2014, Siegel first went into public relations and marketing for tech companies before joining Salesforce in October 2015 and rising up the ranks of DEI professionals there.

“When I started out in tech—brighteyed and not really knowing what I was getting into—I never really saw other

women in leadership positions.

I didn’t see many Black people at all,” she said. “Using my journalism hat from Northeastern, I started researching and noticed that all of the [tech] companies at the time were hovering around 2% Black employees and 25% women, which was very evident of a systemic issue.”

She and her colleagues eventually created an annual Racial Equality Summit at Salesforce, where folks could come together to talk about working in tech as people of color. “We wanted to underscore the point that there is not a pipeline issue,” Siegel said. “The pipeline is absolutely there—it’s an access issue.”

That’s something she went on to address by examining hiring and promotion processes.

She also referenced a quote from Vice President Kamala Harris: “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the only.” Siegel sang the praises of the women and particularly the women of color who mentored her early in her career, saying that she aims to be that person for others—she’s a member of the board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters Bay Area.

She appeared in conversation with Ife Tayo Walker, who is director of graduate student services and alumnae engagement for the Lokey School of Business & Public Policy. Walker was also recently appointed to the special position of director of belonging and community with the Office of the Dean for Mills College at Northeastern.

First mentorship “dyad” takes center stage in Boston The Social Justice Peer Mentorship Program, one of five projects in Northeastern’s Inclusive Impact Innovation program (and the only one based in Oakland), presented its work thus far at a showcase that took place in Boston and was live-streamed across the network on October 18, 2023.

And that work? Examining the relationship between urban planning and bad health outcomes prompted by tobacco use.

Assistant Adjunct Professor Miki Hong, PMC ’95, collaborated with Ariel Callman ’19—who is working on her master’s degree in genetic counseling at the University of Washington—and Quinn Martin, an undergraduate student who was part of the N.U.in cohort on the Oakland campus in the fall 2022 semester.

Martin and Callman examined East Palo Alto’s comprehensive plan, including its efforts to control indoor and outdoor air while multi-unit housing—known to allow cigarette smoke to slip through cracks in buildings—remains prevalent in the city.

They continue to work on this research, which includes examinations of anti-tobacco legislation, with the East Bay city of Hayward soon to join the project.

At the showcase, Professor of Health Sciences Catrina Jaime and Mckenzi Thompson ’21 (who lives in nearby Brockton, Massachusetts) spoke about the history of the mentorship program as a whole before introducing Hong to address the specific project. Martin—who is now enrolled at Northeastern’s Boston 6

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campus—also addressed his experience, including the research skills he picked up as a first-year student.

The work done by this team of researchers followed a mentorship model that was developed at Mills pre-merger and continues to evolve based on participants’ experiences.

The Social Justice Peer Mentorship Program continues this academic year with an additional three research dyads that will employ six Mills alums as mentors.

A slide on the Social Justice Peer Mentorship Program from the Inclusive Impact Innovation Showcase, tracing its Millsie roots. The video is available to view at tinyurl.com/social-justice-peer-mentorship.

Campus kudos A selection of recent achievements by faculty, staff, and students Professor Emerita of Dance Molissa Fenley performed as part of American Dance & Music’s tribute to modern dance teacher Susan Alexander in Santa Barbara on October 21, 2023.

Professor of Philosophy and Lorry I. Lokey Endowed Chair of Ethics Jay Gupta published an article in Telos regarding the recent advances of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the risks it poses to our society. “Welcome to the Machine: AI, Existential Risk, and the Iron Cage of Modernity” appeared in the summer 2023 issue.

In the wake of the November 2023 release of her memoir, Assistant Adjunct Professor of English Susan Ito, MFA ’94, received coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle, Ms. Magazine, Shondaland, ABC News, and KALW. “Rooted & Written,” the tuition-free conference for writers of color she co-founded, also took place in San Francisco from November 2-12.

Professor of Education Cliff Lee was one of four recipients of the Divergent Award for Excellence in Literacy in a Digital Age Research, awarded by the Initiative for Literacy in a Digital Age. The advisory board noted

that “his research, teaching, and social justice advocacy examines and uplifts the ingenuity, intelligence, and creativity of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) youth.”

Dean of Digital Learning and Professor of English Ajuan Mance released an illustrated children’s book, What Do Brothas Do All Day?, on November 14, 2023. The book, which was inspired by Richard Scarry’s similar title, What Do People Do All Day?, had a release party at Menlo Park Public Library and earned Mance a segment on KALW. Emeritus Chair of Composition Roscoe Mitchell released the album Roscoe Mitchell Orchestra and Space Trio at the Fault Zone Festival in June 2023.

The five-track release was recorded in the historic Mills music facilities in April 2022 and features contributions from Professor of Music James Fei. Professor of English Juliana Spahr published the essay “Thorns, or The Things That Humans Do in the Name of Care That Are Something Other Than Care” in August 2023 issue of LARB Quarterly, which was then excerpted for the journal’s parent publication, the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Professor of Art Catherine Wagner contributed writing to the monograph Jay DeFeo: Photographic Work, which was released in 2023. The late DeFeo taught photography at Mills, from 1979 to 1989.

Professor of Biology Jared Young co-authored the article “Electric shock causes a fleeing-like persistent behavioral response in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans” in the October 2023 issue of the journal Genetics.

Young was a part of a team that focused on the emotional aspect of the brains of roundworms.

Comedian, author, and host of CNN’s United Shades of America W. Kamau Bell spoke in Lisser Hall on the evening of November 1, 2023. He appeared in conversation with Associate Adjunct Professor of English Susan Ito, MFA ’94—a good friend from earlier in their writing careers—as part of the Foundational Course Lecture Series, a student-centered schedule of speakers on campus. (Other participants during the first semester included Catalin Voss, an inventor who created the Autism Glass Project to help autistic children understand social cues; and Oakland-based disability activist and recent Mills alum Yomi Wrong ’23.) Bell addressed the limitations of social media, the best parts of living in Oakland, and his work on dismantling white supremacy.

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Reunion 2023

PHOTOS BY RUBY WALL AU

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n the midst of her campaign for US Senate, Congresswoman Barbara Lee ’73 made a stop at the Student Union during Reunion 2023 to dine with her fellow classmates celebrating 50 years since graduation—and offer some memories of her time at Mills. And naturally, politics played a starring role in her stories.

She reminisced about a story many alums already know, that she worked for former presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm during Chisholm’s run for the White House in 1972. But Lee expanded on the experience: as the president of the Black Student Union, she did initially invite Chisholm to speak at Mills in the Student Union. Separate from that, Lee was enrolled in a class in which students were required to participate in field work for a political campaign, but wasn’t finding much to inspire her about the men who were running.

“I told Dr. Mullins, ‘Flunk me.’ I wasn’t going to work in those guys’ campaigns because they weren’t speaking to the issues that I thought were important,” she said. “I was for childcare, I was against the Vietnam War, I was a lowincome Black woman.” But when she heard Chisholm speak at Mills about her own opposition to the Vietnam War, and realized that she could put coalitions together, Lee approached Chisholm 8

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about the project she was intending to fail. Instead, Lee ended up co-organizing Chisholm’s Northern California campaign for the presidential primary alongside the ASMC—and she got an A in the class.

Lee also spoke passionately about the financial assistance she received from several beloved Mills figures from the past, including a $1,000 check passed along by the Chaplain Roy Sano—which probably originated with Professor Aline Kidd—to help her stay in school. Professor of English Elizabeth Pope also sponsored a course for Lee so she and 16 students could fundraise for a J-term trip to Ghana, which they succeeded in doing—with a little pressure applied to former President Wert as well.

She also talked extensively about her time in Congress and the papers she’s donated to F.W. Olin Library. To view Lee’s remarks in full, visit tinyurl.com/barbara-lee-video.

The excitement over her appearance was felt throughout Reunion weekend, and Arabella Grayson, MA ’96 (left), picked an excellent time to launch her paper-doll book that honors the trailblazing congresswoman. The writers’ salon on Friday served as her project’s world premiere.

The rest of Reunion was a hot, sticky affair, as one of those typical October heat waves settled in over the Bay Area for the duration. But the range of activities—some old, some new—kept attendees busy and out of the sun as much as possible.

The Mills College Art Museum was open for visitors, and alums were encouraged to take part in the annual scavenger hunt for Mills swag. Professor of Biology Jared Young and Professor Emeritus of History Bert Gordon shared their knowledge, and Annie Kozuch ’88 performed “Diva’s Lament” in Lisser Hall in front of her delighted classmates.

In addition to Lee’s appearance at the Class of 1973 dinner, Professor Emerita of English Ruth Saxton, MA ’72, spoke to Saturday diners in the Classes of 1948-68, and longtime Mills theater tech Jim Graham detailed his childhood growing up on campus as the son of the late Associate Professor of Dance Eleanor Lauer for the Class of 1978. By the end of the night, the heat had cooled enough to make for a pleasant evening out on the Oval, where alums gathered to dance to tunes spun by Ray Mederos, MA ’23.

Mark your calendars now for September 26-29, 2024, as we honor the classes ending in 4 and 9 at Reunion 2024.

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With the dance program in flux, these alumnae are carrying on the Mills tradition of dance for innovation and social change.

A LYSSA J EN DUSA

By Rachel Howard

And the Show Goes On…

Erica Pinigis, MFA ’13, the founder of Isthmus Dance Collective in Madison, Wisconsin.

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L EON A L E SI

n summer 1939, more than 150 dance students gathered on the wide lawns of Mills College. Among their teachers were future modern dance legends, including Martha Graham. That session laid the foundation for one of the earliest and most influential dance programs in the United States, a program whose famous alumnae include history-changing dance artists such as postmodern innovator Trisha Brown ’58 and Lori Belilove ’76, the leading contemporary interpreter of dances by Isadora Duncan.

Dance at Mills is in transition while leaders draw up proposals for a reshaped program under the merger with Northeastern University. But the values Mills dance has always imparted— innovation, access, and commitment to community—are living on in its graduates, who continue expanding dance into new forms and visions across the country.

“I absolutely started this trajectory when I was at Mills as “The Trash Project” by Forklift Danceworks. a grad student,” said Allison Orr, MFA ’98, who founded the nationally acclaimed Forklift Danceworks in Austin, Texas, in 2001.

On the day we spoke, Orr had just returned from weeks of work in Miami, where she had been “For me, it always starts with the worker.”

–Allison Orr meeting with public works leaders, environmental activists, and stormwater-management groups to develop her next project, “The Way of Water.”

Supported by both arts and ecological foundations, this five-year “We don’t want our process of dance-making to be the end of project spans four cities (Austin, El Paso, Miami, and Venice, Italy), something, we want it to be the beginning of something,” Orr said, where Forklift will stage spectacles performed not by professional explaining that she brings together different groups “and from dancers, but by the people whose physical labor works to keep ecothere, relationships and advocacy can happen.” logical systems functioning as the climate crisis wreaks potentially Today, Forklift employs a team of three artists and three admincatastrophic changes. istrators and fundraisers to orchestrate increasingly large-scale “For me, it always starts with the worker,” Orr said. This approach projects. But Orr still traces her understanding of what dance can wasn’t yet an inkling when she arrived at Mills after an early career do back to Watanabe’s guidance. in social work. A former high school drill team participant who “I just feel deeply in my heart that we as artists are essential,” wasn’t interested in rarified training or conventional choreogOrr said. “We are essential when it comes to tackling enormous, raphy, Orr was seeking direction when she studied with faculty complex human problems.” member June Watanabe, who told Orr about community-based dance artists such as Anne Carlson and Rhodessa Jones. “June Claudine Naganuma, MFA ’92, remembers a host of encounshowed me the dance world was huge, and I had no idea,” Orr said. ters with influential artists during her time at Mills: “When I was Then, one day, she was looking out over El Campanil when her a student, I saw the Murray Lewis/Alwin Nikolais company with eye caught a man washing windows on an administrative building.

Dave Brubeck live there,” she said of the legendary modern dance “I could see his full body and I thought, ‘This is the most beautitroupe and jazz composer. But she also traces the start of her comful choreography I’ve seen in a long time,’” Orr said. She obtained munity work back to June Watanabe. permission from school administrators to collaborate with campus Raised in San Francisco, Naganuma enrolled at Mills because maintenance staff, and a dance performance was born—one that she fell in love with the campus, and at first pursued a master’s in seeded the work of her thesis interviews with campus employees. early childhood education, focusing on the development of racial Flash forward two and a half decades, and Orr’s community awareness. But then she took a modern dance class with Watanabe, work with Forklift has been so successful that this past spring who gave an assignment to write a dance review. Naganuma went Wesleyan Press released her book, Danceworks: Stories of Creative to see Watanabe’s new work, “Executive Order 9066,” set in an Collaboration. It describes her partnerships in Austin with groups internment camp for Japanese Americans in World War II. Like ranging from firefighters to power-line workers and trash truck Watanabe, Naganuma’s family had been forced into internment drivers, the better for readers to see how they might develop their camps during World War II. The show changed her. own change-inspiring community dances.

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L I LY GEE

“I wanted a safe space for girls to play and dream about their future.”

–Claudine Naganuma

“Here was modern dance contextualizing racist laws,” Naganuma recalled. She made the academic shift to dance. “June’s influence catapulted me to become the director of Asian American Dance Performances, the first Asian American dance organization in the country,” she said.

Another Mills faculty member, Beth Hoge, introduced Naganuma to the pedagogy of “ballet for real bodies.” Naganuma eventually joined the faculty at Hoge’s community school, Danspace, in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood. When Naganuma decided to leave Asian American Dance Performances and return to choreography, Danspace became the home of her company, dNaga Dance Company, which she founded in 2001.

Claudine Naganuma, MFA ’92, with participants in GIRL Project, the program she founded. dNaga’s members range from teenagers to seniors, but Naganuma’s inclusive initiatives don’t end there. In 2007, after Naganuma began taking classes with members of the Mark Morris A decade after her Mills experience, Erica Pinigis, MFA ’13, is busy Dance Group and learning about their trademarked Dance for PD building a new model of dance community in Madison, Wisconsin.

(Parkinson’s disease) methodologies, Danspace started offering Formed just before the pandemic, Isthmus Dance Collective free classes for people with Parkinson’s. now counts 20 dancer-members and continues to grow. The group, After Naganuma learned about Asian American activist Yuri which charges small dues of $10 a month, spreads knowledge Kochiyama and her relationship with Malcolm X, she decided of diverse dance traditions through member classes, and offers to lead a youth dance workshop at Oakland’s Eastside Cultural free classes to the community through the local library and the Center. “That’s when I learned from the girls themselves that they Madison Children’s Museum. The collective’s hallmark outreach felt Oakland was not a safe place for them, that they don’t feel safe program, the Shifting Gears Bikepath Dance Festival, celebrated in school, on the way home, that there’s gun violence, food scarcity, its third annual run of performances last year, staging dances in and kidnapping,” she said. three city parks.

She started the GIRL Project in 2013: “I wanted a safe space for The collective was born to offer a better work environment than girls to play and dream about their future.”

Pinigis and her peers felt they’d experienced as paid dancers at a local The free weeklong camp offers dance, visual art, poetry, bike company that imploded after dancer accusations of employer misconriding, and urban planning. In 2023, six young women from the duct. But Pinigis, who grew up in the Midwest and earned a BFA in first GIRL Project entered college. Naganuma also expanded the dance from the University of Minnesota, had long sought an alternaprogram to offer regular food distribution to about 60 families. tive to the dominant model of cutthroat pressure in the dance world.

Naganuma still connects with Watanabe regularly for inspira“There’s just so much competition in the dance world that doesn’t tion. “She’s one of my longtime advisors,” she said. need to be there,” she said between tending to her twin infants.

“There’s just so much competition in the dance world that doesn’t need to be there.”

–Erica Pinigis 12

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M I CH A EL H A L BERS TA DT

During her time at Mills, she researched scarcity and abundance models, and non-mainstream “Our mission is showing the value that dance economies: “not just using money as currency— has in the community.” but cultural currency, social currency—how can –Arielle Cole different people contribute different things?” She researched the Cheese Board Collective restaurant group in Berkeley and an entirely collectively organized city, Spain’s Mondragon, for her thesis. do it the right way, the legal way,” Cole said. “Because I’ve been part She finds that Isthmus Dance Collective’s teaching exchanges proof companies where I was paid under the table, or not paid at all.” She mote conversation across diverse cultures; currently, she is learning wanted to find a program in management in the Bay Area, and she flamenco from a fellow member, and the group is exploring offering was well aware of Mills’ reputation in dance. Then she discovered a a recreational “world rhythms” class at the University of Wisconsin.

Mills “plus one” program under which she could earn any master’s In her time at Mills studying with some of the legends of modern degree and then gain a master’s of management on top of it with just dance, Pinigis learned ways of being more deeply present and one additional year of courses. constructive towards others. “Taking choreography with Molissa The business classes informed her choreography classes: “I’d be Fenley, I saw how detailed an observer she is, and I loved her thinking about my thesis project yet also thinking, ‘OK, how would method of watching a dance twice before offering any feedback,” I make this work financially? How would I market it?’”

Pinigis said.

She knew she wanted to study immersive theater and was She also “found a different way of looking at technique” with inspired by the “democratization of the audience experience”—the former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member Holly way there’s no “front-row seat” at a site-specific work where the Farmer: “She has such a cheerful curiosity about how the body audience can roam. Her research paid off recently as ArcTangent works and how everybody’s body is different. I found it helpful to Dance choreographed a work inside a historical home and filmed switch the internal dialogue from ‘How do I compare to the ideal?’ it for virtual reality headsets. to ‘What is the ideal goal for me, separate from any other dancer?’”

The COVID-19 pandemic, which struck in the middle of Cole’s second semester, carried a small silver lining in that the necessity of sharing choreographic work online helped her learn how to film Back in California, Arielle Cole, MFA ’21, MM ’22, is among and stream her dances, while also taking studio class via Zoom the most recent graduates creating new models of community in with nationally acclaimed choreographer (and fellow Mills alum) the dance world.

Molissa Fenley ’75.

Her life in dance was already over-brimming when she arrived Today, Cole works as unit administrator for the Arts & Writing at Mills—born and raised in San Jose, Cole founded her company Unit, reconnecting graduates while those programs reorganize ArcTangent Dance there in 2018 while dancing for other companies under Northeastern. She helped convene two dance concerts at and teaching at three studios. “But it was really important to me to Mills, in fall 2021 and 2022, so alums who graduated during the pandemic could present their choreography in person.

A third showcase in April 2023 featured alumnae in improvisational work inside Lisser Hall’s digital performance space, and a fourth, DanceHack 2023, explored the theme of “post-reality” this past September.

The success of these gatherings, and other initiatives like “pop-up” one-credit dance classes students can take while pursuing other degrees, carry forth the spirit of innovation that first burst upon the Mills campus nearly 85 years ago.

“Our mission is keeping dance alive and showing the value that dance has in the community,” Cole said. “That’s our guiding light.” .

“Ode to Hetch Hetchy” outside Lisser Hall with Alexandra Tiscareno ’20, Chelsea Simone, and Sarah Chan.

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W h at d o

you

le a

rn

f ro

The Joy of Defeat

m

t he

By Shelley Moench-Kelly

exp eri en ce wh en t hings don’t go your way?

.

T h ese Mills alums weigh in

O

ld adages and modern songs tout the virtues of zigzagging through life, of trying new things and bouncing back from the inevitable missteps.

But in today’s hyper-competitive, results-oriented culture, any setback can be interpreted as a sign of failure, an indictment of the entire endeavor—or of the person who undertook it.

As these Mills alums found, however, the process of picking yourself up and starting all over again is vital to finding “success,” as personal of a metric as that is, both in work and in life overall.

Just Starting Out While many of our alums faced setbacks after they were well-established in their lives and careers, others found themselves at crossroads while they were students at Mills or soon thereafter. While Brea Watts, MFA ’18, was studying for her Mills degree in poetry, she was fired from a job after just three months. Right after, Watts’ mother was diagnosed with cancer, and Watts was suffering from her own health issues.

To nurture her creative side and heal from the stressors in her life, Watts launched a gluten-free bakery in Oakland in 2016. The venture continued successfully until 2022 when she decided to close the business temporarily, as she could not grow it to the level she planned. Watts explains: “Even though I couldn’t scale it, it was successful in terms 14

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of what I accomplished and what I started from— from having this really low and stressful moment and turning it into a passion that I loved. I pulled on all of my skills and creativity and put them out there, and then was rewarded by the universe in a number of ways.”

Jennifer Heystek ’04 attended Mills with every intention of eventually becoming an OB-GYN, but after what she dubs “a huge shift from what I thought I was doing,” she found a new life carved on a path she never expected. She majored in women’s studies, and it was her professors and advisor, Elizabeth Potter, who started changing her thinking. “My favorite professor was probably Melinda Micco, who was the professor of Native American studies. She was the first tenured Native woman faculty member in the Bay Area, and her class focused on the roles of women in families,” Heystek says, including midwifery.

She says she realized she would have been miserable as a traditional OB-GYN. “I just knew that I wanted to catch babies—and that wording is key because obstetricians deliver, but midwives catch,” Heystek says. “It was the actual hands-on work I wanted to do, but there was an element of pride about being able to say that I would go to medical school, to be the first one in my family to do that. Enrolling in midwifery school felt very much like a failure at the time. It was my way of compromising, but it definitely felt like I was choosing a lesser option.”

Heystek says now, though, she can develop longer, more sustained relationships with families, help them through entire pregnancies and births on their terms, and offer full support in their homes as they learn to welcome their newborns. She says that “it was meant to play out that way, and I’m really grateful for what it did.

It has definitely changed what I’m going to be able to offer the next generation.”

Unexpected Setbacks Naturally (and unfortunately), recent world events have pushed the endeavors of other alums to the breaking point. Amy Cooper ’92 initially launched Plum Goods, an ecofriendly, fair-trade, handcrafted gift store in Santa Barbara in 2010. Fast forward to late 2017, when the deadly Thomas Fire and Montecito mudslides shut down the town, Cooper had to downsize. By 2020, the COVID pandemic hit. That’s when Cooper asked for help.

“I wanted anyone smarter than me to tell me what to do! I really had to find deep acceptance. That’s another key, I think, to being successful as a business owner,” she says. “I did not want to shut down this business I’d spent 10 years building, but there was acceptance in saying, ‘There’s no good answer here…’”

She liquidated the store and closed it in three weeks, and notes that it was—and still is—a painful loss. “I had to just say, ‘I know that we’ll only get worse from here.’ Plus, there’s a famous business model that says to fail fast,” she says. “As a business owner, you get as much information as you can and make the best decision you can.”

Anna Rembold ’06 left corporate America in 2012 to open an eventplanning agency that, by 2018, was named the fourth fastest-growing private company in San Francisco. However, in 2020, COVID reared its ugly head, and the company lost 80% of its revenue.

“I literally went from having an industry to overnight having no industry and needing to reinvent,” Rembold says. “The learnings have been massive and profound. I believed this was the one thing I could never live through or survive, but now I know emphatically: I’ve surmounted the one thing I never thought I could.”

She has retooled her company into what she describes as a tech company within an agency, and she has changed how she leads; in her company’s

early days, she wasn’t coping or managing as well as she says she could have. The downturn in business, however, taught her to lead well through crisis, so much so that she and her staff have taken her company to the top 100 largest women-owned businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“That’s probably the biggest lesson,” Rembold says. “That we really can do anything.”

Cooper similarly bounced back—after Plum Goods closed, she took on consulting projects.

One of them led her to an investor who helped her open her second venture: The Sacred Space, a shop in Summerland, just south of Santa Barbara. “I have WINTER 2024

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this massive skillset that I earned by basically having my own business,” she says. “That willingness to say there’s integrity in closing led to me having this beautiful second business.”

The takeaway from her journey is simple. Assess, accept, shift, and propel.

One alum we spoke with—Nicole Devlin ’96— has crafted a whole career out of what she learned after a layoff from a high-paying job in New York.

“At the time, I was mentoring a lot of young women.

And I thought, ‘OK, what would it look like if I wanted to do that professionally?’” she says. “I loved the idea that my mistakes, my failures, could positively influence and help other women.”

She immediately pursued a life-coaching certification and worked in the field—until 2008, when the economy went haywire. To add insult to injury, Devlin and her fiancé separated, and all his expenses fell on her. Devlin experienced a period of self-doubt about these back-to-back, life-changing situations.

Then, in what might be called kismet or a karmic event, Devlin visited a credit analyst whose three words turned her life around: It’s not you.

“It was profound,” she says. “In 2020 I came back to New York at 42 and lived with my mother.

Whatever it is that lands on you, you just pay it all back. And I just started doing that.” She took one job, then another, and just tackled one bill, one month, one day at a time. “And with that, I took care of myself. I took care of my emotional nature. I took care of my spiritual nature,” she says. “It all begins

Failures are

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with you, and you can’t give away what you don’t have. You can’t push yourself out there on fumes.

You’ve got to put gas in the tank.”

These lessons power her work as a life coach, which she remains to this day.

From the Trenches As the co-founder and co-manager of a womanowned crisis communications firm, Evette Davis ’90 specializes in navigating others through what can feel like their own professional low points. She explains that mistakes that happen further on in a person’s career are often much more inspirational than tragic, as they can often seem when someone is newly out of college. Her rule is to never make the same one twice.

In her field, Davis notes that she’s “always dancing on the head of a pin, often with fast-moving crises, [and] the thing about a crisis or doing something wrong is not sometimes the act itself, but what you do in the moment that it happens.”

Her business has weathered its own share of highs and lows, but she says that failure ends up being “more of your friend” because it teaches you what you need to know. “You’re afraid to know those things in your 20s and sometimes into your 30s, but you’re not so afraid to know them now because you have the benefit of recovery,” she says.

Davis explains that the key to surviving and thriving is assessing if you have integrity, if you operate ethically, and if you have respect and trust from others.

“If you are living in a situation where all those things are true, what does failure mean?” she asks. “What does a mistake mean when people know you’re going to own it and work to fix it? This concept of failure and mistakes is also about accountability and how you manage things. The more you take responsibility, the more you learn from things, and the more you demonstrate that you can come out of it.”

Davis adds that not being afraid of failure has made her decisive and able to act in a timely manner without worrying about ramifications—and that it carries over to her personal life: “Being able to say that you’re wrong or you can do something different in almost every way you can have a relationship— with your family, your friends, yourself—is healthy and important!”

ns ’ sio arne s i d, and ‘fact-finding m

a

hat re w

e to view them as.

I’ve com –Brea Watts, MFA ’18

Rembold agrees, saying that the realization her first business foray hadn’t perhaps been as organized as it should have been led to the “incredibly tightly run ship” she steers now. “Seeing how those decisions and behavior adjustments were affecting the business, you can’t help but apply that to your life,” she says. “I apply a lot of that thinking now to my personal life. When you are actually able to focus on priorities, you take so much of the ‘overwhelm’ out of your day-to-day.”

Heystek has found that her experience has particularly influenced how she’s raising her 6- and 11-year-old daughters: “I am able to say I’m a college graduate, and I have every expectation that if they want to choose that route, I will be there to support them. I 100% believe they can do it. I feel like the sky’s the limit with education for my girls.”

While Watts still hopes to resurrect her bakery someday, she says she wouldn’t undo anything about the journey. “No one can take this experience—or its lessons—from me,” she says, adding that it’s taught her to be confident in herself every day. “Failures are definitely just lessons learned, and ‘fact-finding missions’ are what I’ve come to view them as.”

All the Way Back And then there’s Shelley Taylor ’78, who has faced business and personal tragedies yet found herself on the other side with new purpose. She runs a public sector and humanitarian supply chain software company that formed as the result of an app she created in 2015 to assist Syrian refugees, which is now available in 48 countries. “My claim to fame in tech is that I’m the person who created the user interface bible, so to speak,” she says.

The fail, though, came in 2006 when she started a digital entertainment company. Taylor raised $10 million, but then the world headed into the banking crisis of 2008. She chose to shutter the company instead of losing it to a hostile takeover. Around the same time, her 32-year-old son and only child died tragically and unexpectedly.

Taylor found herself isolated and rudderless. That is, until a friend asked if she’d heard of pop-up restaurants, or micro events where a host/hostess invites paying guests—strangers—into their homes for a meal. She has been hosting these events ever since.

Taylor also launched a screenplay writing group and began creating a documentary about her journey after losing her beloved son. “I read a book

Women Who Empower Mills alumnae are invited to apply for Northeastern’s Women Who Empower (WWE) Innovation Awards, which includes the new Innovators Powering a Better Future for those whose work touches on one of five priorities: health solutions, diverse and inclusive communities, global change, social impact, and sustainability. Taja Lester, MBA ’11, founder and managing partner of Health Equity Capital, received a grant as one of last year’s cohort of honorees. Applications are due mid-March; visit womenwhoempower.advancement.northeastern.edu for more information and to apply.

about women who lost children, and only half of them regained the will to live at seven years. On the seven-year anniversary of my son’s death, I got struck by the idea to make that app for refugees,” she says. “It gave me a whole new purpose and passion for life that occupied me… for me to figure out what my next iteration would be.” She is also currently creating climate resilience salons for women to support them in being the solution to climate impacts.

She credits the confidence that led her to take these steps after so many tumbles to her mother— and to Mills. Taylor was accepted to Mills at 16, the youngest student the College ever admitted. “I think the school’s expectation was that I was good enough, mature enough to handle whatever was thrown at me. That probably encouraged or fertilized what natural resilience I had already,” she says, adding that the support she received from the Mills community was accompanied by a sense of accountability. “Failure was always a possibility, but I believed—and still do—that I could overcome it, use it for the next big thing. Mills did its part and nurtured the confidence in me that allowed me to bounce back.”

No one’s path is exactly the same as another’s, but the lessons learned from the highs and lows are often remarkably the same. They’re also invaluable—and can perhaps be best explained by Rembold: “Every hardship, every challenge, has made me the resilient person that I am, because of what I’ve had to navigate and face in life. That’s a blessing,” she says. “You can get over any hurdle. And it’s a pretty exciting way to live.” .

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AAMC NEWS & NOTES A Message from the AAMC President and Board of Governors The results from our initial poll were inconclusive (there was a 5% margin rate supporting Option 2 over Option 1, with a small minority choosing Option 3). An overarching comment received was that the vote was premature because we did not have enough clarity on how Northeastern might proceed as it merged Mills and Northeastern into a blended educational institution.

Meanwhile, one unifying concern was expressed by the vast majority of alumnae during the Options feedback sessions: that the AAMC should secure our rights to our home, Reinhardt Alumnae House, and maintain our presence on the Mills campus. Another mandate was that the AAMC should champion the Mills legacy;

to advocate for and support incorporating Mills’ liberal arts heritage into the Northeastern curriculum on the Mills campus, and to investigate offering scholarships that support Mills’ traditional students and demographics.

Because both these directions involve working with Mills College at Northeastern University and Alumnae Relations, the 2023–24 AAMC Board of Governors has chosen to move forward in effect with Option 2 and the MOU of 2017 and focus on our own new projects as well as continuing our time-honored alumnae engagement efforts with Alumnae Relations and Mills College at Northeastern. This decision was also due to research we did on

RU BY WA L L AU

Dear Fellow Alumnae, At the recent Board of Governors meeting on November 8, your governors considered our recent past and our immediate future. We began with a discussion of the Options Vote process that was initiated during fall 2022.

As you recall, Option 1 proposed that the AAMC remain an independent nonprofit with no relationship with Mills College at Northeastern University.

Option 2 proposed that the AAMC remain an independent nonprofit with a formalized relationship with Mills College at Northeastern. Option 3 proposed the AAMC merge with Mills College at Northeastern’s Office of Alumnae Relations.

2023 Alumnae Awards Gwen Jackson Foster ’67, Distinguished Achievement Since graduating from Mills with a degree in psychology, and going on to earn a master’s in social work from UCLA in 1971, Gwen Foster has enjoyed a full career in social work, education, philanthropy, and consulting with nonprofits.

Gwen began her career as a clinical social worker and administrator in children’s mental health programs in the Bay Area.

She pivoted from social work to academia as a field work consultant and lecturer at the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare, where she taught courses and developed internships for graduate students in public and nonprofit mental health settings. Gwen then served as a grantmaker at Zellerbach Family Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and The California Endowment, working with community residents, agency leaders, advocates, and policymakers throughout California.

After leaving philanthropy in 2009, 18

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AAMC President Debby Campbell Dittman ‘68 (far left) with 2023 Alumnae Award winners Valeria Araujo ’23, Gwen Jackson Foster ’67, and Lynette Castille-Hall ’75

Gwen served as the founding director of mental health programs at the California Social Work Education Center at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare until 2015, when she retired. In this role, she administered a statewide stipend program to prepare a diverse and culturally responsive workforce for public and nonprofit behavioral health settings.

Gwen has also actively served the Mills community, including volunteer leadership positions from 1993-1995 and then as an AAMC governor from 20192022, co-chair of the Alumnae of Color

Committee, and current co-chair of the Travel Program. She has served on almost all Reunion committees for her class.

In addition to the AAMC, Gwen has a long history as a volunteer board member with local and national organizations. She currently serves on the Seneca Family of Agencies Board of Directors. She is the past treasurer and current membership secretary of the Bay Area Association of Black Social Workers. Gwen is a co-founder of Bay Area Blacks in Philanthropy and has served on many committees of Northern California Grantmakers.

the financial costs of total independence, which were prohibitive. Thus, we will not be revisiting the Options vote at this time.

The board realizes that this has been a difficult transition year with many unknowns, with grief and sadness and anger expressed over what was lost, but looking toward the future is now what your governing board is concentrating on, to see what can be gained.

In that spirit, the AAMC is pursuing two projects that received strong alumnae support at our update during Reunion.

The AAMC will spearhead an effort with the music faculty to preserve Mills’ worldrenowned music legacy by helping fund the digitization of 1,362 recordings housed in our legendary Mills College Center of Contemporary Music (CCM). Professor of Music David Bernstein writes: “CCM has an international reputation based on the

path-breaking contributions of its faculty, students, and alumnae/i in electronic music, contemporary performance, and new music in general. The CCM archive is a repository documenting more than a half-century of innovative musical activities at Mills. Its holdings include concert recordings, photographs, programs, and related materials documenting the extraordinary history of experimental music at Mills.”

The AAMC has an additional historic Mills-centered project in the works. The AAMC’s Preservation Committee is planning to apply for national recognition for the Julia Morgan-designed El Campanil to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. With the assistance of campus staff, we will be accumulating historic records and employing a professional architectural historian to manage the project. Stay tuned for

the launch of our fundraising effort to support these ambitious Mills projects.

The Office of Alumnae Relations and AAMC’s Alumnae Student Relations Committee hosted a heartfelt Winter Celebration on December 6 to celebrate our beloved Mills winter graduates.

Finally, the AAMC would like to acknowledge the successful settlement former Mills students reached with Northeastern, and the alumnae—some of whom had daughters at Mills during the transition—who persisted in pushing for a solution. After experiencing so much unexpected turmoil in their academic paths, we hope students are able to find closure, and we wish them the best as they move into the next chapters of their educations and careers.

With great affection and appreciation, Debby Dittman, AAMC President president@aamc-mills.org

Lynette Castille-Hall ’75, Outstanding Volunteer

focused on the Cate School and Laguna Blanca parent councils for four years.

After that, Lynette joined the Santa Barbara Advisory Council’s Dream Foundation. She was the Santa Barbara Advisory Council Chair for more than five years, and in 2014, she was recognized as Volunteer of the Year.

In addition, Lynette has served Mills since 2013. In the past decade, she has been a twoterm member of the Board of Governors, a Branch Club Committee member, an Alumnae Awards Committee member, and an active member of the Alumnae of Color Committee (AOCC). Beyond these activities, she has also donated time to selecting and publicly recognizing AOCC’s annual cohort of Phenomenal Women.

However, Lynette is best known for her leadership in the development of the AOCC’s scholarship fund, which she has nurtured toward an endowment of more than $300,000 in just four years.

Using her voice and advocacy skills, Valeria has always had a heart for social justice. She served as the social justice and community chair with the Associated Students of Mills College. Valeria also worked as a TRiO advisor through the outreach and student services program administered by the US Department of Education. In this role, Valeria advised lowincome, first-generation youth in Oakland.

While at Mills, Valeria started a podcast with The Center at Mills and discussed familial guilt within the Latinx student community in higher education. Valeria’s senior thesis focused on the mental health of Bay Area migrant women who make their livings doing domestic work.

Valeria was also one of the resident assistants in the apartments, where she assisted students with everyday issues. She worked as an RA for two years and helped the Mills community transition with the merger.

Despite the upheaval of the merger, Valeria continued to thrive and find the strength to achieve her goals. She maintained a 3.5 GPA and was a cross-country athlete pre-merger.

Today, Valeria continues to fight for social justice—using the skills she learned and practiced at Mills.

Lynette Castille arrived at Mills as a transfer student from the University of Southern California, graduating in 1975 with a degree in dance. She met her future husband, Paul Hall, in Haas Pavilion in 1973 when she danced in Albirda RoseEberhardt’s master’s thesis dance concert.

After graduation, they married and moved to Southern California, where he worked as a film and television producer.

She herself worked in the entertainment industry for 20 years at both NBC and ABC, in advertising and on-air promotion. In their nearly 48-year marriage, they have brought two daughters into the world—Jordan and Kendall Hall—who are both television executives and producers themselves.

Lynette began volunteering as her daughters went through school; first, as a founding member of the Dr. Susan Love Foundation for Breast Cancer Research in Santa Barbara, where she served on the board for five years.

At the same time, she was also volunteering as the chairs of both the Committee on Trustees and the Committee on Diversity at Marymount of Santa Barbara. She then

Valeria Araujo ’23, Recent Graduate Valeria is an outstanding example of a Mills student: passionate, smart, and resilient.

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REUNION 2023 PH O T O S BY ZAC BORJA AND JOSEPH LIU

Class photos are available for download at bit.ly/mills-class-photos-2023.

Dorothy Seeger, Kay Miller Browne

20

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Helen Drake Muirhead, Marilyn Winans, Mary Stuart McCullough

1963

Mary Campbell, Patricia Yoshida Orr, Judy Horwedel Clark, Susan Miles Gulbransen

1968

Third row: Corinne “Brandie” Brandt Gallagher, Debby Campbell Dittman, Jane Redmond Mueller, Bea Ledyard ’69, Donna Miller McLain, Susan McKenna Second row: Patti Abelov Demoff, Susy Stern Fineman, Laurel Burden, Amy Millar, Kay Lamer, Candy Pelissero Front row: Linda Cohen Turner, Marianne Spizzy Steer, Marcia Bernstein Bogue, Pam Hunt WINTER 2024

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50th REUNION

1973

Top row: Deborah Johnson Churchill, Barbara Butcher Drummer, Sharon Bowling Bowles, Mary Boehm, Rebecca Martinez, Kathleen Burch Second row: Karen Hazlehurst Bennett; Camellia Hudson Franklin; Linda Kay; Gisele Perez; Connie Swan Davidson, MA ’02, EDD ’06; Charla Johnson Blackmon; Betty Burdic Front row: Sheryl J. Bize-Boutté, Emily Blanck, Judith Cohen, Susan Weeks Adams, Mary Kaye Van Hook Huizing, Kari Garaas Johnson

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1978

Top row: Penny Hougland, Jan Setchko, Marie Bowman, Celia Khim Front row: Patti Paynter Berrow, Diane Perez, Karen Hoh Talioaga, Roanne Poverello Tom

1983

Top row: Linnea Bardarson, Stephanie Graham, Katie Brown Sanborn, Dana Jackson Front row: Anna Clark Foote, Korie Beth Brown, Sarah Tyrrell, Sandra Lee Sung

1988

Top row: Auna Harris, Sara Rosenblum Russell, Heidi Smith Gilbert, Stephanie Saad Thompson, Cynthia Jackson, Annie Kozuch, Rhea Watson-Johnson Second row: Maryann McClure Amado, Robin Peers Fallat, SusanRose “Suki” Gibson, Erika O’Quinn, Kristi Pollack-Linn, Eileen Manning-Villar Front row: Rebecca Pugh O’Neil, Kristen Baumgardner Caven, Marlene Goerl, Cecily Peterson, Nicole Jordon, Kelly Smith WINTER 2024

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1993

Top row: Laura Compton, Christine Bartholomew Pierson, Lemia Mahayni Second Row: Trina Cook, Jennifer Moxley, Julia Bourland Front row: Manisha Agrawal, Priya Kanuga, Tammi Cason, Wendy Franklin-Willis

1998

Rosalie Malone, Melissa Baerwald, Heather Johnson-Acevedo, Michael Chandler

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2003 (Opposite page)

Third row: Nicole Hogarty Macias (with Charlie Danger Macias), Trouble Mandeson, Jen Dhillon-Royalty, Darcy Totten, Holly Smith Second row: Bianca Hovda; Christine Couture; Deagon Williams, MBA ’07; Kara Blaney Kasunich; Michelle Balovich, MBA ’18; Hatzune Aguilar; Elizabeth “Tizzie” Hernandez Front row: Moya Stone, Michele Roberts, Julie Trinder-Clements, Melissa Dale Neal, Dee Montero Iacopelli, Jill Kunishima, Liz Pickering

María Domínguez

Emma Rigby Santana ’17, Cece Working

Renée Gallison, Emily Koch, Elizabeth Mauerman Strawbridge, Sonya Temko

Lana Baptiste WINTER 2024

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

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

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

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

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

In Memoriam Notices of deaths received before October 7, 2023 To submit listings, please contact mills.alumnaerelations@ northeastern.edu or 510.430.2123 Lucinda “Jean” MacGibbon Conroy ’43, September 14, 2023, in Minneapolis. After Mills, she graduated from the University of Minnesota, then moved to New York City to work in exports for Pillsbury. There, Jean met her late husband, William, and after their wedding in 1953, she became a full-time wife and mother. After returning to Minneapolis, her hometown, she raised her family; volunteered with organizations such as Meals on Wheels; and enjoyed the outdoors with skating, playing tennis, and rowing. Jean also loved to play the piano and attend orchestra performances. She is survived by three children, three grandchildren, and a brother.

Julie MacLean Nisonger ’44, September 2018, in New Market, Maryland. She later graduated from Ohio State University with her BFA and then went on to the University of Maryland for her master’s degree in art. She is survived by two sons.

Emilie Reese Green ’45, January 30, 2023, in Atlantic Beach, Florida.

She is survived by four children, and her daughter Jane Green ’79 predeceased her.

Norma Ecklund Meyer ’47, August 7, 2023, in El Macero, California. She studied music at Mills with Darius Milhaud (and alongside Dave Brubeck), graduating with a degree in music education. Norma taught school in Sacramento and Davis, staging Gilbert and Sullivan musicals with her students at the latter. With her late husband, John, she sang in the Davis Community Church Chancel Choir, and she formed a handbell choir there that she directed into her 90s. She is survived by her four children, eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Mary Alice Johnson Basye ’51, June 5, 2023, in Sacramento. She and late husband George spent time in Sweden early in their marriage, where he studied law and she immersed herself in local craft traditions. After they returned to California and started growing their family, Mary Alice concentrated on whipping up delicious homemade meals and sewing clothes for her children. She could play music by ear and tell engrossing stories, and she and George spent time restoring her grandfather’s farmhouse in Washington state. She is survived by four children, including Jennifer Basye ’81; four grandchildren; and two sisters, including Elisabeth Johnson McPhail ’53.

Jobnya Kingsbury-Gankin ’52, July 7, 2021, in Woodland, California.

After Mills, she earned her teaching credential and taught kindergarten in Davis and Winters. Jobnya also loved art, and she chaired the art committee at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis where she was a longtime member. She is survived by her husband, Roman; two children; a granddaughter; and a brother.

Darla Evans Bastoni ’60, August 11, 2023, in San Francisco. She later received a master’s degree from UC Berkeley and a bachelor of foreign trade from the Thunderbird Graduate School for International Management. With her husband, Richard, Darla co-founded Evans Pacific Realtor, and she later became the manager partner of her family’s business, Evans Lumber Company. Outside of her career, she had a passion for opera and rescue animals, bringing many pets into her home and serving on the board of the Humane Society of Sonoma County. She is survived by her husband and two nieces.

Ingrid Johnsen Barrett ’70, August 8, 2023, in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. She was a member of the crew team at Mills, winning nationals twice in women’s single sculls and setting a record in the 500-meter race that stood for years. Ingrid was called to service, becoming trained as an EMT, writing Sunday-school curricula, and eventually earning her divinity degree. She also found thrills in travel,

Marina Keyshaw Simenstad A prolific and well-loved Mills alumna and volunteer, Marina Keyshaw Simenstad ’68, MA ’11, died on August 30, 2023, in Sacramento. She is survived by three children.

She was born in China to a Russian family that fled Siberia during the Bolshevik Revolution, then escaped to the Philippines two years later due to the Chinese Communist Revolution. The family stayed there two more years before emigrating to the United States, eventually settling in Portland, Oregon. At Mills, she was a member of the rowing team in its early years as an official sport and majored in French, later returning for an MA in educational leadership.

Marina taught in the Napa Valley Unified School District for three decades and raised her children nearby. Her dedication to various causes was unrivaled; among her many extracurriculars, she participated in her church choir, the Junior League of San Francisco, the United States Rowing Association, and a French language and culture club. And for Mills and the AAMC, she was similarly devoted—she served on the Board of Governors from 2015 to 2018, played a part in planning her class’s 50th Reunion, volunteered as a class secretary, and worked as an alumnae admissions representative.

Mills and the AAMC were well-represented at Marina’s funeral service on September 18 at Holy Virgin Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church in San Francisco, with current AAMC President Debby Campbell Dittman ’68 and former President Viji Nakka-Cammauf, MA ’82, among those in attendance.

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Gifts in Memory of heli-skiing in Canada and participating in cultural exchanges with the Garden Club of America to Cuba and South Africa—just a handful of the 50 countries she visited. She is survived by her husband, Bill; four children; eight grandchildren; and a brother.

Susan “Sue” Hennigh ’72, May 14, 2022, in Yountville, California. She worked as a library assistant in acquisitions at Standard Oil starting in 1989, and then took a role as a technical graphic specialist for Chevron from 2004 to 2012.

Mary Schratter Hale ’82, August 19, 2023, in Oakland. She was a resumer who returned to college in the early 1980s after departing UC Berkeley to marry her late husband, Robert, and raise her children. Mills was a natural destination for her return to higher education—in her professional life, Mary worked as a secretary for the AAMC, as well as at Kaiser Aluminum. After graduating with honors, she worked as a pension manager for the Alameda County Medical Association until retirement in 1995. Mary also played the piano throughout her life, and she was constantly in motion—from roller skating to volleyball and water aerobics. She is survived by four children, 10 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

Virginia “Ginny” Westover-Weiner, MFA ’01, July 23, 2023, in Santa Rosa. She came to Mills after a life spent as a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, earning her MFA in poetry. Ginny also demonstrated her love for the arts through her service on SFMOMA’s Modern Art Council and the board at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and along with late husband Joe, she brought the International Architecture Exhibition to San Francisco from the 1980 Venice Architecture Biennale. She was also a lifelong subscriber to Car and Driver, with the ability to rattle off all the latest models and features. She is survived by two step-children, two step-grandchildren, a step-great-granddaughter, and many cousins.

Loadel Harter Piner

Received June 1, 2023 – August 31, 2023 Lynda Campfield ’00, SES ’01, MA ’02 by Heather Matthews ’00 Carol Conlee Caughey ’66, P ’95 by Wynne West Dobyns ’66 Joan Lewis Danforth ’53 by April Hopkins, MFA ’03 Lynne Scott Drennan ’66 by Wynne West Dobyns ’66 Elizabeth Frederick ’61 by Ann Gordon Bigler ’61, Mary Doerfler Luhring ’61 Anita Aragon Kreplin ’63 by Martha deWeese ’72; Margaret Goldsmith Fawcett ’63, P ’91 Elizabeth Craig Muller ’51, P ’80 by Amy Clever Crawford ’51, P ’80 For information about making a tribute gift, contact 510.430.2097 or mills.donors@northeastern.edu

Spouses and Family

Jerry Behar, spouse of Leslie Fried Behar ’79, July 15, 2023, in Los Altos, California.

Hank Floyd, spouse of the late Barbara Hazelton Floyd ’48, November 11, 2021, in Hamilton, Ohio.

Helmut Lewis, spouse of the late Beate Lewis ’80, April 19, 2022, in Berkeley.

Elaine Solomon, parent of Ruth-Ann Solomon Goldman ’77, August 30, 2023, in Fullerton, California.

John Thornborrow, spouse of the late Professor Emerita of Economics Nancy Thornborrow, May 27, 2022, in Redwood City, California.

Faculty and Staff

Sally Knott Gibbons, former Music Department staffer and assistant to Darius Milhaud, September 25, 2023, in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Loadel Harter Piner ’50, who served as editor of Mills Quarterly from 1954 to 1959, died on August 3, 2023, in Davis, California.

She was a Bent Twig, the daughter of Norma Petro Harter ’21, and she enrolled at Mills in 1946 after graduating from Yuba City High School—and selling war bonds during World War II. Loadel’s father was a farmer who co-founded the Harter Packing Company, and in her name, he developed a sweet cling peach called the Loadel peach. After Mills, she moved to New York for a year, which she spent on the foreign cable desk at Time Life.

Upon Loadel’s return to the Bay Area in 1951, she married her late husband Norman, and the two started their family in El Cerrito while she took on the editorship at the Quarterly.

During her tenure, the Quarterly did deep dives into the arts, faculty activities, and AAMC events across the country.

In the late 1950s, Loadel and Norman moved their family to Yuba City, and she left the Quarterly to take on many roles: community and classroom volunteer, Sunday school teacher, choral singer, philanthropist. Her parents had helped to found the Sutter County Museum, and she took up their mantle, and she also donated her time to St. Andrew Presbyterian Church and P.E.O. She also explored an interest in photography on her travels around the world, and she loved tending to her garden and sharing the bounty with friends and neighbors.

Loadel is survived by three children, including Kelleen Piner ’75; seven grandchildren; one great-granddaughter; and cousins Andrea Harter Wallis ’83, Carol Fillmore ’83, and Sara Ecklein ’10.

WINTER 2024

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KULA

M AU I H U M A N E SOCI E T Y

By Angela Knight ’01 As she described the destruction, Lauren Knobel ’84 (above, right) cried for the first time since deadly wildfires broke out on Maui— the island she calls home.

We’ve all seen photos and drone footage of Lahaina’s torched Front Street and harbor, and what Knobel describes as the “slices of life” left behind on August 8, 2023. It’s different viewing those images from a distance. For Knobel, they’re personal.

Front Street is where the annual Pa‘u Parade took place in June.

Knobel, along with other riders on horseback, their island neighbors, and friends, celebrated Hawaii’s King Kamehameha. It’s too soon to say where or even if the parade will be held next year.

To put the destruction in numbers: “[It] took the lives of 115 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes,” according to Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism. It calculated that the affected area had more than 800 business establishments with 7,000 employees and an estimated daily total business revenue of $2.7 million.

While Lahaina suffered the most damage, other parts of Maui were hit as well. In Kula, located roughly an hour’s drive from Lahaina—part of an area known as upcountry—Knobel spotted fire across the gulch from her house, about a mile away. Everyone was on edge, wondering if they’d have to evacuate. She recalls warning her mother, who lives next door, to pack her bags, as well friends who’d gone shopping: “This is close; this is different.”

Primarily an agricultural community, Kula features lots of farms and pastures. Knobel, a veterinarian for more than 30 years, knew she needed to move her friends and their elderly parents—along with their many animals—away from the fire. They worried about fallen wires and trees, and strong winds that might fan the flames.

It was a long night that turned into weeks of work. For 48 hours, they were without electricity and used bottled water for drinking and cooking—but their homes were spared.

After the fire, Knobel pitched in by teaming up with the doctors and staff from Makawao Veterinary Clinic—located near her home—to treat animals impacted by the fires. They left early in the morning and took the road around the back side of the island. With steep cliffs and no guardrails, it’s not the usual commute to Lahaina.

Moving the clinic’s large truck each time, they set up shop in several locations outside the burn zone. They were among a number of volunteer 32

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teams that provided care, food, water, crates, and flea control at no charge. People brought in supplies by boat, and others brought in strays or took them in for treatment. It was a community effort.

“It was a really rewarding situation,” Knobel says, “because we’re helping houseless people by providing veterinary care. We’re helping unemployed people who had just lost their jobs. And we’re helping the underserved community that never had that care.

We’re still doing a lot of good out there.”

The Maui Humane Society, where Knobel also volunteered, estimates that 3,000 pets were affected by the fires. The Humane Society’s website features many wide-eyed cats in carriers and cages; the animals from Lahaina are flagged with a red banner. More come in every day. They’re the ones who’ve survived, but many did not.

Lisa Labrecque, PMC ’02, took over as Maui Humane Society’s chief executive officer just weeks before the fires. “It was a crash course in disaster,” she says. Both vet clinics burned down in Lahaina, so the Humane Society provided triage, food, supplies, and wellness care, and treated mild conditions in the days after. Upcountry, the Humane Society also brought in hay and tanker trucks of water.

And dozens and dozens of volunteers, like Knobel, showed up to help. There was an “outpouring of support and donations” from around the world, Labrecque says.

Although Knobel has kept her veterinary license current, she retired from regular practice in 2018. Before that, she was a partner at Grand Lake Veterinary Hospital in Oakland and Seven Hills Veterinary Clinic in San Francisco. Through the years, she returned home to Maui to care for family, but she always knew she needed an exit strategy before leaving her practice for good.

That came in the form of a 38-foot sailboat named the Dragonfly.

On March 19, 2020, Knobel and her husband were docked in Mexico right before the United States closed the border. They flew home to Maui. It was peaceful, she says, with no tourists or traffic, but the island’s economy suffered. She’s worried the fire will cause people to stay away again.

She recently departed for Mexico to board the Dragonfly and restart retirement, but beforehand, she said goodbye to the cats in the burn unit on Maui. A black-and-white feline named Rudy, in particular, formed an impression—after he had eluded capture for three weeks. He spent over a month receiving burn treatments and was recently reunited with his owners.

With all that’s happened, is Knobel concerned about leaving the island? “We’ve been through different disasters… this community is so strong. People have this tenacity. It ultimately comes down to the aloha spirit. It binds everyone together.”

2024

AAMC Travel

Bali, Singapore, Thailand & Angkor Wat

Swiss Alps & the Italian Lakes

From the lovely shores of Bali to modern Singapore, exciting Bangkok to legendary Angkor, this incredible 12-night journey explores the variety of Southeast Asia’s histories, cultures, and cuisines! Thrill to Bali’s traditional culture, explore Singapore’s diverse neighborhoods, cruise along Bangkok’s legendary canals, and explore the jungle-clad temples of Angkor. Plus, meet welcoming locals and dig into savory regional dishes. Enjoy first-class accommodations, an extensive meal plan, and flights to Singapore, Bangkok, and Siem Reap.

Embrace the wonders of Switzerland and Italy on this eight-night journey! Stay in chic St. Moritz and lakeside Stresa, immersing yourself in these celebrated destinations. Journey by train to Zuoz and wind through incredible scenery on the Bernina Express. Cruise to the Borromean Islands and explore romantic Bellagio and Como. Stand before da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” and prepare regional dishes at a family restaurant. This Alumni Campus Abroad program includes first-class accommodations and a generous meal plan.

February 20–March 6, 2024

May 8–May 17, 2024

For more information, including a full itinerary for these and other planned trips for 2024, please visit the AAMC travel program web page at aamc-mills.org/travel.

Mills Quarterly

Mills College at Northeastern University 5000 MacArthur Blvd.

Oakland, CA 94613-1301 510.430.3312 mills.quarterly@northeastern.edu quarterly.mills.edu

Look Up to the Sky:

Hung Liu’s Legacy of Mentoring Women Artists

T

HIS EXHIBITION at the Mills College Art Museum will celebrate the coterie of women creatives who benefited from working with Professor Emerita of Art Hung Liu—as well as Liu’s work itself. Running from January 20 until March 24, Look Up to the Sky was put in motion before Liu’s unexpected passing in 2021, and plans continued in the wake of her death with the input she provided. Artists (and alums) include Rosana Castrillo Diaz, MFA ’03; Nicole Phungrasamee Fein, MFA ’02; Danielle Lawrence, MFA ’11; Monica Lundy, MFA ’10; Nancy Mintz, MFA ’93; Sandra Ono, MFA ’08; Mel Prest, MFA ’99; Susan Preston, MFA ’96; Rachelle Reichert, MFA ’15; Yoshiko Shimano, MFA ’91; Lien Truong, MFA ’01; Gina Tuzzi, MFA ’09; and Bambi Waterman, MFA ’01.

OPENING RECEPTION Saturday, January 20 ■ 5:00–7:00 pm Attendees will have the chance to decorate the bushes in front of the Art Museum with their own memories of Hung Liu. Custom fortune cookies will include lessons the exhibiting artists took from their time under her tutelage.

2024 JANE GREEN ENDOWED LECTURE IN ART HISTORY Saturday, February 24 ■ 3:00–5:00 pm Dorothy Moss, founding director of the Hung Liu Estate, in conversation with Rosana Castrillo Diaz, MFA ’03; Nicole Phungrasamee Fein, MFA ’02; and Mel Prest, MFA ’99. Register at janegreenlecture.eventbrite.com.

CLOSING PROGRAM Saturday, March 23 ■ 4:00–6:00 pm A potluck and slideshow will celebrate Hung Liu’s legacy.

“Patsy Takemoto Mink ain't afraid of the Dark” by Lien Truong, MFA ’01

The Mills College Art Museum is open 11:00 am–4:00 pm Tuesday through Sunday and until 7:30 pm Wednesday.

Admission is free. Visit mcam.mills.edu for more information.