Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

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Mills Quarterly Back to school Fall 2012 Girls on three continents gain access to education through the efforts of Mills alumnae NEW FACULTY THE MBA PROGRAM MARKS 10 YEARS THE SENIOR GIFT

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Mills College alumnae magazine

Transcript of Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

Page 1: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

Mills QuarterlyBack to school

Fall 2012

Girls on three continents gain access to education through the efforts of Mills alumnae

N e w F a c u l t y t h e M B a P r o g r a M M a r k s 1 0 y e a r s t h e s e N i o r g i F t

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Make your gift today and show your Mills education is important to you. Give to the Mills College Annual Fund by calling 510.430.2366, picking up the phone when a student calls you, visiting www.mills.edu/giving, or returning the enclosed envelope.

Alumnae/i contributions to the Mills College Annual Fund send the message that we value the education Mills provides. When thousands of alumnae/i give, no matter the size of each gift, we amplify this message, which influences prospective students and donors. And we provide essential support for Mills’ academic programs, faculty salaries, and financial aid.

means a great deal to the College, even if your gift is modest. I do whatever I can to support Mills because my experience here has been so important to my musical education and artistic development.” — John

John Bischoff, MFA ’73 Composer and pioneer of live computer music Associate professor, Mills College Music Department Donor to the Mills College Annual Fund

Phot

o by

Joe

John

ston

“Your giving to Mills

061202 Mills Annual Fund Ad#1_final.indd 1 8/1/12 2:47 PM

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8 Payitforward by Caitlin GravesonThe graduating Class of 2012 demonstrated their philanthropy with a well-orchestrated gift campaign that raised more than $8,000 and achieved a 42 percent participation rate. Plus: Bent Twigs

12 Teachagirl,changetheworldby Jessica Langlois, MFA ’10 Success in school can make all the difference in a girl’s life, but overwhelming cultural, physical, and financial barriers keep many girls from gaining that advantage. We profile four alumnae who have had remarkable results improving access to education for young women from disadvantaged communities in Kenya, China, and northern California.

17 Riskandrewardby Allison Marin ’12A decade ago, the Mills MBA Program—and its first entering cohort of 12 students—forged new pathways in business education for women. We caught up with several of those first graduates to see where their paths have led.

32 Whatthebodycravesby Tarrin Griggs ’12Excerpts from the winning submission that earned the 2012 Mary Merritt Henry Prize for outstanding poetry by an undergraduate student.

Departments

2 AskAlecia

4 MillsMatters

20 ClassNotes

21 Bookshelf

30 InMemoriam

8 12 17 Mills Quarterly

contents Fall 2012

On the cover: As summer turns to fall, students everywhere are heading back to school. This issue of the Quarterly looks at the benefit that education brings to young women who are most in need; at the opportunities Mills offers to women pursuing advanced degrees; and at the joy of those who completed their degrees at Mills last May.

IllustratIon by MG & co/Istock.coM

Join us in celebrating the new academic year at Convocation on September 28—and enjoy all that Reunion has to offer September 27–30. See alumnae.mills.edu/reunion for details.

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2  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly2  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Volume XCXI Number 1 (USPS 349-900)

Fall 2012

PresidentAlecia A. DeCoudreaux

VicePresidentforInstitutionalAdvancementCynthia Brandt Stover

SeniorDirectorofCommunicationsDawn Cunningham ’85

ManagingEditorLinda Schmidt

DesignandArtDirectionNancy Siller Wilson

ContributingWriters

Caitlin Graveson Jessica Langlois, MFA ’10 Andrew Faught

EditorialAssistanceAllison Marin ’12

The Mills Quarterly (USPS 349-900) is published quarterly by Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613. Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, California, and at additional mailing office(s). Postmaster: Send address changes to the Office of Institutional Advancement, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613.

Copyright © 2012, Mills College

Address correspondence to the Mills Quarterly, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613. Letters to the editor may be edited for clarity or length.

Email: [email protected] Phone: 510.430.3312

Printed on recycled paper containing 10 percent post-consumer waste.

Q: Dean Deborah Merrill-Sands is  

dedicated to sustaining a quality  

MBA Program at Mills’ Lokey Graduate 

School of Business. Are you providing  

the strongest support possible for the 

Mills MBA and will you continue this  

support for the foreseeable future? 

—Alisa Rodriguez ’11

A:  I am very proud of all that Dean Deborah Merrill-Sands has accomplished in the past two years to build on the strengths of our Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business. I’m also proud of the achievements of our MBA students, who have been winning scholarships, grants, and accolades from a number of national organizations.

One significant way that Mills is investing for the long term in the Lokey Graduate School of Business is by add-ing faculty. Previously, all MBA faculty were either based in our outstanding Economics Department or were visiting professors and lecturers. This spring, we hired the first-ever tenure-track professor specifically for the Business School, and she will start teaching this fall (see page 4).

A very different way the College sup-ports the Business School is by celebrat-ing its 10th anniversary at Reunion 2012 on September 29. We invite all MBA stu-dents and alumnae—and anyone curious about the program—to come and join us.

Q: Will you please reinstate the theater 

arts department? 

—Shelley Fernandez ’55

A: Yours is a question I’ve heard from a number of alumnae in the past year! The Dramatic Arts Department, which was closed in 2004 because of the budget def-icit the College faced at that time, clearly holds a very special place in the hearts of generations of Mills graduates.

Many in the Mills campus community, myself included, share your belief in the importance of theater for the liberal arts curriculum. Because an understanding of theater is essential in dance perfor-mance, our acclaimed Dance Department has begun offering an acting fundamen-tals class taught by the casting direc-tor of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Amy Potozkin. The class is open to Mills stu-dents of any major. In addition, the Dance Department teaches courses in costume design and dance theater.

Although we are reintroducing drama through the dance curriculum, the College is not currently in the financial position to invest in rebuilding a drama department. Among other challenges, Mills lacks a theater facility that could support a well-rounded, state-of-the-art theater program. Lisser Hall, which opened in 1901, is full of character and history—but badly needs renovation. This is a situation in which a very generous donor could make a big dif-ference for the College!

AskAlecia

alumnae.mills.edu/ask_alecia

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Q: Did you know when you became  

president that the College had sig- 

nificant financial problems? What is  

your analysis of the cause(s) of these?

—Margaret Goldsmith Fawcett ’63

A:  I became aware that Mills College faced some financial strain when I was a candidate for the position of president in the fall of 2010. The Presidential Search Committee shared budget reports with me and briefed me on fiscal concerns, such as the effect of the recession on the Mills endowment and the College’s high tuition discount rate (the amount of financial aid Mills awards to students in relation to tuition revenue).

When I arrived at Mills and began working with my cabinet to analyze the budget in detail, I realized how complex and interrelated these financial prob-lems are. Like other colleges, Mills saw the value of its endowment decline in 2008, and it has not yet fully rebounded. In June 2007, the endowment was worth $233 million; when I began as president here more than one year ago, it was worth $183.4 million.

This decline in endowment value had a domino effect. It led to a significant decrease in the amount of income we receive from the endowment—income that used to cover as much as 20 per-cent of the College’s operating budget. Less endowment income meant that Mills had less scholarship funding to offer prospective students. Fewer and smaller scholarship offers meant that fewer stu-

dents matriculated in fall 2011. And with fewer students, Mills also received less tuition and room and board revenue. The decline in student revenues contributed $3.5 million to the budget shortfall in the 2011–12 fiscal year.

The College is pursuing several strat-egies for reducing the deficit, increasing enrollment, and becoming more sustain-able in the long run. One strategy is to reduce our expenses wherever possible without compromising academic excel-lence or the financial support we offer students. We have achieved this through temporary salary reductions and fur-loughs and by eliminating a few admin-

istrative positions. Another strategy is to boost enrollment. We are dedicating as much of our budget as possible to scholarships, and we have just hired a vice president of enrollment manage-ment who will help to reinvigorate our recruitment efforts and develop a strate-gic enrollment plan (see page 6).

A third strategy is to engage as many alumnae and friends as possible in sup-porting the College financially and restor-ing it to financial health. I am thankful for the many donors who have given to Mills in the past year. As of June 30, these donors provided a total of $11.9 million, 8 percent more than last year!

AtMills,forAlumnae

AlumnaeRelations

alumnae.mills.edu

510.430.2123,[email protected]

AlumnaeAdmissionRepresentatives

ValaBurnett,AssistantDirectorofAdmissions

510.430.2269,[email protected]

CareerServices

510.430.2130,[email protected]

GivingtoMills

www.mills.edu/giving

510.430.2366,[email protected]

LibraryServices

510.430.2377,[email protected]

MCenter/Transcripts

510.430.2000,[email protected]

PoolandGym

TrefethenAquaticCenter

510.430.2170,[email protected]

HaasPavilionFitnessCenter

510.430.3376,[email protected]

AlumnaeAssociationofMillsCollege(AAMC)

aamc.mills.edu

LindaJaquez-Fissori’92,President

510.430.2110,[email protected]

AAMC,5000MacArthurBlvd.,

MB#86,Oakland,CA94613-1301

FormoreinformationontheseandotheralumnaeservicesatMills,visitalumnae.mills.edu.Somebenefits,suchasaccesstothepoolandfitnesscenter,requireyoutoshowyourAAMCmembershipcard,availablefromAlumnaeRelationsandtheAAMC.

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AskAlecia

Each month, President Alecia DeCoudreaux

answers questions submitted by alumnae and

friends through the Mills College Alumnae

Community website. A selection of these

questions and answers is reprinted here.

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Audrey Calefas-Strebelle, assistant professor of French and francophone studies, received her BA in history and art history as well as her MA in French and American history at Sorbonne University in Paris. She studied Turkish at Bogazici University in Istanbul and completed her PhD in French at Stanford University in June. She has previ-ous teaching experience at Stanford University and Notre Dame de Namur.

Meryl Faith Bailey, a visiting assistant professor in fall 2011, returns as assistant professor of art history with specializa-tion in late Italian Renaissance art and architecture in Venice. She received her BA in anthropology at Harvard, her JD at

Harvard Law School, and her MA and PhD in art history at UC Berkeley.

Amy Franceschini will join the faculty as assistant professor of studio art, with a focus in new genres, in spring 2013. With a BFA in photography from San Francisco State University and an MFA from Stanford, her works focus on themes of sustainability and community and perceived conflicts between humans and nature. She has taught at Stanford, California College of the Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, and UC Berkeley.

Assistant Professor of Biology Jennifer E. Smith comes to Mills following

Mills continues to invest in academic excellence and quality teaching with the addition this fall of the following new faculty members:

postdoctoral work at the Center for Society and Genetics in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she received an Innovative Courses in Undergraduate Education grant award. Smith earned her doctor-ate in 2010 at Michigan State University, where she studied social ecology of spotted hyenas. Her research focuses on the interface of behavior, physiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology.

The Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business welcomes its first tenure-track faculty hire: Assistant Professor of Business Carol Theokary earned her doctorate of business administration in 2010 from the School of Management at Boston University, where she specialized in operations and technology manage-ment with a minor in economics. She earned her MS in computer and commu-nications engineering in Lebanon and worked for several years as an engineer in the telecommunications industry.Theokary has been a visiting assistant professor in the Mills MBA Program, teaching operations management and quantitative methods and supervising students in their management practicums.

Former Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Ann Murphy has been promoted to assistant professor, a tenure track position, as has Jay Gupta, assistant professor of philosophy. As we went to press, Chiu-Hung Chen was confirmed as the Peng Visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Literature. Look for more news on this appointment in the next issue.

Fresh faculty bring scholarly skills and teaching talent

Mills Matters

As part of a statewide festival honoring Julia Morgan, Reunion 2012 includes an exhibition of the architect’s drawings and photographs of the buildings she designed for the campus.

Come enjoy an opening reception on Friday and tours led by Campus Architect Karen Fiene of the five Morgan–designed Mills buildings on Friday and Saturday.

InCelebrationofJuliaMorgan

ConvocationonSeptember28Join your classmates for a weekend of friendship and fun. See alumnae.mills.edu/reunion, or contact [email protected] or 510.430.2123.

Reunion ’12Celebrating

alumnae from class years

ending in 2 or 7, including the

Golden Girls of 1962

September27–September30

MerylFaithBailey JenniferE.Smith CarolTheokary

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Generous gifts strengthen CollegeMills College gratefully acknowledges the following gifts and grants of $50,000 and more received between March 1 and June 15, 2012.

Trustee Mei Kwong ’70 and her husband, Laurence Franklin, made a generous gift through the Morris S. Smith Foundation that will support the Mills College Annual Fund, strengthen career services provided to students and alumnae of the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business, increase the visibil-ity of the Business School, and enhance activities to engage MBA alumnae.

Alba Witkin and her family have been longtime donors and advocates for early childhood education and teacher train-ing at Mills. Their most recent contribu-tion, through the Bernard E. and Alba Witkin Charitable Foundation, will fund assistantships for graduate students in the Children’s School’s Preschool and Infant Care Program and scholarships for the Children’s School.

Trustee Barbara Ahmajan Wolfe ’65 directed a gift from the Barbara A. and Thomas F. Wolfe Foundation to support efforts to increase student enrollment at Mills. The Hellman Foundation made a grant to support the Hellman Summer Science and Math Fellows Program. Ann Sulzberger Wolff ’42 made a leadership gift to the Mills College Annual Fund.

The College received three distributions of bequests: from Kathleen Nordman Smith ’57 of San Mateo, California, to sup-port the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business; from the estate of Betty Jean Brosinske Erickson ’47 of Eugene, Oregon, to support undergraduate stu-dent scholarships; and from Priscilla-Joy “PJ” Everts ’40 of Alhambra, California, to endow Priscilla-Joy Everts and Joy McCauley Everts Memorial Scholarship. Joy McCauley was PJ’s mother.

MillsMusicNowSeptember 15Bill Evans: Banjo in America

September 28Music by Darius Milhaud: Mills alumnae/i perform during Reunion

October 5–6John Cage and Pauline Oliveros birthday celebration (see back cover)

October 13Thingamajigs: Music and art created with made and found materials

October 26Jean-Philippe Colard: Dewing Piano Recital

November 16Laurie Anderson, Jean Macduff Vaux composer-in-residence

All events start at 8:00 pm in the Littlefield Concert Hall. $15 general, $10 senior and non-Mills students, free to alumnae with AAMC card. See musicnow.mills.edu or contact Steed Cowart at 510.430.2334 or [email protected].

SonglinesSeriesSeptember 24Magda Maya and Tony Buck: Improvisational piano and percus-sion interplay

October 8 Keith Kirchoff and Eric Glick Rieman: Prepared acoustic piano and prepared Rhodes electric piano

October 22 Bryan Eubanks and Cat Lamb: Solos and collaborative pieces using electro-acoustic sources and generative techniques

All events start at 7:30 pm in the Ensemble Room. Admission is free. For information, see musicnow.mills.edu or contact John Bischoff at 510.430.2331 or [email protected].

ContemporaryWritersSeriesSeptember 1Rubén Martínez (7:00 pm, Student Union, co-sponsored with Latina/o Heritage Month)

October 16Rikki Ducornet

October 30James Thomas Stevens

November 6Nina LaCour, MFA ’06

November 13Erin Moure

All events are at 5:30 pm, Mills Hall Living Room (unless otherwise noted), free. For information, contact Stephanie Young at 510.430.3130 or [email protected].

MillsCollegeArtMuseumDance Rehearsal: Karen Kilimnik’s World of Ballet and Theater September 12–December 9, 2012

Hung Liu January 23–March 17, 2013

For information, see mcam.mills.edu or contact 510.430.2164 or [email protected]. The museum is open 11:00 am–4:00 pm Tuesday through Sunday, 11:00 am–7:30 pm Wednesday, and is closed Monday. Admission is free.

JayDeFeo:ARetrospectiveJay DeFeo (1929–89), an associate professor of art at Mills College in the 1980s, is recognized as a unique and influential figure in 20th-century American art. She inspired a generation of students and endowed the Jay DeFeo Annual Prize to support and encourage the artmaking of MFA students graduating from Mills.

A major retrospective of DeFeo’s work will be presented in San Francisco and New York. The exhibition encompasses the extraordinarily wide range of media in DeFeo’s art—including three major works on loan from the Mills College Art Museum’s permanent collection—and reveals the incredible scope and depth of her artistic vision, ideas, and influences. The exhibition catalogue, by Curator Dana Miller of the Whitney Museum, is the first comprehensive monograph on DeFeo.

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• November 3, 2012–February 3, 2013, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art • February 28–June 2, 2013, at the Whitney Museum, New York • November 5, 7:30 pm, Lisser Theatre on the Mills College campus

Greil Marcus delivers “Jay DeFeo and All That Jazz,” the 2012 Jane Green Endowed Lecture in Art History and Criticism

Calendar

Untitled(Florence),1952,©2012TheJayDeFeoTrust/ArtistsRightsSociety(ARS),NewYork

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6  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly

The 5.5 x 4” folded notecard (below) displays a eucalyptus branch across the front and is blank inside.

A 4 x 6” correspondence card featuring a small eucalyptus leaf is also available.

Each comes in packets of six, with envelopes, for $10, plus $2.50 shipping and handling for up to five packets. Proceeds benefit Orange County Mills College Alumnae chapter activities, including an annual scholarship for a Mills student.

To order: Mail your check, payable to Orange County Mills College Alumnae, along with a note indicating the quantity of each style, to Jana McDonough, 29262 Country Hills Road, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675.

For more information, please contact Jana at [email protected] or 949.347.8744.

College and alumnae leadership looks to the futureThe Mills College Board of Trustees has appointed three new members to help guide and support the College in its mission of advancing women’s education.

Lyn Flanigan ’65, who previously served as alumna trustee from 2008 to 2011. A resident of Honolulu, Hawaii, she earned her JD at the University of Hawaii and has been executive director of the Hawaii State Bar Association. Her previous years of service to the College give her a strong sense of the campus’ strengths and challenges.

Liz Parker ’85, of Chicago, Illinois. She was ASMC president while at Mills and completed her MA in international relations at the University of Chicago. Parker brings extensive volunteer experience gained through leadership roles with the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln Park Zoo, the Service Club of Chicago, and other organizations.

Marjan Soleimanieh ’11 is the recent graduate trustee. During her time as an economics major at Mills, Soleimanieh served on the Mills College Presidential Search Committee and was a member of the Retention Task Force. Since graduation, she has coordinated events for recent graduates as a committee chair with the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club and works as a financial analyst with Siemens Medical Solutions.

The Alumnae Association of Mills College (AAMC) also welcomed new—and return-ing—members of its Board of Governors. Julia Almanzan ’92 has been elected to a sec-ond term as alumna trustee on the AAMC board and the Mills College board, and will serve in that role until June 30, 2015. In addition, five new AAMC board members are Rebecca Freeman ’13, student governor; Lesli MacNeil ’75; LaKimbre Brown, EdD ’10; Bianca D’Allesandro, EdD ’12; and Merritt Richmond, MA ’12. These alumnae began their terms on July 1.

Clockwisefromtopleft:LynFlanigan,MarjanSoleimanieh,MerrittRichmond,LesliMacNeil,andBiancaD’Allesandro

Brian O’Rourke has been named vice president of enrollment management at Mills College, a new position that will be responsible for both undergraduate and graduate admission as well as student retention. The position will also oversee finan-cial aid and student accounts.

O’Rourke comes to Mills after 10 years as dean of admission and recruitment at Holy Names University (HNU), where he was responsible for reversing a decade-long enrollment decline and growing their student body to the largest in the univer-sity’s history. He counts his early-admit program guaranteeing admission at HNU for local college-bound students as one of his most gratifying accomplishments. He previously was director of undergraduate admission at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, where he also increased stu-dent enrollment to record levels.

O’Rourke began his admission career at his alma mater, the University of Southern California, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations and business administration. He was selected from a slate of candidates from across the nation by a search committee including representatives from Mills faculty, staff, and students. He took office on August 13.

New VP unifies oversight of admissions offices

Mills cards now available

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Campus kudos

Greg Tanaka, visiting professor of education, facilitated two workshops at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in late May in New York City: “How to End Racism in America” (pre-sented with Mills doctoral student Nolan Jones) and “The Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Higher Education.”

Audio Combine, a solo CD by Associate Professor of Music John Bischoff, was released in February on New World Records. His new solo piece, “Field Transfer,” was featured in the 2011 edition of The Experimental Music Yearbook, www.experimentalmusicyear-book.com.

Mitch Allen, visiting professor of anthropology, was added to the Professional Advisory Board of Digital Antiquity, a Mellon Foundation–funded initiative to create a permanent reposi-tory for archaeological research data. He presented a paper on archaeologists’ experiments with creative nonfiction writing at the International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in May.

In Napa, California, di Rosa’s Gatehouse Gallery featured a display of new works by Professor of Studio Art Hung Liu through June 10. Her work was also included in the Gold show at the Belvedere Museum, Vienna, through June.

Nalini Ghuman, associate profes-sor of music, gave the keynote lecture at the annual event for the Society for Art & Cultural Heritage of India at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum in November. In January, she also gave the

A selection of recent achievements by faculty, staff, and students

Kay Gilliland ’50, a teacher supervi-sor in the School of Education, received the Walter Denham Memorial Award for Advocacy for Mathematics Education from the California Mathematics Council. The award recognizes lifetime achievement by an individual who has demonstrated “advocacy for leadership, curriculum, assessment, and quality mathematics education, as well as a broad knowledge and deep beliefs about the myriad issues related to mathematics education.”

The Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Concert Hall was recognized with a Historic Preservation Award from the San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects for outstanding restoration work that has preserved part of the San Francisco Bay Area’s cultural heritage.

Professor of Education Joseph Kahne, with researchers from Mills College and the University of Chicago, released a new study entitled “Participatory Politics: New Media and Youth Political Action” in June, which found that young people are engaged in online participatory political acts across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines: 43 percent of white, 41 percent of black, 38 percent of Latino, and 36 percent of Asian American youth have engaged in at least one such act during the prior 12 months. President DeCoudreaux wrote a blog entry for the Huffington Post discussing the results and implications of this research.

Marc Joseph, associate professor of philosophy, presented a paper at the fall 2011 Northwest Philosophy Conference on the relation between Wittgenstein’s early treatment of meaning in the Tractatus and Wilfrid Sellars’ conceptual role semantics. He also published an article on Donald Davidson’s philosophy of language in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

program commentary for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s concert of “Tchaikovsky, Elgar, and Shakespeare,” which was broadcast to nearly one million listeners.

Priya Shimpi, assistant professor of education, has been selected to receive an American Association of University Women Fellowship for the 2012–13 academic year.

Professor of Spanish and Spanish American Studies Carlota Caulfield was a guest poet at the Taller de Creación Poética de Bonsuccés in Barcelona in March. Her translation of Antonio Beneyto’s “Carta desde el Gótico. Para Patti Smith” (“Letter from the Gothic. To Patti Smith”) was published in the Spanish magazine El perro blanco and she has been reap-pointed to the advisory board of the review Caribe.

Professor of History Bert Gordon presented a paper, “The Reinvention of a Tourist Town: Politics, Medicine, Society, and Tourism in Vichy,” at the University of California, Berkeley, in April. His article on Vichy was published in the April 2012 issue of Journal of Tourism History.

The Yale Art Museum has acquired several photographs by Professor of Studio Art Catherine Wagner for its permanent collection. Within the past several months, Wagner has delivered lectures at Harvard University, Boston University, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

JosephKahne PriyaShimpi JohnBischoff HungLiu

Page 10: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

SeniorClassVicePresidentKCCallenderandPresidentJackElliottpresenttheclassgift,right,whichwouldcontinuetogrowinthedaysfollowingCommencement.

8  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly

The Class of 2012 sets a philanthropic benchmark By Caitlin Graveson • Photos by Steve BabuljakPay it

forward

Page 11: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

Fa l l 2 0 1 2 9

But there’s more to the class’ legacy than the scholarship itself. Forty-two percent of the class donated to the senior gift—an impressive participation rate that is now the benchmark for future graduating classes to beat.

The class mobilized such high participa-tion through a semester of creative effort. The Senior Class Council began with a fundraising goal of $5,000 for the class gift, but its main focus was to get as many students as possible to participate actively in the campaign. By Commencement, the seniors had exceeded their dollar goal, recruited nearly half their class as donors, and procured additional support from faculty, staff, parents, and alumnae.

“The point of emphasizing participa-tion was to bring our class together and to make our entire class feel like they were making a difference,” says KC Callender,

vice president of the Class of 2012.Modesta Tamayo, who served as presi-

dent of the Associated Students of Mills College during her senior year, under-stood the importance of getting everyone involved. She found that many students were reluctant to donate because they could only give a small amount. “We tried to combat that by telling people that their contribution could be just a quarter or a dime,” she says. “It is whatever you can do.”

Following a conversation with a student who explained that she couldn’t donate to the senior gift, Tamayo came up with a creative way to address a need, bolster participation, and foster community. “I asked, ‘If I gave you one dollar right now, what would you do with it?’ and she said, ‘Well, I guess I would donate it,’” Tamayo recalls, and they did just that. Over the course of the campaign, Tamayo gave

IsabelCortes,above,can’tcontainherexcitement.Bottomrow,lefttoright:JillianHarrisgivestheday’sceremonies“twothumbsup;”MichelleMitchellhelpsBarbaraBlackwelladjustherstole;CommencementspeakerLumaMufleh,acivilrightsadvocateforrefugeeandimmigrantfamilies;MartinetPhan,MichelleHo,andDawnYanogacioshareamomentofpride.

multiple classmates money from her own pocket so that they could participate. In the end, most students who accepted money from Tamayo turned around and offered money to other classmates so that they could participate, too.

“It makes a difference when you are that up front,” Tamayo explains. “For many students, the campaign became a way to ‘pay it forward.’”

Members of the Class of 2012 not only celebrated

their individual accomplishments when they received

their baccalaureate degrees at Commencement on

May 12, they also a marked a great collective achieve-

ment with the legacy they left behind: the Class of

2012 Lavender Scholarship. Established with the senior

class gift of more than $8,000, the scholarship is being

awarded this fall to a Mills student with financial need.

Page 12: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

The Senior ClaSS CounCil initially set a participation goal of 30 percent, well above Mills’ alumnae participation rate, which has averaged 25 percent in recent years.

“I was really nervous that they wouldn’t get up to that level because it represented such a big leap forward,” says Elizabeth Coyle, associate director of alumnae out-reach, who served as staff support for the campaign. “But the students were just so eager to make it work. They really blew it out of the water.”

President Alecia DeCoudreaux pro-vided further motivation when she offered to make a personal contribution to the campaign based on the participa-tion rate: $2,012 if the class met their 30 percent goal. “It was important to me to indicate to students that I supported their efforts and wanted to see them succeed,” DeCoudreaux says.

“The challenge really got the students’ attention,” says Coyle. “It showed how much their campaign was recognized and valued by the College.” The President’s donation was also a tangible demonstra-tion of her dedication to students, many of whom felt a sense of disillusionment following staff layoffs in December. “We all knew and experienced the fallout of the financial crisis, and we as a class

wanted to feel supported,” says class his-torian Meaghan Leferink.

Senior Class President Jack Elliott feels the gift showed DeCoudreaux’s com-mitment to students’ goals. “She was grateful that we were working so hard,” says Elliott. “I really think that President DeCoudreaux is a huge champion of Mills and its students.”

In return, surpassing their participa-tion goal shows students’ dedication to the College, Elliott says. “We sent a mes-sage that Mills is worth something to us and that it should be worth something to other people as well,” Elliott explains. “It tells everyone else that they should pay attention to Mills.”

From the beginning, the campaign was inclusive of all voices. The council surveyed the class, asking for feedback on how to use the funds, then hosted an open forum where students could vote and share opinions about where the gift should go.

The class also reached out to students in new ways: Callender put together Mills’ first ever YouTube solicitation, a video of President DeCoudreaux offer-ing her challenge gift. Another student, Susan Summerfield, sent an email appeal to every senior, asking them to forgo a

coffee and instead put that money toward the campaign.

Leferink, a music major, wrote an origi-nal song to promote the cause. With lyrics that emphasize donating as a way to leave a legacy, the chorus appeals to the need to give back: “We’re working for a scholar-ship / Donate / In many convenient ways / Donate / And show that a Mills educa-tion pays.” She posted a video of the song on Facebook, where it scored hundreds of views. She also performed her song at fundraising events and at a thank you reception for senior class donors hosted by President DeCoudreaux.

“People thought it was hilarious. By the end, they were singing the chorus with me,” Leferink says. “That was a really awe-some feeling.”

With all the success that the senior class had this year, they expect the tradition will live on. “A standard has been set and the other classes are very much aware of it because the senior class did so much bragging,” Tamayo says, adding that other classes have already responded to the chal-lenge by indicating that they intend to surpass this year’s participation rate. “The Class of 2012 welcomes that,” Tamayo explains, “because every time the participa-tion rate goes up, we are all winning.” ◆

PresidentDeCoudreauxpresentsawell-earneddiploma;beaminggraduateslineuptoreceivetheirdegrees.

10  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly

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Fa l l 2 0 1 2 11

1 2 3 4

5

6 7

8 9

11

10

12

13

14

a Bent Twig is a Mills student or alumna whose family tree includes another Mills alumna.

1 Divinia anderson ’11, MPP ’12, with her mother, Drucilla anderson ’11

2 Zoe Marcus and her mother, Tiffany renee ’97

3 helen Kennedy and her sister, Jane Kennedy ’09

4 Charlotte Martin with her mother, lesley Manheim Martin ’78, edD ’07

5 Christina Kwong and her sister, Stephanie Kwong ’10

6 Veronica Perry and her mother, Maria Baraona Perry ’80

7 ellen newton and her mother, Mary loeser, Ma ’93

8 ashley roaseau with her aunt, annie neves, both members of the Class of 2012

9 Dawn Yanogacio and her sisters Stephanie Yanogacio ’05, MBa ’06, and Kimberly Yanogacio ’06, MBa ’07

10 Caitlin osborne with her adopted Bent Twig, lucy Barron-Gitter ’82

11 ashley Mason with a photo of her grandmother, nancy Griffitts Mason ’47

12 Dana Doughty ’11, MPP ’12, with her mother, Carol evans Doughty ’63, and daughter, Madeleine, Mills Children’s School ’12

13 lynn Burnett, Med ’12, with his sister, Vala Burnett ’05

14 Mary Moon and her mother, Barbara Seid Moon ’74

Bent twigs ’12

photos by dana davIs

Page 14: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

similarly motivated a decade ago, when she created the Spring Buds program, a 13-year plan to fund the education of 1,000 girls from isolated villages in western China. And closer to home, Lacy Asbill ’02 and Elana Metz ’03 established Girls Moving Forward, an organization that combines mentoring and tutoring to encourage the academic and emo-tional growth of K-12 girls from at-risk communi-ties in Oakland and Watsonville.

Each of these four alumnae has been spurred to action by a shared commitment to using their skills and resources to advancing women through the power of education.

Aconduciveclimateforlearning

After arriving in Naivasha, McAuliffe learned that the high school where she had planned to teach was phasing out girl students, with the intention of building a separate girls’ school. This change was a reaction to the co-ed school’s high rate of teen pregnancy—which carries a heavy stigma in Kenya. According to one regional nonprofit organization, 13,000 Kenyan girls leave school each year due to pregnancy, and nearly half of all young women have had a first child by age 19. Many girls who leave school pregnant risk ending up in prostitution.

Then there are those who can’t afford to go to school at all. Though Kenya introduced free primary education for all in 2003, continuing on through high school is very expensive for both boys and girls. “There’s a hope that if you have an education, you can get a job,” McAuliffe says. “No guarantees—just like here.” Girls who can-not afford high school are left with few options. Mostly, McAuliffe explains, they become “house help,” or end up in arranged marriages to men two or three times their age, doing hard labor on the farm and producing children.

By Jessica Langlois, MFA ’10

YEAR AFTER RETIRING from teaching high school and several years after losing her husband to cancer, Margo Manin McAuliffe ’58 traveled to Naivasha, Kenya, a rural town on open, fertile land about 50 miles northwest of Nairobi. It was 2005, and she had volunteered to teach math to girls at a co-ed Catholic boarding school there.

Ever since she was a young girl herself, McAuliffe had known that she wanted to do something to leave the world better than she

had found it, she says, her lively green eyes shining behind oval, wire-rimmed

glasses. Providing education for girls in Kenya was a sure way to improve the circumstances of those young women dramatically. In Africa, educated girls face a reduced risk of HIV infection, are less vulner-able to exploitation and human trafficking, are less likely to marry at a young age, and raise children who are more likely to go to school themselves.

In any country, in fact, gender parity in educa-tion is critical; numerous studies show a direct correlation between women’s education levels and their quality of life, including their health sta-tus, economic standing, and political power. The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative reports that 39 million girls globally are not enrolled in school, and that two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women.

Like a number of other Mills graduates, McAuliffe is working to educate underserved girls in one of the world’s most economically and socially disad-vantaged communities. Rosalyn Chen Koo ’51 was

Numerous studies show a direct correlation between women’s education levels and their quality of life, including their health status, economic standing, and political power.

change the worldTeach a girl,

12  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly12  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Page 15: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

McAuliffe also learned that the Naivasha com-munity had donated a plot of land for building the separate girls’ school, which would be directed by the local Kikuyu priest, Father Daniel Kiriti. She realized, too, that by teaching math herself, she would be taking a job away from a well-trained local teacher, and came to conclude that her great-est result could be achieved by raising money to build the new school. So McAuliffe returned home to Menlo Park, California, and started sharing her experience with friends, who shared it with other friends. Her goal was to raise as much as $20,000 for the St. Francis Xavier School for Girls. She never thought she’d raise $1.3 million in just seven years.

McAuliffe’s foundation, Kenya Help, has little overhead and no paid positions, so all of the funds raised have gone to build the school and to pay tuition for the girls. In addition to classrooms, two science labs, a library, a computer lab, a multipur-pose room, and dorms, the school has livestock and a garden so the students can cultivate their own food.

Anne Chantel, a student who appears in a short film on the Kenya Help website, speaks passion-ately about her education: “Why I love this school is that it has a conducive climate for enabling us to participate in our studies,” she says. “The teach-ers help us a lot.” Another student, Celia Bouquet, adds, “This school is improving our culture physi-cally, mentally, and emotionally; it helps me as a student improve and become a better person in the future.”

At St. Francis Xavier, education extends beyond just the classroom. The girls often put on fashion

shows, skits, and other performances to let loose and express themselves. The school also brings in speakers to hold work-shops and lead discus-sions on topics including relationships, careers, and sex, which encourage the students to make responsible decisions and bolster their feelings of self-worth.

Both in her fundraising and in her summers tutoring at the school, McAuliffe frequently consid-ers her position of relative privilege and recognizes the limitations of her status as a foreigner. “I realize that it’s not my country or my culture, and it’s not my school,” says McAuliffe, who leaves the plan-ning to Father Kiriti. McAuliffe particularly strug-gles with some disciplinary policies, but maintains an open conversation with school leaders about the ineffectiveness of physical punishment and the anger it breeds—and hopes her continued presen-tation of alternatives is having an effect.

Allofasuddenyouarespecial

Rosalyn “Roz” Koo is a petite woman with a quick sense of humor; she is never at a loss for words, or at a loss for something sweet to offer visitors. Koo came to Mills from an elite all-girls school in Shanghai in the late 1940s, but her mother had always encouraged her to question the inequities women faced in China and globally. With this back-ground, Koo knew she wanted to serve underprivi-leged women, but determined that she had to work and train herself before she could help anyone else.

MargoMcAuliffe(inset)andthestudentsatthededicationofSt.FrancisXavierSchoolforGirls.

Fa l l 2 0 1 2 13

Page 16: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

In 1949, at the onset of the Chinese civil war, Koo’s family moved to Taiwan. “I searched my soul and decided I would stay here in the US,” she says.

After several decades working in education and philanthropy, both in the US and in conjunc-tion with government agencies in China, Koo was ready, at age 72, to start a major project. But she had one rule: she would run things her own way. In her four decades of organizing, Koo came to understand that the success of a project relies on three “circles” of factors: a strong need for change, a dedicated interest in the project, and the dem-onstrated capability of the organizer. “When the three circles meet in the middle,” Koo says, “That’s when you can get things done.”

She sought out Wang Hong, vice chair of the All-China Women’s Federation in Shaanxi Province,

to help her bring a foundational educa-tion to the “poorest of the poor” girls in the region. Shaanxi, home to the famous Terracotta Army and once an important dynastic province, is

a mountainous region with dry soil and barely accessible transportation. The options for poor girls there are similar to those of the girls in Naivasha. The United Nations Girls Education Initiative reports, “An estimated two thirds of China’s school-age children who are not enrolled in school are girls. When girls are enrolled, they are usually the first to drop out of school when economic pressures affect their families.” In 2000,

when Koo started planning for the Spring Buds project, girls were seen as just another mouth for their families to feed and often stopped going to school after the third grade.

“So you married,” Koo says, “not for love, but to produce children. And if you only have a girl, heaven help you…that’s the end of your life.” Suicide rates were high among teenage mothers. Women who remained single or married poor became domestic servants— “indentured slaves,” Koo calls them. Many of the girls in Spring Buds are orphans, “abandoned by their villages,” Koo explains, whose parents have died from illness or accidents or have left their homes to become migrant workers.

Koo instructed Wang Hong to choose 1,000 of the neediest girls entering fourth grade. These girls were placed in 22 primary schools across the region, and each group was assigned a homeroom teacher to nurture them through at least ninth grade, when they could choose to work, attend vocational school, or continue on an academic track. Meanwhile, Koo organized 400 foreign donors—professional, mostly Chinese-American women who were passionate about education—to fund up to 13 years of education for these girls.

Koo’s goals for the Springs Buds project are clear: to build up a middle class and to create new women leaders. But the program also has another, less tangible result: as the students advance in each stage of schooling, they develop a sense of control over their lives, learning to think inde-pendently and make their own decisions, and connecting with mentors and peers outside of their home counties.

RosalynKoo(above,center)andherSpringBudsinShaanxiProvince,China.

LacyAsbillandElanaMetz(oppositepage,standingatleft)withagroupofGirlsMovingForwardparticipants.

As the students advance in each stage of schooling, they develop a sense of control over their lives, learning to think independently and make their own decisions.

14  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly14  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Page 17: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

Koo, whom the girls call Grandma Koo, has care-fully monitored the progress of all her Spring Buds from her home in San Mateo, California, and has visited the young students almost every year. She funneled those who chose to go into vocational school after middle school into three professions—nursing, nursery school teaching, and computers—that have high possibilities for employment, and that she sees as the foundation for the emerging middle class. The 163 girls who have passed the highly competitive college entrance exams are studying a diverse array of fields, including educa-tion, art, music, environmental science, medicine, and engineering. These women will graduate from university with student loans, but if they return to their home county and work for two years to ben-efit the community, they can apply to Koo to have their loans reduced.

Though Koo says the Spring Buds project’s focus is economic support, it’s clear that it is more than just that both for her and for the girls. For these young women, the investment in their education is a trans-formative affirmation. “Just think: the girl feels like nobody,” Koo says of her Spring Buds. She pauses at length, the words seeming to catch in her throat. Her voice wavers as she continues and she blinks back the moisture in her eyes; the reach of her empathy and emotional investment in these young lives is pal-pable. “Overnight, you have an American sponsor,” she says. “All of a sudden you are special.”

Educationbyandforyoungpeople

Like Rosalyn Koo, Lacy Asbill and Elana Metz share the desire to run an organization their own way, a

conviction Asbill says she took from her education at Mills. They want to take the experience they had at Mills—of feeling supported and encouraged to take risks in small classrooms of women—and bring it to younger girls who may not otherwise have a chance to benefit from such a setting. The cornerstone of their program is providing positive women role models to ensure the success of girls in need.

After graduating from Mills as women’s studies majors, Asbill worked in a bank and Metz worked in a nonprofit health clinic. They both quickly realized they were unfulfilled by their jobs and decided to combine their work experience and feminist education to create an endeavor that would be more meaningful to them: an organiza-tion run by and for young people.

“We see the education system as being pretty broken,” says Metz, who wears her bobbed, curly hair clipped back, and speaks with the convic-tion and eloquence of a seasoned organizer. “The inequity we see in Oakland, let alone nationwide, is overwhelming.” Although the United States has a long history of providing free and compulsory education to youth, not all students have the access, support, or confidence to stay enrolled or engage in the material. Girls Moving Forward seeks to help the most at-risk youth by offering a blend of academic and social skills development through partnerships with public schools—especially “con-tinuation” schools that provide a flexible schedule and specialized curricula for students who were unsuccessful in standard schools. They also offer their services through after-school programs.

Fa l l 2 0 1 2 15

Page 18: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

“We’re working with girls at continuation high schools, with girls at a pregnant and parenting teen school, with girls at a school for kids who’ve been expelled from Oakland schools,” Asbill says. “There is a persistent culture of low expectations for these young women,” she adds. “They know it and they feel it.”

Asbill and Metz base their methodology on a 1991 study, “Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America,” that found girls’ academic performance was directly affected by their confidence level. The outcomes achieved by Girls Moving Forward are impressive: the continuation high school stu-dents who participate in the program pass the high school exit exam at double the rate of average con-tinuation students. The organization’s tutors work with the girls on body image, self-acceptance, com-munication, and friendship. “Participants build social and emotional connections that allow them to be open to academic learning,” Asbill explains with an easy smile that conveys her warm, charis-matic demeanor.

In 2011, Asbill and Metz were named Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneurs by the Hitachi Foundation, and were awarded a $40,000 grant in addition to professional guidance in growing their business. Girls Moving Forward is now headquartered in an

airy, lofted Emeryville office that feels like it could be a young girl’s bedroom, decorated with a play-ful rug and presided over by an enormous teddy bear. Funded primarily through federal grants, the program has served over 3,000 girls in the past five years, at no cost to the girls’ families, and has expanded to offer a separate program for boys.

Asbill and Metz attribute much of their intellec-tual capital to the tutors they hire—the majority of whom are people of color or first-generation col-lege students who model academic achievement for the girls.

One of those tutors, Lindsay Castillo, had her own struggles with confidence as a teenager. On the Girls Moving Forward website, she describes her memory of “how scary it can be to take a math problem on and sit in a classroom of peo-ple who seem like they understand what’s going on.” She goes on to tell of being introduced to the mother of a student as “a mentor who is helping her become an independent, intelligent young

woman.” Touched at the effect she’d had, Castillo says, “That’s my only drive everyday—to hope that I can make a difference.”

Therippleeffect

Asbill and Metz hope their work will not only influ-ence the girls they tutor, but also the young people who are doing the tutoring. “We see our organiza-tion as the beginning of a ripple,” Metz explains. “Part of the reason we do this is to train the next generation of educators.”

In addition, Asbill and Metz have spent the last two years developing a reading curriculum that suggests more contemporary books like Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie to get students talking about race, class, and low expectations rather than more traditional texts like The Great Gatsby. “The curriculum will roll out in pilot proj-ects with a handful of partner schools in Oakland Unified this fall,” says Metz, “and will be available for general distribution to educators throughout the country shortly afterwards.” The two Mills alumnae see this curriculum program as a way to expand their positive effect beyond the scope of their Oakland- and Watsonville–based programs.

Similarly, Rosalyn Koo has structured the Spring Buds project to create a ripple. The 13-year cycle of schooling Koo initiated will be complete in two years but, at age 84, Koo doesn’t plan to initiate another project of this scale. In order to continue and multi-ply the positive effects of these girls’ education, she has formed the Spring Bud Student Alliance, a pro-fessional association to be administered by the more than 100 girls who will graduate from college. The mission of the alliance is threefold: “Mutual support. Help the needy. Improve the community.”

In Kenya, St. Francis Xavier graduated its first class of 18 girls in 2010, and they are already driven to empower other women in their community. About a third of the girls said they wanted to be lawyers. One told McAuliffe that she wants to provide peo-ple fair representation in the courts; another said she wants to defend women threatened by domes-tic violence as well as by a legal system that tends to favor husbands in family disputes.

As all of these alumnae are creating powerful change for girls in need, they too are feeling a great personal satisfaction rippling back to them. At a 2011 TEDx talk in San Jose, California, McAuliffe encouraged her audience, “If you feel something tugging at your heart, listen up, don’t wait until you’re 68 like I did. And when you step on that path for the first time,” she added, “just be pre-pared, it may be a longer path than you ever imag-ined, and infinitely more rewarding.” ◆

16  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly16  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly

The cornerstone of their program is providing positive women role models to ensure the success of girls in need.

Page 19: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

The MBA Program at Mills College has come a long way since its inception a decade ago, and so has its first cohort of a dozen students. The fledgling program was essentially an educational start-up, with its limited

course offerings and no dedicated career ser-vices staff. Classes were held in what had

been the Children’s School. But the MBA curriculum offered some obvious advan-tages from the beginning: it provided a way for students to earn an MBA in one

year, it built on Mills’ strong undergradu-ate economics courses, and it was led by

faculty who were committed to helping women realize their potential as business leaders and to an

ethic of business as a means for social change.Members of that first graduating class—all of whom had

completed their undergraduate degrees at Mills—describe the Mills MBA as a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” It was risky, but “it was like opening a refrigerator,” says Yimei Wong ’00, MBA ’02. “We were hungry, so we made the best of it.” These days, MBA enrollment hovers at nearly 100 students and more than 50 courses are offered in topics ranging from core economic theory and marketing basics to strategic philanthropy and environmental sus-tainability in business. When we caught up with several

RamonaSmithandYimeiWong

Fa l l 2 0 1 2 17

the first 12 Mills Mba students struck out into uncharted territory—and have gone on to find success in a variety of endeavorsBy allison Marin ’12 • Photos by Dana Davis

risk reward

and

Page 20: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

members of the class, we learned that they too have blossomed: their risk has been well rewarded with success in business, contri-butions to their communities, and personal achievements.

Wong believes “nothing is imPossible,” and her bold confidence isn’t surprising after reading her resume: she has been a global operations consultant for Chevron, head of operations and project development for Trina Solar, member and strategic advisor for Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy, and, most recently, founder and president of Chinamagination, LLC. She says her success in the years after completing her MBA has come from her ever-evolving goals. “We need to let our goals morph over time as the world changes,” she says, “and we need to master these piv-otal moments to create change.”

Her goal now is remarkable in its scope: her efforts in pro-moting solar energy and encouraging business partnerships with China through Chinamagination could potentially affect billions of people. “We can create an energy ‘ecosystem,’” Wong says, “that is sustainable for the future if we use corporate col-laboration.” Wong’s endeavors have also included travel to 43 countries; lecturing for Singularity University in Mountain View, which educates leaders in sustainable enterprise; and helping former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom create the ChinaSF program, which supports business exchange between China and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ramona Lisa Smith ’01, MBA ’02, started at Mills as an under-graduate resumer in dance, but switched her major to business economics after deciding she “needed something more practi-cal” to support herself and her two-year-old daughter. Pursuing an MBA had not originally been part of her agenda, she says, but “when the opportunity came, I knew it was one I couldn’t pass up.” She joined the new program as it found its footing, and her conviction paid off. “The MBA Program helped me understand the world economy and my personal finances,” she says. “It pre-pared me for more than just business leadership; it prepared me to handle my life as a business.”

Smith now works as asset services coordinator, financial coach, and lead of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program at SparkPoint/Community Action Marin, helping economically disadvantaged people understand and improve their financial standing. When entering a business venture, Smith brings her whole self to the table: “I want all aspects of my being to be present: my culture, myself as a woman, and myself as a woman of color.” Her daughter, now 17, is preparing to apply to college—with Mills on her list.

Nikki Kwan ’02, MBA ’02, has always been ambitious and eager. Her advice to women in the workforce: “Be bold. Ask for a raise, ask for more things to do—even if you aren’t ready. Be confident; you’ll figure it out.” Kwan has followed her own advice successfully and is now first vice president in the retail banking division of East West Bank, where she is in charge of a variety of strategy and plan-ning initiatives as well as mergers and acquisitions.

Kwan has worked in banking since 1994, when she was an undergraduate with a scholarship and an internship from Home

18  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly

2001 MayMills MBA Program launched;

Professor of Economics Nancy Thornborrow named director.

2001 AugustFirst 12 students admitted.

2002 MayFirst MBA class graduates.

2004 AugustLorry I. Lokey, P ’85, provides funding to support

construction of a building for the Business School. The MBA Program becomes a school; Thornborrow named dean;

dedicated MBA career services established.

2007 FallMills Graduate School of Business and Financial Women’s

Association of San Francisco present the Linda Pitts Custard ’60 Women in Business Conference.

2008 AprilGround broken on a new building for the school,

now named the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business.

2008 SeptemberCenter for Socially Responsible Business (CSRB)

established; first annual conference held in April 2009.

2009 AprilMills MBA Program selected as a partner in the

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative, a global program to increase the number of underserved

women studying business and management.

2009 SeptemberLokey Graduate School of Business building opens.

2010 FallMBA enrollment surpasses 100 students; Deborah

Merrill-Sands takes office as dean of the Business School.

2011 MaySummer term courses offered for first time.

2011 FallJoint MBA/MA degree in educational leadership launched;

part-time track introduced.

2012 JuneMills’ Net Impact chapter receives gold status. Net Impact is a national organization of MBA students and professionals addressing social, economic, and environmental problems.

2012 AprilOver 200 attendees participate in CSRB’s 4th annual

conference.

2012 AugustFirst tenure-track faculty member hired specifically to teach

business courses in the MBA Program.

a brieF history of the

mba Program at mills

Page 21: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

Savings of America. Ultimately, her interest in how process affects change led her to pursue her MBA. “I wanted to help people become successful through incremental and sustainable change,” she says—a goal she continues to pursue through offer-ing individuals loans to support businesses and homeownership.

Immediately after completing her business degree, Kerrin Parker ’99, MBA ’02, joined M5 Networks, a small telecommu-nications startup. After helping develop M5 into a pioneer in cloud-based phone systems, Parker is now the senior director of development for this public company in Chicago as well as a mother to two young children. “It was my path to attend an MBA program,” says Parker, who had always aimed to manage a large company. She chose Mills over other schools because she was familiar with its support-ive educational environ-ment and outstanding faculty—and because she wanted to be a part of the new MBA Program’s mis-sion to support women in business.

In February, M5 was acquired by ShoreTel for $160 million, and Parker will see the company through the transition before moving on to start her own enterprise. “Over the years,” she notes, “I’ve learned the importance of building trust and keep-ing commitments. Being trustworthy to my clients, my coworkers, and my contractors is critical to success.”

“The MBA Program helped clarify the fact that I loved my career path,” Lisa Tsang ’98, MBA ’02, says of her work in human resources. Tsang first pursued her MBA because she felt stuck in her human resources job at the time and hoped the degree would open other doors. The company she worked for allowed her to continue working part time and even paid part of her tuition. Surprisingly, the informational interview exercises included in the business curriculum enabled Tsang to realize that she was not as interested in other jobs and helped confirm her commitment to her profession.

Tsang now works as senior compensation manager for Applied Biosystems in Foster City, just south of San Francisco. “The way I explain it,” she laughs, “is that I figure out how much to pay people, but I am not payroll.” Her job is specialized and requires her to manage highly confidential information about employees. “It takes a level head,” she says, “to not be shaped by the infor-mation you know about your coworkers.”

Since 2004, Claire Norton-Cruz ’01, MBA ’02, has been the business manager at Midwifery and Women’s Health Care at Geneva Woods in Anchorage, Alaska, which specializes in out-of-hospital births, prenatal care, and cervical and breast can-cer screening for low-income women. During her time in the MBA Program, Norton-Cruz tackled her fear of public speaking, learned to work in groups, and earned the Mills record—which she still holds—for fastest 100-meter individual medley swim with a time of 1:09.96. “I realized later how valuable my MBA education was,” she says, adding that the degree made her “a standout job applicant” compared to her peers. She keeps her competitive spirit alive—and fosters the physical well-being of women—through her work as treasurer for the board of the Golden Nugget Triathlon for women. She also serves on the boards of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, Alaska chapter, and the American Association of Birth Centers.

Tina Lee ’01, MBA ’02, is the first person to hold the title of director of outreach and innovation for the office of California Controller John Chiang. After leaving Mills, Lee worked with the ZeroDivide Foundation, as a recruiting manager at Robert Half Technology, and as a business analyst for a global management consulting and technology services firm. She then earned her second professional degree: a master’s in learning design and technology from Stanford University. “I wanted to explore how technology is changing politics and society,” she says. In her new position, she aims to use technology to encourage busi-ness enterprise throughout northern California—using Twitter (@CA_SCO_Tina), for example, to ask questions like, “How can California government help the green energy sector thrive?”

The liberal arts education she acquired as a Mills undergradu-ate provided the foundation for a clear business ethic during her time in the MBA Program, Lee explains. As a result, her personal business philosophy is simple: “Think.” ◆

Fa l l 2 0 1 2 19

Reunion ’12

Celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Mills Mba PrograM on saturday, sePteMber 29 see aluMnae.Mills.edu/reunion for details or Call 510.430.2123

KerrinParker

TinaLee

Page 22: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

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 [email protected].

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

[email protected].

Page 23: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

22  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Lacy Asbill ’03

Lacy benefited from a scholarship from Mills in 2003. She

went on to co-found a mentoring organization, Moving

Forward Education, with another Mills alumna in 2005.

Their organization has since offered free support to over

4,000 Bay Area youth.

Ruth Gillard ’36 (1913–2002)

Ruth began her professional career teaching sociology at Mills and was later recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency. She was the first woman to inspect the operations of CIA stations on three different continents. In her will, Ruth bequeathed her home to Mills. Her gift provided funding for scholarship support in 2003.

Ruth left a legacy for Mills students.You can too.

To learn more about creating a legacy of your own at Mills contact us toll-free at 1.877.PG.MILLS (1.877.746.4557) or [email protected]. If you’ve already included Mills in your estate plans, please let us know.

You may leave a gift of real estate to Mills through a bequest in your will or trust. Another option is to give the College your home now, live in it for the rest of your life, and receive a current income-tax deduction for a portion of its value.

061203 Mills_PlannedGiving_Ad#1_final_v2.indd 1 7/31/12 5:53 PM

Page 24: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

30  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly

AlumnaeMildredDowneyGrenfell’32, May 8, in St. Helena, California. She was involved with the Modesto Mills Club and was a generous supporter of the College. She is survived by her daughter, Gaye Grenfell Cook ’58.

BettyAicherWeir’32, August 23, 2008, in Albuquerque. She is survived by her son and two grandsons.

BerniceNicollPetty’38, December 23, 2011, in Petaluma, California. She enjoyed gardening and traveling.

Kathryn“Kay”KaserWatkins’38, May 11, in Phoenix. A world traveler and lover of languages, she served as a translator during World War II. She is survived by four children.

HeleneSmedleyWillson’38, March 25, in San Diego. A volunteer at Sharp Cabrillo Hospital and a member of PEO Sisterhood, she loved nature, theater, sewing, and gardening. She is survived by five children and six grandchildren.

MargaretThomsonBronson’40, December 1, 2011, in Brewster, New York. She was a stage, screen, and theater actress. She was also a volunteer and fundraiser for the Putnam Hospital Center. She is survived by her husband, John, and her niece, Elinor “Lin” Herod-Vernon ’67.

JaneGoldsteinSchearRichards’40, June 5, 2007, in Alabama. She is survived by three daughters, including Sarah Schear Cole ’70.

DaphneRichmondRockwell’41, April 16, in Eugene, Oregon. She lived in Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and England and, through her art, shared the beauty and wonder that she found in nature. She is survived by three children.

JuliaKeysAllan’42, August 31, 2004, in Springfield, Illinois. She was a Red Cross volunteer, a member of the Springfield Junior League, and a city golf champion. She served as secretary to the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and the state governor. She is survived by three children.

EdithMerrellSwayne’42, November 15, 2011, in Lafayette, California. She is survived by a son and her sister, Marjorie Merrell Bartlett ’49.

Imogene“Imy”FlunoSmithWhipple’43, April 13, in Alameda, California. She volunteered at Big Trees State Park, participated in AAUW, and was an active member of her church. She loved to play piano, sing, and compose, including a song called Mills Memories, dedicated to Aurelia Reinhardt. She is survived by two children and two grandchildren.

Patricia“Pat”ChiltonMartyr’46, November 15, 2010, in Medford, Oregon. She is survived by her husband, James, their three sons, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Beatrice“Betsy”WoodworthRichmond’46, in November 2011, in Camp Verde, Arizona. She spent her life teaching Hopi and Navajo children and was an accomplished poet. She is survived by her three children.

LoisAgerWay’47, June 1, 2008, in Massachusetts.

Barbara“Risty”RistromWood’47, May 20, in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. A co-owner of The Admiral Risty Restaurant, she served on the board of trustees for Marymount College and Bravo!, a local theater

support group. She is survived by her husband, Ralph; four children; and six grandchildren.

Elizabeth“Dibby”Owen’48, April 7, in Seattle. She worked as a special assistant of international affairs for the US State Department. She is survived by her dear friend, Marilyn Wilson Newland ’48.

JoanneBeckleyNewkirk’49, February 5, in Bend, Oregon. She was a concert pianist and is remembered for her musical brilliance and her dedication to her children. She is survived by her daughter.

Patricia“Pat”TiggardBoese’50, April 25, in Oakland, California. An active volunteer with the Girl Scouts, she worked as an adult education teacher.

VylmaZottiWeeks’51, March 24, in Atlanta. She was a talented needle worker and quilter, a generous Mills supporter, and an active traveler who visited Greece, Turkey, and Japan. She is survived by her husband, Milton, and two daughters.

SheliaHairRoss’56, November 14, 2009, in Laguna Beach, California.

RuthNemoedeJepsen’58, April 3, in San Jose, California. A lover of books and crossword puzzles, she enjoyed traveling to experience other cultures. She is survived by two sons and four grandchildren.

HelenMeisnestMorse’52, April 29, in Seattle. She worked at Harborview Medical Center and King Broadcasting and was station manager of King FM. She is survived by her daughter.

MarciaLouHerringMarsh’56, March 24, in Green Valley, Arizona. A teacher in Arizona, she earned a graduate degree in Spanish American culture.

MarvaSwearenginHarris’56, December 11, 2011, in Vancouver, Washington. A high school teacher and counselor, she was an avid fan of Notre Dame and 49ers football. She is survived by a daughter, two grandsons, and a great-granddaughter.

InMemoriamNoticesofdeathreceivedbeforeJune15,2012

Tosubmitlistings,[email protected]

AnnetteMovichAbrams’59 by Ellen Locke Crumb ’59, P ’94

Margery“Diz”DismanAnson’42 by Robert and Leslie Appleton, Richard and Darla Evans Bastoni ’60, Julie Bernard, Sheryl Gillett Caudana ’72, Nancy Cherney, Ida Erlanger Scott ’42, Katherine Zelinsky Westheimer ’42, Patricia Willmann, Ann Sulzberger Wolff ’42

LauraBalas,MA’92, by Helen Hovdesven

Patricia“Pat”TiggardBoese’50 by Leah Hardcastle Mac Neil, MA ’51, P ’75

WillaWolcottCondon,MA’32,by her daughter, Ann Condon Barbour ’69

Evelyn“Peg”Deane’41 by Mary Hart Clark ’42

KayAndersonDouglas’67 by Alta Ronchetto Mowbray ’67

Sybil“Syb”JohnsonDray’41,P’72, by her husband, Lester Dray

MargaretHincksDyer’43,P’73, by Thera Cornelius

JoyWaltkeFisher’55 by Diane Smith Janusch ’55

VirginiaFleming by Anne Lehmer ’89

CameronFuller-Holloway, son of Melody Fuller-Lewis ’82, by Alison Dong Chambers ’83

GiftsinMemoryofReceived March 1–May 31, 2012

Page 25: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

P=parent; For information about making a tribute gift, contact 510.430.2097 or [email protected].

Fa l l 2 0 1 2 31

LeanneHaneyRhodes’62, May 12, in Nipomo, California. She earned a PhD in special education and worked as an infant educational consultant. She enjoyed opera, antiquing, and hosting holiday dinners. She is survived by her husband, Richard; her daughters Shannon and Alisha Rhodes ’93; and four grandchildren.

MarthaMillerEvans’63, May 13, in Oakland, California. She raised four children then earned a BFA in metalsmithing from Portland School of Art. The family moved to Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Minnesota before settling in Maine, where she lived for 30 years. She is survived by her husband, Jef; four children; and five grandchildren.

MargaretCockrell,MFA’86, March 12, in Walnut Creek, California. A Catholic poet, she participated in chapel programs at Mills along with her husband George, and served as an unofficial mentor to many students, faculty, and staff.

SpousesandfamilyHenryBlauer, husband of Geri Green Blauer ’52, June 6, in Portland, Oregon.

PhilipBurchill, husband of Jacklyn Davidson Burchill ’44, June 6, in Los Angeles.

PhilipLathrap, father of Robbie Lathrap Davis ’71, February 28, in Lafayette, California.

EarlLoomisJr., husband of Muriel Peabody Loomis ’52, May 10, 2011, in Greenport, New York.

LloydPortis, husband of Leal Davidson Portis ’55 and father of Amy Portis Lovin ’90, March 28, in Nevada City, California.

IreneSachanko, mother of Barbara Sachanko Dalmau ’75, April 4, in Henderson, Nevada.

JoeShuttleworth, husband of Rebecca Marsh Shuttleworth ’64, April 17, in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania.

MaryDisneyVansant, daughter of Beverley Berry Disney ’44, August 20, 2009, in Atlanta.

JerryWerlin, husband of Barbara Gilinsky Werlin ’50 and father of Andrea Werlin ’76, May 10, in Los Angeles.

FacultyElbertG.Smith, professor of chemistry, died on March 18 in Oakland. He was 98. Smith earned his doctorate from Iowa State College and taught at Hamline University, the University of Denver, and the University of Hawaii before joining the Mills faculty in 1958. In his 20-year tenure at the College, he often served as head of the department. Smith helped develop and disseminate Wiswesser Line Notation, a chemical notation system which was readily searched by early computers and was capable of identify-ing specific molecular fragments of larger structures. His two books detailing this notation system were translated into many languages. He also combined the principles of line notation and his love of music to develop “Tunefinder,” a computer program that identifies musical pieces based on a series of notes.

CarolLennox’61 by Barbara Li Santi and Lydia Mann ’83

LydiaNelsonMcCollum’43,P’70, by June Holden Schneider ’43

JuliaMies by Beverly Pachner

ChristinaMiller’71 by her sister, Kathleen Miller Janes ’69

IsabelSchemelMulcahy’44 by her husband, Thomas Mulcahy

ElizabethPope by Elaine Bowe Johnson ’62, Marion Osmun ’76

DaphneRichmondRockwell’41 by Mildred Eberle Rothrock ’41

DorisEllsworthRogers’47 by her husband, Joseph Rogers

Susan“Sue”RubensteinSchapiro’52 by June Holden Schneider ’43

LuceenSchmelke by her granddaughter, Erin Beardsley, MBA ’12

IdaShimanouchi’38 by Sarah Wong Soong ’71

IsraelTribble by Deborah Wood ’75

VylmaZottiWeeks’51 by Martha McMaster Quimby ’51, Jeanne Thomas ’51

RuthSirenWheeler’43 by Patricia Boadway Cox ’43, MA ’44

Imogene“Imy”FlunoWhipple’43by Jack and Lynn Broadbent, Barbara Coler, Jennifer and Dan Cooper

AquilinoZarazuaby his daughter, G. Albertina Zarazua Padilla ’78

RuthGage by Shannon Wolfe ’96

WilliamandHelenGaw by their daughter-in-law, Jane Farrell Gaw ’52

HelenGeldhof by her granddaughter, Katja Geldhof ’03

MildredDowneyGrenfell’32 by Karla Knapp

BlytheMillerGrogan’38 by the Mills College Club of New York

MildredRodgersHauck,MA’39, by the Mills College Club of New York

F.WarrenHellman by Terry Hinkle Fairman ’68, Judy Greenwood Jones ’60, P ’92

MarciaGambrellHovick’45 by Patricia Boadway Cox ’43, MA ’44

NancyParsonsJones, mother of Margot Jones Mabie ’66, by the Mills College Club of New York

Rebecca“Beccy”DavidsonKarlson’69 by her husband, Douglas Karlson

ValerieTognazziniKieser’59 by Hope Mason Pracht ’59, Barbara Christy Wagner ’59

C.RodgersKines, husband of Barbara Newman Kines ’55, by Diane Smith Janusch ’55

MarjorieWoolwineKnightly’56 by Linda Denny Knox ’56

Page 26: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

by Tarin Griggs ’12

32  M I l l s Q u a r t e r ly

foreword

do not worry if this makes no sense if this makes you feel senseless in your brain and your mind because this is not about that this is not meant to be crystal or clear it is not glass though it has been shattered and it is fragmented this is not about that this is about the body yours and mine and the ones over there distant blurry miragelike visions those peering over your left shoulder there are many things being said often simultaneously it is overwhelming that is okay how many messages confront you daily hourly this second by the color screens and your boss and your ex and your mother’s father and the glossy pub-lications consuming privates for public regurgitation when do you have time to process this is a process not of elimination because this won’t stop this is not for your comprehension but it is for your eyes your ears your mouth your limbs your loins these are the things my body craves what do you crave?

What the body craves

Raised in Richmond, California, TarinGriggs’12 earned a BA in English with a minor in dance choreography. Her interests include contemporary fiction, poetry, sociolinguistics, and literary criticism, and her work was published in the 2011 edition of The Walrus. The excerpts on this page are from the poem that earned her this year’s Mary Merritt Henry prize for undergraduate poetry.

racing you are lost racing you are lost you are lost racing you are lost

Drifting upward Ignore this beating Focus in—

Pulse point behind ear lobe this heartbeat Touching knuckle beat Rapidfire this heart Through the chest wall beat A hollow delay heart Fingertips diffusing beats Carpal tunnel vision slowing this beat Rhythmic blindness beats this heart

Remains: resting places t-shirt cotton Rougher surfaces skin raked linen

Page 27: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

Fa l l 2 0 1 2 33

See the AAMC travel website at aamc.mills.edu for dates, prices, and full itineraries as they become available. For reservations or additional information, call the Alumnae Association of Mills College at 510.430.2110 or email [email protected].

WaterwaysofRussiafromMoscowtoSt.PetersburgJuly 24–August 3, 2013

Join PresidentAleciaA.DeCoudreaux on this cruise aboard a 56-cabin deluxe river ship, featuring visits to several UNESCO World Heritage sites and extensive guided tours of Red Square, St. Basil’s Cathedral,

and the State Hermitage Museum.

Additionalofferingsfor2013:

• Australia and New Zealand, January 17–30

• Treasures of Ecuador, February 5–16

• Sorrento on the Divine Amalfi Coast, April 17–25

• From Cannes to Venice: Jewels of Antiquity, May 28–June 12

• Cruising the Baltic Sea: Changing the Tides of History, June 13–24

• China: The Yangtze River, September 10–23

• Villages & Vineyards of the Mosel, Rhine & Main Rivers cruise, October 14–22

• Treasures of East Africa featuring Tanzania & Kenya, October 19–November 12

St.Petersburg

To order: Please indicate which items you wish to purchase and the address where they will be sent. Mail payment in the form of a check to AAMC, 5000 MacArthur Blvd, MB#86, Oakland, CA 94613

For more information contact the AAMC at [email protected] or 510.430.2110.

Eucalyptus pins silver $30, gold $35

Print, sketch of Mills Hall by Roi Partridge $20 unframed

Print, photo of Mills Hall circa 1873 by Eadweard Muybridge $20 unframed

Canvas totes $15

Ornaments of campus landmarks (Campanil, Mills Hall, Music Bldg, Art Bldg, eucalyptus trees) $20 each

AlumnAe trAvel 2013

Bring Mills Home! Show off your enthusiasm for your alma mater. The Alumnae Association of Mills College offers a variety of items for purchase, with revenues benefiting

alumnae and student activities such as professor talks, book discussions, social gatherings, the Pearl M Dinner,

and Winter Celebration for December Graduates.

Page 28: Mills Quarterly Fall 2012

Two Evenings of Artistic InnovationThe Fine Arts Division celebrates Pauline Oliveros and John Cage

Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for seniors and non-Mills students, free to alumnae with AAMC card. They may be purchased at the door or online at www.boxofficetickets.com.

For additional information visit musicnow.mills.edu.

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Address service requested

Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, CA, and at additional mailing office(s)

Mills QuarterlyMills College 5000 MacArthur Blvd. Oakland, CA 94613-1301

510.430.3312 [email protected] www.mills.edu

October 5: Sixteen Dances (Cage), Rock Piece (Oliveros), Event with Canfield (Cunningham)

October 6: Cistern Simulation (Oliveros), Variations IV (Cage), Event with Canfield (Cunningham)

Both performances begin at 8:00 pm in the Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Concert Hall and continue in Haas Pavilion

To honor the 80th birthday of Pauline Oliveros and the 100th birthday of John Cage, the Mills College Departments of Music and Dance and the Mills College Art Museum pres-ent two evenings of music by the two renowned compos-ers. Both evenings will culminate with a performance of Event with Canfield, featuring choreography by Merce Cunningham accompanied by Oliveros’s sound-score, In Memoriam: Nikola Tesla, Cosmic Engineer, and original lighting design by Robert Morris. All works will be performed by Mills faculty, students, and guest artists. Join us to pay tribute to the indelible influence of these groundbreaking artists and their role in making Mills College a leading source of innovation in the fine arts.