Class Note 1999
Issue
July-August 2021
Hello, ’99s!
As I write, I am optimistic about the upcoming summer. I hope this column finds you enjoying some pieces of life that have been on hold now for more than a year. I eagerly await reports of your post-pandemic moments and adventures.
In a commentary piece Carrie B. Kisker wrote for Community College Daily, she references her latest book, published in February by Harvard Education Press, “As I argue in Creating Entrepreneurial Community Colleges: A Design Thinking Approach, positioning a college’s entrepreneurial actions as market-oriented, as many scholars and commentators critical of such activities often do, creates the false dichotomy that a college either serves students or serves the market. Because design thinking begins by empathizing with stakeholder needs and iteratively prototypes and tests new programs or ideas with those same stakeholders, the process can guide colleges in pursuing a mission-oriented approach to fiscal sustainability.” Carrie is an education research and policy specialist with Kisker Education Consulting and a director of the Center for the Study of Community Colleges.
Sally Dickinson DeLeon, senior project manager at the University of Maryland Office of Sustainability, launched the SustainableUMD Progress Hub, “a new, highly interactive web portal that reports on efforts to promote sustainability at UMD” (www.sustainingprogress.umd.edu). Sally and her husband, fellow ’99 Patrick DeLeon, live in Washington, D.C., where Patrick works at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center overseeing the addictions treatment clinic for the military. Their kids have been remote schooling at home with Sally for a year as they all navigated the difficulties of pandemic life.
Thank you to Kathleen Catapano Anderson for writing to share information about an important publication by a classmate. “I wanted to share this article (from Wired magazine, www.wired.com/story/35-years-later-studies-show-a-silver-lining-from-ch…) about a large international study led by National Institutes of Health tenured scientist Lindsay McComber Morton. The study was published in Science this week (April 22) on the 35th anniversary of Chernobyl. It describes how radiation from the disaster causes cancers. Its importance is that it is the first of its kind to describe the exact type of injury to DNA that leads to cancer formation. For years we have known that radiation is associated with cancers, but the mechanism has not been shown. It may have implications for future cancer mitigation, prevention, and treatment.” Great work, Lindsay!
Finally, our executive committee is pleased to announce that Nahoko Kawakyu-O’Connor has been elected the next class of 1999 alumni councilor. Nahoko started her three-year term at the end of June. A big thank you to Jeff Fine, who served our class well, especially during his last year as alumni councilor during the uncertainty of the pandemic. Thank you also to all the extremely qualified candidates who ran in the election. Until next time.
—Jackie Rioux Gladstone, 21 Westwood Circle, Dover, NH 03820; (603) 834-0517; jackie.dartmouth99 @gmail.com
As I write, I am optimistic about the upcoming summer. I hope this column finds you enjoying some pieces of life that have been on hold now for more than a year. I eagerly await reports of your post-pandemic moments and adventures.
In a commentary piece Carrie B. Kisker wrote for Community College Daily, she references her latest book, published in February by Harvard Education Press, “As I argue in Creating Entrepreneurial Community Colleges: A Design Thinking Approach, positioning a college’s entrepreneurial actions as market-oriented, as many scholars and commentators critical of such activities often do, creates the false dichotomy that a college either serves students or serves the market. Because design thinking begins by empathizing with stakeholder needs and iteratively prototypes and tests new programs or ideas with those same stakeholders, the process can guide colleges in pursuing a mission-oriented approach to fiscal sustainability.” Carrie is an education research and policy specialist with Kisker Education Consulting and a director of the Center for the Study of Community Colleges.
Sally Dickinson DeLeon, senior project manager at the University of Maryland Office of Sustainability, launched the SustainableUMD Progress Hub, “a new, highly interactive web portal that reports on efforts to promote sustainability at UMD” (www.sustainingprogress.umd.edu). Sally and her husband, fellow ’99 Patrick DeLeon, live in Washington, D.C., where Patrick works at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center overseeing the addictions treatment clinic for the military. Their kids have been remote schooling at home with Sally for a year as they all navigated the difficulties of pandemic life.
Thank you to Kathleen Catapano Anderson for writing to share information about an important publication by a classmate. “I wanted to share this article (from Wired magazine, www.wired.com/story/35-years-later-studies-show-a-silver-lining-from-ch…) about a large international study led by National Institutes of Health tenured scientist Lindsay McComber Morton. The study was published in Science this week (April 22) on the 35th anniversary of Chernobyl. It describes how radiation from the disaster causes cancers. Its importance is that it is the first of its kind to describe the exact type of injury to DNA that leads to cancer formation. For years we have known that radiation is associated with cancers, but the mechanism has not been shown. It may have implications for future cancer mitigation, prevention, and treatment.” Great work, Lindsay!
Finally, our executive committee is pleased to announce that Nahoko Kawakyu-O’Connor has been elected the next class of 1999 alumni councilor. Nahoko started her three-year term at the end of June. A big thank you to Jeff Fine, who served our class well, especially during his last year as alumni councilor during the uncertainty of the pandemic. Thank you also to all the extremely qualified candidates who ran in the election. Until next time.
—Jackie Rioux Gladstone, 21 Westwood Circle, Dover, NH 03820; (603) 834-0517; jackie.dartmouth99 @gmail.com