Susan Sygall

An Evening with Susan Sygall, Feb. 3: Please RSVP

January 17, 2020

The Dundon-Berchtold Institute will welcome Susan Sygall for an Ethics Week Conversation on Monday, February 3, at 7:15 p.m., in the Brian Doyle Auditorium. Sygall is a world-renowned disability rights and leadership advocate, a MacArthur Fellow, and an honorary doctorate recipient at the University’s May 2019 commencement.

While the event is free and open to all, the Dundon-Berchtold Institute asks that attendees please RSVP using this link.

Sygall is CEO and co-founder of Mobility International USA, a non-profit organization advancing disability rights and leadership globally. She has co-authored numerous publications and lectured throughout the world on a variety of topics related to inclusive international development, women’s leadership, and disability rights. She is a member of the International Women’s Forum, and also received the President’s Award from President Bill Clinton at the White House for her active role throughout our country and the world in empowering people with disabilities.

For more information, contact Hannah Pick, Dundon-Berchtold Institute, at x7825 or pick@up.edu.

University Announces 2019 Commencement Speaker, Honorees

February 1, 2019

The University of Portland has announced the speaker and honorees to be recognized during the 2019 Commencement ceremonies, to be held in the Chiles Center on Sunday, May 5. Commencement I begins at 10 a.m. and is for all graduates of the Pamplin School of Business, Shiley School of Engineering, and School of Nursing. Commencement II starts at 3 p.m. and is held for undergraduate and graduate students of the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Education.

Receiving the University’s highest honor, the Christus Magister Medal, is Sr. Alberta Dieker, O.S.B. As one of the Benedictine Sisters of Mount Angel, Sr. Dieker has devoted her life to faith, scholarship, and service. She spent more than 45 years teaching history and other subjects, first as an elementary school teacher in Silverton and Mount Angel and then as a faculty member for Mount Angel College, Mount Angel Seminary, and Eastern Oregon University. She is also the author of A Tree Rooted in Faith: A History of Queen of Angels Monastery, published in 2007. Sr. Dieker is renowned for her leadership skills, having served as president of Mount Angel College, president and founding member of the Oregon Catholic Historical Society, and executive secretary of the American Benedictine Academy. Sr. Dieker will receive her Medal in absentia at Commencement II.

Honorary doctorate recipients will be:

Mary Carlin Yates, Commencement I and II.Retired Ambassador Mary Carlin Yates, the speaker for both ceremonies and an honorary doctorate recipient, is a North Portland native who served for 31 years as a career member of the United States Foreign Service. Her distinguished career, which began in 1980, included serving twice as U.S. Ambassador, to the Republic of Ghana from 2002 to 2005 and to the Republic of Burundi from 1999 to 2002. In Burundi, she worked extensively to bring stability and an end to hostility through a peace process led by the former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela. She also served as a political officer and public affairs counselor in Rwanda during the genocide crisis of the early 1990s. After her retirement, she served as the Charge d’Affaires in Sudan for the Department of State until 2012. Today, Ambassador Yates is director of the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Oregon State University Honors College Board of Regents.
Amy Dundon-Berchtold, Commencement I. Amy Dundon-Berchtold’s first real estate transaction was selling her own house. Her second was an apartment building, and the third was an industrial warehouse–an illustrious beginning to what would become a 40-year career as a real estate investor in Southern California. Dundon-Berchtold, a member of the University of Portland’s Board of Regents, and her husband, Jim Berchtold ’63, wanted to create a place where all UP students could engage in discussions around personal values and beliefs. In 2011, this vision was realized with the creation of the Dundon-Berchtold Institute for Moral Formation and Applied Ethics, offering classes, public events, and student-faculty research support. From the success of that endeavor, Jim and Amy provided the lead gift for the University’s first academic building in 25 years, which was named Dundon-Berchtold Hall in their honor and will open in summer 2019.
Susan Sygall, Commencement II. As CEO of Mobility International USA (MIUSA), Susan Sygall has spent more than 38 years advancing the rights of people with disabilities around the world. Sygall, who became disabled after a car accident, went to Australia as a Rotary Scholar and a wheelchair rider. The experience made her realize that people with disabilities were not only excluded from leadership programs, but were also unable to access services that could improve their health and education. Upon returning to the University of Oregon, she and another graduate student co-founded MIUSA in 1981 to promote international exchange for students with disabilities. In 1995, Sygall was the driving force behind Congress funding the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange, and that same year she led a delegation of 350 women with disabilities to the International Women’s Conference in Beijing, which is now seen as the start of the disabled women’s movement.
Mucki (Pei Ling) Tan ’80, Commencement I. After graduating with a degree in business in 1980 from the University of Portland, Mucki (Pei Ling) Tan returned to Jakarta, Indonesia, to become a manager with the Rodamas Group, a company his father founded in 1951. Together, Tan and his father expanded into a diverse portfolio of joint ventures worldwide, including the food industry, construction materials manufacturing, consumer goods, and real estate. Tan devotes particular attention to educational initiatives in Indonesia but has also supported his alma mater, with gifts toward such endeavors as Dundon-Berchtold Hall and the Beauchamp Recreation and Wellness Center.
Robert Watzke, M.D., Commencement II. Dr. Watzke is renowned for his dedication as a retina researcher and specialist¾ a career that has spanned six decades. He developed new and innovative examination techniques, pioneered the use of lasers to conduct complex retinal surgery, and mentored more than 350 retinal specialists. Dr. Watzke was also instrumental in the development of the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health & Science University, where he focused on retina and vitreous disease. He is heralded for both his surgical skill and his commitment to national randomized trials, especially related to diabetic retinopathy and macular photocoagulation. In 2016, the Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences department at that university created the Robert C. Watzke Endowment in his honor.

For more information contact the president’s office at x7107 or leadem@up.edu.

Andrew Lafrenz, integrative health and wellness, presented “The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on College Students Mental Well-Being and Physical Activity Levels” a poster presentation at the 2020 Oregon Public Health Association Annual Conference, Portland, OR, October 12-13, 2020. Conference provided virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Stephanie Salomone, mathematics, wrote “Building and Sustaining Community by Centering Affective Learning Goals.” (with student coauthor Branwen Schaub) in Assessment Update Special Issue on the theme of “Adapting Assessment Methods to Rapidly Changing Circumstances,” Volume 32, Issue 6, Nov. 2020. Retrieved from https://assessmentinstitute.iupui.edu/au/index.html.

Rachel Wheeler, theology, had her article, “The Revelatory Tide: Desert Spirituality and Contemporary Water Crises,” published in Spiritus 20, no. 2 (Fall 2020): 176-193.

Jakob Kotas, mathematics, served as editor for Advances in Nonlinear Biological Systems: Modeling and Optimal Control, Applied Mathematics Series Vol. 11, American Institute of Mathematical Sciences (Oct. 2020). Available at this link. He also cowrote “An alternative model to prion fragmentation based on the detailed balance between PrPSc and suPrP” (with Monique Chyba, Vincent Beringue, Human Rezaei, Angelique Igel-Egalon, and student coauthors Yuliia Kravchenko, Christopher Eblen) in “Advances in Nonlinear Biological Systems: Modeling and Optimal Control, Applied Mathematics Series Vol. 11, American Institute of Mathematical Sciences (Oct. 2020).

Christina Ivler, Shiley School of Engineering, presented “Hover Handling Qualities of Fixed-Pitch, Variable-RPM Quadcopters with Increasing Rotor Diameter” (with Farhan Gandhi and student coauthors Ariel Walter, Michael McKay) and “Development and Flight Validation of Proposed Unmanned Aerial System Handling Qualities Requirements” (with Truong, K., Kerwin, D., Otomize, J., Parmer, D., Tischler, M.B., Gowans, N.) to the Vertical Flight Society 76^th Annual Forum, Oct. 6-8, 2020.

Susan McDaniel, performing and fine arts, presented three art songs attributed to Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799), one of the earliest known Western classical composers of African descent (with Arwen Myers, soprano) as part of “Celebrating Every Voice! A concert featuring music of BIPOC composers” at CollabFest, the online conference of the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society, 15 October 2020.

Rebecca Smith, education, had her article, “Flipped learning during a global pandemic: Empowering students with choice,” published in International Journal of Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Higher Education, 5(1), 100-105. See the article using this link.

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