Patricia Kilpatrick (left), general chairwoman of the challenge grant campaign for the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women, celebrates the campaign’s success with Dorothy C. Miller, center director. Photo by Mike Sands.
For 119 years, the Flora Stone Mather Alumnae Association devoted itself to strengthening the institution that eventually became Case Western Reserve University. Its members established scholarships that will support undergraduate students for generations to come. They raised funds to build Mather Gymnasium (now Mather Dance Center) and supported the construction and renovation of other campus facilities, including residence halls, music rehearsal spaces and Mather Park, home of the women’s softball team. They endowed the professorship held by Karen Beckwith, an expert on women’s engagement in electoral politics and social movements.
The alumnae take special pride, however, in the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. In addition to providing financial support for its creation, they helped articulate its mission and persuade the university of its importance. The alumnae envisioned the center as a place where women at Case Western Reserve would find mentors and role models, leadership opportunities and a sense of community—advantages they had enjoyed as students at Flora Stone Mather College.
In 2007, the Mather women dissolved their association, but at the same time, they reaffirmed their commitment to the center. They pledged to raise $1 million for its endowment within five years, and they promised to make a matching contribution from the association’s assets once they achieved their goal.
Alumnae and other center supporters quickly assumed leadership positions in a national challenge grant campaign. Patricia B. Kilpatrick (FSM ’49, GRS ’51) headed a trio of chairwomen that included Susie Gharib (FSM ’72) and Mary Ann Jorgenson (LAW ’75). Nearly 60 volunteers, including every woman on the university’s board of trustees, joined campaign committees. Years of letter writing, visits with potential donors and special events followed. And in May 2012, right on schedule, President Barbara R. Snyder announced that the women had reached their objective.
“I’m so glad we kept the Mather group going until we could get this done,” Kilpatrick says. “We could have just packed our bags and gone away. But the Mather women wouldn’t do that.”
Much of the inspiration for the campaign came from Snyder’s appointment in 2007 as the university’s first female president. Her arrival generated tremendous excitement among the Mather alumnae, and Kilpatrick sensed that they were prepared “to do something spectacular.” And so, during an early meeting between Snyder and the board of the alumnae association, Kilpatrick said, “I think we could find a way to raise a million dollars.”
She must have known what would happen next. “Everybody said, ‘Great idea! Now, since you had the idea, you be the chair.’”
Later, and especially after the economic crisis of 2008, Kilpatrick wondered if her goal had been unrealistic. But the alumnae’s track record gave her cause for hope. “When the Mather women put their minds to it,” she says, “they can do anything.”
The student officers of WISER (Women in Science and Engineering Roundtable) lead the group’s efforts to promote the academic excellence of female students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. Front row, from left: Ajmeeta Sangtani, Jinjing Lee, Kim Yacoub and Carmen Kakish. Second row, from left: Megan Milne, Sarah Gavac, Christiane Mhanna, Ashley Han and Lyndlea Blum. Photo by Heather Clayton Terry.
Kilpatrick’s own career, both as a leader of the alumnae association and as a university administrator, illustrates her point. She joined the physical education faculty at Mather College in 1962 and advanced to a series of positions that included associate dean, director of the Thwing Center, and secretary and marshal of the university. In 1987, she became Case Western Reserve’s first female vice president, a post she held until her retirement five years later.
Her reputation and ties to the university made Kilpatrick an ideal chairwoman, says Dorothy C Miller, founding director of the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women. “She has been a true cheerleader for us. And we’re really lucky, because she’s so loved.”
Several of the women who joined Kilpatrick as campaign ambassadors and fundraisers were past or current members of the center’s community advisory board, which conducts outreach beyond the campus to generate interest in and support for center activities. Campaign stalwarts included the board’s founding chair, Susan Troia (FSM ’65); the current chair, Beth Embrescia (SAS ’94); Barbara Collins (FSM ’56); Lynne Alfred Hanson (LAW ’76); Edith Fellinger Hirsch (FSM ’59); Ka-Pi Hoh (CIT ’84, GRS ’87, GRS ’89); and Deborah H. Nash (GRS ’75).
Miller is also quick to cite the “tireless work” of Sandra Malek Vodanoff (FSM ’59) and Kathryn Karipides (GRS ’59). Vodanoff was the alumnae association’s last president, but the Mather women prefer to think of her as the “forever president” because she’ll never have a successor. Karipides, the Samuel B. and Virginia C. Knight Professor Emerita of Humanities, served as associate provost of the university before retiring in 2008. She began teaching at Mather College in 1956 and founded what is now the Department of Dance in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“Women’s education and issues have always been in the forefront of my professional life,” Karipides says. “Back in 1990, the faculty senate asked me to chair an ad hoc committee that looked at the status of women at the university, and one of our recommendations was to have a center for women. So my husband, David, and I felt that this was a good place to make a contribution for something lasting on our campus.”
The center will celebrate its next milestone in 2014, when it takes up residence in the new Tinkham Veale University Center. The move will increase its visibility and place it alongside potential collaborators, including the Office of Greek Life and the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence. The center will also acquire additional space to administer programs for students, faculty, staff, alumnae and community members.
Through public talks, informal gatherings and individual counseling, the center pursues a multifaceted mission. It educates young women and men about health and healthy relationships. It provides leadership development and career advice for faculty and staff members, especially in fields where women are underrepresented. Its Women in Science and Engineering Roundtable (WISER) offers peer and professional mentoring to students entering the STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. Finally, the center advocates for women’s needs at the university and in the community, and it serves as a clearinghouse of information about local events, women’s issues and the latest research findings on girls and women.
When Kilpatrick met with potential donors, she told them about these varied activities. She described the center’s steady expansion and its growing impact over the past decade. And then, in closing her appeal, she said, “This is a way to keep the Mather name alive. It’s an important, living part of the university, and we would like your help to make it a success.” Ultimately, more than 440 donors came forward to secure the center’s future and enhance the Mather alumnae’s legacy.