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New Endowed Chair Celebrates Gannon Center Leader

Carolyn Farrell, B.V.M. greets Patricia Ewers (MUND ’57)
At her retirement party, Carolyn Farrell, B.V.M., Gannon Center director (left), greets Patricia Ewers (MUND ’57), recipient of the 2004 Coffey Award for extraordinary service to Mundelein College.
Michael J.Garanzini, S.J., Loyola president, announced that $1 million has been earmarked to establish the Carolyn Farrell, B.V.M., Chair in Women and Leadership. Farrell, director of the Ann Ida Gannon, B.V.M., Center for Women and Leadership, is the force behind the creation of the center and its expanding and thriving programs. So when colleagues and friends gathered for her retirement party this spring,Garanzini used the occasion to announce the creation of an endowed chair named in her honor.

“I’m thrilled with the announcement of an endowed chair focusing on women and leadership,” says Farrell. “It will highlight the B.V.M.s’ commitment to women’s scholarship and concerns, as well as strengthen academic scholarship and programming at the center.”

As interim president of Mundelein College when it affiliated with Loyola in 1991, Farrell helped guide a sensitive and challenging transition for the alumnae, students, faculty and staff of Mundelein College. Under her leadership, the Gannon Center was established in 1993 to carry on the Mundelein tradition of honoring women’s achievements and educating future leaders. Since then, the center’s core programs—the Women’s Studies Program, the Women and Leadership Archives, and the Institute of Women and Leadership—have blossomed to include scholarship and research programs, a variety of conferences and workshops, and participation in the National Council of Research on Women.

Garanzini welcomes contributions from Mundelein alumnae and friends to the chair, promising to match any donations up to $500,000 to make a total endowment of $2 million.

GAIL MANSFIELD