Reflections Magazine Issue #78 - Spring 2013 | Page 25

Alumni Feature

Sister Ann Joachim Award
Anne Birnbryer
MacMillan Eichman ‘67
Having spent her
early career in education, advertising
and marketing,
Anne today is a
consummate volunteer focusing on
quality-of-life issues
that affect everyone living in downtown San Diego, CA. Recognized for
her persistence, intellect and can-do
attitude, she has worked tirelessly to
develop and sustain public libraries,
after-school programs, and services
to provide food, shelter and health
care for the homeless. “Whatever
is needed to make her community
better, Annie will roll up her sleeves
and go to work,” said her nominator. “Her life embodies the values
of Siena Heights and Sister Ann
Joachim—whom we all admired
tremendously,” said her presenter
and friend since freshman year,
Mary Kay Kerschen. “Anne has consistently demonstrated leadership
and concern for others throughout
her adult life.”
Patricia Siemen, OP ‘72
Pat is an environmental attorney in
Orlando, FL, who
has pioneered the
field of Earth Jurisprudence, an approach to governance and law that
reflects and respects the interdependence of nature, humanity and all
of Earth’s inhabitants. “Siena laid the
foundation for my ministerial and
professional service,” she said. Just as
the Adrian Dominicans shaped her
faith in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, “Siena opened my eyes
to ‘the signs of the times’ around me.”
She credited many Siena mentors:
Sister Mary Louise Hall’s English class
on “Letters from Prison;” Sister Jane
Farrell’s leadership of the Model UN
program; Sisters Margaret Page and
Carmelita O’Connor—“dear, dear
Carmie” whose liberation theology
class “taught us to listen to the
voices of the ‘underside;’” and Sister
Teddy McKenna, whose Latin American history class taught Pat to ask
“who benefits? and who pays?
when assessing public policy.”

—The Sister Ann Joachim Award
is presented in memory of a legendary
Adrian Dominican faculty member. It recognizes significant contributions to the
University and/or community through
activities that demonstrate strong leadership, the ability to get things done, and
the capacity to confront challenging
issues head-on while maintaining the
image and spirit of the University.

St. Dominic Award
Angela Susalla, OP ’63, ‘70
Sister Angela has
spent a lifetime
addressing poverty
and discrimination,
as a teacher, counselor, pastoral minister and, for the
past 30 years, as a
social worker in Tunica, MS, long the
poorest county in the U.S. “Poverty
was easy to see in Tunica,” she said.
Racism was evident immediately,
because everything was segregated,
“but it took longer to see how deeply embedded it was, and is, in all
our systems—political, educational,
judicial, economic, cultural. Inroads
have been made, but progress is
slow. Working in Tunica