Marygrove2012 College Distinguished Alumni and Distinguished Alumni of Tomorrow Awards Friday, September 14 • The Marygrove College Theatre DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AND DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI OF TOMORROW AWARDS The Marygrove College Distinguished Alumni and Distinguished Alumni of Tomorrow Awards are honors bestowed by Marygrove College and the Marygrove College Alumni Association. These awards have been established to recognize and honor alumni and current students who have distinguished themselves and their alma mater. The Distinguished Alumni and Distinguished Alumni of Tomorrow Awards celebrate the ideals of competence (the ability to understand and participate effectively in the promise of our evolving world), compassion (the capacity to care about and respect the worth and dignity of people), and commitment (the will to act responsibly based upon one’s beliefs and to contribute to the building of a more just and humane world)— qualities that Marygrove has always tried to instill in its students. The Distinguished Alumni Awards honor graduates who have made significant contributions and demonstrated leadership in any of the following areas: • Professional, educational or artistic endeavors • The community through government service and/or civic organizations (such as Lions Club, city planning commissions, government committees, etc.) • Political action, social justice or volunteer activities in schools, hospitals, etc. • Marygrove College The Distinguished Alumni of Tomorrow Award honors an exceptional undergraduate junior or senior (2012-2013 academic year) who has made significant contributions to the Marygrove College community in all of the following areas: • Academic Accomplishment • Leadership • Service to the College and/or community Juliana Casey, IHM ’62 When she could no longer resist the call to ministry, the formation of leaders within the Catholic healthcare Juliana Casey joined the Sisters, Servants of the ministry. Another book, Food for the Journey: Theological Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1964. She had already Foundations of Catholic Healthcare, was published by earned a Bachelor of Arts in French from Marygrove CHA in 1991 and is still in print. College and a master’s degree in French, from the University of Michigan. The Second Vatican Council In 1994, after several years with CHA, Sister Julie was was underway which signaled profound changes in named director and later vice-president of mission the Catholic Church and in religious communities such services for the Sisters of Mercy Health System of St. as the IHM Sisters. A visionary response to Vatican II by Louis. then President Margaret Brennan, IHM ’45, was to select several sisters to obtain doctorates in theology. Sister Continuing in healthcare ministry, Sister Julie moved Margaret believed that if women were to eastward to become executive vice-president of Catholic make a difference, they needed to deal Health East (CHE). The CHE covers a huge with the extraordinary developments area of the east coast from Maine to Florida, coming from Vatican II. more than 30 hospitals in 11 states with offices in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Sister Juliana Casey was among those The scope of her work included formation chosen and was sent to the Catholic for sponsors, some of whom were lay University of Louvain, Belgium. Over the people, and leadership at many levels. She next seven years she progressed from worked with Global Health Ministry (CHE’s a Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology to global outreach program), joined teams of a Licentiate and then to a Doctorate in practitioners who served in Haiti and Peru, Sacred Theology specializing in the New and helped secure funding for programs, Testament. especially those in Haiti. She learned of the need for maternity care through a On her return to America, Sister Julie became an request from the Archbishop of Port au Prince. Built assistant professor of scripture studies at St. Meinrad with $100,000 donated by Catholic Health East, the new Seminary in Indiana. After teaching for two years, Sister maternity unit was the only part of the hospital complex Julie served for six years as Provincial of the Northeast left standing after the disastrous earthquake. It was Province of the IHM Sisters in Monroe, Michigan. While quickly transformed into a life saving surgical unit. she was Provincial, Sister Julie was the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’ representative on the Always aware of the needs of the poor, Sister Julie led an Bishops’ Committee responsible for the 1983 Pastoral effort throughout the 30 plus hospitals of Catholic Health Letter on War and Peace. She also was awarded an East to enhance the many existing program that serve honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Marygrove homeless persons. She brought a number of volunteer in 1984. After her terms of office as Provincial were organizations within the system together to broaden completed, Sister Julie taught religious studies in the help for the homeless, enhance the efficiency of services graduate program at Mundelein College in Chicago. and raise the consciousness of the entire system. Calling on her administrative experience and extensive Although Sister Julie officially retired in December education in theology, Sister Julie accepted the position 2010, she continues to write, give lectures and conduct of associate vice-president of the Catholic Health retreats. She also serves as one of the Sponsors (persons Association (CHA) of America headquartered in St. Louis, accountable for the fidelity and integrity of Catholic Missouri. Her responsibilities in the division of theology, institutions) of the Providence Ministries, which includes mission and ethics in the national organization of a very large Catholic health system, a Catholic university Catholic hospitals and health facilities were education and multiple other Catholic ministries located in Alaska, and leadership development, and formation. She Washington State, Oregon, Montana and California. She traveled and lectured extensively, and collaborated also earns a lot of frequent traveler miles! on the creation of Healthcare Leadership: Shaping A Tomorrow for the CHA in 1989, an early resource for Marygrove College Distinguished Alumni Award 3 Miriam Mohrhoff Poirier ’62 Two of the women celebrating the 50th anniversary be intractable. According to colleagues, she is an of their graduation from Marygrove met as freshmen internationally recognized leader in the field of human because of an unusual connection. Their fathers worked DNA biomonitoring who has discovered ways to see together at Parke Davis and arranged for them to meet. inside of cells to assess damage or alterations. To Miriam Mohrhoff had returned to Detroit to attend greatly simplify her extraordinary work, Dr. Poirier has Marygrove after 10 years in a Canadian boarding school revealed human DNA damage caused by numerous and didn’t know a soul in Detroit. Miriam, better known environmental factors and pharmaceutical agents. Her as Mimi, met Mary Harris and soon they embarked on lab pioneered studies in pregnant women infected with a lifelong friendship as they journeyed by bus each the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), the cause day from their eastside homes to Marygrove. Inspired of AIDS, showing that damage to the DNA of uninfected by Sister Mary Cabrini, IHM, with a passion for science infants occurred in utero as a result of drug therapy and a thirst for more scientific education, Mimi earned given pregnant women to prevent mother-to-child her first degree, a Bachelor of Science in infection. Much of her work is geared toward Chemistry, Magna Cum Laude. making treatment for various cancers and for HIV-1 infection safe for those who receive it Mimi continued her education at the and showing the extent of danger from the University of Wisconsin (UW), Madison, use of certain drugs or therapies. As a result and was awarded a Master of Science in of her studies with Zidovudine (AZT), the first Oncology in 1964. She met and married drug licensed for use in HIV-infection, the her husband, also a scientist, in Madison. US Food and Drug Administration changed She worked part time as a laboratory the information materials contained in the assistant at UW until her husband packaging of that drug, and the CDC altered accepted a position in Montreal, Canada. their Guidelines for the use of antiviral drugs Mimi Mohrhoff, now Poirier, had three in HIV-infected pregnant women. children- two sons and a daughter. The move to Montreal meant a delightful reunion with her Dr. Poirier is a strong voice in the fields of cancer and college friend, now Mary Harris Martin. According to human biomonitoring, documented by authorship or Mary, “We picked up right where we had left off. We co-authorship of 250 papers published in professional talked on the phone, enjoyed each other’s children, journals in the U.S. and abroad. Her research is also cited Christmas shopped in downtown Montreal, did all the in 369 abstracts. things sisters or really good friends do.” But by 1971, Mimi and her husband and trio of children were headed Describing her work, Dr. Poirier says, “Research by south again, this time to the National Cancer Institute in its very nature has frustrations but, over time, I have Bethesda, Maryland. become very patient. And when it works it is a wonderful affirmation.” Cancer has many forms and many targets in the human body. At the National Cancer Institute Mimi undertook But there is another side of life for Mimi. She unwinds her research career as a lab assistant in the Lung Cancer by strumming her guitar and singing with a band that Branch, division of Cancer Cause and Prevention. She plays Bluegrass and Old Time music. Over the years she also studied for her doctorate at Catholic University in has been an avid sailor and teacher of sailing in the nearby Washington, D.C., earning a Ph.D in Microbiology Chesapeake Bay, but with an ailing mother and young in 1977. She progressed in responsibility through grandchildren at opposite ends of the country her sailing several sections in the division until 1997 when she was time has substantially diminished.