 Elma Fitzgerald, SNJM '34
Embodiment of the Mission of St. Mary's Academy
Sr. Elma Fitzgerald has lived her life answering God's call to service, as a Sister of the Holy Names both in this country and in Lesotho in southern Africa. Sr. Elma always dreamed of becoming a missionary. After joining the Sisters of the Holy Names in 1934, she was assigned to teach elementary school in Salem. In 1941, she received word that she would perform missionary work in Lesotho but her plan was thwarted by World War II. Instead she was sent to Tampa, Florida to continue teaching. In 1946 Sr. Elma finally traveled to Lesotho to teach, and she was soon asked to study nursing to replace an ill sister who needed to return home. During her nursing training she was invited to build a maternity center to help reduce the number of deaths during childbirth. Elma accepted the challenge and finished her nursing education in the US. She began the new maternity center in 1960 and provided thousands of women and children medical care through all phases of pregnancy. The Sisters also established clinics where mothers and children could receive immunizations, instruction on nutrition, and handouts of food staples. In 1971 Sr. Elma was asked to start a nurses' training school. She found herself in a building that was an abandoned hospital in terrible disrepair with no money for supplies or teacher salaries. Sr. Elma returned to the US and spent six weeks fundraising for her new school. When she returned she witnessed extraordinary demonstrations of generosity that she calls "miracles", which provided the rest of the needed supplies. After seventeen years Sr. Elma left the school in the charge of one of her former students. Next Sr. Elma built a Health Center to provide outpatient care, a maternity ward, and living quarters for resident nurses. She found funding, hired a contractor, and opened the doors. After five years at the Health Center and 48 years in Lesotho, Sr. Elma came home to Marylhurst, where in "retirement" she teaches Mary's Woods residents computer skills.
 Marisa Lino '68
Living Out a Dream
Ambassador Marisa Lino had always dreamed for a job that would let her travel and see the world. Her dream came true with the U.S. Foreign Service. Now thirty-two years later, she has a distinguished and successful career and a lengthy resume noting assignments that took her to Peru, Iraq, Italy, Syria, Pakistan, Albania, and Washington D.C. She is a 2003 recipient of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs Alumni Association's Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award for her many accomplishments in the field of international affairs, and has earned four Superior Honor Awards and one Meritorious Honor Award during her Foreign Service career. She speaks fluent Italian, French, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, and is conversant in Arabic and Albanian. Marisa retired as a Foreign Service officer in 2003. Later that year, she took another overseas assignment as Director of the Bologna Center for John Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies program in Italy. [This category was created to honor an alumna who has demonstrated the courage and commitment necessary to pursue a career that to most people would only remain a dream.]
 Teri Mariani '70
Athletic Achievement
Teri has proven to be a major force in the state of Oregon's athletics. After more than 30 years on Portland State University's campus, she has held leadership roles as a student, an associate athletic director, an interim athletic director, and twice as a senior woman administrator. A former softball player, Mariani became the youngest person ever to be selected to the Portland Metropolitan Softball Association Hall of Fame for both her playing and coaching contributions to the sport. An outstanding 3-sport athlete at PSU, she helped lead the softball team to the national tournament as captain and also led the volleyball team to consecutive national tournaments, including two Top-10 finishes. As softball coach over the past 27 years, her teams have won 608 games, she is one of the few softball coaches to have coached for more than 25 seasons and ranks 14th on the all-time Division II winningest coaches list. Recently, Teri was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, and was honored with the National Association for Girls and Women in Sports Pathfinder Award. In 2004, she achieved the most wins by a Portland State coach in any sport.
 Vicki Ford '69
Outstanding Service to Community: The Sister Shawn Marie Barry Award
Vicki has served tirelessly in immeasurable volunteer capacities spanning the 36 years since her graduation from St. Mary's. Currently, she is the President of the Birthright Board of Directors. She has served as a religious educator in the Portland Archdiocese for more than 25 years, having led hundreds of adults and children through RCIA and service projects. Vicki is active on boards, chairs fundraisers, and volunteers at numerous events and fundraisers at St. Mary's Academy, Jesuit High School, Holy Family Parish, Los Embajadores, and Birthright. Her faith, her hope, her love, and her spirituality are an inspiration to those she serves as well as those she inspires to serve alongside her.
 Kate Jeans-Gail '97
Memorial Tribute
In addition to the four awards given at this year's ceremony, the Alumnae Association honored Kate Jeans-Gail '97 with a special memorial tribute. Kate and her mother died tragically last December in a car accident. Kate was an extraordinary young woman who accomplished a great deal of good in her short life. Kate spent the summer between her sophomore and junior years at Smith College serving at Mother Teresa's Sisters of Charity in the slums of Calcutta, India serving the lowest of the lowly in the Indian caste system, orphans and the dying. After graduation from Smith College, Kate joined the Peace Corps in Morocco and most recently had begun a job with Teach For America in New York. She and four of her friends from St. Mary's had dreamed of opening a clinic in Portland that offered healthcare services to the under-privileged. Kate was passionate about social justice, and heard, and answered the call to serve those less fortunate. She was an inspiration to all those who knew her and the St. Mary's Academy community looks forward to honoring her at the 2004 St. Mary's Academy Awards.
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