MCCNY Gathering for Mills Institute - May 20, 2023
On May 20, 2023 Dr. Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, executive director of the Mills Institute, was in New York in May to let us hear about the Mills Institute's mission and its first initiatives…
A good crowd braved the heavy rain on Saturday May 20th to gather at the home of a Mills class of '60 member to hear about what's going on, on campus and, in particular, about the Mills Institute. Dr. Nicole Guidotti-Hernandez, executive director of the institute, was joined by Nikole Adams and Chelsea Ekholm '13, from the Institutional Advancement Office, and Debby Dittman '68, president of the AAMC. Lori Jacques, director of Alumni Relations at Northeastern, came down from Boston. For those of you who could not be there, here's a short recap.
Right now the majors that are offered are in biology, health science, computer science, and business administration. Because accreditation for Mills's programs lapsed last July with the merger, majors in other disciplines at Mills need to be meshed with Northeastern's academic program, and then they will require accreditation by the New England Commission on Higher Education. It's a long process with many steps. The education major at Mills may be in place by this fall; other majors are expected to be in place by 2024 and 2025. In the meantime, for-credit courses in the humanities and the arts are still offered. Nikole Adams hopes to host a virtual event this fall with Beth Kockley, the interim dean of Mills College at Northeastern University, to report on the status of the accreditations and program development.
For over a decade, Cris Russell '71 has funded a Women in Science program, and she asked Nicole Guidotti-Hernandez to scale it up. (See the interview with Nicole in the Quarterly--https://quarterly.mills.edu/) The expanded Women in Science program will be the first of many that the Mills Institute will administer. In addition, Nicole is applying to the Mellon Foundation for a grant for a multi-year program using all of the arts--book arts included--to help formerly incarcerated women find their footing and move forward. On another front, Nicole and Stephanie Hanor, director of the Mills College Art Museum, have joined forces to get unframed art in the collection framed and on display. All in all, the institute is quickly taking shape and getting programs underway.
The Mills faculty are working with their counterparts at Northeastern to mesh the academic programs and bring the merger to completion, while across the campus buildings that suffered from long-deferred maintenance are being repaired and restored, ready for an anticipated 1,200 students expected next fall.
Margot Jones Mabie '66
A few photos with attendees. Lovely to see everyone! At the bottom of this page are slides from Dr. Nicole Guidotti-Hernández' presentation.
Below are the slides that Dr. Nicole Guidotti-Hernández provided to help convey the concepts of the entities related to the Mills campus of Northeastern in Oakland that include the Mills Institute:
