Donna was a tenacious advocate for her students and the causes she held near and dear to her heart.
In my senior year at UMass Boston, I was fortunate enough to join a community of young creatives at The Mass Media and The Watermark: Journal of the Arts, where Donna served as our supervisor and mentor. Within the art-adorned walls of the student media suite, Donna gave us the autonomy to take chances and make mistakes, as well as the guidance and tools to put things back together again. She nudged us along with warm words of advice and encouragement, and an endless supply of coffee and candy to boot. As her students, we had the awesome privilege of creating meaningful and beautiful publications from start to finish. It was in this experience that I discovered my passion. It left me inspired and determined to pass Donna’s gifts along to others.
In 2008, I founded The Marble Collection (TMC), a small nonprofit organization that publishes the only statewide print and online magazine of the arts for Massachusetts teens. Although I was no longer a student, Donna’s encouragement never wavered. She wrote me a letter of recommendation so I could pursue my master’s degree in Nonprofit Management, and in 2014, she joined TMC’s Board of Directors, lending her time and expertise to ensure the organization’s success. Donna helped facilitate a partnership between TMC and UMass Boston, where the organization has been housed ever since. For the last four years, I’ve had the sincere pleasure of working side by side with Donna, my mentor and friend, to cultivate creativity and affirm teen voices through publication.
I would not be who I am, or where I am, today without Donna as my champion. Her compassion for others and commitment to doing good touched many, many lives. We are all so lucky to have known her. I am so lucky to have known her.
Donna, you will be greatly missed. May you rest in peace.
Tribute to Donna
Donna & Friends
