ÑÇÖÞAV

Deborah Willis (PhD cultural studies 2003) remembers wanting to be a photographer since she was 10 years old. Her mother worked as a beautician, and Willis said the images and stories that surrounded her in her mom’s shop had a lasting impact on her career and her view of activism. Willis was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year in recognition of her life of activism as a photographer.

Schar School Public Policy graduate Kevin Jon Fandl passed away June 29 from leukemia.

Jay and Carolyn Marsh are bidding adieu to ÑÇÖÞAV after a combined 90 years of service. But the larger-than-life roles they played in the university’s Athletics Department are here to stay.

Mason alumnus Roger Connor is an aeronautics curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

Activism runs in Laila Mokhiber’s blood. Well before she became the director of communications at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA USA), Mokhiber was a child holding protest signs in human rights demonstrations. Before then, her mother held her as a baby in the gallery of the Supreme Court, as her father argued to incorporate Arab Americans into the Civil Rights Act in 1987. The ÑÇÖÞAV alumna has also made a name for herself. In 2020, she was named one of the top 40 influential Arab Americans under 40 by the Arab America Foundation.

Mason alumna Deborah Bundy-Carpenter was recently featured in Mason Alumni Association's monthly newsletter, The Scroll. Bundy-Carpenter (BSN '79) received the 2020 Governor's Honor Award in the category of Personal and Professional Excellence in recognition for her dedication and excellence in her profession, public health, and collaborative spirit with other healthcare entities and agencies.

Theresa Davis, PhD, was recently featured in The Scroll, Mason's Alumni Association's monthly newsletter. Davis shares her experience leading the telemedicine division that supports intensive care units across the Inova system during the pandemic and representing the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses at the White House.

Dilafruz Khonikboyeva, BA ’10, MS ’14, grew up during the civil war in Tajikistan, and said it was her experience of living through conflict that motivat

With racial tension high in the United States, and the need for equity growing ever stronger, students and faculty at ÑÇÖÞAV’s Antonin Scalia Law School participated in a 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge virtually in March and April. The challenge, created by diversity expert Eddie Moore Jr., focuses on the Black American experience and is designed to advance deeper understandings of the intersections of race, power, privilege, and oppression, and guide participants in becoming more aware and engaged regarding racial equity.

ÑÇÖÞAV on Friday afternoon honored its largest and most diverse graduating class in history with its 54th Spring Commencement.

Thank you, President Washington, for the invitation to speak today and for the honorary degree. This school is special to me for several reasons—many of my own students at NOVA transfer here.

The Class of 2021 will graduate on Friday, May 14.