YOUR 2016 EXCELLENCE IN STEWARDSHIP AWARD WINNERS
Congratulations to Mary Beebe, Lynda Claassen and Catriona Jamieson for building strong community ties that enable
UC San Diego to fulfill its mission as a student-centered, research-focused, service-oriented public institution.
Mary Beebe
Director, The Stuart Collection
Over the past 35 years, Mary Beebe’s artistic
sensibility has become a signature of the UC San
Diego landscape, literally. She is the driving force
behind the entirely donor-funded Stuart Collection
of 18 contemporary public sculptures across
campus. “I love it. It’s a real privilege,” she says.
Mary knows how to work with artists, and she is
equally as good with supporters.
Since 1981, Mary has developed enduring
relationships with the National Endowment for
the Arts, the UC San Diego Department of Visual
Arts and other organizations. More so, she has
cultivated a loyal following of community members,
some of whom do not consider themselves lovers of
contemporary art, yet who respond to her passion
and “her marvelous personality,” says supporter and
award nominator Bebe Zigman. “She is so full of life!”
Mary graduated from Bryn Mawr College, then
studied at the Sorbonne at the University of Paris
and L’Ecole du Louvre. She ran a contemporary art
space in Portland, Oregon, for nearly 10 years before
coming to UC San Diego. She has a worldwide
network of friends and colleagues, a few of
whom sit on the Stuart Collection’s Advisory Board,
a group of internationally recognized experts who
confer with her on artists to ask for proposals for
the collection. The Advisory Board also gives its
endorsement on artistic merit before fully developed
proposals go to the Chancellor.
Her supporters respect her connections and her
knowledge, both of which she shares with her
support group — the Friends of the Stuart Collection
— by providing exclusive access to the world of
contemporary art through travel and tours of private
collections. “She really gets her subjects; she knows
art, knows what she’s working with, and can translate
that exuberance to other people,” says Bebe.
Exuberance also translates to excellence in
stewardship. In 2015, the Stuart Collection received
a $1.2 million gift from a Los Angeles donor who
began supporting UC San Diego as a Friend of the
Stuart Collection in 2007. Over time, the donor’s
trust in and steady support of Mary’s vision and
follow-through has led to this exceptional level of
generosity and a plan for the future: The donation is
the lead gift for a Stuart Collection endowment.
YOUR 2016 EXCELLENCE IN STEWARDSHIP AWARD WINNERS
Congratulations to Mary Beebe, Lynda Claassen and Catriona Jamieson for building strong community ties that enable
UC San Diego to fulfill its mission as a student-centered, research-focused, service-oriented public institution.
Lynda Claassen
Director of Special Collections and Archives, UC San Diego Library
For 33 years, while overseeing the building
of a remarkable collection of rare archival
materials, Lynda Claassen has also built a
trusting family of partners. “Lynda has worked
with and developed strong relationships with
some of UC San Diego’s most influential donors,
which have led to outstanding gifts-in-kind
for the Library,” says award nominator Julie
Sully. “These materials are a treasure trove for
scholars around the world and are a point of
distinction for the Library. Her work with donors
pertaining to their gifts of papers and materials
are often very technical and require great care
and sensitivity, which Lynda masters artfully.”
And patiently — for example, the archives of Jonas
Salk. “We started with Jonas in 1986 when he put
some of his papers on deposit here,” says Lynda.
When Salk passed away in 1995, concrete plans
for the 1,000 boxes containing his historic legacy
had not been formalized, but over the years Lynda
has earned the trust of his children. “The family is
very supportive of digitizing to make Jonas’ work
accessible, and there is a third generation who
will be just as interested in their grandfather’s
continuing effect on the world.”
After the opening ceremony for the Salk Archive,
Peter Salk, president of the Jonas Salk Legacy
Foundation said, “It was a rich, heartfelt and
meaningful tribute to my father at the close of
the centenary year. I wish to express particular
thanks to Lynda Claassen for her dedicated
stewardship of the collection… and for working
so closely with the family. She has created
the ground on which this valuable archive can
continue to make contributions and support
scholarship in the years ahead.”
Among many collections (including that of Audrey
and Ted “Dr. Seuss” Geisel), Lynda is now working
with Chicano activist and political organizer
Herman Baca and his children to preserve the
papers, videos, tapes and other artifacts of his
history-making career. “It’s our job to steward the
collection and keep the family relationship going,”
Lynda says. Preserved in one place, this will be
one of the richest primary resources for those
studying California’s Latino civil, political and
human rights movement of the 1970s.
YOUR 2016 EXCELLENCE IN STEWARDSHIP AWARD WINNERS
Congratulations to Mary Beebe, Lynda Claassen and Catriona Jamieson for building strong community ties that enable
UC San Diego to fulfill its mission as a student-centered, research-focused, service-oriented public institution.
Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief, Division of Regenerative Medicine
Dr. Catriona Jamieson holds multiple, interrelated titles and positions on campus and in
the Torrey Pines Mesa, including Chief, Division
of Regenerative Medicine; Deputy Director,
Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center; Co-Leader,
Hematologic Malignancies Program; and Director,
Moores Cancer Center Stem Cell Research
Program. As complex as her working life is, it
is driven by the simple resolve to improve the
lives of patients through research and clinical
care. In this effort, she recognizes the role and
importance of community friends.
“What motivates our donors is the roadblock
they want to overcome,” she says. “Our local
philanthropists tend to be self-made, very
focused and clever. They know about overcoming
obstacles, so they help to direct the science and
the clinical application of that science.” Catriona
sees philanthropic partnerships as the essential
“third leg of the stool” — industry, academia
and philanthropy — that makes discovery,
development and delivery of therapies possible.
Motivated, grateful patients especially enable the
risk that moves science forward: “Their gifts give
them power; they’re so happy that they get to
participate in the solution.”
“Whenever Dr. Jamieson presents to audiences,”
says her colleague and award nominator, Larry
Goldstein, Ph.D., “the result is the same: People
want to know more about what she is doing and
many often ask how they can support her research
efforts. Dr. Jamieson answers questions and makes
time whenever asked. She thanks and stewards
donors at all levels of giving. She values and
acknowledges any support for her research, not
just the very large gifts, and the donors know
she is sincere. Her appreciation of their gift and
the difference it will make in her research is best
described by a statement I have often heard her
say: ‘I have to find the answer for my patients
so they can live and overcome their disease, and
philanthropic support makes all the difference.’ It
is what drives her every day, and her patients and
donors know it.”
“I’m optimistic and so are they,” says Catriona.
“It’s this practical optimism that really pushes
the work ahead, driving and guiding us to deliver
patient-focused therapies in a much more
abbreviated time frame. Without our supporters,
this wouldn’t be possible.”