Via Veritatis Award Winners

Lois Boland Quinn, Elms College class of 1946, received the 2010 Elms College Via Veritatis Award. The Via Veritatis medal is presented annually to an outstanding Catholic woman who exemplifies Catholic womanhood and culture at their best, and who has made significant contributions to society. Via Veritatis, which means "way of truth," comes from the college's motto, Viam Veritatis Elegi - "I have chosen the way of truth."

Lois worked for 32 years as a probation officer, retiring in 1979 as assistant chief of probation for Berkshire County.

Lois majored in French at the Elms with the intention of teaching. But her uncle, a district court judge in Berkshire County, persuaded her to assist with cases in the county's Probation Office. Lois became the first female probation officer in Berkshire County and the youngest woman in the court system.

Because of her lifelong concern for the wellbeing of children, Lois also served on the board of many youth-related organizations, including serving as a founding member of Downey Side, a national non-profit organization devoted exclusively to the recruitment of adoptive families for children aged 7 to 17 waiting in the foster care system.

Lois was married to her late husband, John H. Quinn, for 61 years, and is the mother of five children and grandmother of six.

Lois has been an active member of St. Patrick Church community in Williamstown, serving as a Eucharistic minister, a member of the Third Order of Carmelites, in her parish's Hours of Eucharistic Adoration.

In 1970, she was named "Mother of the Year" by the North Adams Transcript. The article, entitled "Mother of Five, and Mom to Many," described her compassionate care of hundreds of juvenile offenders, to whom she ministered, guided, and lifted toward a better life.

Sr. Bette Gould, s.s.j.
Via Veritatis Award Recipient
Sister Bette Gould, Elms College class of 1968, received the 2009 Elms College Via Veritatis Award at commencement May 17, 2009.

Sister Bette entered the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1957. She has served in Catholic education for 49 years, currently as coordinator of the mentoring program at East Catholic High School in Manchester, Connecticut. She had previously served there for two years as interim principal and interim vice principal.
She worked for the Diocese of Springfield from 1982 to 2005, serving as superintendent of Catholic schools for 21 years. She was the first woman to be appointed to that post.

Before that, she was principal of Our Lady of Hope School in Springfield, principal and math department chair at St. Joseph High School in Pittsfield, and principal and math department chair at St. Joseph High School in North Adams.

Sr. Bette earned a bachelor's degree in English and education at the College of Our Lady of the Elms, a master's degree in pastoral studies at Loyola University in Chicago, and a master's degree in education at Assumption College in Worcester. She has also done graduate study in mathematics at Colgate University in New York, North Adams State College, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

In 2000, she became the firsts person to be honored for the establishment of a Catholic School Endowment Fund.
She currently serves on the board of directors at Mont Marie Health Care Center, the steering and governance committee at East Catholic High School, and is a volunteer at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Springfield.
On the diocesan level, Sr. Bette has served the Church as a past member of the board of the Peace and Justice Commission, secretary of education of the Diocesan Cabinet, the Catholic School Board, and the committee for the installation of the Bishop.

She has served her congregation as a member of the board of the S.S.J. Spiritual Direction Center, and a member of the finance team and government committee.

She was appointed by governor of Massachusetts to the National and Community Service Commission, and was appointed by the mayor of Springfield to serve on the city's police commission.

She formerly served as a member of the U.S. Catholic Conference Legislative Committee, the National Catholic Education Association, the Chief Administrators of Catholic Education, and the education committee of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference.

In 2000 and 2005, she received the presidential award for outstanding service to Catholic education from the National Catholic Education Association.

The 2008 Via Veritatis Award was presented to longtime Elms College volunteer Helen A. D'Amour, and Michele D'Amour, the educational partnership administrator for Big Y Foods Inc.

Helen D'Amour attended the School of Banking at Williams College, the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin, and the School of Management at Ball State University in Indiana.

She worked at the First National Bank of Amherst and the Holyoke National Bank. She was named assistant vice president in 1973, and assistant vice president and branch officer in 1976. She retired in 1983.

Helen has been a trustee at Elms College, and was chair of the individual major donors in the "Envision Elms" Campaign. She is a volunteer at St. Mary's Church.

She married Paul D'Amour in 1981, and has two children, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

The 2008 Via Veritatis Award was presented to longtime Elms College volunteer Helen A. D'Amour, and Michele D'Amour, the educational partnership administrator for Big Y Foods Inc.

Michele D'Amour is the educational partnership administrator for Big Y Foods Inc., a privately owned supermarket chain that operates 58 stores throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut and employs more than 10,000 people. In that role, she has been responsible for managing a variety of educational initiatives at Big Y, including the Homework Helpline.

Michele began working for Big Y in 1968 as a cashier while working her way through college. A graduate of Cathedral High School and Westfield State College, she holds a master's degree in education from American International College. She has had a variety of teaching experiences and has also worked at the college level, supervising student teachers.

She taught C.C.D. for several years at St. Mary's parish in Hampden, and has served on the board of the Springfield Diocesan Schools, the ad hoc committee to develop a strategic plan for the Diocese of Springfield (Vision 2010), and the Diocesan Blue Ribbon Commission. She is a past member of Johnson Memorial Hospital annual charity fundraiser, "JMH Women Helping Women" campaign; and was a participant in the Springfield Habitat for Humanity Women's Build.

Michele was a founding member of the Somers Cultural Commission; served on the Somers Chapter 1 Parent Advisory Council; and is a corporator of the Springfield Museums.

Inspired by Pope John Paul II's encyclical on Faith and Reason, Michele and her husband Donald co-founded the Fides et Ratio grant competition for small Catholic colleges, and the Fides et Ratio summer faculty seminars under the auspices of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington D.C. They have also endowed academic scholarships for both of their elementary school alma maters, and are members of the western Massachusetts chapter of Legatus.

She and Donald have been married 35 years, and have five children and six grandchildren.

Via Veritatis Medal Winner Ruth F. Allan Collins

Ruth F. Allan Collins is the 2007 recipient of the Via Veritatis Medal, which is presented to an outstanding Catholic woman who exemplifies Catholic womanhood and culture at their best, and who has made significant contributions to society. Via Veritatis, which means "way of truth," comes from the college's motto, Viam Veritatis Elegi - "I have chosen the way of truth."

Mrs. Collins earned a degree from Boston University in 1948, and worked as a sales representative for the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company.

She has been a devoted community service volunteer, having worked as a volunteer at Our Lady of Providence Children's Center, a teacher of Christian Doctrine at Holy Cross Parish, and as a chauffeur to the elderly. In addition, she was a corporator of the Springfield Day Nursery.

Mrs. Collins is the mother of six, grandmother of 17, and great-grandmother of two. She and her husband Williams have been married for 58 years.

She received an honorary doctorate from Elms College in 1985 in recognition of her commitment to service and family.

Via Veritatis medalist Myra Janco Daniels is founder, chairman, and CEO of the Philharmonic Center for the Arts Cultural Complex in Naples, Florida. In 1983, Ms. Daniels spearheaded a fund-raising drive that led to the creation of the $21 million Center for the Arts, which opened debt-free in 1989 and is now a $103 million corporation with 400 employees.

Formerly president of Draper Daniels Inc. Advertising in Chicago, Ms. Daniels spent 30 years as an advertising executive and educator. She was the first woman in the country to head up a major national advertising firm and became the youngest person to be honored as National Advertising Woman of the Year by the Advertising Federation of America.

Ms. Daniels earned bachelor's and master's degrees in business and communications from Indiana State University. She held a six-year associate professorship in marketing and advertising at Indiana University, where she pursued doctoral studies in marketing management, taught the MBA program in marketing, and directed the internship program in advertising and publishing.

Mary Eagan Boland, J.D., is senior counsel at Egan, Flanagan and Cohen, P.C. in Springfield and managing partner at MEB Associates, a real estate ownership and management company. She is a former member and president of the Springfield City Council where she championed neighborhood revitalization, development of the Springfield libraries, museums, Civic Center, and Municipal Hospital. She is a past recipient of the St. Thomas More Award from the Catholic Lawyers Guild, which recognizes high ethical standards, morality, justice, and faith in the law profession. She has actively promoted more widespread availability of college financing, and has served on the boards of Brightside for Families and Children Counseling Services and Mercy Hospital. She shared her passion for civic activity with her late husband, Congressman Edward P. Boland, who served 18 terms during a 50-year political career.

The Distinguished Alumni Award for 2004 was presented at commencement to Elizabeth Carr, Ph.D., Catholic chaplain to Smith College, and lecturer in the Department of Religion and Biblical Literature there. She writes and lectures widely on the topics of spirituality, faith, God, theology, and the Church.

Before becoming the chaplain at Smith, she was the acting dean of religious life there in the fall of 1998 and the spring of 2000. She worked previously as coordinator of religious life and Catholic religious advisor at Amherst College. She has taught courses in spirituality, prayer, and religion at Elms College, Boston College, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, and Greenfield Community College. She was on the faculty at Santa Clara University in California in the Religious Studies Department and graduate program in pastoral ministries.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Carr worked as student affairs officer, special assistant to the career development director, associate director for residential life, and assistant dean of women at the University of California.

Dr. Carr received a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in counselor education from the University of Southern California. She went on to earn a master's in systematic theology and a doctorate in Christian spirituality from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley. She was a visiting research scholar at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris in 1983 and 1985-86, and did post-doctoral research at the Cercle D'etudes Jacques et Raissa Maritain in France in 1987-88.

Joyce C. Clifford Ph.D., RN, FAAN, recipient of the 2003 Via Veratatis Award, is senior vice president and chair for nursing programs at CareGroup Health Systems in Boston. She was the president and CEO of The Institute for Nursing Healthcare Leadership (INHL), which she founded.

Before founding INHL, she served as senior vice president and nurse-in-chief at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston for more than 25 years. She holds appointments as lecturer at Harvard Medical School and a visiting scholar at Boston College School of Nursing.

She played a major role in the development of the nursing field, being universally recognized as the architect of nursing's Professional Practice Model, which is now the operational standard both nationally and internationally for many hospitals and out-patient/community services.

The professional nursing practice model is considered the benchmark for professionalism in nursing, and that integrates scholarship and service in direct care, promotes nursing practice development, and improves patient care outcomes. In recognition of this work, her nursing management team at the former Beth Israel Hospital won the prestigious Mary Adelaide Nutting Award from the National League for Nursing in 1995. Joyce is also known for promoting models of interdisciplinary collaborative practice.

A graduate of St. Anselm College, Joyce received her master's in nursing from the University of Alabama and a doctorate in health planning and policy analysis at the Heller School of Brandeis University. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and a former president of the American Organization of Nurse Executives. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association from 1991-1994. In addition, she is a trustee for her alma mater, St. Anselm College, and was the first nurse to be a member of the Harvard Medical School's Admissions Committee.

Widely recognized for her contributions to nursing, Joyce has received numerous awards. Most recently, she was awarded the Living Legend in Massachusetts Nursing by the Massachusetts Association of Registered Nurses in 2007, named a "Living Legend" by the American Academy of Nursing in 2005, and in 2003 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Organization of Nurse Executives.

She was a member of the charter class of the Johnson and Johnson-Wharton Fellows Program in Management for nurses; served as a Commissioner on the National Commission on Nursing in 1988; and, in 1995, was a member of the committee on the Adequacy of Nurse Staffing of the Institute of Medicine. She has served on the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ)-sponsored council on Economic Impact of Health System Change and is currently a member of the National Advisory Committee of the RWJ Executive Nurse Fellows Program.

She had been a major in the U.S. Air Force Nurse Corps.

Lucille T. Kolish received the Via Veritatis Medal at Commencement 2002. Lucille is an Elms College trustee, executive committee member, and chair of the development committee. She was also chair of the Elms College Golf Tournament, a highly successful fund-rasing event for the school.

A retired vice president of BayBank, she is active in the Chicopee Rotary, Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, the Chicopee Development Corporation, the Galaxy Community Council, the United Way of Pioneer Valley, and the Chicopee Visiting Nurse Association.