Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Feature by: Noah Leavitt, College Liason for Community Affairs

Danielle Garbe Reser graduated from Whitman in 1997. She earned an MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and then spent a number of years in significant roles in the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as with other organizations in the U.S. and abroad. She returned to Walla Walla in 2015. 

Tell us about your participation in the Walla Walla Valley

I moved back to the area nine years ago to run Sherwood Trust, a private foundation that invests in community and economic development. I had been a Sherwood Scholar at Whitman, so it was a wonderful full-circle way to repay their generosity and investment in my Whitman education. It was also a great way to get connected to the broader nonprofit sector across this region from Milton-Freewater to Dayton.

I’m currently serving as CEO of Blue Mountain Action Council (BMAC), which is our region’s community action agency tasked with ending poverty. Our primary services are running our local food bank, affordable housing and job training, and we provide a big umbrella to support other community needs or initiatives like the Early Learning Coalition, Commitment to Community organizing initiative and the farmworker outreach partnership with VITAL Wines.

How does what you do fit into or address larger issues in our region?

BMAC helps address emergency needs in our community and provides education and services to help households move to self-sufficiency. Some of the big issues we’re working on are affordable housing, services for unhoused residents, and food insecurity. In my role, I’m involved in the advocacy work of trying to fix the broken systems or policies at the local and state levels that are leading to food or housing insecurity.

Read more.

 

Professor Andrés Aragoneses from the Physics Department has published a research paper titled “Universality of Dynamical Symmetries in Chaotic Maps” in the journal Entropy (MDPI), within the special issue on ordinal patterns-based tools and their applications. In collaboration with researchers from Carleton College, the study reveals universal patterns underlying the complex dynamics of chaotic systems. The authors use an innovative analysis that identifies temporal symmetries within these systems, highlighting universal features that can be visualized in a 3D projection. This work provides new insights into the inherent order within chaos.

One of the ways that Whitman makes our international students feel like they have a home away from home is through Friendship Families. The Friendship Family Program’s goal is to introduce international students to a local family who will befriend them, introduce them to the local community, support their experience at Whitman and enjoy the unique opportunity for cultural exchange. If you are interested in joining, they are seeking more families.

As Thanksgiving Break approaches, the Glover Alston Intercultural Center (GAIC) is here to support students who will be staying on campus during this time. They are pleased to offer care packages filled with grocery items to assist with cooking and food needs over the break. If you would like to receive a care package, please fill out the Care Package Request Form by the end of the day today! In the form, you can indicate the types of food items you would like included in your care package. Should you have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact the GAIC at interculturalcenter@whitman.edu.

(Photo: @whitman_thirdspacecenter) Thanks to contributions from the Walla Walla Public Library, student workers are growing the Third Space Center library with new books that celebrate scholars and authors who center the voices and stories of communities of color.

10–11:30 a.m.

Grounded Practice: Guiding Principles for Making Decisions Regarding Access and Accommodations

Virtual Event

Noon–12:50 p.m.

Movement That Matters: MELT

Sherwood Athletic Center

Noon–1 p.m.

President Bolton’s Open Office Hours for Students

Reid Campus Center

3–4:30 p.m.

Moving Forward with Social Anxiety

Welty Student Health Center

4–5 p.m.

OCS First Step Meeting

Hall of Science, Room 151

5–6 p.m.

AAUW Speaker Series - President Bolton and Thinking about Women as Leaders: Pathways, Challenges, Strengths and Opportunities

Reid Campus Center, Room 207

5–6 p.m.

FGWC General Meeting

Reid Campus Center, Room G02

6–7:30 p.m.

“Richland” (2023) Film Screening

Olin Hall, Room 233

6–7:30 p.m.

Simply Mysterious: On Ryusuke Hamaguchi's “Evil Does Not Exist”

Olin Hall, Room 129

Would you like to share an event with campus? Submit the information to the Events Calendar.

Produced by the Office of Communications, Whitman Today is emailed to Whitman College staff, faculty and students each weekday during the academic year and twice a week during breaks. An archive of previous issues is available online.

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