With Gratitude

Letter to Naropa Community from President Lord

It is with deep gratitude that we acknowledge the following people for their presence at and participation in the Inaugural Events:

Naropa Dialogue Panelists
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi
and Father Thomas Keating

Performers

Inauguration Speakers

Inauguration Committee
Our Inauguration Committee was chaired by Michael Girodo, administrative director for the Contemplative Education Department. Michael was a steady hand and a calm voice of reason and inspiration in the creation of the Inaugural Events and we are fortunate to have received his guidance and poise throughout this process.

Catherine Griffin, alumna of the BA Contemplative Psychology Department ’04 was hired to coordinate the planning and management of the Inaugural Events. We wish to thank her for her unwavering attention to detail and ability to magnetize all of the energy and support that we needed to put this event together. She demonstrated a keen ability to network, manage and delegate combined with an infectious cheerfulness that made all of our work more enjoyable. Without her perseverance and patience, this event would not have gotten off the ground.

From the beginning of this project, Barbara Schmid, assistant vice president
of marketing and communications, and her team gave tireless effort to promoting, publicizing and producing the necessary high quality communication we needed to share this event with our audience. Barbara was forever offering her team’s skills and time to whatever we needed. Special thanks go out to Patrick Johnson and Kimberly van Mourik for the production of all the invitations and programs; Danielle Poitras and Brenda Gillen for their web support; and Sue Seecof for her efforts to bring awareness to the media.

The advancement team, led by Jennifer Olson, advancement services director, did an amazing job putting together our invitations lists and hosting our special guests. They saved the day during the preparations for the Dinner Dialogues and were such a strong and welcoming presence at all our events, making all guests feel welcomed.

The Presidents Office, under the direction of Nancy Nowell, executive assistant to the president, helped to shape and define this inauguration and did a tremendous job in the pre-planning and day-to-day implementation of the structures needed to carry out this amazing task. Nancy and her team of Janine Ibbotson and Katie Chismark were quick to jump in and lend a hand after a busy week of BOT meeting planning and hosting. In addition, we’d like to thank Cathy Pressman for her immaculate creation and maintenance of The Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s Green Room and Barbara Kitzis for coordinating, distributing and collecting the sashes on Inauguration Day.

Thanks to Elaina Verveer, adjunct faculty, who did such an amazing job of organizing and promoting the Day of Service and Learning. Her thoroughness and timeliness made this event run incredibly smoothly, despite our early October snow storm. This event will help to galvanize our Naropa community relationship to service partnerships in Boulder County, and serve as a model for many such service days to come. Her team of Doug Dupler, and students Portia Johnson, Russell Mendell, Megan Frewaldt, Lev Pashikov, Joyce Joseph and Dharjey Thomas were amazing in their efforts.

John Weber, administrative director of Religious Studies, was our liaison for interreligious dialogues and contributed to the beauty and aesthetic of our environment and the ceremonial aspects of the project. He organized the Lhasang and made sure we actually had the words for the presidential oath!

Judith Simmer-Brown and her class of Interreligious Dialogue students were inspiring and delightful in their dedication to the Naropa Dialogues. Not only did they create and hold the energy of the dialogues on Thursday, a number of them returned on Saturday morning and assisted in ushering and organizing the beautiful pre-processional chaos.

Wendell Beavers was invaluable in his organization of performances for the weekend of events and his negotiations of space at the Nalanda Campus. Thank you so much for your fluidity and flexibility with all the demands placed upon you and Nalanda classroom space.

Special thanks to MaryPat Cullen for the artistic support and work with the Visual Arts Department and her incredible organization and implementation
of the food and service for our dinner dialogues. She really went above and beyond in her donation of time and energy to make that particular event a great success.

David Ortolano provided masterful technical support in creating the environment and interfacing with the development of our live steaming and pre-event slide show. He spent many a late night hanging lights and refining audio/video support. Thanks to the staff and workstudy of the Performing Arts Center, who spent endless hours in production and technical support. Thanks to Paul Montgomery and Patrick Johnson who created the pre-event Naropa slideshow.

Gabrielle Edison and Christopher Hormel, who represented the board of trustees, were a great addition to our team, providing helpful feedback and overview. They also generated the support of the board for our Dinner Dialogues.

Jessica Bowser, program coordinator for Extended Studies, who developed and maintained our RSVP program, gave us terrific support in managing and hosting and producing all of our events.

Thanks also go out to the individuals and departments who supported this event:

As always Don Rasmussen and the team at Facilities, who moved, hauled, set up and took down all the furnishings for this event, need to be congratulated for their ongoing service. Dave McMahon who fixed and created things at the last minute, came on Saturday for extra support and, with the help of Don, found the lost flags for the processional in the eleventh hour.

Costen Aytes and Derek Brandt, who donated their time and materials to create lovely flower arrangements for the Inauguration Dialogue Dinner event.

Paul Montgomery for his advice on and management of the parking situation at Nalanda, as well as organizing the Bike Ride to Inauguration with Tim Crespi.

Lenny, Mike and Melissa from the Naropa Café who were EXTREMELY flexible and generous with their time and donations. People from all constituencies of our community were overhead to say “delicious, impeccable, yummy” in their description of the food at each of our events.

Thank you to Steve Jewell, for his advice, attention and calm presence throughout the planning of inauguration as well as all events. Thanks also to Laura Leslie and her team of Kusung and Kasung who were brought in specifically to attend the Sakyong but were of immeasurable help to the Inauguration events teams.

Barbara Kitzis was helped and also impressed by the fine work that both Devon Cortright and Jessica Rafka, work-study students at the switchboard, did sorting through calls the weeks leading up to the Inauguration Event.

The academic departments and their chairs who presented at the Friday dinner dialogues included Richard Brown and Debbie Young, Contemplative Education; Sherry Ellms, Environmental Studies; Wendell Beavers, Performing Arts; Mark Miller, Music; Junior Burke, Writing & Poetics; and Phil Stanley, Religious Studies.

Our volunteers and work-study were invaluable in the execution of all Inaugural events:

Our thanks go to the following volunteers for blessing us with their hearts and love of Naropa University:

Students from Judith Simmer-Brown’s Interreligious Dialogue Seminar:

Naropa University Work-Study

View photos of President Lord here.