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Fresno State volition grant honorary doctorates to 3 individuals this twelvemonth — advocator for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Robert R. Davila; Hinds Hospice laminitis Nancy Hinds; and Fresno arts proponent Lilia Gonzales-Chavez.
Honorary doctorates are awarded connected behalf of the California State University strategy and Fresno State successful designation of excellence and bonzer accomplishment successful important areas of quality endeavor that embody the CSU system’s objectives and ideals.
Davila and Hinds volition some person an honorary doc of humane letters and some volition beryllium recognized during the commencement ceremonial for the College of Health and Human Services, scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 18, astatine the Save Mart Center.
Gonzales-Chavez volition person an honorary doc of good arts and volition beryllium recognized during the commencement ceremonial for the College of Arts and Humanities, scheduled from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Friday, May 17, astatine the Save Mart Center.
Robert R. Davila
Robert R. Davila was calved successful Southern California to Mexican parents who worked successful the fields and orchards. At property 8, helium contracted spinal meningitis and became deaf. His parent sent him to the California School for the Deaf, initially located successful Berkeley, wherever helium excelled.
Davila learned American Sign Language and English. After graduating with honors from the California School for the Deaf, helium became the archetypal Latino pupil to enroll astatine Gallaudet University successful Washington, D.C., wherever helium earned a bachelor’s grade successful acquisition successful 1953. He aboriginal earned a master’s grade successful peculiar acquisition astatine Hunter College and a doctoral grade successful acquisition exertion from Syracuse University.
His travel led to a beingness promoting acquisition and advocating for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing successful the U.S. and astir the world.
Davila started arsenic a precocious schoolhouse teacher and moved into enactment positions successful the K-12 acquisition system. Starting successful 1972, helium served for 38 years successful a assortment of positions from prof to assemblage head and vice president of Gallaudet University. He was aboriginal named the ninth president of Gallaudet University connected Jan. 1, 2007.
From 1989-93, Davila served arsenic adjunct caput for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services for the U.S. Department of Education nether President George H.W. Bush. He was the archetypal Deaf idiosyncratic appointed by a president to a argumentation presumption wherever helium managed a astir $6 cardinal budget. He was besides the archetypal Deaf idiosyncratic to code an authoritative league of the United Nations General Assembly successful 1992.
Following his clip with the Department of Education, Davila returned to enactment with schools for the Deaf. In 1996, Davila was installed arsenic the archetypal Deaf vice president of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.
He connected with Fresno State arsenic a keynote talker for the Chicano/Latino Commencement Celebration and a league for teachers. He has besides worked intimately with Karen Jensen, laminitis of the Fresno State Deaf Education Program.
In 2022, Davila established the Robert R. and Donna E. Davila Endowment successful the Silent Garden astatine Fresno State. The $250,000 endowment volition enactment Spanish-language programming for Deaf and Hard of Hearing families successful California.
Nancy Hinds
Nancy Hinds is nationally and internationally recognized for her enactment with the terminally sick and arsenic the laminitis of Hinds Hospice, a non-profit hospice and grief enactment serving Fresno, Madera and Merced Counties. A 2021 Business Journal nonfiction said Hinds’ “name is synonymous with compassion and prime care.”
Born successful Akron, Ohio, Hinds trained astatine Cleveland Clinic and began her nursing vocation astatine property 23 arsenic a missionary caregiver successful the West Indies. She aboriginal met her Irish husband, Dr. Godfrey Hinds, portion moving successful Nigeria during the Biafra War. They besides served successful Uganda. Godfrey died of crab successful Ireland successful 1977, leaving Nancy a widow with 3 preschool-aged sons. In 1980, she moved to Fresno to beryllium adjacent family, and, successful 1981, she began caring for the terminally sick successful her ain home. This was the opening of Hinds Hospice
Today, Hinds Hospice includes a pediatric hospice programme to enactment children and families with terminally sick children, a situation programme and planetary outreach. The Angel Babies Program provides grief enactment to families who person a gestation nonaccomplishment oregon an babe diagnosed with a life-limiting condition. It is provided done the Center for Grief and Healing.
As a pioneer successful hospice and palliative care, Hinds felt a work to stock her acquisition with the adjacent procreation of aesculapian providers. Hinds and her unit person educated physicians and aesculapian students from the University of California, San Francisco, and Davis programs, providing ceremonial hands-on grooming successful end-of-life care.
Fresno State departments and programs — including the Jan and Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning, Social Work Education and others — person placed volunteer, service-learning and internship students successful assorted capacities with Hinds Hospice since 1995. Students person participated arsenic portion of experiential learning astatine Hinds Hospice, which cares for much than 1,500 patients per twelvemonth and provides grief enactment to much than 4,500 radical annually. Hinds and her unit person been co-educators for hundreds of students implicit the years, some from undergraduate and postgraduate programs.
Hinds’ astir important bequest is her quality to animate generations of different wellness attraction clinicians from each disciplines to travel successful her footsteps and service families with compassion and emotion during challenging times.
Lilia Gonzales-Chavez
Gonzales-Chavez has served Fresno and the Central Valley for decades by promoting and furthering creation and civilization passim the metropolis and region.
For the past 12 years, Gonzales-Chavez has promoted the arts and a vibrant Fresno civilization arsenic the enforcement dIrector of the Fresno Arts Council, and with the California Arts Council since she was appointed to that relation successful 2020 by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Gonzales-Chavez has been a champion for promoting and supporting artists and spreading divers and vibrant civilization successful Fresno, the Central Valley and crossed the state.
She has spearheaded assemblage events, created galore opportunities for Fresno’s divers colonisation to stock their civilization and talents with the broader community, and wide made Fresno a much exciting, vibrant and accepting community.
Gonzales-Chavez earned a bachelor’s successful quality improvement astatine Fresno State, earlier earning a master’s successful nationalist medication from Fresno Pacific University.
Gonzales-Chavez danced with Los Danzantes de Aztlán portion she was a Fresno State pupil and past joined 1 of her assemblage professors to commencement a folklorico radical for young children successful Fresno — Los Ninos de Aztlan.
She was an integral portion of increasing Art Hop into what it is today, with thousands of Fresnans visiting Fresno creation galleries doubly a period to observe creation and beryllium together. She was 1 of the founders of Arte Americas, the Central Valley’s largest Latino taste arts center, and established Fresno’s writer laureate program.
Gonzalez-Chavez served connected the California Arts Council until her word ended successful 2023. During her clip there, she worked to unafraid backing for arts programs successful Fresno and different underserved areas of California.