| home > connect > Alumni Profile > Donna Ziel | set text size : A l B l C |
Many years of volunteer service recognized with the Hammer-Marcum Award
Looking at Donna Ziel’s life and activities, it is clear that education, especially education for the underserved, has been the keystone of both her career and volunteer work.
She worked as the Associate Director of San José State’s Office of Student Outreach and Recruitment and, as a SJSU alumna, has chaired the Santa Cruz Area Chapter of the Alumni Association and currently chairs its Scholarship Committee.
Donna graduated from San José State in 1972 and earned her master’s degree in 1979. In addition to volunteer service at SJSU, she has been very involved in the Valley Women’s Club for many years and was recently honored by the group with the Hammer-Marcum Award.
Her countless hours of volunteer time have benefited the entire San Lorenzo Valley and Santa Cruz communities.
Donna Ziel with three scholarship recipients from the Santa Cruz Area Chapter of the SJSU Alumni Association.
She currently chairs the group’s Education Committee, which has undertaken numerous significant projects, including working for a San Lorenzo Valley branch campus of Cabrillo College and was instrumental in getting the Scotts Valley Center established. Under her leadership, the Education Committee is focusing on every level of education locally.
She is also an active member of the VWC Scholarship Committee, helping with the development of criteria and the selection process for scholarship awardees. You’ll find Donna is involved with virtually every VWC function, from candidates’ forums to staffing information tables and working on the yard sale.
Since it started in 2000, Donna has been a member of the Planning Team of the UCSC Expanding Your Horizons Conference that works to stimulate eighth through 12th grade young women’s interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math careers. She has focused on publicity, working to increase awareness of the program in all media, and offers “incredible support in terms of fund raising and outreach,” according to Nancy Cox-Konopelski, Director of the Academic Excellence Program at UCSC.
Donna was an early member of the Santa Cruz County Women’s Commission, representing the San Lorenzo Valley. She has a lifelong interest in Chinese history, and attended the United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing. Following the conference, she worked with the California Women’s Agenda to implement the Beijing Platform for Action.
Another beneficiary of Donna’s time has been the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where she has volunteered as a docent since it opened in 1984. At the aquarium, Donna helped to arrange support of the Expanding Your Horizons annual conference for girls.
Additional organizations where Donna has volunteered:
Friends of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission
Transportation Funding Task Force
Felton Library Friends chapter of Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Santa Cruz Community Foundation
Mountain Community Resources Board
Santa Cruz County Grand Jury
She is the mother of two grown children and has three wonderful granddaughters.