Press Releases
DORA E. MCQUAID, AWARD-WINNING POET, ACTIVIST, SPEAKER AND TEACHER TO RETURN TO PENN STATE UNIVERSITY AND STATE COLLEGE TO TALK ABOUT DOMESTIC AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE, HEALING AND EMPOWERMENT AND STUDENT ACTIVISM.
October 22, 2015
[State College, PA] – Former Penn State/University Park Campus faculty member and PSU alumna, Dora E. McQuaid, is returning to offer two public events in early November 2015.
With 25 years of experience as an award-winning poet, activist, speaker and teacher, Dora’s work embodies the intersections between arts and activism, healing and empowerment and the private and political. Her unique blend of art, emotion and service has earned numerous literary and service awards. Her dedication to addressing sexual and domestic violence through poetry, performance and activism was honored in 2012 by her image replacing that of former Penn State football coach and convicted pedophile, Jerry Sandusky, in the Inspiration Mural by artist Michael Pilato. Dora speaks, performs and publishes internationally. Her groundbreaking collection of poems, the scorched earth, documents her journey from victimization to survivorship, through healing from both sexual and domestic violence into empowerment and advocacy. Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, who wrote the Foreword to this much-expanded Second Edition of the scorched earth, calls it “…startling and visionary.”
On Thursday, November 5th, 7:00-8:30 pm at the Penn State University, Hetzel Union Building, Room 129C Dora will speak about Student Activism and Empowerment, topics which she taught during her time as faculty in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences.
On Saturday, November 7th at 2:00pm, Dora and muralist Michael Pilato will speak in front of Dora’s image at the Inspiration Mural at the corner of Heister Street and College Avenue about Personal and Community Response to Sexual and Domestic Violence. Michael will also be placing handprints into the mural of the survivors of sexual violence who are present and would like to be included. Following her talk, the Student Book Store will host Dora for a book signing of the scorched earth at 330 E. College Avenue, State College.
McQuaid says, “I’m both honored and excited to be returning to the Penn State Campus and State College community to share once again my work with the members of both communities, as I did for the many years that I taught at Penn State and made State College my home.”
These events are co-sponsored by the Centre County Women’s Resource Center, Children’s Advocacy Center, Michael Pilato, Hotel State College, Student Book Store, Peaceful Hearts Foundation, as well as Penn State University’s Office of Student Conduct, Residence Life and the University Park Undergraduate Association. To schedule an interview with Dora in person in State College between 11/2 and 11/9 OR to schedule a phone interview after 10/22, please Contact Dora. For more information about Dora and her efforts, please visit: WWW.DORAMCQUAID.COM
To view a PDF version of this Press Release, please click here.
CRISIS CENTER NORTH AND VERIZON PRESENT:
AN EVENING WITH DORA E. MCQUAID: POET. ACTIVIST. SPEAKER. TEACHER.
August 31, 2015
PITTSBURGH: October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month! Help Crisis Center North highlight DVAM with Dora E. McQuaid, their Keynote Speaker. Crisis Center North and Verizon present An Evening with Dora E. McQuaid: Poet. Activist. Speaker. Teacher. On Wednesday, October 28th beginning with a VIP Reception at 6 PM. The Keynote presentation will be at 7 PM. Everyone is invited to attend this event to be held at the historic Andrew Carnegie Library and Music Hall in Carnegie, PA.
Tickets for this event are available at www.crisiscenternorth.org. VIP tickets are $75 and limited to the first 30 individuals. Doors for the VIP event open at 6 PM. This will give you an opportunity to interact with Ms. McQuaid, reserved parking, a pre-event reception and a special one of a kind gift to remember the evening. General attendance is $50 and includes the Keynote presentation, refreshments afterward and a book signing. The doors will open at 6:45 for General admission tickets.
Dora E. McQuaid is the Keynote Speaker for Crisis Center North on Wednesday, October 28th. Dora is an award-winning poet, activist, speaker and teacher whose work embodies the intersections of arts and activism, service and empowerment.
Her unique blend of art, emotion and service has earned numerous awards and honors. Dora’s activism addressing sexual and domestic violence led to her portrait replacing that of former football coach and convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky in 2012 in the Inspirations Mural near Penn State. She was honored with a Pushcart Prize nomination for poetry in 2014, as a 2012 Remarkable Woman of Taos, New Mexico, won the 2011 New Mexico Woman Writer’s Fellowship from A Room of Her Own Foundation and a 2003 Pennsylvania Governor’s Pathfinder Award, among others.
Dora performs, speaks and teaches internationally, works collaboratively with a wide array of artists and activists and publishes widely.She is theauthor of the groundbreaking collection of poems, the scorched earth, which Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, calls “…startling and visionary.”
For more information about Dora, please visit www.doramcquaid.com.
This exciting presentation is underwritten by a grant from Hopeline® from Verizon. Through Hopeline, Verizon collects no-longer-used wireless phones, batteries, chargers and accessories in any condition, from any service provider and turn them into financial support for domestic violence awareness and prevention initiatives. Verizon also donates wireless phones through the HopeLine program, complete with service and data, to domestic violence shelters and non-profit organizations for use by victims and survivors.
Since 2001, HopeLine has collected more than 11.4 million phones, donated more than $29 million in cash grants, and provided more than 190,000 phones with wireless service and data to domestic violence organizations nationwide.
For additional information please visit www.crisiscenternorth.org/events or contact Bridget at 412.364.6728 x15. Tickets are available for both VIP and general admission.
Additional Crisis Center North Domestic Violence Awareness Month activities include:
Purple River Project on Saturday, October 3rd
Hearing the Whispers and Roars, October 9th
Witch’s Ball, October 29th
About Crisis Center North:
Since 1978, Crisis Center North has provided assistance to victims of domestic violence through a variety of confidential resources and services. Each year, the Center provides free empowerment counseling and advocacy to nearly 2,000 adults, teens, and child victims of domestic violence in the northern and western communities of Allegheny County. Crisis Center North also provides nearly 20,000 community members and students with educational programming regarding the dynamics of domestic violence. The Center’s services are free of charge and provided to individuals regardless of race, age, gender, disability, economic status, or sexual orientation. Please visit www.crisiscenternorth.org for more information.
Keynote Speaker Dora E. McQuaid is available for interviews:
Arrangements can be made through:
Crisis Center North by contacting Bridget Ferris at bferris@crisiscenternorth.org or 412.364.6728, ext. 15. OR
To view a PDF version of this Press Release, please click here.
STATEMENT TO PRESS REGARDING MY IMAGE REPLACING SANDUSKY’S IN THE INSPIRATION MURAL NEAR PENN STATE UNIVERSITY
June 25, 2012
I am deeply honored by Michael Pilato’s choice to acknowledge my efforts as an activist and poet to address the issues of both sexual and domestic violence for the past 15 years.
I was faculty at Penn State for seven years, from 1999-2006, during which some of Sandusky’s crimes were committed. During that period, I worked across the state and the country using my own personal experiences of violence and healing to raise awareness and improve educational programs, to help improve the quality of services available to victims, survivors and offenders and to help facilitate efforts by many people and programs to break the silence in which so many victims suffer by fostering a larger and deeper public conversation about and address of the issues and their effects. I worked with programs as varied as the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Subcommittee Investigation of Judge Bias, The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, The Pennsylvania Governor’s Office, The Impact of Violence Program in Pennsylvania Maximum and Medium-Security prisons, as well as resource centers, shelters, community programs, churches and universities.
My efforts led to a number of awards based on both my service and poetry, specifically my first book (the scorched earth) about coming through my own experience of violence, including the Pennsylvania Governor’s Pathfinder Award (2003), recognition by the Pennsylvania Senate (2003) and a Vagina Warrior Award (2005) from the Penn State cast of Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues while serving as faculty at the university. I was also awarded the 2011 New Mexico Woman Writer’s Fellowship by A Room of Her Own Foundation and honored as one of the Remarkable Women of Taos, New Mexico during the 2012 yearlong celebration of women whose lives and creative spirits have influenced the Northern New Mexico community.
As a survivor myself, Michael’s choice to include my image in the mural as acknowledgement of my efforts, through poetry, activism, speaking and teaching, and my commitment to healing and empowerment for victims of such crimes leaves me feeling deeply honored and humbled.
I am saddened that a scandal of such proportions, and its ensuing wreckage, is fueling this current public conversation about sexual violence. There is an epidemic of sexual (and domestic) violence in this country as the statistics illustrate, and yet often those topics are shrouded in secrecy and isolation, as the Sandusky scandal exemplifies. My only hope in the wreckage of this case is that all of the people effected by sexual violence have a greater chance for healing, and that the issues, experiences and effects of sexual violence and abuse be addressed on a much deeper and broader scope in our communities and across our country than they have in the past. Perhaps this scandal will bring to bear a greater public and private willingness to address the issue, to raise awareness, to educate our children and each other to protect ourselves from the predators in our midst, to improve the services available to victims, to better the laws designed to address these crimes, to hold each other in compassion and support through the long process of healing and to hopefully end the isolation in which so many survivors suffer alone. Perhaps less people will suffer alone in that killing silence, as I once did, and be held in grace and community as they learn that their voices and their stories are not only heard but do, in fact, contribute to the deeper healing that is not only possible but also necessary.
Michael’s mural and his efforts are centered in celebrating community, and a community response is necessary to address the issue of sexual violence and uplift all of the people impacted by its presence.
To view a pdf of this Press Release, click here
If you need further information, please see my website at www.doramcquaid.com.
Dora E. McQuaid
June 25, 2012
Taos, New Mexico
DORA WAS HONORED AS A 2012 REMARKABLE WOMAN OF TAOS IN THE ARTS
The Remarkable Women of Taos profiles have been created into a book by Campaign Creator and Coordinator, Liz Cunningham through Nighthawk Press in 2013.
“The Remarkable Women of Taos 2012 was a year-long celebration honoring outstanding historic and contemporary women of Taos. The women portrayed shared their passions, accomplishments, advice, and the challenges they met in life. Taken together their stories provide a sampling of the breadth and depth of the remarkable women who call Taos home, who experience the physical, and sometimes ineffable, influence of the land and of the generations who have inhabited it.”
– Liz Cunningham, project coordinator
To view Dora’s profile for the campaign, click here
To view Dora’s profile and profiles of other Remarkable Women of Taos, visit the campaign website: http://taos.org/women/profiles-artists?/item/144/Dora-E-McQuaid-Poet-Activist-Speaker-Teacher
PA COMMISSION ON CRIME AND DELINQUENCY PRESENTS GOVERNOR’S VICTIM SERVICE PATHFINDER AWARDS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 20, 2003
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
PA Commission on Crime & Delinquency
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol
Harrisburg , PA 17120
CONTACT:
Gary Miller, Press Secretary
(717) 705-0888, ext. 3002
(717) 512-9477 (cell)
PA COMMISSION ON CRIME AND DELINQUENCY PRESENTS GOVERNOR’S VICTIM SERVICE PATHFINDER AWARDS
HARRISBURG : On behalf of Gov. Edward G. Rendell, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) today presented Governor’s Victim Service Pathfinder Awards to two individuals and a crime victim center in recognition of their work to enhance the lives of crime victims.
“As suggested by their name, the Pathfinder Awards recognize pioneering efforts to assist victims of crime,” said PCCD Chairman Jim Eisenhower. “It is important for us to honor those who have made notable contributions in the communities they serve, as well as the entire field of victim services.”
The Pathfinder Survivor/Activist Award was presented to Dora E. McQuaid of State College , Centre County . Drawing on her personal experience as a crime victim, Ms. McQuaid became an activist for victims of domestic and sexual abuse. In 1999 she published a book of her poetry, “the scorched earth .” McQuaid has traveled across the country to speak and conduct workshops in a variety of venues, including women’s shelters, prisons, and anger management classes.
The Pathfinder Allied Profession Award was presented to Dr. Robin Connors of Pittsburgh , a private therapist and a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Pittsburgh Counseling Center’s Internship Training Program. Using her knowledge as a therapist and an advocate for victims, Dr. Connors developed a 30-hour training course entitled “ Training Mental Health Professionals about Sexual Assault: A Comprehensive Curriculum Guide.” As a result of these trainings, more mental health professionals are able to recognize and respond appropriately to victims of sexual assault. Dr. Connors has also authored other publications that are used to help victims of sexual assault across the United States and internationally.
The Pathfinder Award for a Program was presented to the Crime Victims’ Center of Chester County (CVC) in West Chester . Launched in 1973 as a rape crisis center, CVC now offers a comprehensive range of services including a 24-hour hotline, on-scene crisis response and a support group for survivors of homicide. CVC conducts extensive outreach to underserved populations, child victims, and victims with substance abuse issues. CVC also offers training to professionals who deal with crime victims, including prosecutors and law enforcement officers. The center has also established bullying-prevention programs in schools.
The awards were presented during PCCD’s fifth annual Pathways for Victim Services Conference at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel in State College , Centre County . PCCD is the Commonwealth’s lead agency for criminal justice policy issues. During the last fiscal year, PCCD distributed more than $140 million in state and federal funding to programs that are proven to prevent crime and strengthen communities. PCCD also provides essential support services to law enforcement agencies and offers financial assistance to victims of crime.
To view a pdf of this Press Release, click PA COMMISSION ON CRIME AND DELINQUENCY PRESENTS GOVERNOR’S VICTIM SERVICE PATHFINDER AWARDS
PENN STATE MEDIA SALES PREMIERS STUDENT FILM DOCUMENTARY AT PCCD’S: PENNSYLVANIA PATHWAY’S FOR VICTIM SERVICES CONFERENCE AT THE PENN STATER ON NOVEMBER 19, 2003 , IN STATE COLLEGE
UNIVERSITY PARK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 20, 2003
Penn State Media Sales
118 Wagner Building
University Park, PA 16802
CONTACT:
Robin P. Guillard
(814) 865-3333, ext. 266
rpg4@psu.edu
PENN STATE MEDIA SALES PREMIERS STUDENT FILM DOCUMENTARY AT PCCD’S: PENNSYLVANIA PATHWAY’S FOR VICTIM SERVICES CONFERENCE AT THE PENN STATER ON NOVEMBER 19, 2003 , IN STATE COLLEGE
UNIVERSITY PARK: Media Sales, a partner with Penn State Public Broadcasting, is pleased to announce the premier showing yesterday of the short documentary film distributed exclusively by Media Sales, entitled “One Woman’s Voice” at the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency’s Pathway’s for Victim Services Conference. PCCD is the Commonwealth’s lead agency for criminal justice policy issues awarding more than $140 million in state and federal funding to crime prevention programs, according to their news releases. The conference is currently underway at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. The conference, which runs from Wednesday, November 19th through Friday, November 21st, 2003, is held annually to address the many issues faced by victims of crime in the state of Pennsylvania. Various workshops on Elder Abuse, Restorative Justice and Domestic and Sexual Violence to name a few are attended by Victim Service Agencies throughout the state, including wide representation by the state’s legal community. Nationally recognized speakers participate at this well received conference.
Penn State Public Broadcasting is partnering with Dora E. McQuaid and filmmaker Kate Bogle to distribute a documentary about McQuaid’s efforts to raise awareness about domestic violence through their Media Sales affiliate. McQuaid will also appear on WPSX-TV’s public affairs program, Take Note, with host Patty Satalia on Monday, December 8 at 5:45 p.m. Media Sales was proud to have the opportunity to showcase the documentary produced by Penn State student Kate Bogle, about McQuaid’s activism in which she documents McQuaid’s story of victimization and domestic violence in an effort to promote awareness and empowerment for other victims and survivors like herself. Ms. McQuaid, a teacher in Penn State’s Department of Communications has been nominated to receive The Governor’s Pathfinder Survivor/Activist Award. The award winners will be announced at Thursday evenings’ 6pm dinner ceremony presented on behalf of Governor Edward G. Rendell. The Governor’s office will issue a separate Press Release later today in which they plan to name the recipients of the Governor’s Victim Service Pathfinder Awards.
In addition to teaching in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State, Dora combines her passion for language and performance with her dedication to activism, using poetry, performance and speaking to raise awareness of the issues of domestic and sexual violence, and to teaching writing and performance as means of empowerment.
For her efforts throughout her home state, Dora was nominated in 2003 for the Fifth Annual Pennsylvania Governor’s Victim Service Pathfinder Award for her activism and advocacy on behalf of victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Kate Bogle’s short film, “One Woman’s Voice,” which documents Dora’s combined roles of poet, teacher, activist and survivor, is now available through Penn State Media Sales. Dora is also featured in Suzanne Keller’s book, Free Spirits, and her image is soon to appear in Mike Pilato’s State College Public Mural Project.
Dora has lent art to activism for an array of organizations and events, including writing the commissioned poster poem, “Around This Table,” to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, speaking, by invitation, to the PA Supreme Court Subcommittee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Judicial System, and performing annually in the Penn State production of The Vagina Monologues and Take Back The Night Rallies, in addition to other events at Penn State and other colleges, universities and high schools. She is a founding and organizing member of both The Women of Courage of Centre County PA and Wordstock: State College, PA’s Annual Festival of Language, for which she serves as poet/performer, teacher and Slam Master annually.
For copies of the film, “One Woman’s Voice” currently available on VHS for $19.95, contact Penn State Media Sales toll-free at 1-800-770-2111 or locally by calling 865-3333, ext 250. The film is also available on the Media Sales Web site: http://mediasales.psu.edu
Click this link to view a pdf of this Press Release: one-womans-voice-film-press-release