Stanford Report, January 11, 2006

Three staff to be recognized for community volunteerism

Three staff members will be honored at a lunchtime reception on Monday, Jan. 23, as part of an ongoing program that recognizes university employees who have been nominated by colleagues for the time and energy they set aside for community volunteerism. This quarter's honorees are Dominador "Ador" Escoto, Joan Karlin and Jennifer Jackson.

The program, called Community Treasures, is sponsored by the Office of the President and was developed by LaDoris Cordell, special counselor to the president for campus relations. Cordell will interview each of the honorees at the reception, which will be held from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Tresidder Union's Oak Room.

Escoto has been a prolific volunteer in his native Philippines and here in the United States. As president of a nonprofit Filipino-American organization off campus, he has led fundraising efforts for numerous community-rebuilding projects in his hometown of Porac, where he also sponsored a lunch program for hundreds of malnourished grade-school children.

In 1988, the year after he joined the university, Escoto and a few other employees started the Filipino-American Community at Stanford (FACS); he remains deeply involved with several Asian American student and staff groups. Escoto is a financial management analyst in the School of Medicine's Office of Student Affairs.

Karlin, associate dean for administration in the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs, has been a volunteer over the last 20 years at her synagogue, Congregation Beth Am. She has been most active in programs helping Jewish families who left the former Soviet Union to resettle in America and reconnect with Judaism. More recently, Karlin has been involved in Hillel at Stanford.

Jackson, a 14-year employee at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, is a registrar for the Adolescent Health Van, a mobile clinic that provides free, comprehensive health care to homeless and uninsured teens in the Bay Area. She is being honored on Jan. 23 for her 35 years of community activism in East Palo Alto, for which she was named a "Local Hero" by KQED-TV in 2004.

In addition to serving on several of the town's advisory boards, Jackson helped inaugurate East Palo Alto Children's Day, a community-building event that stems from the taking back of a play park where gangs once congregated and a police officer had been slain.

Anyone wishing to attend the reception is invited to bring a lunch. Desserts and beverages will be provided. To RSVP, send an e-mail to elizabeth.ross@stanford.edu by Monday, Jan. 16.

Cordell plans to hold Community Treasures luncheons quarterly during the academic year and honor three faculty or staff members at each event. Individuals can be nominated for future recognition by sending an e-mail with the person's name, e-mail address and a brief description of her/his community volunteerism to lcordell@stanford.edu.