Mahalo Dolores Foley
Dolores Foley retires after more than 25 years of service at DURP. Her dedication to education, broadening cultural exposure, and hands on planning experiences provided DURP students with planning experiences for clients in Hawaii, Samoa and Indonesia.
Dolores Foley retires after more than 25 years of service at DURP. Her dedication to education, broadening cultural exposure, and hands on planning experiences provided DURP students with planning experiences for clients in Hawaii, American Samoa and Indonesia.
Micah Fisher, who is currently working in Indonesia, sums up his admiration for Dolores Foley as follows. “In projects I worked with her over the past five years, during my time at DURP and after, she was always doing catalyzing work. Whether it's involvement with the pulse of community planning issues in Hawaii, or Board Membership or on a national stage with the Kettering Foundation, the projects at the neighborhood, county, state, national or international level, or the classes that she teaches, especially the practicums she's pulled together, benefit from her strategic focus to achieving progress. She catalyzes by bringing together the right people, knows the strategic moments, understands the role of institutions, and through her deep resolve to contribute, has made significant impacts as a planner.”
DURP students have benefitted from over 25 years of quality teaching over a broad range of social issues and culturally relevant planning techniques by Professor Dolores Foley. She has worked in Indonesia for the past four years on a USAID project and as part of that project took students to work on a practicum in 2016. Her previous experiences included working in the Peace Corps and, in fact, with Kem Lowry (our Emeritus Professor) who was one of her early site leaders.
Her achievements also span broadly across various fields, including public health, disaster management, poverty and homelessness, and a slew of other community planning issues. Like the best of planners, she knows when a window opens on an issue of community concern, and furthermore, she's a master at helping people walk through. Finally, her mentorship has been invaluable to the DURP community. “For myself as a student, and with numerous other DURP community members, she has always imparted her knowledge and lent her support for seeing us succeed.” (Micah Fisher)
Though Dolores officially retired in January 2018, she has been and continues to be working with DURP Master and PhD Candidates. She served on the committees of both Molly Chlebnikow and Sara Bolduc, DURP PhD recipients this spring. In addition, Dolores is continuing to explore social issues, planning education, and conflict resolution in the community. She has also served on the National Board of the Kettering Foundation’s National Issues Forum Institute and “is a leading authority on deliberative processes supporting community development.” (Kaunana, The Research Publication of the University of Hawai`i, online publication 2016).She is also working with others on a new initiative, Deliberative Democracy Hawaii where the intention is to promote dialogue on national issues as well as to frame local issues for deliberation. In addition, she serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center of Mediation in the Pacific.
“The practicum in Semarang, Indonesia was the most profound learning opportunity I have ever participated in,” states Micah Fisher. “Through Professor Dolores Foley's leadership, she was able to partner with Diponegoro University, work with Rockefeller's 100 Resilient Cities initiative on project-level implementation, engage with local community members facing significant flood vulnerabilities, work with local NGOs, supported advocacy efforts with the local government, and ended with involvement in an international conference. The first part of the course required committed video-conferencing between students at DURP and at Diponegoro, reviewing numerous studies and materials together, coordinating key stakeholders for VC interviews, and working through challenging translation issues. After preparing all the ground level work, students from DURP were funded to travel to Semarang, matching up with Diponegoro students to conduct field transects, surveys, and in-depth interviews with communities facing significant land subsidence issues in a precarious coastal area. The 100 Resilient Cities Initiative helped to convene all the local government agencies and allowed the students a role in presenting their study materials to various key stakeholders with decision making powers. It was exciting to be working on an issue that the local government was sincerely committed to implementing. We were able to offer innovative approaches to address complex problems, a responsibility that practicum students took very seriously. One of the highlights of the event was a continued commitment to the community as students returned and hosted an event in order to supply strategic support for the implementation phase.”
Rasmi Agrahari spoke of Dolores as “not only extraordinary at her job but she is someone who has also proven herself to be a strong, knowledgeable and caring advocate, both in the University and in the world. She is a loving professor and planner who is worthy of emulation. She groomed our skill set during the Semarang Indonesia practicum and made working with the community and Diponegoro University and many other organizations an interesting and memorable experience. Her perseverance, integrity and people loving nature are just a few of her qualities that continue to inspire students and communitieswho have had the privilege of working with her.”
In 2016, Dolores was awarded the Community Resilience Leadership Award by the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC). This award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions toward making communities better able to withstand, respond to and recover from hazards and threats such as hurricanes, tsunamis and flooding. In presenting the award, Karl Kim (Director of NDPTC) stated, “Foley is known for her efforts to aid in the evaluation of unmet training needs related to community resilience, as well as her work in the development and delivery of training courses in Hawai‘i, American Samoa and in many communities in Indonesia.”
Being with Dolores is an experience of intellectual curiosity, compassion and a profound respect for cultural awareness. As Rasmi says, “her influence extends far beyond the classroom even beyond attaining a degree, she is my champion and I am a professional planner because of her influence.” She is one of those people who always “runs into” people who know, like and respect her. Regardless of the circumstance her face lights up in greeting and speaking with each person she meets. Working with her is an honor. The entire Board of The DURP `Ohana as well as all our members extend a heartfelt MAHALO to Dolores Foley for her journey with us in the past and what we will explore together in the future.
Contributors to this article include Rasmi Agrahari (MURP 2017) and Micah Fisher (MURP 2013).