Lifetime Dedication Goes Beyond
Dr. Françoise Lepage and Dr. Denise Lucy

Sitting down to count how many years these two extraordinary women have devoted to Dominican University of California can be daunting, especially when those combined years tally up to 75. (Stop for a moment and take that in—75 years of service to Dominican!) Both joined Dominican when it was still a college, Dr. Lepage in 1976 and Dr. Lucy in 1993. In those years, they have played many roles and garnered many awards, both personally and for the institution.

What has remained constant over those years is their devotion to Dominican. Françoise and Denise speak of community, of family—faculty, staff, students, and alumni—who care about one another. They talk about dedicated work to help Dominican evolve from a college to a university, and then for our university work to become more diverse, supporting an evolving student demographic. In the 2021/22 academic year, 70% of our students identify as people of color.

They’ve seen that hard work and devotion rewarded, with Dominican receiving the 2020 Transformation Award from the American Council on Education and the university receiving a Minority Serving Institution (MSI) designation from the Department of Education in spring of 2022—and then immediately applying for and receiving a $3 million federal grant to support Hispanic undergraduates.

Françoise and Denise have made the decision that they want their commitment to continue at Dominican, so they have arranged for a significant gift to the university in their estate plan. To give you a sense of the breadth of their generosity and interest, this bequest will fund endowments for the Institute for Leadership Studies, the Françoise O. Lepage Center for Global Innovation, and the Dominican Global Education Office, among others. As Denise said, “Our joy comes from seeing students receive authentic, caring guidance and access to a breadth of opportunities!”