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Mykah Montgomery MBA ’11 is an entrepreneur, author, recording artist, public speaker, and community leader. She is the founder of Mylaan Entertainment, and Leaders are Readers, Inc. an organization committed to “gifting knowledge” that promotes a love of self and others, a love for community, entrepreneurship, self-betterment, and philanthropy. Mykah has written and published three children’s books, The Little Girl Who Wanted a Tail, Isaiah Wants to Read, and Twinzies. She is an esteemed recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service, and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf proclaimed April 3 “Mykah Montgomery Day” in the City of Oakland in recognition of her Leaders are Readers, Inc. literacy advocacy efforts.
Mykah is the granddaughter of late world-renowned jazz pianist and vibraphonist Buddy Montgomery, and grandniece of the late legendary jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. She was a signed artist with PolyGram / Mercury Records as one-third of the female group Emãge. In addition, she has recorded and or shared the stage with the likes of Jamie Foxx, U2, The Backstreet Boys, and Buddy Montgomery.
The Alumna/Alumnus of the Year is awarded to the alumna/us who has made a significant contribution to his/her professional field and/or has demonstrated consistent service to the College, exemplifying the spirit and dedication of the Saint Mary's College graduate.
Stephen is Lieutenant in the U.S Public Health Service and a nurse epidemiologist with the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Transmission and Molecular Epidemiology team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He recently served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the New Jersey Department of Health, Communicable Disease Service. He served as a lead epidemiologist for the state’s coordinated response to the E-cigarette/Vaping Related Lung Injury (EVALI) outbreak as well as an investigation of a large community cluster of Legionnaires’ disease in northern New Jersey. As part of the COVID-19 response he was responsible for providing clinical and infection prevention consultations to a variety of programs and response efforts across the state. Prior to his current position he was a data analyst and infection preventionist in the Department of Infection Prevention and Control at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Stephen is a registered nurse and nurse practitioner with a clinical nursing background in HIV/AIDS care. His work in HIV/AIDS spans 10 years and includes direct patient care, case management, public policy work, quality improvement and capacity building. He has a Bachelor’s of Science in Health Science from St. Mary’s College of California and a graduate of the Master of Science, Adult Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of California San Francisco, specializing in adult primary care and HIV/AIDS specialty care. He earned his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing where he was named a Robert Wood Johnson Future of Nursing Scholar and was funded by the Independence Blue Cross Foundation. His research focused on the effects of publicly reporting healthcare-associated infection data and how these policies affected hospital practices and patient outcomes.
The Meritorious Service Award is presented to an alumnus/a who has exemplified the mission of the College by commitment to service in his or her own community or the College.
David came to Saint Mary’s College of California in 2003 to be the executive assistant to the President for Brother Craig Franz. Since then, he has had the privilege of working with two other presidents, Brother Ronald Gallagher and James Donahue, PhD, and is looking forward to supporting the work of president-elect Richard Plumb, PhD. As executive assistant to the President, David’s primary role is to support the work of the president, Board of Trustees, and Cabinet. He assists in the day-to-day activities of the President’s Office by communicating with key stakeholders of the College, coordinating Board meetings, developing agendas and maintaining records, serving on institutional committees, interacting with a wide range of constituencies, and taking on additional duties as assigned. Some of those additional duties have included serving as Director of Commencement; Secretary of the International Association of Lasallian Universities, a network of 65 Lasallian universities around the world; and Coordinator of the Lasallian International Programs Consortium, composed of the six US Lasallian colleges and universities and their study abroad programs. David is consciously aware that all of his work at Saint Mary’s, in one way or another, is about supporting the students, helping them get a values-based education which transforms both their lives and our society.
The Saint John Baptist De La Salle Award is presented to a member of the faculty or staff who has, over a period of years, demonstrated a personal commitment to the students of Saint Mary's College above and beyond their employee responsibilities. This personal commitment is evidenced by a demonstrated commitment to one or more of the five Lasallian Core Principles: faith in the presence of God, quality education, respect for all persons, inclusive community, and concern for the poor and social justice.
After a brief stint in medical research which included managing a medical journal and living in Spain to research melanoma as a Fulbright grantee, Napala Pratini ’12 decided medicine—at least in the traditional sense—wasn’t for her. She returned to San Francisco and started working in startups, quickly falling in love with the ability to make an impact at scale through technology. While in San Francisco, she reestablished the city's Saint Mary's alumni chapter, attracting hundreds of attendees to events in a matter of months.
Napala has spent eight years driving growth and marketing efforts for companies of all shapes and sizes across the US and Europe—from Plaid to Hired to Harrods. In 2018 she completed an MBA at the University of Oxford and in 2019 she co-founded Habitual, a company building digital pre-diabetes and diabetes remission programs. She has raised money from prominent UK angel investors as well as leading London venture capitalist funds Seedcamp and MMC. With 500 million people now afflicted with type 2 diabetes, Napala and the Habitual team are on a mission to help millions reverse disease and live healthier, happier lives.
Napala started her “career” as an aspiring professional ballet dancer, but quickly realized that continuing her education was a higher priority. After finishing high school early, she started at Saint Mary’s, graduating summa cum laude with a BS in Biochemistry at the age of 20.
The Emerging Leader Award is presented to a GOLD (Gael of the Last Decade), in recognition of leadership and ongoing and noteworthy support of the current students and recent alumni of Saint Mary's College and/or his or her local community.
Bob Kozlowski began his journey of service to Saint Mary's College as a member of the Alumni Board of Directors, before his classmate and friend Joe Casalnuovo '50 recruited him to become a member of the "Think Tank"—a committee of like minded Gaels from the class of 1950 dedicated to raising funds for future Saint Mary's students. Kozlowski and his classmates established the Class of 1950 Millennium Scholarship Fund, with the first undergraduate scholarship presented at their 50th reunion in 2000. The fund has now grown to just shy of $1M, and deeply united the class of 1950 around their common philanthropic goal.
Bob graduated from Saint Mary's College in 1950 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and went on to the University of Notre Dame, and Northwestern University where he received his PhD in Organic Chemistry. He worked as a chemist at Chevron for 36 years, and at the same time followed his passion for wine and winemaking to become an advisor and winemaker for Kenwood Vineyards—and eventually one of six owners of the Sonoma company - from 1970 to 1986.
This love of wine drove his later volunteer efforts with the College when in 2001 he founded the Gaels in Wine Chapter—bringing together alumni who work in the wine industry for networking and event opportunities, and supporting the Annual Summer Wine Festival. Today, the Gaels in Wine Chapter has more than 200 members, with the Summer Wine Festival drawing 300+ guests annually with all proceeds benefiting students scholarships, where a majority of wineries are Gaels in Wine members. Bob still serves as the President of the Gaels in Wine Chapter.
The Golden Gael Award is presented to a member of the Saint Mary’s community who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to the College through loyalty, connection, and philanthropy. Recognizes dedication to promote and advance the mission, support the efforts of advancement and access to education, and embody the spirit of our founder, Saint John Baptist De La Salle.
James A. Donahue, PhD has served as the 29th president of Saint Mary’s College of California since 2013 and has overseen unprecedented success for the institution. In his tenure, Jim has overseen the completion of Defining the Future: The Campaign for Saint Mary’s, which raised $136 million, the Joseph L. Alioto Recreation Center, and the funding for the Student Athlete Performance Complex. Jim will be retiring at the end of the academic year following his eight years with the College. Jane Purinton, the wife of James Donahue, has been a dedicated community activist. In 2017, she was recognized as the Volunteer of the Year by Alameda Point Collaborative for her dedication to their youth program. APC is home to over 200 children and youth who receive support with homework, one-on-one tutoring in addition to enrichment activities.
Honorary Alumnus/Alumna status is awarded in recognition of outstanding service and dedication to the mission of Saint Mary's College.
Dayna Chatman is a Bay Area native who graduated cum laude from Saint Mary's College of California in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and a minor in History. Before, during, and after SMC, she had a firm commitment to education and teaching, as indicated by her work as a tutor and later administrator and outreach advocate at Making Waves Education Program (MWEP), a non-profit after-school service program previously located in Richmond, California. After seeing the students she'd worked with for seven years go off to college and having been inspired by her senior thesis work at SMC, Dayna decided to pursue a career in higher education. While at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), her master's thesis research focused on the social-psychological implications of segregated educational support programs on college students' ability to build interracial friendships. It also considered media's role in Black Americans' development of meta-stereotypes (perceptions of stereotypes others hold about ones racial group) and their hindrance to interracial interactions in college.
Dayna graduated with a doctorate in Communication from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in August 2016. At USC, her research focused on Black Americans' media representations, Black women's experiences as media producers, and fandom practices online. She continued this work as a George Gerbner Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication. Now an assistant professor of media and Intersectionality at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication, Dayna continues to conduct research and teaching around diversity, equity, and inclusion within media.
The Signum Fidei Award is given to the alumnus/a for outstanding participation in the goals of higher education, in the spirit of the founder of the Christian Brothers, patron of all teachers, Saint John Baptist De La Salle.
In 2019, Emily Redfern ’17 received an invitation to be an international Lasallian Volunteer from the Fratelli Project, an NGO co-sponsored by the Lasallian and Marists Mother Houses in Rome that provides socio-educational services to refugees, primarily from Syria. During her time, she helped develop and teach intermediate English classes, supported Fratelli's Youth Service programs including case management and house calls, worked with Syrian families in shelters and surrounding villages in conjunction with the UNHCR continuing to advocate for socio-economic services. With the onset of COVID-19 and the explosion in Beirut during the final months of service, Emily initiated and co-led multiple humanitarian aid response efforts to provide essential hygiene and food supplies to families in need and raise awareness of the geopolitical climate, economic crisis, and US involvement in Lebanon and the Middle East.
She graduated with a BBA in Global & Regional Studies with a Concentration in Social Justice receiving the Global Studies Senior Thesis Award and the Br. Mel Anderson, FSC Award. During her time at Saint Mary’s, Emily was active in CILSA (CILSA Student Leadership & Social Justice Conference Co-Chair), the Mission and Ministry Center (Lasallian Peer Minister for Social Justice & Immersion trips) leading and planning over ten immersion trips, and volunteered in Kenya and Myanmar through the LSI program (Lasallian Service Internship). After graduating, Emily spent two years serving as a Lasallian Volunteer in Chicago coaching volleyball, supporting social educational initiatives, youth programming, community organizing, grant writing, and more.
Emily is now currently attending graduate school at Boston College, earning a dual MSW/MBA degree with the focus on studying and engaging in cross-sector collaborations between for-profit institutes and the nonprofit sector to create positive, equitable, sustainable change for the global community. Her formative Lasallian educational experiences and inspiring faculty and staff at Saint Mary's have helped shape and define her worldwide and ground her passion for engaging with the global community and encouraging fellow Gaels to choose service and expand their horizons.
The Global Gael Award is presented to a Saint Mary's College alumnus/a who has demonstrated exemplary dedication to the international community–either through their professional work and/or service abroad–in the spirit of our Catholic and Lasallian traditions.
