We recently heard from Dr. Nancy Cross Dunham ’76. She started her undergraduate career as a young mother, and at UVM found the support and caring that led her to go on to graduate school, eventually earning a doctorate that led to a long career as a medical sociologist.

Along the way, she also became a loyal donor to the university. She shared a bit of her life story with us, and the inspiration for her generosity and commitment to today’s students.  Here is that story in her own words – including poetry from a collection she published in 2020

Nancy wrote:

Although I can hardly believe it, it has been almost 50 years since I graduated from UVM, in May of 1976; a 28-year-old woman with two growing children. Ten years prior to that day, it might have seemed highly unlikely that my graduation day would have ever happened. In 1966, I'd dropped out of college in my freshman year and married at age 18.  By the age of 19, I was a mother; my second child would arrive before I'd reached the age of 22. There were several years of struggle, both financially and interpersonally, as I worked to be able to define who I was, and what I wanted to give back to the world.

At about age 24, I'd had a wake-up moment which made me realize that I needed to get my act together (!) and get a college degree so that I would be able to take care of myself and my children on my own, if need be. So, in 1972, I took a leap and started taking night classes at UVM; I matriculated as a full-time student in the next school year.

I could not have afforded to go to college without the help of the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC), a public nonprofit agency that helps students ensure that they have the financial aid to achieve their educational goals.  For my first year as a full-time student, VSAC even provided financial assistance to allow me to send my 4-year-old son to daycare, so that I'd know he was being safely cared for while I was at school!

At first, I was filled with anxiety; feeling like a fish out of water, someone who utterly did not belong. In the first week or two of school, I used to cry on my drive to campus; fearful that I wouldn't be able to measure up.

But when I took Sociology 101, I knew that I'd found the area of study that called to me.  Over the course of my studies, my sociology professors noted that I seemed to have some talent in research methods and in writing; they suggested that I might want to consider going to graduate school.

Most of all, they helped me believe in myself; believe that I did belong within the halls of academia.

While a student at UVM, I would go to my classes, and then between classes, do all my studying at the Billings Library so that, by the end of the day, I would be free to go home and be "Mommy" to my two growing children.

In 1977, a year after graduating from UVM, my family and I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where I'd been accepted to the graduate program in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It took a number of years to complete the program, but over the course of my study, I became interested in exploring how the concepts of sociological inquiry might be applied to understanding the health care enterprise in this country.  I received a doctoral degree in sociology; my areas of specialty were Medical Sociology and Organizational Theory. 

I spent the majority of my career as a health policy analyst, a research project manager and a community-engaged researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

While I always enjoyed the analytical aspect of my work, I also felt called to try to exercise the creative part of myself.  In the late 1970s, I started writing poetry (mostly lousy) to help me cope with the challenges of life (poetry that I shared with others only occasionally). Over the years, my poetry-writing skills improved, and I began sharing some of my poems.  In 2020, during a time of great grief and uncertainly (recently widowed, and in the midst of the COVID pandemic), I published a volume of my poetry, “After the Fireworks: 40 Poems of Learning About Life.” *

These days, a lot of my creative juices are being directed toward writing memoir and finding my roots through stories of my Cross ancestors; stories to share with my children, grandsons, and niece.

I firmly believe that none of the many marvelous things that have happened to me over the course of the last 50 years could have occurred without the academic education, support and encouragement I received during my UVM experience. 

I am truly, truly grateful for it all. I hope that my annual contributions to the UVM Foundation can be utilized to help other students find their way in life, like UVM helped me.

Life After Retirement

In 2020, after a career as a medical sociologist, Dr. Cross Dunham published her first book of poetry, and she shared "Water Lily" from that collection. She is now concentrating on family research and memoir. 

Water Lily, by Nancy Cross Dunham

Originally published in After the Fireworks: 40 Poems of Learning About Life. 2020; BookLocker.com, Inc, St Petersburg, FL.

Read More

UVM alumni are living rich lives, doing profoundly impactful work in many fields, in communities around Vermont, across the US, and around the world.  Here are just a few of the stories they've shared with us recently:

• Alumni Spotlight: Camara Stokes Hudson '16, J.D.

• What You Should Know about Ira Allen: A Conversation with Kevin Graffagnino '76

• Catamount Nation: Charles Denney '83

• Catamount Nation: Serene Meshel-Dillman 85

• Alumni Profile: David Houghton '87 of Wild Landscapes International

• Alumni Profile: Peace Corps Volunteer Krista Fillion '23

And if you have your own Catamount story to tell, please let us know your updates via Class Notes or email any time.