Board of Trustees, Pacifica Graduate Institute
249 Lambert Road
Carpinteria, CA 93013
Hello, and please allow me to introduce myself. I am the Interim President and Founding Member of the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association (PGIAA), Lupe Zuniga, PhD, Class of 1994, Clinical Psychology.
On behalf of my good board, we, the original Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association, founded in 2011 and formed on April 17, 2013, as a California 501 © Nonprofit Corporation, are reaching out to you to offer our help to bring healing and to strengthen our beloved Pacifica community after/ during a time of great strife and change.
We have previously reached out to Dr. Colin Marlaire in June of this year offering our (PGIAA’s) help and have not had a response. Earlier this year there was a “Message from the Board of Trustees on PGIAA” clarifying that the “Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association (PGIAA) is not the official alumni association of the Institute. Further, we are not in partnership with this entity.”
The above-referenced statement from the Pacifica Board of Trustees and the unresponsiveness from Dr. Marlaire is puzzling and hurtful and not in keeping with the Pacifica that we know and love and whose essence is enshrined in its motto, ANIMAE MUNDI COLENDAE GRATIA (For the sake of tending the soul in and of the world).
We wonder who, and how, the Pacifica Board of Trustees came to unilaterally make such a decision regarding disengaging from us, the Original and Official Alumni Association, without any input from the Alumni Association. Surely, particularly at this time, when in the world there is so much turmoil, unhappiness, and strife, we can come together in harmony to help assuage, correct, and heal perceived, or perhaps, in your eyes, real acrimony.
I/We welcome an opportunity to meet with you, the Pacifica Graduate Institute Board of Trustees, either individually or as an entirety, and at your convenience, to have heartfelt conversations with a sincere desire to bring about illumination and understanding to the current dissonance resulting, we are hopeful, in an eventual healing for all. As of now, I/We are truly in a quandary as to the state of affairs as it exists between the Pacifica Graduate Institute Board of Trustees and the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association. We remain optimistic that together we can arrive at a positive resolution and move forward together in harmony. I/We look forward to hearing from you.
With my warmest personal regards,
Lupe Zuniga, PhD
(818) 386-9130/Email: dr.lupe@roadrunner.com
