In recognition of their leadership and professional compassion, Trinity University has named Elisa Massimino ’82 the 2017 Distinguished Alumna and Kay S. Jordan ’64 as the 2017 Spirit of Trinity recipient.
Massimino is chief executive officer of Human Rights First, one of the nation’s leading human rights advocacy organizations, where she is dedicated to ensuring that the United States upholds and champions its founding ideals of freedom, dignity, and human rights.
In her role, she focuses on building bipartisan coalitions and seeks to make a difference, not make a point. For three decades, she has worked tirelessly to change lives for the better by restoring human dignity and rights.
For example, she has worked to prevent torture by first drawing upon a coalition of retired and current generals to speak out publicly against torture and other human atrocities against prisoners. Under her direction, the contingent secured the public release of a Senate committee’s report on torture in an effort to make sure the practice does not continue.
After Trinity, Massimino earned a master’s degree in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University and went on to teach at the college level. In 1988, she earned a law degree from the University of Michigan where she was an editor of the Journal of Law Reform.
She joined a Washington law practice as a corporate litigator and dedicated herself after hours to pro bono representation of indigent refugees fleeing violence and persecution. She joined Human Rights First as a staff attorney in 1991 and rose to the post of president and CEO in 2008. She provides leadership and strategic direction for the agency and manages its 90 employees in New York, Washington, and Houston. She also is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where she teaches human rights advocacy.
Jordan is a role model, leader, advocate, nurturer, and friend to hundreds of Trinity University alumni. She is credited with exhibiting “extraordinary leadership” and volunteerism in support of the University, including participation on the National Alumni Board, now known as the Alumni Association Board.
Since her five-year class reunion, Jordan has served and organized Trinity class reunions because of her desire to inspire participation and keep alumnae connected. In 2013 and 2014, Jordan led her class to raising more than $200,000 and achieving 39 percent participation among her classmates.
To illustrate her lifetime commitment to keeping people together and maintaining relationships, Jordan organized the first gathering of Trinity women at a ranch in the Texas Hill Country. Although the women continued to meet annually, they realized they wanted to see each other more often, prompting Jordan to plan monthly luncheons which have been held for the last 20 years.
Jordan also is active in service at Faith Presbyterian Hospice in Dallas and was honored, along with her husband David, in 2013 with the Each Moment Matters Award presented by Presbyterian Communities and Services Foundation of Dallas. The foundation supports care centers built on compassion and faith for senior citizens in need of long-term care, Alzheimer’s and memory care, and hospice and palliative care – all causes close to her heart.
Another issue that captured Jordan’s passion is the microeconomic development for women in third world countries through women’s cooperatives. She works to help create financial independence for women and children in Guatemala and other countries by helping the women sell scarves, handbags, and jewelry.
Both Massimino and Jordan were honored in February on the Trinity campus.
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