Dopazo Honored by Hartwick College

ONEONTA — The Hartwick College Alumni Association is placing greater emphasis on recognizing graduates from the past 10 years with today’s announcement of the winners of its annual Alumni Awards. This year, a new award has been added to the traditional awards program; for the first time, the Association will recognize an Outstanding Recent Alumnus, bringing the total to six members of the Hartwick College community being saluted. These honors go to graduates and current faculty or staff for their service to the College and Hartwick community. 

This year’s winners are:

• Colleen Connery ’83 of Oakland, CA, has earned the Outstanding Volunteer Award, which recognizes those who have demonstrated outstanding and sustained volunteer service for the College. This award is given to alumni, retired employees, parents, or friends of the College.

• Patricia Dopazo of Stamford, is the College’s Outstanding Employee, as someone who has gone above and beyond their job to support the Alumni Association of the College.

• Dr. Lynda Potter Ewen ’65 of Cold Spring, NY, was named the winner of the Distinguished Alumna Award, given to a graduate who has distinguished themselves through outstanding achievements in their professional career, civic, and/or charitable activities.

• Christopher Janitz ’21, Mount Vision earned the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, given to a graduate of the last decade who has shown exceptional competence, performance, and achievement in professional or volunteer activities.

• Troy Johnstone ’16 of Liberty was named our Outstanding Recent Alumnus. This award recognizes graduates who, during relatively few years following graduation, have shown outstanding performance and achievement in professional and volunteer activities, and demonstrated a commitment to engaging with Hartwick students and the 

College community at large. 

• Susan Schroeder Warner ’84 of Riverside, CT, will be presented the Meritorious Service Award for demonstrating outstanding loyalty and effective service to the College.

The group will be feted at an on-campus ceremony on Friday, September 20, during True Blue Weekend 2024.

Dopazo, director of Planned Giving, was named the College’s Outstanding Employee. As a charitable gift planning specialist for the College for more than 15 years, she has helped donors establish optimal gift arrangements for themselves and Hartwick. Her passion is building relationships, which she has done in a variety of professional arenas world-wide spanning over 40 years, as a financial and estate planning advisor at the Trust Division of NBT Bank and at A.G. Edwards & Sons (now Wells Fargo Financial Services), and as a coffee trading professional specializing in Latin America. In addition to her fundraising activities, Dopazo enjoys working with faculty and off-campus partners to develop other, non-financial opportunities that enrich Hartwick’s educational programs and student experience. Her work finding alumni partners for Honors Seminar students was cited as one of her many attributes. Since 2018, Dopazo has taken great care to match students with alumni. Her collaboration with faculty has resulted in more than 40 different student-alumni partnerships. These partnerships have given students a much deeper understanding of labor markets and a professional connection for career advice. Most importantly, as one award submission noted, “her work has positively impacted the lives of many students.”