LMU embarked on a campaign on March 1, 2021, to honor the memory of Pam Rector and establish an endowment to name the Center for Service and Action (CSA) after her. On the one-year anniversary, the university announced the goal was met and the center has officially been named after its founding director.
“Pam was a lot of things to so many people in the LMU community,” said Patrick Furlong, director, CSA. “A colleague, a friend, a mentor, a mother figure. She built CSA from the ground up and because of the generosity of so many who donated to this campaign, Pam’s legacy will live on in the name of the center she founded.”
Rector founded LMU’s Center for Service and Action in 2000 and it has revolutionized the ways in which LMU shares its mission with the world. Since the beginning, she played an integral role in getting thousands of students to participate in programs that foster kinship with others, sparked intellectual inquiry, and led to important social action. Students and alumni volunteer their time serving those disadvantaged or oppressed locally in the Los Angeles area, and abroad through dedicated service groups or special events.
CSA continues to hold true to Rector’s legacy as they continually work to create innovative programs that inspire students through programs like Alternative Breaks, community-based learning, service organizations, El Espejo, the Food Pantry and the Advocacy Teach-In. These programs help inspire the next generations of leaders who will reshape the world through a social justice and advocacy lens.
In 2019, Rector received the Barbara Bonney Staff Award for professional excellence, commitment to higher education, leadership, and her unique contribution to improving the quality of life, through her service, at LMU. She continues to inspire generations of alumni who discovered a vocation in service and justice thanks to her. Because of community support, her legacy will live on in the name of the center she founded. Future generations will learn about her when they walk into the Pam Rector Center for Service and Action and get to experience the incredible vision she had in both imagining and then building a world that was more just and loving.
“Future generations will learn about Pam and the incredible vision she had in both imagining and then building a world that was more just and loving,” said Furlong. “It’s an exciting day where we look back with gratitude for who Pam was to us, but we also look forward to the students and programs that will be impacted for generations to come because of this naming campaign.”
