Lori (Pitzen) Doherty, '94 and MS '99 |
The World Trade Center Memorial is scheduled to open Sept. 11, 2009. |
Alum helping shape World Trade Center Memorial
Thursday February 8, 2007
Lori (Pitzen) Doherty, '94 and MS Psychology '99, is the research coordinator at the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. The following is an interview with her regarding her work and her connection to her alma mater.
For more information about the Memorial and Museum and to donate, visit www.buildthememorial.org. For a $25 donation, you will receive a Charter Member Certificate; for $100, you will receive a WTCMF lapel pin; and a $500 donation will purchase a cobblestone that will be placed in the memorial plaza.
When did you begin working at the foundation?
I began working at the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation a year ago, on January 3, 2006.
What is your role in the project?
I am the Research Coordinator for the foundation. One of the main components of my job is to help identify potential major donors (i.e., $1 million and above) and conduct extensive research on them. Another vital aspect of my job is to help our fundraising team stay connected to the majority of our donors - regular people from all across the country (and the world) who have reached out to us to help build the memorial. We speak to them, post their stories on our web site, send them updates --by staying connected with our donors, we stay connected to our reasons for building the memorial.
How has it evolved since you began?
Initially I spent time gathering historical facts about the events of September 11 and did a lot of research involving companies that were tenants of the World Trade Center and who lost employees that day. More recently, since the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, has become our Chairman, my team and I help provide him and our Board with research and fundraising strategies to help raise money for the memorial and museum.
What is the most interesting part of your job?
Being part of something so meaningful. I can look out of my window every day and see this Memorial being built, knowing what was once there and seeing that loss and destruction finally being replaced by something beautiful and serene.
What has been the most challenging?
Meeting the family members and survivors and hearing their stories. I feel honored to talk to them but at the same time it makes me very sad. One story in particular still gets to me and I think of it often. One of our Board Members (Lee Ielpi), a retired FDNY firefighter, lost his son Jonathan (also a firefighter) on 9/11. He spent three months at Ground Zero looking for his son and on December 11 they found him. All the firefighters lined up and carried his body out of the rubble and then Mr. Ielpi laid his hand on his son's chest and told him that he loved him and said goodbye. He told me this story a month after I started, as we both looked out the window at Ground Zero below us. It was a very emotional moment and one I will never forget.
Have you personally been impacted since you began working on the project?
I feel so much more connected to this city and its people and to what we as a nation went through on September 11. I witnessed the second tower fall and my husband, a detective with the NYPD, was a first responder and then spent weeks at Ground Zero during the rescue and recovery. It was such a horrible event filled with terrible loss and now, in some small way, I get to be a part of honoring the memory of those that died and helping to rebuild.
What is the fundraising total to date?
We have reached a fundraising milestone --$253 million - and these donations have come from all 50 states and 23 foreign countries.
How did your experiences, both undergrad and graduate, at UW-Oshkosh impact your career, and specifically your present role at the foundation?
I had a really positive experience at UW-Oshkosh. I developed life-long friendships, had the opportunity to learn from very talented faculty members, and developed a broad base of knowledge that helped me feel confident in my abilities. For most of the jobs I have had (including this one), I wasn't specifically qualified for it on paper (not enough experience, or experience not directly related to the new job), but I applied anyway. I knew that my education would open doors, and it did.
Are there faculty or staff that helped you along the way you'd like to mention? If so, how did they help you?
I am still very close with two of my graduate professors, Dr. Jim Koch and Dr. Frances Rauscher and I see them whenever I come home to visit. They are phenomenal professors not only because they are so knowledgeable in their fields but because they know how to engage and challenge their students - they know how to spark our inherent curiosity and make classes exciting (even at 8am). And quite simply, they are just really great people who I feel privileged to know. I also feel really lucky to have taken undergraduate and graduate classes with Dr. Susan McFadden. She is a class act and a real asset to the Psychology department.
When you decided to major in psychology, was this the work you intended to pursue?
Actually, I was just interested in psychology in general. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it - while in school I thought I might go the clinical route and become a therapist.
What made you decide to pursue a master's in the field?
I realized that having a master's would open many more doors than just a bachelor's. I wanted to have that flexibility and that is exactly what my master's has given me—the freedom to try different things.
Did you think your studies would lead to a job in this general field? Or was a complete fate thing?
Both, I think. I really wasn't sure what I would end up doing, but I imagined it would involve something in the medical field, social services or non-profit. As fate would have it, I ended up at the memorial foundation. However, I never would have even been granted an interview were it not for my MS in Experimental Psychology. The skills I learned in performing research and working with different kinds of data were very helpful.
Just for the record, what did you do in your previous jobs at JRA Reckner Assoc. and St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital?
At St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital, I was a Research Technologist. It was the first job I landed after finishing my master's. My thesis chair at UW-Oshkosh, Dr. Koch, helped connect me with the doctor who was offering the position. Since it was in NYC and I was living in Wisconsin, I didn't really think I would get the job, let alone take it, but that's exactly how it worked out. In my role there, I worked with patients with eating disorders and tested several different treatments. It was an excellent introduction into the world of medical and pharmaceutical research.
At J. Reckner Associates, I was the Facility Director at a market research firm. My responsibilities included running the day-to-day operations of the facility, developing research methodologies for in-house studies, and executing those studies. We mainly conducted taste test and focus groups involving various consumer products.
When is the memorial projected to open?
The memorial is scheduled to open on September 11, 2009.
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To learn more about progress on the memorial, please read the following news release from February 1, 2007:
WTC MEMORIAL FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES PLAN TO LAUNCH
NATIONAL OUTREACH TOUR
Interactive Exhibition Featuring Steel Beams for Memorial and Museum Will Travel Across the Country
The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation today announced that it will launch a national outreach tour later this year to raise awareness about building the Memorial, create a broad base of regional support and raise funds for the project. The tour will center on a multi-city interactive exhibition, featuring actual steel beams which will be used to construct the Memorial and Museum.
The national outreach tour will provide the public with an opportunity to be a part of building the Memorial and Museum. The tour will reach approximately fifteen to twenty local markets across the United States and will feature steel beams fabricated to build the Memorial and Museum, along with information on the project and opportunities to make donations. Through local, interactive events, individuals may have an opportunity to sign their name to the steel beams or offer messages to be archived at the Memorial and Museum. In addition to viewing and signing the beams, the tour will include an exhibition that would allow the public to view renderings or models of the Memorial, and hear stories from September 11th family members, survivors and some of the first responders who so heroically performed that day. The tour will be supported through integrated marketing, advertising, merchandising, and public relations strategies.
WTC Memorial Foundation Chairman Mayor Bloomberg said, "The campaign to build the Memorial is about honoring our nation's history and every American should have an opportunity to be a part of this important effort. Last week, we surpassed the $253 million fundraising milestone thanks to the support of nearly 30,000 donors. We hope that the tour will help raise awareness and encourage thousands of other people from across the country to support building what will become a lasting national tribute."
WTC Memorial Foundation President & CEO Joe Daniels said, "The events of September 11, 2001 had a tremendous impact on people across the country and a truly successful campaign to build the World Trade Center Memorial and Museum requires the participation of the American public. The national tour will provide the public with a direct way to get involved in this historic project and we look forward to launching this exciting outreach campaign later this year."
The national tour is expected to be the focus of the Foundation's broad-based fundraising campaign for the year 2007. The Memorial is expected to become a national symbol with more than 5 million annual visitors in the first three years that it is open and already thousands of visitors from across the country and around the world visit the site each day.
The Foundation today released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for marketing, public relations, and/or strategic planning consulting services for the creation and execution of the tour. Given the Foundation's non-profit status, the firm is expected to keep service costs at a minimum and work with the Foundation to identify and secure sponsorship opportunities, as well as in-kind donations. The RFP can be downloaded on the Foundation's website at www.buildthememorial.org.
The Foundation has made substantial progress in its fundraising campaign, with over $108 million raised in less than four months. To date, over $253 million has been raised from more than 29,735 individuals representing all fifty states and 23 foreign nations.
The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, Inc. is the not-for-profit corporation founded in 2005 to realize the Memorial quadrant at the World Trade Center site. The Foundation will raise the funds, oversee the design, and operate the Memorial and the Memorial Museum located on 8 of the 16 acres of the site.
The Memorial will remember and honor the thousands of people who died in the horrific attacks of February 26th, 1993 and September 11th, 2001. The design, "Reflecting Absence," created by Michael Arad and Peter Walker consists of two voids that reside in the footprints of the original Twin Towers surrounded by a plaza of oak trees. The Arad/Walker design was selected from a design competition which included more than 5,000 entrants from 63 nations.
In July 2006, the Foundation launched a national advertising campaign to help raise the funds needed for construction and planning of the Memorial and Museum.
Donations can be made through the Foundation's website, and more information on the Foundation can be found at www.buildthememorial.org or by calling 1-877-WTC-GIVE.
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