Former Downtown campus Vice President Debra Friedman died Sunday, leaving a legacy of community involvement and leadership for both ASU and the downtown Phoenix community.
Friedman, who was the chancellor of the University of Washington Tacoma at the time of her death, died of lung cancer, according to the school’s website.
In addition to serving as the Downtown campus vice president from 2008-2011, Friedman also served as the dean of the College of Public Programs from 2005-2011, according to Christopher Callahan, vice provost of the Downtown campus and dean of the Walter Cronkite School.
“It’s a sad day today, there’s no other way to put it,” Callahan said. “Even though she hasn’t been here for a couple years, it hit a lot of people hard, especially because she was always a person so full of life and energy, so this comes as a real shock.”
Callahan began his time as the dean of the Cronkite School on the same day Friedman began hers as the dean of the College of Public Programs when both schools were on the Tempe campus. He said Friedman played a critical role in the development of the Downtown campus, as the College of Public Programs was one of the first three schools to move downtown in the fall of 2006.
“I think when you look around, now it’s not very far removed from the very first beginnings,” Callahan said. “Debra gets a lot of the credit for laying that foundation that was built upon for the campus we know today.”
Callahan also credited Friedman with helping pioneer the Downtown campus into containing the five schools and 10,000-plus students it does today.
Sam Richard, a Local First Arizona board of directors member who worked directly with Friedman as a student, said Friedman helped the Downtown campus by focusing on community integration and building relationships with downtown Phoenix.
“The motto of the (College of) Public Programs is ‘where theory meets practice,’ and that’s how she led the college,” Richard said. “How we as a college and as a larger institution of ASU interacted with the community.”
Richard also noted Friedman knew ASU coming downtown would bring an economic boost to the downtown Phoenix community and embraced the development.
Joe Pettinato, a 2011 graduate of the College of Public Programs, met with Friedman regularly as a senator with the Undergraduate Student Government Downtown, also expressed appreciation for Friedman’s efforts to build a relationship with the downtown community.
“She really had a vision for a campus that was really integrated with the community and the city of Phoenix specifically,” Pettinato said. “I think she expected us to not only get a good education at Arizona State, but use our education to get involved in the community and improve Phoenix.”
Edward Jensen, who worked with Friedman as a student ambassador for the College of Public Programs, said Friedman’s commitment to both the university and the community is what led, in part, to the success of the Downtown campus.
“She believed in open access, strong partnerships between the university and the community it serves and the notion that our future civic leaders can and will come from all walks of life and from places not normally expected,” Jensen said in an email.
While Friedman has been physically absent from the ASU since 2011, the effects of her leadership and the relationships she helped foster remain.
“The sense of recognizing being a member of a community was her legacy at Arizona State,” Pettinato said.
Contact the reporter at pkunthar@asu.edu
