The Link 1999 4 Vol.pdf - DRC Home - Wilmington College

y Randy Sarvis
Alumna following
parents' mantra about
helping others
H ow does a Jewish woman from New
York City who attended a Quaker college in
Ohio end up advising the Roman Catholic
Church in Namibia, Africa, on issues
related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic?
When you throw in the facts that she is
married to a German and they adopted two
children from Guatemala, in addition to
having spent time in Russia, the Ukraine,
Poland, Israel, Latin America and seven
African nations, it becomes apparent Lucy
Y. Steinitz possesses a unique global perspective
on life.
Steinitz, a 1972 Wilmington College
graduate, said religion has been a common
thread of her life story.
"One of the unifying themes seems to be
a fascination I have about the role of religion
in society," she said. "Deep down inside, I
hold the conviction very strongly that, if
used right, religion and religious institutions
can have an enormously positive
impact on people's lives."
Her professional career offers proof of
that.
She served for 15 years as executive
director of Jewish Family Services in central
Maryland and now she has joined the
Namibian Catholic Bishops Conference to
organize a national response to HIV and
AIDS in that southwest African nation that
10 SPRING 1999
has the third highest HIV infection rate in
the world.
"My parents always taught me to live life
to its fullest, and to give something back to
the world—and therein, to find meaning for
myself in what I am doing," she said, noting
her Wilmington College experience also
played a key role in her interest in helping
others.
"I was 17 when I came to Wilmington
College from a high school of 5,000 students
in New YorkCity," she said. "I wanted
a change of atmosphere—I got it!
She recalls the late 1960s as a time when
values were questioned and chaos reigned
across many college campuses nationwide.
"Amidst the turmoil, Wilmington was
a refuge, a quiet place where you could
find a listening ear and a helping hand,
where individuality was encouraged and
where you could embark on a road of discovery—well
beyond your academic
niche—to a journey of self - inquiry and
personal identity."
Following her graduation in 1972,
Steinitz earned her master's degree from
Brandeis University and later a doctorate in
social service administration from the University
of Chicago (her 1980 dissertation
was on the theme: "The Role of the Church
in the Social Welfare of the Elderly." While
studying, she held part time social work and
teaching jobs, and co - edited a book by and
about children of Holocaust survivors.
Steinitz met her husband, a German
mathematician, while on a camping trip in
Pictured in Namibia's
Kalahari Desert are
Lucy Steinitz; her
husband, Bernd
Kiekebusch; and their
children, Sergio, 10,
and Elsita, 12.
The children attend
Windhoek International
School and Bernd
is working on the
ountry's Y2K problem
and computerizing
the personnel
records of the
country's largest
government ministry.
Iceland. She and Bernd Kiekebusch were
married in a ceremony officiated, in part, by
WC's professor emeritus T. Canby Jones,
"with whom I have always had an especially
close relationship," she said.
Her interest in promoting prison reform
for women and reforming health - care subsidies
for the elderly was deterred when the
1980 national elections were swept by
Republicans, whom, she claims, were particularly
unsympathetic to those issues.
"With Ronald Reagan at the helm, there
was no longer any role for me in or around
government," she said. "This brought me
back to the Jewish community from whence
I came."
Steinitz soon became executive director
of Jewish Family Services in Baltimore.
She explained the agency provides a wide
range of residential, mental health, educational
and support services, both within the
Jewish community and beyond. Their main
population groups were children, the aged
and adults with disabilities. During her 15
years leading Family Services, its budget
increased from $2 million to $7.5 million
and more than 250 employees.
The position provided her with travel
opportunities to Russia and the Ukraine,
where she conducted a needs assessment for
the Jewish community; Poland, where she
developed a social work exchange; and to
Zimbabwe, where she and her husband
served as volunteers for three months with a
rural water - and - land cooperative.
"Traveling brought the family together