Women's Center presents inaugural award to alumna and student

Saturday afternoon, throngs of alumni wandered through the Frist Campus Center, many for the first time, peering around corners and down hallways, trying to understand how this new Princeton fit with the Nassau they knew.

Upstairs, above the bustling crowds and the endless chatter, in the secluded second floor offices of the Women's Center, Princetonians past and present eagerly awaited the beginning of a new tradition. They were there to witness the inaugural presentation of the University's Women's Leadership Award.

Among those sitting in a semi-circle around a buffet table and a wooden podium were the awardees, Catherine Keyser '01 and Donnica Moore '81.

Moore, who was raised in Brooklyn, graduated cum laude, majoring in biology. It was at Princeton that she began to make her impact on the world, starting both the all-female a capella group, the Tigressions, as well as the women's water polo team.

She continued her education through a Rotary International Graduate Fellowship at the University College of Dublin School of Medicine in Ireland, where along with her studies, she was the U.S. good-will ambassador to Ireland.

After leaving Ireland, she attended medical school and went on to start DrDonnica.com, a women's health information Website, and hosted her own nationally syndicated radio show, "Dr. Donnica's Women's Health Report." She also worked as a regular correspondent on women's health issues for NBC's "Later Today" and "Weekend Today."

Moore is also a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Women's Health, Disease Management and Women in Medicine. She co-chairs the annual National Congress on Women's Health.

A humorous, energetic and unabashedly talkative redhead — from her handshake to her walk — Moore exudes the authority of a Princeton woman-in-charge. Upon accepting the award, she had numerous praises for both Princeton and its women alumni, commenting on the University's changes over the years.

"We didn't have anything like this in 1981, but we did have the Women's Center . . . I never went because it was too far away on Nassau Street, and it was not safe," she said. "Now, it's safe for women to be here; it's also not new for women to be here."

It is through her children and husband that Moore said she finds her utmost fulfillment. Looking at her active life, she issued a caution to University students and alumni.

"You can have it all, be it all, got it all, just not at the same time," she said. "If you try . . . you lose one thing; you can't have it all because you lose yourself in the process."

The second award of the evening was presented by Women's Center director Susan Overton to Keyser.

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Both on and off campus, Keyser has made her impact through the arts. Her credits include "Singular Women" in 1999, a writing-producing-directing effort in response to a request from the Women's Center to celebrate Women's History Month. She went on to direct "Educating Rita" and to write the National Young Playwrights best play, "Welcome Home, Virginia Woolf."

During the past year she wrote the book, "Transforming the Tiger," an informal compilation of the stories, experiences and memories of Princeton's women since the first walked through Fitz-Randolph Gate in 1973.

Keyser acknowledged the Women's Center, calling it a way to "get students involved, to bring their projects to life."

"[The Women's Center has] been a priceless resource to me [and has] offered me true human support in the . . . sometimes overwhelming environment of Princeton," she said. She said she realized her success was a result of the efforts of those first Princeton women. No matter where one looks, Keyser said, there will always be "an extraordinary woman around every corner of Princeton."