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Profiles of Success

Ramona Quintanilla, B.S. 1986, Chemistry

Ramona Quintanilla, like many students, thought she knew what she wanted to study but changed her mind during her undergraduate career. She came to Purdue from her home town of East Chicago, Indiana intending to be a chemical engineer. “But I realized it was the science I loved and not the engineering,” she says.

While at Purdue Ramona served as president of the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society and as Vice Master Alchemist of the Beta Nu Chapter of Alpha Chi Sigma. “I made many friends in those groups and still maintain relationships with a number of them,” she says.

She remembers many of her chemistry classes fondly. “I always enjoyed Mike Lipschutz’s story time during his chemistry lectures,” she says. She also worked in the chemistry demonstration lab prepping solutions and chemicals for demonstrations that were used in lectures. “That was where I learned that chemistry can be entertaining,” she says. “I always looked forward to the Chemistry open house that we did once a year for grade school students in connection with National Chemistry Week.”

Ramona went on to earn an M.S. in chemistry at San Diego State University and the Ph.D from UC San Diego. “San Diego was a great place for me, especially because that’s where I met my husband, Steven Fahlbusch,” she says. She joined Procter & Gamble immediately after graduate school, first at the Technical Facility in Norwich, New York and later at the P&G Health Care Research Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Ramona joined the Science Alumni Board in 1998, and served a term as president. “Through my involvement at the local and national levels of the American Chemical Society, I realized I should give back to Purdue,” she says. “Whenever I came back to visit the Chemistry Department, the faculty members who I remembered from my student days and the staff members all made me feel welcome. It was Kay Conner, who had been a Chemistry advisor, who recommended me for membership on the Alumni Board.”

Ramona believes the Alumni Board has a critical role to play with the College of Science. “The Alumni Board is the tie between the College and the alumni who are out there in the ‘real world’ of science,” she says. “Our Science alumni are a very diverse group of people, and the Alumni Board should reflect that diversity.” The Alumni Board is a vehicle to keep alumni involved in the College of Science at all stages of their careers, she says. “If we can engage our alumni from the earliest points of their careers and maintain good relationships with them, everyone benefits,” she says. “The alumni will have a sense of pride in and connection with Purdue Science. It’s the building of strong relationships that has to come first, and giving back financially will naturally follow.”

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