The following article appeared in the From The Hill Magazine Summer 2024 Issue. Follow these links to make a gift, update your information, or submit a class note.
The value of a liberal arts education is not lost on Dianna Macchiaverna Colman ’70. Growing up in a blue-collar environment in Danbury, Connecticut, Dianna was the first in her family to graduate high school, let alone college. Her father, a first generation American, dropped out to proudly serve in World
War II, and Dianna distinctly remembers her mother getting her GED.
the landmark observatory.
When it came time for Dianna to figure out what to do after high school, she didn’t think college was even an option for a family of modest means. It didn’t seem possible until a guidance counselor encouraged her to pursue scholarships, which she did successfully and then applied to two schools –Syracuse University and Albertus Magnus College.
“I went to Syracuse to start and it was a huge mistake. I was too young, it was too big. I lasted a year and I left,” Dianna explained. “When I got to Albertus, Nilan Hall is where I landed. To me, it was home.”
Dianna studied history, a subject still close to her heart, and recalls the personalized attention from phenomenal teachers (Mrs. Buckley, Jim Holland, and Dr. Calabresi to name a few), who instilled in her a ‘you can do anything’ attitude.
After graduating from Albertus, Dianna went on to receive her MBA from Harvard and began working in corporate finance for S.C. Johnson Company, where she met her husband Charles. This career path led them to Brazil for a time before settling for good in southeast Wisconsin. Dianna worked until their
daughter graduated high school and then started getting more involved in the Geneva Lake community.
One day Dianna shared with Charles that she knew what her mission in life was.
“I told him I have to make everyone in the world happy, but I have to do it one person at a time,” recalls Dianna. “I started with grocery store clerks, airline counter staff, waiters, the service industry. When I first started doing it, I had to consciously work on it, but now it comes automatically. I literally focus on
that person to try and make them laugh, have a better day, feel more secure, whatever it is, and the response is incredible.”
Dianna answered the call in other ways, too. She became chairperson of a camp near her home in Williams Bay that introduces over 700 children from underserved communities to nature each year. Dianna also stepped up in the preservation of the historic Yerkes Observatory.
First opening to the night sky in 1897, Yerkes is often called the “birthplace of modern astrophysics.” It houses the largest refracting telescope ever built for astronomical research and became a who’s who of famous astronomers, Nobel prize winners, renowned scientists, and scholars of the 20th century. Even Albert Einstein visited there in 1921 during his first trip to America.
When University of Chicago announced it was closing the facility in 2018, Dianna jumped into action to lead the Yerkes Future Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the Observatory and the 50-acres surrounding it. After an incredible amount of negotiation, fundraising, and renovation, today the public can enjoy these open spaces and tour the magnificent building for generations to come.
“Why Yerkes?” Dianna asks. “Because I know it’s going to blossom. It’s going to be an amazing destination for science, for learning, for culture, for art. The whole point of doing it is not to gainrecognition for me, it’s to help create and move forward a place where everybody can learn, grow, expand their knowledge and curiosity.”
Coming full circle, Dianna credits the Albertus professors and liberal arts foundation that gave her the perspective to explore, confidence to tackle things, and charge to help others.“
Albertus taught me that it was my responsibility to get the next person who was experiencing self-doubts and say, ‘You can do this. I know you can. We are going to figure out how, and we are going to keep moving everything forward. I’m going be right here. I have your back.’”