Dorothea E. de Zafra Atwell, MPIA Gets the Star Treatment!

    ROCHESTER, NY, March 24, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Dorothea E. de Zafra Atwell, MPIA, has participated in The Star Treatment, a prestigious video series hosted by renowned lawyer and television personality, Star Jones. This premier video series is extremely limited — Marquis Who's Who qualifies 500 listees on an annual basis for this elite service. Backed by a storied career in media that spans more than two decades, Star works closely with Marquis listees to assist with networking goals and commemorative efforts that can be shared with a worldwide audience.

A lifelong public servant, now retired, Ms. de Zafra Atwell is a recipient of the Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and is featured in the Executive Spotlight of Marquis' 2020 publication, Who's Who of Distinguished Professionals. She was influenced by her father, a social studies teacher, to help make a positive difference in the world. In the 1950s, his school district received a letter from a teacher in post-World War II Japan, inquiring as to what democracy was, so he could teach it to his students. Ms. de Zafra Atwell's father wrote a lengthy letter in reply, leading to mutual learning and lifelong family friendships. This experience in reaching across cultures and country borders motivated Ms. de Zafra Atwell to seek an international career. After entering graduate school in public administration, she learned that women at the time were not given professional positions in the US foreign service. After four years working with study abroad programs, she took the federal civil service entrance examination to be a management intern, and eventually was tapped to fill an unexpected vacancy in the US Public Health Service intern class of 1969-70. This was only the second intern class to accept women. So Ms. de Zafra Atwell feels that it was more by accident than by design that she found her career path with the Public Health Service in various managerial and analytical capacities.

Ms. de Zafra Atwell's most interesting internship assignment was in the Indian Health Service (IHS), filling in for a branch director on maternity leave. Not only was this a supervisory role, but it granted her great insight into Native American culture, and shocked her to see the poverty endemic in the communities that IHS serves. Having a small role in improving health care in Indian country, even in a temporary role, motivated her to pursue subsequent management opportunities as she moved into policy and program oversight roles in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, US Department of Health and Human Services. She feels that her longest-lasting contribution to the field was to chair an inter-agency committee that developed the first government-wide, performance-based, training standards in information systems security in the 1990s. As the civilian agencies of the federal government are very diverse, it was difficult to establish consistent and measurable training standards, but Ms. de Zafra Atwell and her committee were able to devise an adaptable model. This guidance was issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology under the US Department of Commerce.

Dorothea de Zafra Atwell's final position was in the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, where she was the institute's first science education program manager. Her mission was to get current research findings on alcoholism into school curricula promptly. She administered a contract program for academicians to develop and field test teaching materials reflecting research areas such as fetal alcohol syndrome (now known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder). Her work included editing and liaison with both the research and education communities nationwide.

Not one to be limited to her work, Ms. de Zafra Atwell also enjoys several interesting hobbies, including archaeology, describing a volunteer project in Copan, Honduras, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. She is very enthusiastic about the ancient Maya, and was a resource person for the Alexandria, Virginia City Schools, which had a summer program for gifted students interested in archaeology. "We had a great deal of fun doing that for one summer," Ms. de Zafra Atwell recalls fondly. She herself was also a volunteer with the city of Alexandria , working on an archaeology project on the grounds of Robert E. Lee's boyhood home. When Star brought up the topic of creative aging, Dorothea described leading an initiative through her church to raise seniors' self-esteem, address social stigma associated with aging, and enrich retirement years. Now, Ms. deZafra Atwell resides in her city of origin, Rochester, NY, where she is working with a local history group to promote and preserve her neighborhood.

When asked about advice she would give to women, Dorothea says that we tend to focus so much on other family members that we fail to properly care for ourselves. Guilt in taking time for one's self is misplaced, she feels. It is important to de-stress and to delegate to other family members whenever possible, and to value proper nutrition.

In terms of her awards and accolades, Ms. de Zafra Atwell values an Equal Employment Opportunity award praising her work representing the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism on the National Institutes of Health's Diversity Council. She also mentioned her Marquis Who's Who awards, which includes those cited above.

As a concluding thought, Ms. de Zafra Atwell hopes that viewers of her Star Treatment video will gain respect for career civil servants who are non-political in their work, by law, and dedicated to serving the American public. They have many different professional backgrounds. Hers is program analysis, which excels in transferable skills. With that in mind, Ms. de Zafra Atwell certainly is deserving of the Star Treatment.

About Marquis Who's Who®
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.

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