Orcilia Zúñiga Forbes

Orcilia Zúñiga Forbes, Vice President Emeritus of University Advancement at Oregon State University, also serves on the Boards of the Meyer Memorial Trust, the Chalkboard Project, the Jeld-Wen Tradition Foundation, and, until recently, Providence Health Systems. Hence, it is hard to agree that Orcilia Forbes is actually “retired.” One of her main goals as a university administrator at two of Oregon’s institutions of higher education has been to reach out to “underserved communities, to provide them with avenues for greater access to the university” and “to reach out to youth and provide them with information about the university and to act as a mentor and guide.” 

This modest and very accomplished woman, born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, is a second-generation Mexican-American, the eldest of eight children in a close-knit bilingual family. Her early influences came from her family and the community around her. Growing up, there was discrimination, but going to a school mainly with Mexican-Americans she was less aware of it. Looking back, she feels that those around her showed strength gained from their struggles for equality and justice. 

Her father had dropped out of school in the eighth grade and her mother went as far as high school. Her father was a carpenter. She remembers her uncle who attended university in Washington D.C. through educational benefits for veterans. He instilled in her a belief that she too could go to college. This was unusual because at that time very few young people from Carlsbad went to college. While her family could not help financially in their children’s education, they were very supportive of anything their children achieved. Her sister and two of her brothers also went to college. At that time, women were expected to only be nurses, teachers, and social workers. Orcilia won a scholarship to do nursing at the University of New Mexico in 1956 and received her degree in 1960. 

It was at the University of New Mexico that she was introduced to the Student Council and the Nurse’s Association, as well as to women’s sports. Her teachers in school and throughout college played extremely important roles in reinforcing her educational goals. It was also at the university that she met her husband who supported her nursing career.  He thought it natural for women to work outside the home, as his mother had worked all her life. 

After her marriage, she joined her husband in Minnesota, where he was doing his doctorate. Working as a nurse in schools, she became interested in preventive medicine and took classes toward her Master’s in Nursing. Her children were in elementary school at the time.

Portland beckoned through her husband’s job at Portland State University. Between 1965 and 1975, she was Assistant Director of Health Services at PSU. In her seventh year at Portland State she took a sabbatical at Berkley to do a Master’s in Public Health. She relocated alone. Her children were by now older. Back at Portland State University, she was one of the first women to hold a high university post, serving first as Dean of Students from 1976 to 1978, then as Vice President/Provost of Student Affairs from 1978 to 1988. As a path-breaking university administrator, Dr. Zúñiga Forbes inspired other female faculty members to consider careers in administration. According to Gale Castillo, President of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Portland, Dr. Zúñiga Forbes has been “a tremendous trailblazer and role model for women, especially Latina women, not only in Oregon but in other states as well.”

Leaving her post at PSU, Dr. Zúñiga Forbes commuted between Portland and Albuquerque, New Mexico where she was Vice President for Student Affairs and Vice President for Institutional Advancement at the University of New Mexico. The opportunities and experiences she gained had not come without hard choices and sacrifices. 

Dr. Zúñiga Forbes feels that she had the best of both worlds coming from a Latino family in America. She grew up speaking Spanish at home and English at her Catholic school. Looking back it was her family who showed her the importance of education and of believing in herself culturally. Her experience led her to see the importance of having policies and programs that were sensitive to the community, to work on opening opportunities for the community, and to focus on outreach and support for young people to encourage their engagement in higher education. 

In 1992, she earned her doctorate at the University of Oregon in the Department of Education Policy and Management. On reflection, she would have liked to have achieved her doctorate earlier in life. Overall, she believes more women and minorities need to be in higher education. In 1998, she returned to Oregon as Vice President for University Advancement at Oregon State University. 

Dr. Zúñiga Forbes’ “unplanned” professional career has been at the juncture of education and healthcare—both aspects of giving individuals opportunities to enable them to engage in civil society. She is a good organizer who has the ability to analyze situations and identify the targets for action. Yet, she knows that what she has accomplished could not have been possible without support from a lot of people whether they were parents, colleagues, or her spouse. As she says, “It is important to see life as a collaboration.”

Written from an interview conducted by Emma Franks