Pam Rector, director of Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Service and Action (CSA) died on Feb. 15, 2020. She was 65 years old.
Rector’s career at LMU spanned 22 years, 20 of those as the founding director of CSA. In 1988, she joined LMU as director of the Educational Participation in Communities Program Career Development Service. The following year, she served as director of the Center for Community Service and Internships, and in 2000, she became director of the Center for Service and Action.
During her time as CSA director, the number of LMU service organizations grew to 10, and included more than 450 students. The school’s Alternative Breaks program began with one trip for a dozen students, and now serves nearly 150 students on 12 trips throughout the year. Rector was heavily involved in the creation of the LMU Children’s Center, and served as a coordinator of Campus Conversations on Catholic Identity.
Last year, the Princeton Review ranked LMU No. 3 in the nation for “Students Most Engaged in Community Service,” in what president Timothy Snyder called a “public testimony to Ms. Rector’s creativity, compassion, and dedication.”
Rector received the Barbara Bonney Staff Award for professional excellence, commitment to higher education, leadership, and her unique contribution to improving the quality of life, through her service at LMU in 2019. She received many other accolades for her work, including the Madonna Della Strada Award from the Los Angeles Regional Council of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps in 2012.
“Ms. Rector encouraged her CSA staff to focus on gratitude, reminding them that even small, thoughtful actions can change lives,” Snyder wrote in a statement. “She emphasized the importance of caring for the whole person.”
A Mass of Christian Burial for Rector will be celebrated Monday, Feb. 24, at 1 p.m. in Sacred Heart Chapel at LMU, with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Rector’s honor to LMU’s Center for Service and Action or Homeboy Industries.
