March 5, 2025 - Two women who championed CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) in different
ways will receive honorary doctorates at commencement ceremonies scheduled for Saturday
May 17, 2025.
Philanthropist Linda Dullam, a dedicated CSUCI supporter since its inception, will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters at the ceremony being held at 9 a.m. on commencement day. Alumna Dani Anderson, Ventura County’s first Disability Access Manager, will receive the same honorary doctorate at the 2 p.m. ceremony. Anderson will be the first CSUCI alumna ever to receive an honorary doctorate.
Dullam has been a familiar and welcome face on the CSUCI campus for more than 23 years. As an original member of the CSUCI Foundation Board, she was instrumental in the launch of the President’s Dinner—which she usually chairs—the most significant fundraising event for the University, as well as the President’s Circle, which is a stewardship program of donors who annually donate $1,000 or more. Dullam’s philanthropic efforts also spearheaded the fundraising effort to rename University Hall to Richard R. Rush Hall, honoring the founding president of the University.
Dullam’s advocacy for higher education in the region is well-known and has earned her numerous honors, including the Robert J. Lagomarsino Award in 2006. A courtyard adjacent to the John Spoor Broome Library was re-christened the Dullam Courtyard in 2021 to honor her late husband John, and their vigorous and unwavering support for CSUCI.
“Mrs. Dullam’s contributions extend beyond CSUCI to numerous organizations that enrich the cultural and social fabric of Ventura County,” wrote CSUCI President Richard Yao in his nomination letter to the CSU Chancellor’s Office. “Her deep ties to the region and longstanding philanthropic efforts highlight her commitment to making a positive impact. The recent naming of the Dullam Courtyard at CSUCI honors her enduring legacy and dedication to future generations.”
Born and raised in Oregon, Dullam attended UC Berkeley, graduating with a major in math and a minor in history. She came to Ventura County in 1984 with her husband, third-generation berry farmer John Dullam, who passed in 2019.
“When I got married and moved to Ventura County, I was stunned there was no public university,” Dullam said. “I wanted my children to have a public university in the county. You see how it changes communities. During graduation, when the families are there to see their children graduate, I cannot possibly keep a dry eye. It changes people. The first-in-their-family college graduates absolutely stand a little taller.”
As a 2016 Communication alumna, Danielle “Dani” Anderson has never been at a loss
for words—until the CSUCI president contacted her with the news that she would be
receiving an honorary doctorate during the 2025 commencement ceremonies.
“I thought President Yao was contacting me about a new disability program on campus or something,” Anderson said. “When I found out I would be getting this honor, I was speechless. I’m never speechless.”
Anderson’s area of specialty was disability culture and communication, which has served her well during her career—especially in 2022 when the County of Ventura’s Executive Office chose Anderson as the county’s first-ever Disability Access Manager. Her efforts to improve service to individuals with disabilities is part of her job, but she also sees it as her mission to heighten public knowledge about the disability culture and history of civil rights struggles.
“There was an entire disability civil rights movement in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” Anderson said. “There were protests in which people got up and crawled up the steps of the capitol building. This kind of movement eventually brought us the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990.”
Born and raised in Thousand Oaks, Anderson has lived with a rare form of muscular dystrophy that had her using a wheelchair after sixth grade.
“I did not have a disability identity,” said Anderson, now 38. “When I was 16, I went to a youth leadership forum in Sacramento, and it was the first time I was around other kids who used a wheelchair. I came home a different person.”
Disabilities are often seen as health conditions and nothing else, she said, but it’s also a culture—a community—and it’s not one-size-fits-all. Yao praised Anderson’s quest toward a more inclusive culture for individuals with disabilities in his nomination letter, which read, in part:
“Dani’s focus on enhancing the County’s architecture, public transportation, digital infrastructure, emergency services, and community programs aims to create a regional environment that is welcoming to all,” Yao wrote. “With over 15 years of experience in the disability field, including roles in the state and federal governments, non-profit arenas, and customer service, Dani has been recognized for her commitment to fostering inclusivity.”
Among her other accomplishments, Anderson was named Woman of the Year by California State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson and Assemblymember Monique Limón in 2020.
If there’s one message Anderson hopes to get across, it’s that people with disabilities are not sad, needy, dependent or different.
“I’m not brave just because I’m ordering coffee at Starbucks,” she said. “We’re just trying to live the same boring life as everybody else.”