Brenda Lonsbury-Martin
A Mother's Influence Leads Alumna to Achieve and Then Give Back
When Dr. Brenda Lonsbury-Martin contacted our Planned Giving office to ask for assistance in establishing a bursary in visual arts through her will, we were surprised. Dr. Lonsbury-Martin is an alumna of UVic and the university kept track of her many accomplishments after she graduated.
We were aware that Brenda is a medical researcher in the fields of hearing and deafness and is a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology (Head and Neck Surgery) at a leading university medical centre. Until she told us the story behind her legacy gift, we didn't quite “get” her connection to the visual arts.
Brenda established this award to honour her mother, Dorothy Lois Butler. Dorothy loves the visual arts and painted with watercolours as a hobby for much of her life.
When not parenting and painting, Dorothy worked as a journalist and advertising director. Dorothy could not afford to go to university, but she was adamant that Brenda have a post-secondary education. Brenda feels she owes all her professional success to her mother’s influence. Quite possibly, that success is greater than anything she and her mother could have envisioned when Brenda was an undergrad.
Brenda graduated from UVic in 1967 with a BA in psychology. She remembers Dr. William Geddes as an inspirational teacher who encouraged her to go on to earn a higher degree in the field of neuropsychology.
She received her master's and doctorate in medical psychology (a precursor to neuroscience) and then completed two post-doctoral fellowships. All this led to her career as a medical-research scientist in the field of hearing and deafness at various US universities and at the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
Brenda is currently a professor at the Loma Linda University Medical Center in California. She has travelled all over the world as a guest lecturer in her field of expertise. Her favourite formal award is from the American Academy of Audiology, which honoured her with their 2009 President’s Award for “Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Audiology."
Throughout it all, her mother's encouragement remained steadfast and Brenda never forgot her roots at UVic. She received bursaries while an undergraduate student and appreciates the idea of having such helpful funds available to those who need them.
In her words: “I am a firm believer in the notion that educated individuals will help ensure that our world survives all the economic and social inequities and hardships that presently exist. Thus, I now want to ‘give back’ to the system that helped me become a successful and satisfied contributor to society by helping the younger generations achieve the best possible education and training.”
For more information on donating to UVic, please contact mgrlegacydev@uvic.ca or 250-721-8967.