Special Alumni and Alumni Awards

Distinguished Alumni/ae

Barbara Finzel Zoltanski

Barbara Finsel Zoltanski is a 1952 graduate from the College of Saint Mary of the Springs (now Ohio Dominican University) where she received a bachelor of science degree in elementary education. She and her husband, Edward, are parents of 10 children who have devoted their lives to public service through professions in medicine, higher education, law, engineering, finance and historic preservation.

Barbara's grass roots expression of civic responsibility includes serving as a school board member and voluntary Central City teacher for at-risk youths. She also led a successful effort to provide the first federally-funded hot lunch program within her community elementary school. Barbara was among the last educators in Lucas County to serve in a four room rural school. She also led a campaign to preserve a Maumee Valley historic structure targeted by expanding industry. She researched and regularly authored a local history newspaper column. She is a self-motivated steward who struggled relentlessly to inform, recruit and defend the quality of air and streams threatened by development in Monclova Township and the nearby native-American river basin. Long before the term "globalization" was commonplace, Barbara held a community-wide fund raiser to heighten awareness and generate support for impoverished Guatemalan children. She involved the local community to respond to the plight of Chernobyl victims when she opened her country home to raise needed funding for pure milk and daily food for Polish children. She served as a host parent for cultural exchange guests and served as an advocate for minority and mentally-challenged persons. Barbara successfully championed the provision of publicly provided transportation for faith-based schools in her district.

Her civic memberships have included the League of Women Voters, American Association of University Women where she was president of its investment group, The Foundation for Life, Heartbeat of Toledo and the Auxiliary of the Little Sisters of the Poor. For seven consecutive decades, Barbara has considered herself an activist, one who is in search of sustainable solutions to the pressing needs of the under-served. She is a member of a family of educators spanning four continuous generations which began with her grandparents, John and Mary Finsel in 1878.