St. John Fisher University to Bestow President’s Medals Upon Four Community Members during 71st Commencement Ceremonies

St. John Fisher University will bestow four President’s Medals during its 71st Commencement celebrations in May.

President’s Medals are given in recognition of an individual’s leadership, partnership, and impact on the Fisher and broader Rochester communities.

On Friday, May 9, Dr. Donald E. Bain, president emeritus of St. John Fisher University, will be honored during the 2 p.m. undergraduate ceremony and Jerome Underwood ’89, president and chief executive officer of Action for a Better Community, will be honored during the 4:30 p.m. ceremony.  On Saturday, May 10, Lucy Malmberg, co-founder of Wedgewood Pharmacy, will be honored during the 10 a.m. graduate ceremony and Marilyn Dollinger, professor emeritus and retired executive associate dean of the Wegmans School of Nursing, will be honored during the 1 p.m. graduate ceremony.

Donald E. Bain, Ph.D.
President Emeritus, St. John Fisher University

Dr. Donald E. Bain became interested in history and law at an early age. Pursuing these disciplines, he was awarded a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1974. Prior to receiving the doctorate, he earned a master’s and a bachelor’s degree. During his undergraduate studies, he was a research assistant at Columbia University. Following his doctoral work, he was awarded a fellowship at Yale University through the National Endowment for the Humanities. He subsequently received a graduate certificate in educational management from Harvard University.

His research interests focused on government service. A specialist in 20th century American national security, he was a visiting scholar at the Defense Intelligence Agency and held a senior appointment in the Military Strategy Division of the Department of Defense, National Defense University in Washington. Scholarship included papers, articles, essays, and book chapters dealing with American strategic policies and planning.

As a member of the Fisher faculty since 1975, he held the positions of assistant, associate, and full professor; History Department chair; dean of faculty; provost and dean of the college; vice president for administration; acting president; interim president in September 2004; and was appointed president in November 2005. He twice received the University’s Award for Teaching Excellence. When Bain took office at Fisher, he brought a clear vision for the future of the University shaped around a strong dedication to enriching the student experience, a loyalty to the doctrine of shared governance, and commitment to sound finances. During his tenure, the University experienced academic renewal and an expansion of the campus footprint all bolstered by Vision 2020, the successful capital campaign, which added several facilities to campus, established additional scholarships, and grew the endowment.

 Bain retired from his presidency in June 2015, earning the title of president emeritus. In his honor, the University renamed the campus center the Donald E. Bain Campus Center, reflective of his positive impact on the student experience at Fisher.

Before completing his education, he served in the United States Navy as a member of a combat aircrew. A Vietnam era veteran, he is a member of Williamson, New York, American Legion Post 394. Committed to public service, Bain belongs to several community organizations and was elected to four terms as a Town Justice in Williamson, New York.

In March 2010, he served as the Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Rochester, New York. In July 2010, County Executive Maggie Brooks presented Bain with an official proclamation recognizing his many contributions to Irish history and culture in Monroe County. In 2011, he was named for the third time to the Irish Education 100, a listing of distinguished and accomplished educators of Irish descent in North America, published by the Irish Voice Newspaper and Irish America Magazine. And in April 2014, Bain received the prestigious CFC Award from the Catholic Family Center at their 22nd Annual Charity Gala.

He was a member of the New York State Magistrates Association, served as a member of the board for Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester and for the Rochester Business Alliance, served as president of the Rochester Area Colleges Presidents’ Council, and was a member of the Board of Trustees for the Center for Governmental Research.

Jerome Underwood ’89
President and Chief Executive Officer
Action for a Better Community

Jerome Underwood holds an MBA in Finance from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from St. John Fisher University.

Underwood spent nine years of his career serving as vice president and commercial product manager for community reinvestment with HSBC Bank. Throughout his tenure, his role was to represent HSBC in a consortium of banks that grew a multi-million economic development fund aimed at revitalizing small businesses in Western New York. The role encompassed developing and implementing strategies to ensure that the commercial credit and investment needs of all New York State communities were being met, with an emphasis on low-to-moderate income areas. As a commercial lending officer, he managed a $100 million loan portfolio comprising a diverse array of profit and non-profit businesses. His work helped improve the bank’s Federal rating from marginal to acceptable.

Over the span of nine years, Underwood also held various management positions within the Rochester City School District (RCSD). As senior director of youth development and family services, he was responsible for the district’s implementation of Dr. Joy DeGruy’s Relationship Model of Educational Intervention, My Brother’s Keeper Initiative, Attendance Improvement, Camp Good Days Leadership Camp, and the Student Leadership Congress. Throughout his fulfillment of these functions, his focus was on cultural responsiveness and Black male achievement.

He was named president and CEO of Action for a Better Community (ABC) in 2018. A familiar face to the ABC, he previously served on the organization’s board from 2007 to 2015. ABC is one of nearly 1,000 nationally recognized community action agencies established under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to fight America’s War on Poverty. The organization hosts dozens of programs for community members across the age spectrum, including Head Start and Early Head Start programs, youth initiatives, adult education services, and more.

Throughout his life, he has always been an avid lover of soccer. By merging his enjoyment for mentoring adolescents and his passion for soccer, Underwood served as the director of coaching for River Flow Soccer Club, as well as a past role as president of the Flower City Soccer League. Both organizations use soccer as a tool to teach life skills to youth.

He currently sits on the board of the Greater Rochester Community Transportation Foundation and is a former board member of the Rochester Joint Schools Construction Board, a seven-member board handpicked by the Mayor and Superintendent of Schools to oversee the modernization of Rochester’s schools. Underwood is a graduate and present faculty member of the 100-year-old United Way’s African American Leadership Development Program, which aims to unite the goodwill and resources of the Greater Rochester community, so that everyone can thrive. In the 2015-16 school year, Underwood served as RIT’s Minett Professor, a position chosen by the University’s president and past Minett Professors. He is a founding member of the Greater Rochester Black Agenda Group.

Lucy Malmberg, R.Ph., F.A.C.A., F.A.C.V.P.
Co-Founder Wedgewood Pharmacy

Lucy Malmberg has dedicated her career to advancing the practice of pharmacy and advocating for the profession as well as the patients and practitioners that pharmacy serves.

As the co-founder, former CEO/board chair, and owner of Wedgewood Pharmacy, she and her late husband, George, transformed the company from a local community pharmacy established in 1981 into the largest national specialized compounding pharmacy that is the industry leader in veterinary compounding and animal health.

In 2002, Malmberg was a leader of the industry coalition of seven compounding pharmacies that argued successfully before the Supreme Court of the United States that the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997 (FDAMA), which prohibited pharmacists from advertising or promoting compounded drugs, was a violation of their First Amendment rights. Since that time, she has continued to lead industry efforts to protect the right of licensed prescribers to prescribe, and licensed compounding pharmacists to provide custom-made drugs to meet the needs of individual patients. Three years later, Malmberg was instrumental in forming the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists’ public affairs task force, which created an advocacy program centered around Patients and Professionals for Customized Care, a website that provides tools and information for advocates of compounding pharmacy to influence public policy.

Prior to Wedgewood Pharmacy, Malmberg was an executive at E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company, Inc. in a variety of sales, marketing, and business operations positions. In 1991, she received the DuPont Vice President’s Award for Quality and Leadership, and in 1993, was given the DuPont Engineering Award for her leadership and contributions to the Hotel DuPont project.

Malmberg has been involved in several pharmacy professional associations, including serving as a member of the board of directors of the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists (currently known as Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding). She is also a member of the American Pharmacist Association and the National Community Pharmacists Association, and is a Fellow of both the American College of Apothecaries and the American College of Veterinary Pharmacists. In addition, she was a member of the Board of Trustees for the University of the Sciences, where she also served on the Executive and Audit Committees, and was chair of the Advancement Committee. She was active with the American Red Cross of the Delmarva Peninsula from 1995-2001, holding titles of board member, board secretary, board vice chair, and board chair.

Over the last decade, Malmberg has become a strong supporter of the Wegmans School of Pharmacy, serving on the Dean’s Advisory Council and sharing her expertise in compounding, veterinary pharmacy, and advocacy with students through guest lectures. Her philanthropic generosity has aided students in a number of ways.

In 2020, Malmberg made a $100,000 gift to the School to offset the cost of student travel experiences, including professional conferences and medical missions. Then, in the midst of the pandemic, the School created the Lucy P. Malmberg Pharmacy Student Hardship Endowed Fund, which supports students who face extraordinary financial difficulty due to unpredictable circumstances. Another gift funded the purchase of iPad technology for first-year students in the campus pathway; helping the School deliver cutting-edge coursework that prepares students to become professional pharmacists.

In 2021, she made a $350,000 gift to establish the Lucy P. Malmberg Pharmacy Endowed Scholarship program, which provided long-term sustainability for the Malmberg Pharmacy Scholar Award. A year later, Malmberg gave $1 million to the School, giving $350,000 to the endowment and $650,000 in immediate scholarship funding to students entering the pharmacy campus program. The largest scholarship program within the School, the Malmberg Scholar Award, is available to eligible students enrolling in the campus pathway, totaling up to $40,000 across four years for each recipient. In 2023, the University acknowledged her continued support by inducting her into the Presidents Society, which honors philanthropists who have made lifetime gifts totaling $1 million or more.

Throughout her career, she has been given numerous awards, including the 2013 Evelyn Timmons, R.Ph., Advocacy Award by Professional Compounding Centers of America and 2017 Earl W. “Bill” Bradley Award from the American College of Veterinary Pharmacists.

Malmberg is a registered pharmacist in Pennsylvania and Delaware. She holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and in 2020 received the Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from the University of the Sciences, now at Saint Joseph’s University.

Dr. Marilyn L. Dollinger, FNP, RN
Professor Emeritus
Retired Executive Associate Dean
Wegmans School of Nursing 

Dr. Marilyn Dollinger has dedicated her career to advancing nursing education, practice, and professional advocacy. Her academic journey began with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Toronto in 1974, where she was honored with the University of Toronto Faculty of Nursing Award. She furthered her education with a Master of Science in Medical-Surgical Nursing and Education from Russell Sage College in 1985, graduating with honors. In 1995, she completed a Post-Master’s Certificate as a Family Nurse Practitioner at St. John Fisher University, and earned her Doctor of Nursing Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo in February 2007. 

Dollinger’s distinguished professional journey is marked by her long-standing commitment to the St. John Fisher University Wegmans School of Nursing. Her teaching career at Fisher as an assistant professor began in 1991, the first year Fisher started granting degrees in nursing. From 2000 to 2008, she coordinated the Family Nurse Practitioner Track, and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2003. In 2006, when the Department of Nursing became the Wegmans School of Nursing, she moved into the role of associate dean of academics, also serving as the chair of the undergraduate nursing program until 2013. She was promoted to full professor in 2016 and retired from her associate dean position in 2022.

In addition to her academic roles, Dollinger has extensive clinical experience, having worked for 15 years in adult critical care at Toronto General Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Albany Medical Center, and Strong Memorial Hospital; and, as a family nurse practitioner at Fisher’s Health Service from 1996-2001 and again in 2004-2008. She also worked during the summers from 1997-2005 in the Strong Health-Highland Hospital’s Department of Family Medicine.

Her dedication to global health was evident through her leadership in international nursing service trips while at Fisher. She participated in a medical mission to Guatemala in 2008 and led trips with the Wegmans School of Nursing in Kenya in 2010, and Costa Rica and Nicaragua in 2015. These trips provided health care services to vulnerable underserved communities, and unforgettable learning experiences to hundreds of Fisher students. She also served as an education leader for international trips for registered nurses to China, Vietnam, South Africa, and Greece. 

A pivotal figure in various health care and community initiatives, Dollinger served on the Executive Committee of the Academy for Leadership in Long Term Care in the Greater Rochester community and as Co-PI for two Robert Wood Johnson grants totaling $870,000 for training RNs in long term care. She was invited to represent the American Nurses Association-New York on the Advanced Home Health Aide Advisory Committee for the New York State Department of Health from 2014 to 2015. In addition, she shared her expertise and brought the voice of nurses to the table at several Rochester area boards: as chair of the St. John’s Health Care Corporation, at the Lifetime Home Care Hospice Board, as chair of Common Ground Health Board, on the Rochester Health Care Innovation Collaborative, and on the executive committee of the Rochester Regional Extended Services Board. She also represented St. John Fisher on the NorthStar Health Care Business Academy Advisory Board.

She remained involved in numerous regional, state, and national professional organizations. She has been a member of the Genesee Valley Nurses Association since 1992, serving in various leadership roles, including president from 2007 to 2009 when she was successful in getting grant funding for an Emergency Fund for Nursing Students in all area nursing programs-totaling awards from $550,000 from 2012-2021. She was a founding member of the American Nurses Association-New York, serving as chair of that Legislative Committee from 2013-2018 and then as president from 2020-2024. Her involvement has included the Nurse Practitioner Association of Greater Rochester, the New York Organization of Nurse Executives and Leaders, and the Finger Lakes Organization of Nurse Executives, where she has held several Leadership positions. 

In recognition of her leadership in health care education and the nursing profession, she has been honored with four Florence Nightingale Awards for Excellence in Teaching from St. John Fisher, the Genesee Valley Nurses Association Educator and Membership Awards, and the New York Organization of Nurse Executives Regional and State Leadership Awards. In addition, she was recognized by the University of Toronto as part of their Notable 90 Alumni Honor Roll in 2010. Her advocacy and leadership in nursing have also been acknowledged with the American Nursing Association-New York Policy and Advocacy Award in 2018, the Nightingale Award as ANA-NY president from the Center for Nursing at the Foundation of New York State Nurses, and the Rochester Business Journal 2025 HealthCare Heroes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025.

Fisher’s Commencement is the culmination of a weeklong series of events and activities celebrating members of the Class of 2025. For more information about the ceremonies, visit the University’s Commencement website.