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The Schulich School of Law extends warm wishes to Donna Beaver on her retirement. Before embarking on a 27-year career at the law school, Donna had previously worked in sales in the building-supply industry and as a graphic designer, an intermediate accountant in the insurance industry, and a production and inventory controller at Farmer’s Dairy.

Since coming to the law school, Donna has worked for seven Deans: Acting Dean Philip Girard, Dean Joe Ghiz, Dean Dawn Russell, Dean Phillip Saunders, Dean Kim Brooks, and Dean Camille Cameron. The Weldon Law Building wasn’t Donna’s first workplace at Dalhousie, however. She was a materials and inventory co-ordinator for the carpentry, electrical, and mechanical stores at Facilities Management, where she computerized the inventory system and redesigned the warehouse storage.

Donna joined the law school in 1992. “The culmination of all of my previous experience—accounting, supervison, collective agreements, building and maintenance, procurement, scheduling—were instrumental in providing me with skills I used daily,” she says.

Even earlier, the first job Donna took while she was in high school was working at the cafeteria at Dal’s Student Union Building. She began her Bachelor of Commerce studies at Dal in 1975 but had to leave after two years due to lack of funding, returning to academia in 1985 and finishing with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1987. In 2000, she completed her MBA while working at the law school.

“I concentrated on two majors, marketing and organizational behavior and psychology,” she says. “At no time did I embrace accounting. It had been my dream to go to the Nova Scotia College of Art to be a dress designer but the cost was too great, so I followed the business track instead. It’s something I don’t regret as now that I am retired I can explore my artistic side at my leisure.”

During her retirement, Donna is looking forward to pursuing her passions. “Currently it is photography, which I got into five years ago,” she says. “I hope to get back into oil painting now that I will have the time.”