Cindy Stearns Obituary

Cindy Stearns
Cindy Stearns enjoyed her 65th birthday on May 30, 2023, and passed away peacefully on June 15, 2023, at her home surrounded by her husband, Pat, and two children, Kayla and Dillon.

Cindy was born in 1958 in Bellingham, Massachusetts, the fifth in a family of seven children. She moved to Tiburon, California in 1975, graduated from Redwood High School in 1976, and went on to the University of California Davis, where she received her B.A. (1980, with honors), M.A (1983) and Ph.D. (1988) degrees in Sociology.

After UC Davis, Cindy completed a NIMH postdoc at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health, subsequently taught at UC Davis and then spent the remainder of her career working as a Professor at Sonoma State University (SSU). She was instrumental in formalizing SSU's Women's Studies Program into the Department of Women's and Gender Studies in 1999, served that Department as a Professor and Chair, and later transferred to the Sociology Department, returning to the field in which she had received her doctorate. In addition to a full-time teaching and research position, she was a devoted lifetime mentor of students as a Professor and in the McNair Scholar program, many of whom have gone on to a wide range of academic, medical and other careers. She played a major role in the Power, Promise and Possibility conference for young women in the natural sciences. She published pathbreaking research on health maintenance organizations, the embodied experience of breastfeeding, and a variety of subjects related to women's health. Her academic career was cut short by cancer and she retired as Professor Emeriti in 2018.

Cindy was admired and loved by her family, relatives, many students and friends for her caring and compassion for others, insightfulness and awesome sense of humor. The Chair of sociology writes that "Cindy will be dearly missed. She was a dedicated colleague, scholar, teacher, and friend. Her capacity for seeing and nurturing the strengths of others along with her innate inquisitiveness, sense of fairness, and love of laughter will leave an indelible impression."

Cindy is preceded in passing by her parents, Warren and Jeanne Stearns, and two siblings, Richard and Jan Stearns. She is survived by her husband of 37 years, Patrick Jackson, and children Kayla and Dillon Jackson of Sebastopol; sister Kimberly Word of Newport Beach; brothers Bob and Jack Stearns of Bellingham, Massachusetts and Warren Stearns of Santa Clara; as well as her many nieces and nephews. Her siblings and their families were a support throughout her illness. She was grateful to her family and friends who did not look away, but stood with her, no matter how ugly and scary living with cancer is for everyone in its orbit.

Services for close family and friends will be held mid-October in Sebastopol. For further information write to [email protected].

In lieu of flowers, make a donation to organizations on her behalf, including the Ceres Project at https://www.ceresproject.org and The Living Room at https://thelivingroomsc.org/donations/.