Valerie C. Dhanens passed away on March 30, 2022, in Vacaville, California. Born Valerie Anne Consigli on January 9, 1938, she was the eldest daughter of three girls born to Alfred Dante Consigli and Violet M. (née Boudreau) Consigli in Nashua, New Hampshire. She is survived by her son James Reed Burnham, Jr. of Goleta, CA, her son Douglas John Burnham and daughter-in-law Christine Marie Trost of Berkeley, CA, and her grandsons James (Jake) Reed Burnham III of Albuquerque, NM, and Reed Frederick Trost Burnham of Berkeley, CA.
Valerie passed peacefully in hospice care upon receiving a dire diagnosis of abdominal cancer in early March, the final blow in a long line of cancers that she battled with determined composure. For the past two-and-a-half years, Valerie had been a resident of Pacifica Senior Living in Vacaville, California, a residential care facility for people with dementia and memory loss, where she was loved and cared for by staff who appreciated her fun-loving sense of humor, ready sassiness and easy sophistication. Even with her short-term memory loss over the past several years, Valerie was always present and engaged with the people around her and, thankfully, maintained her sense of self and the memory of her friends and loved ones until her passing.
Growing up in Milford, New Hampshire, Valerie was a creative and outgoing child. During a bout of polio that kept her out of school for an extended period of time, she learned dressmaking from her maternal Grandmother Anna Boudreau. She also developed skills as a costume designer and gourmet cook and was a talented young athlete. Her father, Alfred, who was the son of Italian immigrants, played the trombone in a brass band for pleasure while working as a skilled craftsperson in the ship building, stone cutting and wood working industries. Her Mother, Violet, was the daughter of French Canadian immigrants and was an elementary school teacher, a flea market aficionado and an avid card player.
As an adult, Valerie was both beautiful and professionally accomplished. A model throughout her life, she represented her state of Maine in the 1965 Mrs. America pageant. One of her formative professional experiences happened right out of college when she became a social worker, providing support to poor African American women in rural Georgia in the late 1950s racially segregated South. Later, she dedicated her professional life to working to address gender and racial inequality within two major corporations – John Deere & Company and Nestle – where she worked as a corporate training and organizational development manager, advocating for a more team-based approach to leadership and giving women and people of color a voice within corporate business structures. After earning her M.A. in Organizational Development and Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems from The Fielding Institute in Santa Barbara, CA, she worked for nine years in the public sector, including as a training and evaluation consultant for the Santa Barbara County Workforce Investment Act Program, developing curricula used to train and prepare unemployed individuals for new jobs, and linking job seekers with employers.
Valerie had myriad friends and mentored many women throughout her career, inspiring them to reach higher, get more education, and believe in themselves. She loved to have fun, whether listening to live Blues music or shopping for clothes with friends. Her vibrant presence will be missed by the many people whose lives she touched.
