Q&A with Dr. Diane Spatz and Jayne Overturf

Xi Chapter at Temple University

Today’s interview is with Dr. Diane Spatz, alumna of the Nu Chapter at University of Pennsylvania and former advisor to the Xi Chapter at Temple University. Diane is joined by Jayne (Laychak) Overturf, alumna of the Xi Chapter, who was an advisor for the Delta Lambda Chapter at Muhlenberg College.

What leadership roles did you hold in your chapters as collegians?

DLS: I was pledge class president (which is what it was called back then), historian and then vice archon. Being in sorority changed my whole Penn experience.

JO: I was first bursar, and then I was archon, so I worked very closely with my CKA. I do want to follow up on one thing that Diane said. I also had a wonderful advisor, and I also became an advisor right after graduation to the Delta Lambda chapter, Muhlenberg. I was 21 years old advising those girls, and I did that until my husband and I moved to Massachusetts. So, Diane was influenced by Helen Berkowitz, and I was influenced by Dr. Diane Spatz.

Diane, you became an advisor for the Xi Chapter right after you graduated from University of Pennsylvania in 1986. Was it your own experience with your CKA that gave you the inspiration to become an advisor?

DLS: Yes. Helen Berkowitz was my advisor — Phi Sigma Sigma has an award named after her. Helen was a pretty remarkable woman. She was a single mom, she had a special needs kid, she was a Philadelphia public school teacher and she still took time to volunteer at Penn. Helen was an amazing role model.

Diane Spatz made an indelible mark in my collegiate experience at Temple University, Xi Chapter. Her mentorship and empathetic leadership style have truly shaped the professional I have become and the friendships I developed long after graduation. Diane was the embodiment of the type of woman I aspired to be: dedicated, authentic, funny and brilliant! During my tenure as archon, she helped me navigate challenging and complex situations that arose in the sisterhood, and helped me balance friendships while upholding the moral and ethical standards of the Fraternity. We have maintained our friendship for almost 30 years, and while we don’t see each other often, when we do, it’s easy to pick up where we left off. I love following Di’s professional adventures, spreading her knowledge and passion for neonatal nutrition to women around the world. Diane has made our world a better place one sister, child, woman and family at a time! —Meghan (McDermott) Thompson

Can you both talk through some of the things you experienced together — any challenges or triumphs within the chapter?

JO: It's so funny looking back, and you're like, “Oh, the biggest challenge, that's not a challenge at all! That's so cute.” The year after we had won Chapter of the Year, it was so important to us to win it again, to go back-to-back. My job when I was elected to be archon was to win chapter of the year again. We ended up doing that, so that's a great achievement, but jumping through all the hoops to do so and put together the chapter excellence binder that was, like, eight inches thick was an unbelievable task for someone who's not a scrapbooker or someone who journals. That was something that Diane and I worked on. In no uncertain terms, she said, “You think you can win? Okay, go ahead and run for office,” and that's what we did.

DLS: It was so different back then. The chapter excellence requirements were extensive and intense and there were so many things that the chapter was expected to do. One of my favorite things, though, about advising the Xi Chapter back then is that my girls were always very serious about it.

I used to host the executive board at my beach house, and so every August before school started, we would have an executive board retreat in Sea Isle City at the beach, and it became very legendary. They would take the chapter excellence expectations and plan their whole academic calendar on big sticky notes and calendars based on the chapter excellence criteria. They were just so amazing because they really cared, and they filled in all the boxes and did all the things. We had to include everything — pictures of events, press media —

JO: Anything. Any flyers that went out, because we barely used email, everything to promote ourselves, probably pictures of shirts we had. I remember that we would hold the binder and glitter would fall out, so something in there had glitter. It was a scrapbook of the year, and every page was dedicated to something that Headquarters had wanted us to do. If it wasn't, we would be like, "Well, this is why we included this, even though it wasn't required; see page 147b.” It was wild to think you were doing this when you're basically a kid.

Diane is the most amazing role model I have ever met. She was the mom us girls needed when we were away from home. She encouraged, guided, celebrated and loved the sisters of Xi Chapter. Diane was never too busy to listen and support. One of the best things about her was her rules. As a college student you would think that one should do whatever they wanted because there weren’t parents around. Diane enforced rules and respect above anything else. I strive to be like her; she became one of my biggest role models. She has more love in her heart that she was willing to share time and time again. She is truly a remarkable woman. Anyone who had her as an advisor hit the jackpot. She is an extraordinary lady who I was lucky to call a friend. Love her to pieces. —Dianna (Kocerha) McDonough

Winning Chapter of the Year back-to-back is quite an accomplishment! Did you change anything for that second year? How did you work together as archon and advisor on that?

JO: Since 2001, the new member classes have just been getting bigger and bigger and bigger, but at that time, we had more new members than active sisters. Quota was bigger than total. Diane sat us down, and told us we had to get it right, we’ve got to have role models. This is how we win Chapter of the Year again, we’ve got to do the dues, we can't have anyone delinquent, we have to have everything on the books. It's wild to think about that time, but that was our goal, and that was what we did. We made sure every activity was for the good and welfare of the Fraternity. But I would say the biggest challenge was having all those new members.

DLS: With increased interest in sororities at Temple and having a new member class bigger than the chapter, everyone who was in good standing had to be a big sister, and some people had to have twins; it was wild.

Diane, thank you for always believing in me. For pushing me to be a better leader and advocate for the women in our organization. You are the definition of a positive role model and I am forever grateful to have known you and been advised by you! Thank you for the constant support, guidance and availability! No matter how busy you were you made yourself available to listen. Even after college you showed me how much you cared. At Leadership Conference you continued to guide me as I became an advisor. Thank you for investing in Phi Sigma Sigma, Xi Chapter and me! —Amy (Smith) Warren

It shows the growth of the chapter and probably Greek life on Temple’s campus. You mentioned that you got together at Diane’s beach house last year. Can you talk about how you've stayed connected over the years?

JO: I really leaned on Diane when I was a CKA; she was super helpful. Then, we moved to Boston, so I wasn't involved in the sorority at that time, but Diane was a doctor of lactation, and ended up consulting her after I had a baby. We had obviously been talking throughout the years and she came up the day I got out of the hospital. She helped me learn how to nurse my son. I was having problems, and Diane's right up in there! We've known each other for so long. I moved back to Philadelphia in 2023, and she's one of the first people I had drinks with. She helped me as a CKA, she helped me with recruitment, I would go back to Temple University and help her. As I became an adult, she really helped me and my family so much, through her profession. We go to her beach house, my kids call her and her husband Aunt Diane and Uncle John; we're very good friends.

DLS: I have lots of favorites, I'm not going to lie, but Jayne is a favorite. We just have a lot of good stories to tell.

Dr. Spatz, you say you have a lot of favorites, and you've advised a lot of women over the years. Can you speak on that experience?

DLS: I was a CKA from the time I graduated college until 2018. My niece, Daniela, was born and raised in Italy and moved to the United States to finish high school and go to college. She was admitted to Temple University and, of course there was no choice but for her to be a Phi Sig, and she wanted to be a Phi Sig, because that's all she ever knew. When Daniela was in high school, she went and stayed at the sorority house, and Jess Parker, who is another favorite of mine, was the archon at the time. Daniela joined sorority first semester freshman year and lived in the sorority house at 1427 West Diamond Street the next three years and was elected to be archon of the chapter. At that point, I made the decision to retire after 25 years because I didn't want the chapter to think that there was any conflict of interest with her being archon and me being the chapter key advisor. Also around that time the chapter hit its 75-year anniversary. We had a gala and a lot of people came back. It was a beautiful event. The chapter girls all came, a ton of alumnae came, and so that was just a good time for me to call it a day.

What advice do you have for women who want to stay involved after graduation?

JO: Something that Diane had taught me early on that I struggled with in my 20s and 30s, was that the best friends you make don't have to be your best friends forever. There may be other sisters from the chapter you weren't close with who, as you evolve as adults, become your best friends. Or maybe you go to an alumnae meeting and you meet people from other chapters, and you just know you have the same good heart because you're all Phi Sigs; you have the same philanthropy interest, and then you become friends with them. That was one of the things Diane taught me. She just said, “Look at all my best friends. I didn't go to college with any of them. They're all Phi Sig, but they're not from the Nu Chapter, they're local alum I have made friends with.” So I think as you grow and evolve as a woman, it's okay to let go of the relationships that aren't serving you anymore, but you still can pick up those new ones by being part of an alumnae chapter, or even by volunteering in any philanthropy, whether it's with Phi Sig or not. You're always growing, so your friend base should be serving you in that sense.

Diane Spatz has been a role model to countless women over the years. Through her attention, care and love, she helped the sisters of the Xi Chapter develop into bold women ready to take on the world after graduation. For many of us, Diane was our first example of volunteering for Phi Sigma Sigma. I knew the type of advisor and sister I wanted to be because of Diane and I am incredibly grateful for her guidance. In my early years of advising, she was just a phone call away to offer advice, make a connection to another alumna sister or simply listen. Diane is a reminder that sorority is truly for life and an outstanding example of Once, Always! —Beth Davis

What about you, Diane? You were an advisor for so long and developed meaningful relationships that have sustained over the years. Is there any advice you have for women who might want to become advisors or just stay connected?

DLS: During my freshman year at Penn, it was very, very hard for me to find people who resonated with me, and who had similar values to me. I joined sorority because two nursing students a year above me said you need to join Phi Sigma Sigma. It's funny, because one of them is a PhD nurse, too, and although we didn't really see each other after college, I was going out to University of Illinois Chicago for a PhD student defense, and lo and behold, there's Karen Dunn Lopez, who is on faculty there. Now we see each other every year.

Most of my best friends are from sorority. They're people I've met through the alumnae organization — Heather Kelley from Florida, Wendy (Hornberger) Mortimer from Widener, Gretchen (Watson) Heacock, who was an archon at Temple — and anyone in the Philly region, if we are Phi Sigma Sigma related, we love each other.

I love mentoring people, and it's nice to know that we Phi Sigs all really shared the same core values, and I think we live those core values today in what we do in our real life jobs and in our friendships.

Is there anything else you wanted to mention that we didn’t touch on?

JO: I do want to say one more thing about Diane. She has taught not only me, but generations of women at this point to unapologetically be yourself. This is the same woman I have seen win awards on a national level. I have seen her in person helping me with my babies, I've seen her with her friends. I've seen her with her husband, her family, her nieces, her nephews, my own children. The message that she taught me at a young age was to be who you are. Don't let anyone dim your sparkle.

If you have to dim your sparkle for them, forget them. You don't need them. That message, when you're 21, is invaluable. I mean, just look at my career. I went into television news, and if I’d let anybody dim my sparkle, I couldn't have done that. My biggest takeaway from my friendship with Diane is just to be who you are — whether it's at work, school, fraternity or with your friends, your kids, your family — be who you are, because you can't be anybody else authentically. That's something Diane has taught so many people. If you want to hear it and live that way, that's when your core value is great; if you don't, fine. I think that's why Diane and I have remained such good friends because this is who we are.