Belinda Juran, Esq. ’81: Community Advocate & Change Agent Improving Lives

First female recipient of the Frank J. O’Hara Award for General Academic Excellence believes connections are key to community development.

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Belinda Juran, Esq. ’81 believes in the power of making connections.

After dedicating her first career to the high-tech industry and her second career to the law, the self-described “Lovellian,” a word she coined to describe someone who lives in Lowell, Massachusetts, “by choice and loves the vibrancy and diversity of the city,” began a third act as a change agent for her community when she transitioned from a partner at WilmerHale, an international law firm, to a retired partner in 2019.

“Some people have said I’m a community activist,” she said. “I’m not an activist in the sense that I’m trying to be an instigator, but I’m a community advocate who tries to connect people. Making connections between people throughout the city who should know each other is a big part of what I do.

“I do whatever I can to help.”

Since then, she’s devoted herself full-time to improving the lives of her fellow Lovellians (see sidebar).

“I didn’t plan to retire to not do things,” she said. “I’m doing exactly what I wanted to be doing at this phase of my life.”

How did a native of Queens, New York, travel through the crossroads at The University of Scranton to become a dedicated Lovellian? Strangely enough, it all started with a University window decal that someone without Juran’s eye for opportunity may have dismissed entirely.

Belinda Juran has served several organizations in a variety of capacities over the years, including:

  • Board Member, UTEC, an organization dedicated to reducing youthful recidivism through positive relationships and wraparound support (2010-2022)
  • Board Member, Pollard Memorial Library Foundation (2015-Present)
  • Fellow, Advanced Leadership Institute at Harvard University, a program for retiring professionals interested in making a social impact (2020-Present)
  • Board Member, International Institute of New England, a nonprofit that serves immigrants, refugees and asylees in the Boston area (2021-Present)
  • Advisory Board Member, University of Massachusetts Lowell, College of Education (2021-Present)
  • Advisory Board Member, Free Soil Arts Collective, an organization that amplifies the voices of artists of color in the Merrimack Valley (2021-Present

Ridgewood, Queens

Juran’s parents emigrated to the United States from Austria in 1952 and settled in Ridgewood, Queens, where they instilled both the value of working hard and the importance of community into their daughter and her younger brother. As a young girl, she dreamed of becoming a teacher, but the social dynamics of the time caused her parents to assume she would become a secretary. Fortunately, she excelled academically, and her teachers suggested she apply to college. This coincided with a move her family was planning from Queens to Hawley, Pennsylvania, which is located about an hour outside of Scranton. While considering her options, Juran noticed a University of Scranton decal in the back window of a car parked on a New York street and decided to apply.

“I’d never even heard of the University until that point,” she said.

When she learned she had received a presidential scholarship, Juran and her family knew Scranton would be the best place for her to continue her education.

“(The scholarship) gave me the opportunity to map a path of my own,” she said.

Then-University of Scranton Academic Vice President Vincent Ponko congratulates Belinda Juran for winning the Frank J. O’Hara Award for General Academic Excel-lence with a perfect 4.0 quality point average at Class Night 1981.
Then-University of Scranton Academic Vice President Vincent Ponko congratulates Belinda Juran for winning the Frank J. O’Hara Award for General Academic Excel-lence with a perfect 4.0 quality point average at Class Night 1981.

Pursuing Excellence

At Scranton, Juran threw herself into her studies, majoring in math and taking as many computer science courses as she could find. She spent the summer after her junior year working in the Boston area at GTE Labs, which opened her eyes to the opportunities available in Boston’s then-thriving high-tech industry for someone with computer science training. At the close of her senior year, Juran became both the first female valedictorian and the first woman to receive the Frank J. O’Hara Award for General Academic Excellence in University history, and she set out for the Boston area a few weeks later to accept a position in computer-aided engineering at Honeywell Information Systems.

The Reinvention Realization

At Honeywell, Juran initially worked as a software engineer.

“Because it was growing so quickly as a field, women were quite welcome and didn’t face, I think, some of the harassment and other issues you read about more recently,” she said. “I think we have actually made negative progress in that space over time.”

She met her future husband, Evan Schapiro, her second week on the job, and the two eventually settled in Westford, Massachusetts. A few years into her career at Honeywell, Juran, then 25, attended a colleague’s retirement party and experienced a quintessentially Joycean epiphany when the gift pre-sented to the guest of honor — a 35mm single-lens reflex camera — illustrated the rapid pace of technological advancement.

“I realized then that, given the speed at which technology changes, I wouldn’t have the same job — or even the same career — in 25 years, even had I wanted to,” she said. “We are all going to need to reinvent ourselves multiple times throughout our careers. “My mindset changed and I became open to, and invited, new opportunities to grow.”

From right, seated, Belinda Juran, Esq. ’81 and Michael J. Bevilacqua, Esq. ’78 host a group of Scranton students at a networking event at WilmerHale in 2019.
From right, seated, Belinda Juran, Esq. ’81 and Michael J. Bevilacqua, Esq. ’78 host a group of Scranton students at a networking event at WilmerHale in 2019.

Open to Opportunity

Soon afterward, Juran moved into management and steadily climbed the ladder. She began working on an MBA at Boston University, and she took a position as a consultant at the Boston-area site of Cadence Design Systems, which was based in California. When Boston’s high-tech sector experienced a downturn and Juran and her husband began contemplating a move to the West Coast, she knew she would regret leaving Massachusetts without at least applying to Harvard Law School.

“Imagine the delight — and terror — of receiving the acceptance notice that changed my life,” she said. “Quitting my job to return to school full time and switch careers was a risk, but worth it.”

After graduating from Harvard Law, Juran joined the firm that would become WilmerHale and began practicing transactional law on behalf of biotech companies. She worked her way to a partnership eight years in and remained at WilmerHale until her retirement in 2019. In 2006, the couple saw a real estate open house flyer for a home in Lowell, and they became dedicated Lovellians soon afterward.

As a change agent, Juran plans to continue to advocate for her community by fostering connections between its citizens, its stakeholders, and similar cities like Scranton, for the good of all.

“I think the concept of showing up and doing the work is really important,” she said. “I’m learning a lot by trying to figure out ways in which to have some small impact.

“I would love to show you Lowell. There is a lot to like about Lowell.” 

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