Fielding Community Mourns the Loss of Alumna Dianne Kipnes, Ph.D.

Fielding Graduate University mourns the passing of Dr. Dianne Kipnes (PSY’98), a distinguished alumna and former trustee whose profound contributions left an enduring legacy within our community. Dr. Kipnes, who earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Fielding, exemplified a lifelong commitment to the clinical psychology profession, education, and philanthropy. Her dissertation, “Cohesion and Outcome in a Short-Term Psychodynamic Loss Group,” examined measures of cohesion in short-term groups and their relationship to outcomes like depression and distress.

Dr. Dianne Kipnes

Dr. Kipnes’s legacy, both as a scholar and philanthropist, continues to inspire the Fielding community. During her tenure on Fielding’s Board of Trustees, including her service on the Alumni and Development Committee from 2022 to 2023, she played a pivotal role in preparing the university for its 50th-anniversary celebrations in 2024. In 2016, she established the Kipnes Endowment for Social Innovation, supporting alumni projects that demonstrate innovation and collaboration to improve the lives of individuals, organizations, or communities. In 2018, with her husband, Mr. Irv Kipnes, she made a transformative gift through the Dianne and Irv Kipnes Foundation to endow the Dr. Dianne Kipnes Library, Fielding’s digital-only global library. Their generosity advanced digital collection offerings for alumni and strengthened the library’s psychodynamic literature resources.

Fielding President Katrina S. Rogers, PhD, reflected: “Dr. Kipnes will be deeply missed for her smile, her wisdom, and her love of life. She was a compassionate friend, a brilliant mind, and an unwavering advocate for creating a better world. She epitomized what it means to be a Fielding alum. Her light will continue to guide us, and her memory will always be a source of inspiration.”

The following obituary, originally published in the Edmonton Journal, pays tribute to Dr. Kipnes’s extraordinary life and enduring contributions: https://edmontonjournal.remembering.ca/obituary/dianne-kipnes-1092495831

Dianne Roberta Kipnes (November 4, 1943 – December 26, 2025)

When we are forced to let go, it is difficult to find the words to express the emotions involved. Dr. Dianne Roberta Kipnes (née McFarlane), beloved wife of 35 years and soul mate to Irving Kipnes, passed away in the early morning of December 26th, 2024 at the age of 81. She is predeceased by her parents James and Margaret McFarlane and her first husband David Walker. Dianne is survived by her sister Brenda McFarlane and partner Sue Head, her daughter, Kendra Walker, and stepchildren, Harry Kipnes and his wife Pam, Rozanne Kipnes and her husband Geoffrey Druker, Ronee Kipnes and her husband Hart Robinovitch. Dianne is deeply cherished by her grandchildren Dr. Hanah Lamothe-Kipnes and fiancé Matt Stevenson, Pascal Lamothe-Kipnes, Noah Hockfelder, Shira and Fernando Druker-Gorodscy, Aria Druker, Zackary Goldstone and wife Sarah Gillespie, Zander Goldstone, as well as her great grandchildren Addy and Preston and god-children Meghan, Molly and Jonathan. She also leaves to mourn her very close aid and friend Susanne Uhl.

Dianne spent her entire life pursuing learning and higher education. The first of her family to go to university, she encouraged her sisters to do the same. She obtained a Master’s degree in social work from McGill and her PhD in clinical psychology from the Fielding Graduate University, while working as a therapist in the innovative Psychiatric Walk-In Clinic of the U of A Hospital under the direction Dr. Hassan Azim and Dr. Bill Piper. It was the first of her many innovative adventures to follow with her husband Irv. Their charity “The Dianne and Irving Kipnes Foundation” has funded immeasurable good in our community, our country and our world. Dianne was the brilliance behind the Kipnes Centre for Veterans and the long-term sustainability of the Edmonton Opera. She was the kind of person who could open your mind to new perspectives. She thought outside the box and invested time and energy in pursuing advances in medical research in the areas of lymphedema and urological stents, often as a willing “guinea pig”. She valued integrative therapies in areas where there was great need yet little focus.

Her absence will be felt deeply by her family, friends and colleagues who admired the depth and breadth with which she navigated her path through life and sought to effect change.

Please consider honoring Dr. Kipnes’s memory with a gift to the Dr. Dianne Kipnes Library or a charity of your choice. For more information, contact Marlen Bautista at giving@fielding.edu or 805.898.4029.