.
A New York native, Marilyn Magaram moved to California to study Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California on a full academic scholarship. After graduation she met and married her husband Phil.
When her two children, Justin and Jodi, were born, she gave up physical therapy to remain at home with them until they were ready for school. Once they started school, Marilyn did too, enrolling at California State University Northridge to study Food Science and Nutrition.
During her academic program, she was inducted into the Omicron Nu Honor Society. Her studies led her to specialize in research folic acid in mung beans. She was published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture and received her Master's Degree in 1984.
The Master's led to teaching, and Marilyn taught for the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at CSUN, including courses such as a Nutrition for Life, Introductory Food Science and Food Science and Technology.
She also opened a private practice as a Registered Dietitian and taught a course for UCLA Extension specializing in low calorie, gourmet cooking.
In 1989 we lost Marilyn to a tragic accident while on a rafting trip in Australia. The Marilyn Magaram Center was established by her husband, Phil Magaram, to honor and remember the work that inspired and motivated her and to share her enthusiasm and love of education with students and faculty for years to come. Marilyn loved sunflowers; a flower whose bright and hopeful personality is analogous to Marilyn's, and so the sunflower has become emblematic of the Center, as it always reminds us of her.