A NEW SENSE OF COMMUNITY Alumnae gather for Career Panel Discussion

Supportive, empathetic, strong, selfless, inclusive, and fly—all descriptors Berkshire alumnae professionals shared at the first Annual Alumni Career Panel Discussion when asked what makes a good leader.

Moderated by Erin Yoffe Halper ’97, founder and CEO of the consulting firm The Upside, panelists represented four decades of Berkshire graduates—E.V. Day ’86, Charlotte Fadden ’09, Eliza Farley ’13, Jillian Hooper Joseph ’97, and Abby Tufts ’08— whose careers spanned the arts, finance, tech, real estate, and public relations industries. In an engaging and often humorous conversation, alumnae discussed their career paths and choices, as well as the challenges and opportunities present in today’s workplace. After the panel, guests stayed for a networking reception, shared stories about life under the Mountain, and perhaps even exchanged a digital business card or two.

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“We’ve lost a sense of community over the past century, and the theme I’m picking up on is that there’s a new sense of community now, with women coming together and supporting each other in lots of different ways.”

—Erin Yoffe Halper ’97, CEO of The Upside, an independent consulting firm

“People would say to me, ‘You can’t sell this, you can’t do this, or you can’t do that.’ And so I said, ‘Forget it, I’m going to do exactly what I want.’ And I did totally impractical work, which then ended up being in a very big show that started my career.”

–E.V. Day ’86, installation artist and sculptor

“It’s been a lot about fine-tuning, figuring out what kinds of projects I want to work on and exactly what direction I want to go. It’s been a twisty path, even though now I’m actually not that far away from where I started.”

–Eliza Farley ’13, programmer writer at Amazon

“The finance industry needs people with different perspectives and backgrounds to find new ideas. Whether that’s how you think or how you look, it’s extremely important. If we’re looking at things in a variety of perspectives, we can grow, we can expand, we can look at mitigating risk.”

–Charlotte Fadden ’09, senior recruiter for The Riverside Company, a private equity firm

“This panel is super important because it’s critical for people to see different careers and different people, and for women of all ages to see women who they admire and who they can emulate. As people continue to bring their authentic selves to work, it opens more doors for women.”

–Jillian Hooper Joseph ’97, managing director and associate general counsel at Nuveen, the asset management arm of TIAA

“As long as you have the ability to market yourself, you can change industries mid-career. When you have those translatable and transferable skills that relate to the job description you’re going for, you can absolutely use those to your advantage. I think the sky’s the limit for a lot of people.”

–Abby Tufts ’08, vice president in the Sports Division at DKC, a PR firm