On the Frontlines of a Pandemic

Whether they are tending to patients, testing complex treatments, or providing essential supplies, Calvert School alumni are leading the charge against COVID-19. Over the past few months, the following individuals have adapted their skills to serve struggling communities, search for answers, and tackle the psychological toll of sheltering at home – and we are proud to say they all started at Calvert.

Annie Luetkemeyer ’84 is a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of California, San Francisco, and a physician at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). She specializes in tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and viral hepatitis, but since the COVID-19 pandemic began, her focus has shifted.

Now, she is leading clinical trials of potential treatments for COVID-19, including convalescent plasma, which uses antibodies from recovered patients to fight the disease, and immune-modulating drugs, which help “turn down” the robust immune response behind many severe cases. Notably, Dr. Luetkemeyer is also involved in trials on remdesivir, an IV anti-viral drug that helps block the disease from replicating.

“As scary, unfortunate, and heartbreaking as this disease has been, I’m really optimistic about where we are going,” she said at a virtual All Alumni Board Meeting in May. “This is a viral disease. We know how to handle viruses – we can do this.”

However, Dr. Luetkemeyer says, it is important to know that people of any age, fitness level, and health status can get sick.

“We’re definitely seeing deaths and critically ill patients at a much younger age than we had seen in general from the Chinese epidemic, and I think we’re really trying to understand what is driving that,” she said. “People can get sick very, very quickly, and it’s not always who you expect.”

So, what can we do to stay safe? According to Dr. Luetkemeyer, testing and tracking are key, but a lot of it comes down to

personal responsibility, hygiene, and respect for the seriousness of the disease.

“If you have to wear a mask when you go to the grocery store, wear a mask when you go to the grocery store. That’s a small price to pay,” she said. “Wash your hands. Do the things that are making life a little more inconvenient. This is not overreaction.”

Like Dr. Luetkemeyer, Dr. Keith Flaherty ’83 is fighting on the frontlines, overseeing important research as Massachusetts General Hospital’s director of COVID-19 clinical research. In this role, he leads high-profile research teams tasked with developing and maintaining a portfolio of the highest impact therapeutic trials across inpatient and outpatient settings.

The team’s efforts are partnered with cutting-edge diagnostic technology and the deployment of tools to learn more about the disease, its complications, and potential therapies.

During the virtual All Alumni Board Meeting, Dr. Flaherty talked about how COVID has disproportionately affected minority populations – and like Dr. Luetkemeyer, he stressed that while elderly people may be more likely to get sick, that does not mean younger groups can or should relax safety measures.

Dr. Keith Flaherty '83 “You can do the math for yourself and for your peer group in terms of what you might calculate the risk of fatality to be, but that’s not the point,” Dr. Flaherty said. “The point is if one contributes toward the promulgation of this virus, then that ultimately points to the most vulnerable population.”

This thought is especially important because herd immunity from COVID-19 is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

“No one should just assume that the virus is just quietly, passively working its way around the U.S. and creating immunity,” Dr. Flaherty said. “Many people were hoping that, but that’s just not the case.”

Despite these and other challenges presented by COVID19, Dr. Flaherty says that it has been “awe-inspiring” to watch the biomedical research community come together and learn about a disease faster and more efficiently than it did a decade ago.

“It is unimaginable ten years ago, with H1N1, that we possibly could have gone through such a rapid cycle in terms of going from molecular understanding to diagnostics to therapeutics, and that is in fact happening as we speak,” he said.

Calvert alumni are also devoted to the impact of COVID19 on mental health. Dave Rich ’92, LMSW, is an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University, where he earned his degree by completing the dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) training program and lab under Dr. Andre Ivanoff, Ph.D. He is a part of two private practices based in New York City, where he would usually provide in-person DBT for adults, adolescents, and families – but in the wake of COVID, Mr. Rich has had to adapt.

Since relocating to his family’s home in Baltimore, he has switched to seeing patients – most of whom are still in Brooklyn – over Zoom. In these sessions, he has found that many teens are reporting overwhelming confusion and boredom, and despite sharing a confined space with their family members, most people are not communicating with each other in an in-depth way.

He says that comes from teens picking up on parents’ stress in addition to managing their own problems. Instead of leaning on their families for support, Mr. Rich finds that they are relying on friends, social media, texting, and video games.

“I haven’t seen as much parent/child interaction as I would hope because everyone is on edge and people aren’t in the space to validate these emotions,” he said.

For anyone struggling with stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Rich offers three pieces of advice: 1) Be flexible and tolerate the emotional ups and downs that come with this challenging time. 2) Do something predictable, like watching your favorite movie or reading your favorite book, to create order and stability. 3) Practice compassion for yourself and others.

“Before you do or say anything in your day, ask yourself, ‘Is it helpful? What do I need right now? What do others need right now?’” he said. “Keep communication open even if you don't know what to say.” Meg Ward ’87 is the managing director of education at the Living Classrooms Foundation (LCF), a nonprofit that disrupts the cycle of poverty in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. and provides hands-on education, workforce development, health and wellness, and violence prevention programming. plementing hands-on learning in a time when social inDistribution of these boxes, which contain at least five In the initiative’s first run, Ms. Ward says LCF distributed 2,000 boxes across community centers and Baltimore City Public School (BCPS) food distribution centers, and she highlighted plans to distribute at least 4,500 more boxes in collaboration with Great Kids Farm and the Y of Central Maryland. Geared toward students in eighth grade and below, these boxes are branded for kids ages 3-5 as well as grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-8.

After the first distribution, Ms. Ward said LCF was immediately contacted by families looking for more boxes and asking how they could be obtained.

“There is clearly a real demand for families to have something for their students that both captures their imagina

tion and involves active learning,” she said.

WE CAN’T STOP... Our Roca youth workers are absolutely committed to being consistently/safely out

Similar to Ward, Molly Baldwin ’71 is committed to supporting young men in Baltimore and beyond. She is the founder and chief executive officer of Roca, a nonprofit that aims to disrupt incarceration and poverty by engaging with the young adults, police, and systems at the center of urban violence.

When the COVID-19 outbreak there and keeping our In March, the organization began began, LCF jumped to identify the relationships and bracing for programming challengneeds of the families they serve, providing a wraparound support model cognitive-behavioral es, site closures, and other issues related to COVID-19. As a part of that addresses everything from food and hygiene supplies to internet work on track. that, the executive team agreed to reduced wages and a few Baltimore access. employees were placed on furlough. One of the organization’s biggest challenges has been imsupporting the at-risk youths they serve. teraction is severely limited – but Ms. Ward and her team In a recent update, Roca announced that it is following came up with an innovative solution: STEAM activity social-distancing guidelines to provide food and moneboxes. tary support to 1,000 young people in 21 communities in activities and represent each area of STEAM (science, This summer, the organization is hoping to raise $250,000 technology, engineering, arts, and math), began in April, to cover emergency support expenses, including delivand each box came with directions and required materials ering hygiene supplies, fresh and self-stable food, books, already included. They were also complemented by suppletoys, and baby-care supplies to young men and women on mentary online education and an extra science lesson on a biweekly basis. Roca is also working on providing rent the importance of washing your hands to protect against and utility support to young people in unstable housing COVID-19. situations.

This meant the organization had to pivot to new ways of Massachusetts and Baltimore. “We can’t stop,” Ms. Baldwin’s team said in a statement. “Even during this time, crime hasn’t abated. Our Roca youth workers are absolutely committed to being

consistently/safely out there and keeping our relationships and cognitive-behavioral work on track.”

Beth Fenwick Garner ’85 serves as director of corporate relations at Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC). She’s also the founder and creator of BaltoBites, an app designed to help consumers know which restaurants are open amid the COVID-19 crisis. The app, which launched in late April, includes information on more than 250 restaurants and offers details on delivery options, carryout availability, and gift card purchases.

The inspiration for the app, Mrs. Garner says, came from the GBMC Healthcare Workers’ Fund, which provides food and other supplies to physicians and nurses who are helping to fight COVID-19.

“I wanted to expand my skillset and serve the community, connecting families who are in a position to still order out with small restaurants that are open,” she said.

Mrs. Garner used a playbook from the market research group Trends to create the no-code directory, and she credits a local food blogger who generously shared information on all 250 restaurants with helping the app take off.

Next, Mrs. Garner says, she is considering using promotions to encourage people to visit local restaurants.

“That said, I’m kind of hoping it has zero net impact and is just something we use during COVID-19 that serves the community,” she said.

Matt Buck '87 with students in Calvert's Middle School.

BaltoBites app created by Beth Fenwick Garner '85

Matt Buck ’87, Head of Middle School at Calvert, has been on the educational frontlines of the COVID-19 epidemic. He has witnessed both the growing pains and strides made since the school shifted to remote learning.

“In the beginning, it was like we were starting not just a new school year, but a whole new school,” he said. “Our curriculum was in place, but the way that we are doing school is completely different.”

The early weeks of the transition meant long, hard days of planning and brainstorming – but despite the many challenges, there have been benefits, too.

“One amazing silver lining has been that there are some students who are really good at this type of learning and have just thrived. There are always a few kids in a physical school who tend to be more on the quiet side and rarely speak in class, and yet somehow in this digital format, they’ve risen to the top,” he said.

Some adjustments to the traditional curriculum may continue to have an impact at Calvert once students return to the classroom. For one thing, teachers are more in-tune with the length of assignments and what is digestible. The asynchronous learning model has also shown that teachers can provide content and video for direct instruction at home, which could leave more in-class time for collaboration and cooperative learning.

The major takeaway, however, has been the strength of the community of teachers at the school.

“I definitely want to acknowledge the teachers and faculty at Calvert, both at the Lower and Middle School,” Buck said. “Many are parents, often of young children, and yet all have met this challenge and exceeded expectations.”