Departing Faculty

from Cate School 2023 Summer Bulletin

The Class of 2023

By Benjamin D. Williams IV, Head of School

Charlotte Brownlee '85

In the spring of 1981, women were admitted to Cate for the first time, one of the best and most impactful decisions in the School’s already long history. Among those newly admitted students was a ninth grader named Charlotte Brownlee. She would go on to distinguish herself not simply as an outstanding student and community member, but in time as a school shaper and leader, a school historian and spirit keeper, and a model of serviceminded commitment.

Gregarious, energetic, musical, and broadly talented, Charlotte showed even as a youngster the makings of greatness. While she has noted publicly that her many activities and accomplishments were not recognized with awards from the School, there was no shortage of praise or appreciation for Charlotte’s ubiquitous efforts and engagements. In fact, on her application, a teacher from Witherspoon Middle School in Princeton, New Jersey, where Charlotte was a student, in response to a prompt about weaknesses responded somewhat indignantly, “Weaknesses? Bite your tongue! If you were to have a daughter in the 8th grade and you were to write down on paper all the cherished qualities of mind and body and … yes, soul, you’d be writing a word portrait of Charlotte Brownlee.”

Charlotte lived up to even that remarkable billing. In her senior year her advisor asked quizzically, “What isn’t Charlotte devoted to?” He went on to observe, “I think Charlotte loves life, its infinity and its imperfections.” The friendships that Charlotte built in those years speak to the scale and quality of the connections Charlotte so naturally builds. Said one classmate, “My life has been shaped by meeting the already wise and charming Charlotte when I arrived as a clueless new sophomore.” Another alumna noted, “What’s most inspiring to me about Charlotte is the genuine joy and curiosity and generosity she brings to learning. She is a true educator.”

It was one of her Cate teachers who reached out to Charlotte twenty years ago who assured her return to the Mesa. Charlotte had completed her undergraduate work at Harvard, spent some time as a buyer in the fashion industry, earned an MBA at UCLA and was working in the University Advancement Office when the call came. “We are looking for a Director of the Cate Fund,” the teacher said, “I think you should apply.”

Charlotte did. Her success in that role led to her appointment as Director of Admission and then ultimately to Assistant Head for External Affairs. Said a trustee of her work, “She genuinely loves students. Her curiosity is infectious and without limit. I think that’s what’s made her such a gifted and savvy Cate admission director.”

Under Charlotte’s leadership, advancement work, admission work, even communications grew markedly in scale and sophistication, even as the focus turned appropriately to the nature and quality of the student experience on campus. “She’s a connector, in the best sense of Malcolm Gladwell’s term, and always has been,” said a classmate of Charlotte’s. And so Charlotte set about building and supporting a community of remarkable people eager to know and work with each other.

She jumped into the classroom as well, pioneering courses focused on California history and literature. “Her contributions as a classroom educator will endure on this Mesa,” said a colleague.

Indeed, most of what Charlotte does is not transient in the benefits it offers this place. It lasts, sinks deep into the soil and walls, becomes part of the soul of this community. Who doesn’t remember people like Charlotte who show through the conduct of their lives how profoundly they believe in you? Spend a day or an evening on campus and you’ll find Charlotte in a dorm braiding tinsel into girls’ hair, hosting a seder at her home, playing her mandolin or singing a few show tunes, watching a game on the fields or in the gym, or playing Bananagrams in Booth with the girls from Bothin.

There is an inscription on Schoolhouse Dorm, visible from the landing adjacent to High House. Si Monumentum Requiris Circumspice. If you seek her monument, look around. For it is not in the buildings and structures that adorn our Mesa. It is in each of us, the human community at Cate: Charlotte’s masterpiece.

Jenna Deboisblanc

She goes by many names: DeBeeBee, Ms. DeBeeBee, the artist formerly known as DeBeeBee. She can invigorate a community or an activity like no other we have encountered. Her energy is unending. Her creativity is awe-inspiring. And her investment in every moment – absolute. Jenna inspires students and colleagues to think in innovative ways, to express scholarship artfully, and - to borrow from Ted Lasso – not to judge but rather to be curious. She has taken Cate by storm over the last three years, saying “yes” to every potential adventure, teaching computational thinking and connecting the logical sequencing of computer coding to the unlimited possibilities of machine rendering and human expression. We have enjoyed every second of our time with this remarkable scholar and wholly uninhibited dancer, and we wish her nothing but new and exciting discoveries on the road that lies ahead.

Mike Ferguson

Behind virtually every Cate action over the last decade – whether it be programmatic, infrastructure related, focused on health and safety, or involving the physical plant - Mike has been a key player in making it happen.

If we wonder how reliant we have become on technology, we should make a point to spend the day with Mike. He oversees and provides training to support every transition of software: first class to gmail, blackbaud to veracross, haiku to Schoology. He has the unenviable task of ensuring that we have adequate bandwidth, moving this year from microwave based systems to fiber optic cable. He even builds websites and interfaces, works magic with servers that are so abstract they too have become virtual, and manages it all with incredible patience and unending grace.

He has truly become indispensable over the years, making the prospect of his departure daunting to imagine. But because Mike is Mike, he has anticipated our needs for the coming years and taken care of them all already. Hard to imagine that kind of productivity. But Mike is good at doing what the rest of us can only imagine.

Erik Hansen

Erik joined the Cate faculty as we were imagining the potential evolution of the Harcourt Fitness Center and the strength and conditioning program that would take place within it. We could not have asked a better or more expert or more innovative program leader.

Erik not only determined the design of the space and the machines and equipment that would occupy it, he built a culture within teams and the community for competition, building strength, and limiting the potential for injury. He also took his great organizational discipline and clear priorities toward student wellbeing and applied them as a dorm head. His open door practices and frequent barbecues revealed Erik’s capacity for community building in the same way that his coaching of our swimmers in the pool demonstrated his ability to galvanize a group and help each member contribute. He leaves us for similar work with some very fortunate student athletes at Westmont College where he is sure to have a significant and lasting impact, just as he has here.

The business office is a place that is constantly in motion. People walking through the door needing assistance, phones ringing, and projects that require ongoing attention. Kim has been the organizing force in the office for the past 15 years. There is a calm about her that puts everything in perspective, centering the office and the people in a way that adds a zen-ness, a wonderfully welcoming and warm, but no-nonsense, sense of order and purpose. Growing up in Carpinteria, Kim came to Cate with a long history of managing busy people and places. A longtime owner of Carpinteria’s Foster Freeze, organizing many events and summer programs for her church, and just before Cate, working with a local flower company with their national and international reach, she knows how to deftly manage many tasks at once with efficiency and kindness. We couldn’t be more excited for her as she heads off to New Mexico to be closer to family, with more time to visit her sons and grandchildren, and are so very grateful for the sense of humor, care, support and dedication to this community she has shared these past 15 years.

Mari is now completing her second tenure at Cate. She left us for a few years but returned to teach in our Humanities Program, where the curriculum reflects Mari’s broad conception of scholarship and its applications. A writer herself, Mari’s own artistry is very much present in her teaching, as is a profound affection for language and the written word.

The parent of one Cate graduate, Mari knows our community well from all angles, and has stepped in when we most needed her to see that our students enjoy all the possibilities of inquiry. She leaves us to lead her own school in Santa Barbara, so we trust that our connection will continue well into the future.