A HEARTFELT NOTE OF THANKS TO REVEREND CYNDI SKRIPAK ’78

A current member of the Infinite Horizon campaign steering committee, Cyndi has a unique vantage point given both her status as an active Emma alumna and a former employee of the school, having served in the Development Office and later as Director of Independent Studies. Cyndi retired last year after 28 years of ministry as a United Methodist pastor and, since then, volunteered several days of her time digging through the Emma archives to uncover the history of the Alumnae Chapel. Cyndi says, “Emma instilled in me a sense of my own potential, so when I found my calling, I didn’t hesitate to follow it. And, I must say, high expectations from my teachers and learning to write well certainly helped with weekly sermon deadlines, too!” Cyndi and her husband, Dr. David Breen, live in Philadelphia, where they raised two sons, now 27 and 23. Read more about Cyndi’s involvement with the campaign and her archival research about the chapel in the Fall 2022 issue of Signature magazine!

FROM

THE HEART CAROL GILHAM ’51

A longtime supporter of Emma Willard School, Carol has made a planned gift to support the Alice Dodge Wallace ’38 Center for the Performing Arts in memory of her parents, who gave her the opportunity to enjoy the formative education that Emma Willard provided her. An Emma Willard day student since she was in third grade, Carol feels strongly that her girls’ school education contributed to her sense of confidence and independence. The cross-disciplinary design of the Emma Willard curriculum nurtured her love for history, art, and music and prepared her for future studies in art history at Wellesley. With a successful career as an art curator, which began in Boston at Harvard, Carol retired as curator emerita from the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With her long history on a variety of boards, Carol traces her leadership skills to her early start at Emma. She believes that a single-sex education helps girls find their voice, learn to speak up, and be heard.