2022 Alumni Award Winners

Each year at Alumni Weekend, the school acknowledges significant alumni contributions and distinctions with special awards. The many accomplishments of the 2022 award winners are highlighted on these pages.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNA AWARD

The Springside Distinguished Alumna Award recognizes an alumna who has made a significant contribution in her field and whose accomplishments have had an impact on the larger community.

Wanda Stewart '77

Wanda Stewart, an urban farmer and environmental education activist, embodies the SCH mission every day of her life. She is an alumna who has dedicated herself to bettering her community and her world. Stewart is a social innovator, community builder, and garden activist from Oakland, CA, where she runs garden-based education programs for schools. She is also executive director of the nonprofit Common Vision, which is dedicated to redistributing healthy food to feed people and build community resilience. Common Vision takes a unique approach to school gardens, using fruit trees and other perennials to create extremely highyielding, low-maintenance, and low-cost school gardens. Common Vision’s School Orchard Project provides fresh fruit to more than 100,000 lowincome children.

Stewart has been called a “tireless champion and architect behind the garden project at Hoover Hawks Victory Garden.” That garden is an intergenerational hub of healing, learning, and wonder for her entire community. She has said that, previously, the Hoover Hawks Victory Garden, West Oakland, was known as a “food desert.” There were no grocery stores and corner stores didn’t sell fresh food. She and others were inspired to grow food because students were hungry. Their goal was to show students that they could grow their own food and create a place where they could be face-to-face with nature and understand their role in saving the planet. By teaching these students to care for the garden, they would learn how to care for themselves, their community, and their world.

On volunteer days, people come from all over the neighborhood to work in the Hoover Hawks Garden. The garden plays a central role in seeding and growing all kinds of things, from plants to kids to families, flowing from seed to food to consumption and back again. Stewart has been known to say, “If you can grow a seed, you can grow yourself. My hope is to teach them to grow a seed and grow plants so they can grow themselves.”

Classmates Ellen Nalle Hass and Carol Shelly shared this excerpt from the submission statement presented to the Awards Committee by Stewart’s classmates.

ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR

The CHA Alumnus of the Year recognizes an alumnus for outstanding service to the Alumni Association or to Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.

J. Bruce Whelihan '60

At CHA, Bruce Whelihan was actively involved in Players and served as its president in 1960. After graduating, he attended Washington and Lee where he majored in journalism and continued his involvement in the theater. In 2019, he was recognized by his college alma mater as a Distinguished Five-Star Alumni Award winner.

Following college, Whelihan pursued an M.B.A. from the Wharton School and entered the world of finance, serving as a commercial banker in New York for Irving Trust Company. In 1968 his career path took a turn when he left Irving to work on Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign. He followed Nixon to Washington in 1969 and worked in the White House as a staff assistant in the White House Press Office until Nixon’s resignation in 1974. Whelihan returned to finance, working for Alex Brown & Sons, the thenoldest investment banking firm in the country, where he became a partner and shareholder of Brown Advisory. Today, he is managing director with William Blair’s Private Wealth Management group. This fall, Whelihan issued a generous challenge grant to all alumni and friends in support of the “Restore The Rec” campaign, in addition to making a transformative leadership gift to the project. To build momentum for the campaign, he met with current and past Players, encouraging them to “get the job done.” He pledged in a letter to all Players alumni that he is “personally committed to getting the Players back in The Rec as soon as possible.” Honorary alumnus and former faculty member Jim Talbot H'81 says that “Bruce discovered his love for the performing arts as a student at CHA that continues to this day. His wonderful support of the ‘Restore The Rec’ campaign, with both a lead gift and a matching gift challenge, has bolstered our plan to update the home of our drama program. Renovations are already underway, and Whelihan has urged SCH to get our students back into The Rec ‘as soon as we can!’”

THE ROLL OF FAME AWARD

The CHA Roll of Fame Award recognizes an alumnus who has made significant, far-reaching contributions to society. He is considered an expert in his field, and his work has had an impact that reaches beyond the bounds of a single community.

Eamon Javers ‘90

Eamon Javers joined CNBC in June 2010 as a Washington reporter based at the bureau in the nation’s capital. He is currently a senior Washington correspondent. Previously, he was a White House reporter for Politico, where he covered the intersection of Wall Street and Washington. He has conducted investigations of the administration’s financial bailouts and economic stimulus efforts, broke news about the presidency of Barack Obama, and authored trend stories on Washington. Prior to joining Politico, Javers was a Washington correspondent for BusinessWeek magazine, where he wrote extensively about Washington lobbying, including the Jack Abramoff scandal, and unearthed previously unknown incidents of corporate espionage. Javers’ articles have appeared in Fortune, Money, Congressional Quarterly and Slate.com. He began his career at The Hill, a weekly newspaper (and website) covering Congress. Javers is the author of Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage, which uncovered a CIA policy allowing active-duty officers to moonlight in the private sector.

“As a Middle School history student, Javers quickly learned how to prepare for class and tests,” remembers CHA master teacher Paul Hines H'03. “Making detailed outlines, asking questions, and organizing his study time enabled Eamon to become an excellent student. His work ethic also helped him become an outstanding 300-meter hurdler. His resolve and hard work in track has carried over to his occupation as a journalist.” Fellow journalist and CHA alumnus Clark Groome, Class of 1960, says that Eamon is deserving of every honor. “Watching Eamon on any number of Washington Week in Reviews and elsewhere,” says Groome, “it is clear that he is a thorough, accurate, and well-spoken journalist deserving of every professional accolade and this honor from the CHA Alumni Association.”

Javers honored the five stripes—courage, honesty, integrity, loyalty, and sportsmanship while a student at CHA and, later, as a professional.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

The Springside Distinguished Service Award recognizes an alumna who, over the course of several years, has made unique contributions and shown an outstanding and extraordinary devotion to the school.

Sally Ellis Quale '57

As a school, SCH has benefited from the numerous events that Sally Ellis Quale has attended as well as the many projects she has stewarded and supported. Visible evidence of her commitment to the school include the Ellis Trophy Room in the Vare Field House, dedicated in honor of her parents, and investments made in perpetuity such as the endowed Class of 1957 Artist in Residence, which has funded many impactful programs, such as ReMIX Interactive, which partnered students from SCH and Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia at Drexel’s ExCITe Center. Additionally, we have benefited from her wise counsel as a reunion chair, class agent, Annual Fund Leadership Committee member, member of the Springside National Alumnae Council, and a member of the Springside Board of Trustees.

Most recently, through her passion to save the American chestnut tree, Quale enabled the school to play a role in returning this species to the Wissahickon Valley Watershed by connecting the school with the American Chestnut Foundation. This partnership led to SCH planting a grove of chestnut trees on its campus in 2019. Quale's Springside classmate Frankie Jueds remembers Quale including her when she arrived at Springside in 9th grade. “From the beginning, says Frankie, “I admired Sally as one of the leaders who made our class the close, inclusive group it was. I got to know her better when we both worked on the Tatler. Sally could do everything—and so well! She reeled off entertaining, interesting articles, illustrated them with charming drawings, and always managed to get the terrible printer to print, which meant she was covered with ink a lot of the time too. She was a top student and athlete and leader at Springside, and has been a wonderful friend for all these years after.” More broadly, she has served as a committed volunteer, helping to raise funds for the Springside and SCH capital campaigns, in this way continuing the legacy of her father, Addison Steeling Ellis, a Springside board chair who championed the new Springside School campus at 8000 Cherokee Street.

OUTSTANDING YOUNG ALUMNA AWARD

Rebecca Chin '02

The Springside Outstanding Young Alumna Award recognizes the achievements of an alumna who has graduated within the past 20 years and has demonstrated excellence in a career or service to the community.

Rebecca Chin has over a decade of experience in internal communications and has worked from startups such as Figma and Jet.com to Meta and Walmart. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and earned degrees in English and communications.

Chin kickstarted a ladies’ basketball team with the Philadelphia Suns, a longstanding Asian American Pacific Islander community organization. Through a powerful combination of sports and community building, the Suns have been able to foster a home for Asian American youth to grow into passionate individuals and future leaders. She served on its board and as a captain of the Lady Suns from 2002 to 2013.

“Using the natural attraction of sports and friendship, the Suns provide under-served youth the opportunities to gain the confidence that can only be obtained from challenging themselves both physically and mentally,” she says. During the Obama administration, she produced and directed a short documentary based on her experience with the Suns and was honored as a White House Champion of Change. Chin also dedicates her time to championing creatives of color through ADCOLOR as a long-time judge and founder of Asians for ADCOLOR. She was awarded the Unsung Hero Award in 2019 for her behind-the-scenes contributions. Now in Los Angeles, she serves on the board of the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools to provide more opportunities for scholars in the city’s most systemically oppressed communities.

YOUNG ALUMNUS AWARD

The CHA Young Alumnus Award recognizes the achievements of an alumnus who has graduated within the past 20 years. It honors excellence in a career or service to the community.

Greg Lobanov '10

Indie game developer Greg Lobanov has been making video games since high school. While a student at Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, he became the first student in the college’s history to hire himself for a required six-month internship. During this internship, through his own company, Dumb and Fat Games, he created Perfection, a puzzle-solving meditative game that went on to become the 2014 Philly Geek Awards Game of the Year.

After graduating from Drexel, Lobanov took a bike trip across the country. This experience was life changing and became the inspiration for his new game, Wandersong. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, he produced the game in collaboration with composer Gordon McGladdery, whose company, A Shell in the Pit, creates sounds for games. While in production, Wondersong has been featured at several top gaming shows and conferences, including Pax10, The MIX, and Penny Arcade Expo. In November 2017, Wandersong was signed by Nintendo, and in September 2018 it was released on Nintendo Switch as well as STEAM, PC, and Mac—a major achievement and a professional milestone for any independent game maker. In 2021, he released a game called Chicory: A Colorful Tale which won numerous awards, including a BAFTA.

Lobanov, who is now based in Vancouver, recently worked with an 11th grader on the online game the student was developing for his Capstone project. “Greg was wonderfully informative and gave great advice, which propelled Sam into applying for summer study at NYU,” says Ellen Fishman, then-SCH Arts and New Media director. “Greg’s the real deal, and he has been making games since he was a high school student!” Although his time at CHA preceded the creation of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Lobanov embodies the initiative, innovation, and creativity that are so emblematic of the true entrepreneur.

YOUNG PLAYERS ALUMNI AWARD

The Young Players Alumni Award is awarded to a Players alumnus who has graduated in the past 10 years and is actively involved and contributing to the arts world in unique and innovative ways that are positively impacting their greater community in any area of theater, theater education, new media, or film.

Aleah Welsh '12

Aleah Welsh is a writer’s assistant and office production assistant on the show The Goldbergs on ABC for which she has been writing scripts. Her episode, “The Strangest Affair of All Time,” aired in March 2022. She has also worked as a production assistant for Schooled on ABC. She joined an improv group in Center City when she was just 15, was a member of Players throughout her high school career, and started writing sketch comedy when she was a first-year student at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined Bloomers, a comedy group, and committed herself to pursuing a career in TV comedy. After graduating from college, she began her career on the East Coast before moving to Los Angeles and transitioning into the narrative space. She’s studied improv with The Upright Citizens Brigade in New York and Los Angeles. Welsh worked in many different capacities for Nancy Glass, a six-time Emmy Award-winning TV writer, host, and producer in Bala Cynwyd. She was a production assistant, associate producer, and assistant director for the Glass Entertainment Group. When a friend told her that The Goldbergs was hiring new staffers, Welsh joined as a production assistant. Then, in seasons seven and eight, she worked for Alex Barnow, who took over for Adam Goldberg in 2019 as the program’s showrunner. “You could always expect a little mischief, a lot of enthusiasm and laughter when Aleah was in the building, especially when she was joined by her cohort, Leise Trueblood,” says Aleah’s former Players director, Jill Garrett. “She always tackled the job at hand and delivered unforgettable performances.” Welsh's most recent development project centers around comedian Becky Robinson’s viral online character, “Entitled Housewife,” with legendary comedy writer Mike Sikowitz attached to showrun. The youngest child of a therapist and bartender-turnedowner (two sides of the same coin, some say), her storytelling relies on her keen observation skills and ability to mine the human condition for inspired comedy grounded in reallife humor—and sometimes trauma.

PLAYERS HALL OF FAME AWARD

The Players Hall of Fame Award is awarded to a Players alumnus who has contributed significantly to the arts and the greater community as an administrator, writer, creator, director, technical director, performer, educator, or arts professional in any area of theater, theater education, new media, or film.

Joshua Pearson '82

Joshua Pearson '82, left, stands with Questlove at the 2022 Ace Eddie Awards.

Joshua Pearson, CHA Class of 1982, is an awardwinning film editor based in New York. An avid, energetic, and prominent student in the Players community while at CHA, Pearson went on to graduate with a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design. He and his friends formed a video art group that traveled with the first “Lollapalooza” tour and created live video projections for U2’s “Zooropa” tour. His career has included multiple Academy- and Emmynominated documentaries, including What Happened, Miss Simone?, Under African Skies: Paul Simon’s Graceland Journey, and Keith Richards: Under the Influence.

Most recently, Pearson was the lead editor on the Sundance, Grammy, and Academy Award-winning documentary Summer of Soul (...Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) about six weeks in the summer of 1969. "The film pulls together largelyforgotten footage from The Harlem Cultural Festival, an event that celebrated Black history and the healing power of music," according to Searchlight Pictures. The documentary received much praise when it was released in 2021. The New York Times praised the editing in particular, “On one hand, this is just cinema. On the other, there’s something about the way that the editing keeps time with the music, the way the talking is enhancing what’s onstage rather than upstaging it.” Pearson called his work alongside Questlove on this film a “joyous” experience in a virtual talk with the SCH community. He also talked to the Chestnut Hill Local about the movie and his CHA experience. “At CHA, I loved art class with the legendary Barbara Crawford. She allowed me to discover what freedom of expression feels like,” he says. “Ms. Crawford’s class allowed me and a few other ‘basement rats,’ as we called our little crew of oddball misfits, freedom to express ourselves in almost any way, shape, or form.”

SPECIAL SERVICE TO PLAYERS AWARD

The Special Service to Players Award is awarded to any parent, faculty member, adult leader, director or volunteer, past or present, who has exhibited longstanding commitment and dedication to the Players program through unique contributions of their time, energy, passion, and creativity over the course of many years.

Debra Gress Jansen '87 H'16

Debbie Gress Jansen has shared that “all she ever wanted to do— well, other than to become an actress—was to teach at SCH.”

And teach she did. Jansen, who taught and led in various roles at SCH Academy for 20 years, has served in myriad roles that encompass almost every facet of Players life and the theater program at SCH: Players alumna, director of Players from 2006-2012, assistant director and producer from 2017-2020, and Players parent to Jack and Katie. She is a person who works with incredible diligence, attention to detail, and a deep love and passion for the craft of acting. She has an impeccable ability to cultivate a creative vision and bring it to life beautifully onstage. She communicates with open honesty, integrity of spirit, and encourages students to create and embody their characters fully, consistently maintaining positivity, encouragement, and a grounded thoughtfulness that lifts up all those who work with her.

In addition to her work onstage and at The Rec, Jansen always went above and beyond, generously giving her time, energy, and resources behind the scenes to help to elevate the Players work, whether it was doing in-depth scene work with a student; ensuring that there was just the right costume, wig or prop; beautifying the lobby; lending a listening ear and imparting wise advice, ultimately benefiting the productions and community. From her very first production as director of The Wind and the Willows to her stunning vision for her final show directing Sense and Sensibility, she has touched the lives of countless students, families, parents, faculty, adult leaders, and families with her unwavering dedication and commitment to Players. “She was always willing to talk and hear your ideas, make you feel safe, and was just as excited to be there as we were,” says Players student Elizabeth Shoff. “Having her around created a calming aura and made you want to work hard and create a great show.” Jansen's energy, passion, and creativity has left a lasting mark on the productions, people, and space that Players call home.

NOMINATIONS

The Alumni Association accepts nominations for the awards identified here. An alumni awards committee makes the final selection, and awards are given at reunions every year. Please email alumni@sch.org with your suggestions.