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Alumnae Spotlight
IN HER FOOTSTEPS
Ellie Collinson ’98 & Susan Smith Collinson ’62
Like mother, like daughter. Susan Smith Collinson ’62 and Ellie Collinson ’98 share a close bond, made even stronger by their connection to their alma mater.
A family gathering a few years ago would have made Eliza Bailey Masters smile.
Susan Smith Collinson ’62 and her daughter, Ellie Collinson ’98, together with Susan’s younger sisters, Barbara S. Smith ’71, Nancy Smith Robbins ’65 and Alexandra “Sandy” Smith ’67, started to harmonize. “My aunt Sandy plays ukulele, and we were all singing folk songs and some of the songs we used to sing in Glee Club,” Ellie said. “I was trying to get them to remember the words to ‘Loreley’ because it was one of my favorite songs.”
“Then we all broke out into our best rendition of the ‘Tower Song,’” Susan fondly recalled.
It was the perfect snapshot of the SmithCollinson family’s Dobbs legacy, which also includes Susan’s niece Laura Robbins ’98. The family’s history with the School began with their matriarch and Susan’s mother, Barbara Smith ’31. Barbara and her sisters, Frances Hunt Austin ’30 and Janet Hunt Elliman ’29, all attended Dobbs together.
Susan remembers her mother as “a sporty type” who was “a great tennis player, a great golfer and loved to sail.” Ellie noted that her grandmother even “wanted to go hunting on her honeymoon.”
Susan and her three sisters followed in their mother’s footsteps. “My parents liked the idea of an ‘all-girls’ education,” Susan explained, “and my mother believed it was important for all four of her daughters to attend Dobbs and not give any advantage to one daughter over another.”
Like her mother, Susan loved her time at Dobbs. She was a member of the dance club and took on a leadership role as vice president of the senior class. “Miss Sheldon (science) and Miss Nichols (ancient history) were my favorite teachers,” she shared.
Between her education and volunteering at the Dobbs Ferry Hospital, Susan developed an interest in the health care field. When she was accepted to the University of Michigan, she was thrilled, explaining that “I wanted to go to nursing school and get a bachelor’s degree and have a broader education.”
Susan worked part time as a nurse when she and her husband settled in Chappaqua, New York. During this time, she began to look into holistic practices and start her longtime work as a teacher of The Alexander Technique. She joined the Dobbs Alumnae/i Association Board and the School’s Board of Trustees in 1987. (She served on the Alumnae/i Board until 1990 and the Board of Trustees until 1998.) This gave her the opportunity to expose Ellie to all things Dobbs — from Annual Fund phone-a-thons to the popular Estherwood Boutique events. She encouraged Ellie to apply.
Ellie thrived at Dobbs and enjoyed exploring different interests. After participating in the Swiss term abroad in eighth grade, she decided that she wanted to board upon her return; she soon moved into Cole. Like her grandmother, Ellie pursued athletics (field hockey and lacrosse). “It was nice to be able to stay on campus after games,” she said. “I was also a member of Phoenix (the honorary theater society), DAA (Dobbs Athletic Association) and the winter musicals, so I was more involved in after-school activities. I liked being independent.”
After Dobbs, Ellie attended Colorado College and earned a degree in Asian studies and music, followed by a
master's in public administration from the University of Colorado. Thanks to her extensive experience in advocacy, financial management and organizational development, she recently was appointed to the Biden administration as chief of staff to the assistant secretary of administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
She credits Dobbs with instilling confidence in her. She looked to her mother and the other women in the community — faculty and alumnae — as role models with their “take charge” attitudes.
And just like her mother, Ellie served on the Dobbs Alumnae/i Association Board. “For me, I had so many positive memories of helping my mother, and I felt like I was maintaining a legacy of our family’s involvement,” Ellie said. “I’m always happy to support the School because it’s had a huge impact on my life.”
While Ellie is busy in Washington, D.C., and Susan calls Vermont home, they remain close, finding time to connect over their love of food and travel. They maintain special friendships with their respective Dobbs classmates and look forward to reunions.
Susan acknowledges that the Smith women’s legacy is important to her, in large part because of the mother/ daughter associations with the School — associations that span three generations.
ABOVE: Ellie Collinson ’98, left, strolling outside the hill dorms with cousin Laura Robbins ’98 as students.
LEFT: The Smith sisters, left to right, Nancy Smith Robbins ’65, Susan Smith Collinson ’62, Alexandra "Sandy" Smith ’67 and Barbara S. Smith ’71, are part of the Dobbs family legacy.
