Class XII procession to Asphalt Green for Upper School Last Day 2021. This year, the seniors voted to wear caps and gowns for their final ceremony as Brearley students.
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BULLETIN
THE BREARLEY BULLETIN SPRING/SUMMER 2021
610 East 83rd Street New York, NY 10028
NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #129 19464
THE BREARLEY SCHOOL
You are stronger than you know!!
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8/2/21 10:33 PM
By the river, on East 83rd Street, we will be here. Create a legacy for Brearley. Incubator, proving ground, home. Brearley is a singular place that is all about the girls—who they are, what they are capable of, and what they can become. When you include Brearley in your estate plans, you join a generous group of supporters who safeguard the Brearley experience for the girls of future generations. For sample language to use in your will or trust, and further information, please contact: Last Day 2021: Lower School (top) was held on June 9 and Middle School on June 10 in the 590 Performance Hall.
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Phoebe T. Geer ’97, Associate Director of Development (212) 570-8609 or pgeer@brearley.org
8/2/21 10:33 PM
CONTENTS VOLUME XCVI • NUMBER 1 • SPRING/SUMMER 2021
THE BREARLEY SCHOOL BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2020–2021
2 Last Day
Christine Frankenhoff Alfaro ’91, President
12 Class of 2020 Welcome Back
Susan Berresford ’61, Vice President
14 Retiring and Incoming Members
Modupe Akinola ’92, Treasurer
David Philip, Senior Vice President
of the Board of Trustees 18 610 Renovations: The Library
Jocelyn Strauber ’91, Secretary
Tara Abrahams Gideon Berger Elizabeth Chandler
26 Brearley News
Joseph DiMenna
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Antiracism highlights, Computational Thinking initiative, Field Day and more
Amina Elderfield ’94 Thomas Farrell
34 Brearley in the Time of Covid
Jane Foley Fried
The Arts Program, Alumnae Reflections,
Julie Gamboa
2020–2021 Task Forces
Jane Gladstone ‘86
44 Parents’ Association Benefit
Martha Haakmat
46 Reunion and Alumnae Celebrations
Munib Islam
52 Births and Deaths
Stephanie Perlman
Rebecca Haile
Sue Meng ’99
David Raso
54 Class Notes
Paula Campbell Roberts ’94 Bill Shutzer
Head of School Jane Foley Fried
Lita Tandon ’06
Editor Jane Newman
Alan Yan
Olivia Wassenaar ’97
Graphic Designer Jennifer Bartoli Cover illustration by Randy Haldeman If you have any questions or comments about the Bulletin, please contact Jane Newman at jnewman@brearley.org or (212) 570-8588. Special thanks to Kristen Chae, Paul Schneck and members of the Brearley community for sharing photos and artwork with us.
Trustees Emeriti Georges F. de Ménil Evelyn Janover Halpert ‘52 David T. Hamamoto Stephanie J. Hull Ellen Jewett ’77
Brearley has offset the equivalent of
Alan Jones
3,055,980 total standard pages of paper
Edward F. Rover
consumption by reforesting 367 standard
John F. Savarese
trees since joining the PrintReleaf
Priscilla M. Winn Barlow
Exchange on August 7, 2018.
Faculty Representative Debra Glick
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REMARKS FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL
A Brearley Union with Purpose Welcome, everybody. Welcome… Can we let that simple greeting settle in for a bit? Perhaps never has that soft-sounding word carried so much meaning. Here. This afternoon. Welcome, all, to Brearley Last Day 2021. Welcome back to the annual Last Day ceremony. What a year we have endured. Truly an annus horribilis. And, no, these past 12 months have not been measured by five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. Not even close! It has lasted infinitely longer. And I apologize in advance for putting that song in your head for the rest of the day. I imagine most of these 61 seniors whom we have the pleasure of honoring at this ceremony today have certainly measured the past year, in part, by completely different metrics. Measured not so much in increments of time, but in performances postponed, contests canceled, dates denied, hugs and hellos never shared, memories deferred, cheers and shouts silenced and loved ones lost. But let’s not forget that we were able to work together to make the best of a very trying situation. Following all protocols and respectful of the needs and concerns of our community, we were able to get back inside the classrooms (with our remote students on screen) and even recently back to the field and stage, back to a Mountain Day at a beach and a heck of a party that may redefine proms forever. This spring we’ve been slowly transitioning back to feeling like Brearley. This was truly a collaborative undertaking. Thanks to our Board, our administration, our faculty and, of course, our staff for their Herculean effort in carving a safe path back to normalcy. Thank you to all Brearley students for their efforts on behalf of the community, too. From a hijacked junior year to at times a hybrid senior year, you have experienced something none of us could have ever envisioned at your age. Your days were upended and your resilience was put to the test. You have lived our motto of By Truth and Toil. At Brearley, we talk of creating a precious place for our students—to challenge them, nurture them and help them imagine their future. This required an extraordinary effort from our faculty and staff this year. I am so proud of the way we have all banded together in pushing forward, and never allowing hope to be a casualty of this virus. Despite the turmoil of the past several months, keep in mind that when we walked down the promenade this morning, you opened a door to a new beginning. And let me say once again: Welcome. And despite having to stay six feet apart, this pandemic has definitely brought us closer together. This school became our shelter in the storm. Psychically and physically, Brearley is our community. It was our constant amidst all the chaos. Getting back together meant we were once again able to draw from one another, challenge one another and learn from one another. We borrow from each other in so many different ways every day, and this is where those special interactions take place. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be able to gather here today in honor of all you have achieved. In looking across the audience today, I see the personification of Brearley. This is undoubtedly one of the most eclectic and diverse classes in our history. The litany of accomplishments, interests and aspirations is as impressive as it is varied. Sixty-one fascinating, promising and strong young people sit here before us. They may sit before us, but they’re always on the move, Their talents are boundless, There’s nothing left for them to prove. continued on next page
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LAST DAY
Virtual reality karaoke, is that a thing? It certainly is when you hear this one girl “sing.” And computer science and the visual arts—how do you connect the dots? Easy for those who love working with robots.
“
You are stronger than you know. You have weathered the storm and have shown a preternatural ability to impact change.”
Diversity, equity and inclusion are something we’ll never forget, Those leading the charge can also drum, spike and set. They’re a Panoramic founder and rockin’ artist, and an UMOJA head, A Seeing in Color mentor, a Belonging at Brearley leader, and a future engineer in bio-med. Music is always ringing through our halls and in our ears, We’ll be talking about those who performed Algernon, Ms. Fairfax and Sweeney Todd for years. And, oh, did you know, Eponine from Les Miz interned to assist small biz?
Theater Tech can get so heady, Luckily its co-head is psychologist-ready. And what’s up with Theater Tech’s myriad skills? When they’re not running the show, these kids can sew, needlepoint and tell a joke that kills. Passion for sports and the arts we hold in such high regard, Methinks one of you can’t get enough of Avon’s Bard, While another is more than ready to draw her sword and shout “En garde!” There are those who see things through a different lens, One’s The Beaver’s shutterbug, the other snaps pix of mock lawyers and judges playing pretend. And vision of another kind is seen near and very far, As evidenced by one who works to restore vision to those in the D.R. Animals abound, They’re always around. Cat wranglers and Humane Society workers are always on the prowl Why even at a wolf sanctuary you’ll hear a Beaver howl.
Our B-Nats singers need not one musician, Just another shelf to store their awards and recognition. One’s a three-sport athlete with the loudest cheer, While another’s a mentor to those of a younger year.
here’s a ranch hand and a philanthropist who can act—that’s just two T who make a stand, Let’s cheer the multiracial affinity club founder whose time is in such demand. Join us in saluting the Youth Action for Planned Parenthood, Not to mention Global Girls, which does so much good.
he Purple Inks’ bassist, rockin’ singers and others are all glory T bound, Whether it’s singing in Sweeney or playing originals, it’s always a great sound. We never question these musicians, they always have the answer, Especially one who founded a group to Dance against Cancer.
Where do they find time to tutor and teach, From 103rd Street in East Harlem to the Clarke School they reach. “Gracias” is what we hear in their rave reviews, Especially those teaching Spanish at St. Hilda’s and St. Hugh’s.
Singing, dancing, painting, performing and more, We even have a budding screenwriter who could also easily write her own score. Many gravitate to the performing arts to get their kicks, Let’s not forget our piano-playing star who’s totally into astrophysics. Some take their talents to those less mobile Playing her oboe for homebound seniors is one senior’s style. Creativity, passion and talent are all a sign That Theodore the Bear is an inspiration—muse ursine. 4
Our artists never cease to amaze. That we know, One in particular is equally adept with a bow. We stand in awe before a particular cityscape in pastels, And one visual artist enjoys building a set as much as laying out a magazine, she tells.
All politics is local, as the saying goes, That’s why our future politicos lent their talents to Brewer, Maloney and Rose. We have a rower and a sailor at home on the drink, and a Beaver coeditor who will one day soon uncover how we think. On the field there’s a lax player with no peer, And a piano-playing runner with no fear; We boast a field hockey star who may stick to government to achieve her goals, and we marvel at a three-sport star who saw the world through NOLS.
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Great reporting is a breeze for our two talented Zephyr scribes, There’s one who combines musical theater, embroidery and chorus— activities I heartily prescribe. We tip our cap to a softball star who knows her Dewey Decimal, And the chances of anyone creating something better than the Timeless app is infinitesimal. So, there. Now you know it. These are the Brearley grads, and I’m no poet. So let me catch my breath and take a pause, As you congratulate each other with heartfelt applause. For most, 11th and 12th grades are a blur. A steady stream of tests and applications, parties and activities that come in and out of focus. But the last half of your junior year and now your senior year has been anything but a blur. Trying to remember the shows you binge-watched last spring may be a bit fuzzy, and certainly there were blurry eyes on most morning Zoom classes, or following a Rasputin dance, but this experience has left most of us more clear-eyed and focused. We have become more focused on what’s really important to us, and what’s important to those around us. As we gingerly walk through the losses of Covid, and frankly, 2020 as a whole, we have seen so much that was laid bare. So many things were brought to light; exposed as being unequal, unfair and unjust. Racism, inequality, injustice, to name a few. As this all unfolded, you found yourselves facing an incredible tension: balanced on the fulcrum between pursuit of individual ambition and contributing to the common good. And as you sat at this nexus, you witnessed your fellow classmates who are members of UMOJA step forward to make a difference at Brearley; to become part of the solution to address anti-Black racism in our school. In doing so, they demonstrated principled engagement in the world. They led the way for us leaders,
classmates and many other students, who joined the effort. When I think of the Class of 2021, I’m reminded of Amanda Gorman’s gorgeous inaugural speech, which reads in part: And yes we are far from polished. Far from pristine. But that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge a union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. The Class of 2021 this year and in the past has reached out its arms to forge a Brearley Union with purpose. You asked how we can improve and how we can be more humane. But you did more than ask, you acted. You took not only the first but many of the initial steps to Build a Better Brearley, a school where every student feels a sense of belonging. This work has not been easy, and we have felt pushback in our own community and beyond, in some cases, under the pernicious falsehood that equity and excellence are mutually exclusive. But as we all know, they stand together, which is why we strive for each individual to realize her greatest potential by challenging and understanding herself fully as a person and as an active participant in a larger place and purpose. continued on page 9 SPRING/SUMMER 2021
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Class ’21 LAST DAY
OF
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NEWEST ALUMNAE
(left to right) FRONT (BOTTOM) ROW: Laura Yee, Ria Sodhi, Emma Zhu,
Emma Yang, Anabel Viera, Sarah van Dyke, Alexandra Tucker, Lilly Sorkin, Maya Whites SECOND ROW FROM BOTTOM: Eliza Ziehl, Natasha Kapadia, Charlotte Fay, Zoe Fisher, Alexandra Gottlieb THIRD ROW FROM BOTTOM: Allison Gorman, Elizabeth Polubinski,
Chimene Keys, Jacqueline (Avery) Shoates, Rachel Schreiber, Victoria Semmehack, Annabelle Hee, Julianne Huang, Augusta McMahon MIDDLE ROW: Isabelle Clark, Aleka Gomez-Sotomayor-Roel, Sarah Nath, Ines Im, Arielle Stegman, Mariyam Khandaker, Elizabeth Torna
THIRD ROW DOWN FROM TOP: Phoebe Boultinghouse, Alexa Rosenzweig, Zara Cruickshank, Abigail Lee, Violet Mendelsund, Courtney Burnett, Ann (Crickett) Cannell, Maya Rosefsky, Sofia Kouklanakis, Francesca Edmands, Anna Falcone, Saisha Puri, Aisling Murtagh, Sylvia Shklyar SECOND ROW DOWN FROM TOP: Eden Pollock, Emma Braunberger,
Sofia Raso, Chloe Alto, Alyssa An, Mikayla Ervin, Celeste Cohen FIRST SHORT ROW DOWN FROM TOP: Yasmin Liow, Maria Long,
Alexandra Angrist BACK (TOP) ROW: Drew Marriott, Natalie Essig, Charlotte Andreano,
Olivia Marinaccio, Sydney Bamford, Sha-Emera Campbell NOT PICTURED: Claudia Vera
We would also like to congratulate the members of the Class of 2021 who went on to graduate from other schools. 6
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LAST DAY
FACULTY AWARDS
UPPER SCHOOL AWARDS
Upper School Discursive Essay Writing Prize
Spanish Prize
Ladina Moor, IX
Natasha Kapadia, XII
The Class of 2018 Fund for Building, Kitchen and Administrative Staff Support
Upper School Analytical Essay Writing Prize
Mandarin Prize
Rachel Smith, XI
Sofia Raso, XII
Mr. Isidro Perez Ms. Jenelle Deodath
Upper School Poetry Writing Prize
Judith N. Conant Mathematics Prize
Class of 1992 Award
Hilary Malamud, XI
Natasha Kapadia, XII
Ms. Yue Tang Teacher of Mandarin
Upper School Fiction Writing Prize
Frances Arnold 1893 Mathematics Prize
Alexandra (Sasha) Tucker, XII
Lilly Sorkin, XII
Serena Marshall Weld 1901 Award
Juliet Whiton English Prize
Science Prize for Life Sciences
Ms. Marisa Ballaro Teacher of Dance
Ines Im, XII
Chloe Alto, XII
Sandra Lea Marshall ’73 Award Catherine Fairfax MacRae ’96 Prize
Science Prize for Physical Sciences
For Excellence in Both English and Mathematics
Emma Yang, XII
Emma Zhu, XII
Ursula Loengard Berens ’47 Art Prize Upper School History Essay Writing Prize
Isabelle Clark, XII
Grace Davis, XI
Fanny H. Phillips Dramatics Prize Dorothy Mills History Prize
Annabelle Hee, XII
Sarah van Dyke, XII
Berta Elsmith Music Prize Ann Chalmers Greek Prize
Celeste Cohen, XII
Elizabeth Torna, XII
The Brearley Alumnae Cup Ann Chalmers Latin Prize
Courtney Burnett, XII
Yassie Liow, XII
Ms. Eileen Racanelli School Nurse
Margaret Riker Harding Lower School Fellowship Ms. Janelle Barth Class II Room Teacher and LS DEI Coordinator
Chairs for Excellence in Teaching Ms. Dale Emmart Head of the Art Department Dr. Sherri Wolf Head of the English Department Ms. Randi Timan Class II Room Teacher
Richard B. Stearns, Jr., Memorial Award French Prize
Alexandra Gottlieb, XII
Aleka Gomez-Sotomayor-Roel, XII
Head’s Award Maya Whites XII
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LAST DAY continued from page 5 Those who follow us will reflect on the Build a Better Brearley initiative as an essential step forward in Brearley’s promise to be a beacon for girls of adventurous intellect and diverse backgrounds in our city. There is an outcry against a number of independent schools such as Brearley that the steps we have taken to meet the call to become an antiracist school go beyond the purview of a school. That it is a political or economic statement; that some fear it is divisive. We are in the early days of this work and this debate, like many others Brearley has faced in its long history, will persist, and we will listen, discuss, learn and grow as a community through it. That said, the engagement of Brearley students to learn how to create an inclusive community is now an essential part of being a member of this community; student-driven programming is at an all-time high and BIPOC and Jewish students are coming together in solidarity under the Brearley Student Diversity Leadership Council, another student-proposed entity. In this way, all aspects of Brearley’s rich and varied diversity now have a piece of the foundation that is being reset to hold the full weight of our community. We are proud of this work that with community input will morph and deepen for years to come. You have engaged in what John Lewis called “good trouble”—pushing for social change no matter the obstacles or pushback. “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America,” is how the late Representative Lewis said it. You stood up and spoke out—and now we stand before you and applaud your willingness to ignite change. Brearley is better because of you. As this year like no other draws to a close, I am reminded of a darkly humorous poem from the Beat poet Gregory Corso, “The Whole Mess … Almost.” Like all of you, the poem’s protagonist has just suffered through some life-changing, traumatic event. As he rushes up the stairs to his New York City apartment, he is hell-bent on purging his life of those “things” that no longer hold value to him; ridding his existence of disappointing abstractions, artificial societal norms and worthless attributes. In his mad rush, he tosses out the window Truth, God, Love, Hope, Beauty, Charity and Death. Worthless, useless and senseless all to him now. Hoping to be spared their demise, Truth tries extortion, Love tries bribery, and the others try reason before being cast out the window. All have been tossed … though he thinks twice about Beauty before eventually telling her to “move on.” Suddenly, he realizes all that is left in his apartment is Humor. It’s an ambiguous ending, and it’s not entirely clear what Humor’s ultimate fate is, but my takeaway for you today is that Humor is often the only thing left in the wake of upheavals. Laughter is an elixir we can all tap in times of trouble. We all need more laughter now. Humor is one thing that I hope will never leave you, for through laughter we connect with each other. And when we connect as humans we recommit to each other and the hope for our individual and collective future. And I hope you know that Brearley, too, never leaves you. So, as I leave you today, I want to remind you that you are stronger than you know. You have weathered the storm and have shown a preternatural ability to impact change. You have just begun to change the world. Yeats may have said “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire,” but it was Greta Thunberg who admonished us to “Act like your house is on fire.” I know you will continue to act with passion and urgency, and to challenge all that is not right and work to fix what’s wrong. Brighten the world with your wisdom and passion. Soften its edges with your kindness, compassion and empathy. And heal it with your adventurous intellect and your diversity of thought. And as you travel along your life’s journeys, I know you’ll always be met with a warm and embracing Welcome.
Class of 2021 COLLEGE DESTINATIONS
Barnard College (1) Bowdoin College (1) Brown University (1) Carleton College (1) Colgate University (3) Columbia University (7) Cornell University (3) CUNY Macaulay Honors College (1) Dartmouth College (2) Emory University (1) Georgetown University (1) Harvard College (4) Howard University (1) Kenyon College (1) New York University (1) Northwestern University (2) Occidental College (1) Princeton University (1) Rice University (1) Smith College (1) Stanford University (1) Trinity College (1) Tufts University (1) Tulane University (1) University of Chicago (6) University of Michigan (1) University of Pennsylvania (3) University of Richmond (1) University of Southern California (1) University of St. Andrews (1) Wake Forest University (1) Wesleyan University (1) Williams College (1) Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1) Yale University (2) *as of 6/9/2021 SPRING/SUMMER 2021
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LAST DAY: EXCERPTS FROM STUDENT REMARKS
Co-heads of Self-Government by Drew Marriott and Aisling Murtagh
Bah! Humbug! Ebenezer Scrooge, the principal character in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, coined this wonderfully expressive exclamation of displeasure. You could say that we ourselves became Scrooges, adopting his signature curmudgeonly attitude, as we thought about what the year had in store. Welcome to A Covid Carol. Past. The ghost of Brearley past teaches us some important lessons in leadership: Embrace new organizational structures, come up with new traditions, continually reevaluate your rules and guidelines, act based on a thoughtful set of values, critically examine those values as a part of everyday life, and most importantly, stay true to your mission. Present. Our role as the USSG co-heads has been dramatically different from what we expected: We worked to continue the time-honored mission of governance while in a virtual realm that the framers of Upper School Self-Government never could have imagined. Throughout this school year, we took on some new initiatives: the virtual club and course fairs, online town halls, USSG lunches and a new USSG structure.
Future. It is a new school year, Brearley is absolutely lost without Drew and Aisling …. Just kidding. Sort of. So much of what the School and USSG has done this year has been with an eye toward the future. The Brearley Student Diversity Leadership Council has made its debut in this future school year. Under Alicia and Taryn’s leadership, Upper Schoolers have a strong support mechanism for their collective efforts to Build a Better Brearley. And the new USSG co-heads, Josie and Emily, are hard at work. They have a team of 14 representatives under their purview, and have welcomed delegations from affinity groups to Self-Government. Closing. Our year was difficult and different, but as equally as it was wacky, it was worthwhile. We hope you have all taken some lessons from the ghosts of Brearley Past, Present, and Future. Our challenge to you all, the valiant characters of our Covid Carol, is a simple one: Keep these lessons in your hearts, and honor them even when Covid seems like the distant past. Remember that where we have come from as a community intrinsically shapes where we are in the present, and understanding our past is critical to directing our school toward a brighter future.
Above: Drew Marriott and Aisling Murtagh.
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Class XII Speakers by Sha-Emera Campbell and Celeste Cohen
As a group, constant and unexpected change has become our norm! New building, new schedule, new grade head—oh wait, did you hear exams were just canceled? I bet we’ll be back in school by May—I mean by June … well certainly by the fall; we’ll definitely have a normal senior fall! Oh, how wrong we were. But really, this class has an incredible amount of resilience. In many ways, we have an advantage going into this next phase of our lives together. We’ve had our taste of separation and isolation. Over the past year, there were times when Manhattan and Brooklyn felt as far apart as California and Scotland, so the hours of practice on Google Meet and Zoom will undoubtedly suit us well when we’re actually scattered across the country and the world. So even though we couldn’t physically gather this year, we couldn’t just sit on a bus and spend the night at Camp Jewell, we couldn’t see each other every morning in homeroom, and we couldn’t all stand in line together on Dumpling Day—we have found connection in a shared experience. There are only 61 people who know what it’s like to be a Brearley senior in 2021.
Each of our Brearley experiences has been both totally different and sometimes uncannily similar. The two of us won’t pretend that we have had the same experience or that all 61 of us will stay best friends for the rest of our lives—but there is no doubt that we have all made it through this insane year thanks to each other. We hope everyone in this graduating class knows that the bond formed over the past four or eight or thirteen years is unbreakable and will continue to strengthen as we continue on the next chapter of our lives. This year especially, we want to thank the health staff for working so hard to collect our saliva and keep us healthy. We are so grateful to everyone who made it possible for us to come into school this year and allowed us to gather in person for this day. Congratulations to our classmates. You all create a lovely light wherever you go. We are looking forward to basking in it together soon.
Above: Sha-Emera Campbell and Celeste Cohen.
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WELCOME BACK CLASS OF 2020
On June 10, thirty-four members of the Class of 2020 returned to Brearley to celebrate with each other and their teachers. The festivities were held on the pier and playdeck at 610, where remarks were made by Evelyn Segal, who retired last year as Head of Upper School Student Life, Jane Foley Fried, and Frances Keohane and Samantha Schiller, last year’s class presidents. Following the reception was a diploma ceremony outside the doors of 610, where families of the alumnae gathered.
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RETIRING TRUSTEES
SINCERE THANKS
To Our Retiring Trustees
Clockwise from top left: Christine Frankenhoff Alfaro ’91, Julie Gamboa, Jane Gladstone ’86 and daughter Emily Wheeler ‘22, Debra Glick, Stephanie Perlman.
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It is an honor to recognize Christine Alfaro ’91, Julie Gamboa, Jane Gladstone ’86, Debra Glick and Stephanie Perlman, who departed from the Board in June after many years of serving the School. During their tenure Brearley developed and Iaunched such initiatives as “Opening Doors,” the School’s Strategic Vision; a campus plan with the construction of 590 East 83rd Street and renovations to 610; a comprehensive fundraising campaign in support of our strategic goals; and an enhanced commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, social and emotional learning, and sexuality health education in the K–XII curriculum. We would also like to extend a special thank you to Christine for her invaluable insight and guidance and the countless hours she dedicated to Brearley while on the Board. In the past year and a half alone, she courageously led the School during a global pandemic, keeping Brearley running safely for students, faculty and staff and prioritizing their well-being with the provision of tuition assistance and community funds to support those affected financially by the coronavirus. With Christine at the helm, Brearley also strengthened its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and took decisive steps toward becoming an antiracist institution. We are deeply indebted to Christine and her fellow trustees for their extraordinary service and contributions to Brearley.
Christine Frankenhoff Alfaro ’91
BREARLEY’S STATEMENT OF BELIEFS MISSION
The Brearley School challenges girls of adventurous intellect and diverse backgrounds to think critically and creatively and prepares them for principled engagement in the world. Guided by a dedicated community of adults, students develop a command of many disciplines, a love of learning and a resilient and generous spirit. The bond among students and with their teachers is rooted in a passionate exchange of ideas and an appreciation for the unique and lively contributions of each individual. A Brearley education unfolds over a lifetime. The School instills in its alumnae the confidence to pursue their ambitions and the wisdom to live balanced and purposeful lives.
Trustee, 2013–2021 President, Board of Trustees, 2018–2021 Executive Committee, 2015–2021 Audit Committee *Board Covid Task Force, 2020–2021 Budget and Finance Committee Building/Real Estate Committee Compensation Committee, Chair, 2018–2021 Development Committee Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee Investment Committee Trusteeship Committee, Chair, 2015–2018
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION
Julie Gamboa
We embrace the opportunities and challenges of learning and working in a diverse environment characterized by respect and consideration for the needs of others. In partnership with faculty, staff, students, families and alumnae, we are endeavoring to instill and sustain shared values that promote a welcoming, inclusive and affirming community.
Trustee and President of the Parents’ Association, 2020–2021 Building/Real Estate Committee Development Committee
Jane Gladstone ’86
Trustee, 2015–2021 Audit Committee Budget and Finance Committee
Debra Glick
Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees, 2017–2021
Stephanie Perlman
Trustee, 2015–2021 Audit Committee *Board Covid Task Force, 2020–2021 Development Committee Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, Chair, 2020–2021 Student Life Task Force, 2018–2020
The Brearley School believes that diversity of thought, practice and identity are essential elements in preparing students for principled engagement in the world. We believe in the importance of establishing and strengthening the structures and practices necessary to achieve equitable representation and participation in our School. We are committed to putting these beliefs into action and are therefore engaged in continuous study, self-reflection and dialogue in order to improve and adapt as we learn.
ANTIRACISM
The Brearley School condemns racism in the strongest possible terms and is committed to building an antiracist community. This work requires active introspection, self-awareness and the determination to make conscious and consistently equitable choices on a daily basis. We expect our faculty, staff, students, parents and trustees to pursue meaningful change through deliberate and measurable actions. These actions include participating in antiracist training and identifying and eliminating policies, practices and beliefs that uphold racial inequality in our community.
*To read more about Brearley’s Covid Task Forces, please go to page 42. SPRING/SUMMER 2021 15
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NEW MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Clockwise from top: Ranika Ahuja Cohen and family, Sidaya A. Sherwood ’90, Lauren Taggart Wasson and family, Ann Saunders, Pam Selin.
Ranika Ahuja Cohen is an attorney with her family’s business based in Texas. Raised in Texas, Ranika is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and University of Texas School of Law. A New Yorker for 20 years, she is involved in a number of organizations including the Women’s Committee of the Central Park Conservancy. Ranika and her husband, Dr. Ruben Cohen, have a multispecialty dental practice, Park Smiles NYC, located on the Upper East Side. Ranika and Ruben are the parents of Lia ’27, Ellie ’28 and CoCo. Ann Saunders begins her three-year term as
faculty representative to the Board. She arrived at Brearley in 2018 and teaches Middle and Upper School science, co-teaches Advanced Science Research Seminar, is a Class X advisor, and advises the Science Club and a new public health student organization. Ann has also performed in the faculty and staff tap dance during Evening of Dance for the last two years. Prior to coming to Brearley she was an instructor and tutor with Kaplan Test Prep. Ann graduated from Yale University and holds a PhD in pathobiology from Brown University.
Pam Selin joins the Board for a one-year term
as the president of the Parents’ Association (PA). She has been a representative for her daughters’ classes and has worked on the Annual Fund and Benefit Underwriting Committees. She has served as co-chair of the Lower School Family Fun Night, Valentine’s Day Breakfast and Faculty Celebrations, Book Fair, and the Benefit Committees and was the PA community officer in 2017–2018. Outside Brearley, Pam is a docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is a volunteer art history teacher at a parochial school in the Bronx. Pam graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received her JD from Georgetown University. Pam and her husband, Doug, are the parents of Miranda ’22, Lila ’19 and Isabel ’18.
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Sidaya A. Sherwood ’90 is an attorney and social entrepreneur. She is currently a knowledge strategy lawyer for the mergers and acquisitions practice at Skadden. Sid has previously represented clients in M&A and securities law matters as a corporate lawyer at Skadden in San Francisco and New York. She also practiced law in-house, as director of legal affairs at the Tribeca Film Festival; at NBC Universal; and as Gucci America legal counsel for luxury group Kering (formerly PPR) in North and South America. Sid later founded Futurefill, an e-commerce site and system for students to order products in packaging returned for refill and reuse. A member of the Miller Society, she was also a member of the Alumnae Board from 2014 to 2017, has served as co-chair of the board’s Nominations Committee, and was a class agent. She and her husband, Matthew, are parents of twins Hudson and Liam (Class 7, Collegiate). Lauren Taggart Wasson is the vice pres-
ident and associate chief medical officer for graduate medical education at NewYorkPresbyterian (NYP), where she oversees the physician residency and fellowship training programs at NYP/Columbia and NYP/Weill Cornell. She is also an assistant professor of medicine and cardiologist focused on cardiac intensive care at Columbia University Medical Center. Lauren served on the Brearley Board Covid-19 Task Force throughout the past year. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Lauren received her master’s degree at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her medical degree at the Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons. Lauren and her husband, Baxter, are the parents of Margaux ’30 and Cecily ’32.
Modupe Akinola ’92 NEW BOARD PRESIDENT
We are pleased to announce Modupe Akinola ’92 as Brearley’s new president of the Board of Trustees. A Brearley trustee since 2014, Modupe has served as treasurer since 2019 and as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee and chair of the Budget and Finance Committee since 2018. Modupe is an associate professor of management at Columbia Business School. Her research and consulting focus on the science of stress and on how to maximize human potential in diverse organizations and communities. At Columbia, she co-heads and teaches the required leadership course for first-year MBA students. She also runs the school’s Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics. At Brearley, Modupe, in collaboration with Jane Fried and division leaders, created and launched Success Through Affirmational Reflection Time (START), an ongoing initiative to help students develop more grounded personal definitions of success. Modupe brings to her new position on the Board a wealth of academic experience, business acumen and institutional knowledge through her longstanding involvement at Brearley. As she says, “I had a wonderful experience as a student at Brearley. Twenty-nine years later, I am proud to be a part of the School’s important steps forward. I want to do everything I can to continue to ensure that all our students have the educational experience they need for principled and purposeful engagement in the world.” Born and raised in New York City, Modupe is a daughter of esteemed and now retired Brearley teacher Funke Akinola. She attended Brearley for 13 years, along with her two sisters, and graduated from Harvard magna cum laude with a BA in psychology. During the summer of her junior year in college, she worked with UNICEF in West Africa, where she connected with her extended family and later returned to start an education-based nonprofit, continuing her lifelong commitment to public service, initiated at Brearley. Rounding out her education and professional experience, Modupe went on to work in consulting and investment banking and earned an MBA, followed by an MA in social psychology and a PhD in organizational behavior, also from Harvard. Succeeding Modupe as treasurer is Munib Islam. They are joined by fellow officers David Philip, senior vice president; Susan Berresford ‘61 and Paula Campbell Roberts ‘94, vice presidents; and Jocelyn Strauber ‘91, secretary.
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610 RENOVATIONS
610 RENOVATIONS the library
With the 2020–2021 school year behind us, we look ahead with hope and optimism. We also do so with an enduring commitment to building a more cohesive school and ensuring its sustainability for today’s and tomorrow’s students. The School is pleased to resume planning for a multiyear renovation of 610 East 83rd Street. Addressing the needs of our historic schoolhouse has long been the eagerly awaited follow-up to constructing 590, and Brearley will embark on one project at a time, during the summers. the middle and upper school library
The 610 renovations will start with the library, which will move to the 10th floor, where it will accommodate almost twice as many students than the current ground-floor library. In its new location, the library will be designed with adjustable shelving for the Middle and Upper School’s collection of twenty thousand books and periodicals, two seminar rooms and exhibit areas for student art and works from the School’s extensive archives. The library’s digital collection will remain a key resource as librarians continue to provide girls with online research instruction. The larger space will enable expanded programming in the evening hours, which will be especially helpful for Upper School student collaboration and for those with longer commutes, who can use the time for study before returning home each day.
sustainability goals
Environmental sustainability is a priority for 610’s renovation plans and system upgrades, along with adding insulation to the 90-yearold building. Additionally, the School is exploring other opportunities to increase 610’s energy efficiency. costs
Renovations to 610 will be supported by new philanthropic gifts to the School, and the timing of each project will be contingent upon fundraising. Before we begin work on any project, the majority of the approved budgeted cost must be committed in gifts and pledges and a large portion paid in gifts. This prudent approach will support the 610 renovation effort while safeguarding the School’s other funding priorities, including our leadership position in compensation for faculty and staff and tuition assistance for families with financial need. progress
We look forward to sharing next steps in this exciting and vital endeavor with you. As part of our campus plan, renovating our 92-yearold building is a transformative opportunity that will further enhance the well-being of our community and advance our academic and co-curricular programs for generations to come.
following projects
After completion of the library, 610 renovations will continue with the art classrooms, which will relocate to the 12th floor and have additional space on the 11th floor for a digital media lab; the cafeteria, which will move to the 1st floor and become a new hub for nourishment and community connection; the lobby, which will be restored to include the original fireplace; and the Assembly Hall, on A- and B-Deck, which will be upgraded to a flexible theater space.
Right: Stacking diagram of the proposed renovations in 610 East 83rd Street. The projects will occur in phases over the summers, all with an eye to improving the environmental sustainability of the 1929-constructed building. Next pages: Conceptual rendering of the 10th floor Middle and Upper School library. Along with an increase in space, features of the new library will include natural light and river views. Before- and after-school hours will facilitate individual and group study.
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L12
ART
L11
SHARED CLASSROOMS
L10
LIBRARY
L9
GYMNASIUM
L8
SCIENCE
First project Following projects
CLASS:
L7
MIDDLE SCHOOL CLASSES
L6
MIDDLE SCHOOL CLASSES
VI, VII
L5
MIDDLE SCHOOL CLASSES
VIII
L4
UPPER SCHOOL CLASSES
IX
L3
UPPER SCHOOL CLASSES
X, XI
L2
UPPER SCHOOL CLASSES
XII
L1
CAFETERIA & LOBBY
V
GROUND LEVEL
A DECK
B DECK C DECK
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610 LIBRARY RENOVATIONS: CONCEPTUAL RENDERING
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FROM THE ARCHIVES
h isto ry o f t he b r ea r ley li b ra r i e s At 17 West 44th Street, Brearley’s second address, the library collection was initially accessioned, arranged and organized by Bertha Palmer, a teacher of English and history from 1892 to 1903. In many ways, Bertha’s work in the James J. Higginson Library (named for one of Brearley’s founders and a longtime Board member), which eventually came to be known as “a hole completely surrounded by books,” cemented the Library Department’s mission at Brearley, a program that boasts its initiatives in research accessibilities, reading lists and subject collections. Since Brearley’s move to 610 East 83rd Street in 1929, the library has comprised various locations (and identities) over the years. Prior to their current location, the Upper School Library settled on the sixth floor, which kept the name of James J. Higginson (a plaque still hangs in the room now used as meeting space), and the Middle School Library also began on six, next to Upper School’s, then moved to the third floor with the Lower School Library before returning to six to become the Middle and Upper School Library. In 1977, with Brearley growing out of its library spaces, Kitty Cunningham, the head librarian from 1962 to 1984, began brainstorming ideas for a new library space that could accommodate all the divisions. For the next few years, Kitty and colleagues Susan Fowler and Jacqueline Lochart worked with architects at Smotrich & Platt, library consultant Walter Frankel and Head of School Evelyn J. Halpert to create a library with “more working space for students and faculty as well as office space for the librarians.” In March 1984, with the assistance of Brearley’s all-community “book brigade,” the librarians moved into their new home on the first floor in time to celebrate the institution’s centennial. Nearly 36 years later, Brearley took part in another book brigade when the Lower School Library moved to the School’s brand-new building at 590 East 83rd Street. The library’s storied history goes beyond the books, for which many donations were provided to help build the collection by James Croswell, Brearley’s second Head of School, and trustees. The Library Department has curated the Lower School Summer Reading List since the 1960s. It once housed audio/visual materials in the Library Office, which included projectors, carousel trays and phonographs as well as a budding archive with files of pamphlets, pictures and other documents. In 2000, the Library Department ran its own newsletter entitled Library News, which detailed new book, audio and video acquisitions as well as online services—further predating its deep discipline in digital database research for today’s Upper School library curriculum and a precursor, perhaps, to today’s Brearley Library Instagram account. Continuously evolving, both the Lower School and Middle and Upper School Libraries, in response to the restrictions placed by Covid-19, provided pick-up service for books checked out by the community throughout 2020–2021.
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Top left and right: Mrs. Higginson (year unknown) and Upper School students (1932) in the James J. Higginson library on the sixth floor. In memory of her late husband, Mrs. Higginson donated to Brearley, among other things, such books as the Oxford Dictionary, the United States Catalog, the Yale Chronicles of America Series and Pageant of America. Above left: the current Middle and Upper School Library in 610; above right: the new Uris Lower School Children’s Library in 590.
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c h eck o u t: facult y a nd s ta ff favori te b o o k s
Eric Antanitus
Brian Chu
Luigi Cicala
Tabitha Core
Sidonie Cypher
Christel De La Ossa
Terrell Edwards
Dale Emmart
Jane Foley Fried
Cary Gentry
Simone Hamilton
Alonzo Handy
Jenna Horowitz
Noel Lamberty and Ari Medina
Marian Lewin
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Gail Marcus
Jim McDonald
Nadia Nobrega
Kymari Phillips
Kris Santos
Laurie Seminara
Tanner Smythson
Clayton Squire
Kasie Stark
Susanna Terrell
Andy Vernon-Jones
Frances Wheeler
Tom Wright
Lizzy Youngling
Maria Zimmermann
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BREARLEY NEWS WELCOME
MEET COY DAILEY
and the office of equity and community engagement
A hearty welcome to Coy Dailey, Brearley’s new Director of Equity and Community Engagement. Mr. Dailey comes to Brearley most recently from Bank Street School for Children, where he served as director of diversity and equity and as the diversity and equity liaison to Bank Street College. Prior to working at Bank Street Mr. Dailey was the dean of student life at Packer Collegiate Institute's Middle School, where he also held the roles of diversity director and math teacher. Mr. Dailey has also taught math at Montclair Kimberley Academy and Georgetown Day School. Mr. Dailey succeeds Dr. Tanya Huelett, who is now Director of Inclusive Teaching and Learning, and joins Samantha Hosein, Associate Director of Equity and Community Engagement, in the office. Their team also includes DEI divisional coordinators Janelle Barth (Lower School), Iris Williamson (Middle School) and Erica Muñoz-Gonzalez (Upper School).
Making a Greener Brearley
Congratulations to science faculty members Laurie Seminara and Hannah Stebbins, who have been named sustainability co-coordinators for the School. The primary role of this newly created position is to ensure that Brearley fulfills the mission of preparing students for principled engagement in the world and for a sustainable future. Officially starting in the 2021–2022 academic year, Dr. Seminara and Ms. Stebbins will work with all members of the Brearley community to provide leadership and support in developing and maintaining sustainability programs. This includes educating the kitchen and facilities crew, faculty, staff and students about systems for recycling and composting in order to decrease waste; helping departments incorporate sustainable practices by researching and suggesting alternatives to current vendors and materials, particularly in the area of decreasing plastics; and collaborating with parents to ensure that sustainability protocol is part of Parents’ Association events and activities.
Brearley Alumnae Association Hosts Dr. Mica McGriggs
On May 12, over one hundred alums attended a Zoom presentation and Q&A led by Dr. Mica McGriggs, a Brearley consultant who studies the unique challenges that Black students face at historically white institutions, including Brearley. Dr. McGriggs, who also teaches and writes about issues of mental health equity and racial equity, discussed the impact of identity on the ways students navigate educational spaces, which is especially complex for Black girls; shared data on the impact and outcomes of these experiences for Black students; and addressed ways to move forward.
R E C E N T LY P U B L I S H E D B O O K S B Y A L U M N A E Please send covers of your new books to classnotes@brearley.org.
Katharine Stanley-Brown Abbott ‘45
Mary Carlton Swope ’55
Jane Stanton Hitchcock ‘64
Nina Josefowitz ‘68
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1 2
5
3 4
7
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WHAT’S ON YOUR DESK? MARIA ZIMMERMANN, ASSISTANT HEAD OF SCHOOL FOR STUDENT LIFE; HEAD OF THE LOWER SCHOOL
1. The mirror is a necessity! 2. & 11. M ask and spray, need I say more? 3. M y daughter Corinna (‘11). This is her first headshot as a cellist. 4. M y favorite stuffed Beaver. I have a collection of them, but I’m always
happy to receive more—the Ks like to take them and don’t always bring them back! 5. M y daughter Talia (‘13) at King’s Cross Station’s platform 9¾ during a
Brearley London Exchange trip. 6. Out of Answers was a gift from a teacher, after a very busy year. 7. M y daughters at Frost Valley. The hats were made in Play and Crafts
with Elisabeth Umlandt (former Brearley teacher). 8. The Canned Beavers was given to me as a gift. It happened! On May 25, the seniors dressed to the nines (or twelves?) for a most important occasion: the prom! The event was held at a transformed Field House, where the Class of 2021 danced, performed and celebrated their waning days of Brearley together.
Julia Erhart ‘81
Katie Roiphe ’86
Janice Nimura ‘89
9. M indfulness bowl, from Ms. Mervil. It’s used as a calming
technique for the students. 10. Ms. Tesse made the ceramic mug for me.
Daisy Dowling ’92
Abby Freireich ’97
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BREARLEY NEWS
F a r e w ell a nd Tha nk you! OUR RETIRING FACULTY AND STAFF MEMBERS OF 2020–2021 HAVE GIVEN MORE THAN 65 YEARS OF DEDICATED SERVICE TO BREARLEY.
JO DAVID has been Brearley’s Director of Communications since 1997. Prior to that she had been recruited as a freelance editor of the Bulletin and then assumed a full-time role as Director of Publications in 1995. Two years later, with the growing importance of digital media, Jo was asked to take on the oversight of all Brearley communications. Her goal has always been to ensure that the School’s full range of constituents—current and former parents, faculty and staff, students, alumnae, retirees, the Brearley neighborhood and the press—are engagingly informed about important School developments and news. An alumna and journalist, Jo says that it has been a huge joy to work with an outstanding and agile communications team and colleagues from the Development and Alumnae Relations Office and throughout the School “to find those stories and images that truly convey the Brearley experience—and to tell these stories across a constantly evolving range of communications platforms.”
EILEEN RACANELLI has been the head school nurse since 2001 at Brearley, where she has been responsible for the assessment and care of students with acute illness and injury and care of those with chronic conditions. She leads a team of two other RNs and an athletic trainer. Eileen is only the third nurse to preside over the reassuring and welcoming health and wellness office in 610. Eileen’s headquarters shifted to 590 in September 2019 with the opening of the new schoolhouse. When the pandemic struck, Eileen postponed her planned retirement to help Brearley navigate the unfolding challenges. “There is no doubt that working here during the pandemic has been the most extraordinary time of my career, hands down,” says Eileen. The efforts were intense, she says, yet it was also a time of great satisfaction. “Being part of a team of people working successfully together with the single mission of keeping school open and the community safe and healthy has been one of my proudest accomplishments.”
FRANCES S. WHEELER joined Brearley’s Learning Skills Department in 2004, working first with students in Classes II–IV and Middle School and individually with Upper School girls on history and English reading and essays. Later she added emergent readers from Class I to her roster. She says that in addition to teaching more mature students, she loved working with the young ones who were just peeping into the world of reading. “It was as exciting to me as it was to the girls to see them take off and read. It has been wonderful having days when I went from, as my colleague Carol Angell used to say, “King Lear to Frog and Toad.” Frances, who had taught middle school English at another school before Brearley, says that when she saw how much a reading specialist helped her older son when he was struggling to read, “I knew I wanted to do that professionally.” This year, Frances has served as a remote pod teacher of Class IVD and, “working with an amazing team,” adapted her teaching to that new challenge.
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2021 Lois Kahn Wallace AWARD RECIPIENTS
REDS VS
WHITES A BREARLEY TRADITION
ADRIENNE BRODEUR ’83
AARTI NAMDEV SHAHANI ‘97
by Margot Herrera ‘80
With an abundance of excellent submissions, the Lois Kahn Wallace Award Committee decided to give the award to two outstanding books by alumnae authors this year—Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur and Here We Are by Aarti Shahani. Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me tells the story of the complex, push-me-pull-you relationship Brodeur had with her mother after she made her teenage daughter her confidante and enabler of an extramarital affair. Beautifully written, full of insight, and deeply engrossing, the memoir explores the twisting paths we’re willing to go down for those we love.
In 1923, Edna Carling, the head of P.E. for whom the Middle School athletic award is named, organized the School into two teams using the colors of the school seal. Ever since, students in Classes V to XII have been divided into the red team and the white team when coming to Brearley by the P.E. Department. Students already with Brearley family members are given their relatives' color. The teams have friendly competitions throughout the year, none more enthusiastic, perhaps, than during Field Day, at which faculty and staff, who are also assigned a color, join in the events. This year Brearley was thrilled to resume Field Day, after a year off, and a lively, spirited time was had by all. As of the end of this year, the score is 72 Team White to 68 Team Red. Below and middle left: Lower School at Asphalt Green, May 7; bottom left and right: Middle and Upper School at and crossing the footbridge to Randall's Island, May 18.
Here We Are also explores the parental bond, telling the story of an immigrant family’s move from India via Morocco to Queens. After years of struggle, Shahani’s father opens an electronics store and the family moves to the suburbs. But the “American Dream” becomes a nightmare when her father is arrested for inadvertently selling to the Cali Cartel. Shahani spearheads her father’s defense and the family’s legal journey is intermingled with her coming of age in this vivid, moving memoir. Established in 1999 by the late Lois Kahn Wallace ’57, the award, which is conferred approximately every two years and carries an honorarium, recognizes Brearley alumnae who are early in their writing careers or who are writing in a new genre. Works of adult, young adult, and middle grade fiction and narrative nonfiction are eligible. To apply for the next award or for more information, please contact Brearley’s Alumnae Relations at (212) 570-8516 or alumnae@brearley.org.
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BREARLEY NEWS
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND ANTIRACISM
HIGHLIGHTS OF UPPER SCHOOL STUDENT INITIATIVES Since last spring, new student leadership and affinity spaces have sprung across the Upper School. Their creation was inspired by the work of Maya Whites ’21, a co-head of UMOJA, an affinity space for students who identify as Black that has been in existence at Brearley since 1992, with the support of other student leaders. "Through my role in UMOJA these past four years and as co-head the last three, I realized ways in which the structure for student leadership at Brearley could be improved upon, mainly, the need for another student-government group that could oversee the additional clubs, groups and programming that have resulted from Brearley's expanded DEI work. This set in motion the formation of Brearley Student Diversity Leadership Council, which will work closely with Self-Government to strengthen community relations across Upper School and throughout Brearley. Simultaneously, I broadened UMOJA's format to include open meetings, so that other Upper School students could better understand what UMOJA is and who we are—basically, providing an opportunity to learn and listen. These meetings were successful and effective in that they encouraged non-UMOJA students to found their own spaces for people with a common identity to feel safe and accepted and a sense of belonging at school. "I am proud of what my work has accomplished in building a better Brearley and the legacy I am leaving, that if students want change, it is up to them to make it.” —Maya Whites '21
student leadership Brearley Student Diversity Leadership Council (BSDLC) Advocating for and endeavoring to create a school culture where every student is treated with respect and dignity, BSDLC will represent the needs of underrepresented students by creating spaces for healing, celebrating and affinity; holding people and organizations accountable; providing accurate representation and aid; and acting as a liaison between students, educators and administrators to bridge the information gap. Under its jurisdiction are affinity spaces, advisory boards, identity clubs and special programming, and BSDLC will also work closely with Self-Government and the Athletic Association. —Alicia Alvarado ’22 and Taryn Chung ’22, 2021–2022 co-heads
affinity groups An affinity group refers to people who share a similar identity. However, it does not mean that every member has had the same experiences. Rather, the group is a place for reflection, dialogue and support and for facilitating positive identity exploration, which is central to both creating an inclusive and thriving community and strengthening ties within that community. East and Southeast Asian Affinity We hope that our affinity space can serve as a resource for the Brearley community, largely as a safe space for Asian-identifying students to discuss common experiences and aspects of their identities, and to celebrate their culture and heritage. We are excited to serve as a subset of the larger Asian American and Pacific Islander community within Brearley, working in partnership with the South Asian Affinity group and the Asian Awareness Club. We also hope to connect between divisions, working in conjunction with the Middle School Asian Affinity and the Lower School. —Miranda Kimm ’22, Emilie Su ’22 and Isabel Zhu ’22, 2021–2022 co-heads
Latinx Students United Now and Always (LUNA) Affinity Luna aims to establish a safe and welcoming environment for Latinx students to find a community and have meaningful discussions about how our Latinx identity shapes the way we see and interact with the world. We hope to speak about our experiences both in and outside of Brearley and to establish a stronger Latinx community within the School. —Isabela Carvalho ’23, Kate McNulty ’23, Sarah Torres ’23 and Sofia Vargas ’23, 2021–2022 co-heads Jewish Affinity The Jewish Affinity group creates a community within Brearley for Jewish-identifying students to feel especially safe and welcomed. This affinity group provides an open space for the students to relate to each other and connect over shared aspects of their identity. —Susan Leibovitz ’23 and Estella Shklyar ’23, 2021–2022 co-heads Multiracial Affinity Our primary goal in starting this affinity group was to create a safe place where students of mixedrace identity could both explore and celebrate the complexities of being multiracial. We hope that this space has not only provided a resource for comfort and solidarity among multiracial students, but has reminded them that they have a right to each and every part of their unique identities, regardless of percentage, appearance, language, upbringing, or the perceptions of others. —Sydney Bamford ’21 and Anabel Viera ’21, 2020–2021 co-heads South Asian Affinity The South Asian Affinity group aims to provide a safe and welcoming space for students in the Upper School who identify as South Asian to discuss topics such as current events, culture and identity. We hope to use these discussions to foster an environment of inclusivity that allows students to speak openly and connect with their South Asian heritage. —Natasha Kapadia ‘21 and Saisha Puri ‘21, 2021–2022 co-heads
Opposite page, from top: Maya Whites ’21; Alicia Alvarado ’22 and Taryn Chung ’22; Miranda Kimm ’22, Emilie Su ’22 and Isabel Zhu ’22; Sofia Vargas ’23; Susan Leibovitz ’23 and Estella Shklyar ’23; Sydney Bamford ’21 and Anabel Viera ’21. 30 SPRING/SUMMER 2021
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BREARLEY
Suffrage Series by Elizabeth Chandler P’20, P‘17 and Namita Luthra P’25
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment's becoming part of the US Constitution, Brearley’s Model Congress sponsored a three-part series on the women’s suffrage movement during the past school year. The series shed light on all that the 19th Amendment accomplished for women, and also all that remains to be accomplished. In October, Middle and Upper School students heard from Elaine Weiss, a journalist and the author of The Woman’s Hour, about the suffragists and their final push to ratify the 19th Amendment by capturing the final linchpin state of Tennessee. Dr. Marcia Chatelain, professor of history and African American studies at Georgetown University, spoke to Upper School students in March about the leadership roles played by African American women such as Sojourner Truth and Amanda Berry Smith in winning the right to vote. The series concluded with a story told by women’s rights activist Namita Luthra and moderated by documentary filmmaker Elizabeth Chandler: one scene, two extraordinary women—Alice Paul and Ida B. Wells—at the first Women’s March in Washington, DC. More than five thousand women marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to reenergize the suffrage movement by stealing the national spotlight from Woodrow Wilson as his train pulled into Union Station on March 3, 1913, the day before his inauguration. In closing, the students were encouraged to discover and be inspired by the unsung stories and activism of the many diverse women who fought long and hard to win the vote in 1920 and those who continue on to this day toward the passage of the 28th—the Equal Rights Amendment. Let’s hope we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the drafting of the ERA in 1923 with its ratification in 2023!
BREARLEY BRONZE Congratulations to Gabrielle Ross ‘23, Natacha Ross ‘24 and Eileen Ye ‘22, who participated in the Cornell University High School Programming Contest on May 1. Of the 84 teams that participated, the Brearley trio placed sixth, earning the bronze medal, and was one of the nine teams that completed eight of the nine programming challenges in the allotted three hours.
B-NATS WIN
DownBeat Student Music Award The B-Naturals have a new accolade to add to their mantle: DownBeat magazine’s High School Outstanding Performance. This year DownBeat created an “Asynchronous” subcategory in all events, and the B-Nats were recognized for the virtual recordings that were made between April and December 2020: “Rainbow,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Into the Unknown/Go the Distance” (an excerpt from the 2020 senior song). This is the B-Nats’ fourth award from DownBeat since 2009.
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BREARLEY NEWS
A NEW INITIATIVE AT BREARLEY
Computational Thinking This spring, Brearley announced a new undertaking at the School: the Computational Thinking program. In keeping with the goals of “Opening Doors,” Brearley’s Strategic Vision that was adopted in 2014, this important initiative will further enable Brearley to develop an expanded, future-focused model of excellence benefiting today’s and tomorrow’s students. Computational thinking frames problems and expresses solutions so that a computer, human or machine, can complete them effectively. It deploys techniques such as breaking large problems into smaller components, considering only the necessary aspects of a problem, applying algorithms and repeating analyzed sequences. While the math, technology and art departments are already engaged in teaching computational thinking skills through the core curriculum, a dedicated Computational Thinking program at Brearley will enhance the School’s course of study in the STEAM fields from kindergarten through XII and strengthen students’ foundational skills for a changing world. The first phase of the initiative, which has been generously funded by two current families, will be led by Director of Technology Colin A. Samuel. It will comprise a speaker series, featuring scholars and experts from a range of fields that employ computational thinking, and 20 grants for Upper School students to enroll in university-based summer STEM courses. These opportunities will inspire the students, deepening their knowledge and sparking new areas of interest and research. For Mr. Samuel, the initiative has been years in the making. “A computational thinking program at Brearley,” says Mr. Samuel, “will further promote student agency. It will also allow the students to achieve greater fluency in the core principles of computational thinking and to become more persistent and tenacious in the face of iterative and experiential problem solving.” As the program grows, additional plans include appointing a faculty member to lead Computational Thinking and establishing a Brearley Summer Institute for Computational Thinking. The full-time position will be responsible for advancing the scope
and sequence for computational thinking across the divisions and directing a summer program on STEAM topics for students from Brearley and throughout the city. The person in this role will also be responsible for providing professional development for faculty, another key component of the initiative. Committed to the evolution of Brearley’s STEAM program, we look forward to keeping you updated on this highly anticipated endeavor, one that will enrich the exceptional teaching and learning that lies at the core of the Brearley experience and that will have a far-reaching impact over time.
A Computational Thinking program will equip students with the tools to engage in a changing world as well as provide greater opportunities for those who seek to be leaders in technology.
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Thank You! annual giving 2020–2021 school year
To our extraordinary community of alumnae, parents, parents of alumnae, faculty, staff and friends, we thank you for your generous philanthropic support. We are united in our belief in girls’ education, and your Annual Giving contributions provide vital funding to ensure that our students learn and grow in a school that prepares them for principled engagement in the world. Every gift makes a difference, and because of all of you, Brearley persists and progresses.
Brearley Fund Unrestricted Fueling all aspects of the educational program, your gifts will have a direct and immediate impact on purposeful teaching and expansive learning for today’s Brearley girls.
United Fund Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives Embracing Brearley’s school song lyrics “by Truth and Toil united,” and committed to building an antiracist and more equitable school community, your gifts empower expanded programming in this priority area.
O p e n i n g Doo r s F u n d Scholarships Ensuring that talented students from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds can access a Brearley education, your gifts provide tuition assistance for families with demonstrated need.
ANNUAL GIVING
onl ine giv i ng :
www.brearley.org/make-a-gift Venmo: Brearley_af
v ia mail :
The Brearley School 610 East 83rd Street New York, NY 10028 Attention: Development & Alumnae Relations Contact: Amina Holman, Annual Fund Director aholman@brearley.org (212) 570-8610
Adventurous Intellect Fund Faculty Support Providing for the dedicated architects of the school program, your gifts benefit curricular development, departmental review, professional growth and faculty salaries.
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COVID-19
BREARLEY IN THE TIME OF
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Unarguably, this was a year like no other, at least like no other in recent memory. At Brearley, maintaining the educational program with the necessary health and safety protocols in place meant rethinking programming, adding a virtual component to classes and redesigning schedules, all of which our faculty and students adjusted to with characteristic resolve, spirit and aplomb. Continuing our reporting on Brearley in the Time of Covid, in this issue we visit the arts departments and learn how the teachers creatively and flexibly adapted their programs to keep students challenged, engaged and curious. Although some traditional events that are integral to the arts curriculum—Winter Assembly, Evening of Dance, Drama’s mainstage production, divisional art shows, Spring Music Concerts, among others—were either canceled or reinvented for the virtual platform, teachers found innovative ways to carry on, in large part thanks to the assistance of the Technology Department. On the following pages we also go beyond the walls of Brearley to hear from our alumnae. For many the coronavirus outbreak forced an abrupt shift in or redefinition of their jobs and responsibilities. Ranging from the Class of 1970 to 2010, the stories shared are inspiring, heartbreaking and hopeful and demonstrate extraordinary courage, professionalism and principled engagement in the world. We are profoundly grateful to them and everyone in our community providing care and raising awareness of the systemic inequities this disease has laid bare.
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COVID-19
CURRICULUM
The Arts Persist Ordinarily, on day one, Marisa Ballaro, Varsity Dance Director, begins dance class in the studio with the foundation of movement, improvisation and composition. With Covid forcing students to dance from home, Ms. Ballaro adjusted to the circumstances by instead starting with “contextual conversations about the current dance field, dance as activism, the ‘who’s who,’ and our own kinesthetic dance histories.” Each student selected an artist and created a presentation for her peers using Zoom’s screen-share tool. “We looked outside of our community at the stories of those who inspire us, and then we looked within our own community and introduced ourselves and our own ‘dance family trees,’” explains Ms. Ballaro. It was a powerful way to connect and spur open discussion among each other, and Ms. Ballaro praises the students for “rising to the occasion and taking on the challenges with positivity and curiosity.” Though the annual February dance concert could not happen, Brearley’s dancers were able to continue their celebration of dance by sharing innovative dance films during Assembly and the virtual Benefit. “With their work ethic and perseverance,” Ms. Ballaro notes, “it’s been a year they can all feel good about.” With limitations placed on singing and playing instruments, the Music Department took the opportunity to reinvent music instruction for the year. While the existing curriculum has always celebrated cultures from all parts of the world while highlighting classical composers like Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, members of the department were afforded the time to place a greater emphasis on music history and appreciation, bringing a larger group of composers, musicians and artists to the forefront as never before. For example, students learned about New Orleans and the birth of jazz as well as New York City and the Harlem Renaissance. “I am inspired by the work of the department,” reflects Matt Aiken, Head of
Music. Additionally, in music classes, teachers introduced students to Soundtrap. A collaborative music and podcast recording app, it provided students with more opportunities in the field of music, to become not only recording artists and composers but also music engineers. Mr. Aiken is pleased with the outcome, adding that students are now “listening and going at music differently, and deepening their appreciation of what it takes to be a professional artist and what goes into a recording.” Unable to use the studios in 610—they were either taken over for classrooms or converted to office space—the Art Department creatively reimagined the curriculum for all grade levels. To prevent sharing of materials, Dale Emmart, Art Department Head, and her team took on the task of curating kits and tools for every student to have as her own. Teaching remotely, Ms. Emmart credits art teacher Kate Javens for being the “boots on the ground” to ensure the art kits’ smooth distribution. Designed to be portable and fit in a student’s backpack, the kit contained sketchbooks and a standard pack of tools, including scissors, tape, pencils, tracing paper, colored paper and glue. The students enjoyed having their own selection, and although the scale of the work was smaller, Ms. Emmart was greatly impressed by the richness of art the students created and as well as the work of her colleagues. “I take my hat off to anyone in the arts. The entire department was flexible, innovative and brilliant all year.” For Brearley’s thespians, the Drama Department took advantage of their community to come together. Olivia Ball, Head of Class IX and a drama teacher, says the “biggest success of all was being able to use drama class—a blend of in-person and remote students—as a space to laugh and play and create together during this crazy, challenging time.” Robert Duke, Head of the Drama Department, concurs. “Once
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the imagination is truly engaged, everybody feels ‘present.’” In lieu of Drama’s mainstage production, this year’s winter musical, aptly named The “Winter” Musical: A Year in Revue, was rehearsed and filmed virtually and included a slate of songs from Waitress, Shrek, Hadestown and Sweet Charity that spoke to the cast’s experiences over the last year. “Seeing the energy, passion, talent and sense of community that students brought to this project made my year,” continues Ms. Ball. “The show did, in fact, go on, and I am incredibly proud of their work.” In the spring, the news in Drama got even more exciting when Brearley put on its first in-person show after over a year, Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona. No matter it was a masked-and-distanced version and for a limited audience. The important thing, Mr. Duke points out, is that “we were able to be in a room making theater again—and it sure felt good!” While the hope is that Brearley students and faculty will collaborate in person to create art next year, by and large, arts this year continued to thrive. Many of the experiments of the year, in fact, will be incorporated into future programming, including using videos to analyze dance and music lessons, virtually bringing in outside artists to widen students’ perspectives, and learning to turn obstacles into opportunities. “To quote many Brearley administrators, ‘We were building the plane as we were flying it,’” sums up Ms. Ballaro, “and it was an extraordinary year.” At the same time, while Covid may have caused disruptions in the arts curriculum, the guiding principles for its faculty (and all our faculty) have remained intact. “Our need to make art doesn’t stop during a global pandemic,” Ms. Ball underscores. “If anything, that need becomes even more essential.”
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COVID-19
ALUMNAE
On and Off the Frontlines Though I am a resident physician training in psychiatry, when Covid hit, I was in my intern year rotating through a New York City hospital’s general medical and emergency room services. Uncertainty was of course the norm, hospital policies changing what felt like hourly, and everyone—hospital employees, patients, families alike—was struggling in their own way; my guiding mantra was “no feeling is wrong right now.” In parallel, as hospital room beds filled with Covid patients, the demographic make-up of our hospital’s patient population shifted: patients of color seemed disproportionately to be admitted for the virus. Anger was added to the list of emotions. This pandemic devastated us. It has also drawn attention to problems in our segregated and unequal health-care system that have been plaguing New York City for far too long and that desperately need more of our collective attention and energy. —emily (walker) menand ‘06
During the pandemic I worked relentlessly, as a social epidemiologist, to help expose and overcome major data gaps to enable documenting the inequitable tolls of Covid-19 by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position, and made data tools freely available to other researchers and advocates. A group I helped found that I chair, the Spirit of 1848 Caucus of the American Public Health Association, which focuses on social justice and public health, worked with Public Health Awakened to create a living document—”Covid-19 & Health Justice Resource Page”—to support mutual aid and organizing for health justice. To help inform action for health equity, I’ve spoken about these issues to policy makers, advocates and the broader public, including at the first meeting of the federal Covid-19 Health Equity Task Force. It has been a powerful year, and I am grateful for all who have stood up together to oppose structural racism, police violence, climate change and assaults on democratic rule, and to work instead to bring about a more equitable and sustainable world. —nancy krieger ’76
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As a primary care doctor and addiction specialist, my work during Covid included helping staff Boston Medical Center’s Covid testing clinic, caring for hospitalized Covid-19 patients with substance use disorders, and providing addiction treatment via telehealth for the first time. In my role as a medical director for our health system’s Medicaid Accountable Care Organization (ACO), I worked with my colleagues to ramp up the services we offer our most complex patients, in order to address the rising rates of food insecurity, housing insecurity and mental health conditions, as well as increase Covid vaccination rates. It was such a painful and difficult year for so many, but it was also inspiring to see how much innovation emerged. I was very grateful to remain connected to my patients virtually, and it has been a joy to be able to see patients in person again. —christine pace ‘97
In April 2020, the New Jersey biotech at which I work received FDA approval for our triple-negative breast cancer medicine. As the head of supply chain, I was accountable for making sure our drug got to patients as quickly as possible after approval. Many of us had to show up to our office to ensure that our seriously ill patients received the medicine that they had been waiting for within days of its approval. Being able to focus on helping patients during such an uncertain and scary time was a gift for which I remain very grateful. —sarah (hyman) washkowitz ‘00
In March and April of 2020 I was nearing the end of my intern year in internal medicine residency in New York City when Covid-19 upended the trajectory of my training, which was, for the next few months, focused exclusively on treating a single disease whose pathophysiology we learned in real time. I was mostly in the intensive care units at two hospitals—Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States, and the Manhattan Veterans Affairs Medical Center, serving the veterans who had once served us. At the beginning, we didn’t even know yet what PPE we needed: The CDC was not yet saying N95s were necessary, and even wearing surgical masks with patients was not yet standard practice. But it was clear we did not have enough PPE even for the suspected Covid cases, and N95s were kept under lock and key. Some of my co-residents were hearing reports of dire shortages across the city at places like Elmhurst, which was at first hit earlier and harder than Bellevue was (we caught up soon enough) and sent out a call for crowd-sourced PPE that would be delivered to hospitals most in need. After we were redeployed to the ICUs, the amazing medical students at NYU took the baton and continued these efforts in far more organized and efficient manner—they were able to deliver thousands of masks and handmade face shields to hospitals all over NYC during those harrowing weeks of late March and early April. —simone blaser ‘04
It was such a painful and difficult year for so many, but it was also inspiring to see how much innovation emerged. I was very grateful to remain connected to my patients virtually, and it has been a joy to be able to see patients in person again.”
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COVID-19
I am a general internist and respiratory epidemiologist, so, as some of my colleagues have put it, “this was our Super Bowl.” I was redeployed as a physician to the Emergency Department and Step-Down units at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Washington Heights during the March–April 2020 Covid-19 surge. During that traumatic period, I initiated a number of Covid-19 research efforts that have been funded by NIH to improve our understanding of the pandemic. I have the privilege of leading the Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for Covid-19 Research, which brings together 14 long-term general population–based cohort studies to identify risk and resilience factors for severe Covid-19, to examine potential long-term health effects of Covid-19, and also to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic experience has affected trajectories of health and disease. C4R includes over fifty thousand adult participants from every continental US state and from diverse racial, ethnic and sociodemographic backgrounds, thereby supporting critical assessments of how social determinants of health impact Covid-19 outcomes. This project brings together over 150 investigators from across the United States, at last count (but no Brearley alums, yet?). I am also conducting the Covid-19 Lung Microvascular and Parenchymal Sequelae (LUNG-MaPS) study, in which we are examining lung architecture with dual-energy lung CT among hundreds of Covid-19 survivors. Meanwhile, my three school-age kids have been incredibly brave, supportive and independent; in return, I have let them play a lot of video games. My husband has been a total star. —elizabeth oelsner ‘96
I held a vial of vaccine for the first time and unexpectedly had tears. I felt relief and hope.”
At City Harvest, New York City’s largest food rescue organization, where I serve as VP of marketing and communications, we mobilized swiftly when the first cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in the city in March, ramping up our food rescue and delivery operations to provide more free nutritious food for our neighbors than ever before. We simultaneously revamped how we work in accordance with CDC guidelines around social distancing, restrictions on in-person volunteering, and efforts to minimize exposure while distributing food, including by delivering PPE, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies to our partner food pantries. Between March 2020 and March 2021, City Harvest trucks were on the streets every day rescuing and delivering over 151 million pounds of food, more than twice as much as the year prior, to help feed the 2.5 million New Yorkers who were struggling to make ends meet even before Covid-19, and the many more in need of food assistance because of the pandemic. Knowing how many New Yorkers were turning to soup kitchens and food pantries for the first time, we added an interactive “Find Free Food” map to our website to help our neighbors access food near them, and we advocated throughout the pandemic to strengthen and expand benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Pandemic-EBT, to support people in our city and across the country who were struggling. —julia foster ’00
I am a physician and radiologist with 38 years of experience in pulmonary disease. I “see” patients in their representations on radiologic images and have emotional reactions to their conditions. They are no less real to me than three-dimensional patients seen by my clinical colleagues. Since March 2020 I have seen an incalculable number of patients with Covid-19 infection. The radiographic appearance and evolution of the disease have become more familiar but no less appalling. I have found the illness in the asymptomatic patient imaged for other purposes, in the patient in early illness, and in the patient who is floridly ill. I have watched patients with severe pulmonary damage lie in the bed on the ventilator for weeks, a horrifying course of illness that always feels personal and emotional. I have watched patients, many in their 30s and 40s, whose lungs are so damaged that they have been maintained on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO); these images of patients with completely opacified lungs and airways appear to be the picture of physiologic nonsense. (“How can lungs be utterly airless?”) They provoke intense emotions and distress. I am disturbed by the political and social climate that has led many sofar uninfected individuals to reject vaccination, a tool that if used widely would greatly reduce the number of severely infected individuals. Because it is unreasonable for me to continue to burn through my personal reserves and peace of mind for an increasingly upsetting and indifferent society, I have resigned my position, effective May 31, 2021. —lisa diethelm ’70
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I’m currently a pediatric resident physician in NYC. I have treated children with severe Covid-19 symptoms (fever, shortness of breath, cough, etc.), and even more children with Covid-associated multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a condition that occurs weeks to months after an asymptomatic or mild Covid-19 infection. The disease affects children differently and it’s been really shocking and difficult to tell parents that their child developed long-term heart problems weeks after a mild Covid infection. I’ve also lost count of the number of children who have lost grandparents, parents and other caregivers to Covid-19. I’ve also lost count of the many pediatric patients requiring psychiatric treatment because of the anxiety, stress and loneliness caused by the pandemic. Covid-19 is a deadly disease that has changed family structures and has myriad social consequences. —alumna ‘10
Working in a safety-net, community-based clinic has had so many ups and downs. I really felt last summer’s second wave. There was a significant uptick with Covid calls, most of them interpreted calls from our immigrant populations, mostly essential workers lacking the flexibility that I had. A few times a week those calls were scary and I felt helpless—they were obviously short of breath and very ill. All I could do was beg someone to go the ED despite their fears, immigration status or lack of health insurance. I’m less rattled and on edge now that we are vaccinating in high numbers and can easily access high-quality treatment. I held a vial of vaccine for the first time and unexpectedly had tears. I felt relief and hope. —anna kaminski ’77 I am an internal medicine hospitalist, thus I take care of adults who are hospitalized, which in the past year and a half has largely been patients stricken with Covid-19. During the horrific surge that consumed our city last spring, I also had the privilege of working alongside doctors of our military at the Javits Center, caring for New Yorkers from the five boroughs with complex social backgrounds affecting their Covid-19 clinical courses. I also work in the worlds of health-care administration and digital patient experience, which differently, but just as nimbly, had to escalate efforts and adaptive innovation in order to serve all our patients and communities with the dignity and diligence they always deserve. Throughout this ongoing experience, I’ve been struck by the strength of collective initiative and of the powerful vulnerability in sharing stories, perspectives, ideas—inside of this professional world I inhabit, but also outside of it. I especially am grateful to my Brearley community for the emotional support and collaborative advocacy (especially through social media) that has bolstered me during this time. Navigating the many facets of fear brought on by the pandemic: my own, my patients’, for my family and friends, our city, our globe, knowing I wasn’t alone, has deeply helped me get through each day’s unprecedented challenges. —vasavi devireddy ’04
During the height of Covid in NYC, I worked primarily on the labor floor caring for pregnant patients, some with Covid, delivering babies. While it was entirely scary for my mom-to-be patients and also for me, a newly minted doctor in my intern year of residency, it was so powerful bringing life into the world during this otherwise dark time. I will never forget sharing these joyful moments behind N95s and face shields. —emily auran ’10 When the Covid-19 pandemic hit Boston, I was working as a chief resident for the pediatrics residency program at Boston Children’s Hospital. Our leadership team had to act quickly to achieve multiple goals simultaneously: 1) minimize unnecessary exposure for our residents; 2) create a flexible reserve staffing pool in preparation for a possible surge of patients as well as a possible outbreak among our residents; 3) minimize disruptions to resident education and training; and 4) support the physical and mental well-being of our residents. In the end the pediatric Covid-19 burden was much lower than expected, but I am proud that our efforts allowed us to keep our residents as safe as possible and also provide staffing to our affiliate hospital’s Covid-19 units, all while pivoting our educational curricula to be fully remote. Despite the rapid timeframe with which we developed and implemented these scheduling and educational changes, some have been so successful that they have been incorporated into the residency structure for the longer term. —emily cross ’04
I am a clinical social worker at NYC’s Department of Education working in two elementary schools just a few blocks from Brearley. To pivot whole schools to e-learning within a week in March 2020, despite all the Google Classroom hiccups and challenges, was an amazing feat—only the first of countless rapid adaptations we are still making on a weekly basis. I have been endlessly moved by the passion and dedication of teachers to their students, as well as the collegial support we have shared, all while experiencing personal traumas and challenges. I think schools now really understand how much more effective it is to meet each child’s needs by adapting approach versus insisting a child conform to curriculum; “student-centered learning” is no longer just a buzz phrase, we have lived it. I hope the spirit of innovation and flexibility we had to embrace to survive in the pandemic will permeate planning around curriculum, technology, student supports, school culture, inclusivity and everything that lies between. —elizabeth diaz-cruz sarosi ‘94
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COVID-19
COVID-19 TASK FORCES 2020–2021 Starting last summer and continuing throughout the year, Brearley’s interdisciplinary groups of medical professionals, trustees, administrators, faculty and staff met on a weekly basis to advise on, implement and adapt Covid protocols and guidelines. Their efforts enabled school to stay open and ensured the protection of our students, faculty and staff. As we prepare for next year, we remain committed to the safe running of school and the health and well-being of our community. We extend our sincere appreciation for the service and expertise of these dedicated members.
BOARD TASK FORCE
INTERNAL TASK FORCE
Christine Alfaro ‘91 Jane Foley Fried Stephanie Perlman Susan Berresford ‘61 Doris Coleman Maria Duckett James Mulkin Eileen Racanelli Becky Scott Jocelyn Strauber Rahul Tripathi Lauren Taggart Wasson Maria Zimmermann
Tim Brownell Doris Coleman Jo David Elizabeth Donovan Maria Duckett Arlene Fabio Jane Foley Fried Danielle King James Mulkin Betty Noel-Pierre Eileen Racanelli Colin Samuel Becky Scott Rahul Tripathi Maria Zimmermann
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Christine Alfaro ’91 Trustee, Parent
Jane Fried Head of School
Dr. Stephanie Perlman Trustee, Past Parent
Susan Berresford ‘61
Tim Brownell
Doris Coleman
Jo David
Dr. Elizabeth Donovan
Maria Duckett
Trustee
Head of Middle School
Director of Construction
Director of Communications
Director of Counseling
Director of Special Projects
Student Life
and Facilities
and Wellness
and Research Initiatives
Arlene Fabio
Danielle King
Dr. James Mulkin
Dr. Betty Noel-Pierre
Director of Human Resources
Director of Athletics
Assistant Head of School
Head of Upper School
for Academic Life
Student Life
Eileen Racanelli School Nurse
Dr. Becky Scott
Jocelyn Strauber ’91
Rahul Tripathi
Dr. Lauren Taggart Wasson
Maria Zimmermann
Medical Consultant
Trustee, Parent
Chief Financial Officer and
Parent
Assistant Head of School
Chief Operating Officer
Colin Samuel Director of Technology
for Student Life; Head of the Lower School
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BREARLEY BENEFIT
On March 8 the Brearley Parents’ Association hosted its first-ever virtual Brearley Benefit, The Show Must Go On! Over 450 parents, students, faculty and staff, alumnae and other members of Brearley, popcorn in hand, tuned in for humor, music, dance, reflection and a glimpse inside life at school this year. Highlights of the program included “The ABCs of Brearley,” featuring K–II students; “Take the Q Train,” written and performed by the Brearley Music Department; “One Remarkable Rodent,” a mockumentary starring Bev the Beaver and written and produced by alumnae; “The Great Brearley Baking Show,” created by members of Class XII; reflections from Brearley’s faculty, staff and students; and so much more!
The 2021 Benefit brought together voices and talents from across the Brearley community and raised over $530,000 for the School. We are indebted to co-chairs Chiara Edmands P’ XII and Reshma Shamdasani P’ IX, IV for embracing the challenge of a virtual benefit and delivering a night our community will always remember. We are also grateful to the entire Benefit Committee for an outstanding fundraising effort, and to everyone who supported the Benefit by attending or donating. Successful by any measure due to the involvement of over 200 students, faculty, staff, parents and alumnae, this year’s Benefit was an affirmation of Brearley’s resilience and spirit—indeed, the show goes on!
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REUNION
2021
From April 16 to 28, Brearley’s virtual reunion and alumnae celebrations brought together over 340 Brearley alumnae from across the United States and worldwide—including England, France, Israel and Spain—for a robust program of more than ten events over a thirteen-day period. Events were spread out to reduce consecutive hours online and planned at various times of day to make Reunion 2021 more accessible to as many alums as possible.
Because of Alumnae Weekend 2020’s truncated virtual events schedule due to the pandemic, this year’s program honored milestone reunion classes ending in 0 and 5 and 1 and 6. The virtual alumnae association luncheon, in keeping with tradition, included speeches by representatives of the 25th and 50th reunion classes from this year and last year. The two-week program also included perennial reunion favorites such as up close with jane foley fried and senior administrators, in which we heard how Brearley has carried forth during the pandemic, and three sessions of turbo talks, during which alums shared inspiring and interesting stories about their professional, personal and avocational lives. Other highlights included acting on climate change, a panel discussion with alums working in the fields of climate change, natural resource management and the environment moderated by Brearley science teacher Dr. Laurie Seminara; an update on brearley’s diversity, equity, inclusion and antiracism initiatives with remarks by administrators, faculty and students; and taking care: perspectives and advice on self-care during covid. The concluding event was brearley’s annual frances riker davis 1915 award assembly, in which Upper School students interviewed last year’s FRD Award winners, Alex Piper ’84 and Samantha Eisenstein Watson ’96. Many of the reunion programs were recorded and can be accessed via password on the Brearley website.
We are sincerely grateful to Wilhelmina Martin Eaken ’64 and Andrea Kassar ’95 for their thoughtful leadership as reunion cochairs, as well as to Amina Elderfield ’94, Alumnae Association president. Thank you to everyone who joined us, and while we plan to continue offering virtual programming, we also hope to welcome back as many of you in person as possible at Brearley during reunion next year!
Wilhelmina Martin Eaken ’64
Andrea Kassar ’95
Amina Elderfield ’94
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CLASSES REPRESENTED THIS YEAR 1945–2019
400
RSVPs TO REUNION WEEKEND
FUN FACT:
32 STATES PLUS DC AND 13 COUNTRIES WERE REPRESENTED BY ALUMS
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CLASSES WITH MOST ATTENDEES: 1961, 1970, 1971 A selection of some of the presenters from the various reunion virtual programs: Bottom row: Megan Tallmer ‘70, Jane Schapiro ‘76, Jenny Osman ‘10 Second row: Aska Langman ‘06, Maysoon Pachachi ‘65, Olivia Howard Sabine ‘96 Third row: Penelope Tang ‘00, Virginia Gardiner ‘95, Hope Moeller ‘91 Fourth row: Rozella Kennedy ’81, Sophie Waskow Rifkin ‘03, Wendy De Wolf ‘10 Top row: Kathy Braddock ‘75, Amanda Eaken ‘95, Juanita Dugdale ‘70 SPRING/SUMMER 2021 47
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REUNION
HIGHLIGHTS OF REUNION SPEECHES
Class of 1970, 1971, 1995 and 1996
“
We are Brearley. We have defied norms and challenged expectations since the founding of this school.”
1970 GRETCHEN AMUSSEN
1970 SARAH HOFSTADTER
Last year, I had thought I would speak about inventing one’s path. I felt it was important to remember Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” for it did seem to me that this was what made the difference. My own path in the 1970s was one in which I was obsessed with bringing together the social, the political, the cultural and the artistic. I was playing the organ, I was involved in feminist movements and the anti-war movement, and I didn’t know how to bring them together. At the heart of this dilemma was my need to create community. How could I have ever imagined that meeting a French organist during my last year in college who would invite me to study in Toulouse would, in fact, be the road less traveled that led to all the other roads I was to take during my professional life? For this same organist, some 20 years later, would come back to me and at that point— as director of the Paris Conservatoire of Music and Dance—would invite me to create a ministry of foreign affairs, one that would take me to all the continents in a music-filled diplomacy which brought together my need to create community in a political, educational and artistic setting. So much for paths! But what has really struck me during the last year is the way in which this pandemic, while seemingly closing many doors, has in fact opened us to each other, creating a new sense of community for the Class of 1970. Something more powerful and bigger has emerged. Today, I want to celebrate this shared community we continue to create, one that makes each of our lives bigger, better and infinitely more beautiful.
Aloha from Maui, Hawai’i! As I look back on my 12 years at Brearley, the word that first springs to mind is “privilege.” We were—and still are— extraordinarily privileged to have had such dedicated, brilliant, inspiring teachers; to have shared our classrooms with so many bright, talented young women; to have been encouraged to view our femaleness as an asset, not a handicap; and to have been nurtured in a tradition that values not only intelligence but also hard work, leadership and public service. We had access to a level of individual attention and intellectual stimulation far above and beyond what most schools are able to provide. That’s privilege, and we need to own that. It wasn’t until long after graduation that I realized that having the privilege of a Brearley education did not make me better than other people. It only made me luckier. And eventually, I came to believe that my privilege, undeserved as it was, came with an equal degree of obligation, specifically, to do everything in my power to use the assets my education had given me to make the world a better place—for everyone, and most of all for those who were not as lucky as I was. Today, the world desperately needs smart, thoughtful, compassionate, hard-working people to contribute to solving all of the problems it faces—not just the pandemic, but climate change, economic inequality, white supremacy, toxic masculinity, and authoritarianism. Brearley gave us the skills, self-discipline and self-confidence to tackle hard problems. It is up to us to use them for the greater good.
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1971 VICKY BIJUR
1995 MEGHAN TAIRA
1996 GABRIELA PEREIRA
Inside the school, what riches there were. Mrs. Taliaferro illustrating what John Donne meant when he said “As stiff twin compasses are two” and revolving around herself in demonstration of how a compass operates, with one leg pinned to the earth. Miss Ely, our Latin teacher, remarking that one man’s Mede is another man’s Persian. Mrs. Carpenter, in an elective unit on the Romantic poets, telling us that Coleridge’s opium addiction was due to a desperate need for a root canal. Miss McGoldrick, our very young and very brilliant 10th grade history teacher, telling us how relieved she was that Hubert Humphrey had won New York State, because she’d voted for Dick Gregory, the third-party candidate, and would have felt personally responsible if New York had gone for Nixon. I look back in wonder at a production of Strindberg’s Miss Julie we put on, a play about the psychosocial and sexual tensions between an aristocratic woman and her manservant, a narrative completely out of reach emotionally to most of us at the time. Years after graduation I went back to Brearley to see my cousin perform in an all-female rendering of T.S. Eliot’s The Cocktail Party. Of these two productions, all I can say is, only at Brearley. This past August I attended a virtual Town Hall to hear about antiracism steps by the Board of Trustees. There was a group of wildly impressive women speaking with the great energy and thoughtfulness we associate with Brearley. May all of us—alumnae and the School—continue to be open to change, to stay open to new ideas, to new ways of seeing the world, to new ways of seeing each other.
I am the legislative director for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. I wanted to show you all this view—a lot has happened in the past year here at the Capitol and also right behind me. A terrible violent insurrection that took lives and shocked us all. A beautiful inauguration—filled with hope and poetry and the peaceful transfer of power. Inside the Capitol, I have spent a lot of time working on laws to fight the pandemic and help our economy. It has been a year of terrible sadness and pain. As my classmates know, both of my beloved parents are gone—years before the pandemic—and all the sadness and loss of this past year made me miss them even more. At our last reunion, it was so wonderful to hear you all reminisce about my dad—it helped me in the grieving process a lot. So, I’d like to remind everyone watching to make sure to reach out to each other. We became friends at a special time in our lives and those memories are to be cherished— about parents or siblings or just the magic of childhood. Recently someone told me about the Shine Theory: an “investment, over the long term, in helping someone be their best self—and relying on their help in return. It is a conscious decision to bring your full self to your friendships, and to not let insecurity or envy ravage them. Shine Theory is a commitment to asking, “Would we be better as collaborators than as competitors?” The answer is almost always yes.” That is what it means to be a Brearley girl. To look around and see how you can help someone be their best self. And to know that by your own actions, you are making things better.
Reunions are a chance to see all the amazing things our classmates have accomplished and celebrate each other’s successes. Yet, not all of us have followed The Plan or reached the pinnacle of success. Some of us may even have experienced some epic failures. I know that’s how I felt when I walked away from that dream job. For a long time, I resented my bipolar disorder and was ashamed of it. Now, I realize this lifelong curse is also a gift. I had to reinvent what a career would look like and built an online education company. I wake up every day inspired by my students. My schedule allows me to spend time with my kids and husband even during the weekdays. This life, this career, is so much better than any plan I could have imagined. My hope is that by sharing this story, we might start a conversation among alums, students, parents and the school as a whole. It’s about time we challenge our definition of success and shine a light on stories beyond the traditional successes. I don’t want another young person to feel like a failure because they chose to honor their health first. I envision a world where success is not defined by what college you attend, where postcollege choices are not limited to a handful of options, and where a person’s decision to pursue a less traditional career or trade is not dismissed, but embraced for the skill and resilience it requires. We are Brearley. We have defied norms and challenged expectations since the founding of this school. If anyone can redefine the meaning of success, it’s us. It’s time we start that dialogue. It’s time we end that stigma. SPRING/SUMMER 2021 49
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REUNION
CLASS OF 1985
Let’s Talk About Race! by the Class of 1985 Steering Committee
In their Turbo Talk, Class of 1985’s Caroline Bicks, Lisa Downing, Alison Green, Victoria Guest, Monica Lengyel-Karlson, Marie-Elizabeth Mali, Janet Reich-Elsbach, Dawn Simmons and Penny Wilson discussed how they began their conversation on race. Here is the fuller story. Growing up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, we learned to speak about our feminism with comfort and authority. Brearley gave us assemblies on the ERA, copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves, and the message that we could achieve anything as women in a man’s world. Meanwhile, popular culture brought our sexual empowerment into the conversation, from Dr. Ruth to Madonna to Salt-N-Pepa’s hit song “Let’s Talk About Sex.” Yet most of us managed to reach middle age with no tools to talk about race.
JOURNEY ON RACE In July 2020, the Class of 1985 gathered for our 35th-year reunion on Zoom. Against the backdrop of the George Floyd murder, a growing Black Lives Matter movement, the Black@Brearley Instagram account and calls to action to put an end to racial injustice, the subject of race was unavoidable. We asked ourselves, “What will it take to have courageous conversations about race with our class?” A steering committee coalesced and embarked on a process over many phone calls and countless email chains to build a foundation for our class to discuss race. This process would demand self-reflection and accountability, an examination of our own histories, a more complex and empathetic reframing of the experiences of our Black classmates, and a deeper understanding of the entangled history of systemic racism. We fought against the Beaver inclination to master a topic through books or jump straight to “fixing” the problem. As a first step, the steering committee developed a survey for our classmates to set the baseline for awareness and experience around race. With the results of the survey in hand and classmates on board, the steering committee hired a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) expert to analyze the survey results and facilitate our first class Zoom call on race. The survey and the first call brought to light not only our vastly different levels of awareness of race, but also our common desire to reach a greater understanding together. The steering committee grew to nine members after the first call, planning and leading all subsequent calls. We are proud to report that the Class of 1985 has now held four well-attended conversations on race, confronting the role of race in our upbringing, family and work by being vulnerable and uncomfortable with one another. Our shared history of almost 50 years allowed us to speak our minds and our hearts, be honest and be brave. With guidance from our facilitator, we referenced Dr. Barbara J. Love’s framework for “Developing a Liberatory Consciousness” to chart our progress, and through a movement exercise led by a classmate, we listened to our bodies as well as our intellect. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together. And if we are to live together, we will have to talk.” Post–George Floyd, we can no longer ignore the topic of race. The only way forward is through navigating the unknowns of race, being uncomfortable and learning. We have to look earnestly at the system we’ve participated in, including ways we have been complicit in perpetuating systemic racism. As we reach an inflection point within our class, at Brearley and in society as a whole, we must take heed to the calls for action that surround us. After nearly a yearlong journey of race conversations, we are sharing a road map and a few lessons learned in the hopes other classes will embark on conversations of their own, adapting our example for their own experience.
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HOW WE GOT STARTED • Designed and implemented a 55-question survey. • Hired a facilitator to analyze our survey results and facilitate the first call. • Established group rules that fostered inclusivity and safety and an environment where participants could be brave. • Used Dr. Barbara J. Love’s framework for “Developing a Liberatory Consciousness.” • Employed a mind/body coach to facilitate meditation exercises during the tough discussions. We were lucky to have a classmate with this expertise.
LESSONS LEARNED • Context is important! The era that you attended Brearley affects how you internalized and understood race. • Brearley friendships have real value here. Shared history plus long-term relationships make for rich, powerful conversations. • Breaking the silence can bring up a lot. The origins of race as a social construct are often unspoken. It’s a process to learn how to put it all into words. • Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Many of us have gotten away with willfully ignoring race and racism as we thought it did not apply directly to us. Allow some grace for those who are addressing this head-on for the first time. • Take time to process. There are emotional and physical manifestations that come along with achieving racial awareness. Make space to address the full experience. • Respect that everyone is coming to the subject of race from a different place based upon their experience. For some, it could be a place of not-knowingness, while for others it has been an inescapable truth. It’s all valid. • Establish ground rules for the group. Everyone must feel safe enough to speak courageously. • Use a framework for how to think about and process your feelings about race. • Identify a topic that all participants can relate to (e.g., parenting, family relationships, intersectional feminism, a period in history) as a springboard to facilitate dialogue. • Come with an open mind and a willingness to learn. The truths about race can be empowering. • Forgiveness: Understand and acknowledge the past and agree to move forward with a new lens.
Top: Diagram of how to develop a liberatory consciousness, by Dr. Barbara J. Love. Left: Class of 1985 Steering Committee.
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By the river, on East 83rd Street, we will be here. Create a legacy for Brearley. Incubator, proving ground, home. Brearley is a singular place that is all about the girls—who they are, what they are capable of, and what they can become. When you include Brearley in your estate plans, you join a generous group of supporters who safeguard the Brearley experience for the girls of future generations. For sample language to use in your will or trust, and further information, please contact: Last Day 2021: Lower School (top) was held on June 9 and Middle School on June 10 in the 590 Performance Hall.
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Phoebe T. Geer ’97, Associate Director of Development (212) 570-8609 or pgeer@brearley.org
8/2/21 10:33 PM
Class XII procession to Asphalt Green for Upper School Last Day 2021. This year, the seniors voted to wear caps and gowns for their final ceremony as Brearley students.
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BULLETIN
THE BREARLEY BULLETIN SPRING/SUMMER 2021
610 East 83rd Street New York, NY 10028
NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #129 19464
THE BREARLEY SCHOOL
You are stronger than you know!!
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