Winsor Bulletin | Spring 2022

IN THIS ISSUE

16

The Bezan Legacy

Former Head of School Carolyn McClintock Peter remembers a legend

18 Fair Exchange

Students devise a new solution to an old textbook problem

20 Two Roads Converged

asia Chmielinski ’02 and Veronica K Rotemberg ’02 lead a revolution in AI

28 Nevertheless, They Persisted

ive alums reflect on coping and F thriving in tough times

IN EVERY ISSUE

2

From the Head of School

3

From Pilgrim Road

40 Alumnae News 68 First Person

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

The Winsor School HEAD OF SCHOOL Sarah Pelmas

The Promise of Spring

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as the promise of spring ever felt more rejuvenating and thrilling? After two years of living with a pandemic we had originally hoped would last only a month or two, we are all ready for the days to be warmer and longer, for the earth to burst forth with flowers and greenery, and for the songbirds to remind us what joy sounds like. We are ready to stand shoulder to shoulder and cheer for our teammates, to see one another’s full faces in person, and to share our beloved Winsor traditions with the entire school. I think we all know spring will help us feel better again.

No matter what our different pandemic experiences have been, we have all struggled to feel well and whole. And I think we have also increasingly started to identify what makes each of us feel better, what imbues each of us with a sense of well-being.

As you will read in this issue of the Bulletin, well-being has many components, from nutrition and sleep, to community connections, to individual reflection, to meaningful work. Everyone understands wellbeing differently, and you will see in these articles that some people are retreating from a frenetic pace of life while others are rushing headlong toward it. I imagine you will identify with some solutions—move to the country, work passionately for change, rethink a career path—and strongly reject others. What you might take from all these articles is that everyone is on a path toward healing in the broadest possible sense. Our alums are engaged in finding well-being for themselves even as they work to improve the world around them for others.

One of the more unique characteristics of Winsor graduates is their determination to make the world better, which starts even before they receive a diploma. Students routinely come to my office to tell me what is wrong and how to fix it; student clubs educate the whole community and lead us in celebration; COLLECT works to improve student life year after year; students join political campaigns and volunteer at nonprofits.

Every day, Winsor students use their voices to advocate for themselves and for others. Because of them, meaningful change occurs at school all the time, and we are slowly working to make Winsor the best experience it can be for everyone.

This Bulletin issue shows us what happens when our generous-minded graduates focus on healing and well-being. I am always buoyed by the fact that Winsor students are engaged in making things better. Though we are just coming out of the dark of winter, spring is on the horizon.

—SARAH PELMAS

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EDITOR IN CHIEF Jennifer Bub P’23, ’25, ’27 DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Colette Porter DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AND CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR Erika McMahon DIRECTOR OF ALUMNAE ENGAGEMENT Beth Peterson ’80, P’11 CREATIVE DIRECTION & DESIGN Nicole Barbuto COVER ILLUSTRATION Angela Hsieh PHOTOGRAPHY Kristie Dean, Tom Kates, Jason Putsche BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2021–2022 PRESIDENT Allison Kaneb Pellegrino ’89, P’21, ’22 VICE PRESIDENT Larry Cheng P’23, ’25, ’28 TREASURER Lori Whelan P’23, ’25 ASSISTANT TREASURER David E. Goel P’23 CLERK Elizabeth Bennett Carroll ’89 Chris Andrews P’26, ex officio Eman Ansari P’20, ’24, ’28 Mark Condon P’16, ’18, ’18, ’21 Wendy Cromwell P’21 Polly Crozier ’92 Jennifer Dolins P’23 Linda Dorcena Forry P’28 Mary Gallagher ’94 Claire Pasternack Goldsmith ’01 Jonathan Goldstein P’22, ’24 Mary Beth Gordon P’23, ’26 Lisa Jackson P’23 Sam Kennedy P’23 Jessica Lutzker P’25 Mallika Marshall P’27 Erica Mayer ’91, P’25, ex officio Elise McDonald P’26, ’28 Joseph J. O’Donnell P’05, ’07 Sarah Pelmas Marion Russell ’91, P’22, ’25 Jill Shah P’25 Kerry Swords P’23, ’27 Perry M. Traquina P’09, ’13 The Winsor School does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, creed, national origin, or sexual orientation in the administration of its educational policies, scholars programs, athletic programs, and other school-administered programs.

FROM PILGRIM ROAD

30 Plays in 60 Minutes The Performing Arts Department hosted the Upper School production of “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind”—its first staged performance in front of a live audience since fall 2019.

The longest-running show in Chicago history, the play is actually made up of 30 two-minute plays that are performed in one hour in a random order chosen by the audience (an onstage 60-minute timer keeps everyone honest). Over several months, Upper School students collaborated on the production, managing everything from the set design and creation to costumes, sound, and even lighting.

FROM PILGRIM ROAD

Opening Day 2021–2022: A Return to Tradition

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n August 31, 2021, The Winsor School ushered in a new school year with an opening day marked by a return to time-honored traditions and celebrations.

Seniors lined the hallways, cheering and handing out high-fives while dressed in costume to reveal their carnival-themed homeroom. Opening convocation followed, with Class IV–VIII in the theater and Class I– III watching via livestream from the dining hall.

Allison Kaneb Pellegrino ’89, P’21, ’22, president of The Winsor School Corporation, spoke first at the convocation, reminding students to do their very best “and take advantage of being here with your classmates, teachers, and teammates.”

President of COLLECT Evie

Seniors celebrate opening day.

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Wells ’22 remarked on the resilience of this community, saying, “For the last year and a half, we at Winsor have been confronted with change, ambiguity, and uncertainty. Virtual classes, distanced desks, and alarmingly too few hugs.”

Senior class president Mary Kate Hart ’22 reflected on her first day as a Class I student and on the senior homeroom theme, noting, “A carnival is where individual people come together to share their talents, their interests, or hobbies in order to make a singular thing great, and my class is full of these people.”

Inspired by Dumbledore’s opening speech in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling (“Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words.

And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber!

Oddment! Tweak!”), Head of School Sarah Pelmas shared a few words: mistakes, kindness, curiosity, eye contact.

Referencing a KQED Mind/Shift article about mistakes, she explored the four types of mistakes: stretch, aha-moment, sloppy, and high-stakes.

“Because we love you and we are here to help you grow and learn and become the people you most want to be, we do expect a lot of mistakes, usually of the ‘aha-moment’ or ‘stretch’ variety,” she said. “My experience is that you will think something is a very high-stakes mistake, when in fact it will be a sloppy mistake and/or an aha-moment mistake. But almost none of these mistakes are bad. All of them help you learn.”

PORCH PARTY MAMAS OPEN FIRST ASSEMBLY This Boston-area band, which includes Performing Arts Department Head Felicia Brady-Lopez, opened Winsor’s first Assembly. Inspired by singing each other’s songs at their own “porch parties,” these five women showcased their unique mix of musical styles, songwriting, and blend of instrumentation (fiddle, accordion, and banjo) for a rousing start to the school year.

FOSTERING SECURITY IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD Paula Rauch, M.D. joined the Winsor community virtually to share insights on how caring adults can help children face challenges, anxiety, and uncertainty with agency and achieve security and resilience. Dr. Rauch is a psychiatrist specializing in the impact of medical illness on families and on the emotional health and well-being of children, and the founding director of the Marjorie E. Korff Parenting At a Challenging Time (PACT) program.

Winsor Releases Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report

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s a community, Winsor continuously evaluates and seeks to strengthen its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work. This fall, Winsor released the Lift Every Voice report as an outcome of that self-reflection. By collecting and synthesizing the practices, policies, and initiatives that exist in each department of the school, we sought a wider and deeper understanding of the totality of our DEI practices.

A deep commitment to DEI is central to our school’s identity.

It informs how we interact with one another in the classroom and community. It informs how our teachers present material and the choices they make about the content of their courses. It influences our hiring practices for faculty and staff, admission outreach and decision-making, and behavior on the athletic field as well as the nature of our community events and gatherings, and our relationships

with families and alumnae. We seek to create a community where everyone is welcome and respected, where everyone can thrive. The commitment is pervasive; it is a matter of principle.

As a reflection of the school’s efforts, we consider the report a work in progress. Much remains to be done. We offer this report to share where we are and point to where we are going as we continue to create a truly welcoming and inclusive school community.

“ We need to see every other person as a human on this journey with us, as deserving of love and respect as anyone else. The world could use a lot more of the ‘generousminded’ part of our motto. It means, ‘I’m going to be curious about who you are. I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m going to respect you, and I’m going to try and reach over whatever chasm might exist between us.’” —SARAH PELMAS, Head of School WINSOR SPRING 2022 5

FROM PILGRIM ROAD

CELEBRATING THE MOON FESTIVAL World Languages Faculty and Upper School Mandarin teacher Ariel Tu organized a Moon Festival celebration where students learned about the history and folklore of the holiday, also called the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mooncakes, pastries usually molded in the shape of the full moon, are a special food eaten during this time. Winsor students used homemade play dough to create their own mooncakes with several different fillings, which they brought home to show their families. To add to the festival, Culinary Director Heather Pierce created a delectable themed lunch.

SPEAKER DARRYL BELLAMY INSPIRES A FEARLESS GENERATION

Rania Matar in front of an exhibit of her photographs photo by Dominic Chavez

Photographer Rania Matar Captures Beautiful Awkwardness Rania Matar, a Lebanese-born American documentary and portrait photographer whose powerful photographs capture the daily lives of girls and women in the Middle East and in the U.S., spoke to students about her career and photography.

Ms. Matar has dedicated her life’s work to exploring issues of identity and individuality through photographs of female adolescence and womanhood. She explained that you don’t have to travel to exotic places to find beauty in the “wonderful mess” of our day-to-day lives.

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Author and entrepreneur Darryl Bellamy, who believes that “life is best lived beyond fear,” brought his compelling message to students in Classes IV to VIII. A large gas stove resembling a campfire anchored the assembly stage, and the stove was set ablaze as students jotted down—and ultimately burned—their endings to the statement “I fear that . . . ” Mr. Bellamy read some responses aloud, which included fear of failure and fear that “everyone is smarter and more athletic,” and he offered assurance that students everywhere share the same fears—a reminder that no student should feel alone.

Recounting stories of famous failures, he underscored that failure is natural and essential to one’s journey, and encouraged students to have more “fearless moments.” For lasting inspiration, each student received a black band with the words inscribed: I’m fearless inside.

PHOTOS BY KRISTIE DEAN

All-School Spirit Week and Under the Lights Return

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ctober 18–22 was Spirit Week. From faculty and staff to students, the whole school participated in dress up days and Wildcat spirit was on full display. Themes included MET Gala, iconic decades, and dress as something that begins with the first letter of your first name.

Particularly creative this year was bringing “anything but a backpack,” which had students rolling around shopping carts, pushing strollers, rolling suitcases, and even carrying

toaster ovens. Of course, everyone donned full-on spirit gear for Red Day on Friday, October 22. The pep rally was back and the entire school community met outside on the turf for cheers by class, musical performances, and awards. At the end, students gave a big wave to our neighbors in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area who peered out from offices and hospital rooms. As the sun set, teams ran out to the fields and courts. Between field hockey, soccer, and volleyball

there were 11 games on campus—a spectacular and festive scene with dozens of spectators plus light snacks under the courtyard tent featuring a Fenway-inspired menu: vegan chili, hot dogs, ballpark-style pretzels, and even apple crisp. On Sunday, October 24, the festivities continued with finals for the Head of the Charles Regatta. Winsor had two teams racing and spectators cheered them on from the Belmont Hill Winsor Boat House.

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FROM PILGRIM ROAD

Classes Reunite During Fall Retreats

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n annual Winsor tradition is for each class to go on a retreat together—to bond, try a new activity, challenge themselves, practice communication skills, set goals, and have fun. “Retreats allow [students] to bond in ways that they might not have the chance to in a classroom,” said Class IV Coordinator and English Faculty Maren Kelsey.

This fall, Class I and Class IV students visited Hale Reservation in Westwood, MA, where they climbed trees, walked across beams, and enjoyed a high-ropes course. Class III students headed to Boda Borg in Malden, MA, and worked in small groups to “quest” their way through a series of challenging roombased puzzles.

Getting their hands dirty at Brookwood Community Farm in Canton, MA, small groups of Class V students shelled beans, pulled up

tomato plants and stakes as part of fall cleanup, and collected and organized farm staples. “The rock bag group found two garter snakes in their rock pile while they were working!” said History Faculty and Class V Dean Amy Lieberman.

Students also saw a beehive before enjoying a picnic lunch, games, and a nature walk.

“Getting students out of the classroom environment and allowing them to tackle challenges themselves

lets us see a different side of them, which informs our work in the classroom,” said Math Faculty and Class I Advisor Mary Butcher. The retreats also “led to conversations in advisory about taking on new challenges and being leaders in the Lower School,” added Mx. Kelsey.

In Upper School, class retreats take different forms. Class VII typically enjoys an overnight trip to Cape Cod, and Class VIII will have Senior Circles in May and June.

Class I at Hale Reservation

OBSERVING FOUNDER’S DAY In honor of Miss Winsor’s birthday on October 31, the Winsor community enjoyed doughnuts and apple cider in the courtyard. At Assembly, Head of School Sarah Pelmas shared that we celebrate Founder’s Day “not because we want the school to be exactly as it was in 1886, or even in 1986, but because we want to honor the spirit and energy that created this incredible place.” During Upper School meeting, a game of Kahoot! tested student’s school history knowledge with questions including: When did the tradition of Shakespeare plays begin? Where was the original swimming pool located? When did the Wildcat become the mascot?

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SUMMER-READ AUTHOR LISA MOORE RAMÉE VISITS CLASSES I AND II Students entering Classes I and II read A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée over the summer and had the opportunity to talk with the author via Zoom this fall about her creative journey and inspiration. They came prepared with many questions about the author’s experience. Ms. Ramée said she first started writing at a time when she “didn’t see many stories about young Black girls.”

Regarding storytelling, she gave the students some questions to consider as they embark on their own writing journeys. The answers to these questions, she said, are the “nuggets of really fantastic, wonderful stories.”

Pictured (L to R): Maika Moulite, Raina Sohur ’23, Sophie Lim ’24, Katina Handrinos ’25, Anaya Raikar ’25, Maritza Moulite

Moulite Sisters Join Assembly to Discuss One of the Good Ones Winsor welcomed co-authors and sisters Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite to an in-person Assembly to discuss their creative journey and their book, One of the Good Ones, the summer read for Classes III to VIII. During the high-energy event, the authors brought students back to the early days of their own youth in Miami. They were avid readers as children, and they said they noticed at a young age that books featuring “Black girls with Black hair” were not readily available.

Their desire to expand stories to include a more diverse range of lead characters is what fuels their writing today. During the Assembly, they discussed and dissected social justice themes, including the meaning behind the title One of the Good Ones.

For a fun ending, the authors held a digital game of trivia featuring facts from the book and African American history.

LOWER SCHOOL ENGLISH FACULTY LISA STRINGFELLOW PARTICIPATES IN MIDDLE GROUND BOOK FEST Lisa Stringfellow joined the Teachers Who Write panel at the Middle Ground Book Fest. “Being a writer has greatly improved my teaching,” she said. “Because I have a clearer view of how stories actually make it onto shelves, I can share that information with students and try to bring real-world connections to their writing experiences in class.”

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FROM PILGRIM ROAD

Fall Sports Highlights Led by captains Imogen Cabot ’22 and Evie Wells ’22, Winsor rowing had a great season on the water. The weather cooperated, and the team’s hard work and discipline paid off, with every rower taking home at least one medal during the season. Coach Abigail Parker led the novices to a third-place finish among high schools at the Worcester regatta. Isabelle Rodgers coached the returning JV rowers and was a great help with land workouts for the team.

Thanks to the purchase of four singles in September 2020—which allowed for some socially distanced rowing practice last season—four rowers entered this year’s Head of the Quinobequin (the Native American name for the Charles River), a race for junior singles only. To cap the season, the first four had the best season in recent memory, representing Winsor in the Head of the Charles Regatta and finishing eighth.

CROSS COUNTRY EIL 6–0, OVERALL 8–3

2021 was a rebuilding season coming off the 2020 COVID hiatus. Led by captains Claire Ackerman ’22, Zoe Lewis ’22, and Raina Sohur ’23, the young team showed true grit, determined to defend its Eastern Independent League (EIL) title. The Wildcats finished the regular season undefeated in the EIL and 8–3 overall.

At EILs Winsor put on a very strong performance to win by 19 points, with Meg Madison ’24 winning her first EIL title. The team continued on to New Englands, finishing a solid 7th in the Division 1 championship and Meg taking the runner-up spot.

VARSITY FIELD HOCKEY EIL 6–2–1, OVERALL 13–3–1

The varsity field hockey team had an unforgettable season.

Led by senior captains Lexi Pellegrino ’22, Sophia Russell ’22, and Julia Ryan ’22, as well as senior back Sarah Jane Gavin ’22, the team proved to be a dominant force, losing only to league rivals Newton Country Day and Independent School League (ISL) powerhouse Thayer Academy in the regular season. The team members’ consistently aggressive,

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solid play led them to rank second in the EIL—tied with Pingree—and earned them a berth in the Class C NEPSAC tournament for the third time in as many years! Facing the undefeated No. 1 seeded Newton Country Day team in the final battle of the NEPSAC Championship, the underdog Wildcats held on to a 2–1 lead to be crowned the champions and rushed goalie Caroline Bub ’25 as their fans cheered them on. Julia was named All-New England MVP. VARSITY SOCCER EIL 4–4–3, OVERALL 5–7–2

At the beginning of the season the team set a goal to make the EIL post season tournament, and all 18 players came ready and prepared to work hard every day. Although the team faced many injuries, the Wildcats finished fourth in the league and qualified for the tournament. The young team was led by senior captains Delaney Holland ’22, Josie Mastandrea ’22, and Tia Sheth ’22.

Highlights of the season were a 3–0 win at the beginning of the season over a competitive Portsmouth Abbey team, a 6–2 win over Lexington Christian Academy at Under the Lights, and an outstanding 5–2 win over the Dexter Southfield School.

VARSITY VOLLEYBALL EIL 8–5, OVERALL 11–7

Winsor volleyball couldn’t wait to get back on the court for the 2021 season, led by senior captains Aleksaundra Handrinos ’22, Leila Glotzer Martin ’22, Kayla Springer ’22, and Alison Chang ’22. Following a hard-fought season, Winsor was the fourth seed in the EIL tournament, but just outside qualifying for the NEPSAC tournament.

Winsor lost to NCDS in the final round of the EIL tournament, but only after pulling off an epic upset in the first round, defeating the No.1 seed, undefeated Portsmouth Abbey, in a five-set battle—the highlight of the season!

To read these news articles in full, please see windsor.edu/news.

PHOTOS BY KRISTIE DEAN

CREW

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FROM PILGRIM ROAD

WINSOR CELEBRATES DIWALI DURING ASSEMBLY The Upper School’s South Asian Student Alliance (SASA) led a Diwali celebration during Assembly, which began with a story based on the Ramayana, an ancient Sanskrit epic from which the significance of Diwali is drawn, and ended with a student dance to the title track of the movie Desi Girl. Diwali was also observed in the dining room with a special lunch celebrating Indian cuisine.

The Annual Winter Concert: An Emotional Return to the Stage

JEWISH AFFINITY GROUPS SHARE TRADITIONS OF HANUKKAH “We feel so overjoyed and grateful that we could host a Hanukkah party this year!” said Isabelle Shub ’22 and Sophia Lin-David ’22, heads of Jew Kidz on the Block, the Upper School affinity group for Jewish students.

With strains of “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel” playing in the background, more than 30 Upper School students gathered during lunch to play dreidel, eat gelt, and celebrate the Festival of Lights. Lower School students celebrated as well when Mathematics Faculty and Class II Coordinator Jodi Kerble, who runs the Jewish affinity group, brought in jelly donuts, gelt, and dreidels.

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For our student singers and musicians, the annual Winter Concert was a celebrated and emotional return to the stage in front of a live and energized audience in the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Theater.

The concert showcased students’ talent, creativity, and technical mastery with featured performances by the Lower School Chorus, Lower School Orchestra, Percussion Ensemble, Chamber Players, Chorale, Illumina, and Senior Small. The Winsor Community Orchestra with guest musicians performed “O Hanukkah” and the Holberg Suite.

A notable highlight of the evening was when Andrew Marshall, choral director, invited the audience to stand and sing two songs with the singers and players: “Deck the Halls” and “Angels We Have Heard on High.”

Winsor’s beloved former choral director of 42 years, Lisa Talliacq, was in the audience; the crowd gave her a special round of applause.

A special thanks to Felicia Brady-Lopez, performing arts director; Andrew Marshall, choral director; Julia Connor, music faculty; and Carey McKinley, tech director substitute, for this wonderful musical evening.

SPEAKER KELSEY TAINSH SAYS THERE’S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO TRY Motivational speaker Kelsey Tainsh returned to Winsor to speak with students in Classes I to III. After overcoming a brain tumor at age 5, Ms. Tainsh became a champion athlete. Ten years later, the tumor returned, followed by a crippling stroke. Her right side didn’t function, and she was paralyzed with fear and self-doubt. “My challenges show on the outside, but we all have differences that may show on the outside or on the inside,” she said. Drawing from her experiences, she encouraged students to “be fearless as you walk out this door. Take action when you believe in something. And realize that your differences are the best thing about you.”

Blanding’s Turtles Return to Campus Winsor has participated in the H.A.T.C.H. program— Hatchling and Turtle Conservation through Headstarting— since fall 2018. A “turtle team” of two Class I students, under the direction of Science Faculty Ken Schopf, will take on one of many rotating jobs over the course of the school year as they care for Onyx and Death Eater, named following a vote—and fierce campaigning!—by the members of Class I. Every month, the students will submit data to Zoo New England on the turtles’ weight and body length. The turtles will be released in the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge at the end of the school year—a much-anticipated Class I field trip.

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FROM PILGRIM ROAD

Winsor’s Wellness Work

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DEFINING WELLNESS

t’s difficult to have a conversation about students today and not talk about wellness. But what does it really mean? And how can a school measure or achieve it? Amanda Santos Valenzuela, the new head of Winsor’s Wellness Department, is tackling those questions and charting a new path for the school’s wellness program, which supports students’ mental, physical, and intellectual health through a combination of curriculum, events, speakers, and resources .

The work all begins with “defining what wellness means in our community,” says Ms. Santos Valenzuela.

“We don’t want it to be a catchall.” A partnership with Authentic Connections to gather survey data; engagement with students and other members of the community; and work in conjunction with Winsor’s NEASC reaccreditation process—which independent schools participate in every 10 years—has rendered invaluable data. “We began exploring the link between wellness and rigor, and how to better align policies and practices to best support students in achieving success without sacrificing mental health,” she says.

Adjusting the health curriculum was a first step. Thoughtful work was done “to make sure that what is taught in the classroom is skills- and standards-based,” notes Ms. Santos Valenzuela. Through a collaboration with Heather Pierce, Winsor’s new food services director, nutrition will be more formally incorporated

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into the curriculum, and students will meet with Chef Pierce to learn about preparing healthy meals. “We are thinking about how we create a food-positive culture,” she says.

Ms. Santos Valenzuela believes the best way to make change, and to make it stick, is to involve the students. “I was impressed when I came to Winsor because there were already a number of avenues for student support, including three incredible Upper School student-led groups: the Wellness Club, the Wellness Committee of the Student Equity Board, and Peer Supporters,” she says. But she notes that “students don’t always see these groups as a pathway to tangible results,” so she began meeting regularly with group leaders to help them more clearly define their roles and objectives. Together, they have outlined priorities that include training for students, more opportunities to collaborate and present, and a focus on tools and techniques to help all students build connections.

BUILDING CONNECTIONS

To bring in outside perspectives, and encourage important conversations about health, balance, and well-being, the Wellness Department hosts regular events.

In December, Bonney CouperKiablick, a nutritionist with the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), came to talk with students in the Class VI Healthy Decisions class about positive food

culture, the Health At Every Size® movement, and her career path and field of work. As part of the course work, the students had each identified an important wellness issue to explore, and were examining organizations that strive to bring about positive change, so the conversation was relevant, timely, and impactful.

Afterward, Ms. Couper-Kiablick joined Ms. Santos Valenzuela— her former teacher—and Peers Supporters for lunch and in-depth conversation.

Also in December, two panel discussions for Lower School students were held featuring six Upper School wellness group leaders: Claire Ackerman ’22 and Anissa Patel ’23, Wellness Committee co-chairs; Abby Groom ’22 and Aleksaundra Handrinos ’22, Peer Support co-leaders; and Maita Mungah ’22 and Uche Ogbue ’22, Wellness Club co-leaders. Lower School students shared their questions via a survey, and the panel members used examples from their own lives and experiences to foster an honest dialogue on topics that included time management, school/life balance, extracurriculars, relationships with friends and family, mental health, and stress management.

“This was an opportunity for these groups to work together and share their goals,” says Ms. Santos Valenzuela. “Their messages about balance, friendships, and finding activities they love are impactful, especially for Lower School students who really look up to them.”

In January, those student leaders brought their insights to faculty and staff. In a panel discussion, they talked about the meaningful support teachers have offered that reflects an understanding of student experiences. “It was reaffirming for teachers.

They heard what they were already doing right to support student social emotional learning, and the panel had immediate impact on the classroom,” says Ms. Santos Valenzuela.

The students acknowledge that the work to prioritize balance is ongoing. “The truth is, what is so amazing about our student body—

the strong work ethic and everyone putting their best foot forward in the classroom and beyond—is also what reinforces the challenge of prioritizing wellness,” says Claire Ackerman ’22, Wellness Committee co-leader. Anissa Patel ’23, also a Wellness Committee co-leader, says students increase tensions by talking among themselves without seeking help from groups like theirs that are working to make change. “This is one of the reasons that we are collectively working to amplify student voices— so that we can collaborate with the student body to redefine wellness at

Front (L to R): Anissa Patel ’23, Uche Ogbue ’22. Middle (L to R): Aleksaundra Handrinos ’22, Abby Groom ’22. Back (L to R): Claire Ackerman ’22, Maita Mungah ’22

Winsor,” she says.

Every member of the Wellness Department plays an essential role in supporting student well-being and is committed to continuing the work.

The collaborative team includes Sue Bandyopadhya, director of health services/nurse; Kara Catino, learning specialist; Evan Joy McLaurin ’12, wellness teacher; Maia Monteagudo ’06 and Emily Monteiro, part-time counselors; and Maddie Warlan, counselor.

Read more from the student leaders in the First Person Profile on page 66 of this issue.

Amanda Santos Valenzuela, Wellness Deparatment Head

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PROFILES IN GIVING

The Bezan Legacy

By Carolyn McClintock Peter, Former Head of School

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ne of the best pieces of advice Virginia Wing, Winsor’s fifth director, offered me as I became her successor was, “Get Diane Bezan to help you.” She was right! Diane had begun her Winsor career as a part-time math teacher in 1975. By the time I arrived in 1988, she had become one of its strongest and most beloved teachers and leaders. She was a full-time teacher, a homeroom teacher, a Class VI Discussion and

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Choices leader, and a member of the Director’s Search Committee. As one of the first people I met when I was getting to know Winsor, Diane had stood out to me as smart, funny, poised, and stylish. I hardly needed Miss Wing’s advice.

From the beginning, I was impressed by Diane’s clear thinking, her sensitivity to students and families, her work ethic, and her wonderful personality, full of warmth, empathy, humor, and pizzazz. I first

asked Diane to help me with the financial aid process, a complex and sensitive matter. She said “Yes,” as she did when presented with many subsequent challenges. Halfway through my first year as director I asked Diane to serve as head of Upper School, and later I asked her to be the school’s associate director, assuming major responsibility for the whole school and becoming both an important internal leader as well as a recognized policy- and deci-

sion-maker. Much later, Diane said to me, “I was so lucky! Who would have known that I could do it? I was not trained for leadership, but I worked intuitively, loved learning on the job, had good guidance, support, and encouragement. Every few years, a new challenge came my way, and my motto became ‘Let’s move on!’”

Looking back on Diane’s leadership over the 16 years that we were colleagues and then dear friends, I think of her in her office, a space she made into a warm and comfortable retreat for her endless stream of visitors. I see Diane comforting a student, talking with a parent, leading a meeting, listening to a colleague, always completely present with each person in her company. One by one, family by family, in small groups and large, Diane gave all of us ideas, confidence, courage, and comfort in that special room, now the Bezan Lounge, with the beautiful view of the Winsor courtyard. As head of Upper School, Diane was committed to making sure that every girl would experience both challenge and understanding, would find teachers and classmates who cared about her, and would enjoy the thrill of accomplishment along with hard work. To do this, she led us in new ways of advising, in understanding our differences and commonalities, and in strengthening our connections with the world beyond Pilgrim Road.

Diane was my fellow leader as we worked together to create a more diverse, more equitable, more just Winsor. She cared deeply about our commitment to the difficult and sometimes confusing and scary work we were doing to help Winsor move into a broader world and to create

a more welcoming community on our campus. I can remember many times when we were faced with either making a bold decision or standing on tradition. Almost always, Diane had the courage to support the more challenging course.

Sometimes we took risks by moving in new directions in admissions, in hiring, and in program development, and most often these initiatives helped Winsor become a stronger, more inclusive, and more diverse community.

Hundreds of Winsor graduates remember Diane as a teacher, advisor, and confidante who made a critical difference in their lives. In her 30 years at Winsor, Diane created an enduring legacy. Those of us who worked alongside her remember the nurturing and balanced community she fostered and the spirit of collegiality she inspired. We remember the courage with which she proceeded to do her job even as she faced and eventually succumbed to cancer.

Current students may know only the lovely face in the portrait in

the Bezan Lounge, but they, too, are beneficiaries of the Bezan legacy. Programs Diane helped create and develop that continue today include Peer Support, the Class VII retreat, Leadership Training, Mentoring, Advisory, affinity groups, and anti-racism training. Her presence changed Winsor, and her impact continues.

Diane and her husband, Dr. Allan Bezan, both loved Winsor. Dr. Bezan loved seeing Diane in a role to which she was so deeply committed and in which she was so successful. Together they decided years ago that they wanted to create a legacy in her name that would provide additional resources for her groundbreaking work to support equity and justice, both in and outside the classroom.

Diane’s days at Winsor ended years ago, but the Bezan legacy will live on in a newly endowed chair, which we look forward to naming and celebrating as a community in the coming months.

WINSOR SPRING 2022 17

GENEROUS MINDED

Fair Exchange

N

ot long ago, the business of getting books organized for the opening of classes was a bit of a challenge at Winsor. “We had just recently moved to an online book provider, and the book prices went way up,” says Denise Labieniec, physics teacher and institutional researcher. “We had all kinds of sourcing and supply-chain issues, and the kids didn’t have their books at the start of class.”

The online vendor offered a buy-back or exchange program for used books, but that turned out to be unwieldy, too. “It was glitchy

18 WINSOR SPRING 2022

and logistically challenging to coordinate,” Ms. Labieniec says. But no one had come up with a solution.

Enter Emma Sun ’22 and Zoe Wang ’22. As ninth graders, they approached Ms. Labieniec and Julian Braxton, director of community and multicultural affairs, with an idea.

“They said, ‘We want to be able to actually have our books at the beginning of the year. And we really want to be able to exchange used books. Books are expensive. It’s wasteful,’” Ms. Labieniec remembers.

Emma and Zoe explained that they wanted to create a textbook exchange website. It was a simple

idea: They would list used books for sale on the website, and then kids could buy them. And they had already prototyped their solution: “They had basically coded the entire website,” Ms. Labieniec says.

“Exchanging textbooks, that’s not a revolutionary idea. People had been doing this before,” Emma says. “But there was no efficient or organized method to do so. So we said, ‘OK, you know, we’ll just provide a platform that’s convenient and efficient because it’s online.’”

“Julian and I, of course, came up with objections,” recalls Ms. Labieniec, ruefully.

The adults: How are you going to know what books to list? The students: You could just give us a spreadsheet, and we can load it into the back end of the website.

The adults: How are you going to know how to price them? The students: We just thought we would let people price them the way they want, and if their book price is unreasonable, people won’t buy it.

What about payment? The students explained, “We just do Venmo, or meet up. We all go to the same school, so we can just on the first day of school be like, ‘Here are my books, give me the money, or just do this through Venmo,’” Ms. Labieniec recalls.

Ms. Labieniec says the adults asked, “What’s the Venmo?” “This was three years ago,” she says, laughing. She adds, “We were so wrapped up in our adult worries, that we couldn’t see a clean and elegant solution.”

So Emma and Zoe launched the Winsor School Textbooks Exchange site.

PHOTOS BY KRISTIE DEAN

The initial development was “kind of tough,” Emma concedes.

Zoe adds, “It took a long time to get everything done, and none of us had coding experience. We did it from scratch.”

“It took a lot of Googling,” Emma says.

On their own time, they consulted online sources such as Helpwise and Stack Overflow as well as online forums where people were talking about building marketplaces.

Zoe says she got involved in the project to make books more affordable. “I would tally up the amount of money I used for textbooks, and I did not have enough, even though I had saved up money from Chinese New Year,” she says. “I would compare the total to the small amount of money I had in my little box, and the cost was always a lot more than what I had.

And it was shocking, because I had to buy these books or else I’m going to be in trouble for class, but they cost so much. So that was my main motivation.”

The textbook exchange both reduces the cost of expensive volumes, like science, math, and SAT prep books, and makes them more available. “When we talk about equity, the question usually revolves around the issue of accessibility,” says Mr. Braxton. “This book exchange project is amazing because it really is working to cut the high costs of textbooks, and everyone can participate in the program.”

Once the system was up and running at Winsor, the students came up with another idea: Why not share it? They approached Roxbury Latin to tell them about the book exchange.

“ It’s the sort of thing you don’t really get in a classroom—reaching out to other people, managing those connections.” —EMMA SUN ’22 The students met with Roxbury Latin on Zoom. “I’m on the Zoom calls with them and they’re selling this thing, they’ve prototyped what it would look like for RL,” Ms. Labieniec says. Roxbury Latin’s bookstore manager provided a book list, and the Winsor students set up the site. “RL ran with it. It worked,” she says.

Since then, Belmont Hill, Dana Hall, and Noble and Greenough have adopted the platform as well.

Schools can choose to customize the domain name for a nominal fee.

“The experience overall was very fun and educational,” says Emma.

“It’s the sort of thing you don’t really get in a classroom—reaching out to other people, managing those connections.”

Do the students plan to replicate the site when they get to college next fall?

“We’ll see if there’s a need for it,” Emma says.

Catherine O’Neill Grace is a writer in Sherborn, MA

(L to R): Physics Teacher and Intitutional Researcher Denise Labieniec looks on as Emma Sun ’22 and Zoe Wang ’22 work on their textbook exchange site.

WINSOR SPRING 2022 19

COVER STORY

WHEN LONGTIME FRIENDS WHO SHARE A PASSION FOR SCIENCE, DATA, AND ETHICS JOIN FORCES, THE RESULT IS AN AI REVOLUTION PICTURED (L TO R): VERONICA ROTEMBERG ’02 AND KASIA CHMIELINSKI ’02 IN CENTRAL PARK, NYC.

TWO ROADS

CONVERGED

BY JENNIFER DAVIES BUB P’23, ’25, ’27 PORTRAITS BY TOM KATES

20 WINSOR SPRING 2022

e live in a world where our daily routines are increasingly dependent on computer algorithms.

Some make automated decisions that help us in our day-to-day lives, like GPS apps. Others are used to build artificial intelligence (AI) that takes over specific tasks—just ask Siri or Alexa.

But some algorithms have wider-reaching social and cultural consequences, determining anything from mortgage and loan approvals, to the allocation of health care and social services, to medical diagnoses. When the data used to build those algorithms is incomplete, misapplied, or biased, the resulting automated decisions can create negative consequences that in many cases may affect communities that are already marginalized, underserved, or underrepresented. At the core of this problem is the fundamental truth about algorithms: Garbage in, garbage out. And likewise, bias in, bias out.

That’s why Kasia Chmielinski ’02 and Veronica Rotemberg ’02 are on a mission: to create tools and practices that encourage responsible AI development by addressing inequity and prioritizing transparency and inclusion.

WINSOR SPRING 2022 21

COVER STORY

Curious-Minded

F

or more than a decade, Kasia, a technologist at McKinsey & Company and an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, has been developing technology and analyzing data in academia, industry, and government. Tackling projects on the leading edge, Kasia, who uses they/them pronouns, was engaged with product teams in the development of voice recognition technology in its infancy at Google; and completed a tour of civil service with the United States Digital Service, an elite technology unit within the Executive Office of the President, to gather data and build tools to address critical issues, including the opioid crisis. A self-described tinkerer, the common thread throughout their work has been the belief that “technology should help us move forward without mirroring existing systemic injustice,” and the key to better AI lies in the data.

In 2019, Kasia reconnected with Veronica Rotemberg ’02 via text, catching up about life, the state of the world, and ultimately about their work. The two quickly discovered that their shared passion for the sciences and problem solving—nurtured first in Ms. Denise Labieniec’s classroom, and then at Harvard, from which they both graduated as physics majors in 2006—wasn’t the only thing they still had in common.

Veronica, a dermatologist who also has a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, is the director of the imaging informatics program in the dermatology service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and she leads the AI working group for the International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC), an academic and industry group whose goal is to reduce deaths caused by melanoma.

In her work and research, she found herself looking to technology to save lives through early melanoma detection. An absence of proper labeling and documentation of available data, and a historical issue getting representative data across skin tones, were proving to be barriers, particularly with regard to understanding the potential for automated diagnosis in diverse skin types.

When Kasia shared the work they had underway as the co-founder of the Data Nutrition Project (DNP)—a project that spun out of a fellowship funded through the

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Assembly program at the Berkman Klein Center and the MIT Media Lab—Veronica was eager to hear more.

A cross-industry, independent nonprofit, the DNP’s mission is to tackle the challenges of ethics and governance of AI. Kasia was looking for datasets to analyze and work with to begin developing standards, and Veronica was creating and sharing datasets in conjunction with her ISIC research. With a few fateful keystrokes, the stars began to align.

“That’s the beauty of having this network of incredibly smart people who are doing impactful work. Your private and work life can start to overlap in these meaningful ways,” Kasia recalls. “Veronica was driving a conceptual shift in thinking about representation and diversity in data in this really important way in practice. And I’m over here tinkering with these same concepts.” And then it clicked: “We realized that the things we were doing were actually two sides of the same coin.”

Veronica adds, “People who weren’t curious could have thought we were working in different fields, on different things that weren’t related…But both of us saw that there was this overlap. And instead of just moving on, we thought, ‘There’s something here. We should explore it.’”

Garbage In, Garbage Out “When it comes to AI, you are what you eat,” Kasia says at the start of any talk or workshop, to set the stage for understanding the fundamentals of how algorithms work. “Developers train algorithms with data, and the algorithms start to see the patterns in that data, and then they can make predictions based on what they’ve learned from what we’ve fed them.” So what do you do when the data you’ve fed the algorithm doesn’t match with what it’s going to face in the real world? That’s exactly what Kasia’s DNP team spends most of its time thinking about.

“We need to make it easier for practitioners to quickly assess the viability and fitness of datasets they intend to train AI algorithms on,” says Kasia. Recognizing that the missing step in the AI development pipeline is an assessment of datasets based on standard quality measures that are both qualitative and quantitative, the DNP team devised a solution: Package these measures into an easy-to-use dataset nutrition label.

(L to R): Veronica and Kasia continue to collaborate on AI Classification Labels for data used for melanoma detection.

“That’s the beauty of having this network of incredibly smart people who are doing impactful work. Your private and work life can start to overlap in these meaningful ways.”

—KASIA CHMIELINSKI ’02

The label takes inspiration from nutritional labels on food packaging, highlighting the “ingredients” of a dataset to help shed light on whether it is healthy for a particular statistical use case. The goal is to mitigate harms caused by statistical systems (i.e. automated decision-making systems, artificial intelligence, advanced analytics) by providing information at a glance about the dataset that is mapped to a set of common use cases.

“The analogy of a food nutrition label is a great example of an agreed-upon standard built for a consumer audience,” says Kasia. It also helps shift the focus from the algorithms, the model, and the outcomes of the model as the source of the problem, and directs it to the data upon which the models depend.

To develop a label prototype, the DNP team needed working datasets that had an impact along a few different vectors: they were being used to build AI, they were about people, and ideally, they included some sensitivity to subpopulations and attributes (like race or gender).

“I also wanted to have access to the person who built the dataset so that we could ask questions of a technical and a socio-technical nature—where it came from, who made the decision, who funded it,” Kasia says. “So when it came up that Veronica had this dataset, and she was literally publishing it for people to build AI—there’s literally a competition every year!—I thought, ‘This is perfect!”

They began working together, and soon made a seismic discovery. “All of a sudden, it’s like you can’t unsee what you’ve seen,” says Veronica. Through the process of dissecting the sources and decisions behind the data, the need for transparency became clear. “I realized, ‘You’re the only person qualified to analyze what the potential biases are in the dataset because you built it,’” says Veronica. “And then, you become so tuned to looking for them that you are able to recognize them everywhere.”

“It’s really cool to see that realization play out from the perspective of the label, because that’s exactly what we’re trying to do,” adds Kasia. Just like we want to know what’s in food before we eat it, “before you feed [data] to your model, you want to be able know what’s in there, and see that it’s healthy. The whole idea started from there.” The ultimate goal is to have data users recognize that evey dataset has health, and think about the qualities in the data even when there is no label.

WINSOR SPRING 2022 23

COVER STORY

A Dataset Nutrition Label co-created for the 2020 ISIC dataset compiled and managed by a consortium including Dr. Rotemberg. The Label highlights key ingredients of the dataset including metadata, populations, and unique or anomalous features regarding distributions, missing data, and representation issues. It also provides targeted information about how to use (or not use) the dataset.

The Art and Science of Collaboration Today, the two talk excitedly about the AI Label for Melanoma Classification, which outlines the contents of the data, its potential use cases, and alerts to consider as warnings—the kind of transparency that was previously nearly impossible to assess. Their collaboration, their progress, and what comes next are all points of pride and excitement. “It was immediately obvious that it was important work as soon as it was done,” says Veronica.

And Kasia praises Veronica for being willing to take the risk and follow the trail where it led: “It’s very laudable.

And I’m very fortunate for that…It’s a risk to call out flaws in things that you’ve built or others have built.”

24 WINSOR SPRING 2022

From the outset of their collaboration, Veronica says, “I was finding, with our ISIC collaborators and the support of funding from the Melanoma Research Alliance, that algorithms for melanoma detection were impacted by even more than we had originally thought.”

She realized that more aspects of the datasets needed labeling than were included in the current DNP label schema: the source, certain image characteristics, and even the clinics in which the clinical data originated. “For example, we found that average algorithms for images from some clinics were able to identify melanomas over 90 percent of the time, whereas in other clinics they could only do so about 1 percent of the time,” Veronica says.

“That would make a huge difference to you as a patient, if you were in the clinic where algorithms correctly identified melanomas 1 percent of the time—that’s significantly worse than random chance!”

A dataset nutrition label would ideally capture that kind of information, highlighting the known issues and providing mitigation strategies for practitioners. Without the label, you wouldn’t know if you were in a clinic that had high or low accuracy rates of identifying melanomas.

“It really highlights the important work that DNP is doing to begin the conversation, and the way that collaboration with AI researchers is so key to improving the outcome for a given application,” Veronica says. Shifting the focus of her research primarily to when detection algorithms do and don’t work, and the challenges involved in deploying them, she says the necessary work of investigating potential biases—not just between clinics but across skin tones and underrepresented populations—is ongoing.

Today, the nonprofit has tremendous momentum, and Kasia and Veronica both express their excitement and gratitude that so many others who weren’t part of the initial fellowship are joining the effort, lending their passion and expertise. From practitioners, technologists, researchers, and policy experts, to artists and designers, “it’s really a labor of love,” says Kasia. With the label at the center, the work continues to raise awareness, drive change, and ultimately shift the paradigm.

“I feel privileged to have had a few moments like this in my life, where you realize you are at the forefront of something,” says Kasia. “Actually, first, it’s terrifying, because you think, ‘If we are the experts, what does that say?’ But it’s a great moment when you realize you are at the precipice of this thing, with your friend. And you’re looking around going, ‘Did we take the wrong road?

I think we’re the only ones up here!’”

The two scientists also have a deep appreciation for how unique and rewarding their partnership is. “I think we both probably would have done a couple of hours of extra work just to help each other, and because we believe in the mission. But then it turned into this thing that we both really care about, and that really matters in its own right,” says Veronica. “It kind of flies in the face of a lot of the tropes about how scientific collaborations happen,” Kasia adds. “And it’s lovely, when you can have a good time and also have a good collaboration,” they say.

“Because it’s not always like that. It’s a lot about titles, and money, and publishing rights, and IP—things that are very hierarchical and patriarchal, honestly. And so to be able to turn that on its head a little is really fun.”

Two Sides of a Coin When Veronica and Kasia reflect on their individual paths, some essential common themes emerge: Curiosity.

Conviction. Gratitude. Humility. Passion for work and for life, and synergy between the two. Courage and determination to overcome limitations, whether stated or implied. And the deeply rooted ability to be comfortable in a space that’s uncharted, disruptive, and ultimately a driver for systemic change.

Both are children of immigrants, raised with an understanding of mixed cultural experiences and a framework of expectations. They learned to embrace being “at the intersection of many things.” Kasia’s mother is an artist, and they say they were surrounded by art and music at home but always felt drawn to math and craved order. Veronica’s mom is an engineer; she once pulled Kasia aside in high school to explain the pros and cons of that career, and she has remained a powerful resource and role model as Veronica pursued her passion for science and medicine.

Self-described “nerds” at Winsor, Kasia and Veronica were kindred spirits, at their best when faced with a problem to solve in the classroom, or during Math Olympiads, robotics club, and engineering competitions.

They recall a defining experience at one engineering competition when, as the only all-girl team, they proved to be a formidable force. “It was so hard! We were certain we did terribly,” says Veronica, who was the team captain.

Listening to all the other teams talk about how well they thought they had done, the team feared the worst. “We tried to convince our mentor to let us get on the bus and go home before the awards were presented.” When they learned they had placed second, it was eye-opening. “All the other teams were either all, or largely, male,” Kasia says. “Clearly, there was a difference in the way we saw ourselves in that environment. But we kicked their butts!”

“That was the proudest I had ever been at that point,” Veronica recalls. That kind of experience played out over and over again in her life, first in college, then in her work, and she says it taught her an important lesson about trusting her instincts and abilities: “I learned I had to stop being self-deprecating.”

Eager to help others learn from their experiences, and to support and witness the emergence of the next

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COVER STORY

generation of scientists, both alums mentor students at all levels of learning, and have returned to Winsor to speak with students. Joining one of Ms. Labieniec’s classes in 2020, and a virtual assembly in 2021, they shared insights on a variety of topics including the fallibility of machines, opportunities to address bias in science and technology, and the importance of pursuing a unique career and life path. Embracing opportunities to educate and inspire others about the future of technology, Kasia also frequently joins podcasts, including Youth AI, and gives talks at programs like Girls Who Code; and is working on a children’s book to deliver the same messages to a younger audience.

Veronica, who says she benefited from the mentorship of strong women in science throughout her education and now finds great satisfaction in mentoring medical students, welcomed the opportunity to mentor Alex Gorham ’21 for her senior Independent Learning Experience (ILE) in the spring 2021. Alex worked on a website and a cell phone app in development to help individuals upload images and review AI feedback.

“It was a great project because it was so applied,” says Veronica, and it helped her “get a sense of what the day-to-day life of a scientist is. The lab meetings, thinking about things that don’t go right the first, or second, or third time around.” Alex was awarded Winsor’s Madras Science Prize in June 2021, an acknowledgement of her commitment to science and her dedication and success in her ILE; Veronica beams when talking about Alex’s work ethic and accomplishments.

Full of humor and humility, the two alums also reflect on how their lives—like their work—embody two sides of the same coin, both following their passion, connected by an authentic, supportive network, but with some notable distinctions. “Veronica is on a path I would self-eject from regularly,” Kasia says. “It’s rigorous, and structural, and hierarchical.”

Veronica interjects with a laugh, “In my defense, I text Kasia to complain about those things all the time!”

Kasia continues, “Honestly. She’s got kids and a partner, she’s a working mom, a superhero. My life is completely different, even though we have the same beginnings really.

We went to the same schools, studied the same things— though she studied more!—in undergrad. And then, we meet again.”

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(L to R): Veronica and Kasia birdwatching in Central Park. Kasia leads a chapter of the Feminist Bird Club in Jersey City, NJ.

“[all] of those meandering paths are really informing what we are doing now. I don’t think I would be doing this if I weren’t also a doctor, and also an engineer, and also all the parts of all of the other things I’ve learned.

—VERONICA ROTEMBERG ’02 MD, PH.D.

“We graduated 20 years ago. It took us as long as some of the students we work with have been alive to reconnect and start working together! And all of those meandering paths are really informing what we are doing now,” Veronica says. “I don’t think I would be doing this if I weren’t also a doctor, and also an engineer, and also all the parts of all of the other things I’ve learned.”

Find What Fits Kasia offers this advice for students interested in studying science: “I wish someone had told me that you don’t just get one shot to be a genius—make it or break it by the time you’re 21. That is something you see a lot in technology. It’s the lone-wolf trope of a guy who’s a hacker in his basement…We have this vision in our mind about how you make an impact as an individual, especially around technology and science. And I beg to differ. I think that it’s about the people you get to work with, and…[e]ach experience you have from the past helps you craft a better version of yourself for the future. Every step you take can be a better step.”

Veronica concurs. “There’s no expiration date on when you can have a career peak, or flash of brilliance, or huge impact,” she says. “Believing that there is hurts nontraditional careers and paths, and even family structures. I have two young kids at home, there’s a limit to what I can reasonably do in one day. So that just becomes part of the process, thinking about whether something is really important and needs to take priority over other projects. And deciding I’m going to do it over 10 years rather than five.”

Echoing Kasia’s earlier advice, she adds, “You never know what the next step you take is going to inform, or the step after that, or what you’ll be doing 20 years from there. So the only thing you can do is put one foot in front of the other.” It illustrates that “you don’t have to choose a career path thinking ‘this is the one that is successful.’

You have to find the one that fits you.”

A final word of advice: “Go toward the thing that gives you energy,” says Kasia. It won’t always be easy, and you will have to work hard, “But if you are moving forward, constantly questioning, and doing things that give you joy and are giving back to you, that, to me, is a direction.”

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FEATURE STORY

Five alums reflect on what sustains them, and enables them to support others, during difficult times. Pictured: Kate Baker-Carr ’80, who says “the camera teaches my heart to pray.”

Nevertheless, They Persisted JULIET EASTLAND ’86, P’23 PORTRAITS BY TOM KATES

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d

Five

Alumnae on staying well during dark times When she opened her eight-student girls’ school in 1886, Mary Pickard Winsor hoped to turn out women who would be competent, self-supporting, and “generous-minded.”

One hundred thirty-six years and myriad service-oriented student clubs and projects later, Winsor students are tutoring local kids, supporting food-bank drives, connecting with isolated elderly people, and more. It’s no wonder that generations of Winsor graduates go on to give back to their communities.

After two-plus years of pandemic-induced isolation, exhaustion, and loss, we wondered how Winsor’s generousminded women are faring. We spoke recently with five alumnae who have devoted their lives to fostering people’s wellness to find out what principles have sustained them and how they’ve managed to keep tending to others— and to themselves.

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FEATURE STORY

When we talk about health, it’s not necessarily about blood pressure,” she says. “Yes, things like that contribute, but finding the things that make you happy and take the tension away. . . passion is a really important thing.”

—REBECCA SPARKS ’67

Rebecca Sparks ’67 has never had a master plan for her life.

“My passion has led me in different things, always,” she says. “Nothing was really thought out.” She has always had just one requirement: “I have to love what I’m doing.

I’m very spoiled!”

Rebecca has spent her life clothing and feeding others, first as the creator of a knitwear company (“I fell in love with textiles in college”), then, inspired by her love of food and wine, as a restaurant manager. After organizing a large charity fundraiser against hunger, she realized she could use her passion for good: “The event was an eye-opener on what was going on in the world, and really did influence me to worry more about people who were really in need.”

She decided to study nutrition, she says, “because it could help

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me, and it could help people in general.” After obtaining a master’s in nutrition education at Columbia University, she taught community nutrition at NYU for 14 years and worked as a nutrition consultant at Head Start centers around the city, helping young families improve their eating habits through counseling and cooking classes.

“It felt really good to be doing something for somebody else,” she says. But after a decade and a half, her passion for the work began to wane. She bristled at the narrow focus of many of the NYU students, who wanted to help people lose weight rather than foster broader principles of better nutrition, and she found herself increasingly bogged down by paperwork for Head Start

rather than doing what she really loved: working directly with clients.

In 2018, she retired and moved full time to a “beautiful place in the middle of nowhere,” a centuriesold house nestled in the green hills of upstate New York. From there, she watches eagles soaring above the river and keeps an eye out for bears. She shops almost exclusively at farmers markets, works at a local food pantry, and actively supports local farmland conservation efforts.

She nurtures a lush garden. (“This year, the rain was unbelievable—I got the best onions and worst tomatoes I’ve ever had,” she says.)

And she’s begun to spend much more time pursuing another longheld, long-unrealized passion: pottery. In the ceramics studio she

installed on the property she creates beautiful and whimsical ceramics featuring birds, leaves, and patterns from the natural world. As she says on her website, rebeccasparkspots. com, “Drinking from a ceramic cup is your most intimate relationship with pottery.”

But just as COVID-19 exploded in the country, a diagnosis of multiple myeloma upended her own life.

Sparks closed her studio and spent two grueling years shuttling back and forth to New York City for treatment.

At last, she’s feeling stronger, and she is excited to get back to her ceramics work. As the owner of a “pandemic puppy,” she’s planning on branching out into canine accoutrements. “One of the new things I’ll be making is,

surprise surprise, dog dishes,” she says, laughing.

Rebecca remains alert to opportunities for joy. “When we talk about health, it’s not necessarily about blood pressure,” she says. “Yes, things like that contribute, but finding the things that make you happy and take the tension away . . . passion is a really important thing.”

«

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FEATURE STORY

I’m a woman of color, my kids are one-quarter Peruvian and one-half Pakistani. I think of things through a non-white lens, and hunger is one of those things impacting those communities [of color] so much more. I appreciate that Project Bread understands that.”

—SONYA KHAN ’00

Purpose For Sonya Khan ’00, a sense of purpose is nonnegotiable.

“I have to feel like there’s that mission behind the work I’m doing,” she says. “For me, finding work that feels like it’s fulfilling and has an impact is part of my wellness.”

A big-picture thinker and selfdescribed “fixer,” she insists not just on patching the holes in a system, but on retooling and revamping the system itself.

As director of clinical services at Lowell Community Health Center in Lowell, Massachusetts, Sonya thinks purposefully about how best to support the center’s programs, patients, and staff. In addition to aiding operations, rolling out initiatives, and implementing new grant programs, she manages staffing issues, which have become particularly acute at a time when

32 WINSOR SPRING 2022

many health care workers are either burned out or home sick with COVID. “We’re constantly trying to be creative about the ways we support staff,” she says, such as by shoring up benefits and hiring proactive supervisors committed to protecting their staff from exhaustion. She plans to forge partnerships with educational institutions so that local residents attending school can participate in externships and preceptorships within the center, ultimately becoming health care workers in the facility that serves their community.

Sonya shared that the center is particularly focused on ways it can reconnect with fearful, housebound patients and get them back in for

services. As always, she thinks holistically: “It’s about not just health, but the social determinants of health,” she says. “What are the other things at play we need to be considering? The team is so thoughtful and insightful about those areas where patients lack access.” For example, the center has secured grant money to provide lowincome patients with smartphones so that they can schedule appointments and communicate with staff more easily.

Sonya recently joined the board of Project Bread, a Boston nonprofit focused on “solving the root cause” of food insecurity, which aligns perfectly with her own convictions.

“How do we approach hunger [through] advocacy and policy—not

just put a Band-Aid on it, but really solve it?” she asks. “What are the barriers people are experiencing to accessing food? It’s similar to the philosophy at the health center: It’s not just about health, not just about hunger. It’s about social determinants that wrap around a person and create their environment and create these barriers. How do you work through those with them?

It makes so much sense!”

The organization’s mission also resonates with her on a personal level. “I’m a woman of color, my kids are one-quarter Peruvian and onehalf Pakistani,” she says. “I think of things through a nonwhite lens, and hunger is one of those things impacting those communities [of color] so much more. I appreciate

that Project Bread understands that.”

Sonya credits Winsor with instilling in her the need “to have an impact, have my work mean something, be engaged in my community and give back.” With a 3 1/2-year-old and an 18-month-old at home, she doesn’t know that she’s “entirely figured out the balance” between work and family (and who has?). But she does know that when it comes to her professional life, “even though the role is challenging and coming at the most challenging time in terms of being in health care, the challenges are exciting for me.

And if anything, the stakes are high, which makes it feel that much more impactful.” That sense of purpose keeps her going.

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WINSOR SPRING 2022 33

FEATURE STORY

You get to a certain point and realize, ‘oh my God, I can’t do this’ . . . The way I take care of myself is to stop.”

—VICKY WISEMAN ’83

say no

LEARNING TO

Clinical psychologist Claire Vicky Wiseman ’83 was accustomed to a hectic pace.

Over a 30-year career focusing primarily on eating disorders, she’d spent 75-hour weeks juggling private practice and academic teaching, most recently as assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. After seeing how much her dogs helped her primarily adolescent clientele relax, she became a registered therapyanimal worker, then a certified practitioner of equine assisted growth and learning (Eagala), a form of psychiatric therapy using horses.

Then came the pandemic.

Adolescent mental health during the pandemic has been a “disaster,” she says. “Terrible, horrible.” The crisis was so acute, her patients so desperate, that she didn’t even

34 WINSOR SPRING 2022

cancel her online sessions when she herself developed COVID in December 2020. “It was just too hard to reschedule,” she says.

But powering through took its toll. “I was so burned out from doing Zoom sessions,” she says.

“I was sitting in an office doing psychotherapy 30 hours a week.

It’s hard to recover from that.”

Her colleagues have suffered similarly. “I don’t have any mentalhealth friends who are not literally fried from one year of Zoom,” she says.

She finally had to slam on the brakes. “You get to a certain point and realize, ‘Oh my God, I can’t do this,’” she says. “The way I take care of myself is to stop.” Vicky

took a leave of absence from work and threw herself into the athletic activities she’d always loved, volunteering on a New Hampshire ski patrol and sailing competitively on her boat (her eight-woman crew plans to sail in the upcoming Bermuda Race in June 2022).

“For me, the sailing and skiing are the things that really help,” she says. “Being outdoors, endorphins, building self-esteem by having a skill—it’s good to be smart, but also good to be not just book-smart, but a problem-solver. Sailing forces you to be a problem-solver . . . you’ve got to figure it out. Here’s a roll of duct tape and a knife: Fix it.”

She especially savors “saying no” to the wired world. “I was just in

New Hampshire for four days, and I didn’t turn on my laptop at all,” she says. “Sailing or skipatrolling, I don’t use my phone for six, seven, eight hours. It’s so refreshing. And you know what?

The world survives!”

Vicky has since returned to work, but on her own terms. She joined St. George’s School in Middletown, Rhode Island as a part-time school counselor. And she’s relocated her therapy practice to a farm in RI, where she keeps five miniature donkeys and a horse. “The animals are the best. They’re so innocent,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll do a psychotherapy session and we sit in the donkey paddock, and I talk to the patient and the donkeys are

just around . . . or I’ll give someone a task—brush the horse, pet the horse—and as they’re doing these activities, it’s sort of like a metaphor for what’s going on with them. They can talk about what’s going on in their life through the horse.” Her dogs, of course, are always there, too.

She’s embarking on a program where schoolchildren come to the farm for an hour a week, and she’s looking forward to launching an entirely new program in the spring. The focus? Empowerment for women.

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WINSOR SPRING 2022 35

FEATURE STORY

I do think Winsor gave me this respect for being connected to people.”

—ARDEN O’CONNOR ’96

village

It takes a

“How do you as a family help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves?”

Arden O’Connor ’96 and her family asked this question for years, as her younger brother

cycled in and out of drug rehab facilities. “Is the Al-Anon ‘Let them hit rock bottom’ the only thing you can do, or are there other options?” they wondered. “Where does he go on his fifth, sixth, seventh facility, and what do you do when he leaves?

Does he go from a 24/7 supervised environment back to college, and we just hope for the best?” No one seemed to have the answers.

Arden founded O’Connor Professional Group (OPG) in 2011 to help families address these questions. The group’s goal is to help people navigate the behavioral health industry, both during a crises and after treatment, and figure out sustainable recovery plans that enable individuals and families to thrive.

Informally, the group’s motto

36 WINSOR SPRING 2022

might be, “No person an island.”

The organization relies on its national network of several hundred clinicians, who specialize in all aspects of behavioral and mental health. Likewise, OPG’s treatment model focuses not just on the person in crisis, but on the surrounding ecosystem: the family.

“We really believe in working with the whole family system,” says Arden. “Especially given the cases we tend to deal with, for example the person being unwilling to engage in care, ideally, you want parents or family members to have their own resources . . . and something separate for the person who’s still struggling.”

From educating families about the various levels of inpatient and outpatient care available, to helping implement a plan that align with the family dynamics, “We get hired

for creative solutions,” she says.

One clinician might help a family manage a patient’s medications or drug testing, while another might move into the home for several months as part of a customized home-care program.

In 2018, Arden experienced an unimaginable loss when her brother died of a drug overdose. While she doesn’t provide direct care herself, she’s open about the tragedy, and she offers herself as a resource and sounding board to families in crisis.

It’s emotionally grueling work, and on top of that, before the pandemic, “despite being in what appeared to be physically good health,” she says, she was prediabetic and had high cholesterol. She took time during the pandemic to practice basic selfcare, such as eating a plant-based diet, watching her sugar intake, and

meditating. Already the owner of two dogs, she added a puppy to her canine crew. (She lives in the city, but if she had a backyard, she says she’d probably have five or six dogs: “It’s a form of self-care for me.”)

That said, “It’s great to get massages and take care of myself, but you can’t do it if you don’t have a group there.” Arden used the enforced downtime at the beginning of the pandemic to build her company’s infrastructure and grow the community of superior staff.

“I could not do this work without having this team,” she says.

Likewise, she relies on community in her personal life, particularly friends from Winsor and from her high school in Arizona, where she moved with her family in her early teens. Recalling the week last spring when both Winsor and her high

school held their Zoom reunions, she starts to laugh.

“I loved both schools,” she says.

“But the difference was stark. In my Arizona reunion, everyone was very polite, we went around in a circle and mostly talked about personal things. The Winsor reunion was just as I remember homeroom: You couldn’t get a word in edgewise, people were popping up inside and outside, there were crazy stories of accomplishment, laughter—it was very vibrant and interactive.” Two and a half hours later, the reuniting was still going strong.

“I do think Winsor gave me this respect for being connected to people,” she says.

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WINSOR SPRING 2022 37

FEATURE STORY

There are as many spiritual practices as there are people. . . Many practices have an element of repetition that can allow a person to use the repetition as a stepping stone to prayer or meditation­—such can be the case for example with knitting and prayer beads.”

—KATE BAKER-CARR ’80

“I think part of wellness is knowing what you do well, and doing it well, no matter where you find yourself,” says Kate Baker-Carr ’80.

Among her strengths are the ability, in her words, “to help people identify a spiritual practice or practices that will feed their souls, help to sustain them in hard times, and awaken them to greater joy.” Ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1989, Kate served as a parish pastor and college chaplain for almost 10 years before spending 25 years as an executive in communications, first for Blue Cross and then for Northeastern University. She jumped at the chance for early retirement in the summer of 2020 because “there were a lot of things I wanted to move to the center of my life, as opposed to working on them around the edges.” Now, she is even more

38 WINSOR SPRING 2022

actively engaged in her church at the local and conference level, filling in for pastors on vacation or leave, serving as an ordination advisor, tutoring kids in math, and mentoring young pastors.

“I cherish conversations about matters of the heart,” Kate says. “If you’re distressed and need to talk about ‘why is my child ill, why is this happening,’ I welcome the chance to talk with you.” Particularly over the past two years, she’s talked with many people who are seeking guidance, and she has witnessed a great deal of sorrow. “I believe deeply that in those moments of pain, people do not need to be alone, and if they’ve reached out and want

to talk, the most important thing you can do is listen,” she says. She recalls a student who said, “I’ve lost so many hugs with my grandmother” during the pandemic. “I ache for kids, and I feel desperately for the elderly,” she says.

When people ask something of her, she tries to measure the request against her self-knowledge: “Will [it] leave me exhausted and depleted in a bad way, or will it leave me exhausted but grateful I did it?”

To sustain and replenish her own spirit, she engages in a daily prayer practice, and she takes photographs.

“The camera teaches my eye to see and my heart to pray,” she says.

“Many spiritual practices have to

do with beauty—creating beauty through music, dance, painting, baking bread, as well as observing beauty by ‘forest bathing,’ bird watching, or hiking,” Kate says.

“Most, but not all, practices have an element of concentration, a focus that is at once internal and external. Meditation, exercise, reading, can all be spiritual practices.

Many practices have an element of repetition that can allow a person to use the repetition as a steppingstone to prayer or meditation,” like knitting or using prayer beads.

Ultimately, Kate says, “there are as many spiritual practices as there are people.” One friend of hers “walks each day to center herself, to

quiet her soul and to listen to the universe; when her thoughts wander, she recites poetry to recenter herself.” Another friend decided to pray whenever she folded laundry.

Kate’s gift and “great joy” is to help people gain insight into themselves so that they can identify those practices that will sustain them, through the pandemic and beyond.

Mens sana in corpore sano . . . now as ever.

w

WINSOR SPRING 2022 39

ALUMNAE NEWS CLASS NOTES

40 WINSOR SPRING 2022

Art by Michelle Pu ’20

When the Student Becomes the Teacher Michelle Pu ’20 returned to campus as a guest artist in Sara Macaulay’s, head of visual arts and Eleanor Thomas Nelson ’49 Chair in Fine Arts, drawing studio course.

Michelle shared her expertise with the ink on claybord technique, which she honed during her junior and senior years at Winsor, after an inspiring visit from artist Dawn Emerson. The technique uses materials such as steel wool, toothbrushes and razor blades to remove ink, then adds texture and depth with stencils and oil paints. “Every ‘mistake’ can be turned into something new,” said Michelle Wang ’25 who described Pu’s visit as an “incredible experience.”

CLASS NOTES

Alumnae Board 2021–2022 PRESIDENT

Erica Mayer ’91, P’25

ALUMNAE THANKSGIVING AND VALENTINE’S DAY VIRTUAL FLOWER ARRANGING

VICE-PRESIDENT

Ashley Marlenga Herbst ’01 SECRETARY

Miwa Watkins ’83 MEMBERS AT LARGE

Des Allen ’98 Hillary Brown ’80, P’17 Susan Holzman ’67 Elizabeth Flint Hooker ’95 Jennifer Inker ’83 P’26 Lindsay Mullen Jeanloz ’00 Danielle Johns ’05 Ruth Chute Knapp ’60, P’86, GP’21 Katherine McCord ’02, Co-Chair, Alumnae Giving Jillian Campbell McGrath ’02 Johanna Mendillo ’96 Julia Broderick O’Brien ’56, P’87 Jennifer O’Neil ’93 Julie Rockett Paulick ’92 Elizabeth-Anne Finn Payne ’94 Mary Noonan Quirk ’05 Lacey Rose ’06 Nancy Adams Roth ’66 Catherine Frankl Sarkis ’82, P’23 Ann Bainbridge Simonds ’66 Rebecca Stevens ’05 Meg Weeks ’04 EX-OFFICIO PAST PRESIDENT

Audrey McAdams Fenton ’93, P ’26 CO-CHAIR, ALUMNAE GIVING

Caitlin Crowe ’89

On the eve of Thanksgiving alumnae gathered virtually to learn how to arrange centerpieces for their holiday table. Hosted by Alice’s Table with Winsor’s florist Paula Bock as the instructor, alumnae enjoyed learning about the different flowers, accent leaves and tricks of the trade. The evening was so fun and educational that an additional date was added for February. Once again, alumnae gathered virtually to design their holiday centerpieces for their Valentine while socializing with alumnae across the generations.

CATIE SCHERNECKER ’20 WINS THE MASS. WOMEN’S AMATEUR GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

CO-CHAIR, ALUMNAE GIVING

Julia Livingston ’66, P’85, ’07 CO-CHAIR, YOUNG ALUMNAE COMMITTEE

Holly Breuer ’14

CO-CHAIR, YOUNG ALUMNAE COMMITTEE

Mary Aidan Hanrahan ’11

CO-CHAIR, YOUNG ALUMNAE COMMITTEE

Kerry Noonan ’07

DIRECTOR OF ALUMNAE ENGAGEMENT

Elisabeth B. Peterson ’80, P’11

Congratulations to alumna Catie Schernecker ’20 for winning the 118th Massachusetts Women’s Amateur championship at Plymouth Country Club from August 9 to 13 2021. What makes her victory even more special is that Catie and her classmates started the golf program at The Winsor School during her years here.

OVERHEARD

“ I think people are asking themselves more questions, and looking more deeply and intentionally at how they live.”

—ELIZABETH LEWIS ’96, remarking on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

42 WINSOR SPRING 2022

YAC Hosts Sips, Snacks, and Succulents Event In September, 15 young alumnae from the classes of 2006–2016 gathered under the tent in Winsor’s courtyard to socialize and create their own succulent arrangements. Winsor’s florist Paula Bock provided the instruction which was followed by sips and plant-themed snacks. It was the first YAC event to be held in person since the winter of 2020, and the alums in attendance were thrilled to be together again, and thankful that the weather cooperated for the outdoor gathering. YAC has already begun planning for spring/ summer 2022.

ALUMNAE BOOK CLUB

BIPOC ALUMNAE EVENTS

Alumnae and the author of Leaving Coy’s Hill, Katherine Sherbrooke, gathered for an exclusive virtual discussion of her newest novel. Based on true events, Leaving Coy’s Hill is a timeless story of a women’s quest for personal and professional fulfillment within society’s stubborn constraints. As an abolitionist and women’s rights activist fighting for the future of a deeply divided country, Lucy Stone’s quest to live a life on her own terms is as relevant as ever. The group enjoyed learning how one creates an intricately designed story which weaves the past and present together.

In November, a small group of Winsor BIPOC alumnae INDEPENDENT TRUST met with Trina Gary and Gloria Fernandez Tearte of the Independent Trust, a professional network for alumni of color, to explore Stay Connected how the network is designed to engage, build connections, and support the professional goals of independent school alums of color. The discussion centered on how the Trust can assist in professional networking and help alum create a better connection with their schools.

As a follow up, BIPOC alumnae gathered again in January to discuss how BIPOC alumnae can support each other and strengthen current student outcomes.

WINSOR SPRING 2022 43

CLASS NOTES

“Let me show you this ring I’m wearing,” says Head of School Sarah Pelmas. “It’s amazing to behold, with an art deco ‘w’ that looks like a superhero insignia. It belonged to Adelaide Brown Pratt, from the class of 1928, who loved Winsor with all her heart.”

The ring was presented to Sherren Granese, director of athletics, by Margaret Curtis, Adelaide’s granddaughter, after officiating a field hockey game at Winsor.

Today, Winsor rings are engraved with a lamp, not a “w,” and the archives are unclear regarding when the change took place. Around 1926, a great debate about the purpose and format of the rings was documented in the Lamp, an early version of the Bulletin. Although it is difficult to determine the origin of Adelaide’s ring—and whether it was a school ring, a class ring, or a gift—we do know a Winsor ring is replete with meaning and tradition.

In recent years, Class VII has received their rings from Class VIII during a Ring Day celebration in the courtyard; and at graduation, seniors rotate their rings so the lamp faces outward to symbolize sending light into the world.

For alumnae, the ring remains a reminder of their days at Winsor, and a token that unites them with the school— and that was certainly true for Adelaide, who wore her ring proudly into her 90s.

An only child, Adelaide found the school a place of comfort and “talked about Winsor as a highlight of her

PHOTO BY KRISTIE DEAN

Full Circle

life,” Ms. Curtis recalls. Adelaide passed away in 2004 at age 93, and some years later, Ms. Curtis found the ring nestled inside a jewelry box. Her family decided to return it to the school that had meant so much to her. “I think she would have been really, really happy…a part of her is here again,” she says. On the occasions when Ms. Curtis is officiating field hockey games at Winsor, she says she feels connected to her grandmother again.

Do you have a Winsor ring story? Please share it with us! Email Beth Peterson, director of alumnae engagement, at epeterson@winsor.edu.

Annual Luncheon Honors Cherished Alumnae

Allie Flather Blodgett ’52

44 WINSOR SPRING 2022

During a virtual luncheon in October, Head of School Sarah Pelmas honored this year’s Lamp of Learning Society members as well as alumnae who have reached the milestone of their 50th reunion and Julia Lymon Simonds ’17 Alumnae Award winners.

It was wonderful to connect with Winsor women across the globe, including Finland, Rome, and the United Kingdom.

Ms. Pelmas opened the meeting and invited Jane Hoeffel Otte ’57, P’84, ’86, GP’25 to recognize and honor the life of Allie Flather Blodgett ’52. Many described Ms. Blodgett, who would have been celebrating her 70th reunion, as a “supportive, wonderful alumna and friend.” Also of note is that she shared a birthday (October 31) with Miss Winsor herself!

CLASS NOTES

1952

Dianne Isaacs Weil I have reconnected with Betsy Bragg, a classmate and we play Quiddler over the phone. It is a word game and can be played using Zoom with several people. I also speak with Toni Colby Shoham who lives in Duxbury. Also I chatted with Mary Comstock living in Brookline and Liz Johnston Milliker who is living in New York City. I live in Natick and play bridge and take courses to keep my mind functioning.

1953

Louise Greep Hogan In November my sister, Nancy Greep ’62 and I enjoyed a steamboat cruise with a Civil War theme.

The loss of life and destruction remain shocking to hear about when you visit the battlegrounds. Memphis was uplifting due to its unusually rich American music history. It’s so good to be able to travel a bit again.

Natascha Simpkins Halpert As we dwindle in numbers, these notes become more precious. My diagnosis of Parkinson’s now adds to my diabetes; and I am grateful for the medicine that is helping me. I have a new great granddaughter, Elaina to add to the 2 great grandsons in Hawaii. Daughter Laura is a proud grandmother. I remember the baby shower for her my classmates gave me and I have a mouse cutting board from it I still use. Stephen and I live quietly, happily and creatively in our cluttered and cozy North Grafton apartment. Still publishing my column in the paper—Good Earthkeeping,

and the Internet, Heartwings Love Notes. My book of poetry, Poems and Prayers, dedicated to my late son Robin Lorenz is out and available from Two Pentacles Publishing and of course, Amazon. Contact me for a signed copy. My email is tashahal@ gmail.com Email me for details.

1958

Daphne Harwood It’s been a difficult year, quite apart from Covid. Three freak accidents owing to my inattentiveness or distraction. I am feeling pretty humbled and slowed down by it all. Meanwhile I have been reducing my personal possessions and feeling lighter, for sure. That process is on-going.

1958

Mary Eliot Jackson Having had a ‘knee replacement’, which they said wasn’t really a replacement of the whole joint but a grinding off of the surfaces of the femur and tibia and resurfacing them with metal, on Dec. 3, I’ve been grounded—blessedly at home with 24/7 attendants and Partners’ Home Health nurses and PT. My range of motion progress seems good and friends have been keeping me fed. As an inmate in a condo with large windows facing a view which reminds me of Dover, I’ve not been unhappy. Of the grands, Eva has forsaken trying for the nationals in biathlon (X-country skiing and shooting (!); Nicoya is at EmbreeRiddle Areanautical Univ in Daytona on her was to become a commercial pilot; and Noah has just achieved early admission to Brandeis to study neuroscience which didn’t even exist for us. Owen is a high school fresh-

man grateful to be out of primary school and still playing his French horn. Daughter Kate (’00) lives in Northampton and at an attenuated program for macro-social work at BU. Something, likewise, that didn’t exist until recently.

Anne Luther von Rosenberg At the end of April 2021 the von Rosenbergs left Belmont after about 50 years. We are now settled in at Fox Hill Village in Westwood. Worst part of it, having lived in Cambridge, Waltham or Belmont all my life, was having to remember a new area code! The school and my classmates have my new address. Thanks to our indispensable class secretary, Penny Elwell, and Caroline Isber our class had a wonderful Zoom meeting with a large turnout and several countries represented. In the process of downsizing, I was faced with the fact I couldn’t bear to throw out my Art History notebook, but really couldn’t take it either. It now resides in Winsor’s Archives. They were thrilled to get it, happy ending. I continue my work with the Wampanoag tribe supporting its efforts to let us know they are still here in spite of the Mayflower 400 years ago.

1960

Elise Cutler von Koschembahr It is hard to believe that all three of my grandchildren will be attending High School this year! Being a grandmother is a constant joy. God bless us all and our country and our world.

WINSOR SPRING 2022 45

CLASS NOTES

1962

Nancy Greep This past year I had open heart surgery for two faulty valves. After 5 hours, I made it through and have been slowly recovering. In November my husband and I took a cruise on the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers which had a civil war theme and so we visited many of the historic battlefields. Afterwards, I went to Texas and spent two days with classmate Nancy Astwood and her daughter Ruth. Except for a brief airport visit during a change of plane ~15 years ago, I hadn’t seen her since graduation (~60 years). We grew up next door to each other and used to see each other daily so this was quite a reunion. They live on a small ranch with many horses, dogs, cats, chickens and other animals.

1967

Nancy Gardner Powlison Lots of loss these past years; my

1

husband David 2019, my mother 2021, our farm in Vermont—sold, my home in PA- up for sale, losses due to Covid, moving, getting older, the challenges in this scary world we all face! What keeps me going? Psalm 121—my yearbook quote back in 1967 —still holds me fast and keeps me going!! Thankful!

1969

Eleanor Pearson Since our 60th birthday Edith (Dee) Homans (NM), Edith (Edie) Clowes (VA), and Martha Aladjem Bloomfield (MI),and myself, Eleanor (Lea) Pearson (MA), all ’69, have been meeting every 2 years for a weekend of celebration. We had planned a lovely 70th birthday retreat, but—COVID… So instead we’ve had wonderful monthly zoom calls for the past 18 months.

Great way to keep up our close but distanced friendship!! Also, I’ve been able to meet in person with Dee and

her husband Andy as they travel up to Bar Harbor ME to meet their daughter who runs an organic farm there. We haven’t changed much!

1970

Susan Haar New York was terrifying. I moved to the beach. My kids moved into my NYC house. I’m on three boards, two at MIT. I’ve worked hard on the third through the pandemic, I feel fiercely about it: CLBB, the center for law, brain and behavior.

It has made a difference in juvenile justice; kids don’t have fully developed brains, trauma at the border, now an amicus on solitary’s effect on the brain (it shrinks), my youngest, a neuroscientist, is doing that one.

All the areas of CLBB are aimed at greater understanding and equity in the legal system through the application of neuro. Very engaged with that, nothing could feel better. And writing. Just finished a novel, short

2

1: Louise Greep Hogan ’53, P ’83 and sister Nancy Greep ’62 and Nancy’s husband Jon Tobis on a river cruise through the Confederate states. 2: (L to R): Nancy Greep ’62 and Nancy Astwood Lindsey ’62 at the Lindsey’s ranch in Texas. This picture mimics a picture of us in a similar pose when we were kids living next door to each other.

46 WINSOR SPRING 2022

NEWSMAKER: JUSTINE CHILVERS ’04

PHOTO FROM WWW.VEDERPRICE.COM

A Rising Star in Aviation Finance Justine Chilvers ’04, a global transportation finance associate at Vedder Price, was honored with a 2021 America’s Rising Star Award from Euromoney Legal Media Group in the aviation category, and is included in its Experts Guide—a listing of the brightest and most talented upcoming practitioners in business law and related practices.

Justine graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 with a degree in history and French studies and earned her J.D. in 2013 from Fordham University School

pieces and monologues many places.

I have a play that will be published this year and a commission from the Sloan Foundation. My three kids are thriving, that’s best of all. www. susanevehaar.com

1976

Elizabeth Yntema I was recently profiled in a Chicago Tribune page 1 story titled (in print edition) “Ballet’s Glass Ceiling.”

What is so exciting is that DDP’s statistics formed the bedrock of this feature, reported as hard news, not an ‘arts feature.’ I was delighted to introduce the reporter to such a talented and diverse group of women and a superb male ally. It’s “only” taken 7 years for this issue to get the recognition women in the field deserve.

1977

of Law. In 2010, the year she started at Fordham, she co-founded City Readers, a nonprofit that raises funds to purchase and deliver books to underresourced New York City public and charter schools in Harlem, the Lower East Side, and the Bronx. During law school, she clerked at the Southern District of New York U.S. District Court.

At Vedder Price, Justine focuses on corporate finance and specializes in aviation, equipment, and commercial bank finance. She advises clients on a wide range of crossborder and domestic aircraft, rail, and corporate finance transactions.

The Rising Star Awards recognize outstanding lawyers under the age of 40 who are emerging leaders.

The rigorous selection process asks senior practitioners in over 62 jurisdictions and numerous practice areas to nominate exceptional individuals.

Patricia Knight Just before our last reunion, I had left work to spend time with my ailing mother; she passed away just after our reunion. Since then, I’ve spent time traveling a little, clearing out my parents’ house and then renovating it, working on a couple of real estate projects with my boyfriend and decompressing from a stressful, but rewarding 25+ years in the corporate world. Covid brought travel to a screeching halt, so I adopted a puppy and have greatly enjoyed this time reconnecting with friends and deciding what I want the next chapter to be. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon—hopefully in person!

1982

Alexandra Coburn My daughter, Julia has taken to wearing my grandmother’s Class of 1923 Winsor ring, in large part due to the effusiveness of college friends, Abigail Simon ’16 and Lilla Gabrieli ’16 (daughter of Hilary Bacon Gabrieli ’78), about their Winsor experience. It’s a wonderful indication to me that the impact of Winsor and the bonded community it creates remain alive and strong!

1983

Kimberley Harol Hello fellow Winsor class of 1983!

May you all have a healthy and happy 2022! My struggle with Bipolar disorder has been a challenge since 1999, age 35. COVID and my my mom’s advancing Alzheimer’s made it partic-

WINSOR SPRING 2022 47

CLASS NOTES

ALUMNAE AND FACULTY AUTHORS

Elizabeth Samet ’87 “Looking for the Good War.” Published 11/30/21

Mary DePalma, advancement services Pink: A Women’s March Story, Published 10/2021

In Looking for the Good War, Elizabeth D. Samet reexamines post-World War II literature, art, and culture. Bringing her expertise as a professor of English at West Point to bear on the complexity of the postwar period, she exposes the confusion about American identity that emerged, and the deep national ambivalence toward war, violence, and veterans—all of which were suppressed in subsequent decades by a dangerously sentimental attitude toward the United States’ “exceptional” history and destiny.

After noticing her grandmother knitting with pink yarn—making special hats to wear at an important march—Lina, who sometimes feels very small, learns to knit her own, and wears it proudly when her family joins the Women’s March in Washington, DC. Energized by the sea of pink hats knitting so many people together, she feels bigger than she ever has before.

Celebrate the importance of the Women’s March with young children in this remarkable and empowering story about one girl’s journey from knitting a hat to making a difference.

Katie Ives ’64, P’94 ’99 Imaginary Peaks, Published 10/2021 In her debut book, Imaginary Peaks, Katie Ives, well-known editor of Alpinist magazine, details the adventure-literary mystery of the Riesenstein Hoax within the larger context of climbing history to explore the desire for first ascents, the pull of the wild and unexplored, and the ageless appeal of imaginary peaks and places, and our shared fascination with blank spaces on the map.

ularly difficult and I found myself in a constant state of panic and mania in July 2021. After an 11 day hospitalization and a four month depression I am feeling much better and very hopeful for the future. I started a free support group for people with mood disorders back in 2013 and it is well attended (currently on Zoom).

See dbsarevere.org for more info.

Also, please reach out to me if you or

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Lisa Stringfellow, Lower School English faculty A Comb of Wishes, Published 2/2022 Ever since her mother’s death, Kela feels as broken as the shards of glass, known as “mermaid’s tears,” that sparkle on the beaches of St. Rita. When she discovers a different kind of treasure, and accidentally summons a wrathful mermaid, she makes a wish that will exact a dangerous price. ​Set against the backdrop of Caribbean culture and folklore, Lisa Stringfellow’s mesmerizing middle grade debut tells a story of impossible wishes and magic based in the deepest love.

a loved one has any question or needs help surrounding mental illness.

1985

Lindsey Brace Martinez In October 2021, I celebrated my 6th year running StarPoint Advisors where I work with firms to scale sustainable investment solutions into the capital markets. We’re small but mighty and committed to creating a

positive impact for the next generation. Speaking of which—my two boys, are now 20 and 17 and make me proud, and in June Peter and I will be married for 25 years.

Time flies!

1986

Francesca Morgan Only a few months after losing my mother, Mary Rhinelander

McCarl ’57, I published my second book, Nation of Descendants: Politics and the Practice of Genealogy in U.S. History, with the University of North Carolina Press. I will soon send a copy to the Winsor library, inscribed with greetings to Winsoritas past and present. I am still teaching U.S. history at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, and happy to get together occasionally with Pamela Mearsheimer.

Abigail Casner Ackerman “Empty Nester” phase of life this year with two seniors at Wisconsin and a freshman at Tufts. My husband, Jeff, and I left Boston after 22 years and returned to California in the north county of San Diego.

I have remained on staff (remotely) at Dedham Country Day School in Advancement and continue with my digital marketing consulting business.

I get back to Boston regularly to check in at DCD, watch our daughter Ellie play squash for Tufts, and enjoy the summers with friends and family.

If you are ever passing through San Diego, come say hi!

Juliet Siler Eastland I have to say, the combination of pandemic, two teenagers (13 & 17) and perimenopause has been a doozy!

It’s been a rough few years. That said, our immediate family is healthy, thank goodness, and my decadeslong friendship with the amazing Lynn Harris continues to sustain me. I continue to work in pajamas as a freelance writer, and have been getting back to my jazz piano playing, with even a little weekly (well-ventilated, socially-distanced) gig to show for it. I’m on the steering commit-

tee for the MA-RI branch of Sister District Project, which is dedicated to building progressive power in state legislatures. Happy to chat with anyone about why #StatesMatter!

1987

Ariadne Daskalakis I was appointed the Vice-President of The University in Cologne, Germany, in October. I am the first woman and the first non-German appointed to this position. I know that Winsor played a part in my successes. Go Winsor!

1988

Odile Weissenborn Gordon I’d like to share the news that my beautiful mother, Dr. Luisa Stigol, whom some of you knew, died of mesothelioma in September 2021. She was an immigrant from Argentina who became the very first female doctor (a pediatrician) at Dedham Medical Associates and pioneered efforts in violence prevention. I’ll be forever grateful to her for giving me many things, including my years at Winsor! I treasure my Winsor connections! I recently had lunch with Jen Wheeler and Emily Sheffer—and saw Sabrina Coletta Paradis on her last trip to NYC. I’m what they call a “geriatric mom” of a four-year old, living with my family in NYC and pondering a return to grad school (“geriatric student” may be in my future).

Sidra Smith After spending three years in San Diego, my husband and I are back on the east coast where we are in closer proximity to family and dear friends.

During the Covid era, I discovered

a passion for collaging, Pilates, and my air fryer. I also acquired certification as an executive coach so I’m proud to have launched a leadership coaching and consulting business, baobab-us.com. Not a week goes by when I don’t communicate with a Winsor woman, including early morning phone calls with Kim Alleyne, text exchanges with Judy-Beth Tyler ’89 and Pam Parks McLaurin ’71, and weekend getaways with Sabrina Paradis.

I even had the pleasure of being colleagues in Howard University’s English department with Tricia Elam Walker ’71. It’s been fun to re-connect with and meet other alumnae at virtual events via Zoom.

I look forward to seeing more of you as we adjust to this new normal.

Ariadne Daskalakis ’87

WINSOR SPRING 2022 49

PHOTO BY JASON PUTSCHE

CLASS NOTES

ALUMNA PROFILE: ELIZABETH LEWIS ’96

Investing in the Future

A

s a child, Elizabeth Lewis ’96 hiked, fished, and swam almost every summer in Montana, where her family has deep roots: Her great-grandfather helped build and pave many of its original roads, including those that meander through Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park’s famous Going-to-the-Sun Road, and he worked to bring electricity

50 WINSOR SPRING 2022

to many homes via major dams.

The lifelong love of nature she developed as a result helped guide her toward a groundbreaking business career, one that demonstrates that financial firms can do well by doing good— and do better by doing even more. She is now the managing director and deputy head of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) at Blackstone, the

world’s largest alternative asset manager. The field was tiny when Elizabeth entered it, but it has grown significantly in recent years.

“Socially responsible investing— as ESG was previously called—was driven more as risk management rather than value-added,” says Elizabeth. “Now investors are demanding serious ESG efforts because they realize it leads to stronger, more resilient, and more

valuable companies. Companies understand that recruiting more diverse employees and board members, making employee safety top priority, and reducing their carbon emissions, for example, are not just about doing the right thing but result in long-term value creation.”

Blackstone helps the companies in which it invests create strategic plans tailored for expansion and innovation, and now more than ever, these plans are integrated with goals relating to short- and long-term ESG improvements. For example, Blackstone seeks to reduce carbon emissions by 15 percent in aggregate within three years of ownership across all investments globally where they control energy usage, a target informed by climate science. Blackstone also partners with companies to hire more military veterans and people from underrepresented groups, which the firm sees as untapped talent.

“It has been amazing to see the growing excitement and sense of urgency and opportunity in ESG,” Elizabeth says. “Our investors are very focused on it, and increasingly it is becoming important for us to show strong ESG capabilities in order to attract the best portfolio companies. Companies have choices in investors, and we are hearing that they value our ability to help them develop best-in-class ESG programs before they decide to partner with us and accept an investment,” she says. Many organizations—and consumers—are paying more attention to where they invest and spend their money, whether that means buying stock in solar energy

companies or wearing clothes from manufacturers that use recycled materials or giving a percentage of their earnings to social or environmental causes.

“I think the pandemic as well as the tumultuous political landscape over the last few years have pushed people to scrutinize institutions and ask more questions,” says Elizabeth. “People are watching companies closely to see how they are confronting societal challenges.

This is true on climate change, the impacts of which are becoming more real in people’s daily lives; social justice, where the murder of George Floyd was a wake-up call for many; and the pandemic, which has accentuated inequalities.”

“Meanwhile, companies want to execute a strategy that allows them to attract investors, customers, and employees, and it can be difficult when expectations from governments change or aren’t settled, so they are taking matters into their own hands and developing their own long-term strategies that include ESG as a core component.”

Elizabeth first got involved in the environmental field just after graduating from Winsor, when she spent a life-changing experience in Montana working on the campaign of Sen. Max Baucus, with a focus on environmental issues. Then, at Harvard, she studied environmental science and public policy, and she found her niche in learning how science applies—big picture—to economics, law, and public policy.

Now, when Elizabeth returns to Montana and sees the detrimental effects of climate change all around her, it reaffirms her commitment

to taking action to drive positive change, and her appreciation for the education she received that helped set her on her path.

“I have been incredibly lucky with the professors and teachers I have had—at Harvard, undergrad and in business school, and at Winsor,” she says. “In college, my education on climate change definitely stands out.

This was long before the world was talking about climate change, when everyone still believed that it would be an easily fixable, short-lived problem.” She says her professors “were ahead of their time,” teaching students, through the lens of diverse disciplines grounded in science, that climate change demanded a solution—and that they could make a positive difference by being flexible and taking advantage of unexpected opportunities.

“And as for Winsor, so many of the skills I have brought to my career are thanks to my eight years on Pilgrim Road, a foundation that set me up so well—for everything!” she says. “There were my amazing science and math teachers, there were the skills I developed as a communicator, collaborative thinker, and writer—something that is still so oddly undervalued in the business world. And sports, too—from learning to work as a tight-knit team to how to lose gracefully. At Winsor, I learned to think of myself as a leader, which is priceless.”

Victoria Tilney McDonough ’83 is a writer in Alexandria, VA

WINSOR SPRING 2022 51

CLASS NOTES

An Evening on Dream Street

Dream Street cover image by Ekua Holmes

I

n a conversation full of the kind of intimacy and ease that only childhood friends can summon, writer Patricia Elam Walker ’71 and artist Ekua Holmes spoke via Zoom on December 2, 2021 about their children’s book, Dream Street, and their memories of growing up together in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

Pamela Parks McLaurin ’71, P’12 was the moderator.

Pamela, who was director of admission at Winsor for 18 years, said she was struck by “how early in life these two women pursued their passions.”

Patricia, a novelist, teaches creative writing at Howard University. Ms. Holmes’ first work of illustration, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, received a Caldecott Honor; she has twice been awarded the Coretta Scott King Book Award for illustration.

“I was one of the first Black girls to enter Winsor,” said Patricia. The

52 WINSOR SPRING 2022

school “was one of the places where I felt like a writer. I’d write stories that my classmates wanted to read.”

(Ms. Holmes did not attend Winsor.)

“We grew up together, with no cell phones, no TV in your room. I read a lot. I loved words,” Patricia said.

“I always knew I was going to be an artist,” said Ms. Holmes. An only child, she built dollhouses “that went up to the ceiling,” and collected magazines, newspapers, broken jewelry, stone, shells, and feathers that she transformed into art. Her mother, an accountant, encouraged her interest, even at a time when a career in the arts was far from most parents’ hopes for their children.

Ms. Holmes showed a collage depicting a young Black girl reading a book—a tribute to Patricia’s mother, a librarian, who used to take the friends to the public library.

They would come home loaded down with piles of books that they’d race through in a few days, then wait impatiently for another trip.

Children “find windows and mirrors in literature,” said Ms. Holmes.

Patricia shared a family photo of the two friends, showing them laughing and joyful, wearing frilly dresses for a dance recital, in a room with an overloaded bookcase in the background. Little did they know then that creating a book together lay in their future.

In November 2021, the friends released Dream Street, their first collaboration. Ms. Holmes’ images came first; she shared them with Patricia, who wrote the words. “She sent me collages to look at and find the story in them,” Patricia said.

A vivid remembrance of growing up in Roxbury and a celebration of the people who lived there, Dream Street was named one of the best children’s books of the year by The New York Times and has been widely and warmly reviewed. Ms. Holmes says the book encourages young readers—and adults, too—to “look around your neighborhood and see who lives on your dream street.

It may be an actual street, or it could be a state of mind.”

Patricia recalled that, as children, the friends made up stories, put on plays, performed in dance recitals, and recited poems at church and at home. “We grew up in a community that values the sharing of your gifts,” she said. Now, they have shared those gifts in the pages of Dream Street. Watch a recording of the Zoom with Patricia and Ms. Holmes at: http://www.winsor.edu/dream-street Catherine O’Neill Grace

1991

Debra Rosenberg Rosenbaum After 5 years in Philadelphia we moved to the San Francisco area for my husband Jason’s job and to be closer to family in the east bay.

Max (12) and Bowie (9) are loving the nice weather and play dates with cousins. I started the 3rd phase of my career - leadership coaching, which I love. I look forward to reconnecting with Winsor Alumnae (including Elizabeth McFarlan Scott ’92 who I saw preCovid on a family trip!)

1995

Beth Keaney Folsom In addition to my work as the program manager at History Cambridge,

this summer I joined the staff of Trinity Church Boston as their new youth minister, working with middle and high school students (including Annie Fisher, Class of 2024!) I’m still living in Framingham with my daughter Maggie (17) and son Nate (9), and would love to connect with other alums in the area!

1999

Jane Orkin Glazer We are settled into our newish home in Brookline, and surviving the Covid era. Our daughter, Lilah, just joined Winsor’s class I this fall. It has been both very strange, and oddly wonderful to revisit the halls of Winsor with her as she begins her journey!

2002

Marisa Greenwald Kenney Keith and I welcomed our third child, daughter Brooke Lee Kenney on July 13, 2021. Brooke has been a delight to us and her two big brothers, Maxwell (4) and Asher (2.5).

2003

Norah Lewin Our second daughter, Beatrice Francoise Lewin Rouan, was born on September 4, 2021 in Boston.

Beatrice was named after Norah’s maternal grandmother (Betty) and Georges’ paternal grandfather (Francois). We are enjoying this time in Cape Cod as a family of four and feeling so blessed.

NEWSMAKER: SAGE STOSSEL ’89

In Praise of Comic Commentary Sage Stossel ’89, a contributing editor for The Atlantic and a cartoonist for numerous publications including the Boston Globe, the Atlantic.com, and the Provincetown Banner, won second place in the editorial cartoon category of the 2021 Columnist Contest Awards, given by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

“I was very excited about the news,” she says.

In her cartoon, which ran in November 2020 in The Boston Globe, she examines the 2020 election in 13 illustrations through the lens of the pandemic, Donald Trump’s presidency, and a rise in racism and antidemocratic sentiment,

coupled with everyday realities like socially distant trick-ortreating and outdoor dining in frigid temperatures.

Sage’s cartoons have been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times Week in Review, Politico, and CNN Headline News, among others. She has also written and illustrated the graphic novel Starling as well as a series of children’s books in which readers try to locate animals who have escaped from the local zoo: On the Loose in Boston, On the Loose in Washington, D.C., On the Loose in Philadelphia, and On the Loose in New York City. Her latest book, T-Ride, came out in April 2021. A board book intended for a readers ages 2-5, its cover features an MBTA red line train and was “inspired by my Boston subway-adoring son,” Sage told The Boston Globe. “On the T, he’s surrounded by people of all ages, fortunes, ethnicities, and cultures.” She added, “for Boston-area children . . . the T is all at once a beloved amusement ride, a marvel of engineering, a civics lesson, and a shared social reference.”

WINSOR SPRING 2022 53

CLASS NOTES

2010

Stella Peisch I spent the past two years living in Beirut, Lebanon, working as a research consultant with a focus on violent conflict dynamics. My interest in this work led me to start a Ph.D. program in International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, CH. In my research I am looking at the ways in which massacres in the Middle East are remembered among different actors and groups at the local, national, and international levels.

I adopted a beautiful black cat named Miso from the streets of Beirut, and she is now settling in well to her new life as a Swiss-cat.

Would love to connect with any Winsor alums should they find themselves in Geneva!

1

2

3

1: Nina Suresh ’06 at her wedding in Sonoma, California with Winsor alums (L to R): Karina Rahardja ’06, Josephine Wolff ’06, Prarthna Desai ’07, Courtney Sung ’06, and Cooper Lloyd ’06.

Kelsey London Robbins ’06 and Natalie Litton ’06 also participated remotely. 2: Daughter, Beatrice Francoise Lewin Rouan born September, 2021 to Norah Lewin ’03 and Georges Ruan. 3: Son, Camden Philip Markell born September 2021 to Blair Ballard Markell ’10 and Zach Markell.

MARRIAGES

ARRIVALS AND ADOPTIONS

2000

2002

Anne Emerson and Eric Alan Knapp July 2021

2010

Blair Ballard and Zach Markell October 2020

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Maria Greenwald Kenney and Keith Kenney a daughter, Brooke Lee Kenney July 2021

2003

Norah Lewin and Georges Ruan, a daughter Beatrice Francoise Lewin Rouan September 2021

2006

Laura Gaylord Resch and Garner Resch a daughter, Genevieve Gail Resch November 2021

2010

Blair Ballard Markell and Zach Markell a son, Camden Philip Markell September 2021

NEWSMAKER: AMIRAH MITCHELL ’11

AMIRAH MITCHELL ’11 PHOTO FROM: TEMPLE UNIVERSITY AMBLER CAMPUS: AMBLER.TEMPLE.EDU

Small Seeds, Big Impact “All seeds hold a story,” says Amirah Mitchell ’11.

Determined to honor their stories, and their cultural importance, Amirah launched a GoFundMe in 2021 to start Sistah Seeds. As she told The Philadelphia Inquirer in December 2021, the mission is “to grow, distribute and build a community around heirloom seeds from the African diaspora, with particular focus on African, African American, and Afro-Caribbean seed crops.”

It was during a high school summer internship at the Food Project in Lincoln, MA that Amirah first cultivated her interest in food systems, working on urban and suburban farms, and volunteering at shelters and food banks where she served the food she’d grown. After studying environmental science at Spelman College in Atlanta for three years, she went to work at Truelove Seeds, a Philadelphia company that partners with small farmers and specializes in seed keeping. Then, at Greensgrow Farms in the city’s Kensington neighborhood, she applied what she learned to develop a seed-keeping fellowship program for the community to learn how to keep seeds from their own cultural heritage. In 2021, she earned a horticulture degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, and began planning Sistah Seeds.

Acknowledging the trauma that lingers in communities like her own that “connects land work to really traumatic experiences in our history,” Amirah sees the keeping of seed stories as “an important piece of resistance.” The

IN MEMORIAM

1936

Rosemary Shaw Blake

1937

Catherine Little Motley

1946

Jocelyn Smith Baumgarten Jennifer Bevan Lowther

stories “are often told in a way which disempowers our communities,” she told The Inquirer, using rice as an example. Though not what’s found on store shelves, West African rice was the first to be introduced to the Americas, brought over “in the braid of the women’s hair, who stuck the seeds, stowed them away, knowing they’d be captured,” she says.“This is a story that has been passed down…

Anywhere those seeds have been kept alive, this story has been kept alive.”

Having secured the necessary funding, Sistah Seeds will launch at an agricultural incubator in Emmaus, PA called the Seed Farm, and will sell seeds to the public and host seed-keeping workshops and programs, with plans to start a seed CSA for Black, brown, and Indigenous farmers.

1947

1957

1950

1985

1952

1992

Margaret Richardson Alicia Gardner Sinclair Allie Flather Blodgett Joan Marshall McLean

Katrina Hanson Avery Lehze Flax Sarah Gessner

1955

Jean Dwinell Ferguson

WINSOR SPRING 2022 55

REUNION BIOGRAPHIES

Top row (L to R): Vicky Field, Betsy Leavitt, Alix White, Vinny Drobaugh, Margery Adams, Mary Collins, Forbes Singer, Sara McLeod, Sally Mead, Valerie Eyster Second row from top (L to R): Susan Shelmerdine, Squeakie Thompson, Elsa Damon, Jenni Pockel, Anne Torrey, Cici Chick, Penny Harding, Muffin Knowles, Nancy Shelmerdine, Phoebe Hoyt, Julie Grant, Sarah Crocker, Nancy Motley Third row from the top (L to R): Ruth-Ann Redstone, Pam Stanbury, Cheryl Alpert, Jane Frank, Cindy Gabriel, Debbie Kurson, Phyllis Sawyer, Leslie Glynn, Cymie Payne, Becky Palmer, Kate Russell, Penny Brewer, Caroline Berthet Bottom row—seated (L to R): Ellen Feldberg, Nancy Bloom, Emily Burt, Darlene Eyster, Laura Johnson, Rose Dresser, Berit Pratt, Virginia Wing, Ann Kelley, Hester Fuller, Yuriko Isomura, Andi Okamura, Franny Lawrence, Stephanie Condakes Missing from the photo: Connie Austin

50TH REUNION

Class of 1972 Margery Adams When I entered Winsor at age 11, I wanted to be a lobsterman. When I left, I wanted to be a free-thinking Cambridge intellectual and hippie.

Neither of those things happened exactly, but I have skirted around them for the last 50 years. I became an environmental lawyer, and worked at the EPA’s Boston office

56 WINSOR SPRING 2022

for 29 years. I mucked around in coastal and inland wetlands (learning more science than ever stuck at Winsor) trying to preserve habitats. I also worked on hazardous site cleanups and enforced Clean Water Act regulations against polluters both large and small.

One of my best experiences was a case ordering the Army to stop

contaminating drinking water under its base on Cape Cod. I left EPA in 2017, incapable of coping with the environmental disaster that I knew was coming under Trump. My partner, Bridgette, is a historian of early modern Europe and gender.

It turns out I remember quite a bit of history from Winsor. Bridgette is impressed by my high school

education! But the most important thing to happen was the birth of our daughter Artemisia in 2012. We are deep into family life, with a dog, neighborhood friends, and a school three blocks away. It’s pretty great.

It took me a long time to catch on to the wonders of family life, but now I’m all in. All in all, I’m grateful for the education I received from some wonderful teachers at Winsor­— ­M iss Leverett, Miss Sherman, and Mrs. Wortham. Winsor then was so limited by its particular time and place, though. I’m glad to hear that it has changed, but—also skeptical!

Cheryl Alpert As a lifelong Massachusetts resident, I have intimate knowledge of the housing market in Boston and MetroWest. I not only deliver the analysis to cut through the chaos of information, but will take out the stress in the process. When you walk through the door of a new home or walk out of one that you have cherished, my goal is to make it as positive as possible.

Having discovered an ardent love of and fascination with design and architecture, I decided on a second career in real estate after founding two successful companies. I bring to my clients’ exceptional communication skills, strategic thinking, strong negotiation expertise, but most importantly, years of devotion and success in client service. I have over 20 years of advertising and marketing experience in both agency and corporate settings, which strengthens my ability to implement a comprehensive marketing plan and cut through

the internet clutter. In addition to being a Licensed REALTOR®, my designations include: Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR®); Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES®); Certified Probate Real Estate Specialist (CPRES®); Certified Facilitator; National Tenant Network Agent. Outside of work, I am a passionate ceramicist and traveler, and adore taking my two Australian Cattle dogs on offleash walks.

Nancy Bloom Leaving Winsor at 17, I was filled with a sense of hope and wonder about what lay ahead. Fifty years later, I still feel that same sense of excitement about the future, but also deep gratitude for the blessings life has given me. My husband of thirty years is my best friend and biggest supporter. It took me a long time to find him - we married when I was 36 – but I couldn’t have been luckier. We share a passion for the arts, being outdoors, traveling the world and exploring other cultures.

We have two children, 26 and 20, who amazingly survived our lack of parenting experience and have grown into wonderful adults. I’ve also been fortunate in work, holding positions that allowed me to learn and make a contribution. I taught social studies to middle schoolers in New York City, had a rewarding career at Pfizer in marketing and finance, then worked as a business researcher/financial consultant. Now in my retirement, I am focused on giving back, helping nonprofits that address the impacts of poverty and bias on individuals and families in my hometown of Rochester, NY.

Anne Torrey Fisher It’s hard to believe that I am now one of the “old ladies’’ we saw wandering the halls at Winsor reunions back in the day. It doesn’t seem so old now! After our Winsor graduation, I spent 4 wonderful years at Colgate University. My twenties were a blast living with friends in Newton and Watertown, starting a career in marketing and dating my engineer boyfriend, Alan Fisher. After our wedding, we moved north to Waterville, ME. In the following “diaper decade”, I was busy raising our 3 kids, Sarah, Sam and Markie (Margaret) and volunteering in the community. In my 40’s, I was thrilled to move (a bit) south to charming Yarmouth, ME, close to the ocean and the vibrancy of the Portland area. Here, I restarted my career and worked in development for several nonprofits.

My 50’s were somewhat challenging while juggling work, family and the needs of my aging parents. Now happily in my 60’s, I feel blessed in retirement where I have more time to enjoy my family, my friends, volunteering, painting and travel. I send my very best wishes to all my Winsor classmates in celebration of this milestone.

Chloe Gavin I have not stayed in touch with many classmates since 1972, so I look forward to hearing about your lives after Winsor. I left Winsor in the fall of 1971 and spent my senior year at Phillips Exeter Academy.

Liz Berman was there, too. I went on to Radcliffe College where I majored in Russian History and Literature. I graduated from NYU

WINSOR SPRING 2022 57

REUNION BIOGRAPHIES

School of Law and practiced law in New York City for many years.

I worked in corporate law and moved on to securities compliance at the end of my career. I am proudest of having raised four terrific kids with my husband Jay Beatty. Thomas is an astronomer, James is a tax lawyer, John works for Amazon and Matthew is a software engineer. We have three grandchildren and hope we have many more. My hobbies are photography and reading and playing various sports. Jay and I divide our time between Pennsylvania and Key Largo, Florida. If you come south of Miami, please look me up.

Phoebe Hoyt Future White House Veterinarian part true “Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine,” so sorry ladies , not true, not even then, I was acting! Has it really been 50 years? I entered Winsor Class V in 1968. Incredibly, Squeaks and family invited me to stay as a weekly boarder because Marblehead was just so far ! Plus they never got rid of me as I followed them to Duxbury. The rest is history! From Winsor to UNH for a BS in Animal Science and an MS in Ruminant nutrition (What?) and picking up a husband, Robert Gemmell. DVM from Tufts Veterinary School. Still practicing small animal medicine part-time. Two wonderful children, Marie, a veterinarian in Wisconsin (and my grand baby on the way) and Jackson, a PA at Brigham and Woman’s. The scandal book (where is that thing, hope it never gets published on line!!), the hole, lame

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dances, Duxbury parties, a senior prom! I am grateful to Winsor for teaching me how to study, how to ask questions, find resolutions and be confident. I marvel at my accomplished classmates and lovingly remember them in their pigtails, miniskirts and braces. I am so impressed by you all and proud to be a member of our class of 1972.

Laura Johnson I have read the 50 year alumnae reflections over the years - would I ever get that old? And here I am.

And here is the most important thing that has happened to me since I left Winsor in 1972—my only son died unexpectedly of an undiagnosed heart condition just after Christmas 2019. And then, just a few months later, the pandemic brought the world to a stop. I write this note with a profound sense of grief and loss, both as personal as it can be, and as broad as the whole shocked and sad world. But I also write with gratitude that we had Luke for 29 years (he was remarkable), and that family and friends have surrounded my husband and me with love and support since the moment Luke died. And I ask the question Mary Oliver posed in The Summer Day: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Yuriko Isomura Kawagishi After I finished the year at Winsor, I went back to Japan and finished a year and half at Keio Girls High School in Tokyo. Then I entered Keio University and majored in Experimental Psychology. I finished the University at the end of March

in 1978, and started working as a cabin attendant for Japan Airlines. I flew to many different countries, and married in 1991. I quit my job and raised three girls. I started working again in 1995 as a counselor at Chitose City Hall. After five years of experience in counseling I got the certification of Clinical Psychologist, and started working as a Clinical Psychologist, as a school counselor, a part time teacher at Vocational School, a counselor at city hall, a mediator at Family court, and so on.

I am still working as a Counselor, a mediator, and a part-time lecturer at a university and a graduate school. I am enjoying my job. The wonderful experience at Winsor has been my most valuable treasure and always gives me strength and a wide view. I don’t know how to express my appreciation to Winsor for accepting me as an exchange student. I will never forget my thankfulness to two splendid hostfamilies, all the nicest friends and teachers who supported me. Thank you very much.

Betsy Leavitt-Vaughan I have enjoyed life’s journey since leaving Winsor. College was certainly fun but a blur. I hopscotched through a handful of jobs from retail/customer service & publishing to marketing in financial services until I found my professional passion. 1986, I returned to grad school (BU) and became a social worker (MSW.) Actually, an Employee Assistance Counselor. Married Buddy Vaughan in June of 1987 and moved to NH. Son, Ben, was born in July 1990.

Ben is truly our greatest gift and

accomplishment. I loved being a full-time mom for his first 3 years. Then our circumstances changed. Was EAP Counselor then Manager for the Boston Company/ BNYMellon. My professional accomplishments: 1) implementing flexible work arrangements in 1995; 2) a founding member of Employers Against Domestic Violence and 3) implementing these and other work/life/EAP programs in 30 different countries. Many threads of my life were interwoven for the next few decades. Son, Ben, was launched (UVM’12, UVA/PhD’16, Suffolk Law’21) Became caretaker for in-laws and parents. Dad died in 2010; Mom in 2017. Learned so much about living & dying over those 15 years! My own health challenges precipitated my early retirement. My health is now stable; I volunteer at the barn where I keep my horse. One of my greatest joys is becoming a snowbird. In 2019, bought a house on a barrier island on the East Coast of Florida.

Fun adventures renovating it with my husband and living in a vastly different culture than NE. I am grateful for my Winsor experience & glad to finally have enough perspective to appreciate all the challenges that came with it. Becky Palmer & Squeakie Thompson— you were so foundational for me as I was so overwhelmed by Winsor. I look forward to catching up with classmates in May. Jennifer Pockel Lockwood The Magic Bus. What a joy it is to be a member of the Winsor class of 1972; for the past fifty-six years, my association with the gang of ’72

has been robust, continuous and delightful. In 1975 I graduated from Wellesley and headed to Portland, Oregon. I spent the next 39 years studying (MSW/LICSW), working (public interest law and mental health agencies) and growing a family ( Michigan JD husband and 3 sassy kids). All during these years I maintained ties to Boston: 10 summers on Farm Pond, a son at St. Mark’s, a daughter at Harvard.

My Winsor friends help me to navigate the course of my life with humor, compassion and wine. In 2014, my husband and I moved to St Petersburg, Florida. We both continue to work (Bob teaching and me managing property) but our time is more our own. I find myself gardening, SUP and kayak paddling and embracing my role as, “the coolest grandmother ever”. I’m not done yet; I am desperate to know how it all turns out!

Katherine Russell McCurdy I suspect people feel particular affinity to classmates from high school or college but usually not both equally. For me, it’s Winsor’s.

Those years were formative. I learned how to work hard, think, write, analyze and make decisions.

I also learned what is important and am forever grateful. After Winsor, I went to Duke, worked in NYC, attended Harvard Business School and spent five years at Pepsi before my son was born. Then everything changed. Will was born with a complicated, devastating, ultra-rare disease called Barth syndrome.

A beautiful child who grew to be an extremely courageous young man, he died in 2014 after a life that

inspired many. My husband, Steve, and I helped start an international nonprofit focused on this disease— our life’s work. Knowledge has advanced from very little to having two clinical trials completed—no treatments approved yet, but we continue the quest. Our daughter, Eliza, is a compassionate young woman interested in human rights.

For her, criminal justice reform is the next frontier. She has worked in this for several years and is completing her MPA. We can’t wait to see where she goes. We recently moved back to Boston and would love to get together with any classmates.

Sarah Mead Although I would never have guessed it at the time, my Winsor experience set me on the course I have pursued ever since. Intensive music study with Polly Davis, as well as the Shakespeare play and a senior project on Elizabethan music with Maggie Toohey, focused my attention on historical performance.

Our rigorous training in writing and immersive language classes gave me the tools to succeed in the research I began to undertake at Yale and continued as a graduate student in musicology at Stanford. I have been truly fortunate to have a career that has combined academics (professor at Brandeis University), performance (viola da gamba), and pedagogy (director & teacher of early music workshops). Even more fortunately, I have a spouse who shares my passion for polyphony.

For 45 years our parallel careers have overlapped and intertwined, and we are still as excited by each

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other’s ideas as we are sustained by each other’s love. We have two creative and fascinating offspring, much too distant physically (at two ends of California) but otherwise very close to us. Despite the present limitations on travel, our days are filled with playing, teaching, writing, and gardening.

Sarah Mead ’72

Berit Pratt I was lucky enough to meet Betsy Smith in 1980 when we were both union reps and nurses at Boston City Hospital. In 1995, after traveling the world, we were legally married in my parents’ Cambridge living room! Now it’s 2022, and 42 years later, we have 2 wonderful daughters 28 year-old Mei Lin, MSW and Lily ’10 MSN, RN. After my MPH, I worked for the MA DPH and the VNA of Boston doing HIV and AIDS work and Betsy became a Psychologist. As activists we continue to work to support women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, BIPOC justice, climate justice, and the return to democracy in this country.

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We’ve been living in Truro since the start of the Pandemic. If you visit us here in the summer you will find us puttering, gardening, birding, sailing and raising bees.

Please stop by if you are on the outer Cape! Sending love and hugs to the awesome class of ’72!

Susan Shelmerdine Yikes—how to sum up 50 years in a few words? Nancy and I graduated from Smith College and, while I went on to Michigan for a Ph.D. in Classical Studies, she began environmental work. Diagnosed with chronic liver disease (now identified as autoimmune hepatitis) our sophomore year, she wanted to make a difference while she could. After working for the Nature Conservancy and Friends of the Earth in Boston, she moved to Washington DC to join the Alaska Coalition through passage of the Alaska Land Bill in 1980. She then worked as an associate film producer, collaborating on several projects including a short film about the Columbia River. Sadly her liver failed and she died in 1983. I have been teaching at UNC, Greensboro since 1981, serving as department head and associate dean along the way. Other fun has included trips to Greece, Australia, etc., a wonderful mountain cabin, volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity, a dog rescue group and, since 2013, doing animal therapy work with my Golden Retrievers. My own autoimmune issues have resulted in 5 joint replacements - less fun. But life has been very good and I’m curious to see what comes next!

Jane Frank Siewers Fifty years have flown by with almost twenty of the those years spent at Winsor! After graduation, I attended Smith and continued in school, eventually obtaining an M.P.A. and an M.Ed. Finally finished with being a student, I was hired by the inimitable Miss Wing to teach, replacing Mrs. Griffiths (our Miss Taylor!) in Class II. I taught for several years before turning toward administration, serving as Head of Lower School and then Director of Admission and Financial Aid. Eventually needing change, I moved to Meadowbrook where I taught middle school (including boys for the first time!) before, again, shifting to administration. At Winsor and Meadowbrook I managed financial aid and worked very hard to increase the FA budget to improve equity, diversity, and access at both institutions. On the personal side, I married a lovely man 30 years ago, gained a bonus daughter, and together we had a wonderful son. I have been lucky enough to have traveled extensively both in this country and abroad, finally landing in North Carolina where I volunteered for six years as a Guardian ad Litem advocating for children in foster care. I follow closely the journeys of the many children and students I have known and continue to be inspired, impressed and, dare I say, hopeful.

Frances Chick Spaulding Hello!! We are of the pre-cellphone, pre-personal-computer, pre-simulation era - feels horse and buggyish! After Winsor came a

B.A. in Spanish at Trinity College, where I played varsity field hockey and lacrosse (thank you Winsor athletics) and studied in Bogotá.

Then five years as a paralegal in Boston, then marriage, move to NYC, MBA from Columbia Business School and work in advertising. Blessed with a son and daughter who have both become incredible, accomplished, highfunctioning adults. Defies logic.

Anyway, they are the light of my life, as I await the birth of my second grandchild any day now, accompanied by my pandemic pooch, Gracie, an American Staffordshire Terrier. (Less like having an emotional support dog and more like being strapped to a nuclear warhead and launched skyward, but I digress.) Fastforward to year two of the pandemic and I am a graphic and web designer living in Ipswich near my daughter and volunteer web services to a local CSA that fights food insecurity on the North Shore. Have just written a children’s book based on a poem I wrote while at Winsor (publisher needed), and may need to enter rehab soon for yarn addiction.

Squeakie Thompson In reflecting close to 50 years since graduation, I realize how much Winsor has shaped my life and profession as I am in my 26th year at Derby Academy after working 20 years in various roles at Winsor. There were several years in the “business world”, but I eventually realized that I liked being in a school setting better. It was odd being back at Winsor as an employee after 8 years as a student

and calling some of my former teachers by their first names at their insistence—“Connie” Houghton, “Janet” Duggan, “Chloe” King to name a few. But when it came to Miss Wing, it was nearly impossible to call her “Ginny.” I eventually called her VW when she started calling me Sq or SqT. I am so grateful for all the gifts that Winsor gave me as well as the amazing and continued friendships that I developed as a student and then as a colleague. Free time consists of racquet sports, lots of time on or in the water, yard work, needlepoint, basket-making, and traveling as well as the addition of playing at golf and learning Mah Jongg.

Amelia Young Tigner I have been working at Mount St. Mary’s University, in Emmitsburg, MD for just over 30 years (most of that time as the Seminary Registrar, overseeing the graduate programs there). I was married for about 27 years until my husband Dr. Emilio Rodriguez passed away in 2007.

We have one son (a major in the Maryland Natl Guard and security specialist). I remarried in 2016—Jim deals in small antiques/collectibles and has one daughter from previous marriage (she is a pharmacist).

I have not been able to get back to New England to visit as often as I would like, but have fond memories of Winsor and my classmates there.

Stephanie Condakes Torski After graduating from Union College, I received my MBA from Duke University, where I met my

husband Greg. After a short stint in Michigan, we returned to the Boston area and settled in Hingham.

I began a career in personal financial advising. Within a few years, we had 2 daughters and an overly protective dog. A career move lead us to Wilton, CT where I embarked on my professional volunteer years.

I enjoyed being involved in the Wilton community and supporting my daughters’ interests. I became active in Girl Scouting and worked on behalf of several charitable organizations. After 10 years in Wilton, a year in Chattanooga and Columbus, OH, we moved back to the greater Boston area and finally Hingham. I began advising clients again. I retired from investment advising several years ago and became involved with the CFA Society Boston’s Financial Literacy program. I love teaching personal money management to a wide range of students. I enjoy traveling, playing golf socially, hiking, reading and entertaining. Most recently an overly demanding puppy occupies a disproportionate amount of my time. It has been a lifetime since our Winsor days, filled with great joys and challenges, family and friends.

Nancy Motley Walton Since last seeing everyone at our 45th, a lot has changed and a lot has not changed. I continue to teach watercolor classes via Zoom twice a week. It keeps me connected with others and pushes me to continue to grow as an artist. Though so much time is spent in my studio, I love my outdoor time, in my garden, painting en-plein-air, walking or biking. Golf is merely

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an occasional opportunity to spend time with Bruce and friends.

The biggest change is that we are now grandparents. Our daughter Nancy ’04—also a Winsor gradand her husband Richard welcomed a little boy- Hunter- into their family in July of 2020. He has stolen my heart! They live in NYC and spending time with them is tops on my list. Our son Bill continues to live in CA, now working for Apple corporate where he is involved in some really interesting things. As I get older, I find myself not only feeling incredibly blessed and grateful for the many gifts in my life, but equally concerned about the challenges in our country and world.

It worries me deeply. What will we be leaving future generations? How will our democracy look in a few years? I just pray that our leaders show courage to say/do what is right and good. I am so looking forward to seeing you all again this Spring!

Alix White I have spent a life of land and water stewardship through landscape painting, farming, and serving on town boards. For 30 years my day

job has been caring for my family and for the ill and elderly. Retired from that work, I now have the joy of working full time on my art. I offer the landscape as I see it: the intriguing and exquisite world around me, the world I know best, where I have lived and painted for most of my life, the South Shore of Massachusetts, and the Thousand Islands of New York. A landscape painting can be a metaphor rich with revelation that can change as the world around us shifts. In my oil painting of a blizzard in opaque colors titled “I don’t know where I’m going” created a year before the Covid Pandemic, the shallow depth of field is a metaphor for confusion and unknowing. People stood in awe of that landscape at its last showing in 2021. They felt its confusion and understood “I don’t know where I’m going.” Before the Pandemic, before our certainty had been upended, viewers passed it by.

Thus art instructs and heals.

Edith Knowles Williams The most significant event that has happened in my life recently is the birth of our first grandchild,

Elliott, in July, 2021. He lives very close by and it has been so much fun to watch him grow and change! Exercise has always been an important part of my life. In the last 10 years I have become an avid cyclist. Tom and I live in a rural part of New Jersey and it is our very favorite place to cycle. Meditation has also been an important part of my life for the last 20 years. I have been on several silent meditation retreats, primarily at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. I have struggled with bipolar disorder since 1990. Of course, that is an important part of my life, but it does not overshadow me. In addition to medication and therapy, my exercise and meditation have helped me immeasurably to maintain my sanity and improve my quality of life. I’m also hopeful that the stigma of mental illness will be lessened with each generation.

I see more of the young people being open about their mental health struggles. I had a heck of a time limiting this to 200 words!

I hope to see many of you at our 50th reunion!

REGISTER TODAY

Get reconnected with our Winsor ALUMNAE CONNECT app Connect with alums in your area or across the country, create your own groups, find your classmates, and search for jobs or post your own.

Visit winsorconnect.org and register with the app today.

Questions? Contact Beth Peterson ’80, P’11 at epeterson@winsor.edu

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First row (L to R): Kristin Haynes, Kathrine Ranere Hughes, Laura Mitchell, Caitlin Clark, Mariko Yasuda Saperstone, Amanda Ward, Lauren Connolly Nussbaum, Tenley Palsang, Kathryn Young McCullough, Christina Capodilupo Schwefel, Elizabeth Stanton Rosen, Julianna Connolly, MacKenzie Hawkey Cooper, Evangeline Choe Lehr, Elizabeth Harmon, Leah Ferullo, Sally Madsen, Stephanie Shemin Feingold,Second row (L to R): Lanita Tolentino McCormick, Shenika Moraldo, Kate Lubin, Elizabeth Parnell, Elizabeth Chick, Lisa Smith, Allison Connolly Prestifilippo, Diane Bezan, Carolyn McClintock Peter, Dina Hasiotis McEvoy, Alexia Harrist, Nicole Harvey Ryan, Dana Marshall Fisher, Lindsey Tucker, Sarah Knoff Konter, Laura Yee, Nora Ross-Johnson Vernazza Third row ( L to R): Nina Lanza, Amanda Stumm Mooradian, Megan Koch Popp, Emmy Park, Anne Gittinger, Rebecca Nixon Laberenne, Marianna Munson Erenhouse, Elizabeth Vena, Laurel Anderson, Janel Forde, Vanessa Spilios, Kerry Carven, Vinita Goswami, Melinda Gottesman, Michelle Lent, Jennifer Chu, Cara Casey Hall, Abby Giles, Martha McLoughlin, Melissa Perold

25TH REUNION

Class of 1997 MacKenzie Hawkey Cooper After leaving behind Bruegger’s themed porticos and The Lamp, I spent four bucolic years at Williams. There I learned to flyfish, camped and studied geology in Baja California, and majored in political science and English.

After college, I moved to D.C. and, in 2008, earned my master’s in public policy from GW, married my college boyfriend, Ben Cooper,

and started my career with the Government Accountability Office.

(Topics I’ve reported on have ranged from counterfeit parts in weapon systems to school meals during the COVID-19 pandemic.) We’ve also stayed busy with a 2011 trip to Nova Scotia and parenting our daughters Iris and Molly, who were born in 2012 and 2017, respectively. After Ben completed his physics PhD and post-doc work, we moved to the

Bay Area in 2015. Though far away from family, between the pandemic and life in an apartment I’ve been grateful for the mild climate.

Anne Gittinger Greetings from Kasilof, Alaska.

I moved to Alaska from San Francisco in 2012 and lived in Homer and Anchorage before landing in Kasilof. My husband, Robert, and I welcomed a daughter,

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Melody-Anne, in September 2021, and I am also stepmother to Hunter (8) and Camden (20). I worked for 13 years for the Academy of Art University as an editor in the online learning department and as the curriculum manager for the School of Fashion. I spent 2 years working for the Trans Alaska Pipeline System and am now raising Melody-Anne while I pursue a degree in mechanical engineering.

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed many opportunities to choreograph, perform, and teach dance, and I am grateful to Winsor for inspiring a love of learning that I hope I have shared with my dance students.

Dina Hasiotis McEvoy Hello all! I very much look forward to reconnecting at our reunion in the spring. Since the last time we all gathered, much has transpired at home and at work. I am still living in New Orleans with my husband Tim and two daughters, Zoe (12) and Samantha (8). We also have a dog, bunny, and tank of fish we call a part of the family as well.

Once upon a time, I did not think we would stay in New Orleans for so long but we have a strong community of friends, our daughters love their school, and I have grown amorous of what a smaller city can offer and more accepting of its shortcomings. I still work in public education, recently taking a new job this past October with a national organization that provides planning and coaching support to school districts and charter management organizations. Previously, I spent six years with New Orleans

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Public Schools overseeing school improvement efforts and several other priorities, including managing our district’s response to COVID19. Through COVID, I experienced the most challenging and rewarding work thus far in my career. And lastly, over the past several years I have lost both my parents, which brings great sadness but also remembrance of the many gifts they gave me—like Winsor.

Elizabeth Stanton Rosen It is hard to believe I am still living in New York, but here I am, 18 years later. I have worked for the Interior Design firm S.R. Gambrel, Inc. since moving to the city in 2004, where I have enjoyed seeing a small company of two grow into a thriving business with incredible projects all over the world. While travel was once one of my favorite aspects of my job, I now prefer working closer to home in the West Village so I can be with my husband (Jon) and our two children, Jane (3) and James (1), and of course our Scottish Terrier, Wallace.

Heidi Thompson Saunders I moved to Chicago for college and never left. Despite studying political science as an undergrad, and pursuing an MBA soon after, I remain dedicated to a career in the nonprofit theater. Currently, I am the Managing Director of Court Theatre, the professional theater in residence at the University of Chicago, and chair of the League of Chicago Theatres.

I live with my husband David have two children, Paul (10) and

Juliet (8) who are almost always delightful. I still talk about Winsor as the best 3 years of my education, and I love connecting with classmates when possible.

Elizabeth Vena Hi Class of 1997! After graduating from Penn and spending 10 years in NYC working in consulting, I decided to go to culinary school.

I ran a cooking school for a number of years before yearning for a decent work/life balance again, and with the help of Julia Topalian ’96 I began working at MIT. I’m currently the Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives in the Office of Resource Development. I recently moved to Charleston, SC, which has been a nice life change during the last few challenging years. I also am the proud parent of a Cavalier King Charles puppy, Pippa! I love seeing how everyone’s life has developed over these years—we’re a talented bunch!

Genna Weinstein Hi! After living in NYC for 15ish years, I moved back to Boston and now live in JP, where I drive by Winsor almost daily—makes me smile amidst the traffic on Jamaica Way. I lead the HR team at a tech company called FullStory. Would love to be in touch and hope to see many of you at reunion in the spring. Those middle school years at Winsor were foundational, and I’m grateful to be part of this group.

Top Row (L­to R): Talia Weingarten, Louisa McIntyre, Mary Theresa Nahill, Zoë Davis, Evie Golumb-Leavitt, Emma Finder, Charlotte Tracy, Maddie Sovie, Maggie Ryan, Shoshanah Spurlock, Emily Bloch, Astrid Pacini, Christine Emello 2nd row (L­to R): Myjah Snape, Maya Ebsworth, Allison Carter, Erin Cohee, Maggie Larkin, Maia Raynor-French, Evan Joy McLaurin, Bailey Scott, Anna Kennedy, Catherine Walsh, Augusta Winthrop, Gillian Katz, Emily Morton, Mary Lindsay Cerulli, Chloe Kliman-Silver 3rd Row (L­to R): Julia Slater, Mary Richardson, Hadley Williams, David Clarke, Oliva Kivel, Elise Green, Rachel Stettler, Erika D’Andrea, Sarah Thomsen, Kate Grant, Fiona Ehrich, Erika Verdine, Emily Irving 4th bottom row (L­to R): Audrey Holt, Annabelle Batten, Michelle Peters, Emma Collins, Alice Lu, Lauren Waldman, Abigail Giannuzzi, Kristen Skillman, Zoe Kurtz, Molly Evans, Jennifer Holthouse, Grace Venezia, Sophia Kelly

10TH REUNION

Class of 2012 Zoe Davis I’ve had a few career shifts since graduating from Winsor—after studying biology at Connecticut College, I worked at a pharma software start up in Boston. I then pivoted into Data Analytics, and worked at Wayfair for 4 years on their website analytics team.

I am now switching my focus again, pursuing my passion of

environmental sustainability and getting an MBA at Georgetown University to learn how businesses can be both profitable and sustainable.

Emma Finder In 2016, I received my BA in psychology from Columbia, where I was involved with journalism, theater, and admissions. I currently

work as an executive for a film and TV production company with a first-look deal at Netflix, but I still use my parents’ account. I live in Los Angeles with my husband, Jack Goetz, and our stuffed animals.

I remain a lover of dogs, the Red Sox, wine, and Dunkin’ Donuts.

My parents still live in Boston and are owned by a rescue dog named Millie. (Mia the golden retriever has

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CLASS NOTES

graduated from this earth.) I do not have a podcast, nor do I intend to start one.

Elise Green After Winsor, I graduated from college in California, taught high school English on a small island in Micronesia, moved to Washington, DC, began my Masters degree in Bologna, Italy (unfortunately during the onset of the pandemic), finished my Master’s in DC, and am now working as a consultant focused on energy and infrastructure finance. I am loving DC and one of my best friends here I met first in Class I at Winsor! In my free time, I enjoy running, practicing yoga, playing soccer, exploring new restaurants, and reading.

Zoe Kurtz A few years ago I adopted a puppy named Addie. We fostered six dogs during the start of the pandemic.

This past year I moved from Boston to San Francisco with Addie. We drove cross-country in seven days!

I am working at a nonprofit that offers free coding classes to high school students!

Emily Morton I live in Portland, OR with my boyfriend, our dog, and two cats!

After college, I got my PhD in Education and am now working for a non-profit doing Education Policy research. I still play lots of soccer and love baking and hiking/ backpacking. I’m sorry I won’t able to make it to the reunion and hope everyone is doing well!

Maia Raynor-French I have worked in the MA state Senate, Boston city council, and on a number of progressive campaigns.

I am a political consultant, educator, mentor and birth and postpartum doula and I am passionate about

liberation and community care. You can often find me singing, walking my dog or thrifting clothes.

Sarah Thomsen I am so excited to be celebrating our 10 year reunion! I live in Allston, MA and am in my sixth year of teaching middle school math.

I work at Nashoba Brooks School in Concord where the middle school is all-girls. I have been telling so many people recently that my Winsor experience was absolutely transformative for me.

I love teaching, especially in the all-girls environment, and am always trying to give my students the same wonderful experience that I had at Winsor. I can’t wait to see everyone and hear about the amazing and inspiring things you’re all doing!

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Sound from the Start From the earliest days of her Back Bay school, Miss Winsor wanted her students to possess “physical and mental vigor” and gave them “the run of the Public Garden in recess time” according to Mary Coolidge Perkins, Class of 1899. When the time came to relocate the school, Miss Winsor insisted that the new building provide recreational space for free play, gym classes, and organized competitions for both students and alumnae to encourage young women to aspire to the ideal “Sound Mind in Sound Body.” In 1910, The Winsor School became one of the first independent schools in the United States to have an indoor swimming pool, and as noted by Mrs. Charles S. Hamlin

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in “The Building of the Winsor School,” from the Winsor Archives, visitors touring the new building “almost fell into it in their eagerness to see this much talked of innovation.”

By 1915, the first edition of the Lamp could report on five competitive fall sports, including field hockey, clock-golf, captain-ball, tennis, and baseball. Through all facets of her educational philosophy, Miss Winsor ensured her students could develop into healthy and competent young women capable of working together and demonstrating leadership—abilities still prioritized as part of a Winsor education today.

Winsor basketball, 1960s

Winsor field hockey, 1950s

Pictured (L to R): Team captiains in 1947–1948: Midge Rogers ’48, Ellen Dunnell ’48, Cynthia Grener ’48, Elise (Lisa) Faulkner ’49, Hope Griswold ’48, Cornelia Wheeler ’48, and Edith LaCroix ’48

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FIRST PERSON

Redefining Wellness A panel discussion with a group of student leaders shed light on what Winsor is doing right—and can do more of—to help align wellness and high achievement.

Do you perceive a tension between academic achievement and wellness? “[They] seem like they are on opposite ends of a seesaw,” says Student Wellness Committee co-leader Anissa Patel ’23. “As academic achievement is prioritized, wellness is downplayed, and as wellness is prioritized, achievement decreases . . . Propagated by competitiveness and the drive to excel, the pattern becomes increasingly difficult to break.”

What can teachers do more of to help promote balance?

Students shared appreciation for the varied ways teachers show understanding of their experiences, from pausing for a meditation, to intentionally reviewing assignment calendars. The key takeaway: More of this please! Peer Support co-leader Abby Groom ’22 adds that when teachers “know [students] holistically” and “support

them, both academically and personally . . . a more positive environment and a stronger sense of community” result.

What comes next in the conversation?

Community conversations that “support narratives in which students challenge themselves to learn rather than to just achieve,” are essential, says Wellness Committee co-leader Claire Ackerman ’22.

Winsor must also continue “creating a space in which faculty feel that they have the license and support to prioritize wellness in their classrooms,” adds Aleksaundra Handrinos ’22, Peer Support co-leader.

Changes that “show the student body that they listen to our feedback,” also go a long way, says Wellness Club co-leader Maita Mungah ’22, like late-start Wednesdays for sleeping in or enjoying extra time. “It is liberating!”

For Wellness Club co-leader Uche Ogbue ’22, it’s about prioritizing rest and breaks over “always staying in work mode,” and “normalizing not always being perfect, asking for help when needed, not comparing yourself to others, and focusing on your own needs.”

(L to R): Anissa Patel ’23, Aleksaundra Handrinos ’22, Uche Ogbue ’22, Abby Groom ’22, Claire Ackerman ’22, and Maita Mungah ’22

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