Alumni Spotlights

Marina von Neumann Whitman ’49

Economist Marina von Neumann Whitman ’49 has been a trailblazer over her entire career, in not just one sector but many: academia, government and corporate. When she was growing up, it was highly unusual for a woman to pursue the male-dominated field of economics, yet Marina did just that, earning her Ph.D. at Columbia in 1962 and teaching at the Universities of Pittsburgh and Michigan.

Georgiana Chevry '94

Georgiana Chevry '94 is a leader in the Medford community where she grew up. For eight years, she served as the Governor-appointed Commissioner on the Board of Commissioners for the Medford Housing Authority (MHA), ultimately rising to its Vice Chair. Georgiana pushed the housing authority to do a thorough policies review, which had not been undertaken since 1954.

Natalie Kim ’10

Natalie Kim '10 works at the intersection of critical social/environmental issues and private capital investments. This junction referred to as “impact investing,” seeks to harness private capital to achieve benefits for society and for the planet.

Dick Evans '51

Dick Evans '51 is Shady Hill's first Black graduate, having arrived in Grade I in the fall of 1942. In 2018 he penned an essay reflecting on his lifetime of "firsts." We are honored to reprint it here.

Hester Hocking 1924

One of Shady Hill's original students (and a daughter of our founders), Hester Hocking Campbell followed her conscience to St. Augustine, FL, in 1964, to take part in protests against segregation there. Upon her return, she delivered a talk in her church, describing the experience. We are proud of our Shady Hill Changemaker.

Roger Lane '48

Roger Lane '48 provided us with a history starting in 1939 when he entered Shady Hill School.

William Reed '15

William Reed '15 joined the Cambridge Youth Council (CYC) in his first year at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, to get more involved in his new community. The Youth Council, founded in 2012, is a diverse group of high school students looking to improve the lives of youth in their city, with a particular focus on low-income, marginalized individuals. Their projects often tackle embedded racial inequities and persistent opportunity gaps within the school district.

Yul Anderson '76

Readers of the online edition of Time magazine may have spotted Shady Hill graduate Yul Anderson '76 quoted in the latest issue, in a feature article entitled, "Black History Month Has Ended. Here's What Experts Think the Black Future Will Look Like."

Emma Sagan ’06

Emma Sagan ’06 is Chief Operating Officer at Agrology, a public benefit company founded in 2019 that helps specialty crop farmers adapt their practices to climate change and environmental conditions. Emma points out, “Increasingly variable weather, wildfires, and droughts are threatening crop yields. Our affordable system of sensors, data integration, and artificial intelligence software helps farmers succeed, against steep odds.”

Elise” Van Winkle ’89

Dr. Elizabeth “Elise” Van Winkle ’89, a psychologist, published author, and until recently a senior official in the Department of Defense (DOD), has worked extensively on areas of sexual assault prevention, suicide prevention and workplace climate around diversity, within the military.

Anneke Reich ’05

Anneke Reich ’05 works to educate young people about the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships, with the goal of reducing relationship abuse — a calling made even more urgent given the recent rollback of abortion rights.

Peter Bull '69

Skilled storyteller Peter Bull '69 is an independent filmmaker and an Emmy award-winning producer of documentaries, whose goal is “to break down very complicated issues into digestible nuggets so that people can better understand our world – and put that understanding into action.”

Sommer Thomas '03

Sommer Thomas '03 works at the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston, using her organizational agility and behavioral management expertise to help build better teams through trust.

Nicholas McQuaid ’88

Nicholas McQuaid '88 is the United States Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division.

Margaret Bullitt-Jonas '66

Margaret Bullitt-Jonas '66 is an Episcopal priest, author, retreat leader, and -- perhaps surprisingly, to some -- a trailblazing climate activist.

Tom Plaut ’52

Tom Plaut '52, has been bridging cultural barriers to rural healthcare delivery since the 1980s. At that point, he was a professor at Mars Hill University in the mountains of North Carolina, an economically disadvantaged area with poor health outcomes.

Aaron Michlewitz '93

Aaron Michlewitz '93 is a Massachusetts State Representative from the 3^rd Suffolk District, within the city of Boston. Aaron proudly represents the neighborhood he grew up in, the North End, in addition to other neighborhoods such as Waterfront, Downtown, Chinatown and the South End.

Montanna Riggs '15

This past year Montanna Riggs ’15 took the year off from Stanford University, where she is a Materials Science and Engineering major, to launch an educational technology company with two classmates.

David Meshoulam '92

David Meshoulam '92 is Co-founder and Executive Director of Speak For the Trees (SFTT), a nonprofit in Boston that seeks to increase the size and health of Boston’s urban canopy as trees provide various environmental and health benefits.

Marianna Tu '01

As the CEO of New York-based America Needs You, known by its acronym ANY, Marianna Tu '01 helps provide ambitious first-generation college students from low-income households with support as they navigate college and career opportunities.

David Smith '59

David Smith '59, 11-year Shady Hill student and then a longtime Shady Hill teacher, and now an educational consultant and author, is nationally recognized for his award-winning curriculum “Mapping the World by Heart.”

Jill Harrison Berg TTC'91

Dr. Jill Harrison Berg TTC'91, is a leadership coach, researcher and school improvement consultant. She began her career in the classroom, and was one of the first teachers in Massachusetts to become a National Board Certified Teacher.

Patience White ’62

Dr. Patience White ’62 is a practicing pediatric and adult rheumatologist and professor emeritus of medicine and pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Sebastian Junger ’77

Best-selling author and filmmaker Sebastian Junger ’77, most famous for The Perfect Storm, and award-winning documentaries Restrepo and Korengal and also author of War, Tribe, and Freedom coming out in May, is also the founder of Veterans Town Halls, a non-profit that promotes community gatherings in which U.S. veterans recount what it felt like to go to war.

Naseem Makiya '99

Naseem Makiya '99 is the founder of Outvote, an app that makes campaigning and organizing more personal by enabling people to message friends and family with reminders to register, vote, sign a petition, donate to a campaign, etc.

Tess Wheelwright '97

Tess Wheelwright '97 is helping launch an ambitious social justice endeavor designed to bring books – and dignity and hope – to incarcerated individuals across the United States.

Sia Sanneh '94

Equal Justice Initiative Attorney Sia Sanneh '94 helps Americans understand racism's lasting effects. As a Senior Attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative (made famous in last year’s film Just Mercy), Sia Sanneh '94 works to overturn wrongful convictions, freeing innocent people from death row.

Rishi Sethi Khanna '16

Rishi Sethi Khanna '16 is a freshman at Princeton University. Wanting to participate in this summers' protests for racial justice, but unable to do so in person due to the pandemic, Rishi came up with his own way to contribute to the fight.

Emmy McQuaid Hanson '95

Dr. Emmy McQuaid Hanson ’95 is an anesthesiologist in Spokane, WA. This past April, during the peak of New York City’s COVID-19 caseload, Emmy answered a call for physicians willing to fly there to help out in the crisis.

Alice Beal '65

Dr. Alice Beal is a Palliative Care Physician currently working in a COVID-19 ICU unit in the Brooklyn VA Hospital. This May, PBS featured Alice in the NOVA I PBS series' episode “Decoding COVID-19", highlighting one example of the compassionate care she provides her patients and their families.

Dr. Jay Miller '01

Jay Miller '01 is a doctor on the front lines of COVID-19, treating some of those most vulnerable: Boston's homeless population. Through his position as a Global Medicine fellow at Mass General Hospital, Jay provides clinical care at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless.

Jessica Aguilera-Steinert '80

Jessica Aguilera-Steinert oversees family planning and reproductive health programming at Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), a multi-service agency that assists over 100,000 low-income residents of Greater Boston "transition from poverty to stability and from stability to success" (to quote the nearly 60-year-old nonprofit's tagline).

Katie Miller '05

Katie Miller '05, a second-year internal medicine resident, puts in long hours in one of Mass General Hospital's COVID-19 Intensive Care Units.

Lisa M. Brown, PH.D. '81

Lisa M. Brown '81 is a professor of psychology and dean of social sciences at Austin College, the oldest institution of higher education in Texas, and one that prides itself on being "majority minority."

Molly Simmons '97

Molly Simmons '97 is a health services researcher with expertise in rapidly housing vulnerable populations. This is proving immensely valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Peter Rabinowitz '70

Dr. Peter Rabinowitz '70 is a physician and researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle, and leads the University's MetaCenter for Pandemic Disease Preparedness.

Zakia Jarrett '95

Zakia Jarrett '95, a sixth grade English teacher in the Milton Public Schools district, has garnered headlines in Boston and beyond as she is calling for schools to implement an anti-racist curriculum.

Jeremiah Day '89

Jeremiah Day '89 is a Berlin-based artist dealing with memory, politics and sense of place. Day has an ongoing project reflecting on the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama and has worked with Earl Mills, the Chief of the Mashpee Wampanoags in New England, among others, gathering individuals' memories of political struggles and honoring them in the form of multimedia art installations and performance.

Steve Grossman '60

Steve Grossman '60 is CEO of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a Boston-based nonprofit that builds and sustains small business ecosystems in cities across the US by connecting inner-city business owners with the tools needed for success: capacity-building education, coaching and access to capital.

Dr. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward '78

State Senator Dr. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward '78 is leading the state of Oregon's response to COVID-19, both in her role as Co-Chair of the legislative budget committee and by serving on the legislatures' Joint Special Committee on COVID-19 Response.

Alumni Spotlights

List of 40 news stories.