Bryn Mawr Made

"I remember touring all these colleges with my mom, and it was such fun. In the end, Bryn Mawr was my first choice.

“I was always a little headstrong as an only child. Going to a place where the expectation was that I would not only be an academic and an intellectual but I would also be a leader, and that was just how it was — I think that translated into my entire life.

“Among the many volunteer things that I did — I was a hall advisor and a dorm president, and I was a customs person — I also was selected for the admissions committee. Every year, two students were chosen to be full voting members of the admissions committee, along with the staffers in the office and a handful of faculty, and we all read hundreds of applications.”

“Like a good Bryn Mawr–Haverford couple, we said to each other, ‘Sweetheart, whomever gets the first good job, we’ll move there.’ And so, we came out to Los Angeles for his job! I received two pieces of mail from Bryn Mawr soon after: One was a call from Admissions for alumnae admissions interviewers, and the other one was a paper flyer that said, ‘Join the Bryn Mawr Club of Los Angeles.’

“I signed up to do admissions interviews, and I've done them now for about 30 years, which I love — being able to meet the prospective students, to hear their stories, to understand why they're seeking this kind of an experience and education, and also just seeing how incredibly talented they are. They’re the kid in their high school who loves the life of the mind so much, and to find this oasis where faculty are so supportive and there are peers who really value that, makes Bryn Mawr a very special experience.”

"We're from all different ages, all different backgrounds, we largely have nothing in common but Bryn Mawr, but it's always enough. Being in that club has been incredibly rewarding. I was the co-president of the club for six years. And then I was asked if I would be interested in joining the Alumnae Association Executive Board.”

“I didn’t have a defined role; I was more of a thought partner with the president and the Alumnae Association staffers. Being able to see backstage was really interesting because I think, as alums, we make a lot of assumptions, many of which are wrong. For instance, that the College doesn't love us as much as we love the College, or that we should be intimately involved in every decision that's being made for current students right now.

“There is this dynamic tension between every stakeholder and the school. Understanding how the College was trying to balance these competing interests in thoughtful and compassionate ways, I thought, was important and interesting.

“In 2014, I got a call from then-president of the Alumnae/i Association, Eileen Kavanagh ’75. She said to me, ‘I am calling to inquire whether you would be willing to be the next president of the Alumnae/i Association.’ I was gobsmacked; there are so many amazing alums. I was very honored, but I was surprised.”

*The AAEB is now the Alumnae/i Leadership Council

"...about how they didn't go and get a Ph.D., and so they felt like they were ‘not Bryn Mawr enough.’ But they were doing stuff like running Sony!

“I thought, there are so many people who are creatives, who are entrepreneurs, and wouldn't it be fun for them — but also for all of us — to realize that the norm is not people going into academia? The norm is the whole constellation of cool things that we do, oftentimes not related at all to our majors, because we've had this incredible education where we learned to think laterally, were taught to think critically.”

"It’s different than corporate boards; we're not just worried about the bottom line; we're worried about the holistic state of the institution that we're serving. We have to make sure that the budgets are right — there's tuition, there's financial aid, there's the endowment, there's philanthropy.

“Then there are other things, like thinking about the future of education, particularly in the wake of AI, in the face of the political winds — which are becoming stronger and maybe even gale-force at this point, in ways that we have not seen before, or at least in my lifetime. We have the demographic cliff, that reality of having fewer folks in the college-age population applying to colleges. We need to be thoughtful and smart about how we position ourselves going forward, and that is the strategic work of the Board.”

"...and I didn't see this board chair position on the horizon at all, but I was told by the committee that I had been nominated, and they asked, would I be interested?

“It's an exciting time. I look at Wendy [Cadge], and she's such a visionary, she's so energetic. It's not her trying to impose a vision but rather to listen a lot, listen to students and listen to alums, and particularly to listen to her faculty and staff who are the pumping heart of the school.

“I think as an institution, we’re going to be revisioning and delivering higher education in innovative and novel ways over the next decade or two. To have three years to be part of that as board chair — how exciting.”