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Priscilla Smart Weck ’51
Since leaving Mount Ida you have built a life of community service and action.
Your varied career has found you administering a multi-year National Science Foundation research grant for Princeton University and programming computers for NASA. You retired from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting after two decades of service as director of financial reporting and grants administration.
The communities in which you have lived are better places because of your commitment to them. You served as a precinct election chief for twenty years, interviewed families wishing to house international students for the American Field Service, and prompted renovations to your local library by drawing up plans, raising funds, and working with county officials. You even lobbied successfully for a public transportation route to better serve your neighbors.
For you, retirement meant the opportunity to immerse yourself more deeply in your civic interests. You were appointed to the Fairfax County Environmental Quality Advisory Council, where you helped amass important information about water resources and air quality. Your careful observation led to the restoration of a pond in Mason District Park, which now functions as a beautiful and safe destination for families.
More recently, you co-founded Bailey’s Beautification Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to helping citizens devise better community spaces for their neighborhoods. In 2001 the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors recognized the Alliance’s work by presenting it with the Award for Environmental Excellence.
For dedicating your life to public responsibility and for your commitment to environmental causes in particular, the Alumnae Association Council proudly bestows upon you the Life Achievement Award.
Nancy Linkroum Pennell ’61
You are a true believer in the transformative power of caring, intentional communities for teenage girls. As director of Aloha Camp in Fairlee, Vermont, for 23 years, you lead by example. You model trust, risk-taking, an examined life, and principle-centered leadership, inspiring those around you.
You ensure that an Aloha summer experience makes a difference to both campers and counselors at a transitional time in their lives. You are clear in your expectations— “No gum, no gaps between shirt and shorts!” You know when to be flexible—an essential quality when dealing with teenaged-girls—and you have a great sense of fun. Your colleagues describe a tireless optimist who never gives up on a child or a counselor, even when they may have given up on themselves. You feel deeply the responsibility of sustaining the 101-year-old traditions of Aloha Camp.
In a reunion chapel address ten years ago, you spoke of a life lesson learned from Emma Willard’s own Russell Locke. He said, “When your mind, heart, and soul are in attendance, your music will be beautiful.” Your life’s work is, indeed, inspired and intentional, and it touches the lives of countless young women and their families.
For fostering an environment in which girls can step into adulthood with a vision of themselves as strong, compassionate, and creative individuals, the Alumnae Association Council bestows upon you the Life Achievement Award.
Elizabeth L. Colton ’66
Your life has been a model of advocacy for women’s causes, human rights issues, the arts, and political campaigns. In 1998, you turned full time to serving as the driving force behind the International Museum of Women—the first museum dedicated to celebrating the lives of women around the globe.
“I can think of no more meaningful legacy,” you noted, “than an institution devoted to recognizing and honoring women. The time is now to create a place for people from different cultural backgrounds to come together to learn about each other, a place where women’s voices are always heard and women’s history will never be marginalized or lost, and a place to teach children to become citizens of the world.” As founding chair and executive director, you lead, inspire, and guide the development of this innovative cultural and educational institution.
The museum’s most ambitious project to date, Imagining Ourselves: A Global Generation of Women, launched in March of this year, connects women in their twenties and thirties around the globe. Through an interactive online exhibit, a series of global gatherings, and a new book, Imagining Ourselves is a platform for young women to create positive change in their lives and in their communities, and the world.
You serve as board chair for the Women of the World Foundation, and you are a member of Emily’s List Majority Council, the Women’s Leadership Board at the Kennedy School at Harvard University, the International Women’s Forum, and, last but not least, the board of trustees at your alma mater.
For your unwavering and visionary efforts to give voice and value to women globally through history, culture, and the arts, the Alumnae Association Council proudly bestows upon you the Accomplished Alumna Award.
Kishwer S. Nehal ’86
A leader in the field of dermatology at one of the premier cancer hospitals in the world, you have dedicated your life to providing superior and often life-saving care to patients. As a highly skilled surgeon, an effective clinical researcher, and a master manager, you developed and now direct Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s program in Mohs’ micrographic and dermatologic surgery, a leading-edge procedure that has the highest cure rate for high-risk non-melanoma skin cancers.
You designed the program’s clinical and laboratory space, trained its nursing staff, and created lab and treatment guidelines. You are a widely acknowledged expert in the procedure itself, which allows for precise removal of skin cancers through microscopic mapping, resulting not only in high cure rates but also optimal cosmetic results.
You are leading efforts to train healthcare practitioners in skin cancer screening and to harness new technologies to enhance quality of care during surgery. You serve concurrently as associate professor of dermatology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, teaching medical students and residents and co-directing the dermatology residency surgery curriculum. You are the author of dozens of publications and presentations, and you review for three major professional journals. Your life is conducted with a high degree on integrity and a generosity of spirit that knows no bounds.
For devoting yourself to the research and development of new techniques to aid in the early detection, prevention, and treatment of cancer, the Alumnae Association Council proudly bestows upon you the Outstanding Young Alumna Award.
Ruth Kramer Ziony ’61
In 1960, Miss Wellington wrote of you, “Ruth is a conscientious, interested worker who goes beyond the assignment.” Emma Willard’s bulletin reporters are initially asked to serve a five-year term. You have served in that capacity for 45 years. It appears Miss Wellington was correct: you surely go beyond the assignment.
You provide a significant portion of the glue that keeps the Class of 1961 tethered so closely to each other and to Emma Willard. Even members of other classes look forward to reading your columns. Small wonder: you interweave personal highlights with social commentary, and you capture the lives of your classmates in astonishingly comprehensive fashion. A running joke among the staff is that one day the bulletin will consist of nothing but Ruth Ziony’s class notes—and that it will undoubtedly be the best-read issue in the magazine’s history.
Let’s depart from the traditional citation—departure from tradition seems fitting for you—and revisit some excerpts from your columns:
In November 1961, the very first sentence of your first column read, “Here it is, spicy but true.” It seems fair to call this foreshadowing. Your columns can be, shall we say, provocative, but they consistently remind your readers of the importance of the relationships we formed at Emma Willard,
In the fall of 1976, you wrote, “One Sunday I felt lonesome and decided to call some of our class. I picked some names at random. You can imagine my delight when call after call made me feel as if we had just separated last week.” You ended that column with this: “We were a pivotal class, I feel the relationships we established are still meaningful, and I’ll try to call more of you during the year. But first I have to pay my phone bill.”
In the fall of 1986, following your 25th reunion, you wrote of Lindy Mills Lee, “Lindy bemoaned missed opportunities. Why hadn’t she been able to get to know Mr. Locke and other faculty members better? To make up for lost time, she resolutely approached Mr. Locke to introduce herself. Before she could open her mouth, Mr. Locke stuck out his hand and said ‘Hello, Lindy!’ It echoed Mrs. Wilmot’s remarks at our reunion dinner, when she told us how deeply our faculty cared for us.”
Ten years later, in 1996, you quoted your classmate Tena Loveland Russ: “Our diverse and spirited bunch allows me to make new friends with classmates (and graduates), to realize that someone taught me something, that a sense of place prevails within all of us and connects us way beyond our geographic boundaries.” You ended that column with “Amen and cheers.”
Another decade has passed, Ruth, and we will all await your report following this reunion celebration. For all you have done to keep the members of the Class of 1961 connected to one another and to Emma Willard for 45 years, the Alumnae Association Council gratefully bestows upon you the Service to Emma Willard Award.
Diane Wynne Mercer ’61
For more than 15 years, Emma Willard has benefited from your commitment and talents. Most notably, you have consistently put your considerable fundraising expertise to use on behalf of your alma mater. You served the annual fund in myriad ways through the 90s; you were ever-present at Boston phonathons, and in 1997 you began serving as class agent, a role you still hold today despite assuming other responsibilities. As a member of the Alumnae Association Council, you served on the alumnae giving and regional events committees, and you co-chaired Emma Willard’s annual fund from 2002–2004.
When you joined the Board of Trustees, it seemed only natural to ask you to chair its development committee. And when Emma Willard was planning for the most ambitious campaign ever undertaken by a girls’ school, it was equally natural to ask you to lead it, together with your co-chair Ann Beach.
All the while, you have sustained your loyalty to the great Class of 1961. This year, for example, you have led the reunion gift committee, and you have worked along with your classmates to raise additional funds for the Class of 1961 Scholarship Fund.
For your wise and tireless commitment to your alma mater, the Alumnae Association Council gratefully bestows upon you the Service to Emma Willard Award.
Ann V. Beach ’76
Each year the EW Award is presented to the seniors who most embody the spirit of Emma Willard, demonstrated through leadership and service to the school community. No one could have known that your own EW Award foreshadowed twenty-five years (and counting!) of service to Emma Willard.
Read the citations of the 2005 Distinguished Alumnae Award recipients.
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