The academic tradition of endowed chairholders in academic institutions dates back to 1502, when Margaret of Richmond, mother of Henry VII (7th), established the Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity at Oxford University. Half a millennium later, the endowed chair has evolved into one of the most important philanthropic investments that can be made in any educational community. These positions establish a legacy of excellence in an academic discipline. Within the Emma Willard School faculty are nine faculty chairs who have been recognized and inspired in this way by the generosity of alumnae and parents.

This year, we announced the new holder of the Henry L. Thompson Chair in Mathematics during Academic Convocation. In 2005, Vicky Thompson Winterer ’61 and her family created this chair to honor her father, Henry L. Thompson, a devout believer in the value of a liberal arts education. The chair is the highest public position of distinction for a faculty member in mathematics who has made a special contribution to teaching and learning at Emma Willard School. Vicky’s father H.L. taught math and meteorology to cadets at the University of Chicago during World War II. He advised his children that the value of a liberal arts education was in teaching an individual how to think. He knew that long after one forgot the material covered in a course, one would remember the teacher and how they opened students’ minds to see things in a new way.

We are excited to introduce Mathematics Instructor Alexandra Schmidt as the new Henry L. Thompson Chair in Mathematics. 

Ms. Schmidt arrived at Emma Willard School in the fall of 2014 as an accomplished engineer and teacher. Ms. Schmidt’s career began in electrical engineering as she completed both her bachelor's and master’s of science in electrical engineering from Stanford University. She then spent 14 years in a research engineering career with Integrated Systems and then GE Global Research. As her own life evolved and Ms. Schmidt’s children arrived, she found that her passion for teaching mathematics was calling her in a new direction. She began her teaching career at the Hebrew Academy of the Capital District, teaching primarily middle school and elementary algebra, geometry, and physical science. In 2014, Ms. Schmidt was ready for a different kind of teaching experience that would allow her to teach the highest levels of high school mathematics. Her depth of knowledge about pedagogy, curriculum, and mathematics allowed her to quickly step into Emma’s most advanced curriculum.

During her decade at Emma Willard School, Ms. Schmidt has led the design of our most rigorous and advanced mathematics curriculum, including Advanced Studies AB Calculus, Advanced Studies Calculus C and Multivariable Calculus, and Precalculus with Non-Routine Problems. Ms. Schmidt consistently integrates the history of mathematics into her teaching, weaving in stories of female mathematicians who have contributed to great mathematical and scientific achievements and sharing her vast knowledge of the culture of mathematics from around the world. Outside of the classroom, Ms. Schmidt is one of the organizing forces behind Albany Area Math Circle, a community organization that gathers students from around the Capital District to explore challenging and interesting math problems and compete in math competitions. Ms. Schmidt regularly organizes teams of Emma Willard students to compete at math competitions at Harvard and MIT and is generally excited and willing to engage in any mathematical conversation!

Ms. Schmidt’s classrooms take a laboratory approach to math. Students explore concepts through challenging and thought-provoking lab problems, requiring higher-order thinking skills to parse information, consider relationships, and work through multiple steps to find solutions. Ms. Schmidt has a gift for building community in the classroom. She takes the time to truly know each of her individual students—as math students and as unique individuals with interesting stories to share. She also has a knack for baking and often shares this expertise with her students! Her excellence and commitment to community made Ms. Schmidt a natural choice to receive the Madelyn Levitt and Linda Glazer Toohey Award for Faculty Excellence in 2021, an honor for which students and peers nominate faculty.   

We could not be more thrilled to name Ms. Schmidt the Henry L. Thompson Chair in Mathematics. She displays the very best of our ideals for a liberal arts education. There is a generation of students who, long after forgetting the Law of Cosines, remember Ms. Schmidt and how she opened their minds to a whole new world.