The Sky's the Limit

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Berkshire Bulletin

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This fall marks 50 years of coeducation at Berkshire, and since then, alumnae have gone on to push the envelope, push for equality, and push themselves to achieve big goals—even as the glass ceiling, chipped as it is, still looms overhead.

We’re featuring six women—one per decade since coeducation (six, because two are sisters)—who are ascending and excelling in their fields. These alumnae are giving voice to female heroes in movies and children’s books, are calling the shots in corporate America, are bolstering female athletes of color in schools, and are creating revolutionary artwork that sparks dialogues about gender and culture.

Read on and be inspired.

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Berkshire Bulletin

’70s THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

Children’s author Carolyn Crimi ’78 turns to full-length fiction, her way.

by Lucia Mulder | Photos by Alyssa Schukar Photography

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arolyn Crimi likes

to write the kind of books she would have wanted to read as a child: funny ones. And it just so happens that the award-winning author is awfully good at it, too. To date, Crimi has written 15 picture books for young readers, and her first middle-grade novel, “Weird Little Robots,” will be published

by Candlewick Press on October 1.

The novel is a departure for the author, whose book “There Might Be Lobsters” (Candlewick), about a timid dog who overcomes her anxiety during a day at the beach, won the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ 2018 Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text.

“I HAVE TO WRITE THE STORY THE WAY IT COMES TO ME, AND THE WAY I WANT TO WRITE IT.”

Like “There Might Be Lobsters,” many of Crimi’s books feature animals as protagonists, and the zanier the better. There are crazed chicken pirates, buccaneer bunnies, bossy and advice-giving cats, and a musical mole, to name just a few. When she began working on her latest project, Crimi felt emboldened by an earlier milestone birthday and decided it was time to tell a new story. She chose to write a novel from the point of view of a little girl instead of a furry beast, and thus came to be clever, eleven-year-old Penny Rose.

In “Weird Little Robots,” Penny Rose creates robots out of found materials like calculators, cell phones, and meat thermometers. And one day, these robots magically come to life, becoming Penny Rose’s close friends.

“It’s about friendship; it’s about what it means to keep a friend; it’s about being popular versus standing up for your friends,” Crimi says.

Ever since Crimi was a little girl, she knew she wanted to be a children’s book author. As the youngest growing up in a family of five on Long Island, N.Y., she spent a lot of time on her own. “No one wants to play with you when you’re the

youngest,” she laughs, “so you’re forced to make up your own games.”

This skill turned out to be excellent experience for a career in which a wild imagination is a serious advantage.

As a child, Crimi spent hours in the woods playing with her stuffed animals (“Not dolls,” she notes), and would zone out in the middle of grown-up conversations at mealtimes, writing stories in her head at the dining room table.

While a student at Berkshire, Crimi loved her art and English classes. But it was the science elective Animal Behavior, taught by Chris Coenen, that she names as her favorite. “It was a great class,” she explains, “and it did influence me. I continue to read about animals and their behavior as an adult. I just find them so fascinating.” Even the daily antics of her own beloved pug Emerson, affectionately known as Sir Scratch and Sniff, inspired a story: her 2012 canine counting book, “Pugs in a Bug.” After graduating from Lake Forest College with a B.A. in art history (“The perfect major for people who never want to get a job.”), she began testing the waters of careers in retail and advertising, while constantly

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“I REALLY, REALLY WANTED TO WRITE FOR KIDS, AND IT WAS ALWAYS IN THE BACK OF MY HEAD.” SHE SOLD HER FIRST MANUSCRIPT IN 1995 AND HASN’T LOOKED BACK SINCE.

The novel, for readers ages 8-12, will be published October 1.

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In Crimi’s new book, two science-savvy girls create a robot world that magically comes to life. But will their friendship survive all the changes that brings?

WEIRD LITTLE ROBOTS. Text copyright © 2019 by Carolyn Crimi. Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Corinna Luyken.

Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

writing and developing her portfolio. “I really, really wanted to write for kids, and it was always in the back of my head,” she says. She sold her first manuscript in 1995 and hasn’t looked back since.

With decades of experience in the publishing industry, Crimi has heard the conventional wisdom that girls will read books about boys or girls, but boys will only read books about other boys. To capture the widest possible audience and sell the most books, some authors decide from the outset to write books about boys.

When asked whether she considered this notion when deciding upon the main character Penny Rose instead of say, Percy or Pablo, she replied simply, “That can’t be something that influences me as a writer. I have to write the story the way it comes to me, and the way I want to write it.”

As a judge for last year’s Golden Kite Awards, Crimi discovered a heartening

trend in the industry that mirrors her own conviction. Among the entries, she noticed roughly half of the books featured little girls of color as main characters. That doesn’t mean that more writers are writing about girls of color, necessarily, but that children’s book editors (whose purchasing power ultimately controls what ends up in bookstores) recognize an appetite in the marketplace.

“They’re seeing the need for representation of both children of color and little girls,” Crimi says.

“Especially scientific little girls, tough little girls, and brave little girls.” If this is the case, then children’s literature is on its way to becoming much richer and more diverse, one weird little robot at a time. carolyncrimi.com

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E.V. Day in front of her prototype for a wall mural of “Breaking the Glass Ceiling” for the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York City

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’80s THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

Artist E.V. Day ’86 reaches for the cosmos.

by Carol Visnapuu | Photos by Chattman Photography

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ulti-disciplinary artist and sculptor

E.V. Day has thought a lot about breaking barriers. She herself has broken the proverbial glass ceiling for women, becoming a successful female artist in an industry that has traditionally undervalued women’s contributions.

She also has tackled the subject head on in her recent installation, aptly titled, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling.”

“Breaking the Glass Ceiling” is on display at the Children’s Museum of the Arts (CMA) in New York City through October 27, 2019. The gravity-defying exhibition has viewers gazing skyward to see a matrix of monofilament—a metaphor of the firm but elusive “glass ceiling,” CMA says references “cosmic aspirations—the strong desire to achieve something that might feel just outside of one’s reach.” Photo images of shattered laptop screens, chunks of broken glass resembling melting glaciers, and mirror fragments surround the viewer. Some of the visual abstractions resemble outerspace or warp speed.

“Bombshell” (1999), an eight-foothigh reproduction of Marilyn Monroe’s infamous white dress worn in the 1954 classic film, “The Seven Year Itch” Photo courtesy of E.V. Day Studio

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“THE FIRST ATTENTION I RECEIVED FOR MY WORK WAS LIKE BEING SHOT OUT OF A CANNON IN FRONT OF THE ART WORLD. WHEN I HAD THE MEANS TO EXPRESS MYSELF IN A WAY THAT I IMAGINED WOULD BE UNFASHIONABLE, THAT’S WHEN MY CAREER TOOK OFF.”

“Ultramarine,” 2015 Cast Bronze and Ultramarine Pigment This piece is a part of Day’s collection of sculptures titled “Twisted,” inspired

by French artist Yves Klein, who was best known for his blue monochrome paintings and use of females torsos to create his work.

Photo courtesy of E.V. Day Studio

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Day herself often wondered if making a living as a female artist was out of reach, but she persisted, despite the gender biases that often thwart women’s success—from fellowships and grants siphoned to mostly male artists to galleries and museums unwilling to showcase their work to collectors unwilling to buy it.

“This is the first generation ever where a woman can make a living as an artist and be a mother,” Day says, who earned her MFA in sculpture from Yale University. “Making a living as a female artist really never happened at this scale before and it’s very exciting.” Day, who creates her art from her studio in Brooklyn, N.Y., has received numerous awards for her work, which also appears in permanent collections in some of the world’s leading art venues, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Saatchi Gallery in London.

Day’s art often focuses on themes of sexuality and humor, and she uses suspension techniques, employing fishing lines, turnbuckles, and other types of hardware to do so. Fueled by the environment around her, Day’s work often manipulates popular culture in order to highlight contradictions of gender roles and social stereotypes.

In 1999, Day made a bang in the art world with her “Exploding Couture” installation series—dresses captured in mid-explosion, using a system composed of monofilament suspended between the ceiling and floor. “The first attention I received for my work was like being shot out of a cannon in front of the art world,” she says. “When I had the means to express myself in a way that I imagined would be unfashionable, that’s when my career took off. An inspiration doesn’t always come from happiness; it comes from some kind of irritation.”

“G-Force” (2001) is a 40-foot-high installation at the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris in New York.

Photo courtesy of E.V. Day Studio

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“The Pollinator (Water Lily),” 2012 Cast and Polished Aluminum This piece, Day’s first-ever outdoor sculpture, was featured in the Beautiful Strangers exhibition at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Mass., in 2018.

Photo courtesy of E.V. Day Studio

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One of the works from this series, “Bombshell,” was an eight-foot-high reproduction of Marilyn Monroe’s infamous white dress worn in the 1954 classic film, “The Seven Year Itch.” The dress was deconstructed into hundreds of pieces as if it were blown apart by an internal explosion—representing an expression of liberation and transformation central to Day’s work. “I wanted to free the stereotype of female pleasure that requires a male’s gaze.

I wanted to rupture this cliché and show the process of transformation.”

“Bombshell” was exhibited in the 2000 Whitney Biennial and is part of their permanent collection.

Day created other provocative works, including “G-Force” (2001, Whitney Museum of Art), a 40-foot-high installation of 200 jet fighters fashioned from G-strings (yes, women’s underwear) soaring in combat formation; “Divas Ascending” (2009, David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center) suspending costumes of the tragic female characters in the air; and “Twisted” (2015, Pen & Brush) contorting sensual shapes of human forms.

In 2010, Day was a resident at the Monet Foundation in Giverny, France, where she lived in Claude Monet’s garden, known for its immortalized water lilies.

Inspired by the garden, she transported this iconic flower and created “The Pollinator (Water Lily)” in 2012. This was Day’s first-ever outdoor sculpture, featured in the Beautiful Strangers exhibition at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Mass., in 2018.

Recently, Day was awarded the prestigious Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome for Visual Arts, where she spent a year living and working in the Eternal City. “Being at the Academy was a once-in-a-lifetime experience of being steeped among the minds of classic scholars, art historians, and archaeologists,” Day says. “At every conversation and at every mealtime,

I had to bring my ‘A’ game.” While there, Day explored sculpture within architecture, and in particular the works of Italian sculptor and architect, Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

With her most recent exhibition, Day is turning her attention to the glass ceiling she herself has surpassed, but which still exists for many others. In its press release describing “Breaking the Glass Ceiling,” CMA

said, “Day sees the glass ceiling as a symptom of a broader problem—the collective subjugation of nature and our planet. With her installation, Day creates a conversation about the invisible barriers that prevent us from breaking through the glass ceiling and onward toward the advancement of culture.” evdaystudio.com

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’90s THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

Screenwriter Lauren Hynek ’96 writes women as heroes on the big screen.

by Megan Tady | Photos by Wendell D’Ambrosia

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ive years ago, in search

of their next film project, screenwriters Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin were throwing ideas against the wall like spaghetti, willing one of them to stick. One thing was certain: they wanted to write a movie featuring a strong female heroine.

The writing duo found its answer in an ancient 360-word Chinese poem, “Ballad of Mulan,” about a young woman who disguises herself as a man to replace her ailing father in the army. Disney had already made an animated film based on this poem in 1998 (“Mulan”), but since the company didn’t own the rights to the poem, Hynek and Martin were able to begin penning a live-action version on spec with the hopes that a film company would purchase it. In the midst of writing, Disney announced a focus on updating older animated films with liveaction movies. “Mulan” was on the list.

“We were not done with the script yet, but when we saw Disney’s press release, we said, ‘Oh my God, write faster. Write

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faster,’” Hynek says. Sitting side by side in Los Angeles, Hynek and Martin wrote furiously, and then they pitched the script to Disney. Two days later, the company snapped it up.

“Even now, it still doesn’t feel 100 percent real,” Hynek says. The movie, directed by Niki Caro—who wrote and directed the critically acclaimed film “Whale Rider”—will be released on March 27, 2020, five years and one day after Hynek and Martin sold the screenplay.

“And that’s fast tracked,” she says.

Call “Mulan” their “big break”—but the truth is, Hynek and Martin have been aspiring screenwriters for years, fueled by a dogged determination, a “keep-your-butt-in-the-chair” motto, and several ounces of audaciousness.

In fact, it was this audaciousness that introduced them to the writerly life two decades ago when they began to muse: How hard could it be to write a movie?

Surely, not that hard.

Originally actors and theater denizens, Hynek and Martin, who is a Hotchkiss School graduate, bonded at a summer

“HOW HARD CAN WRITING BE? I WANT TO DO IT. I’M GOING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO IT. I’M GOING TO KEEP DOING IT UNTIL I GET GOOD AT IT, AND THEN I’M GOING TO KEEP DOING IT UNTIL SOMEONE PAYS ME TO DO IT.”

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“IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT FOR GIRLS AND BOYS TO SEE GIRLS NOT JUST WAITING AROUND TO BE SAVED, BUT GETTING TO SAVE THEMSELVES.”

Hynek performs in the play “Kiss Me, Kate” in Berkshire’s Allen Theater.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Hynek ‘96

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“Shakespeare commune” in Greenville, New Hampshire, where they were performing in parks and passing hats for tips. They began to grumble to each other about the lack of female roles, both in classics like “Hamlet” and in contemporary films. Could they write the kinds of movies they’d like to star in themselves? They holed up in a cabin in Canada and began to write their first script, a horror film.

“It turns out the answer is: hard. It is very hard to write a movie, but we got ourselves a bunch of screenwriting books, and we read all the scripts we could get our hands on,” Hynek says.

“There is an art to screenwriting, but there’s also a lot of science. Every genre has a form. Just like you learn how to write a limerick or a sonnet, you can learn the beats and the forms of the various film genres.”

Since their first horror script, which they optioned for $1 (it was never made), the pair have had various stages of success, including writing the movie “Christmas Perfection,” which aired on Lifetime last year. They also wrote an animated feature for Amazon before the company decided to go in another direction. Next up, Hynek and Martin have been hired to write a “Fast and the Furious”-style action movie (she couldn’t divulge more), and a film about computer pioneer Grace Hopper.

“We are spinning a lot of plates all the time because there’s so much hurry up and wait,” Hynek says. “Being a professional screenwriter is about 30 percent writing and then 70 percent trying to get a job.”

Hynek is the co-chair of the Committee of Women Writers at the Writers Guild of America West, and like her “Mulan” script, she is on a personal mission to elevate women’s presence on the big screen—not just how many females populate a movie, but what they actually get to do. “Growing up, I saw a

lot of movies of guys out front having the adventures, like Indiana Jones or Han Solo,” she says. “The women were either missing from the story, or they just weren’t doing as much cool stuff. It’s really important for girls and boys to see girls not just waiting around to be saved, but getting to save themselves.”

According to a study by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which analyzed the gender and race representation in the top 100 grossing family films of 2017, male characters speak twice as often as female characters, and only 17 percent of those films have a protagonist of color.

“The images we see on screen start to inform what we expect the world to look like,” Hynek says. She refers to the “Scully Effect”—the phenomenon that inspired women and girls to work in the sciences after watching the character Dana Scully on “The X-Files.”

“We want girls who are watching TV and movies and playing pretend and having adventures to see themselves as the heroes and the difference makers.

That’s one reason we wanted to become screenwriters: our words have the power to change the world.”

This gender imbalance on screen is also evident behind the camera. Another study, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, examined employment of women in the top films of 2017, and reported dismaying results. Of the top 250 films of 2017, 88 percent had no female directors, 83 percent had no female writers, and 96 percent had no female cinematographers.

In the midst of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, the latter of which is a response to sexual harassment and the fight for gender equality in Hollywood, Hynek says she is beginning to see a shift—though she says it is “agonizingly slow.” Not so for “Mulan,” however.

Hynek is thrilled about the women at

the helm: the director, the assistant director, the director of photography, and the screenwriters.

Long before Hynek was pitching scripts to Disney and trying to tip the gender balance in Hollywood, she was playing the lead in the musical “Kiss Me, Kate” in Berkshire’s Allen Theater and assistant directing with the late Irene McDonald, who taught drama at Berkshire for 25 years, until her retirement in 2002. Hynek also wrote her share of book reports at Berkshire—a skill she’s come to rely on as she quickly skims books for movie material. “I didn’t realize those book reports were going to matter in my life, but now I’m realizing, ‘Oh, I actually gave myself the skills I need for my dream job.’”

And it was at Berkshire, where Hynek insisted on a semi-grueling academic schedule, that she developed her moxie. “Berkshire absolutely gave me the sense that I could ask for what I wanted,” she says. “It helped with my audacious path: ‘How hard can writing be? I want to do it. I’m going to figure out how to do it. I’m going to keep doing it until I get good at it, and then I’m going to keep doing it until someone pays me to do it.’”

Just as the filming of “Mulan” was coming to an end, Disney invited Hynek and Martin on the lot to view some of the footage. “It was amazing and beautiful, and we just sat there and cried,” she says. “The producer said, ‘Do you want to watch it again?’

And we said, ‘No, we have a meeting after this. We can’t.’”

With the Seven Dwarves statues overhead, Hynek holds her “Mulan” script outside of the Team Disney building in Burbank, Calif.

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Q & A

’S

WITH THE

HOOPER SISTERS

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Berkshire Bulletin

’90s THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

Real estate lawyer Jillian Hooper Joseph ’97 builds up women in the workplace.

by Carol Visnapuu | Photos by Chattman Photography

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illian Hooper Joseph’s

love of real estate began when, as a young girl, she saw her neighborhood transformed through the power of home ownership. Now, Joseph is Managing Director and Associate General Counsel at Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), where she’s made it her mission to help elevate educators and health care retirees through real estate investments. A mother to two children under the age of 12, Joseph is an advocate for advancing women and women of color in her male-dominated industry.

In 2015, Joseph was included in The Network Journal’s “40 Under Forty” honorees. She frequently speaks at bar associations, law firms, corporation conferences, and on panels to help improve and engage women and minorities in the real estate and legal profession. Prior to TIAA, she spent five years as executive counsel for GE Capital’s Real Estate Business, where she was responsible for their $30 billion real estate portfolio. She started her law

career at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in New York. She earned her juris doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School with an undergraduate degree from Colgate University, and she serves on Berkshire School’s Advisory Board.

What inspired you to become a real estate lawyer?

I grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in the late 80s and 90s. It was a neighborhood that was suffering through the recession and plagued by drugs.

Then the East Brooklyn Churches came together to revitalize the neighborhood through home ownership. My parents bought one of the affordable homes in this neighborhood, and I watched home ownership change the landscape of Brownsville, because where there are homes, there are families. Where there are families, there are children. Where there are children, there are parks. This moment has always stayed with me: that real estate could rebuild not only communities, but families.

I fell in love with real estate at Penn Law when I was chosen to be a teacher’s

assistant for Georgette Poindexter, an African-American professor and the head of the real estate department of the Wharton School at the time. It was the first time I had seen a woman of color in real estate, and I remember thinking, ‘I want to be Georgette Poindexter when I grow up.’ It’s so important to have women and women of color as role models because they inspire other women to go into these fields.

Tell us about your role as senior in-house counsel at TIAA. At TIAA, we say ‘we are the financial services for the greater good.’ My job is to invest on behalf of the people in higher education and in hospitals who do good for the world, and a lot of that investment is in real estate. We own, buy, sell, lend, borrow, all in real estate on behalf of our participants. I support our domestic U.S. teams as well as our Asia Pacific and European teams in their investment strategies across the globe.

It’s my job to provide legal support for people who are looking to put their retirement proceeds in TIAA assets, in our banks, or with our wealth managers.

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Joseph with her two children, Christopher and Victoria (Tori), at the TIAA/Nuveen offices in New York City

What has been your proudest moment during the journey of your career?

My claim to fame is I helped build Barclays Center and brought the now Brooklyn Nets to Brooklyn! Everybody thought building a stadium in Brooklyn was foolish and would never come to fruition. It had a lot of moving parts: we had to displace people due to eminent domain; manage the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Long Island Rail Road; and move the basketball team the Nets from New Jersey. It was a huge-scale project, and I was a new mother fighting that stereotype. We closed the project in late 2010, a little over two years after my son was born. I live near the project, so I’m reminded of it daily.

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However, my proudest moment is when I took my son’s kindergarten class on a tour of Barclays Center before it opened to the public. The kids played on the court, probably before the Brooklyn Nets did.

Afterward, my son wrote in his journal: ‘I have the coolest mom. She did Barclays Center.’

What observations do you have about the challenges women and women of color face in your field?

I’ve got the dual challenge of not only being a woman and a woman of color but also being in the law and in real estate—two industries that have failed to make much progress in diversity and inclusion. And that has been difficult. Almost all law school classes are 50-50 today. The law school

environment feels very warm, very inclusive for women to truly have an amazing experience. Then you get to a law firm and very quickly realize that the field is not level. And that’s tough to swallow. Most of the law firm partners are men. So while the class coming in is 50-50, the people making the decisions, deciding who gets work, putting people on certain cases, putting people on certain deals—they’re all white men.

I think law firms have extreme challenges because they are not publicly traded companies. They don’t have certain mandates or cultural and diversity mandates. Unlike a publicly traded company, who has to report to shareholders, partnerships of mostly men decide who excels, who succeeds, and who is next in line.

“THINGS WON’T CHANGE UNTIL WE START INTENTIONALLY PUTTING WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF COLOR IN PL ACES OF POWER TO EFFECT CHANGE AND TO CHANGE THE CULTURE.”

What do you think will be the biggest challenge/opportunity for the generation of women behind you?

Women have to say, ‘I want the next slate of people to fill this spot to be more diverse. I want more women and people of color on this slate.’ Things won’t change until we start intentionally putting women and people of color in places of power to effect change and to change the culture. As a leader, I have been steadfast to ensure that I have women on my team who participate in the voice of what TIAA real estate and law looks like. I foster an inclusive culture, and I call people out when they do not. I think we have to challenge more leaders to do that.

What advice do you have for women who are trying to break barriers in male-dominated industries?

My biggest advice for women is to be your whole self, be your authentic self, and bring all of you to work. I am a mother. I am a wife. I am a woman, a daughter of Brooklyn immigrants who listens to rap music and loves Asian fusion. I am my whole self, and I think that allows people to relate to me. For a long time, women were trying to be someone else. We were trying not to talk about our cultural differences. We were trying not to be a woman or a mother, and it came off disingenuous. People like to see authenticity in leaders. They like to see transparency. And what people were reading as lack of authenticity or transparency, was only women trying to hide pieces of themselves.

What is A Better Chance, and how has it shaped who you are?

A Better Chance is a nationally recognized program placing talented, diverse students in college preparatory schools across the country. [Through this program], I arrived to Berkshire on the first day with a suitcase and a boombox from Brooklyn having never seen the school before. I tell people all the time, ‘Berkshire School is where I got my muscles.’ That is where I realized that I could do anything. I was a tri-varsity athlete, a tri-captain, a prefect, a junior class president, and the recipient of the Berkshire Cup. I realized, ‘Wow, if you marry access and opportunity to talent, anything is possible.’ I was smart and I was interesting, but I didn’t have access and opportunity. And those opportunities were boundless at Berkshire.

I am indebted and committed to A Better Chance financially, culturally, and morally because ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ I have been given so much from A Better Chance, and I feel very similarly about Berkshire School. It is our job in American society to do a better job of giving opportunities to talented, young people—regardless of race and socioeconomic status.

the transformational feeling of who I became, flooded back to me. I want to use my role at the School to support students who are there, students who are coming, and to be a leader in diversity and inclusion, to give back to the kids that I think would be most inspired by me and my story, my career, my success, and my challenges.

What are you most proud of about your sister, Natalie Hooper, who is also featured?

There are a lot of things my sister does well that I’m extremely proud of, but it is her resilience and ability to be successful in the construction development field that I am most proud of. My sister has stayed steadfast in this industry and I am constantly in awe of her ability to never be deterred. When knocked down, she always gets back up.

What has it been like for you to serve on Berkshire School’s Advisory Board?

Before joining the Advisory Board, I had not been back to campus in many years. The moment I stepped back on campus, all of the fond memories, Summer 2019

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’00s THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

Real estate professional Natalie Hooper ’01 knows where Nike should build next.

by Megan Tady | Photos by Leah Nash Photography

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atalie Hooper was

the kid who built elaborate buildings out of Legos and doodled cartoons in her notebooks. When she was 10 years old, a teacher peered over her shoulder at an impressive tower she’d built out of wooden blocks and uttered a question that would inform the direction of her life: “Have you thought about architecture?”

She’s been thinking about architecture ever since—earning a B.A. in architecture from Cornell University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management—and she’s amassed architecture and real estate development experience with leading firms in New York City. Still, Hooper said the work wasn’t getting her “out of bed in the mornings.”

Then Nike came calling—a company and a brand for which Hooper, a threesport varsity athlete at Berkshire, deeply respected. She joined the company in 2015, moved to Portland, Ore., and was quickly promoted to director of real estate for North America. For a sports fan and athlete (she wears her Nikes to work) with architecture and real estate prowess,

the position is perfect for her. Hooper’s goal every day is to help Nike find and acquire sites for new stores, and she is passionate about sharing the company’s mantra to make sport a daily habit.

Did you envision yourself working for Nike, and what does it mean to you?

I was always personally a Nike person from my days as a kid playing sports and growing up in New York City. That’s what I wore; I didn’t wear anything else. I had to beg Mom for the latest Jordans. It was interesting for it to come back full circle. When I told people that I got the job at Nike, everyone was like, ‘That totally makes sense.’ And when I’m asked, ‘How do you like working for Nike?’ I say, ‘I don’t drink the Kool-Aid; I bathe in it.’ I am passionate about what we do and what we stand for, so that energy and dedication permeates my work.

It’s also very important that I work for a company where I can bring my entire self, which is a woman born to immigrant parents, raised in Brooklyn, who found herself at Berkshire School and Cornell University and MIT. All of that makes me, me.

“I DON’T DRINK THE KOOL-AID; I BATHE IN IT. I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT WE DO AND WHAT WE STAND FOR, SO THAT ENERGY AND DEDICATION PERMEATES MY WORK.” How often do you visit physical sites as you consider a piece of real estate for Nike?

My job cannot be done on Google Maps. I have to go to a site, walk it, smell it, and really understand the state of it. And I have to have the vision and foresight to see the future.

There are times when I’ll visit a location that doesn’t necessarily look like a viable retail proposition, but Summer 2019

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Hooper at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore.

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I see where the growth is, where the development is, and what’s happening immediately in and around the area.

What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?

We have a factory store concept that is centered around the community.

These community stores are meant to help elevate a neighborhood and bring economic viability, and also be a point of distribution for us. We’re hiring from the community, and these stores make such a local impact. I’m proud to be a part of that work.

How does your architecture degree and experience serve you now?

No one’s able to pull the wool over my eyes. In terms of site selection, I’m able to read a set of drawings or documents, and I don’t need to wait to get input from the design team to understand functionality and physical design elements. I can respond in real time to potential opportunities.

What are the challenges that women and women of color are facing in your field?

The pay equity piece is very important.

Women need to know our value and test our value in the marketplace so we can assess the appropriate level of compensation we should be getting.

It’s taboo, and people don’t want to talk about it. But we need to periodically test and understand where that bar is.

Another challenge is the dual edge of visibility. Visually, I stand out. If I go to a real estate conference, there are very, very, very few people of color. I can’t hide. So that visibility can be a challenge, especially when it comes to being critical. I have to always be cognizant of my actions and what that feedback could mean. On the flip side, it’s making sure that my opinions and ideas are accepted and heard, and not just because they are validated by someone else.

How can women advance in leadership roles in large companies like Nike?

Women need to understand the difference between mentorship and sponsorship. Sponsorship is having that sponsor who is advocating for you and speaking for you behind closed doors so that you are in the leadership pipeline.

That’s how the leadership pipeline in companies is formed. It’s, ‘I know this person’s work and that person should probably be on the path to assume X role.’ If there’s no one advocating for you, you can do a great job, and it won’t necessarily get noticed. That’s the best way to ascend in leadership. It can be difficult at times to find or connect with the right person, but that’s the hard work that’s going to ultimately pay off in the long run.

How did your Berkshire experience impact you?

Berkshire is where my serious commitment to sports began. That requirement to play sports and be active is something that I continue to this day.

Berkshire also gave me early exposure to different people and different cultures.

On the other side, I experienced people meeting me. There were several instances where I was the first black person that some people had ever met, which I felt was kind of wild. Being respectful of others, understanding where people are coming from, and having that exposure early on was definitely helpful in how I live my life.

What makes you the proudest of your sister, Jillian Hooper Joseph ’97?

She’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. She has that presence. When she walks into a room, you know that someone special is in your midst. She’s an amazing public speaker; she’s gotten standing ovations for her introductions.

She’s just been a fantastic role model for me to follow.

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’10s

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

Hannah Cooke ’14 founded Bowdoin College’s Athletes of Color Coalition— and she’s just warming up.

by Megan Tady | Photos by Chattman Photography

“Y

ou got beat by a girl!”

It was the same familiar jab Hannah Cooke has heard for years lobbed amongst the boys, and now men, who have eaten her dust. This time, she was at a pick-up basketball game at a YMCA in Pomfret, Conn., on a Saturday morning, the gymnasium filled with the sounds of shoes squeaking up and down the court as two makeshift teams battled for buckets.

Cooke, who was a basketball and track and field varsity athlete at both Berkshire and then at Bowdoin College, handled the ball with ease, her footwork deft. One male player ribbed another: “Don’t let a girl beat you. That’s so humiliating.”

But why, Cooke found herself wondering, yet again. Why is the ultimate humiliation among some men being physically bested by a woman? Most of her life, Cooke has been the only female athlete in traditionally male spaces, and she’s often been the only person of color

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in dominant white places—from sports teams to classrooms to her home state of Maine, which is 95% white. Her athletic pursuits and her academic focus have been entwined in and dedicated to trying to understand, and then dismantle, a patriarchal system threatened by strong female athletes of color.

“That phrase—‘beat by a girl’— reinforces this assumption that a girl should never in any context be beating a guy, and especially not in sports where masculinity is so much about physical dominance,” she says. “If you are a boy, it is unacceptable to lose to a girl. It doesn’t matter how many more hours she’s spent in the gym or on the field, because [the idea is that] nature blessed all males with a baseline of skill that is better than any level a female could possibly reach.”

Cooke, who graduated from Bowdoin in 2018, earned her bachelor’s degree in Africana studies and Government and Legal studies. She founded the college’s Athletes of Color Coalition

(ACC), building a support system the campus lacked. And she worked closely with the athletic department to create and facilitate workshops for sports’ captains and athletic teams engaged in discussions about race and its impact on the culture, relationships, and level of support on a team. For two consecutive years, she organized a program called, “Winning Together: Race in Athletics,” which included panel discussions with professors and alumni about race and sports, and showcased anonymous stories about athletes’ experiences with race at Bowdoin.

Her success at rapidly building the ACC’s prominence on campus inspired other schools to seek her advice on how to do the same thing, including Amherst College, Tufts University, and Wesleyan College. Currently, she’s helping advise a coach at Trinity College as he supports students’ efforts to start their own ACC. But first—and what inspired her to start the ACC—Cooke had an epiphany.

When basketball season started at

Cooke at Pomfret School in Connecticut, where she teaches history, serves as the assistant coach on the girls varsity basketball and track and field teams, and works on diversity and social justice initiatives

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“WHATEVER SUBCONSCIOUS BIASES YOU HAVE WILL STILL INFLUENCE HOW YOU COACH ME, WHAT CALLS YOU MAKE AS A REF, HOW OR IF YOU ESTABLISH A REL ATIONSHIP WITH ME, HOW YOU NAVIGATE THAT REL ATIONSHIP, AND MUCH MORE. IT ALSO SHAPES HOW I FEEL TOO.”

Bowdoin, Cooke was disappointed to find she was the only athlete of color on the team. Then, one night as she was driving in Brunswick, a white police officer pulled her over, and after their interaction, he took her picture to prove their encounter was non-violent.

Cooke was taken aback by the racial implications.

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“I was thinking, ‘Who do I talk to about something like this?’” she says.

“It was a big moment. As college athletes, you become very close to your teammates because you spend so much time with them. I thought, ‘I don’t have a single teammate who’s a person of color, and I don’t know who to turn to.’”

The ACC became that place for

Cooke and dozens of other athletes of color at Bowdoin. “There was a need to create a space for people to come together and not feel isolated or alone in some of the unique challenges that come with being a student of color and an athlete of color,” she says. “Being a college athlete is like a job. If you don’t feel comfortable or understood or seen by the people who you spend so much time with, that’s a lot of stress, and it takes away from your ability to just focus on playing the sport.”

of multicultural student programs at his alma mater, also Bowdoin. Wil was instrumental in helping Bowdoin expand access and opportunities for students of color, not knowing, of course, that one of his future players would continue his good work in the athletic arena.

While Cooke herself has never had a black female coach, she believes representation is powerful.

“Representation matters—in gender and race and sexuality, whatever it might be,” she says. “Having teammates, captains, and coaches with shared identities and experiences can greatly impact one’s experience on a team. Whatever subconscious

biases you have will still influence how you coach me, what calls you make as a ref, how or if you establish a relationship with me, how you navigate that relationship, and much more. It also shapes how I feel too.”

Whether she’s coaching from the sidelines, teaching in the classroom, or sprinting up the YMCA courts, it’s not in Cooke’s nature to tone down her talents because she’s outshining others. So, on that recent Saturday, as the men around her struggled to make sense of a woman outplaying them, she spoke up about the gender biases that make the “let a girl beat you” insult so offensive. Then, she took the ball ... and ran with it.

Cooke (right) and her Berkshire teammates Samone DeFreese ‘16 and Kristalyn Baisden ‘15, were each selected to play in the NEPSAC All-Star game in 2014.

Photo courtesy of Hannah Cooke ‘14

Cooke is now a history teacher at Pomfret School in Connecticut, where she is serving as the assistant coach on the girls varsity basketball and varsity track and field teams, and is working on diversity and social justice initiatives. In developing her history curriculum, she has been intentional about highlighting a wide range of experiences and cultures in the US, and teaching students to begin to recognize how their own racial biases might marginalize others. “I think it’s healthy to question: What is going on in our world, and what is my role in perpetuating or stopping it?’”

As a coach, Cooke is thrilled to be a pillar of support for female athletes of color at Pomfret. She cites her Berkshire basketball coach, the late Wil Smith, who also served as the School’s dean of community and multicultural affairs, as being highly influential. It’s possible that Wil’s influence extended beyond the basketball court. Before coming to Berkshire, Wil served as associate dean

REMEMBERING WIL SMITH

Dean of Community & Multicultural Affairs (2010–2015) “I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to be coached and mentored by Wil. Wil taught me so much about basketball, resilience, love, appreciation, and leadership. When Wil was doing chemotherapy, he never missed a single practice. He showed up every day with gloves on to protect himself from infection. He used to say that basketball and our team was his medicine, so he couldn’t miss practices or games because it was good for his health. I know Wil was in pain, but he never ever showed it. He didn’t soften at all either; he still held us to the same high standard and showed up every day with this level of intensity that I have yet to see matched by any other coach.

Before every game, Wil would lead us in a prayer, saying that we played ‘for all the girls around the world who don’t get a chance to play this wonderful game of basketball, on their shoulders we stand.’

Wil reminded us that the world was so much bigger than basketball. He made us into a family, and some of my favorite memories are playing for him.”

Photo courtesy of Hannah Cooke ‘14

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