ALUMNAE Alumnae SPOTLIGHT KRISTEN DANLEY ’04
Written by Liz Palka Minukas '04
When choosing a career path, Kristen Danley’s advice is simple: listen to the part of you that gets excited. The Holy Child Class of 2004 alumna speaks from experience after many a 24-hour shift at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. For the last three years, she has served as a primary care attending physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Karabots Pediatric Care Center. The clinic provides well child care, sick visits, family planning visits and social work services to an urban population with high medical and socioeconomic needs in West Philadelphia. Kristen is not just a pediatrician, but an educator as well. Karabots is also a teaching clinic where Kristen trains medical students and pediatric residents from the University of Pennsylvania and CHOP. As she says, she’s helping to instill future doctors with empathy and compassion for their patients in addition to clinical knowledge.
READ MORE
ABOUT KRISTEN Kristen became interested in medicine during high school but didn’t know any doctors. USING THE QR So, she started speaking up and asking who might be able to help her gain experience ABOVE! in the field. Opportunities presented themselves like attending a high school science conference at Georgetown University and shadowing at an infectious disease clinic at the National Institutes of Health. Those first forays into the world of medicine solidified her decision to study pre-med at Bucknell University. Kristen then took a year off after college to work as a clinical research assistant before going on to medical school at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and her Pediatric Residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
MARGUERITE BOTTORFF ’06
Written by Krista Montes de Oca Kelly '05
Some of the best memories stem from sitting around a table, sharing a meal with friends and family, talking about your day, or telling a funny story. Class of 2006 alumna Marguerite Bottorff said this kind of joy began for her at Holy Child during lunchtime with friends and has stayed with her as she launched her catering business more than 10 years later. Marguerite is the founder and head chef at Silver Spoon Catering Company, which covers the DMV. Drawing on her own experience of developing Celiac Disease, she had the idea for an allergy-friendly catering and personal chef company. Now she regularly appears on local news segments, serves and hosts parties for embassies, receptions for galleries, and private dinners for some of DC’s most elite. Marguerite’s journey to opening her own business has taken many turns, leading her to work with some of the biggest names in the food industry. While she initially attended The University of Mississippi, her Celiac Disease diagnosis took its toll, forcing her to move home. But Marguerite didn’t let her situation get in the way of pursuing an extraordinary opportunity. She reached out to an acquaintance with the Food Network and ended up landing a job working with Chef Bobby Flay’s production company, Rock Shrimp Production. From there, Marguerite moved to Charleston, SC, where she worked at several restaurants and large catering companies, all while earning her degree from College of Charleston. She eventually moved home to Washington, DC, experimented in teaching, and even tried opening her own baby food delivery service. She always worked multiple jobs, including developing recipes at Whole Foods, serving as sous chef at Mikko in Dupont Circle, and then the secondever female chef in 27 years at Jaleo. All the while, she was trying to grow her own catering business. As of September 15, 2019, the dream she worked so hard to achieve came true when she officially began working for herself.
READ MORE ABOUT MARGURITE USING THE QR ABOVE!
43
