Now & Later

Anabel Schiller ’24 + Stephanie Jones Landvater ’73

Lincoln students and alumnae with a shared purpose or passion

Orthopedic surgery is the least female of all medical specialties: women make up barely 10 percent of surgeons. One way to grow that number is through pipeline programs.

Anabel Schiller ’24 is attempting to do just that.

Last summer Schiller and her father, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, conceived of an afterschool program at Lincoln that would expose girls to “real-world challenges” from the field, from scoliosis to bone fractures. Key to their idea was opening it up to girls from other schools in the community who might not have access to such a program. They presented their concept to John Diego Arango, director of the STEAM program, and to Sophie Glenn Lau ’88, head of school. Both loved it.

The result is Orthopedics in Action at Lincoln School. It’s built on a curriculum designed by the

Perry Initiative, an organization that aims to inspire young women to enter the fields of orthopedic surgery and engineering, and made possible in part thanks to a partnership with University Orthopedics, where Schiller’s father works.

This spring semester, 14 Lincoln students and four students from Providence’s Met School are gaining hands-on know-how from female medical students and University Orthopedics surgeons. The course comprises eight standalone lessons, complete with kits containing tools and 3D-printed bones.

Stephanie Jones Landvater ’73, who recently retired after a career as an orthopedic surgeon, believes the girls are in for a treat: “Orthopedics is fun!” she said.

While her excellent hand-eye coordination made for remarkable surgical skills, being one of the only women in her profession was hard. At conferences, she was sometimes mistaken for the model on whom orthopedists would demonstrate different casts.

“I definitely paid my dues,” she said. “It was a rough road, but I just kept going. Having grown up with six brothers helped!”

Landvater, who was raised with 10 siblings (her sister is Lisa Jones ’76), recalled timing herself as she set the table for 13 people: “I always wanted to be better, faster, more precise,” she said. “I got really good at grabbing the right number of napkins from the stack every single time.” the Lincoln community, which she said is more supportive than any school she’s attended: “I’m never afraid to ask questions.”

Like Schiller, Landvater was also the daughter of a doctor—renowned thoracic surgeon Dr. Leland Jones, who performed the first successful open-heart operation in New England, in 1955. He never pressured her to go into medicine, however, and after coming to Lincoln in her junior year, Landvater spent more time on the gymnastics mat and the playing fields than in the science classroom. “I was on any team you could get on,” she said, but gymnastics was her thing. She became Rhode Island champion and was nationally ranked.

The course is a trial run, but with freshmen and sophomores taking part, Schiller is confident there will be students to keep it going after she graduates. She also hopes that more girls from the Met School and other schools in the Providence area will continue to enroll.

When a vaulting injury led her to the office of Dr. Lyle Micheli, a spine surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital, Landvater developed an interest in the profession. Dr. Micheli became an important mentor.

Schiller credits her father with helping her make the program happen. She also credits

Though she hasn’t decided on surgery, Schiller said she’s always been interested in science and is very open to a career in medicine. Whether it’s a question of gender or race, she said, “it’s important to see people [in orthopedics] who look like you, so you can believe this is a career you can pursue.”

Friends

Megan Hallan ’00

When Megan Hallan ’00 married Alberto Cornelio Rivera in Oaxaca, Mexico, last November, the food was Mexican, the music was a mix, and the flavor was distinctly Lincoln.

Not only did Sarah Conde ’00 officiate in English (the ceremony was in English and Spanish), but Jane Finn-Foley ’00 and Liza Aguiar ’00 served as bridesmaids. So did Katie Weisberg, whom Hallan met at Lincoln but who finished school elsewhere, and Jessica Weaver ’00 Bronwyn Roberts Preston ’00 and Emily Vander Does ’00 were in attendance, as were the parents of some of Hallan’s classmates. Although they were unable to attend, Leticia Buonanno Burman ’00 and Molly Jacobs Robertson ’00 were there in spirit!

“Some of my husband’s friends were in the wedding too. They’re friends he’s had a long time, but I’ve known some of mine since kindergarten and first grade. That impresses him,” Hallan noted. “Alberto loves my friends— they’re like our family.”

The bride walked down the aisle to the tune of “Simple Gifts,” and the three-day celebration also featured marimbas and mariachi bands. Guests took part in a calenda, a traditional Oaxacan parade through the town. The couple and their family members also constructed an ofrenda, or offering, an altar connected with Día de los Muertos commemorating departed loved ones. Part of the ofrenda was in memory of classmate Morgan Stone ’00

Family connections to Lincoln run deep for the recent bride. Her paternal grandfather was beloved choir director T. James Hallan Sr., who founded the Lambrequins. Her mother, Dorothea “Doro” Hallan, taught second grade there for 38 years. After a post-college stint in marketing and fundraising, Hallan returned to school and became a teacher herself, in Harlem and later in the South Bronx. She now works at the American School Foundation, a private school in Mexico City. Like Lincoln, the school dates back to the 19th century. Unlike Lincoln, “it’s huge.” Hallan is one of seven third-grade teachers.

“One of the things I loved about Lincoln was how small it was. I miss that sense of community,” she said. “Obviously, it’s where I found my people.”