Major Gifts Committee in helping Park achieve its important goals toward the Annual Fund as well as the Park21 Campaign. “I am thrilled to be joining the Board at what is a very exciting time for the School and as our children continue their Park journey. I’ve enjoyed working with the Major Gifts Committee and Elizabeth has loved the opportunity to serve as a Class Rep. We feel fortunate to be a Park family and look forward to many more years of involvement with the School.”
Denise Jefferson Casper
B
orn and bred in New York, Denise Jefferson Casper has made Massachusetts her home for the past 24 years. “I attended the same public school system on Long Island from kindergarten through twelfth grade. There, I had the benefit of great teachers and a long-standing connection to the community as I graduated from the same high school that my grandfather had 58 years before I did.” Denise headed north to Wesleyan University and, after a year working for a non-profit organization in Cambridge, attended Harvard Law School. “I fell in love with New England and never left.” After sixteen years as an attorney, most of them as a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston and the Deputy District Attorney for Middlesex County, Denise was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts at the end of 2010. “I am honored to serve as a federal district judge in the court in which I got my start as a trial attorney and within this Commonwealth, a place of rich history, innovation, and community engagement.” Before her children reached
school age, Denise heard about Park from a number of friends and was attracted to its dedication to academic excellence, promotion of creative thinking and commitment to diversity. “Education is very important to our family, in all of its forms and settings, and Park is a very special place.” Denise’s commitment to education is demonstrated by her longtime involvement with the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, her work with the Nelson and Lindsay Fellowships (two summer fellowships for promising high school and college students from the Greater Boston area) and her recent involvement with the Steppingstone Foundation. Denise and her 10-year-old sons, Harry (a fifth grader at the Heath School) and Jacob (in Grade V at Park), live in Brookline.
Laura DeBonis
L
aura graduated from Harvard College and remained in Cambridge to work in documentary film and public media before attending Harvard Business School. After business school, she started working in the area of consumer Internet technology, ultimately joining the business management team at Google where she helped launch and grow the AdSense and BookSearch products. Since leaving Google, Laura has worked on two teams at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society: first, assessing child safety on social networks as part of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force and, second, helping to launch the Digital Public Library of America. Laura and her husband, Scott Nathan, live in Boston with their two children, Asher (Pre-K) and Lia
The Park Bulletin | Fall 2014
(Grade II). For Laura and Scott, finding the right school for their children had many facets. “Park clearly has fantastic teachers and facilities but what really struck us was how the environment cultivates curiosity and creativity along with respect and friendship.” Laura currently serves on the boards of the Boston Public Library and WGBH and is looking forward to joining Park’s Board as well.
Amelia Lloyd McCarthy ’86
A
my is thrilled to be coming back to Park. She started her relationship with Park School in Mrs. Crichton’s Kindergarten class in 1976. After graduating from Park, Amy attended Concord Academy and subsequently studied international relations at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She worked briefly at Putnam Investments, went on to earn a degree in library science from Simmons College, and began focusing her career in education, first at the Roxbury Latin School library and then at the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C. After guiding her family’s real estate business through a generational transition, Amy redirected her focus back to education and to her community, this time as a volunteer. She served on the Park Board of Trustees 2006 –12, the Brookline Music School, and the Brookline Library Foundation. Amy currently sits on the Board at Beacon Academy, serves as First Vice President of Concord Academy’s Board of Trustees, and is a member of Park’s Alumni Committee. She was the 2012 recipient of Park’s Alumni Service Award. Amy is happy to be back at Park 11