Christina Vest continued
in New York City, while John was getting his MD at Columbia and where he later joined the cardiology division faculty. After a few more moves, the Vests are now happily ensconced in Boston. Christina is a managing director and partner of Hicks Equity Partners, the private equity arm of Tom Hicks’ family office. John is senior director of clinical development at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridgebased biotech firm. At Park, Christina has enjoyed being actively involved with the Parents’ Association, co-chairing Springfest in 2014, co-chairing the Faculty & Staff Appreciation Raffle in 2015, and serving on the PA board last year. In addition, Christina has enjoyed being a Class Rep, as well as serving on the Major Gifts Committee and on the Finance Taskforce of the Strategic Plan Committee. “I am excited to be joining Park’s Board of Trustees and am looking forward to working with the administration, the faculty, and the parents of this wonderful school.”
14
The Park School Bulletin
fall 2016
Mary Witkowski
W
hen looking for a school for her children, Mary saw in Park a chance for her children to become curious, supported, and challenged and for her family to join a community of thoughtful educators and parents. Growing up in Marblehead, she attended two independent day schools on the North Shore very similar to Park: Shore Country Day School for grades Kindergarten–5, followed by Tower School for grades 6–9. “Tower was and continues to be a huge influence on my life – giving me a foundation for all of my subsequent education. I gained a lot from the strong academics, but gained even more from the individual relationships with faculty who took their time to teach me how to learn.” With that preparation, Mary enrolled in one of Deerfield Academy’s first co-ed classes and later Harvard College, where she majored in biochemistry and most importantly met her husband, Erik, in the library. “I know, kind of dorky!” After graduating from Harvard, Mary worked as a consultant at Bain & Company for three years and developed a keen interest in improving healthcare delivery systems. She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and worked in business and finance for several years before enrolling at Harvard Medical School in 2007. Mary brings a unique business background to medicine. She is particularly interested in examining and re-tooling healthcare delivery systems that will improve patient care. “When I was at Bain, I worked with companies ranging from orange juice and paper cup manufacturers to financial services companies to improve how they delivered their products to the market. Now that
I’ve been on the inside of medicine, I am excited about the many opportunities I see for improvement in the way we provide medical care. We need to ask the right questions and be willing to make change to bring the facilities, technology, and organizational systems into alignment to provide better outcomes and better care for patients.” Erik and Mary live around the corner from Park with their four children, Erika (Grade VIII), Luke (Grade V), Cate (Grade II), and Jack (age 4). All four children are avid ice skaters, which has influenced the whole Witkowski family. Mary serves on the board of the Skating Club of Boston’s Theater on Ice Program and has joined an adult skating team as well. Since the family has been at Park, Mary has served as a class rep in Pre-K and in Grade VI, served on the Springfest Auction committee, and will be co-chairing the Faculty & Staff Appreciation Luncheon this year. Currently, she serves on the board of the Lynch Foundation, focusing primarily on supporting education and healthcare. During her tenure as a trustee at Tower School, Mary served on the head of school search committee and the strategic planning committee. As Park’s new strategic plan gets underway, Mary is excited to join the Board of Trustees.