ALUMNI NEWS
John D. Wallace ’48 Alumni Service Award by linda maxwell stefanelli ’62
Treby McLaughlin Williams ’80 Richard Trenner
From Colross to Nassau Hall and Back Again
Like most Princeton Day School graduates, Treby McLaughlin Williams anticipated receiving her diploma on the front lawn of Colross but then rain forced the ceremony inside. The sun shone four years later, however, when she was awarded honors in history on the lawn outside Princeton’s Nassau Hall. In 1999, she returned to Colross as a trustee, never suspecting her board experience would lead her straight back to Nassau Hall. “I feel like I’ve gone to PDS twice,” she says, noting that the 13 years she spent as a trustee were just as educational as the 12 she spent as a PDS student. After graduating from Princeton, Ms. Williams received her law degree from New York University. She worked in private practice and then spent 12 years as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the District of New Jersey, working with the F.B.I. to bring white collar criminals, violent offenders, and corrupt politicians to justice. “I loved being a prosecutor,” she says. “It’s the best legal job there is. But I found I really enjoyed the dynamic of the PDS board and working with the administration to advance something I believed in. I was discovering aspects of myself that I didn’t even know were there. As an attorney, I worked in an adversarial environment: in every transaction, there was a winner and a loser. It wasn’t about consensus building. I never saw myself as a leader — at all — and I didn’t see myself as a consensus builder. There’s no question it was the PDS board experience that made me think, ‘I really want to do something entirely different.’” JOURNAL
As a result, she took an administrative position at Princeton University and rose to become its Executive Vice President. As such, she serves as its chief operations officer and works from a third floor office in Nassau Hall, overlooking FitzRandolph Gate and the entrance to the campus where her commencement exercises were held in 1984. The first PDS alumna to serve as board chair, Ms. Williams’ leadership strengthened the school and created an atmosphere in which the institution has flourished. “The most significant thing I did during my time as a PDS trustee and the thing that I’m most proud of, is leading the Search Committee that brought (Head of School) Paul Stellato to PDS,” she says. “That was the first time we had a Search Committee that included faculty and administrators. I felt strongly their expertise and knowledge of the school would be critical to the committee’s work. It ended up being absolutely the right decision. It was also fantastic in deepening Board understanding of the faculty experience and I think the faculty and administrators on the committee were astounded to learn of the amount of time the trustees spent working for the school.” “Treby and I joined the PDS board together, and it didn’t take long to realize what an intellectual powerhouse she is,” says Trustee Andy Okun. “But what I admire most about Treby is the integrity she brings to every decision, every process, and every outcome. Treby became chair of the board in the fall of 2008 during the financial market crisis. She was a tower of strength and rationality during a very difficult and traumatic time. She guided the school beautifully during