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ALUMNI PROFILE
The 13-member Tartan Alumni Council is tasked with leading the vital link between St. Margaret’s and its 2,600 alumni.
By Jonathan Tufo
From its founding in 1979, St. Margaret’s has been a school that has grown and succeeded in large part due to the active engagement of community members. One group that has shown incredible value and insight to the organization is the Tartan Alumni Council, comprised of alumni leaders ranging from the Class of 1986 to the Class of 2017. The Tartan Alumni Council is the volunteer leadership body of the Tartan Alumni Association. The council’s purpose is to foster a spirit of fellowship and loyalty among alumni and to promote the mission, interest and well-being of St. Margaret’s Episcopal School.
2021-2022 Tartan Alumni Council
Natalie Barbaresi ‘12 Josiah Edwards ‘09 Deanna Ruck Emsley ‘86 Shara Famili ‘17 Colter Fleming ’02 David Larsen ‘16 Francelia Lievanos ‘16 Anna Remsberg Marquez ‘02 Mattingly Messina ’13 McCaully Patch ‘12 Olivia Santora ‘13 Ian Thomas ’09 Andrew Wood ’03 Marina Goffredo (ex officio)
In other words, the Tartan Alumni Council is a vital link between St. Margaret’s and its 2,600 alumni, many of whom are active supporters of the school. As the alumni base grows each year—98 students in the Class of 2021 joined the illustrious ranks in June—so too has the Tartan Alumni Council. The 2021-2022 council roster is made up of a record-high 13 alumni, located in Southern California and far away.
These professionals with careers ranging from technology and law to health care and hospitality, navigate their busy careers and personal schedules with quarterly council meetings, leading subcommittee gatherings and enlisting other alumni to be involved, school event participation, alumni programs and event planning.
“The members of the Tartan Alumni Council are outstanding representatives of our alumni base,” Tartan Alumni Association President and councilmember Mattingly Messina ’13 said. “They play a huge role in strengthening the crucial connection between the school and its graduates. We have a busy year ahead and all of us are eager to get to work.”
The council provides input and direction to the school on reunion planning, events and gatherings, the Tartan Alumni Legacy Endowment, and career programming opportunities like helping current students with Independent Senior Projects and the Alumni Career Forum. The council helps the school solicit and gather feedback from alumni on their educational and student experience at St. Margaret’s to help advance the school program.
The council has five subcommittees, which meet monthly to further explore alumni interests:
ENDOWMENT: To support the long-term financial health of St. Margaret’s through grassroots fundraising among alumni.
EQUITY & INCLUSION: To view the Tartan Alumni Council’s goals and strategies through the lens of equity and inclusion, and to ensure the needs of underrepresented alumni are being met.
EVENTS & COMMUNICATION: To keep alumni up to date on the issues that matter most to them, and to provide opportunities for alumni to come together throughout the year in celebration.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: To provide alumni with opportunities to advance their careers through professional development events and institutional support.
RECRUITMENT & NOMINATIONS: To ensure the Tartan Alumni Council is composed of alumni leaders that represent all interests of the larger alumni body, and to cultivate future alumni leaders.
The last 18 months have been challenging for the Tartan Alumni Association with the need to postpone in-person events and activities, like reunions. Yet, building community and nurturing connection between the school and alumni continues to be an important focus and the council.
Significant efforts over the past year, in addition to expanding the council’s subcommittee scope and focus, included several alumni virtual forums for alumni to learn and give feedback on important school initiatives, including independent senior projects, recruitment and expansion of the council volunteer leadership, and diversity, equity and inclusion work.
“It’s important that we receive feedback from our alumni and use this dialogue to confirm and enhance our current programming on campus. Our alumni have a unique perspective on the St. Margaret’s experience, one that can inform our work throughout the school as we continue to evolve,” said Victor Cota, Director of Equty and Inclusion and the ISP program.
Amid the pandemic, it was even more important to tap into the alumni community to provide meaningful professional, creative and field experiences for seniors through the ISPs program in partnership with businesses and organizations. More than 80 St. Margaret’s alumni offered their help to coach/mentor or host ISP students. The council is looking forward to developing that program further this year. The council also helped facilitate alumni participation and input to the school’s innovation strategy process around the development of Upper School affinity group spaces for students. The school’s Equity Team engaged in ethnographic interviews with students, parents, professional community members, and alumni, and those inputs will meaningfully inform the roll-out of student affinity groups this fall. The voice and perspective of alumni are important to the Board of Trustees of the school as well, and it appoints and ensures alumni representation through a dedicated Tartan Alumni Association seat on the Board for a full threeyear term. The current St. Margaret’s alumni representative on the Board of Trustees Mark Risner ‘86, who also previously served as the Tartan Alumni Council president from 2017 to 2020.
It is just the latest progress for St. Margaret’s vibrant, forward-thinking alumni organization. The Tartan Alumni Association was established in 2001, when there were just 16 graduating classes and 660 alumni. The TAA’s executive committee, the precursor to the Tartan Alumni Council, started the same year as a four-person committee tasked with supporting St. Margaret’s and planning relevant programs that promote relations between the alumni and the school.
The Alumni Council looks considerably different 20 years later, much like St. Margaret’s itself. All in-person Alumni Council meetings are broadcast online (and have been since long before the COVID-19 pandemic made such technology necessary) as a way to have representation from alumni outside of Southern California. The council has more than tripled in size (as has the alumni base) and the scope of alumni-driven activities has expanded greatly.
If you are interested in getting involved with the Tartan Alumni Council, its subcommittees and the St. Margaret’s alumni community, please visit www.smes.org/alumni to learn more.
