The Lovett School Magazine, Spring 2022

SPRING

2022

the lovett school magazine

The Strive to Thrive in the New Normal

page

48

Our students thrive because of

you

Every day, our students thrive in learning and in life because of Lovett’s distinctive academic programs, talented faculty, and extensive extracurriculars. When you give to the True Blue Fund, you ensure a meaningful Lovett experience for every student.

Support the 2021-22 True Blue Fund today by visiting lovett.org/givetrueblue or by scanning the QR code:

03 table of contents 04 | GREETINGS 04 / Letter from the Head of School 06 / Letter from the Editor 07 / The Lovett School Board of Trustees 2021-22

48

09 | CAMPUS NEWS

33 | FEATURES

10 / Top 20 Social Media Posts

34 / A Transition with a Vision: New Division Heads Named

12 / Staying Engaged 16 / Lions, Camera, Action!

18 / Live It. Learn it. Lovett.

20 / Reverse Fly-In 22 / Roam the Riverbank 24 / Riverbank Round-up 28 / Fine Arts News 32 / Founder’s Day Chapel

40 / Hometown Heroes 44 / Embracing the Challenge 48 / The Strive to Thrive in the New Normal 56 / One Pride: The 2022 Lovett Auction

70 66 | ALUMNI

60 / A Lasting Legacy 62 / Congratulations Class of 2021

67 / Events

12

69 / Alumni Board 70 / Homecoming 72 / Reunions 78 / Class Notes 90 / Marriages 94 / Babies 98 / In Memoriam 101 / Tributes

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head of school message

04

embracing the CHAOS

together

Dear Lovett Community: If there is one thing that the last two years have

deeply into the issue and to alter our perspective

taught me, it’s the importance of community. At

in order to discover a solution. We are forced

Lovett, community is so paramount to who we are

to create a shift in our behavior and lean into

that it is prominently placed within our mission

discomfort and ambiguity to make effective

statement: The Lovett School is a community of

changes. It is not easy work, but it is necessary.

belonging that develops students of honor, faith, and wisdom with the character and intellect to

As we all navigate the ongoing pandemic and

thrive in learning and life.

its effects, we must rely on our communities and embrace the chaos together. At Lovett, we

However, the last two years have taken a

encourage students to recognize these moments

toll on the idea of community. Many of us

of changing circumstances and approach them

are experiencing the long-term impacts and

with imaginative ideas and innovative solutions.

challenges of pandemic life. Mental and physical

Using adaptive problem solving, we can reframe

health, inequities, isolation, and feelings of

struggle as an opportunity for individual self-

uncertainty, anger, and more have eroded

discovery and community growth. The inspiring

relationships and the sense of community we

Ted Lasso said it so well: “Taking on a challenge

value so dearly.

is a lot like riding a horse, isn’t it? If you’re comfortable while you’re doing it, you’re probably

To fix this problem, we as humans are innately

doing it wrong.”

wired toward finding solutions through technical problem solving. If this is the issue, then this

I hope you will join me and take the reins of

is how you resolve it. Unfortunately, not every

discomfort. As a unified community, we can take

problem, including a global pandemic, can be

on whatever challenges present themselves,

solved that way. Instead, for significant change

uncover creative solutions, and grow together.

to take place, we must use adaptive problem solving. This approach requires us to look more

Sincerely,

Meredyth Cole Head of School

the lovett school magazine / spring

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letter from the editor

06

the lovett school magazine spring issue 2022

Head of School Meredyth Cole

Associate Head of School Chelle Wabrek

Executive Editor

Justin Abraham Director of Communications

Contributing Editor

Janie Coleman Beck Chief Marketing Officer

Greetings from the Riverbank!

Though the Lovett Magazine has had a longer-thanexpected absence from your mailboxes and coffee tables, I am excited to share this issue with you. Inside these pages, you will find updates from across campus, athletics and fine arts news, a peek into how faculty and students are thriving in the new normal, alumni happenings, and much more.

As one of the newest Lions on campus, it has been an honor to immerse myself in this unique community. Since my arrival in October 2021, I have felt the enthusiasm and pride that exudes from faculty, staff, students,

Senior Editors

Lara Kauffman Director of Alumni Engagement Starr Pollock Assistant Director of Alumni Engagement

Contributors

Adekale Ande Melinda Church Jay Freer ’78 Beverly Hamrick Elizabeth R. Pearce ’87 Caroline Rollins Mason Rooney Jessica Sant Fran Turner Chelle Wabrek

Graphic Design & Art Direction Dawn Stein

Printing

Bennett Graphics

Photography

Miguel Gutiérrez Alice Park Paul Ward Faculty, staff, student, and parent photographers

ON THE COVER

Zaynab Farid ’26 and Skylar Maxell ’26

Comments to the Editor

Please direct all comments to: Justin Abraham

Director of Communications 404-262-3032, ext. 1267 justin.abraham@lovett.org

parents, and alumni when discussing what it means to be a Lovett Lion. It is my hope to bring you exceptional communications—publications, videos, social media, and more—that strengthen your connection to and deepen your pride in this institution.

It is an exciting time to be a Lion as we near the School’s Centennial in 2026, and I look forward to sharing Lovett’s past, present, and future with you.

Sincerely,

Justin Abraham director of communications

Lovett Magazine is published by the Communications Office twice a year and is mailed free of charge to alumni, parents, and friends of The Lovett School. For general information, please email justin.abraham@lovett.org. To submit alumni news, email alumni@lovett.org or visit www.lovett.org. ©2022 The Lovett School, 4075 Paces Ferry Road, N.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30327-3009.

The Lovett School, Inc. does not discriminate on the basis of any category protected by applicable federal, state, or local law, including, but not limited to, race, color, gender, religion, age, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, or gender identity and expression, with respect to qualified persons in the administration of the School’s employment practices, admission policies, educational policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletic programs, or other school administered programs.

This publication is printed by an fsc-certified printer on paper that is 30 percent post-consumer waste and 50 percent recycled, processed chlorine-free.

Please note:

spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

Lovett continues to follow the latest COVID-19 public health guidelines. Photos in this publication are reflective of the guidelines in place at the time the photos were taken.

board of Trustees

07

The Lovett School 2021-22 Board of Trustees John O. Knox, Jr. ’88 Chairman

John C. Staton III ’84 Vice Chairman

Nancy Brumley Robitaille ’84 Secretary John Mongelli Treasurer

David B. Allman ’72 Yetty Levenson Arp ’64 Katherine Rowland Boudreau ’91 Bo Briggs Garry Lamond Capers, Jr. Sonny Cohen Malon W. Courts Sylvia L. Dick Elise Blitch Drake Michael S. Hardee, MD

Russell R. French

Jane Kerr Mathews

R. Reid French, Jr. ’89

James M. McIntyre ’83

William B. Fryer

James B. Meyer

Thomas C. Gallagher

C. V. Nalley III

John T. Glover

Robert E. Peterson

Deborah Hodge Harrison

Elizabeth Dykes Pope ’79

William F. Henagan ’76

Mark C. Pope IV ’68

J. H. Hilsman III Little Lovett

Jan N. Portman

Jeffrey F. Hines, M.D.

William H. Rogers, Jr.

John R. Holder ’73

Arthur W. Rollins ’77

Dabney Mann Hollis

F. Blair Schmidt-Fellner

Clayton F. Jackson ’77

Christian B. Schoen ’79

Harrison Jones II

Richard F. Smith

David B. Kahn ’81

John R. Wells

Frank Kinnett

Elizabeth B. West

Kathryn McCain Lee

Gerald J. Wilkins

Robert C. Loudermilk, Jr. ’78

Frank L. Wilson III ’72

C. Knox Massey, Jr.

Justin Jones ’97 Raymond J. Kotwicki, M.D. Amy Rollins Kreisler ’88 Nick Lakha Donald M. Leebern III Alison Elizabeth Lewis Anne Helms Marino Eileen Keough Millard ’80 James T. Mills, Jr. ’74 Wright Mitchell ’88 Clay Nalley ’90 Carla Y. Neal-Haley, M.D. David Wall Rice, PhD Irma G. Shrivastava Megan Apple Stephenson ’93 Burke W. Whitman ’74 Leonard Wood, Jr. ’94

TRUSTEES EMERITI David F. Apple, Jr., M.D. Charles R. Arp, Jr., D.D.S. ’62 Brian M. J. Boutté Gordon A. Buchmiller, Jr. J. Donald Childress Sallie Adams Daniel ’68 John M. Darden III Richard A. Denny, Jr. Bruce L. Dick Margaret Denny Dozier ’73 Daniel M. DuPree

The Board of Trustees (pictured) and school leadership took part in a retreat on February 11 and 12, 2022. At the retreat, the Board ensured priorities are aligned and confirmed key initiatives for the 2022-23 academic year.

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summer

at lovett

Lovett offers a diverse catalog of exciting experiences for students of all ages!

Students will have the opportunity to explore their interests, enjoy new experiences, develop their academic skills, or just have fun this summer! Offerings include athletics and arts-related camps, academic-focused courses, and specialty programs.

VIEW OFFERINGS AND REGISTER TODAY! VISIT lovett.org/summerprograms or scan the qr code

CAMPUS NEWS

It was a joyful late-August morning as the community gathered in Kilpatrick Stadium for the Opening All-School Chapel Service. As is tradition, the seniors (Class of 2022) processed with the youngest Lions, the Class of 2034!

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Campus News

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top 20

social media posts

| by Mason Rooney, Assistant Director of Admission & Social Media Manager

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1. To allow students and families to celebrate the Braves’ historic win, Lovett closed for the championship parade. 2. Shane Kimbrough ’85 and the Crew Dragon Endeavour returned to Earth this fall after a record-breaking 199 full days in orbit. This mission was the longest ever for a fully U.S.-launched crew! 3. We wished John Staton ’17 and Brady Tindall ’17 luck as they took on and defeated Alabama in the National Championship.

Go Dawgs! 4. Upper School students brought “anything but a backpack” to carry their books from class to class during Homecoming Week! 5. Our entire community gathered together to celebrate Lovett’s 96th school year with our Opening All-School Chapel Service. Seniors continued the tradition of processing in with our youngest Lions, the Class of 2034. 6. Congratulations to our Homecoming King & Queen, George Izard and Margaret Hare!

7. Cameron Colavito ’21 had always wanted to attend a service academy as well as continue her love for cheer. This fall, Cameron achieved one of her biggest goals by cheering in her first football season at The Naval Academy. 8. Joseph Moody and Patrick Boswell were named the new Head of Middle School and Head of Upper School, respectively. 9. No better way to start a Friday than the Homecoming Parade! 10. Lovett Lions love to cheer for the Braves!

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Campus News

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Follow us! @thelovettschool

The Lovett School

@thelovettschool

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11. At the Homecoming pep rally, Coach Muschamp, the senior football players, and our cheerleaders from Lower School and Upper School made sure our students were filled with spirit for the big game that evening! 12. Lower School is where the magic happens, especially on Halloween!

13. Justin Griffin ’24 auditioned and was selected as the number two ninth and tenth grade trumpet player in the state of Georgia! Justin performed in the GMEA Concert Band #1. 14. Eight of our junior and senior students were recognized for earning academic honors from the College Board’s National Recognition Programs! 15. Congratulations to Sarah Dowling ’22 and Ben Foster ’22 for being named to Atlanta Intown Magazine’s 20 Under 20 list! 16. Beautiful fall colors surrounded all of Lovett’s campus throughout first semester 17. Twelve students were celebrated for their National Merit Commendation. We are incredibly proud of these Lions, half of whom have been at Lovett since kindergarten! 18. Lower School students painted pumpkins representing their favorite book characters! 19. Students in all three divisions collected toys for the Agape Center in many different ways. At the end of December, they loaded a truck full of toys and delivered these gifts to our friends at Agape! 20. The second day of Homecoming Week had the theme “USA - Home of the Braves.” Lunch time was filled with collecting donations for the Wounded Warrior Project, playing wiffle ball, voting on which teachers they’ll “pie” later in the week, and spending time in the sun with friends!

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Staying

Engaged and Building Essential Skills Along the Way | by Fran Turner, Director of Civic and Global Engagement

spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

IN

early 2020, it felt as if our world was growing smaller. As news of the pandemic spread, Lovett’s opportunities to engage seemed to drop away—slowly, to start, and later in a flood of canceled plans. First affected was Lovett’s teacher exchange with partner schools in the World Leading Schools Association. The Chinese teachers who we had planned to host for two weeks in early February could no longer come. Then we postponed off-campus service trips to Agape and La Amistad. And when we canceled the Marine Biology trip to Skidaway Island, we suspected things would not be returning to normal for quite some time.

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Opposite: Students hosted a day of service at W-Underdogs. Above and overlay: Lovett’s virtual storybook library. Right: Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service.

By March and April, though we were learning and working from home, Lovett students wanted and needed to continue to engage with the world around them, and it was clear we would need to adapt. The first thing our community did was to create a storybook library. Students, faculty, and staff responded to the needs of our youngest learners by creating videos of themselves reading their favorite children’s books. The stories were so welcomed that we shared them with the School’s community partners so that children all around the city would have access to this fun, helpful, and comforting resource. Students in Angela Mitchell’s AP Spanish class even made a Spanish version of the library!

watch the videos AT Visit www.Love.tt/storybook or www.Love.tt/storybook-spanish Students found ways to give back in their neighborhoods by volunteering with Meals on Wheels, packing boxes of food, writing letters, and creating art for homebound seniors. Members of our Student Service Board interviewed trusted community partners to learn firsthand about how the pandemic was affecting them. Using that

information, Lovett posted and updated a list of their unique and changing needs so that families could lend a hand where and when they were able. Despite being isolated at home, the Lovett community responded with purpose, faith, and love.

Visit www.Love.tt/covid-help to view the dozens of community partners Lovett families engaged with during COVID-19.

Since returning to campus in the fall of 2020, we’ve adapted in other ways as well. Groups of Middle and Upper School students took part in dialogues with peers from around the world regarding global topics like climate change, food insecurity, and the pandemic experience. Lower School students celebrated their custodial staff heroes by making giant thank you cards and decorating cookies. The Model U.N. Club planned and hosted a virtual Model U.N. with our partner school in South Africa, and Lovett partnered with the Buckhead Rotary to create a virtual tutoring program with students in Tanzania. Students, faculty, and families volunteered outside at community gardens, cemeteries, and schools. Junior Outdoor Experience (JOE) happened, though the lovett school magazine / spring

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Campus News

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Above: At their last home meet, the Middle School swimming and diving team collected toys for the Agape Youth and Community Center.

Left: Middle School students volunteered at Agape during the holidays.

Below: On the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service, students and families sanded and painted benches at Dunleith Elementary School. Opposite: Upper School students toured the Atlanta Botanical Garden as local field trips resumed during the 2021-22 school year.

in a somewhat different form. Despite the challenges, Lovett did not stop engaging during the pandemic. We just changed how we engage.

Fast forward to spring of 2022: the sense of optimism on campus is palpable. Lovett and Breakthrough Atlanta families joined forces with Dunleith Elementary School families for a work day in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service, and we also organized a Lovett Family Day of Service this spring. Students have returned to tutoring regularly at Agape Youth & Family Center, the debate team is competing in person, and classes are taking field trips again. Students are volunteering on site again, though in some cases with masks or other adjustments that show empathy for the situations of those they’re serving.

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A Very Merry Milestone

Nothing could hamper the holiday spirit and Lovett’s longest-running service project. This year marked the 50th year of an all-school holiday service initiative that first started in 1972 by former Lovett teacher Jackie Walker. Though it has shifted over time, this year, families, students, and teachers from every division joined forces to collect toys, gift cards, books, and winter apparel for Agape Youth and Community Center’s holiday gift store. By the end of the drive, the Lovett community filled an entire moving truck with toys and gifts!

Lovett did not stop engaging during the pandemic.

We just changed how we engage.

Students who have watched opportunities drop away for the past two years are more eager than ever to see the world, and Lovett is joyfully returning to student travel.

Our first ventures out are closer to home: the Outdoors Club ski trip to Sugar Mountain, North Carolina, the Vestry Retreat to Lake Allatoona, the Ellington Jazz Band visit to the Carolina Jazz Festival, the Marine Bio trip to Skidaway Island, and the fifth-grade field trip to Mentone, Alabama. This summer, we’ll venture much farther, as excursions to Lovett’s signature experiences in Ecuador and Israel return.

For all of us who love working with students, it was difficult watching as their dreams of traveling went unfilled due to COVID restrictions. However, the pandemic also highlighted the creativity and resilience of our community. The Class of 2022 will head out into the world with the ability to think creatively, adapt, empathize, innovate, and reach out to others in ways their older siblings and peers never experienced. I predict our students will use these and other new skills in surprising ways that make all of us extremely proud. the lovett school magazine / spring

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Thanks in part to Georgia becoming the “Hollywood of the South,” you may have recently streamed a new series or show that featured a Lovett Lion and not even realized it!

Tom Douglas ’71 released the motion picture, Love, Tom, through Paramount+ in February. The film takes places in Nashville, with Tom narrating a letter of hope to a desperate world. A companion album features Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, and Lady A! Read more in Class Notes on page 80.

Photo credit: Austin Fish

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Say “hello” to the new sheriff in town, Upper School Film Studies teacher David Silverman. He traveled to Montana to play the sheriff in The Last Son, a Western movie about an outlaw cursed by a terrible prophecy. The movie’s other stars include Sam Worthington, Heather Graham, Thomas Jane, and Machine Gun Kelly!

Brad Lichtenstein ’86 co-wrote, directed, and produced the documentary American Reckoning.

It is a component of a multiplatform initiative from PBS and FRONTLINE that investigates civil rights era cold case killings. American Reckoning focuses on Wharlest Jackson, Sr., a local NAACP leader who was murdered in 1967.

You can catch Madison Thompson ’19 in the fourth season of Ozark, which premiered on Netflix in January. Later this year, she will star in Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, a new show on the Paramount+ streaming service. The musical series, set at the famous Rydell High, takes place four years before the original Grease movie.

Mila Harris ’28 stars in the new 20th Century Studios movie, No Exit, an adaptation of Taylor Adam’s thriller novel of the same title. Without giving away too much of the plot, Mila plays a kidnapped girl discovered during a blizzard at a rest stop. The film is available to stream on Hulu.

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Campus News

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| by Caroline Rollins, Digital Communications Manager

Lovett offers “an education of doing and creating as opposed to a training in memorizing and repeating.”

– Eva Edwards Lovett, New Deal in Education (1933)

Eva Edwards Lovett founded Lovett so students could learn through the act of doing and creating, rather than sitting and memorizing information.

These are just a few recent examples of how today’s students are learning by living through experiences!

spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

Peru in the Plaza

To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, students, faculty, and staff visited with Peruvian Chef Arnaldo Castillo as he prepared a traditional dish, arroz con pollo. Students spent time learning about different Peruvian ingredients, fruits, vegetables, and juices. Chef Arnaldo Castillo’s dish consisted of grilled chicken and cilantro rice with a side of choclo (a Peruvian corn) and drizzled with huancaina sauce (a spicy aji amarillo pepper and queso fresco sauce thickened with saltine crackers).

The event also included a mini fair of Hispanic Heritage Month projects from each division.

Lower School students created decorations for the event, Middle School students presented on the topic of self-confidence and music through the study of the song, “Soy Yo,” and Upper School students learned about food and cultural identity in classes and made tortillas in the plaza for their peers!

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Baking Bread

The Modern Global History class had a real “hands-on” lesson while learning about the world during the 1200 AD era. Around this time, grain was a staple food for many and lives depended on access to the seeds.

To supplement their learning in class, these tenth-grade students worked with Lovett’s Café staff to understand the amount of planning, prep work, and labor that went into making a simple loaf of bread. They learned about various grain types and milled the grain themselves to fully experience the challenges life would have included 800 years ago. Then, they used their flour during a bread-making lesson in the Café. A simple loaf of challah bread became a not-so-simple task as they learned how to work with yeast and kneading dough. Finally, they were able to bake and eat their bread!

Zooming Ahead

Sixth-grade STEAM students spent several weeks learning about circuits, motors, and propellers. With a little alteration, students created small electric cars by installing battery motors into the cavities of plastic bottles that powered propellers. Countless hours of wiring circuits, switches, and motors made their plastic bottle cars zoom ahead!

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Campus News

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The 8th Annual

Reverse Fly-In Helping colleges and universities understand Lovett and our students | by Jessica Sant, Chief Engagement Officer As Lovett’s Chief Engagement Officer, it’s my privilege to work with the School’s engagement arms—college counseling, school counseling, parent and alumni engagement, and more—on opportunities to connect within our immediate community as well as to connect Lovett with our external partners.

S

itting in Head of School Meredyth Cole’s living room, I was struck by the ease of conversation unfolding around me during a recent engagement event.

Admission deans from colleges and universities across the country sat scattered amongst Lovett college counselors and administrators. There was something wonderful about sharing time and conversation in person with one another again, particularly following an absence during COVID. The college admission and college counseling professions are deeply interconnected. They are highly relational fields that are rooted in trust, respect, and a

spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

mutual priority of care for students.

Having worked on “both sides of the desk” as a university admissions officer and most recently as director of college counseling at Lovett, it’s unquestionably the reason why, even to this day, I remain connected to the field of college admission and Lovett’s unique opportunity to introduce admissions officers to our students, parents, and faculty.

Lovett’s annual Reverse Fly-In has become a model for many other independent schools across the country. Each year, the College Counseling Office invites several institutions with the intention of

including campuses that know Lovett well and others we’d like to know better. Colleges represent different regions, sizes, selectivity, and school missions. The hope is to expose our students and parents to the variety of communities that exist and the many options available in the college search.

Over the course of two or three days (the schedule has taken many forms over its eight-year existence), senior university admission officers spend time getting to know Lovett and our community better. From feedback sessions with our college counseling team to discussions with students,

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Participating in the Lovett Reverse Fly-In program was such a wonderful reminder of how much the Lovett community invests in the well-being of each of its students.”

The College Counseling Office hosted five admissions deans and directors from around the country last month for our annual Reverse Fly-In program (Pictured L-R: Nate Crozier, University of Miami; Claudia Marroquin, Bowdoin College; Derek DuBose, University of Denver; Melissa Mabry Cline ’05, Furman University; Barkley Barton, University of Georgia)

parents, and Trustees, the Reverse Fly-In gives strategically chosen admission leaders the opportunity to understand Lovett and all that makes it so special.

“This event has been an opportunity to share relationships with families, to connect with resources we can lean on beyond the two days for feedback and ideas, and to ultimately provide support to our students,” explains Director of College Counseling Anita Hua. This year, admission guests from the University of Miami, Bowdoin College, the University of Georgia, Furman University, and the University of Denver, participated in student panels, parent panels, and a panel discussion with Trustees. They heard about uniquely Lovett student opportunities like Lovett’s diploma distinction program, sat in on a mock American Studies course, and led a workshop for faculty on effective letters of recommendation.

“Participating in the Lovett Reverse Fly-In program was such a wonderful reminder of how much the Lovett community invests in the well-being of each of its students,” Melissa Mabry Cline ’05, director of admissions at Furman University and Lovett alum, shares. “Academic preparedness, emotional resilience, confidence, self-advocacy, and empathy are all characteristics we strive to see in our students on our own campus. It is evident that students graduating from Lovett enter the world equipped with the confidence to face challenges, think critically and engage in dialogue thoughtfully, and lead in very purposeful ways.”

The Reverse Fly-In is designed to elicit this exact insight and is intentionally different from the Upper School visits hosted in the fall. It ensures admission officers can return to their campuses and speak to the nuance and specificity of the Lovett experience for Upper School students.

– Melissa Mabry Cline ’05 Director of Admissions Furman University

With the added complexity of COVID, admission offices and college counseling offices have worked tirelessly to maintain relationships with one another.

Hua sees the benefit of this event as an opportunity to maintain those connections. She points out, “Admission offices are trying to get more creative about relationshipbuilding given the challenges of the last two years. They are critical relationships, and programs like ours allow for those relationships to continue to grow.”

Lovett’s college counseling team is already discussing plans for next year. The hope is to shape the event to serve as an advisory board throughout the school year.

This change would allow admission leaders to offer their expertise to our community beyond the threeday program and to foster an even deeper understanding of the Lovett student experience.

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Roam the Riverbank

Twice this school year, the Admission Office welcomed prospective families and students to “Roam the Riverbank”! This unique event provided families the opportunity to discover Lovett’s spaces, classrooms, and programs on their own schedule. Stops along the self-guided tour had brief videos that gave an authentic peek into classrooms. Take a look at some of the videos by scanning the QR codes below with your mobile device!

Upper School Playlist

Athletics Playlist

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Middle School Playlist

Community Center Playlist

Lower School Playlist

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Round-Up

| by Adekale Ande, Sports Information Manager

Winter 2020-21 Girls Basketball

Girls basketball had a strong season and qualified for the GHSA Class 2A playoffs. Allie Ohde ’22 and Allie Steel ’24 received All-Region accolades for their performances during the season.

Boys Basketball

The boys team advanced to the final four of the state championship for the first time since 2007! For their season-long efforts, Christian Anderson Jr. ’24, Jay Joshi ’21, and Ryan Mutombo ’21 received All-

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Region honors. Ryan also hit a milestone of 1,500 career points!

Girls Swimming and Diving

The girls team took home third place (and top school in Class 2A) at the 1A-3A State Championship! This was the first appearance on the podium for the girls team since 1997.

Boys Swimming and Diving

Boys swimming and diving took sixth place in 1A-3A State Championship, which was the highest point total in the team’s history. Another high point from the season was Harrison Clifton ’21 breaking a school diving

record with a score of 424.70, smashing the previous record of 335.30 set in 2016!

Wrestling

The wrestling team had a successful 2020-21 season by clinching several team accolades: AA State Traditional Wrestling team runner-up, third-place finisher at the AA State Duals, Area Traditional champions, and Area Duals champions. State champions and runners-up from the GHSA State Traditional include: Al Coy ’21 (runnerup), Parker Coy ’22 (state champion), Alex Hyman ’23 (runner-up), and Josh Robinson ’21 (runner-up).

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Spring 2021

Baseball

The boys soccer squad had one of the most successful years in program history, finishing the season with a 16-4-1 record and as the Class 2A state runners-up! Wasswa Robbins ’21 was the first Lovett player named to the All-State first team since 2007 after posting 40 goals and 11 assists this season.

The Lions finished the season 22-14 and were state runners-up.

Several players received All-State honors, including Kai Cunningham ’22, Michael Hollingsworth ’21, Christopher Kollme ’21, Robert Mitchell ’22, Andrew Pinkston ’21, and Will Prigge ’22. Christopher was also named the Class 2A Player of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association.

Girls Soccer

Girls Lacrosse

Boys Soccer

The girls team finished as Class 2A state champions after defeating Bremen in the state championship 3-0. The team averaged an outstanding six goals per game, while only allowing less than one goal per game on average. Leading goal scorers included Sophie Elve ’21, Chandler Kenny ’21, and Leslie Lewallen ’22. This team featured 11 players who received All-Region honors: Frances Aiken ’24, Madison Baxter ’23, Sophie Elve ’21, Kendall Hart ’21, Tatum Hunt ’23, Lucy Karem ’21, Chandler Kenny ’21, Leslie Lewallen ’22, Natalie Marshall ’22, Cate Thompson ’22, and Ellie Wildman ’23.

The squad had a successful season, finishing with a 15-4 record and making it to the third round of the GHSA state playoffs. Caitlyn Blazejewski ’24, Sadie Burge ’21, Ruth McCrady ’21, and Mia Pioli ’21 received All-State honorable mentions for their performance through the season.

Boys Lacrosse

The team had a strong showing during the spring season and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 1A-5A state playoffs. Owen Armentrout ’22 was named First Team All-State and Russell Overly ’22 was named Second Team All-State.

GHSA Classification Change

Starting in the fall, Lovett will move up from Class 2A to 4A following a Georgia High School Association (GHSA) change in the out-of-district multiplier, which shifted from 2.0 to 3.0. The GHSA uses this multiplier at each school—public and private—so that every out-of-district student counts as three toward the overall student-athlete number. The result is Lovett jumping up two classifications to 4A with a number of other independent schools, including Pace, Westminster, and Holy Innocents’. the lovett school magazine / spring

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THANK YOU,

RICHARD GERAKITIS ’74 After 16 years of broadcasting on the Lovett Network, the “Voice of the Lions” hung up his microphone on August 27, 2021. Since founding the Lovett Network in 2004, Richard has brought Riverbank football to life for fans cheering the Lions from their homes, dorm rooms, and mobile devices worldwide.

Under Richard’s leadership, the network blossomed from a two man football audiocast to a robust video broadcast that covers a variety of sports and events and features student reporters, multiple camera angles, and pro-level graphics.

Richard, the Lovett family is grateful for your tireless devotion to the Lovett Network.

Thank you for your vision, commitment, service, and love.

Boys Golf

The team captured the 2021 state championship! Lovett shot a combined 593 to win the title by 40 strokes over second-place finisher Pace Academy. Hendricks Anthony ’21 was the low medalist champion.

This team featured three All-State performers: Hendricks, Luke Ferrara ’21, and Brady Rackley ’22.

Girls Golf

The girls golf team were 2021 state champions! Lovett shot a combined score of 221, winning by 7 strokes ahead of Bremen. Alicia Kim ’23 was the low medalist champion. Alicia and Blair Maner ’22 received All-State honors for their performances.

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Boys Tennis

Boys tennis are the 2021 state champions! The team finished with an overall record of 13-5, and defeated Pace for the state championship 3-1. Zachary Freier ’21, Justin Griffin ’24, and Jake Kennedy ’24 secured the winning three matches in the championship.

Girls Tennis

Led by captain Emma McHale ’21, the girls team finished second in the region and were state runners-up.

The Lions finished the season with a 12-6 record.

Boys Track and Field

The boys track and field team had a successful season, placing second

in the region championship and making a strong showing at the state championship. Aaron McFadden ’21 was the state champion in the 300m hurdles and the 4x800m relay team—Bennett Denker ’22, Conner Kanaly ’21, Wilson Madden ’22, and Joe Urbanowicz ’21—took home gold.

Girls Track and Field

The girls team was crowned region track and field champions and had a great performance at the state championships! Kayleigh Stargell ’24 won an individual state championship in the 300m hurdles with a time of 45.47, beating KIPP Atlanta in a photo finish!

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Gymnastics

The Lions had a great season!

Cameron Colavito ’21 qualified for the state championship in the floor exercise and Gabby Tobin ’24 qualified in balance beam, vault, and floor, respectively.

Fall 2021 Boys Cross Country

It was another successful season for Lovett cross country as the boys team finished as runners-up in the Class 2A state championship with three Lions finishing in the top 15! For his efforts during the season, Hunt Shurling ’22 received All-State honors.

Girls Cross Country

The girls team ended their successful season as runners-up in the Class 2A state championship. Three runners— Mary Parrish Green ’25, Abby Newton ’25, and Ellie Wildman ’23—finished in the top 10 and were also awarded All-State recognitions.

Football

The Lions finished the season 8-4 (6-2 in region play) and made it to the second round of the GHSA state playoffs. Stevie Bracey ’22 and William Stimmel ’22 both received All-State honors by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Following the season, the Atlanta Area Football

Officials Association honored Mike Muschamp as the Class 2A Coach of the Year.

Softball

Softball finished the season 23-13 (151 in region play) and made it to the Elite 8 of the GHSA state playoffs.

For the fifth consecutive year, Lovett captured the 2021 AA Region 6 championship! Ana Gore ’24, Allie Ohde ’22, and Ava Vinci ’23 received All-State honors by the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association.

Volleyball

The Lions were the 2021 Class AA Area 5 champions! The squad finished the season 33-9 (8-0 in region play) and made it to the final four of the state championships.

For her efforts this season, Emma Duffield ’24 was named the 1A/2A Public Player of the Year. Cristina Hill ’22, Makayla Moran ’22, Grace Schneider ’23, and Cackie Watt ’24 received All-State accolades. Coach Katie Johnson was also named the 1A/2A Public Coach of the Year.

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FINE AR TS News

Ellington Jazz Ensemble Releases Album

The 2020-21 school year was unlike any other. Teachers, students, administrators, and parents endured countless obstacles such as mandatory quarantines, canceled concerts and games, cultural turbulence, dreaded shifts to virtual learning, and the perpetual fear and uncertainty about COVID-19.

However, Lovett’s 2020-21 Ellington Jazz Ensemble persevered. They did what any storied heroic jazz musician would have done: They adapted. They improvised.

They navigated through the stormy waters and made beautiful music together.

Swinging, soulful, exuberant, collaborative, toe-tapping music.

Optimistic showcases an ensemble of 22 students who made the best of a pandemic. They poured their souls into this album by tirelessly recording during wildly unpredictable school days and taxing after-school rehearsals. They rose above the barrage of setbacks that life presented by producing a big band jazz album that will forever mark their artistic contribution to this unprecedented historical moment.

The beautiful cover painting by visual artist Raquel Walkins ’23 evocatively captures the essence of what this album represents: hope, peace, love, and optimism.

Scan the QR code to listen to the album on Spotify! spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

Above: Ellington Jazz Band members documented the recording of their album.

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Radium Girls Shines Brightly

In November, Upper School students performed the D.W. Gregory production of Radium Girls—a captivating true story from the 1920s, where history and science collide.

The story takes place in 1926, when radium was a miracle cure, Marie Curie was an international celebrity, and luminous glowing watches were all the rage—until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease. The fast-paced stage play is a wry examination of the commercialization of science and the twin American obsessions with the pursuit of health and wealth.

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Willy Wonka Satisfies Everyone’s Sweet Tooth

The Upper School presented the timeless classic Willy Wonka this spring. The delicious adventures experienced by Charlie Bucket on his visit to Willy Wonka’s mysterious chocolate factory lit up the Hendrix-Chenault Theater during this captivating adaptation of Roald Dahl’s fantastical tale. From the set design to costumes to performances, this show made us feel like we were in a “world of pure imagination!”

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2022 Lovett Unity and Heritage Exhibition As part of Black History Month, the Fuqua Center gallery was filled with the Lovett Unity and Heritage Exhibition, featuring artwork by Lillian Blades and works from the Hines Family Collection. Blades’ works are predominantly mixed media assemblages on wooden panels or wired together to form moving tapestries. Influenced by her childhood home of the Bahamas, ancestral background of West Africa, and her late mother, the colors and objects used intentionally evoke memory and history. Since 2001, the Hines Family—Jeff, vice-chair emeritus of the Lovett Board of Trustees; Sivan; daughter Renuka ’04; and son Matthew ’09—has loaned visual artwork from their collection to appear in the Unity and Heritage Exhibition. In addition, Dameon and Kimberly Fisher loaned a Lillian Blades piece for the show.

Lovett Art Show & Sale

Lovett’s Friends of the Arts (FOTA) hosted the annual Art Show & Sale for a week in November. The show featured pieces by faculty artists, distinguished alumni (including Audrey Boyer Allman ’99, Stewart Whitlock McDonald ’00, Katie Murphy White ’01, and Ansley West Rivers ’02), and jewelry designers from the community. Original works of art including paintings, prints, mixed media, photography, pottery, and jewelry were sold online, resulting in more than $11,000 raised in support of FOTA and the School’s fine arts programs.

Thank you, volunteers!

We are grateful to Brittany Duncan and Sarah O’Brien, co-presidents of FOTA, and Catherine Whitis, event chair, for organizing the show with assistance from volunteers Margaret Bond, Kathryn Bowman, Ashley Davis Daughety ’98, Jennifer Gray, Keri Gugliotta, Kellie Hannon, Melissa Bunnen Jernigan ’76, Suzanne Henry Loyd ’96, Tad Mielnicki, Stacy Rodenhiser, and Descygna and Trae Webb. the lovett school magazine / spring

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“You were created for a purpose and there is a unique way that you can impact this world and bring good into it. That may look totally different from what your parents have done or your friends will do. But if you take that path, you will experience such rich rewards in countless ways.”

– Hammond McEver ’05

Founder’s Day

Chapel

F

or the first time in more than two years, the entire school community gathered inside Wallace Gym once again for Founder’s Day Chapel. The annual chapel service honors Mrs. Eva Edwards Lovett and her vision by hearing from a member of our community.

Hammond McEver ’05 (above) spoke to students, faculty, and staff about his journey at Lovett and beyond the Riverbank. He spoke about the calling he felt to work with underprivileged youth, which led him to found his own school in 2019.

Thrive Academy, located in the Grove Park neighborhood of Atlanta, provides students with dedicated learning opportunities, animal therapy, and student housing.

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features

Every three years, hundreds of community members come together for the Lovett Auction. Proceeds from the evening benefit students and teachers by bolstering financial aid, technology programs, academic programs, and more.

For more Auction photos, turn to page 56.

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Transition

A with a

Vision

Joseph Moody and Patrick Boswell Named Permanent Division Heads | by Chelle Wabrek, Associate Head of School

A

sk any kindergarten teacher about how transitions are managed in the classroom and they will likely laugh and tell you a story about moving from circle time to desk work. Directions will need to be repeated multiple times using as few words as possible. Questions like, “What’s for lunch?” will need to be redirected (as each child will have a different question). And assurances that a bathroom break is forthcoming must be made. They might go on to tell you about the number of times the class physically practiced how to transition from recess to math, or to unpack at the start of the day.

We practice transitions with little people so that we can maximize learning time and make the most out of every moment we have in the classroom. The same is true of leadership transitions, but as adults, we are simply expected to know how to adjust.

Lovett began the 2021-22 school year in just such a transition with interim leadership in both the Middle and Upper Schools. An international search elicited responses from more than 100 applicants, each with a full-bodied application portfolio. Vetted by hiring teams through several rounds, beginning with Zoom calls and culminating in grueling two-and-a-half day on-campus visits, two leaders rose to the top—both were proven Lovett leaders.

Joseph Moody began his career at Lovett 13 years ago as a Middle School science teacher and a football, wrestling, and track coach. His family had moved to Georgia from Mississippi when he was in fifth grade, but his story truly begins in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was born. His father, a Seabee in the Navy and AME minister, and mother, a school teacher whose passion was working with students facing challenges, moved with facility as the military stationed

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his dad where they needed him. The vestiges of this Navy lifestyle are obvious when you meet Joseph: easy to talk to, eager to welcome a new community member, and able to make you feel like an old friend in minutes.

Joseph moved into the dean of students role several years ago and this is where his core values as an educator became obvious—crystal clear now as he steps into the Head of Middle School role. He puts kids first. Joseph knows that students are going to make mistakes and that it is what they do next that truly defines their pathway. He is clear that who you are and what

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you might do are different, and it is important to him that students are not defined by their worst days, but by their best days. His investment in relationships over this last decade are paying dividends as he is able to connect with individual after individual—students, parents, and teachers—to make sure we are centering the experience of students and partnering to raise a generation of resilient graduates.

Patrick Boswell had two starts at Lovett. The first came right out of Davidson College when he was hired to teach Algebra I and II and coach softball, wrestling, and

baseball. Each year of teaching here, he added a little more to his curricular portfolio, developing an economics curriculum to ensure students understood the “why” of mathematics. He left Lovett to pursue his master’s in higher education administration at Vanderbilt University. Upon completion of that degree, he stayed on at the university to work in the Dean’s Office, and then, as a senior admissions counselor. Yet, when Lovett was seeking a director of studies, Patrick applied, hoping to use the skills he’d learned with college students to impact their trajectory more directly.

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throw

back

His experience at Vanderbilt is apparent in his work at Lovett. He wants to help flex the muscles of students in transition and seeing how this unfolded on the college side of the aisle brought that to light for him. He wants students to understand that, as philosopher John Dewey said, “Education is not preparation for life, but education is life.” He hopes that our students will begin to live fully, not in anticipation of the next thing, but because of the now. While he has spent time at Lovett helping students plan their educational pathways, his passion in making school meaningful has been obvious as he helped faculty design

new courses and students uncover their passions.

As known and trusted colleagues, Joseph and Patrick’s permanent appointments solidify a vision of school-wide collaboration and alignment, along with Head of Lower School James Choi. With their familiarity of Eva Edwards Lovett’s dream and the existing Lovett systems and structures, Joseph and Patrick’s transitions to permanent division heads allow the School to capitalize on our momentum and not miss a beat as we bolster the whole child promise in service to students.

Top: Patrick Boswell first stepped onto Lovett’s campus in 2005 as an Upper School math teacher and three-sport coach. Bottom: Joseph Moody started his Lovett journey in 2010, teaching Middle School science and coaching three seasons of sports.

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Q&A

with the New Division Heads

Students from the Upper School Ethical Leadership class curated a list of questions for both division heads in an effort to reveal more about themselves.

your Q: What’s morning routine?

Joseph Moody (JM): Every morning, I get up at 5:00 a.m. and have a light breakfast, usually Belvitas (blueberry or cranberry) or a cinnamon raisin English muffin with peanut butter. I try to leave my house between 5:30 and 5:40 and my car ride in allows me to have quiet time to reflect—no podcasts, no music, no books on tape. I work out in the MAC for about 30 minutes and arrive in the Middle School by 7:15 a.m.

There are a handful of students who get here early and they are an important part of the way I start my day.

Patrick Boswell (PB): I awake at either 5:15 or 6:00 a.m., depending on whether I’m running that morning. The morning is the best time for me to exercise to give me energy for the day and to maximize time with my family in the afternoons and early evenings.

After exercise, I prepare breakfast for the family and get my geriatric dog out of his bed, and carried outside.

My favorite part of the morning routine is bringing my second-grade daughter to Lovett with me. We love listening to audiobooks on the way to school (currently we have the Ramona Quimby collection on repeat). Walking in with her and talking about whatever is on her mind is a real gift to me. I ran into another faculty parent today who said, “Best ten minutes of your day, right?” And I completely agree!

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is the book you’ve Q: What given most as a gift, and why?

JM: Mother Teresa’s life lessons were collected in a book called Do Something Beautiful for God. There is a devotional for each day and the encouragements remind me every day why I do what I do. I hope by giving it to others, it will inspire them. I can’t tell you the number of times I stop during the week to reread what Mama T inspires in the day.

PB: The recent ones that I recommend most often are All the Light You Cannot See and A Gentleman In Moscow. I gravitate towards historical fiction (especially about World War II) and found both of those stories to be wonderful escapes. In each case, the books use vivid descriptions to work their way to page-turning conclusions!

you could install a gigantic billboard Qwhat: Ifgetting a message out to millions of people— would it say and why?

JM: “If my heart can receive it, and my mind can achieve it, then I am somebody.”

When I was six years old, I heard a graduation speaker say this at my brother’s graduation from college. It helped me understand what I needed to do to be successful in life.

PB: “We’re in charge of our own happiness!”

It’s not the world’s responsibility to ensure that we’re happy— our own mindsets will be the biggest determinants of how content we are!

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is one impactful thing In the last two years, what new belief, behavior, : Qof :theWhat that happened to you at the age Q or habit has most improved your life? students you work with that makes you better at your job today?

JM: My middle school art teacher submitted one of my drawings to a state contest. I ended up receiving an award. That drawing, from 1984, of the Atlanta skyline is in my office. My surprise that it was submitted gave way to gratitude and then confidence. A great example of a teacher having faith in me before I had faith in myself.

PB: I was very unsuccessful in my first two years of college: I mismanaged my time, experienced extended periods of depression, and almost failed out. I had a dean of students who spent a great deal of time with me helping with every aspect of college—she very much invested in me as a whole “child.” That experience has been extremely valuable in working with students in a wide variety of difficult situations.

is an unusual habit or Q: What an absurd thing that you love?

JM: Since fifth grade, I have planned my outfits for the week. This takes the guesswork out of what I need to wear each day.

PB: I love golf—playing, watching, and listening to commentary. I especially enjoy playing in a one-and-done pool for PGA Tour golf.

Q:

What are you working harder at today than you were a year ago?

JM: Making sure our students, families, and teachers are feeling like they belong, are safe, and are a vital part of the community.

PB: Self-care. Exercise. Meditation. My multiple roles as a father and partner at home and my professional role here at school.

If you only worked two hours : Qyou aspend week at Lovett, what would your time doing?

JM: Meeting with students to help them find their niche at Lovett and in life, and visiting classes.

PB: Talking with students and student groups, checking in with teachers, and observing classes.

JM: The belief that I can achieve anything. During COVID, I was asked to take on many new responsibilities professionally and personally, and to find new ways to do things. Many of the responsibilities involved leading some effort or maneuvering around a roadblock. And full disclosure, I had a group of sixth graders who were a top shelf advisory team for me during that time. Kids are great problem-solvers especially when the problem impacts them!

PB: Meditation. It’s helped me sleep better, start my days with more intention, and relieve stressful moments!

advice would you give to a Lovett Senior?

Q: What What advice should they ignore?

JM: Find a goal that you genuinely care about, focus on your controllables, and work hard to achieve it. Don’t forget to pivot between “me and we.” In pursuit of your goals, treat everyone the way you want to be treated.

Ignore the advice, “You have all the time in the world.” Every single day and moment counts so live your best self in it.

PB: Take advantage of breaks built into the transition—maybe a gap between college and work. Use that to have new experiences: traveling, developing a talent, etc.! Those opportunities won’t come around as often once the career begins!

Ignore any advice about making decisions based on personal relationships! Relationships that are meant to last will endure through distance, graduate school, and new jobs!

are bad recommendations you hear in your Q: What profession or area of expertise?

JM: Students need to be punished for what they do so they can comply with the rules. Instead, my philosophy is students should learn from the mistakes they make. It parallels what Mrs. Lovett stated in the New Deal in Education—that educators should work with families and students to discover the real cause of social behavior and seek a remedy together.

PB: Find your passion (the implication being that you have to know it in high school). I’d prefer something like “explore classes and activities that excite you.”

To keep participating in [fill in class or activity] because of the need to show sustained commitment to activities for college applications.

While it’s true, sustained and deep commitment can be an important aspect of holistic college review, students should never feel compelled to stick with something they don’t enjoy after trying it.

Find a goal that you genuinely care about… and work hard to achieve it.”

— Joseph Moody, Head of Middle School

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hat is typically the kick-off to a week packed with holiday festivities, the Monday before Winter Break 2021 was far from normal. When students and teachers were forced to evacuate the Lower School due to a small fire in the Multi-Sensory Room, holiday spirits were dampened—but only for a moment. The event sparked a feeling of fellowship and care that touched every corner of campus. From Admission to the Upper School and Facilities to Fine Arts, every department and division came to the aid of the Lower School. Though we are unable to highlight each person and their outstanding contributions, we are proud to share nine faculty and staff who rose above and beyond on that day as well as the days and weeks that followed.

An “all in” response

The week following the fire, Associate Head of School Chelle Wabrek sent faculty and staff a collection of photos and anecdotes summarizing the event and the community’s “all in” response. Scan the QR code to view the message.

Hometown

| by Justin Abraham, Director of Communications

HEROES

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Brian Holtzapfel Director of Plant Operations

“Brian and his crew… the way they responded immediately was remarkable.

They worked closely with the outside restoration company to keep the Lower School teachers updated and to keep progress going.

We are forever grateful for everything he and the team did to get us back into the classrooms after Winter Break.”

— James Choi Head of Lower School

Scott Russo Maintenance

“Scott and the maintenance team jumped right in and engaged with the fire crew.

He bridged the gap. Security brought them down the hill, and from there, maintenance picked them up and got them straight to the fire.

That two-prong approach was crucial to making sure we came out on top.”

— Gray Kelly Chief Operating Officer

Stacia McFadden

Chief Information Officer “Stacia immediately recognized the Lower School team’s need for computers and rolled up with the whole IT Team to distribute laptops.

On her way to the theater, she bumped into Café staff who were bringing bottles of water to all of the teachers.”

— Janie Beck Chief Marketing Officer

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Perry Offen Yates ’98 Lower School Librarian

“Perry at carpool was amazing. She knew the name of every child put into a car and the name of their parents. That connective tissue is what makes Lovett so special. Carpool could have been chaotic, but her calming and friendly presence kept it stress-free and organized.”

— Chelle Wabrek Associate Head of School

Mason Rooney Assistant Director of Admission & Social Media Manager “Mason helped keep the community updated on social media, then took an extra step by entertaining children until the very end of the day so the Lower School teachers could shift their focus to regrouping and the planning for the rest of the week.”

— Gopi Shammas ’95 Director of Admission

Susan McCluskey Assistant Director of Fine Arts

“By offering the theater to the Lower School and turning on classic holiday movies, Susan provided an inviting and uplifting space for the students. The Fine Arts team kept them entertained so teachers and the admin team could focus on dismissal and planning.”

— Amy Darsey Director of Teaching and Learning, K-2

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Chris Ward Maintenance

“He does a million and one things for us in the Lower School. On that day, he and his team were there to help before firefighters arrived.

In the days after, he was our point person during the cleanup. We just adore and appreciate him.”

— Edi Houghton Associate Head of Lower School

Jackie Parks 4th Grade Teacher

“Jackie was in the right mindset to lead children out of any danger in the most non-stressful way possible.

She understood the urgency of the situation and she is the reason we were all safely out of the building.”

— Lee Anne Bradshaw Gilmore ’07 Assistant to the Head of Lower School

Jim Tully Maintenance

“Anything you need, Jim will handle it in the blink of an eye. In the aftermath of the fire, he moved the furniture in our classrooms back and forth a dozen times so we were ready for the children’s return to school. He is truly our hero!”

— Paige Kimbrel Kindergarten Teacher

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(

Embracing the Challenge

)

Lovett teachers amplify innovation during COVID | by Melinda Church, Contributing Writer

T

wo years ago—in early March 2020—everything seemed to stop. City streets were nearly empty of people. Many businesses sputtered, and “one per customer” signs appeared in grocery stores.

Some states issued blanket stay-at-home orders. But the job of educating our children did not stop— it could not stop.

For Lovett teachers, highly skilled at continuous innovation and adaptation, the nearly overnight shift to virtual teaching and learning was just another puzzle to solve.

They were up for the challenge, seized the moment, and doubled down on the child-centered approach that makes a Lovett education distinctive.

Rethinking everything, with students always at the center

“This pandemic allowed me to take a lot of risks, try new things. It empowered me to go further,” says Angela Mitchell, who teaches Upper School Spanish Honors and Advanced Placement (AP) courses. “I needed to renew myself. I needed to renovate everything that I have been teaching.”

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The result? “I decided to put all of my curriculum of AP in the trash,” she says.

One example: Mitchell developed and integrated a creative, engaging graffiti project into AP Spanish. The project— ”Graffiti: Art or Vandalism?”—asked students to explore the culture expressed through street art. They compared the work of a graffiti artist from the U.S. with that of a Hispanic artist, examining cultural history, meaning, and legal boundaries crossed by the medium. Students then considered their values and issues on which they wanted to make their own voices heard—bringing their ideas to life on canvas with spray paint and markers. Finally, students wrote a well-sourced argumentative essay, answering the question posed in the project’s title.

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For Kevin Randolph, an Upper School history teacher, the pandemic prompted a reframing of his course on genocide and the Holocaust. “During COVID, it didn’t feel tuned properly to me. I redesigned the course to make it about the foundations of good community and then to see genocidal events as the community gone wrong.”

With just a few in-person class sessions before Lovett shifted to virtual learning, Randolph and his students were in uncharted territory, together. They spent weeks teasing apart the foundations of community, ideas about leadership and followership, and the notion, as he says, “that if people are put together, it doesn’t have to end up like the Lord of the Flies.”

In the exceptional quality of his students’ work, Randolph sees evidence of the success of the changed approach.

He also sees it in the end-of-year student comments— an overwhelming number of which described how the course itself built a community, virtually. “That’s what matters,” he says. “You’re not peddling curriculum. You’re building relationships.”

Randolph sums up the need for continuous innovation this way: “I believe in the disposability of curriculum, that it’s got to remain fresh. Almost every lesson has an expiration date, like a package of bread.”

“…a changing education for a changing civilization”

In the remarkable work to conceive and deliver an exceptional education during the pandemic, Lovett faculty started with a singular, powerful advantage—the School’s founding mission of whole-child education.

Just a few years after Lovett was founded in 1926, the nation and world were plunged into the Great Depression.

In 1933, Eva Edwards Lovett wrote a booklet, New Deal in Education, outlining the principles of a constantly evolving education that animate our teachers and their work to this day.

In that dark era—when millions of Americans were unemployed and nearly half the nation’s banks had failed—Mrs. Lovett had the wisdom, foresight, and optimism to articulate the School’s ideals as precisely what was needed “to develop the initiative and capacity for adaptation.”

Below left: Angela Mitchell teaches her AP Spanish Language class almost exclusively in Spanish. Below right: Kevin Randolph works with Holocaust and History of Genocide students on a class project. Opposite: Lovett administrators joined the eighth-grade Civic Leadership class on a field trip that centered around food insecurity.

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IT IS AN EDUCATION WHICH IS PROGRESSING CONTINUALLY IN ORDER TO KEEP IN STEP WITH THE CONSTANT CHANGES OCCURRING IN THE WORLD AROUND US. IT IS A CHANGING EDUCATION FOR A CHANGING CIVILIZATION. — Eva Edwards Lovett, New Deal in Education

Mrs. Lovett’s piece remains a touchstone for today’s teachers and leaders. It is the foundation for ongoing discussions about courses and curriculum.

“That is such a powerful document,” says Ben Posten, who is in his 39th year as a social studies teacher in the Middle School. “I have found words of inspiration in there that have propelled me to take my class in a different direction.

Re-examining the roots of what the School is about has reinvigorated my passion.”

Posten is known for his eighth-grade Civic Leadership course that uses the city as his classroom. The yearlong course combines traditional civics with concepts of servant leadership and immersion into pressing issues that affect Atlanta and its people. Students develop a capstone project, researching, interviewing, and writing about a contemporary issue. Recent capstone topics have included water resource challenges, traffic, transportation infrastructure, and the conditions of animal shelters.

The course enables students to practice active citizenship through site visits and conversations with Atlanta leaders.

Recent field visits include the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, a Habitat for Humanity home and the organization’s headquarters, the Agape Center to distribute food at Thanksgiving, and a tour of the state capitol with a member of the Georgia State House of Representatives. Their final field experience is with the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, where they engage with leaders on topics related to their capstone projects.

Scan this QR code to watch eighth-grade students connect with community leaders.

The value of Eva Lovett’s vision for “an education of doing and creating” is clear to everyone, including students.

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“As servant leaders, we are learning about community betterment and then going out into the field and getting our hands a little dirty to help others and take action,” says Will Byrne ’26.

During COVID, Posten has taken his course a step further.

This year, Lovett administrators were paired with students for a unit on food security. Leaders learned alongside students, completed assignments, and participated in a field trip with them.

Scan this QR code to read “Starting From A Seed,” Associate Head of School Chelle Wabrek’s synopsis of this partnership between administrators and students.

Extraordinary teachers: trusted, empowered, and thoroughly committed to students

These examples of multidisciplinary, innovative education— spurred in part by COVID and rooted in Lovett’s mission— are all the more remarkable in a field that has been imperiled for decades. Nationally, teacher attrition is stubbornly high, with nearly 50 percent of beginning teachers leaving the field within their first five years.

A conversation with Mitchell, Posten, and Randolph—all inaugural recipients of the Rollins Family Master Teacher Chair and with more than 100 years of teaching among them—reveals clues about why gifted, passionate teachers remain in the classroom. For them, it’s about Lovett’s strong community, organizational agility, clarity of purpose, and a supportive administration.

Randolph has taught at three other schools and found the Lovett difference striking. “I was taken by how much the

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faculty enjoyed being here, being with one another, working with kids. I don’t know that I’ve ever been at a place where so many people were happy to be where they were.”

Posten talks about the School’s support of his efforts to do something new and different. “I was hired for what I brought to the table, and I was always trusted and treated as a professional and given the autonomy to explore and do what I wanted to in the classroom.”

While others describe Lovett as a strong community, Mitchell takes issue with that term, saying instead, “It is a family where we accept each other the way we are, and we respect each other.”

Both she and Posten have taught children of alumni who were in some of their first classes at Lovett, and they deeply value those multi-generational relationships. “It’s that continuity of family,” says Posten. “Maybe I’ll see a few grandkids before I leave.”

Below: Posten’s Civic Leadership class toured the Georgia State Capitol and met with Rep. Teri Anulewicz. Bottom: Civic Leadership students learned about urban farming and food insecurity at the Zadie Project’s garden.

Inspiring Excellence through Philanthropy

Passionate, driven, creative teachers shape our lives. Decades later, we remain grateful to an eighth-grade speech teacher for our ability to turn Shakespeare’s symbolism into meaning.

Our boldness in pursuing a given career traces to a high school teacher—not prone to hyperbole—who told us we were talented.

The Lovett School is full of these faculty.

In partnership with donors, we nurture and celebrate superb faculty and the indelible impact they make on our students.

Nearly a decade ago, for example, the O. Wayne Rollins Foundation created an endowment to support Lovett’s ability to attract, develop, and acknowledge remarkable faculty. During the 2020-21 school year, the foundation approved a change in this award to distinguish truly extraordinary faculty as “master teachers”— the highest award given to Lovett teachers.

Lovett’s inaugural Rollins Family Master Teacher Chairs—Angela Mitchell, Ben Posten, and Kevin Randolph—exemplify the School’s best faculty. Through their work, they embody Lovett’s mission, vision, and values. They will hold the endowed chair throughout their tenure at Lovett.

For all of our faculty, donor-supported professional development opportunities, available by application, help teachers to renew themselves and their classes through summer courses and experiences. The impact on students’ learning is demonstrable and lasting.

Middle School teacher Ben Posten is renowned for his immersive Civic Leadership course that brings to life Eva Lovett’s vision for experiential learning. The class has roots in a design thinking short course Posten took more than a decade ago, with faculty from Stanford and other experts.

As Upper School teacher Kevin Randolph says, “Professional development is really one of the measuring sticks of great schools. It’s part of why people stay at an institution. They’re sustained. They can grow.” the lovett school magazine / spring

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strive to

thrive in the New

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hriving is a psychological state in which we feel as if we can adapt, evolve, and transform ourselves with passion and vigor. The Lovett School’s commitment to adaptive thinking in the face of challenge is a strong indicator of our success.

Adaptive thinking has long been at the heart of a Lovett education. In the New Deal in Education published by The Mother’s Club in the mid-1930s, Eva Edwards Lovett wrote that “progressive education is education which has looked critically at itself and as a result has discarded outworn methods and theories.” The Lovett School’s ability to look critically at itself and to reflect on what it does well and what it can make even better has uniquely positioned the School to not only survive the pandemic, but to thrive.

Spotlight on Mental Health and Wellness as Pandemic Shifts to Endemic

| by Janie Beck, Chief Marketing Officer

“The Lovett School is a community of belonging proudly developing students of honor, faith, and wisdom with the characterand intellect to thrive in learning and life.

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review identified three organizational strategies to nurture this state of thriving: recalibrate expectations, reestablish commitment, and rebuild capacity. While that piece primarily focused on employees, these organizational strategies have been the cornerstone of Lovett’s ability to thrive as a community in the face of adversity, particularly as we seek to support our students’ mental health and wellness.

I feel like the last person to be these efforts with you, if I’m being honest, On a personal note, though I’m proud to share this pandemic has been soulAs a working mother with two young children, writing about “thriving in the new normal.” have to constantly remind myself to and colleagues share similar experiences. I crushing. I know I’m not alone. My friends To connect with others and to To move my body, feed my soul, and simply rest. breathe. To carve out quiet time for reflection. s to do the same. open my heart to hope. And to remind other be in fellowship with colleagues who on this beautiful campus. I am grateful to It fills me with joy every single day to arrive to partner with families who believe thrive in both learning and life. I am proud serve our mission of preparing students to , faith, wisdom, character, and ted to watch our students grow in their honor education is more than academics. I am deligh extend grace to one another in the world a better place and so are we. Let’s intellect. They are doing their best to make can. At Lovett, we are here for each of you. believing that we are all doing the best we

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In the fall of 2019, our community seized an opportunity to recalibrate and embarked on the drafting of a new strategic plan. Lovett’s strategic design team, in collaboration with many of you, was charged with excavating our values, clarifying our mission, and defining our vision. In other words, we reestablished our commitment and identified strategic priorities to guide our collective purpose as we rebuild capacity for success over the coming years.

In order to sustain our progress, we continually strive to build capacity and commit to ensuring the innovative and intentional development of systems, behaviors, practices, and resources that are aligned with Lovett’s mission and vision. One emergent strategic priority has been to articulate and demonstrate our dedication to the healthy development of the whole child. We have defined “whole child education” at Lovett as “the active construction of knowledge using multiple modalities to build cognitive, social, and emotional skills and to motivate individual passion, self-discovery, and collective purpose.”

Restructuring counselors to be better partners

Lovett’s whole child promise is unquestionably rooted in student well-being—spiritual, emotional, and physical.

As mental health and wellness continue to be growing

counselors by division

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priorities during this pandemic, there has never been a better time to align and build a comprehensive counseling program at Lovett. In fact, a critical initiative of the newly formed Office of Engagement is to build stronger program alignment in service of Lovett students across the three divisions.

One way we honor this commitment to students is through a team of school counselors who provide compassionate, comprehensive, and developmentally appropriate programs committed to addressing the social and emotional needs of all students. School counselors serve as advocates for all students, helping them to reach their full potential by integrating counseling services into classrooms and campus life. The School’s counseling program includes direct services such as classroom guidance instruction, individual counseling, and small group meetings, as well as indirect services such as consultation, collaboration, and referrals.

Following discussions with Lovett’s counseling staff, interviews with a number of Lovett’s peer counseling teams, and research to uncover best practices, a newly designed K-12 leadership position was created to oversee the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools’ counseling departments in the summer of 2021. The charge for this year was simple—to implement best practices and policies to guide our school counseling work campus-wide, to

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We value our partnership with families and strive to build strong and lasting relationships that promote student success.”

— Sara Friedman, Director of K-12 School Counseling

incorporate a record-keeping system to inform student and parent programming needs, and to allow the three divisions to consult regularly. These relatively swift changes to our school counseling structure have allowed Lovett’s counseling team to leverage specialties across the divisions to best support students, and their wide range of needs. This collaborative effort helps all three counseling divisions identify strengths and areas of growth while enabling them to provide the most efficient support to our students and families.

supporting our employees

Supporting the social and emotional wellness of Lovett employees has also been a priority in this new normal. Some examples include virtual counseling sessions, grief and loss support groups and eldercare support groups led by o utside specialists, and a webinar series exploring a holistic approach to mental health. Lovett also offers SmartPath financial coaching and services to all employees. And of course, there are numerous opportunities on campus for health and fitness: early morning swimming, yoga, pilates, and strength classes.

“We value our partnership with families and strive to build strong and lasting relationships that promote student success,” says Sara Friedman, director of K-12 school counseling. “Our team works collaboratively with teachers and families to develop healthy, resilient, responsible, and successful citizens of the world and develop connections with our families that value each individual student’s identity.”

Left to right:

Lower School Emily Brown School Counselor Daena Shearer Lower School Psychologist

Middle School Sara Friedman Director of K-12 School Counseling Ryan Veselsky School Counselor

Upper School Brenda Wall School Counselor Chere Stadler School Counselor Julie Mehta School Counselor

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Counseling through and beyond the pandemic W

hile it is true that school counselors have faced unprecedented challenges during the pandemic, our overarching mission, values, and goals remain the same. Each day, Lovett’s counselors encourage and facilitate the development of self, connect students and families to campus and community resources, support mental wellness, promote access and equity for all students, assist with problem-solving among peers, increase interpersonal skills, and support managing emotions.

Lower School

Since the pandemic started in March 2020, Lower School counselors have met virtually with quarantined students and hosted grade-level lunches for students learning virtually.

Counselors have collaborated with teachers to offer lessons that focus on developing coping skills and practicing mindfulness to reduce anxiety. They have also worked with parents, to educate them on ways to communicate with their child about COVID and how to support their child’s emotional health during a global pandemic.

Middle School

Counselors met with quarantined students both individually and in small groups since the beginning of COVID. Since then, they continue to teach guidance lessons on stress management, coping skills, effective communication, and self-esteem. Counselors have hosted a series of parent webinars detailing the rise of

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student stress and anxiety and how parents can connect and communicate more effectively with their children.

Counselors have also worked with groups of students to offer yoga sessions to practice deep breathing, stretching, postures, and positive affirmations.

Lovett is proud to sponsor Girl Talk, a peer-to-peer program which trains Upper School girls to serve as mentors to Middle School girls through support and encouragement.

Their mission is to help girls build confidence and compassion. Middle School girls have monthly opportunities to build relationships with Upper School mentors in a fun, relaxed environment. School counselors have trained interested juniors and seniors to lead our Girl Talk meetings and the students love their time spent with the sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade girls. During this time, girls have the opportunity to discuss the ins and outs of Middle School through Girl Talk’s curriculum and gain support from positive role models.

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Upper School

Lovett’s Upper School counselors continuously provide opportunities and support for strengthening social and emotional development, deepening connections with each other, and appreciating each individual’s unique self.

Opportunities for students include short-term individual counseling, small group counseling, workshops, student orientations, and Peer Assistance and Leadership (PAL).

Through PAL, selected students explore their personal development and train in the areas of accountability, communication, change negotiation, team building, influence, organization, and the facilitation/teaching of small groups. PALs also befriend new students and are available to peers who want to discuss personal issues.

This year, Upper School counselors are teaching five ninth-grade health classes where they learn to care for themselves and their peers in the following areas: identity and personality, stress and anxiety, depression and suicide prevention, healthy vs. unhealthy relationships, and healthy body image. In addition, counselors work with faculty to offer classroom lessons with research-based curricula.

Counselors liaise with community professionals to offer referrals for long-term support for students and connect with the community by arranging parent coffees, programs and visiting speakers, and consultations with parents and faculty.

Ross Szabo

Upper School counselors were pleased to host national mental health speaker Ross Szabo for a keynote during assembly on January 27. Mr. Szabo is the author of Behind Happy Faces: Taking Charge of Your Mental Health and A Kid’s Book About Anxiety, and his achievements in the youth mental health field earned him the Didi Hirsch Removing the Stigma Leadership Award, among others.

He provides an honest, humorous, and relatable approach to mental health.

Visit www.love.tt/szabo to view a powerful video message about Ross Szabo’s journey

Lovett’s Vision

Lovett is Atlanta’s school of choice for families who value our multi-faceted approach to educate the whole child—where intellectual rigor, socialemotional learning, and character development are purposefully cultivated and inextricably linked.

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Lovett students: self-advocates and servant-leaders

in this school carry these stories with them every day—and usually alone. The need for initiatives to aid students’ mental well-being is imperative.”

The student survey data was compelling. It was evident that there was a disconnect within the Lovett community and that there was an opportunity to strengthen communication between teachers, counselors, and students.

“A normal school day at Lovett is about seven hours, and while that might seem like a small amount of time, it’s crammed with lectures, assignments, projects, quizzes, and exams,” shares Samar. “Students at Lovett may seem to function well under pressure but we all crack sometimes and this is when we hear stories of panic attacks, high levels of stress, a general lack of confidence, and ‘all-nighters.’”

In the spring of 2021, ninth-grade Student Government Association (SGA) representatives Leah Cox ’24 and Samar Kibe ’24 surveyed Lovett students about their personal mental health in advance of exams. Their hope was to extend the “exam floor,” a temporary provision during the 2020-21 school year, which prevented a student’s final grade from falling dramatically due to exam grades. While this initiative was in recognition of the disruption to in-person learning during the last school year, Leah and Samar saw an opportunity as part of a broader effort to address the mounting academic pressure and stress that students experience.

“There is clear evidence that this is the case by the student data collected,” says Leah. “Many of the students

Mental health and wellness is a societal issue and we need a long-term shift in culture. There is no shame in talking about your problems, asking for help, or articulating that you’re struggling. We all have problems. The heart of mental health is an understanding of who we are.”

— Leah Cox ’24

We are not the hospital that cures people, we are the road that enables people to go to the hospital.

Without roads, the journey to a hospital is difficult and many will not get help.”

— Samar Kibe ’24

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The two were inspired to organize a peer program, seeking to improve the overall quality of life for students as well as the culture of understanding around mental health and wellness. They, along with designated Student Mental Health Liaisons, work in connection with school counselors, teachers, and administrators to normalize the conversation around mental health and mental illness, highlighting the systems of support available to those who are in need while advocating for more. Candidates are selfnominated or nominated by a peer or teacher and limited to eight student representatives, two from each Upper School grade level.

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Excerpt from Leah and Samar’s Mental Health Liaison proposal:

The pandemic has shed light on many of the issues we face today. One of them is the failure to acknowledge mental health as a prevalent issue. COVID-19 exacerbated this issue. Between being stuck at home for months, rising tensions in the need for social justice reform, and being distanced from friends and family, the student headspace is at an all-time low. Shortly after the pandemic began, more than 25% of high school students reported worsened emotional and cognitive health. In 2020, mental health-related doctor’s visits for adolescents ages 13-18 increased sharply. Teenagers going to these appointments were most frequently diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and adjustment disorder. There has never been a time more important to address these issues. We need to take action now, in order to be proactive instead of reactive when tragedy strikes.

As the World Health Organization states, the consequences of not addressing adolescent mental health conditions extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting opportunities to lead fulfilling lives as adults. Promoting psychological well-being and protecting teenagers from adverse experiences and risks that may impact their potential to thrive is critical for their current well-being and for their physical and mental health in adulthood. It is essential

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our community—families, counselors, and peers—support and promote well-being to give opportunities for our students to thrive.

The evidence of this active citizenship, social responsibility, and problem-solving are reflective of Lovett’s long-held commitment to nurturing servant leadership.

“We are incredibly proud of the contributions Leah and Samar are making to our community,” Lovett Director of Civic and Global Engagement Fran Turner adds. “The leadership they display in advocating for positive change is exactly what we hope to see in our graduates.”

Supporting the whole child— and each other

Mrs. Lovett was ahead of her time. In the New Deal in Education, she writes “a progressive education is all that the term implies. It is an education which is progressing continually in order to keep in step with the constant changes occurring in the world around us. It is a changing education for a changing civilization.” Nearly 100 years later, the School continues to honor her unique approach to education by articulating and demonstrating its dedication to the healthy development of today’s whole child, who is facing added societal, technological, and pandemic-related pressures. Lovett remains committed to growing our capacity to support the students of today by developing systems, behaviors, practices, and resources aligned to sustain Mrs. Lovett’s vision and the health and wellness of our community.

A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the ‘top of the pyramid,’ servant leadership is different.

The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first, and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.”

— Robert K. Greenleaf, founder of the modern servant leadership movement and the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership the lovett school magazine / spring

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pride The 2022

Lovett Auction

Parents and friends of the School gathered as One Pride for the 2022 Lovett Auction. This year’s theme spoke to our community’s continued resilience and to persevere in this ever-changing world. On February 26, 2022, more than 800 Lions came together to support the School and its programs at the event, held at The Stave Room at American Spirit Works. One Pride raised more than $500,000 to benefit Lovett’s endowment for financial aid, technology upgrades, the enhancement of outdoor spaces, and programs that support the School’s mission. Held every three years, the Auction will return in February 2025, so be sure to mark your calendars!

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Thank you to the One Pride Steering Committee for organizing an evening to remember!

Auction Co-Chairs

Grade Dinner Parties

Auction Executive Committee Chairs

Gratitude Outreach

Burch Hanson & Lynne Moss

Acquisitions

Dana Almond Shanna Bradley Melissa Brennan Katie Dearing Newton ’89 Carmen Pope Sara Ann Vaughan

Auction Operations/Database Sharri French Erin Morton Kristen Weeden

Class Art Projects Heyward Morris Fougerousse ’97

Karen Andros Betsy Givens Lauren Kelso

Stacy Rodenhiser Jenn Shih

Marketing & Graphic Design Karen Denker Natasha Youssef Milbury ’95 Heather Rensink

Patron Cultivation & Patron Party Hilton Ball Emily Gately Kristin Newberry

Raffle & Ticket Sales

Corporate Sponsors Wes Moss

Frances Bresnahan Bernita Wallace Alana Zrno

Community Outreach

Treasurer

Aimee Simmons Connolly ’95 Chrissy Jenkins Gigi Rouland

Event & Post Auction Operations Annie May Jenn Molner

Event Planning Nikki Edwards Wendy Hahn

Alice Sheets

Volunteer Coordinators

Keri Gugliotta Paige Tabaka Vohs ’89

LPA Co-Presidents Leslie Thomas Kristen Weeden

Lovett Liason Jennifer Boutté

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Legacy A Lasting

| by Elizabeth R. Pearce ’87, Chief Development Officer

O

ftentimes when we publicly celebrate a generous gift to the School, the gift has the “M” word associated with it—millions. While those gifts do make a big difference, I always remind people that “M” also stands for meaningful, because gifts of all sizes make the difference. This is a story of one such gift.

Belitje Bancker Oastler Bull LL ’47 (1934-2019) attended Little Lovett with her sisters Katharine and Dorothy LL ’49 in the 1940s. Belitje started in 1941 when she was in second grade and remembers the little white schoolhouse, the beautiful grounds with walking trails, and a formidable Mrs. Lovett who was rather strict and very disapproving of tardiness. The trip from home in Brookhaven (considered way too far out to live at the time) to the school involved taking a trolley and a bus, and a good deal of walking, with Belitje’s two little sisters in tow. She hated to be late for the rest of her life.

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Belitje “graduated” after seventh grade in 1947, and went on to North Fulton, St. Anne’s in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Duke University, where she earned her nursing degree. And when it came time to send her own children to school, Belitije chose Lovett for Elizabeth ’76, Elaine ’79 and Tommy ’81. Dr. Rual Stevens was Headmaster then, and Belitje’s husband, Bert Oastler, remembered him from Henry Grady High School.

The third generation has also come through: Elaine’s daughter, Caroline Belitje Blackmon ’15, started Lovett in Pre-K in 2001. There is a very good reason why Elaine wanted Caroline to attend Lovett, and that is “the degree of preparedness I felt Lovett had given me for college. I’m proud to say Caroline graduated in May 2019 from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, and

is currently a co-teacher in the Lower School at Lovett! I would love to list all of the teachers through the years; they’ve never disappointed me and have provided what I consider the finest education to my daughter, myself, and my mother.”

Upon her passing in May 2019, I received word that Mrs. Bull was leaving Lovett a significant five-figure gift. At that point, I had never met her, her grown children, or her granddaughter, but I was immediately touched by the devotion of this family to Lovett as well as the lasting impact that Lovett had on so many of them. I was also reminded of the power of a bequest; you too can make a gift—small or large—that will have a lasting impact on Lovett for generations to come. These are the kinds of stories that make me proud to be a Lovett Lion.

Top: Belitje Bancker Oastler Bull LL ’47, Elaine Blackmon ’79, Tom Oastler ’81, Elizabeth Jackson ’76, and Caroline Blackmon ’15. Inset: Caroline ’15, Belitje Bull LL ’47, and Elaine Blackmon ’79.

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Class of 2021

with Alumni Parents First row, left to right: Beth Radford Anthony ’82 and Hendricks Charlie Barnwell ’76 and Laine Second row, left to right: Hadley Benton ’88 and Lindy Tom Bradbury ’92 and Tommy Amanda Glenn Brady ’88 and Anne Alston Third row, left to right: Sadie, Holt, Hunter and Wendy Staton Burge ’87 Harrison and Jim Clifton ’84

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First row, left to right: Deni-Kay Haas Freier ’91 and Zachary Mary Kathryn Lientz Green ’92 and Kate Kerri Gallagher Griggs ’92 and Hadley Second row, left to right: Charlie and Leigh Hallman Hoke ’89 William and David Kahn ’81 Third row, left to right: Shannon Lientz Kollme ’89, Christopher, and Chris Kollme Temple Sellers McDaniel ’88, William, and Kate Sellers Stotts ’91 Fourth row, left to right: Allison Bussey Peavy ’91 and Madison Kimberly Glaser Pitts ’94, Patrick and Jennings Pitts ’93

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First row, left to right: Ford and Nancy Dorough Powell ’92 Ellen Ferguson Schneidau ’85 and Ella Second row, left to right: Lauren ’16, Ashley, Claire Stratton Whalen ’14 and Todd Stratton ’84 Dorothy Traver Walker ’92 and Lilla

The Class of 2021 persevered through a school year unlike any other!

They developed uncommon resilience, empathy, and a self-knowledge they take with them to institutions across the United States and abroad.”

– Patrick Boswell Head of Upper School

Third row: Lauren and Karen Isaac Warren ’82

senior supplement Following graduation, Lovett shared a special s e n i o r s u p p l e m e n t w i t h t h e fa m i l i e s o f t h e Class of 2021. The supplement included photos f r o m t h e c e r e m o n y, s p e e c h e xc e r p t s , a n d t h e c o l l e g e m at r i c u l at i o n l i s t. To v i e w t h e publication, visit www.love.t t/classof2021 or scan the QR code.

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On April 23, 2021, Shane Kimbrough ’85 launched toward space for the third time, serving as Commander of the NASA/SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station in the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Photo courtesy of Edgar Torbert.

Read more in Class Notes on page 81.

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AlumniFest September 30, 2021

events

Atlanta-area alumni celebrated AlumniFest in the biergarten at Bold Monk Brewing Company.

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backyard bbq October 17, 2021

Belonging:

A Mission to Engage Lovett’s Black Alumni

S

ince the summer of 2020, a subcommittee of the Alumni Association’s Executive Board has contemplated how to best engage its Black members. In collaboration with the Alumni Association’s leadership, Black alumni volunteers, the Board’s DEIB Committee, and with the full blessing of the Board of Trustees, the Black Alumni Council was formed in the fall of 2021 and announced at an inaugural event drawing tremendous attendance from Lovett’s Black alumni, students, and their families: the Backyard BBQ.

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Black Alumni Council B.J. Crane ’93 Chairman Peter Thomas ’84 Rochelle Webb ’97 Alexandra Robinson Daniels ’04 Thaddeus Rolle ’04 Stacey Sampson ’13 Courtney Simone Graves ’14 Josh Moore ’15

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2021-22 Alumni Executive Board Rebecca Warner Strang ’93 President Kurt Hohlstein ’76 Larry Jackson ’77 Peter Thomas ’84 Bobby Mitchell ’89 Mark Brown ’90 * Kate McIntosh Pearce ’90 B.J. Crane ’93 * Will Porter ’93 Catherine Mitchell Jaxon ’94 * Russ Richards ’99 Chris Foster ’00 Ali Dick Blaisdell ’02 Alex Thomas Rollins ’04 Jeff Jackson ’09 * Sarah Brook Williams Austin ’11

The Black Alumni Council is a group of Black alumni leaders who focus intently on the experience of Black alums and whose chair has a standing seat on the Alumni Association’s Executive Board. Its purpose is to design engagement and service opportunities for Lovett’s Black and multiracial alumni, students, and parents to help reinforce old relationships and forge new relationships with one another and within the Lovett community as a whole. This includes stimulating intellectual and social participation, encouraging contributions to the School, supporting Lovett’s ongoing efforts to enhance diversity, and strengthening the bonds of understanding between the School and its Black alumni community.

When all Lovett graduates feel connected to one another, our Alumni Association, and the School, it benefits our entire community. Alumni goodwill contributes to Lovett’s reputation, encourages admission applications, and leads to increased volunteerism and philanthropy among our graduates. All of our students, parents, and the School are served by the network of support—social, professional, volunteer, and philanthropic—that this relationship creates. When all alumni feel a sense of belonging, the community is stronger and the full promise of alumni support can be realized.

A special thank you to all who spent countless hours on this effort and Godspeed to those who now serve as its inaugural leaders: B.J. Crane ’93 (Chairman), Peter Thomas ’84, Rochelle Webb ’97, Alexandra Robinson Daniels ’04, Thaddeus Rolle ’04, Stacey Sampson ’13, Courtney-Simone Graves ’14, and Josh Moore ’15.

Vanessa Wilkins ’11 Michael MacDonald ’13 * Courtney-Simone Graves ’14 Josh Moore ’15 * indicates new for 2021-22

The Alumni Office Lara Kauffman Director of Alumni Engagement Starr Pollock Assistant Director of Alumni Engagement

Contact Us

Phone: (404) 262-3032, ext. 1208 Email: alumni@lovett.org

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homecoming RETURNS TO THE RIVERBANK

It was like old times on the Riverbank as the Alumni Association hosted more than 300 alumni, families, and friends for the annual Homecoming Barbecue held outdoors at Bill Railey Field on October 22, 2021. In keeping with tradition, there were activities for all ages to enjoy, including cornhole, face painting, and balloon artists. Later at the football game, alumni helped cheer on the Lions to a 16-0 victory over Columbia High School.

Save the Date!

Homecoming Friday, October 7, 2022

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5th-45th Reunions Play Catch Up These long-awaited reunions were postponed from their original spring reunion weekends of 2020 and 2021. Rather than convene over Zoom, these friends held out to see one another in person and it was worth the wait!

1981

1980

1975

1986

It’s never too early to save the date! Years ending in 3 & 8 will celebrate April 28-29, 2023.

Years ending in 4 & 9 will celebrate April 26-27, 2024. Years ending in 0 & 5 will celebrate April 25-26, 2025.

Years ending in 1 & 6 will celebrate April 24-25, 2026. Years ending in 2 & 7 will celebrate April 23-24, 2027.

1980

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1995 2000 & 2001

1996

1990 & 1991

2006

2005

2010

2015

2011

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50th Reunion Weekend October 15-16, 2021 Lunch with the Head of School

It was a blast from the past for the Classes of 1970 and 1971 as The Varsity food truck staff asked “What’ll ya have?” and served nostalgic treats that were still as good as remembered. As alumni sipped on their Frosted Orange beverages, Head of School Meredyth Cole shared stories from the Riverbank and answered questions about Lovett today. A tour of the Upper School followed and alumni especially enjoyed visiting the Marine Biology science lab, the third-floor greenhouse, and writing with dry erase markers on the floor-to-ceiling “blackboards” while wheeling around in the mobile desks.

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Class Parties

1970

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The Golden Lions Society* 6th Gala Held

‘Under theOctober Stars’ 16, 2021 B

ack with a roar was this year’s Golden Lions Gala. A beautiful autumn sunset and resplendent fall trees framed the outdoor celebration that was complete with flowers and linens, music from days gone by, and catered by Dennis Dean.

Welcome remarks were given by Wawa Smith Hines ’69, a beautiful blessing from Bobbie Berry ’70, remarks by Head of School Meredyth Cole, and a toast by Hampton Morris ’69 to welcome Lovett’s newest Golden Lions, the Classes of 1970 and 1971, to the Golden Lions Society. A special thank you goes to the Golden Lions Steering Committee: Carroll Jones ’62, George McDaniel ’62, Ray Crim ’63, Glenn Smith Kincaid ’63, Roger Moister ’63, Yetty Levenson Arp ’64, Bobby Mitchell ’64, Tee Price Davis ’65, Rocky Lange ’65, John Dietrichs ’66, Rebecca Robinson Smith ’66, Scott Offen ’67, Rip Sartain ’68, Wawa Smith Hines ’69, and Chuck Slick ’69.

* The Golden Lions Society is an honorary recognition group for the esteemed Lovett alumni who have reached or passed the 50th anniversary of their graduation. All Lovett alumni automatically become lifetime members of The Golden Lions Society during their class’s 50th reunion year.

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Save the Date!

The 2022 Golden Lions Gala is Saturday, November 5, 2022. Invitations will be sent closer to the date, so be sure to share your most recent mailing and email addresses with the Alumni Office. For more information, call (404) 262-3032, ext. 1208 or email alumni@lovett.org.

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Class notes Alumni Association presidents past and present met up at AlumniFest on September 30: Thaddeus Rolle ’04, Rebecca Warner Strang ’93 (current president), Taylor Dozier ’02, and Megan Apple Stephenson ’93.

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This information reflects news and updates shared with the Alumni Office prior to February 15, 2022. Send us your news!

Visit www.lovett.org/alumninews.

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1962

Pam Barclay Fitzgerald shares a self portrait of her visit to Scotland.

1964

Chuck Bradley and his wife Getta are living in Idaho. Last summer they took a three-week trip to North Carolina and Georgia where they welcomed two great-grandbabies—Eleanor Rae Miller and River James Bradley. “It was a special time with family and friends including classmate Wood Lovell and his wife Jody.” In his free time, Chuck volunteers with Gaitway of Salmon—a PATH certified therapeutic riding program and enjoys floating Idaho’s beautiful wild and scenic rivers.

1969

Martha Ferguson Ball wants her classmates to know that she moved from Virginia back to Georgia in November 2019.

In December, Guy Tucker hosted a holiday lunch with alumni and friends. Front Row: Phillip Meyerson, Bill Johnson, Carl Crowley.

Second Row: Jay Steele, Randy Wolfe, John Feininger, Santa Claus, Bill Martin, Ed Rand (Westminster), and Strib Stribling. Photo captured by Guy.

1965

Patti Slick Beem and Brian Beem are enjoying their five grandchildren and grateful their son Brian ’98 and his three have moved back to Nashville from Sydney, Australia. They love spending time in the mountains of North Carolina where Brian works on his golf game.

Tee Price Davis is happy to report that the 5th Annual Dream Big, a fundraising party for Julie’s Dream named for her daughter Julie Muir Harlan ’94, raised over $625,000. “So many underserved Atlanta children will benefit from all the outdoor trips and programs that Julie’s Dream provides.”

Gail McLennan King has moved to Serenbe (Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia) and loves living there!

Kathy Taulman Vaughan just finished her latest book, Raine, Raine Went Away, and is now writing the screenplay—a first for her! The producer wanted “her flavoring,” as he put it, so she’s learning as she goes. She says screenwriting is the most fulfilling thing she has ever done. “From the time I was six years old, I have wanted to be in the movies and now I’m writing one.” She looks forward to announcing a publishing date later this year and the film to follow.

1968

After a 40-year teaching career, including 32 at The Westminster Schools, Jill Partain Allen retired from teaching. Two days later she and her husband Jim took a Mediterranean cruise to celebrate, and then moved up the road to Sugar Hill, Georgia, to be near their three grandsons, ages 11 and 8-year-old twins. “We are busier than ever, but having lots of fun attending their many sports events and helping out with the boys.”

1971

Last spring, Debbie Roach Avery and Tom Avery visited ten national parks in the southwestern United States in 17 days: Arches, Canyonlands (pictured at Mesa Arch), Mesa Verde, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Lake Powell, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, and Death Valley—and still had time for a side trip to Sante Fe, New Mexico, along the way!

the lovett school magazine / spring

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1973

In February, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame honoree Tom Douglas released the motion picture, Love, Tom, through the Paramount+ streaming service. The film takes place over the course of a single night in Nashville with Tom narrating a letter of hope to a desperate world. The idea was born years ago when he received a letter from a struggling songwriter asking him what he did when he wanted to give up.

Honest and personal, Tom peels back the curtain of the creative process, revealing his own past hardships and the struggle of the creative endeavor, while singing his own versions of the beloved songs he wrote at some of Nashville’s most historic and notable locations. Directed by Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning filmmaker Michael Lennox, the film was co-written by Tom and Tommy Douglas.

In conjunction with the movie, Tom released a companion album that features several well-known co-writers and friends, including Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, Lady A, Chris Janson, and Collin Raye.

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spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

Julie Kaptur Fritts and Chip Kennedy came into Denver to meet Todd Lowenberg who was visiting from Oregon. The three (mostly retired) classmates enjoyed each other’s company over alfresco lunch and a stroll through the gorgeous, Denver Botanic Gardens. Having not seen one another in more than a decade, they picked up where they had left off. They reminisced about Lovett escapades and lovingly shared updates of their combined four daughters, one son and two granddaughters. There were even whiffs of 50th Reunion chat!

1975

Lloyd Brown is a correspondent for StadiumJourney.com and recently appeared on their podcast to talk about his quest to join Club 124— that’s seeing a game at every NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB venue—a feat that he will accomplish this April if all goes according to plan!

Check out the video at https://youtu.be/8kYd25ODxRY. Ann Ray McNair lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband, Greg, and son, Hunter. She is an independent CPA and business manager for multinational entertainers who tour worldwide. Ann is also a voting member of the CMA—the Country Music Association—and one of her clients won “Song of the Year”!

1978

A year-long+ exhibition focusing on psychogeography will feature Gregor Turk’s work at the E Concourse of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Display cases throughout the concourse will feature ten different artists’ take on the concept and the display case with Gregor’s work will be located near the top of the escalator upon entering the E Concourse when coming from the Domestic Terminal.

One side of the display case will feature work from the 49th Parallel Project and the other side will have a series of wax-oil rubbings.

Coincidentally, 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of his walking and biking along and adjacent to the section of the 49th parallel that serves to demarcate the U.S./Canadian border (from Minnesota/ Manitoba to the Pacific)—the world’s longest straight border. The exhibition is tentatively scheduled for early 2022 and running into 2023.

Class Notes

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1982

David Adelman and his wife Caroline live in New York City. David works in the asset management business and is on the faculty of New York University and Caroline works in the administration at Columbia University. The Adelmans have three adult children and spend as much time as possible on Hilton Head Island where David’s brother Mark Adelman ’85 is raising his family while practicing law in Savannah.

Last spring, Lee Hatcher recorded his 11th hole in one! “Fun, health, and a beautiful wife, Tracey (married August 2019). Feeling grateful to roar like a Lion and welcome family or friends to sunny California! Let me know how you’re doing.”

1985

On April 23, 2021, Shane Kimbrough launched toward space for the third time, serving as Commander of the NASA/SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station in the Crew Dragon spacecraft. On the ISS, Kimbrough served as a Flight Engineer of Expedition 65/66, contributing to a host of scientific investigations, technology demonstrations, and maintenance activities. He performed three spacewalks on this flight, bringing his total to nine and more than 59 hours of time outside of the ISS. This flight lasted 199 days, completed 3,190 orbits of the Earth, and covered more than 84 million miles. Kimbrough now has logged 388 days in space, and became the fourth person to fly on three different spacecraft. Photo on page 66.

1987

Amy Brown Edelstein (second from left), daughter Devyn ’16, and husband Bruce, head north to Ohio each spring to cheer on Reid ’19 who plays lacrosse for Denison University.

Meadow Bond Smith continues to enjoy her role as a learning specialist in Lovett’s Lower School. She received her second knee replacement (at such a young age!) and is now fully ready to rejoin life and its adventures. She and her husband, Hop, have three girls who are in Upper School at Lovett. Their tenth graders, Ellie and Holly, underwent spinal fusion surgery last summer at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and have now fully recovered. We were all appreciative of the online advice and support of Joni Milsap Santos ’89 and her daughter, Sloane ’23, whose blogs were positive and helpful in her series of posts intended for teens going through the same invasive surgery.

1988

In February 2021, Hadley Benton published his first book! Based on a true story, Agent Clark is the first book in a historical crime fiction series. “In 1989 my grandfather, Julian H. Clark, picked up a cassette recorder and started dictating. It would be two years later before he put it down. Julian, the consummate storyteller, lived a life of excitement and intrigue. Not only did he want to share his experiences on life in the first part of the 20th century, he also wanted to share the many stories of his life on the road chasing car thieves, bootleggers, and bank robbers. It was fun, and it was dangerous.

His stories span three decades with many ups and downs for him personally and for the country, but they also span some of the most interesting times in American history.”

In the novel, Agent Clark is recovering stolen cars, dodging bullets, and chasing gangsters are all part of the job for this Florida detective. Will he shut down a major crime syndicate before a notorious gang has him killed? More information can be found on his website (https://www.hadleybenton.com) and on Amazon. the lovett school magazine / spring

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1993

Congratulations to Adam Nelson for leading Lovett Athletics to win the 2021 Director’s Cup for Class AA. Since 2000, the Georgia Athletic Directors Assocation has presented this award annually to recognize those athletic departments in all GHSA classifications who have excelled and shown superior performance. Twenty-six GHSA sports are counted in the standings each school year with each school’s eight highest scoring sports for each gender being included.

1997

Andrew Altenbach and family are living in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Having received economics and music degrees from Northwestern University and Indiana University, he joined The Bulfinch Group as a financial advisor in the wealth management firm. Andrew continues to perform classical music and also serves as the music director of the Brookline Symphony Orchestra.

Meredith Hill Baker has been enjoying a new chapter, leading outdoor creative classes for preschool and elementary kids. Her newest venture is Music in My Little Heart—songs for little hearts, and art and messy fun for little hands! She and the kids have the most fun with weekly music, art and messy fun classes, camps and other special events, focusing on fostering creativity in the hearts of kids!

Rebecca Warner Strang became President of the Lovett Alumni Association last summer. She will serve a two-year term.

Thank you, Rebecca, for your leadership of our alumni and devotion to our school!

Drew Voyles, president and founder of Beyond Adventures Co. (left), smiles with Gabriel Nkini, manager of Active Kilitop (right), on Mt. Kilimanjaro’s Uhuru Peak at 19,341 feet.

1995

Suzanne Lindsey Norman, husband McLeod, and daughters Mary Mac (16) and Kathryn (12) have been living in Chattanooga for almost five years and love mountain living on Signal Mountain. Suzanne is a stay-at-home mom and McLeod works for Jones Lang Lasalle in commercial real estate.

They have three dogs, Archie and Bella, both goldendoodles, and Winston, a dachshund.

1996

Jessica King Fagin used her time during furlough from work due to COVID to pursue a longterm dream of business ownership and purchased a Gymboree Play & Music franchise In Southlake, Texas.

spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

1998

After a life-changing experience summiting Mount Kilimanjaro for the first time in 2005, Drew Voyles envisioned helping others gain fresh perspective by getting outside of their day to day. Drew eventually returned in 2007 to lead his first group to the “Roof of Africa.” During that climb and the many that followed, his groups learned to sing with local guides in Swahili, watched the sun rise from above the clouds, shared stories around the table, and formed lifelong friendships. After taking more than 2,500 people on trips across Africa, Drew founded Beyond Adventures in 2018, expanding his vision to include both domestic and additional international offerings with trips to Africa, Everest Base Camp, Machu Picchu, and more. “We believe who you travel with is more important than where you go or what you do. No matter the destination, we’re committed to the same vision, taking our travelers to the crossroads of adventure and rest—where distractions fade, time slows, and you feel most alive.”

Tyson Morris is living in Tennessee and was appointed Chief Information and Technology Officer for the City of Chattanooga.

Class Notes

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2001

Whitney Feininger works in public safety and operations at the University of Vermont and serves on UVM’s COVID-19 response team, providing operations support and supervising student employees at the campus testing center.

2002

In August 2021, Andrew Aydin released RUN: Book One, the highly anticipated sequel to the National Book Award-winning MARCH, co-authored with the late Congressman John Lewis. Described as a captivating illustration of Congressman John Lewis’ early days in the civil rights movement, the book tells the story of the events after the signing of the Voting Rights Act, his later exit from the SNCC organization (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), and his relationships with fellow movement leaders. Prior to RUN: Book One, Andrew created and co-authored the graphic memoir trilogy, MARCH, which chronicles the life of John Lewis.

Co-authored with Rep. Lewis and illustrated by Nate Powell, MARCH was the first graphic novel to ever win the National Book Award.

Andrew served as special assistant to Connecticut Lt. Governor Kevin B. Sullivan and district aide to Rep. John Larson before joining the staff of Rep. Lewis in 2007. Andrew served in several capacities for Lewis, including campaign communications director and digital director & policy advisor until Lewis’ passing in 2020.

In December, Garden & Gun featured Read Fasse as Nashville’s Boston Whaler Magician and “his painstaking restorations of vintage Whalers keep the classic boats turning heads for generations to come.” Read and his wife Julie started working to revive Read’s fathers 1979 Boston Whaler and quickly fell in love with the art of restoring marine classics. Per the article, they hand pick donor boats from all over the eastern U.S. “We’re really choosy about what we select for our clients,” he says. “There are plenty of old Whalers out there, but not all of them are restorable. Of the boats we look at, we probably only buy two percent of them.” Once the hull is procured, the complete restoration process takes about ten weeks, depending on the number of other projects in the works. And for folks who already own an old Whaler and are considering a renovation but aren’t sure if they want to attempt it themselves, Read offers consultation services. “These are really personal projects,” he says.

“These boats aren’t impulse purchases. They’re lifelong heirlooms— and that’s priceless.”

2003

After six years in Savannah, Haley Champion Gage moved with her family to Columbus, Georgia to be closer to her husband Forrest’s family. She traded her green and gold at Savannah Country Day for her ‘OG’ colors of blue and white to work at Brookstone School in their Learning Center.

2004

Curry O’Day completed his PhD in Philosophy at Texas A&M and is once again living in New Orleans and working at Loyola University.

A lifelong student of philosophy, Curry’s academic interests include philosophy and technology, media studies, professional and applied ethics, 17th-century philosophy, and anticolonialism. the lovett school magazine / spring

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2005

Designing on all fronts is Wes Gordon, creative director of Carolina Herrera. Wes went viral in the most positive way for dressing and accompanying Karlie Kloss to the 2021 Met Gala. Inspired by red roses, the national flower of America, Wes wanted to recreate the dramatic flourish of a rose in full bloom in this show stopping gown. Per W Magazine, when Kloss walked onto the street, there were audible gasps and cheers from the crowd. And, be sure to look for Wes and Carolina Herrera’s new collaboration with Paperless Post. When he set out to create online wedding invitations, bold and beautiful blooms took center stationery stage, “We wanted to translate the fun and graphic boldness that these prints have on our runway to the digital invitations that can be shared around the world no matter the place or time,” Gordon told Vogue Magazine in January.

“The collection is about the joy of celebration.” Gordon and company created not one, not two, but 37 different designs for the site: https://www.paperlesspost.com/cards/category/carolinaherrera-wedding Megan Popkin Woolbright and her husband Jordan moved back to Atlanta from the Bay Area at the end of 2020. She’s living in Brookhaven and enjoying Atlanta life—especially reconnecting with family and friends.

They welcomed their second son, Charlie, in January 2021. Megan is going on her 13th year with Insight Global (a staffing and managed services company) and Jordan opened up an Atlanta location for Gong.IO, a revenue intelligence platform.

spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

2006

On January 7, comedian Matthew Broussard performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (https://youtu. be/7DetfD-RQmI) with jokes about being a good boyfriend, dating a professional athlete, and getting booked on a show with his girlfriend. Be sure to check out Matthew starring in the movie Salesmen, released in February on Amazon Prime.

After serving as National Policy Director for President Biden’s campaign, Stefanie Feldman has now completed her first year as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy at the White House.

2008

Kathryn Boyd Crabtree ’08 (below, left) and her mother, mother Kim Landon Boyd, are a top producing mother/ daughter residential real estate team with Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty. They were awarded #1 in Team Volume 2019 for the Atlanta Realtors Association, among 1400 other top producing agents.

Last spring, Leslie Wade Wooldridge (below, right) ran in the virtual Run ’n Lovett from her home in Malibu, California in honor of her late father David R. Wade ’75. “Run ’n Lovett was such a time-honored tradition that my father and I looked forward to annually, so it was a gift to be able to participate this year from afar and reflect on such fond memories made on the Riverbank over the years.”

Class Notes

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2010

Sam Hempel completed his PhD in finance from Cornell University. He defended his dissertation on exchangetraded funds (ETFs) on June 4, 2020. He is now working as a research economist for the US Treasury’s Office of Financial Research.

2009

Bronte Lord is living in New York City and is a manager with CNN’s Strategic Initiatives team, focusing on CNN+.

Previously, she was a producer with CNN Business where she helped manage the video team by shooting, writing, editing, and supervising video production. She focused on innovation and space reporting and led video for a cross-functional team dedicated to CNN Business features.

Some of her notable contributions include the Mission Ahead series and coverage of the first crewed SpaceX mission in June 2020 (pictured). Bronte began her career at CNN in 2013 working in television on Your Money, then transitioning to digital and covered media and autos for CNNMoney (now CNN Business). In 2017, Bronte helped found CNNVR, the network’s virtual reality storytelling unit.

There, she shaped standards for VR and 360° content and commissioned stories from CNN correspondents around the world. For the 2018 eclipse, Bronte developed and wrote the groundbreaking two-hour live 360° broadcast that tracked the celestial phenomenon across seven sites in the United States. CNN’s coverage set a Guinness World Record for the most-watched 360 livestream and won an Edward R. Murrow award for Excellence in Innovation. The CNNVR unit ultimately produced more than 100 virtual reality experiences from over 40 countries.

In May 2021, Eliza Macdonald earned her master of fine arts degree from Emerson College in Creative Writing. While attending the three-year program in Boston, Eliza also taught rhetoric and writing to Emerson undergraduate students.

In December of 2019, Aleha Saleh graduated from Emory University with her master’s in nursing, specializing in pediatric acute care and moved the following May to New York City to be a pediatric nurse practitioner in blood and marrow transplant at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In October, Aleha moved to Memphis, Tennessee and is now working as a pediatric nurse practictioner at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital—ALSAC. After over two years living in Brooklyn, Meredith Thornhill returned to Atlanta’s Virginia-Highland neighborhood at the beginning of June 2021, where she works permanently remotely for advertising agency Anomaly NY. Meredith left BBDO San Francisco, as senior business affairs manager for clients Wells Fargo and WhatsApp, in September 2021 to immediately join Anomaly NY’s Business Affairs team.

As one of Anomaly NY’s senior business affairs managers, Meredith oversees clients DICK’S Sporting Goods, New York Life, Captain Morgan, Don Julio, and Johnnie Walker.

2012

During the summer of 2020, Caroline Cronk Edwards became a luxury travel advisor with Currie & Co. Travels Unlimited. “I design personalized itineraries that incorporate what I view as the most important aspects of traveling — culture, comfort, and cuisine. I work together with my clients on each individual trip, catering my services based on their priorities and preferences, past experiences and future dreams. Whether a special life celebration, a quick getaway with extra amenities, that once-in-a-lifetime bucket list trip or a private experience that you never could’ve imagined, I partner alongside my clients from the moment we start working together to help create incredibly special memories and life-changing moments. Contact me at caroline@curriecotravels.com. I would love to plan your next trip!” the lovett school magazine / spring

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2013

Caroline Cronk Edwards ’12 had her wedding celebration June 19, 2021 and nine of her bridesmaids were Lovett Class of 2012 alumnae! From left to right: Hannah Hempel Menk, Catherine Satcher Kent, Kate Laird, Katie Smith Hagy, Virginia Irby, Maggie Wolters, Caroline, Mary Liz Cronk Harms ’10, Katy Underwood, and Lorin Rogers.

2014

Sam Logun moved to New York City in the fall of 2020 and works as an account executive at Wix.com.

A Lovett First! NFL defensive back Grant Haley, #46 for the Los Angeles Rams, played in Super Bowl LVI. And, that’s not all! The Rams have two other alumni working for the organization behind the scenes—Sarah Teichner, partnership marketing manager, and Carson Holden ’13, premium services account manager. Congratulations to Grant, Sarah, and Carson on an incredible season!

Wesley Haley ’15, Sarah Teichner ’14, Grant Haley ’14, Carson Holden ’13, and Cooper Ward ’13 at the Rams’ Super Bowl post-game party.

Grant with his mom and Lovett Trustee Carla Neal-Haley.

spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

Maggie Sinkler graduated from the Medical College of Georgia last May. While there, she was elected a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Society. Maggie is performing her orthopedic surgery residency at Case Western Reserve University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio.

Class Notes

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A tremendous alumni turnout at the September 2021 wedding of Claire Stratton Whalen! All pictured (above), other than husband Mac, are Lovett alums.

Live from New York—Andrew Wilson! Andrew (right) is in his third season working at Saturday Night Live.

He’s a production coordinator for the Film Unit, which shoots pre-tape sketches like fake commercials and music videos. “The most fun part is our team somehow making an idea that should take weeks to shoot happen in a day, every week. I actually did my senior project at Lovett on SNL, but I like to think it was my degree in geography that really won them over.”

In the fall, Drew Williams (bottom right), co-founder of the Press Sports app, was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Media list. Described as a blend of LinkedIn and Instagram, Press Sports is a place where school-age athletes post photo and video highlights to attract recruitment and brand offers. Drew and business partner Conrad Cornell first thought about the idea as high school baseball players and knew others would want a place to digitally catalog their seasons without filling existing social media accounts with an over-the-top amount of athletics content. With $2.8 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst, Press Sports has over 250,000 registered users, who’ve published more than 600,000 posts from 70 countries.

the lovett school magazine / spring

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2016

From high school state football champions in 2013 to NCAA national football champions in 2022—congratulations to Brady Tindall and John Staton IV for reaching the top of the mountain once again with the Georgia Bulldogs!

Catt McCreary continues to drop new singles. In a review of her single “Good for Me,” Tara Demers of Wire says, “Catt showcases her smooth, dreamy vocals with the song and rhythm, expressing those different love sides with the use of the backtrack vocal layers and the hip-hop, pop sound of the beats. ‘Good for Me’ definitely should be on your playlists as it shows off that heart-racing love and taking the moments in.”

Photo credit: Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy

2017

In spring of 2021, James Packman earned his bachelor’s in psychology with highest honors from Princeton University while also obtaining a certificate in Chinese language and culture. He is also one of three recipients who have won the 2021 Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest general distinction an undergraduate can receive. James’ independent research on measuring antisemitic stereotypes earned the Edward E. Jones Memorial Prize as well as the Howard Crosby Warren Senior Prize in Psychology. In 2020, he was a recipient of the Howard Crosby Warren Junior Prize in Psychology, named a Scholar in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI)’s Frank C. Carlucci ’52 Scholar in 2019, and a recipient of Princeton’s Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence in 2018. He also served as president and foil fencer with the Princeton Fencing Club and president and a drummer for the Princeton University Rock Ensemble. Since graduation, he has continued researching the measurement and prediction of antisemitic stereotypes. James is a 2021 Fulbright Scholar and will be pursuing his master’s in psychology and neuroscience in Taiwan.

spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

2018

In November, Quinn Buczek and Merrill Buczek ’19 met up in Salt Lake City, Utah to see the No. 12-ranked Utes take on the No. 22-ranked Oregon Ducks. Quinn is pursuing double majors in environmental sciences and geography at Utah and Merrill is majoring in comparative literature at Oregon.

Class Notes

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2019

Lions lacrosse alumni Reid Edelstein, Quinn O’Donnell, and Clyde Bresnahan ’20 all suit up for Denison University. You can catch their games online this spring at www.northcoastnetwork.com/denison.

Paramount+ is giving fans of the movie Grease, a Pink Ladies origin story, set to hit screens at some point in late 2022.

Our own Madison Thompson will star as Susan in Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.

Madison is also known for her role as Erin Pierce on Ozark, an Emmy Award-winning Netflix series.

2021

Last summer, Wasswa Robbins and Cameron Colavito joined the Naval Academy’s Class of 2025 composed of 1,200 young men and women from a pool of 16,000 applicants. Soon after graduation from Lovett, they participated in Plebe Summer.

During this time, plebes have no access to television, movies, the internet, or music, and restricted access to cell phones. The rigor of Plebe Summer is carefully designed to help plebes prepare for their first academic year at the Naval Academy and the four years of challenge, which await them. As the summer progressed, the new midshipmen rapidly assimilated basic skills in seamanship, navigation, damage control, sailing, and handling yard patrol craft—while also learning infantry drill and how to shoot 9 mm pistols and M-16 rifles. Other daily training sessions involve moral, mental, physical, or professional development and team-building skills. Activities include swimming, martial arts, basic rock climbing, obstacle, endurance, and confidence courses. Both Wasswa and Cameron are continuing their athletic careers at Navy—Wasswa on the soccer pitch and Cameron cheering for Navy football.

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marriages

1.

1. Mary Blythe Kane Flury ’91 and Jason Alexander Flury January 24, 2020 2. Samantha Buice Smith and Rush Smith ’95 October 10, 2020 3. Alex Thomas Rollins ’04 and Wilson Rollins ’04 November 28, 2020

2.

4. Allison McWilliams Adams ’05 and George Adams August 8, 2020

3.

5. McLean Corrigan Wolff ’07 and Kevin Wolff June 5, 2021 6. Tokie Gardner Sackey and Jameson Sackey ’08 September 11, 2021

4.

7. Lollie Corrigan Loflin ’09 and Reilly Loflin August 15, 2020 8. Laura Davis Price and Lee Price ’09 September 19, 2020 9. Jesslyn Rollins Canady ’10 and Michael Canady ’05 April 17, 2021 10. Betts Irvine Ervin ’10 and Jeffrey Ervin June 5, 2021 11. Claire Burtch and Sam Hempel ’10 June 13, 2020 12. Allison Major Stephens ’10 and Nate Stephens April 3, 2021

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marriages

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13. Kaki Pope Bjorklund ’11 and Ross Bjorklund November 7, 2020 14. Kelsey Neville Gannon ’11 and Sean Gannon April 10, 2021 15. Virginia Seiler Kerns ’11 and Ben Kerns June 5, 2021 16. Caroline Cronk Edwards ’12 and Jack Edwards June 20, 2020 17. Katie Smith Hagy ’12 and Luke Hagy October 3, 2020

15.

18. Catherine Satcher Kent ’12 and Alex Kent August 8, 2020 19. Hannah Hempel Menk ’12 and Thomas Menk February 29, 2020 20. Sara Ellis Pearce Snellings and Trey Snellings ’12 October 31, 2020 21. Sara Widener Young and Jack Young ’12 February 6, 2021 22. Lucy Campbell Hope ’13 and Henry Hope June 12, 2021 23. Jacque Walker Montgomery and Rob Montgomery ’13 August 7, 2021 24. Claire Stratton Whalen ’14 and Mac Whalen September 25, 2021

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babies

1.

1. Spencer Campbell Boyd November 11, 2020 David and Kelly Ragland Boyd ’96 Pictured with big brother, Wyatt.

2. Eston Mansell Zapf May 30, 2020 Joseph and Montine Mansell Zapf ’97 Pictured with siblings, Gincy and Crawford.

3. Peter “Thomas” Sinclair III December 9, 2021 Peter and Mary Margaret Cline Sinclair ’01 4. Jack Duvoisin November 6, 2020 John and Marisa Abernethy Duvoisin ’02 5. Ava Barbara Jackson Harris April 15, 2021 Orien and Alexandra Jackson Harris ’02

2.

6. Isabelle “Ibby” Buchanan Champion March 18, 2021 Forrest and Haley Gage Champion ’03 7. Miles Grady Marquardt September 3, 2020 Tyler and Ashley Cornutt Marquardt ’04 8. Eloise Hartman Rolle (not pictured) November 2, 2021 Erin and Thaddeus Rolle ’04 9. Beck Avery Simpson October 9, 2020 John and Rachel Avery Simpson ’04 10. Carney Lucille “Lucy” Underwood February 8, 2021 Carney and William Underwood ’05 11. Charlie Woolbright January 19, 2021 Jordan and Megan Popkin Woolbright ’05 12. Coleman Denny Carr August 11, 2020 & Richard Bolling “Bo” Carr December 6, 2021 Alex and Maggie Dozier Carr ’07

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babies

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13. Madden Grace Duvall March 11, 2021 Chas and Caroline Madden Duvall ’07 14. Emma “Emmy” Craig Rollins June 29, 2021 Win ’07 and Katie Boydston Rollins ’07 Pictured with siblings Elsie (4) and Boyd (2).

15. Park Sterling Stearns September 1, 2021 Robert and Suzanne Clark Stearns ’07 16. Barnett Williams, Jr. March 26, 2021 Lizzie and Barnett Williams ’07

14.

17. Mason James Domanico September 8, 2021 Lea Sedehi Domanico ’08 and Daniel Domanico ’09 18. Benjamin Reid Frankel August 26, 2020 Maggie and Alexander Frankel ’08 19. Camille Frances Green February 23, 2021 Sarah and Barrett Green ’08 20. Miller “Millie” Elise Talamantez May 9, 2020 Scott and Leslie Miller Talamantez ’08 21. Patrick Wayne Wendt July 21, 2020 Christopher and Caroline Smith Wendt ’08 22. Sloane Margaret Emerson (not pictured) February 3, 2020 Katherine and Mack Emerson ’09 23. Parker Thomas Rudd January 2, 2021 Cameron and Elizabeth Selman Rudd ’09 24. Hayes Madden McFarland September 2, 2020 Reid and Laura Madden McFarland ’10 25. Jakob Merritt Brentnall April 6, 2021 Alina and Edward Brentnall, Jr. ’11

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in memoriam Hugh C. “Buddy” Aldredge Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni

Kaye Cairney Parent of alumni

Elkin Alston Parent of alumni, former employee

Linda Lee Cameron ’62

Timon Mayo Atkins Parent of alum Robert McNeill “Pud” Avery ’73 Parent of alumni Charles Andrew Beard Parent of alumni Nancy Carter Bland Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni Wylene Elizabeth Righton Bradbury Parent of alum William “Bill” Thomas Bradshaw Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni

Asa Griggs Candler V Grandparent of alumni William Rackley “Bill” Candler Parent of alumni Paula Caray Parent of alum James Carr LL ’54 James Bayard Carson Jr. Parent of alum, grandparent of alum Shelly Elizabeth Charles LL ’52 Thomas Stephens Cheek, Jr. Parent of alumni Joyce Ann Christensen Former faculty

Edward Brentnall ’65 Parent of alum

Patricia Loden Christian ’62

Robert E. Brizendine Parent of alumni

George Leon Cohen Parent of alumni

Charles Edward Brown, Jr. ’73

Norma Cullom Collins ’72

Elizabeth Brundick Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni

Gregory M. Colson Former faculty

Dr. Barbara S. Bruner Parent of alumni

Luther Conrad, Jr. Parent of alum

Helen Fraser Bryant Parent of alum

Elizabeth Jones Cox ’71

Elizabeth Ahern Buckman ’91

Ann O’Malley Craig Parent of alumni

William Burnette Parent of alumni

Thomas Crawford Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni

Howard C. Busbey Parent of alumni

Jackson Culbreth Parent of alumni

Mary Helen Alexander Butler Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni

Bradley Currey, Jr. Emeritus trustee, parent of alumni

Sanford “Scott” Butler ’75

Rev. Dr. James D. Curtis Former faculty

spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

Class Notes

99

in memoriam (Continued) Claudia Dickens Retired faculty

Claye Kenyatta Hart Parent of alumni

Lance Doyal ’67 Parent of alum

Anne Scott Mauldin Harvard ’72

Frank Watkins Draper Parent of alumni Sanford Mitchell Dunklin ’77 Parent of alumni Kathleen Ann Eichenblatt Parent of alumni Courtney Ellis Current parent Jimmy Fitts ’65 Roger Mayo Flynt, Jr. Parent of alum Mary Weyman Frazier ’95 Juliana Spivey Frederick ’07 J. Michael Gearon Grandparent of alumni Mary Budd George Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni

Robert “Tug” Earnest Helmer ’92 Julius Malik Holder ’12 Anne Houk Retired faculty, parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni, grandparent Sara Jordan Hoyt Parent of alumni Lina Clare Isanhour Retired employee Robert L. Ison, Jr. Parent of alum, grandparent Mary Bailey Izard Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni Samuel Michael Jannetta Parent of alumni Jimmy Jewell Former faculty J. Niels Johannesson Parent of alum

John Gillespie Parent of alumni

Allison Lynn Jones ’87

Lyn Glenn Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni

William Daniel Jordan Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni

Judson Green ’09

James Patrick Kelly Parent of alumni, grandparent

Dr. Leon L. Haley, Jr. Parent of alumni Sudie Clark Hanger Parent of alum Rebecca Harrell Parent of alum Vikki Harris Retired employee, parent of alum William “Bill” Harrison Parent of alumni

Alice Staton King Parent of alumni John Finley Kiser, Sr. LL ’41 Parent of alum Ganiyu Ladipo Parent of alumni Ada Morris Lamon Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni Philip Limmiatis ’71 the lovett school magazine / spring

issue 2022

Class Notes

100

in memoriam (Continued) Ian Douglas Lindsay Parent of alumni, grandparent of alum

David Reid McWilliams, Sr. Parent of alum

Daniel “Dann” Oliver Littlejohn ’72

Mary Masters Millians Current parent

Christina “Tina” Louis Parent of alum, grandparent of alumni Francis “Frank” Mongtomery MacConochie Parent of alumni

Joan L. Milsap Parent of alum, grandparent John Adna North, Jr. ’62

Truesdell “Trudy” Grimes Madden Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni

Ben O’Callaghan Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni

Carolyn Sterry Magruder Parent of alum

Charles Ogilvie Current parent

Wiley Lawrence Maloof Parent of alum

Carol Richardson Olley Parent of alumni

Philip Harry Mansell, Sr. Parent of alumni

June Dudley Ottley, Sr. Parent of alumni

Phillip “Phil” Jewett Markert Parent of alumni

David LeRoy Oyler Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni

Bettye Jo Martin Parent of alum, former faculty

Maxwell Carr Payne III ’78

Mary Ann Keith Massey Parent of alumni, grandparent of alum Gywnn Mathews ’84 William “Bill” Mathis Parent of alum Guy Mayes ’63 Willard Blakeslee McBurney, Jr. LL ’43 Parent of alum, grandparent of alum, grandparent Carson McElheney Current parent Gregory McGinnis Parent of alum Marilyn Wade McIntyre Parent of alum Kathleen Andregg McLean Retired faculty

spring issue 2022 / the lovett school magazine

Robert Irvin Payne ’76 Nancy Sawyer Pearce Parent of alum Jack Sherman Petrik Parent of alumni Brian Petters ’97 Paul Pritchett ’88 Frances Murchison Pulliam Parent of alumni Randall Keith Redding, Sr. Parent of alum Cynthia Pepper Reed ’66 Dr. L. R. “Sandy” Sanderson Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni Claire Bagley Shouse ’69 Nancy Haslam Shuford Parent of alumni

Class Notes

101

in memoriam

tributes

(Continued) Carol Fitzgerald Silva ’73 Herbert “Herb” Allan Sodel Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni Joan Helen Coulborn Stevens LL ’55 Marian Hutter Stevens Parent of alumni Larry Jewell Stewart Parent of alumni Michael T. Stone ’66 Parent of alumni Betty Stratton Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni Aubrey Jackson “Jack” Stringer, Jr. Parent of alumni Robert Hollis Tharpe III ’82 Helen Hopkins Timberlake Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni Mark Timberlake ’68 Sally Glanville Train Parent of alum Marion Merritt Wall Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni Martha Boyden Kiser Wayt LL ’41 Randolph “Randy” Whitfield LL ’51 Homer W. “Bo” Whitman, Jr. Parent of alumni Barbara Ann Wieland Parent of alumni Gerald Wilkins, Sr. Parent of alumni, Trustee Emeritus Malcolm L. Wilkinson Parent of alum Constance Ashford Wright Parent of alumni, grandparent of alumni Howard Dale Wyngarden Parent of alum

Bradley Norton Currey, Jr. (1930-2022)

Mr. Currey was well-known in Atlanta as a respected civic leader, tireless volunteer, and skillful businessman. In addition to having successful careers in both the banking and paper industries, he devoted an extraordinary amount of time to serving organizations and educational institutions. Mr. Currey served in leadership capacities on many of the major boards in Atlanta, from the Atlanta Chamber and United Way, to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Woodruff Arts Center, to the Federal Reserve Bank and directorships of several private companies. He was a member of the Board of Trustees at Emory University, Randolph College, and Lovett, where he served as chairman, trustee, and advisor for more than three decades. He was a generous supporter of Lovett—particularly to financial aid—starting in the early 1970s. Mr. Currey is the father of Brad Currey ’73, Anne Currey Bucey ’74, Louise Currey Wilson ’77, and Russell Currey ’79.

Gerald J. Wilkins, Sr. (1958-2021)

Gerald Wilkins, a successful finance executive, joined the Lovett Board of Trustees in 2001, serving as an active trustee for 11 years and then as trustee emeritus. For more than three decades, he held positions at numerous Fortune 500 companies and organizations, including AT&T, GE, KFC, AFC Enterprises, and Habitat for Humanity. He served on the boards of Zoo Atlanta, AFC, Global Payments, and Lovett from 20012013. Wilkins was a philanthropic leader at Lovett for more than 25 years, generously giving to both annual fund and capital campaign efforts. He is survived by his wife of 33 years, Denise Wilkins, and his four children, Gerald Wilkins, Jr., Felicia Wilkins ’11, Vanessa Wilkins ’11, and Robert Wilkins ’13. the lovett school magazine / spring

issue 2022

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