The Hammiesphere: Alexander Hamilton Scholars’ Quarterly Newsletter
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Please send notes for the editor and feedback to Elias Olson, Communications & Data Mngr. | elias.olson@hamiltonscholars.org
Vol. 2 | No. 1
Spring 2022
Did you miss it? We featured eight incredible Hammies from across Scholar cohorts — each at different stages of the Empowerment Program — as part of our 2021 Annual Report; read more about where we've been and where we're going
In this issue:
- Letter from the Executive Director
- Spotlight — AHS Council of Advisors
- Programming
- Program Updates
- Scholars in Service
- Q1 Scholar Emergency Funds
- Hammie News
- Development
- Strong Start: Growing Where We're Rooted
- Passive Giving with AHS
Letter from the Executive Director
Happy Spring Hamilton Community!
Welcome to the first quarterly newsletter of 2022, our team continues to engage with our 147 active Scholars with meaningful mentorships, internship support, emergency funds, Leader Weeks, professional development series, and community. Additionally, we are in the process of selecting our 2022 cohort of Scholars to join us in April.
Winter is nearing an end and spring equinox is on the horizon – this is a time I equate to renewal, longer days, increased activity, and an increased ability to connect with those that are meaningful in our lives. Entering this season of renewal we continued to see challenges in our communities with growing unrest in Ukraine, the realities of COVID-19 — the Delta and Omicron variants and long COVID — and climate change impacting communities across our world; my on-going hope for all of our communities is increased safety where they reside, access to healthcare in all its forms, connection vs. isolation, and sustainable resources to navigate these discomfiting times.
Some highlights of winter quarter:
- We are in the selection process for our 2022 Scholars (increasing from 35 Scholars to 40 Scholars)
- We created our 2021 Annual Report
- Our Alumni Board concluded successful nominations for the upcoming term — keep an eye out for that announcement via email
- Mikala Lain (’15) was promoted to Assistant Director & Director of DEI
- Elias Olson was promoted to Communications and Data Manager
- We welcomed two new Program Specialists in January: Cassandra Baddeley and Saulyman Corr
- We are planning a return to in-person leader weeks with enhanced COVID protocols
- 2019 Scholars are planning Scholars in Service with a focus on Mental Health
- We've surpassed our 170k strong goal! Help us support in-person Leader Weeks as we aim for a stretch goal of 200K for Strong Start! Thank you to those that have already generously donated – there’s still time to make an impact before March 18th
- Three options to passively support AHS: 1) Give with Bing; 2) Amazon Smile; and 3) Fred Meyer Community Rewards
Dr. Angela Hedwall, Executive Director
May each of you find light, renewing rest, intentional connection, and meaningful engagement. I am looking forward to slowly, safely, and joyously returning to in-person meetings.
All my best,
Angela
LAUNCH: AHS Council of Advisors
Spotlight / Operations
Stock image of a board room
Everyone, at every stage of life, can benefit from mentorship and a strong community. Just as AHS models the support of our Scholars after the mentorship Alexander Hamilton received from his community, so too do we understand that our long-term growth must include mentorship and community at the organizational level. Today, we take a step towards that with the launch of the AHS Council of Advisors.
The Council serves as a critical community champion of AHS in support of our mission. Members can lean-in in a variety of ways: sharing their professional expertise; their diverse knowledge of constituent perspectives; their connections to local, national, or international resources, colleagues or peers; providing philanthropic support, or other forms of needed assistance.
Our Council debuts today with members from across industries and sectors; we look forward to welcoming additional members in the areas of education, and psychotherapy & advocacy. We’re thrilled to see how this partnership evolves and invite you to explore the bios of our Council below.
Marta Lowe
Marta Lowe serves as Corporate Counsel for Costco Wholesale. At Costco, Marta partners with Challenge Seattle to coordinate Career Discovery Tours for under-resourced high school students, and to connect teachers with Costco employees to translate the company's STEM challenges for classroom use. Throughout her career, she’s volunteered her skills toward a more equitable world: documenting the claims of incarcerated women denied health care, helping people with AIDS obtain disability benefits, establishing a pro bono program for fellow in-house lawyers, and serving as chair of the board of directors of Childhaven. Marta received her law degree from The University of Chicago in 1996, where she took the class Racism and the Law from Barack Obama, and completed a certification in Inclusion and Diversity from the Yale School of Management in 2020. She believes in the mission of empowerment embodied by Alexander Hamilton Scholars and is grateful for the opportunity to support it.
Patrick Green
Patrick L. Green is the president and chief executive officer of Lawrence and Memorial Healthcare and executive vice president of Yale New Haven Health. L+M Healthcare, a member of the Yale New Haven Health System.
Patrick has over 20 years of well-rounded leadership experience with private, not-for-profit health systems and major comprehensive academic health systems demonstrating his visionary skill and expertise to ensure operational integrity while developing a sustainable business model for the organization. Patrick is a servant leader and is known for his “People First” leadership approach.
He volunteers his time in the community with various nonprofit organizations that focus on improving the health of the community, education, and leadership development. He serves on several boards including the Connecticut Hospital Association Board of Trustees, the Hospital Association of Rhode Island (HARI) and the American Hospital Association Regional Policy Board (AHA RPB1). He is also a board member of the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut and a board of trustee for Chelsea Groton Bank. In addition, Patrick is on the board of Mystic Aquarium, the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern CT, and the American Heart Association of Connecticut.
Patrick and his wife have a teenage son.
Dr. Jillian Woodruff
Dr. Jillian Woodruff, also known as Dr. Jill, is board certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and is a Fellow of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She maintains an active gynecologic and aesthetic practice in Anchorage, Modern Gynecology & Skin. She is active in nonprofit women’s and children’s issues in her area, serves as an educator to students in medical fields, a mentor to young women via the Women’s Power League of Alaska and hosts a call-in health discussion show on KSKA, the local NPR affiliate.
As a member of the AHS Council of Advisors, “Dr. Jill” is a mentor to aspirant medical students and advises AHS on how better to serve their needs. Dr. Woodruff holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Psychology with a Neuroscience focus and Spanish Literature from Duke University, and her MD from the University of Kentucky, with further training at Cornell University/NY Presbyterian Hospital and residency at Beth Israel Medical Center/Mt. Sinai.
She converses with patients in English, Spanish, American Sign Language and conversational Mandarin, and has volunteered in Guatemala, Mexico and China performing humanitarian and medical missions. At home, in Anchorage, you will often find her interpreting for the Deaf at church, volunteering with the Jack and Jill of America, Inc, long distance running in the snow, cross country skiing, or shuttling her young children to and from activities. She and her husband, physician Dr. Christopher Gay, an AHS Board of Directors member and their two children reside in Anchorage, Alaska.
Bill Basl
Bill Basl, a White House appointee, served as the Director of AmeriCorps State and National at the Corporation for National and Community Service from 2012-16. Bill began his national service career as a VISTA volunteer in 1970, helping migrant farm workers in Washington establish their own businesses. He also served as a VISTA leader from 1971-72. In this role, he helped form a regional legal services network. In 1983, Bill founded the Washington Service Corps, the first statewide youth service initiative in the nation designed to address priority local education and human service needs. Basl also founded the nation's first veterans' corps in 2010 and is noted for establishing a collaborative regional network to provide AmeriCorps training across the Pacific Northwest. In 1993 he was called upon by the Governor to create the WA Commission for National and Community Service which continues to be the state entity receiving federal and local funding that has enabled thousands of individuals to serve as AmeriCorps members. He provided a vision for service and volunteerism serving in this capacity as a staff person to three Washington Governors from 1993 until his White House appointment in 2012. He is a past chair and board member of the American Association of State Service Commissions and was selected by the White House as a Champion of Change – Service Innovator in 2011.
A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Bill received a BS in business administration from the University of Rhode Island. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the WA Campus Compact, the Civic Learning Council, Civic Assets, and serves as an advisor to Hamilton Scholars.
Betsy Maurer
Betsy Maurer practices employment law in her solo firm in Seattle, Washington, counseling both employers and management-level employees. She has previously worked in large and small law firms and in-house at Microsoft Corporation. Betsy is a past president of Temple Beth Am and currently serves on its board and the board of the Seattle Jewish Chorale. She is proud to be a member of the AHS Council of Advisors. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Betsy received her B.A. from Yale University and her J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law.
Rachel Schnalzer
Rachel is a member of the AHS Council of Advisors. She is an audience engagement editor at the Los Angeles Times, where she also writes a weekly travel newsletter. Prior to joining the Times, Rachel worked at BuzzFeed and Snapchat.
Rachel serves as a regional coordinator for the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance's youth committee and has also volunteered with L.A.-based organizations such as WriteGirl and Young Storytellers.
Rachel earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and English at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. She focused her senior thesis on the legacy of censorship in post-independence Ireland, where she studied abroad. While in school, Rachel enjoyed participating in a variety of on-campus clubs and interning at media organizations such as Baltimore Magazine, the Johns Hopkins University Press, Rodale and PBS39.
Matt Stewart
Matt is a member of the AHS Council of Advisors. He currently resides in Frankfurt, Germany, where he is the Vehicles (Hot Wheels/Matchbox/Disney Pixar Cars) Marketing Lead for Germany and Austria at Mattel. Prior to working in Mattel’s Germany office, he worked at Mattel’s global headquarters in El Segundo, California. Before beginning his career in the toy industry in Los Angeles, Matt worked at Snapchat and Kelton Global.
In addition to his experiences in the private sector, Matt volunteered at the Santa Monica Pico Farmers Market for Hunger Action Los Angeles, a food justice nonprofit organization. He also spent a year in Cape Town, South Africa as a fellow for the CTC Foundation and AMANDLA EduFootball, developing programming focused on life skills and education in local township communities. In college, he interned in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland, for U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in Albany, New York, and the ACLU National Prison Project in Washington, DC.
Matt earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He hails from Malta, New York, a small town just north of Albany.
Alexis Cox
Alexis Cox is an experienced digital content and growth professional, currently creating developer experiences at Google. She has been driving digital transformation and building creative technical experiences for some of the world's most influential companies for over 15 years. She advises several non-profits and start-up companies in Silicon Valley about best practices in creative digital media, online content and cloud technologies. Alexis holds a BA in digital sculpture from Sarah Lawrence College and an MBA from Wharton at UPenn.
Kellie Tollifson
Kellie Tollifson, MPM® RMP® is Executive Vice President and Co-Founder of T-Square Properties in the Greater Seattle area. Kellie began her 27-year career in Property Management as a landlord managing her own investment properties. After developing systems, processes & industry leading service standards that answered needs in the marketplace for high quality, tech driven and cost-effective property management, she and her team have grown T-Square Properties to over 570 doors and 105 Homeowner Associations.
Kellie holds a bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Science from San Jose State University and served as the 2020 President of the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM®) and is currently serving as the National Instructor Sub-Committee Chairperson for NARPM®. For over 8 years now, Kellie has been a Certified Continuing Education Real Estate Instructor for the State of Washington and a National Instructor for NARPM®.
Shirley McKinney
A native of Gary, Indiana Shirley McKinney is a 42-year National Park Service veteran who joined the system in 1980 as a clerk-stenographer at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. She received several promotions before moving to Mount Rushmore National Memorial in 1986 as the administrative officer, a post she held until she transferred to Gateway in 1988 as a program analyst.
McKinney earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Kentucky State University. She resides on Staten Island and has three grown children.
Alexandra Woods, Ph.D
Alexandra Woods is a graduate the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, where she has been co-Chair of its Committee on Ethnicity, Race, Class Culture and Language (CERCCL) since 2012; she is a member of Black Psychoanalysts Speak. She has been supervising students since 2000 at the Doctoral Sub Program in Clinical Psychology, CUNY where she has taught courses in Diversity and Mental Health. She has a Certificate in the treatment of couples and families at the Family Institute of Westchester. She has worked in full time private practice since 2001 in New York City with individual adults and couples. Starting in 2020 she has been a mentor with Students for Justice, a project of Reclaim Our Vote, and she has been a member of the activist group Rise and Resist since November 2016.
Programming
Updates
New Year
It’s a busy, but exciting time for Programming! We’re growing and expanding our curriculum, outreach to our Hammies, and our team; we look forward to the positive impact these changes will have on our Scholars and to the AHS Empowerment Program
- In January we welcomed Saulyman Corr and Cassandra Baddeley to our team as Program Specialists; they’ll be helping to expand the Empowerment Program and partnerships available to Hammies. You can read their bios online on our Team page.
- As enabled by more team members, we’ve increased our connection rate with Scholars by adding additional outreach methods and times connected per month.
- We’ve reimagined our curriculum calls to prioritize giving students a space to focus on their mental health, particularly as our world continues facing uncertain and confusing times.
- We’ve also provided new and updated mental health and self-care resources; we want them to feel safe, supported and encouraged. Many have completed more in depth projects on mental health in their AHS curriculum as well. We are very proud of them and their hard work!
Judging
We are currently in the 3rd round of judging for our 2022 Cohort; this special time is when our community truly joins together in helping shape the next generation of changemakers; previous Hammies, staff, donors, board members and other volunteers all working together on the same task of growing our program. Despite a lower number of initial applications, we’re seeing an incredibly strong applicant pool. As mentioned previously, we’re looking to welcome 40 Scholars to the 2022 Cohort — five more than previous years, and five more lives changed through the AHS Empowerment Program.
Planning for Summer
This summer marks the start of another Leader Week season, and we’re already in the thick of planning for these one-of-a-kind experiences with our Scholars. Naturally, seeing them in-person, our top priority is their health and safety.
- We are dedicating increased planning time and resources to ensure we follow all CDC COVID-19 protocols and travel suggestions.
- We are working as a team in collaboration with our Leader Week vendors in New York, Seattle, Texas and Puerto Rico to make our time together and excursions as safe as possible.
- We are developing hybrid and remote options for students unable to travel, or if a sudden spike in COVID causes us to go virtual once again. Regardless, we remain hopeful, but realistic!
Scholars in Service
Annually, Cohorts in Year 3: Leadership & Service of the Empowerment Program participate in a nationwide volunteering/awareness campaign called Scholars in Service. This effort is self-led by the Cohort, to unite them across the country in advancing AHS' vision of "a community of ethical leaders who break barriers to build an equitable society."
This year, the 2019 Cohort selected mental health as their focus. Together, they each developed a communications plan that encourages their Hamilton peers and personal networks to participate via social media and COVID-safe, in-person outreach events.
Our official @HamiltonScholars Instagram and Facebook pages will be boosting their materials, but we encourage you to further explore this topic of mental health via the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and The Trevor Project - mental health resources for the LGBTQ+ community.
Hammie News
Awarded $25k Future Sacramento Scholarship
DJ Wynter, 2021
DJ Wynter (‘21)
2021 Hammie, DJ Wynter was one of two applicants chosen from a competitive pool of 300 applicants for the Future Sacramento Scholarship. He now join a network of other winners and will use the $25k to pay for his college education.
Featured in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution against Classroom Censorship
Tsion Agaro, 2021
Tsion Agaro (‘21)
2021 Hammie, Tsion Agaro continues to organize against classroom censorship bills in the Georgia legislature; Agaro spoke with AJC reporters about how the bill would affect people such as herself. Currently, she is working to help progressive school board candidates win their elections to protect Georgian students from the rise in right-wing candidates/ideals within the educational space.
Shine a spotlight
Have exciting news to share? Did you hear about a fellow Hammie's amazing accomplishment? We want to celebrate you! Fill out the spotlight form on our website so we can share the news to our entire community!
Development
Strong Start: Growing Where We're Rooted
We've surpassed our $175k goal; will you help us reach 200k in support of in-person leader weeks?
In February, Dr. Angela Hedwall shared in our 2021 Annual Report some of the incredible things our community has enabled Alexander Hamilton Scholars to do through their generous donations!
With Strong Start: “Growing Where We’re Rooted” ending on March 18th, we encourage you -- if you haven't already -- to read the annual report and grow in your support of our Scholars alongside us at AHS.
As a reminder, here's what "Growing Where We're Rooted" is all about:
Growing our Scholar Community; we’re welcoming 40 Scholars in 2022 — that’s five more Scholars and five more lives changed through the Empowerment Program.
Growing our team’s capacity to achieve on behalf of our Hammies: we welcomed two new staff members to the Programming Team, and our Communications team welcomes a new staff member in late March.
Growing and expanding the number of networking opportunities for our Scholars
Growing services offered to Hammies through the Empowerment Program
We cannot do this without your continued belief in our mission and vision to break the cycle of poverty for these young changemakers; we have an opportunity to capitalize on this growth in pursuit of our start of year goal stretch goal of 200k!
Can we count on you to grow in your support of our Scholars alongside Alexander Hamilton Scholars?
2021 Annual Report
At AHS, we aim to lead with transparency and gratitude as we support high-achieving, underserved young adults; one such way is via our Annual Reports where we discuss the successes you’ve contributed to in 2021 and where we are heading in 2022.
Our hope is that the stories of the Scholars — each at various places within the Empowerment Program — inspire you as you reflect on the impact of your generous support.
Thank you for all you've made possible in 2021, and we're so excited for 2022!
