Miscellaneous

Alumni Service, Achievement Recognized at Reunions

As coordinator of her 25th reunion this year, Bonnie (Sanderson) Cribben ’85 did yeoman service. When she first offered to help with reunion activities, over half of the Class of 1985 was “lost” and unaddressable. Bonnie took it upon herself to round up her classmates and track them down. They were delighted to hear from her, and, thanks to Bonnie, nearly all of her classmates are now connected with each other. 

At the reunion celebration, Headmaster David Faus said, “Thanks to her enthusiasm and drive and love of Falmouth Academy, Bonnie is a true blue alumni mariner and we proudly bestow the Falmouth Academy Alumni Mariner Award.”

The University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health serves as home base for Megan Schwarzman ’90 MD, MPH, winner of the 2010 Falmouth Academy Alumni Achievement Award.  She is Principle Investigator and co-director of the Breast Cancer and Chemicals Policy Project, and one of the founders of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, which develops innovative approaches to interdisciplinary teaching and research in green chemistry and chemicals policy.

Megan works with researchers and scientists to identify methods for detecting chemical contributors to breast cancer. Her work also enables Megan to investigate testing strategies that will be useful to policy makers, and, therefore, recommending ways to better manage chemicals.

By applying principles of environmental health to the decisions we make as a society through public policy, education and research, Megan calls herself a “science translator” and advises the California EPA in its implementation of new laws and federal chemicals policy reform.  .  .

Megan’s work in green chemistry led to her appointment on the Scientific Understanding Work Group of the Center for Disease Control’s National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures, and to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control Green Ribbon Science Panel.

Mr. Faus said, “We recognize Megan for her research in green chemistry initiatives, her skill in articulating science to inform public policy, and her work to transform chemical management in California…and, some day, the world.”

Jessie Gerson-Nieder ’00 has been instructive in promoting an urban education renaissance by creating a culture of high standards, developing a small-school-like environment for learning and closing achievement gaps.

A 7th grade English/social studies teacher at Prospect Hill Academy, a Title I charter school in Somerville, Jessie is also a policy fellow of Teach Plus, a Boston-based non-profit that gives young teachers a voice in how to increase achievement in traditionally low-performing schools. Jessie is one of 15 co-authors of a report called the Massachusetts Teaching Excellence Collaborative Model.

This year Jessie is participating in a Federal grant as a teacher/mentor/coach who is teaching other teachers in low-performing schools how to create cultures of success.  Current test data at her mentor schools is proving that with good teaching you can close the achievement gap. 

“Jessie calls one of the most wonderful parts of her job developing relationships with students and their families and cultivating and maintaining a warm, safe, and academically rigorous classroom environment. Sound familiar?” said Mr. Faus. “For that alone, we would celebrate Jessie’s service as a teacher. But as we look at the big picture, we are proud to recognize her service to the greater community as a teacher, as a visionary and as a mentor with the Falmouth Academy Alumni Service Award.”