Distinguished Alumnae
Who will be the next alumna |
Since 1978 the Laurel School Alumnae Association has honored women who dreamed big dreams, dared to follow those dreams and in doing so broke barriers, became mentors, assumed leadership roles in their field or community and connected to the larger world. These are the remarkable women role models on whom the Alumnae Association has bestowed its highest honor as Distinguished Alumna of the year. The recipient, an alumna who has celebrated her 20th reunion, is honored at Alumnae Weekend each May. And, beginning in 2008, we also honor young alumnae in their 20th reunion year or younger with the Young Alumna of Distinction Award. |
|
The 2011 Distinguished Alumna Dr. Kathryn Hellerstein ’70 is Associate Professor of Yiddish at the University of Pennsylvania and the Undergraduate Director of the Jewish Studies Program at the University. Educated at Wellesley College and Brandeis University (BA) and Stanford University (Ph.D.), she is a poet and translator, as well as a scholar of Yiddish poetry. Her books include a translation and study of Moyshe-Leyb Halpern’s poems, In New York: A Selection, as well as Paper Bridges: Selected Poems of Kadya Molodowsky and Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology, of which she is co-editor. She is also a major contributor to American Yiddish Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology. Her poems and many scholarly articles on Yiddish literature, and most recently on women poets in Yiddish, have appeared in journals and anthologies, including Prairie Schooner, Poetry, Tikun, Bridges and Reading Ruth. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation and is currently working on a book and an anthology on women Yiddish poets to be published by Stanford University Press. The 2011 Young Alumna of Distinction Tiffany Laufer ’91 holds an MFA in Cinematography from The American Film Institute (AFI) and a BA from Georgetown University. She has worked on over 100 films, commercials, music videos and television series and produced and filmed a television pilot, “Journey to Your Plate,” which showcased how food traveled from farms to the table. Her first children’s feature film was selected as a semi-finalist in the Sundance screenwriter’s project. Her work as a cinematographer has been shown at festivals including the AFI Fest and the Cleveland International Film Festival. Christmas at Maxwell’s, a full-length feature she co-produced in addition to serving as director of photography, had a nationwide release and The Acorn Penny, a 14-minute short that she wrote, produced, directed and edited, screened at several film festivals and won first prize in the Twin Rivers Media Festival in Asheville, NC. Her documentary short If You Listen premiered in February at the Amelia Island Festival and will screen at the Ohio Independent Film Festival on May 18 at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland. She also has written three children’s books under the Bellaboo Books Banner, a division of Laufer films. |
||
2012 Distinguished Alumnae Committee Linda Bassett Johnson '51 Rachel Kirsh ‘86 Nominate a Distinguished Alumna (online nomination) |
||
