The world's foremost leaders in education, diplomacy, medicine, and service have shared their journeys and accomplishments with the Garrison Forest School community as the Jenkins Community Service Speaker.
2013 Speaker
Jackie Carrera, President, Parks & People Foundation
Jackie Carrera, President of Baltimore’s Parks & People Foundation and a national leader in conservation efforts, oversees numerous green space revitalization and outreach programs through Baltimore City's Parks & People Foundation. She serves as the chair of Revitalizing Baltimore, a U.S. Forest Service urban and community forestry project, and is a co-principal investigator for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, a National Science Foundation-funded, long term ecological research project. She was instrumental in the development of the Gwynns Falls Trail, Baltimore’s first linear hiking and biking trail, and has served on several Mayoral recreation and environmental task forces and commissions. Recently, she represented the Chesapeake region in preparing for the Obama Administration’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative and served a national task force initiated by the U.S. Forest Service. She also helped to found the national advocacy organization, City Parks Alliance, for which she served as Secretary of the Board. Read about the event.
2012 Speaker
Holly Freishtat '91, Food Policy Director, Baltimore City’s Office of Sustainability in the Department of Planning
Holly Freishtat is among a handful of Food Policy Directors in the United States. Her innovative leadership in public health is placing her and Baltimore at the vanguard of the national movement to create healthier urban food systems. A Garrison Forest graduate and passionate community service volunteer while at GFS, she earned her undergraduate degree in nutrition at the University of Vermont before joining AmeriCorps. Her placement in Washington State as an agricultural volunteer inspires the next 15 years and numerous accomplishments in the Pacific Northwest, including developing a farm-to-healthcare pilot project and creating the country’s first USDA-inspected mobile slaughter facility on Lopez Island to provide consumers with direct access to local beef. In her work as “Food Czar,” as she is known in Baltimore, Holly addresses residents’ lack of access to healthy food through inter-governmental collaboration. Much of her work involves developing food policies and promoting healthier options to residents. She works with numerous local, state, and federal agencies and with a volunteer, 60+ member Food Policy Advisory Committee (volunteers, hunger non-profits, schools, etc.). Read about the event and listen to a podcast of Holly's remarks.
2011 Speaker
Jody Olsen, Ph.D., former Deputy Director of the Peace Corps
Dr. Olsen's career in global service began when she served in Tunisia as Peace Corps Volunteer from 1966-68, during the early years of the program. She served in administrative positions for various non-profits and government agencies, including several years in top leadership positions at the Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C. In January 2002, she was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as Deputy Director of the Peace Corps, a role she held until 2009 when she was named by the Obama Presidential transition team as Acting Director. Her service career has taken her to more than 85 countries, including national and international speaking engagements on international exchange and training, volunteerism, NGO management, and gerontology. She has served on the boards of numerous non-profits. Today, she is a Visiting Professor, at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, her alma mater for her M.S.W. and her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland's College of education, Department of Human Development. Read about the event.
2010 Centennial Keynote Speaker
Dr. Madeleine K. Albright, Chair of the global strategy firm Albright Stonebridge Group, and 64th Secretary of State of the United States
In 1997, Dr. Albright was named the first female Secretary of State and became, at that time, the highest ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. Previously, she served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, President of the Center for National Policy, and as a member of President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Council and White House staff and Chief Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Edmund S. Muskie. She received a B.A. with Honors from Wellesley College, and Master’s and Doctorate degrees from Columbia University’s Department of Public Law and Government, as well as a Certificate from its Russian Institute. Dr. Albright is the author of four New York Times best-sellers. Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box was published in 2009. Read about the event.
2009 Jenkins Speaker
Garrison Forest alumna Adele Smith Simmons ’59, Vice Chairman and Senior Executive of the Chicago-based regional planning group, Chicago Metropolis 2020 and President of the Global Philanthropy Partnership
The president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 1989-99, Mrs. Simmons serves on numerous corporate and non-profit boards, is the former president of Hampshire College, and a served as a Dean and member of the History Department of Princeton and Tufts. As a boarder at Garrison Forest, she was a student leader, involved in numerous activities and remains an active supporter of her alma mater.
2008 Jenkins Speaker
Dr. Ben Carson, internationally known surgeon, best-selling author, and philanthropist
Dr. Carson is the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, where he also serves as a professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics. He is president and co-founder of the Carson Scholars Fund and co-founded Angels of the OR, the organization which assists families with non-covered medical expenses for children and adults who need neurosurgery.