GFS SCHOOL NEWS

On Friday, September 15, Garrison Forest honored its 2017 members of the Hall of Excellence. The Hall of Excellence was created to recognize extraordinary members of the GFS community who have made significant contributions to the school and to the broader community. Alice Hackney Altstatt '45, Sara Bleich '96, Marjorie "Marty" Moss-Coane '67, Eve Pell '54 and the 1994 GFS Field Hockey Team made up this year's list of inductees.

 

Alice "Ally Lou" Hackney Altstatt '45

Ally Lou attended Bryn Mawr College and Bucknell University before going on to Vanderbilt School of Medicine where she was the only woman in her class. Ally Lou completed a residency in anesthesiology at the University of California, San Francisco. She practiced in Hawaii, Washington, D.C. and Bangkok, Thailand. She worked for George Washington University from 1972 until retirement in 1988, after which she promptly volunteered for two tours with the International Red Cross at a surgical hospital for the UN's Khao-I-Dang Cambodian Refugee Camp in Thailand.

 

Sara Bleich '96

Professor of public health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Sara is recognized internationally for her expertise in obesity prevention and control. In 2015, she was appointed as a White House Fellow serving as a Senior Policy Advisor in Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at the USDA. Sara received her B.A. in Psychology from Columbia University and her Ph.D. in Public Health Policy from Harvard. Widely published in top public health and medicine journals, Sara has received several awards. Sara served on the GFS Board of Trustees from 2009-2015 and as Strategic Planning Committee Co-chair.

 

Marjorie "Marty" Moss-Coane '67

For more than three decades, Marty has been the host and executive producer of Radio Times on National Public Radio (WHYY) in Philadelphia. She began her award-winning career in broadcasting with Voices in the Family, a psychology call-in program that she created and produced based on her experiences as a school counselor and mental health crisis manager in Philadelphia. Marty has also been a substitute host for the national program Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Her balanced, thought-provoking approach to hosting has earned her numerous awards including the 2016 Lucretia Mott Award and a Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association award for Excellence in Public Affairs. Marty received her B.A. in Liberal Arts from Temple University.

 

Eve Pell '54

Reporter, memoirist, journalism teacher, prison reform activist and gold-medalist, Eve has enjoyed numerous professional and personal accomplishments. After earning her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, Eve turned to political activism and reporting, covering the California prison system for several news outlets. She was a staff reporter at the Center for Investigative Reporting, taught journalism at San Francisco State University and has received many awards for her print reporting and television documentaries. She has published several books, among them Maximum Security: Letters from Prison and We Used to Own the Bronx: Memoirs of a Former Debutante, and Love, Again: The Wisdom of Unexpected Romance. Eve's many running awards include achieving first place in California's grueling Dipsea Race and a 2014 Norman Bright Award for excellence in the Dipsea.

 

1994 Varsity Field Hockey Team

During fall 1994, a mighty group of Grizzlies coached by Micul Ann Morse and led by co-captains Missy Hopkins Smith '95 and Katie Willett Santarelli '95, won the Association of Independent Schools Field Hockey Championship. The spirit of the fans was legendary: parents made t-shirts and spray-painted the hill behind Hopkins Field with paw prints and "BIG MO," which stood for "Big Momentum." This victory ended the team's six-year championship dry spell and started Garrison Forest on its path to becoming a field hockey powerhouse with multiple championships over the past 20 years. 

 

Prior to an honoree luncheon held in the Hathaway Arts Center Recital Hall, Sara, Marty and Eve spent time talking to students about their lives and career paths and visiting classes. All of the honorees then joined their friends and families in the Recital Hall for the Hall of Excellence Luncheon.  Liza Corbin Cole '98, Alumnae Board President, welcomed the inductees before Interim Head of School Lila Boyce Lohr '63 presented this amazing group of GFS alumnae with their awards.

The inaugural Hall of Excellence class was inducted in September 2007, and another class is added every two years. The Hall of Excellence was established through a gift by the parents and grandparents of the Class of 2000.