Read the Spring/Summer 2024 Hotchkiss Magazine

By Hannah Van Sickle

On the evening before classes commenced in September 1974, the campus was abuzz with excitement. For the first time since the School’s founding more than eight decades prior, 88 female voices were among those singing Fair Hotchkiss at Convocation.

Fast forward, and as the 50th anniversary of girls and women at Hotchkiss nears, shining a spotlight on alumnae doing impactful work seemed a fitting way to commemorate this defining milestone in the School’s history. Hotchkiss recently hosted the inaugural Women of Hotchkiss: Changemakers panel in New York City. The event, featuring Erika Hairston ’14, Board of Trustees member Annika Lescott-Martinez ’06, Gigi Brush Priebe ’77, P’06,’09, and Dina Strachan ’84, was the first in a series of networking events aimed at highlighting the power of Hotchkiss women—from philanthropists and entrepreneurs to policy makers—working to effect change through their chosen professions.

“Why changemakers? We want to highlight women who are doing amazing work in their communities across all industries,” said Director of Alumni and Parent Engagement Caroline Sallee Reilly ’87, who organized the event. The series, intended to “create an ongoing affinity space” for five decades of female graduates, will continue throughout the 2024-25 academic year and beyond.

In speaking with each of the four panelists, a common thread emerged: None of the changemakers had seen herself as such. Instead, each was simply following a passion and making a tremendous impact in the process.

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Erika Hairston ’14 on the Importance of Increasing Diversity and Trusting Your Gut

Erika Hairston ’14 was at Hotchkiss when the gender gap in tech first came to her attention. Watching She++:The Documentary, created by a pair of Stanford undergrads who witnessed firsthand the steep decline in female students as computer science classes progressed, piqued her curiosity about the scarcity of women in the field—a timely topic that served as the foundation for Hairston’s senior project. She focused on the future of computer science and what it might look like despite women holding just 20 percent of jobs and 11 percent of leadership positions in tech, with Black women being even further underrepresented. Hairston never dreamed that five years later she’d be at the helm of a company fully focused on helping students succeed in computer science and break into tech.

“My 17-year-old self had no idea this project would lead me to co-found a company with a fellow Hotchkiss grad,” says Hairston, nodding to Arnelle Ansong ’14 and Edlyft, the startup the pair launched in 2020. Their goal to empower all students to excel in computer science via mentorships is helping to widen and diversify the pipeline of individuals entering the field.

“Learning about the disparity in tech was a wake-up call,” says Hairston of the biggest catalyst inspiring her current-day work. Ursula Burns, the former CEO of Xerox and the first Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company, was equally influential. “Seeing her path was very inspiring,” says Hairston, who aspired to be a leader in an evolving industry. Her keen observation that “people tend to solve problems they’ve experienced” served to underscore the importance of representation—especially in tech.

“The more diverse creators we support and voices we amplify, the more diverse solutions will arise,” says Hairston of a team approach gleaned while playing basketball at Hotchkiss. The experience fostered Hairston’s competitive spirit and taught her to be a good sport. These days, she’s paying it forward. “Helping people achieve what they once thought they couldn’t puts fire in my belly,” she says of a process that unfolds in myriad ways, from encouraging them to envision a path they might not have imagined to building tools to remove friction and hasten success.

Hairston’s recent relocation from Silicon Valley to New York City’s Tech Alley proves a natural extension of another passion. “The biggest, most exciting piece that stands out from my time at Hotchkiss was all of the travel I was able to do,” says Hairston, who traversed the globe—from Antarctica and Kenya to Colombia and London—all before turning 18. She credits David Thompson P’27, director of international programs (whose wife, Peg Hsia P’27, is senior associate director of admission and interviewed Hairston during her application process) with facilitating this invaluable real-world experience that set the stage for her bi-coastal business model.

“I stand on the shoulders of giants,” says Hairston, who calls the education she received at Hotchkiss both rare and a privilege. A decade after graduation, she still counts the structure and routine of study hall and lights out as tools instrumental to her success while a student at Yale and in the business world today. And of course, Lakeville is where she met her business partner in Bissell dormitory.

“As women, it’s so easy for us to shy away from all we’ve accomplished,” says Hairston of a conversation she and her mother, Susan (a trailblazer in the nonprofit industry), engage in regularly. The remedy, she believes, lies in the balance between confidence and humility.

As to her advice for the next generation of female changemakers? “Really trust your own gut and your inner voice,” she says, admitting that she was unprepared for how often the world teaches women to either doubt or second-guess themselves.

“I realized that amplifying my own instincts, while unlearning the silence and doubt, needed to become an active, daily practice,” says Hairston of what got her through the grueling process of starting a company. “Keep telling yourself you are valid, you are worthy; it’s a really important skill to exercise.” 

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Annika Lescott-Martinez ’06 on Staying Open-Minded and Eschewing Limits

Early in life, Hotchkiss Board of Trustees member Annika Lescott-Martinez ’06 vowed not to limit herself based on what she could see. “I always knew there was more, even if I didn’t quite know what that was,” says the Brooklyn native who found her way to Lakeville via Prep for Prep, a program that prepares young people of color for private boarding and day schools.

“I am a first-generation everything,” says Lescott-Martinez, who counts the community she found at Hotchkiss—from friendships forged in Bissell to support from former Hotchkiss Trustee Philip Pillsbury Jr. ’53, P’89,’91, GP’20,’22—as instrumental to her development. She credits Pillsbury, whom she met as a prep when he visited her English class, as planting the seeds of leadership by modeling what it means to give back.

“I remember the care and concern he took to hear from students and build organic connections with us,” recalls the once-bookish 13-year-old who arrived on campus and unlocked parts of herself she didn’t know existed. Despite not seeing herself as an artist, Lescott-Martinez cultivated a passion for photography (thanks to teachers Robert and Sandra Haiko, with whom she remains friends). During upper-mid year she dug into the research and policy connecting history to the present with Tom Flemma, instructor in history at the time, and was challenged to communicate her ideas clearly and effectively by Charlie Frankenbach P’12,’16, the Russel Murray Bigelow Teaching Chair, Lufkin Prize recipient, and instructor in English— both instrumental to her current work.

“I cannot overstate how important these skills are,” says Lescott-Martinez, executive vice president and chief financial officer at the New York City Housing Authority, whose $5 billion operating budget serves 400,000 low-income New Yorkers. She is the youngest person to hold that position.

“What drives me is the ability to effect change,” says Lescott-Martinez, who looks for organizations that are not only mission-driven and purpose-focused but also willing to address complex problems in order to help people and make a difference. For someone who never aspired to be a CFO or a Presidential Management Fellow in the Executive Office of the President of the United States (where she worked on non-partisan housing policy analysis and the president’s budget under the Obama and Trump administrations), she has been pleasantly surprised by her career path to date—one limited only by the confines of her imagination.

“There are certain neighborhoods where the breadth of what is possible is not always visible,” says Lescott-Martinez, whose mother poured confidence into her only child and instilled in her a belief she could achieve things unseen—both of which propelled her to earn a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

“I am blown away by what the alumni body has been able to achieve as a collective and encouraged by the mission of the Hotchkiss education, which has prepared us to do all these phenomenal things,” says Lescott-Martinez of her participation in the panel. She served as moderator at the event.

“We’ve grown up together, and that has been a transformative experience,” she says, referring to the more than two decades since she and her classmates first arrived on campus. While some might remember Lescott-Martinez as small, intimidating, and self-assured, her success stemmed from a much deeper place.

“I felt like I belonged at Hotchkiss, that I had something to offer to the community,” says Lescott-Martinez, who, inspired by her friend and mentor Pillsbury, served on the Hotchkiss Board of Governors for six years prior to her appointment to the Board of Trustees in 2021. As co-chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, she is working to ensure all students feel included in the Hotchkiss experience.

“The students who struggled during my tenure were those who questioned whether or not they had value to add—which we all do,” she says, sharing a belief that guides Lescott-Martinez in her work on and off campus.

Her advice to anyone uncertain of the future? “Trust in the process and remain open to the possibilities. There are things you can achieve beyond what you can conceive of or see before you as an example. So be creative and confident and keep reaching— not for the stars, but beyond them.” 

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Gigi Brush Priebe ’77, P’06,’09 on Working Together to Meet Community Needs

The importance of giving back was ingrained in Gigi Brush Priebe ’77, P’06,’09 from an early age. She grew up watching her parents effect change in their tight-knit community of New Canaan, CT, where the pair was instrumental in launching Waveny Care Center. “They worked alongside many others to create an invaluable resource that’s been around for 50 years,” says Priebe, sharing a fundamental truth about volunteer work that’s as equally ingrained as giving back. When Priebe declared, “We could use something like a children’s museum in Fairfield County,” her father encouraged her to fill the gap. So she set to work creating one.

Following her marriage to classmate David Priebe ’77, with whom she had started a family, the new mother noticed a dearth of resources geared toward young children and their caregivers. As was modeled for her, Priebe tapped into the resources at her disposal—namely a background in early childhood education, which she had yet to use in a traditional way—and launched a grassroots effort to create a children’s museum. Eight years and more than 25,000 volunteer hours later, Stepping Stones Museum for Children opened its doors to the public in March 2000. Located in Norwalk, CT, the museum attracts roughly a quarter million visitors per year.

“Without my parents’ example, I don’t know that it would have occurred to me that I was capable of starting a children’s museum,” says Priebe of her most powerful role models in thinking beyond self. As a young person, she recalls being selfcentered which—while developmentally appropriate—shifted while at Hotchkiss.

“Hotchkiss was an incredible opportunity for me,” says Priebe, who felt like she’d “died and gone to heaven” after transferring from an all girls’ school in the rural south. Her return to a coeducational environment and the happiness she felt at the fortuitous turn of events made up for how hard she had to apply herself academically. “The faculty taught us at a different level and the standards were rigorous,” she recalls of an emphasis on thinking, writing, research, and analysis in all subjects.

Priebe did not go straight to college after Hotchkiss. “I went out and punched a cash register for a few months,” the youngest of eight siblings recalls of her first realworld experience, one that caused the gift of her education to snap into sharp focus. After attending several schools as a nonmatriculating student, Priebe earned her teaching degree from what is now Lesley University—all with the support of parents who knew enough to let the dice roll.

“The most powerful education of all involves witnessing others in action,” says Priebe, who shows up with integrity—especially when writing and communicating—as was expected at Hotchkiss. A lifelong love for creative writing (thanks to a course at Hotchkiss) led to her penning a pair of middle-grade children’s books. Looking back, she credits the faculty and her classmates with “setting the bar high, supporting me, and giving me lots to aspire to.”

“When I recognized what I thought was a need by so many in our community, I verified and validated that instinct through more than 10,000 parent and teacher surveys in a 10-town area; so when I pursued creating a children’s museum, I could show that it wasn’t my idea alone,” says Priebe, noting that it takes a village to effect meaningful change. As Stepping Stones Museum nears its 25th anniversary, Priebe has even more time to give back. She has served on a variety of nonprofit boards, been a philanthropic consultant to a private foundation, and recently completed an MFA in writing for children and young adults. Two of her three children attended Hotchkiss, graduating in 2006 and 2009, and all three were married during the pandemic. Coincidentally, her own children did not benefit from her passion project, but a pair of grandchildren soon will.

Her parting words of wisdom: “You’re not doing the work to be a changemaker; there needs to be a bigger reason. Eliciting change is a collaborative experience: No founder does anything alone, because there is no ‘I’ in team.”

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Dina Strachan ’84 on Prioritizing Happiness When Striving for Success

Dr. Dina Strachan ’84 never aspired to be a dermatologist. While a student, first at Harvard College and then Yale Medical School, academe was the pinnacle. Driven by an interest in international health and a reputation for teaching, Strachan completed her residency training at the University of California, San Francisco before becoming director of resident education at King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles where she joined the faculty at UCLA.

“I thought I was going to be in academics full time,” she recalls, until a realization about her chosen work environment arose. “I was always going to be a guest, a bit out of context, and not necessarily part of the community,” says Strachan of a setting which, while imbued with value, proved the wrong fit. An interest in HIV in the late 1990s—coupled with patients whose skin problems required frequent dermatology consults—ultimately turned the tide of her professional career.

“They immediately knew things we had struggled with on the internal medicine floor for days,” says Strachan of the unexpected contribution she saw dermatologists making to her patients’ quality of life on a regular basis. And they seemed happy. “I want that,” the distinguished educator and board-certified dermatologist remembers thinking one day as she watched the team move on to their next patient—a pivotal moment that altered her trajectory.

Strachan points to Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power, as similarly influencing her path. While practicing medicine in the early 2000s, Strachan saw the catchy orange cover with purple lettering everywhere. One day, she encountered a new patient holding it. “What’s going on with this book?” she asked, almost rhetorically, before reading it herself. “I really loved Greene’s personal story,” Strachan says, underscoring the nugget that struck her: In a world where success is often reliant upon fitting the cookie-cutter mold, he dared to be different (and became wildly popular in the process), proving the path to success is far from linear.

“We are taught to follow the rules when we are young, but sometimes people [veer off the expected path] and still get there … which I find very inspirational,” says Strachan. After changing career paths, her decision to enter private practice was equally unplanned, arising from countless lunch hours spent commuting to see patients at satellite locations while working at an “academic” job and days surrounded by colleagues more prone to complaining than effecting change.

“I work hard, but I didn’t want to work like that,” says Strachan, who created an environment where she had a say in the business model and could practice medicine the way she wanted to. Over the past 21 years as director of Afterglow Dermatology, Strachan has done just that while becoming an internationally recognized expert in acne treatment, hair loss, chemical peels, and ethnic skin. In the spirit of giving back, she continues to don an academic cap as assistant clinical professor in the Department of Dermatology at New York University. She was also featured as a skin care expert in the docuseries The Black Beauty Effect on the evolution, revolution, and disruption taking place in the beauty industry.

Looking back on her time at Hotchkiss, Strachan remembers the discipline and standards that shaped daily life—pillars that, while tough to accept at times while a teen, she has grown to appreciate. In retrospect, the years she spent playing viola in the orchestra and completing passes on the basketball court gave her the manual dexterity needed to excel in surgery. Strachan counts her father, a former member of the military and New York State masters swim champion, as modeling the importance of hard work in all things—from academics and physical fitness to drama, art, and music.

Being deemed a changemaker causes Strachan to reflect: “It’s made me have an appreciation for living intentionally,” she says in a nod to Walden Pond and the transcendentalists, topics she learned about while at Hotchkiss. In fact, Strachan, who is no stranger to hard work, didn’t think it was a big deal “to throw a shingle up” until a business coach sought her out to address a line of clients who wanted to do what she had done.

As to her advice for future changemakers? “Aspire to follow the path that feels right— one that will allow you to be excellent at whatever you’re doing while making a meaningful contribution—and makes the process enjoyable.”