Alumni Leadership Council

Purpose: Ambassador. Asker. Advocate. Members of Cate’s Alumni Leadership Council (ALC) exemplify these characteristics while acting as governing body of Cate’s Alumni Association (currently 3,600+ alumni worldwide). The overall purpose of the Alumni Leadership Council is four-fold:

• To increase support by alumni to the School through the Cate Fund and other specific endowment/capital campaigns
• To serve as the leadership forum for the expression and exchange of alumni ideas
• To assist in guiding the direction and nature of the Alumni Association and its activities
• To increase relationships between alumni and the School

The Alumni Leadership Council (ALC) shall make recommendations to the Alumni Association, or to the Board of Trustees, through the Alumni Leadership Council President; and the Alumni Leadership Council may recommend the formation of additional committees as it deems necessary.

Structure

ALUMNI LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

• President: Lauren Craig Albrecht ’89 (Pasadena, CA)
• Vice President: Dinah Moore Calderon ’90 (Carpinteria, CA)
• Chair: Vinette Brown ’93 (Washington, D.C.)
• Chair: Micah Carr ’99 (Chicago, IL)
• Chair: John Kearney ’00 (Ventura, CA)
• Chair: Kel Mitchel ’12 (Bakersfield, CA)
• Chair: Jiwon Choi Song ’00 (Los Angeles, CA)

ALUMNI VOLUNTEERS

• Class Agents & Reunion Chairs: A group of over 275 volunteers who help classmates stay connected by attending events and supporting the School through the Cate Fund.
• Regional Representatives: Volunteers who assist in planning events specific to a given region.

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

• 3,600+ members (all those who attended Cate for one full year are recognized as an alumnus of the School, and therefore part of the Alumni Association).

Current Term (Alumni Leadership Council President & Vice President)

Year 1: 2020-2021 (begins July 1, 2020)

Year 2: 2021-2022

Year 3: 2023-2024 (ends June 30, 2024)

Board of Trustee Meetings 2020-2021  

The Alumni Council President serves on the Board of Trustees. S/he attends the following Board of Trustee meetings at Cate. The Alumni Council President provides an update to Trustees on recent and upcoming alumni events and activities.

January 2021 (virtual)

February 2021 (virtual)

April 2021 (Cate)

Distinguished Alumni of Cate School

In 1972, Cate’s Alumni Leadership Council honored its first Distinguished Alumnus/a. Incidentally, he happened to be Cate’s very first graduate, Dohrmann K. Pischel ’14. Since then, the Alumni Council has honored 35 alumni for distinguished service to the School, a distinguished career in business, or exemplary public service. Recipients of the award include a senator, a noted scientist, several long-time trustees, entrepreneurs, a computer scientist, artists, and philanthropists.

Though the award has not been given every year, the Alumni Leadership Council recently voted to make it an annual award. The first few awards were displayed in the McBean Library, but soon they became too numerous to fit into one location. The two most recent recipients are now displayed at the entrance to the Johnson Library, with the previous citations contained in a leather-bound book found inside the Johnson Library. In these more prominent locations, it is hoped that current Cate students will develop a better appreciation of the School’s past and, more importantly, an appreciation of how a Cate education can be put to good use.

Nominations for the 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award can be submitted until December 31, 2021. Please email all nominations to Alumni Director, Andrew MacDonnell.

Below is a list of the Distinguished Alumni recipients.

Regional Representatives 

Austin: Grace Gates ’11, Holly Lawson ’90

Chicago: Monique Parsons ’84

Dallas: Tim Annick ’12, Barron Fletcher ’85 

District of Columbia: Abigail Baum ’04, Amanda Ebling ’15, Lydia McMahon ’16, Walter Douglas ’73

Hong Kong: Mimi Brown ’92, Sebastian Man ’76

London: Doug Lytle ’82, Lauren Suding ’98, Sarah Wilder Blank ’89

Los Angeles: Lauren Craig Albrecht ’89

New York: Maurice Blanks ’83  

Orange County: Emily Horowitz ’02, Lisa Stanson ’92

Palo Alto: John Tarlton ’87

Portland: Fritz Hummelt ’90, Greg Kubicek ’74

San Diego: Chris Maloney ’80

San Francisco: Blair Elliott Paige ’86

Santa Barbara: Dinah Moore Calderon ’90, Ashley Woods Hollister ’03 

Seattle: Anne Warjone Bridgeland ’86, Chris Breunig ’82, Jim Crutcher ’48

Seoul: Jeffrey Kim ’19 

Singapore: Kenny Li ’94

Taiwan: Patrick Ko ’97

Tokyo: Luke Caffey ’99

Volunteer

Servons.  The motto of the Cate School community, this notion of service is woven into every aspect of life on and off the Mesa. From its founding, Cate has been led by a volunteer Board of Trustees and served in numerous ways by alumni, parents, and friends of the School. Those who volunteer to better the education and experience of our students, faculty and staff do so out of a shared love for the School.

Cate Fund

Invite others to join you in supporting the School by making friendly phone calls and sending encouraging emails. Help your class reach new heights in participation. Become a Cate Fund volunteer and raise vital funds for Cate’s annual operating budget.

Cate Parent Organization

The mission of the Cate Parents Organization (CPO) is to allow parents and guardians, near and far, to be involved in the lives of Cate students. Cate parents work with administrators to plan and implement activities and events that enhance the quality of life at Cate for students and faculty. For more information and to get involved, please contact 2020-2021 CPO President Angela Mabon.

Host a Regional Reception

The Advancement Office is always grateful for opportunities to gather Cate friends together – in the comfort of a home, restaurant or other venue – in locations in and outside of the U.S.

For More Information Contact:

To join in Cate Fund volunteer opportunities please contact Associate Director of Advancement, Katie Convoy (805) 684-4127 x 266

To volunteer to host a Regional Reception please contact Director of Special Gifts and Events, Sarah Preston (805) 684-4127 x 286

To join the Cate Parent Organization please contact Angela Mabon.

History

The first female students were admitted to Cate in 1981, and since then women have come to represent half the student body and more than a third of all alumni. In order to engage this growing population, Cate Alumnae Network (CAN) was founded in 2012 to provide opportunities for alumnae to connect with each other, current students, and the School.

The purpose of CAN is twofold: first, to establish connections among the many constituent groups of Cate women in order to provide professional and social opportunities; second, to enhance the ways in which women can interact with the Mesa by supporting the School in kind and in deed.

Created with a desire to honor the female Cate community, the Cate Alumnae Network (CAN) provides support to the women of Cate’s extended family. CAN is open to all Cate graduates committed to supporting the alumnae and female students of Cate. Discussion and context is about women and for women.

With nearly 600 members and counting, CAN events have been hosted in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, Portland, San Francisco, Santa Barbara,  and Washington, D.C. There have been CAN-sponsored Servons events in Chicago and Palo Alto, and CAN presentations and panels, from public speaking to perceptions of beauty, have been held on the Mesa.

Get Involved

• Mentorships: Connect with a current female student or recent Cate graduate. Students may live in the same city you, be interested in or attending the same college, or beginning a similar career track.
• Electronic Communication: Help keep a lively stream of activity on the Facebook CAN group page. In addition, encourage your classmates to be involved.
• Local Community Service: Organize Servons events in your city.
• Host a CAN Event: Determine the structure, organize, and recruit for an activity that brings together alumnae and female students.
• Giving: Envision and enact ways to encourage support of Cate through service and/or philanthropy.

Stay Connected

• Join the CAN group on Facebook.

2020-21 C.A.N. Events

Alumni Mentoring Circles
Women at Cate
Hosted by the Cate Alumnae Network
Tuesday, December 1, 2020

For more information, please contact Elana Stone.