Kay Kendall
Girls Preparatory School honored recipients of the 2017 Distinguished Alumna Award and the Margaret Rawlings Lupton Award of Excellence on Saturday during Alumnae Weekend festivities. Nine other alumnae were recognized as “Notables and Rising Stars” during a Saturday luncheon.
Kay Kendall ’62 is the school’s 2017 Distinguished Alumna. For four decades, she has been a force in the arts and philanthropy in Washington, D.C. The current chair of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, she serves on the boards of CityDance and The Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus, a home away from home for underserved children and adults. As a board member, she has produced five fundraising galas in the past six years that have raised more than $5 million for the institution. The founder of Kendall+Associates, she is a consultant on fundraising and non-profit board governance, helping community groups build leadership and organizational structure.
Virginia Anne Summitt Sharber ’77 was honored with the Margaret Rawlings Lupton Award of Excellence. Sharber is the Executive Director of the Hunter Museum of American Art, the first woman to serve in that capacity. A longtime commercial real estate attorney with Miller and Martin, she has been actively involved with Chattanooga arts organizations, including chairing the ArtsBuild (then Allied Arts) board, the Holmberg Arts Leadership Institute, and the Chattanooga Public Art Committee during the development of the 21st Century Waterfront. A member of the Chattanooga Rotary Club, she has chaired the boards of the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, Memorial Health Care Foundation, Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute, and the Women’s Fund of Greater Chattanooga.
Alumnae Notables honored at the luncheon included Dr. Martha McCravey ’67, a pediatric intensive care specialist; Patricia Ochs ’72, a former international journalist and current conflict resolution psychotherapist and counselor; Ann Dickerson Zack ’82, an entrepreneur and co-owner of Tennessee Moonshine Cakes; Molly Bishop Shadel ’87, author, University of Virginia Law School faculty member, and a Senior Fellow for the Center for National Security Law; Brooke Good Bowles ’92, Founder and Executive Director of Triumph Services, Inc., a nationally-recognized non-profit serving individuals with developmental disabilities; Caroline Puri Mitchell ’97, co-founder of Fitsi Health and Fitsi, an antimicrobial caddy that brings preventative care, access to personal items, and hygiene to hospital patients’ bedsides; and Maithilee Kunda ’02, assistant professor of computer science and computer engineering at Vanderbilt University, where she directs the laboratory for Artificial Intelligence and Visual Analogical Systems.
Rising Stars recognized for their achievements were Katherine Cherry ’07, manager of International Government Relations and Public Affairs at the Coca-Cola Company and leader of the company’s partnership with the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community; and Raewyn Duvall ’12, a Pathways Student Engineer with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) SwampWorks and who is pursuing dual master’s degrees, one in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and another in robotics at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom.
Virginia Sharber