Waynflete
Service Awards
Waynflete Service Awards
Drake Award
In 1976, Emerson and Ping Drake, parents of four former Waynflete students, received a special honor for their service to Waynflete. Emerson had served on the Board of Trustees for 16 years, the last several as president. Ping was active within the Waynflete community, volunteering in many areas of the school. They were recognized by the board with the award that now bears their name. Ping was also made an honorary Waynflete alumna. We honor their example and their memory by presenting the Drake Award each year.
Deborah Sampson Shinn P’13
2026 Drake Award Recipient
Deborah Shinn’s connection to Waynflete spans more than two decades and reflects a deep, sustained commitment to the life of the school. She first joined the community in 2003, when her daughter, Miranda ’13, entered the Lower School. Over the next ten years, Deborah became a cornerstone of the Parents Association, serving in numerous leadership roles, including Arts Committee Chair, Vice President, President, and Grade 12 Class Parent. She brought creativity and vision to every role, highlighted by her co-chairing the 2008 “Aesthetics to Athletics” auction in support of tuition assistance—an early example of her dedication to expanding access to a Waynflete education. At the outset of Waynflete’s Chinese Mandarin Language program, Deborah and her family hosted a teacher in their home for three years starting in 2008.
Deborah joined Waynflete’s Board of Trustees in 2014, where she served with distinction for nine years before becoming Trustee Emerita. Her leadership touched nearly every aspect of the school’s governance, including roles on the Executive, Development, Finance, Campus Facilities, and Strategic Planning committees, among many others. As Board Secretary and, most notably, as Chair of the Committee on Trustees, Deborah played a pivotal role in strengthening the board’s composition and culture, recruiting and mentoring trustees whose impact continues to shape Waynflete today. She also drew on her professional expertise as a curator to lead the 2017 exhibition, “Building Waynflete: A History of the School and its West End Houses,” enriching the community’s understanding of the school’s heritage.
Throughout her years of service, Deborah has been defined by her thoughtful leadership, intellectual rigor, and quiet generosity. She brings a rare combination of insight, humility, and follow-through, consistently asking the right questions, listening deeply, and stepping forward to help wherever needed. It is this enduring commitment and example of service that make her a most deserving recipient of the Drake Award.
PREVIOUS DRAKE AWARD WINNERS
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1976 Dr. Emerson & Nancy Pingree Drake 1977 Jane ’45 & William Moody 1978 Leona Goodwin 1979 Mary E. Walker 1980 Thomas M. Armstrong 1981 Dave & Judy ’52 Osgood 1982 Virginia Kurtz 1983 Kit Liller 1984 Sherry Huber 1985 Marylee Dodge 1986 Mary Lou Sprague ’46 1987 Debbie & Verner Reed 1988 Penny Pachios Carson ’58 1989 Charlton & Noni Ames 1990 Charles Callanan 1991 Leonard L. Brooks 1992 Ron & Susan Hall 1993 Betty & Santo Cimino 1994 Alice Spencer 1995 Joan Connick 1996 Ann Staples Waldron 1997 Elizabeth P. Carroll 1998 Maria Glaser 1999 Nancy Lightbody 2000 Roger Berle |
2001 Eve & Peter McPheeters 2002 Sheri & Joe Boulos 2003 Margaret W. Soule ’59 2004 Margaret Morfit 2005 Dr. Rebecca Abgott 2006 Ineke Schair 2007 Nancy Brain & John Watson 2008 Alice Mary Pierce ’42 2009 Tim & Joan Porta 2010 Betts Armstrong 2011 Bonnie Porta & Bobby Monks 2012 Anne Chadwick Parker ’61 2013 Jan Macleod 2014 Diane Lukac 2015 Gregory W. Boulos 2016 Abby Dubay-Troiano 2017 Jane Batzell 2018 Gregg Lipton and Sara Crisp 2019 Bill Torrey 2020 Hilary Huber Holm ’82 2021 Nancy and Vin Veroneau 2022 Katie Glaser Getchell ’88 2023 Elizabeth Barrett P’14, ’17 2024 Kate Burnham P’18, ’21 2025 Dale MacLachlan Lewis P’11, ’16, ’16 |
Klingenstein Alumni Award
Waynflete’s Board of Trustees established the Klingenstein Alumni Award in spring 2019. The award is rooted in our mission, which calls for responsible and caring participation in the world. Through the Klingenstein Alumni Award, we seek to recognize one Waynflete alumnus/alumna per year whose responsible and caring participation in the world—at the local, national, or international level—has had broad and positive ramifications. The award is named for its first recipient, Patricia Davis Klingenstein ’47, in recognition of her work as an education advocate, devoted community leader, volunteer, and philanthropist.
Joan Altman ’96
2026 Klingenstein Alumni Award Recipient
Access to healthcare in the United States is often shaped by a tangle of policy, economics, and circumstance. Joan Altman ’96 has spent her career working within that complexity, with a longstanding commitment to expanding access for people who might otherwise be left out.
For more than a decade, Joan has worked in senior leadership roles at the Washington Health Benefit Exchange. Today, she serves as Director of Coverage Strategies and Expansion, leading efforts to broaden and stabilize health coverage across the state. Her work focuses on reaching uninsured and underinsured populations, addressing inequities in access, and helping individuals maintain coverage as their circumstances change. She has also helped shape legislation and build partnerships that have strengthened the state’s health insurance marketplace and expanded options for low-income residents and non-citizens, including work on innovative coverage models and expanded financial assistance programs.
Early in her career, after completing a Master of Public Health at Yale, Joan founded the Valley Project Access Program, building on her research on physician volunteerism to create a model that continues to provide free medical care to uninsured residents in rural Connecticut. The program reflects an approach she has returned to throughout her career: connecting policy to practical access to care.
Joan later held positions at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she contributed to the implementation of major federal health programs. She also engaged in legal advocacy with organizations such as the East Bay Community Law Center and Northwest Health Law Advocates, supporting individuals navigating barriers to care and social services.
Joan arrived at Waynflete in seventh grade and quickly immersed herself in the life of the school. She captained the varsity soccer team to a state championship and explored a wide range of academic and extracurricular interests. Just as important were the relationships she built with faculty, whose influence she still carries with her. Those early experiences helped shape a way of thinking that values both intellectual rigor and practical engagement with the world.
In recognition of her sustained commitment to expanding access to healthcare and advancing health equity, Waynflete is proud to honor Joan Altman ’96 with the 2026 Klingenstein Alumni Award.
PREVIOUS KLINGENSTEIN ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENTS
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2019 Patricia Davis Klingenstein ’47 2020 Charlie Miller ’65 2021 Rachel Talbot Ross ’78 |
2022 Bonnie Docherty ’90 2023 Susana Hancock ’03 2024 Daniella Nichols Cameron ’94 2025 Margo Walsh ’82 |
