SPOTLIGHT ON…PATTY HAGAN
September-October 2023 Spotlight on
Our New Reston-Herndon Branch DEI chair
By now we all should know that DEI stands for “Diversity, Equality and Inclusion,” a goal of AAUW and many other organizations in the country. Our branch can boast of having a member who was the first AAUW of Virginia state DEI chair, Cyndi Shanahan. Now we can further brag that we have a new branch DEI chair with a long career focused on equal opportunity and diversity: Patty Hagan.
Before she started her own business, Lighthouse Coaching LLC, Patty worked for the federal government for 36 years, retiring in 2008 as the first Diversity Manager for the U.S. Geological Survey. In that position and others, she influenced changes in hiring, promotion and development practices affecting the composition of the workforce — mostly through training managers on the legal requirements and advantages of having a diversified staff. She was also active in Federally Employed Women at the local, regional and national levels, working to help all women in the federal government succeed. For a while, she was an AAUW member- at- large, but never got involved. She states, ” I had a plaque in my office that said, ‘Only those who dream the absurd can achieve the impossible.’ It showed a flying seagull carrying an elephant in its beak! That concept guided my federal career and continues to guide my coaching.”
Patty continued her passion for healing racism by helping start the Social Justice Team at her Unity Church in Oakton. It was there that she met our branch member, Carol Bradley, who invited Patty to meet with her and Stephanie Abbott to discuss speaking at an AAUW Reston-Herndon Branch meeting. In 2022, Patty spoke informally at a summer luncheon at Cafe Montmartre. In the fall, she presented an online class on “Unconscious Bias.” As a thank you, Carol and Stephanie gifted her with an AAUW membership.
August 2023 Spotlight on
JANINE GREENWOOD
Janine Greenwood has long believed in — and worked for — the goal of equality for women.
Since joining AAUW 10 years ago, after retiring from a 40-year career in law and journalism, she has held or now holds major positions in our organization: former president of the Reston-Herndon Area Branch and volunteer lobbyist for the AAUW Action Fund, current member of the National Governance Committee and VA state Co-Vice President of Public Policy.
Janine earned a MSJ (Master of Science in Journalism) degree in 1972 and a JD (law) degree in 1976, both at Columbia University. “Ruth Bader Ginsberg was on the law faculty then and showed me what needed to be done in our society and what was possible. And Fred Friendly, who had been a CBS producer, was on the journalism faculty and mentored me and showed me how to get our message out.”
Columbia had one of the first clinical programs on gender discrimination law. Janine had the opportunity to work on a case to improve working conditions for women at the Readers’ Digest magazine.
After graduation, Janine continued to seek to improve conditions for women through her work as legal counsel at Westinghouse Broadcasting in New York, investigative news producer at KPIX Television in San Francisco, and legal counsel at Metromedia Corporation in Los Angeles and Boston.
As for her present positions in AAUW, she finds being the state Co-Vice President for Public Policy the most challenging. “It’s an incredibly tough job. Politics are so polarized and many of AAUW’s policy priorities are under attack. Between the retirements and redistricting, it’s very difficult to get to know all the candidates and write the voter guides for offices.”
Another challenge is serving on the national Governance Committee and redrafting the AAUW bylaws. “Rewriting bylaws is what they do to retired lawyers,” Janine laughs. “We were able to do the first major redo of the bylaws in many years.”
Janine is looking forward to returning to regularly visiting Capitol Hill with the AAUW Action Fund Lobby Corps, which began in July. “It feels so good to travel into DC with members of our branch, meet up with women from other branches, and roam the halls of Congress to spread the AAWU message.”
COVID made many organizational changes in AAUW at all levels. In our branch, Janine started online activities including a film discussion group, similar to a book group, which was very successful. “Zoom was a great way to get together during the pandemic and it makes meetings accessible to everyone,” she said. “But I hope we will continue to have more opportunities to get together in person now.”
In addition to her involvement in AAUW, Janine teaches courses at OLLI, the Osher Lifetime Learning Institute, in Reston, including on the women’s wage gap.
Originally from Pittsburgh, where she co-founded a “future lawyers club” in high school, Janine earned a BA at the University of Pittsburgh. She has since lived in Dublin, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and now Reston, “which I love.” She has a daughter, three stepchildren (two in Utah and one in Thailand), and four granddaughters, to whom she regularly sends feminist books. In her spare time, she reads a lot, likes to garden, and takes pottery and exercise classes. And she enjoys traveling with her husband, Ralph, who at 84 plays competitive basketball in the Senior Olympics.
June 2023 Spotlight on
JUDI POLIZZOTTI
If we looked for the officer who had served the longest in the same branch position, or who is involved in the most local organizations, Judi Polizzotti would be a leading contender.
Judi is branch co-chair, with Judy Skirbunt, of the Great Decisions monthly discussion program that is currently held on Zoom. The group discusses topics from the Foreign Policy Institute Great Decisions booklets. These briefings are offered to groups across the country which organize and lead the actual discussions. Judi formerly chaired the programs for the AAUW branch in Bridgeport, CT, when she was a member there, and she has led ours since 2013. Why does she enjoy it?
“They keep my mind going. I like foreign policy discussion groups and often attend the Great Decisions programs at the Reston library, which are held a month ahead of ours with excellent speakers. A goal is to get our branch participants to vote to meet in person again, the pandemic has been devastating and we need to reconnect.”
She is also branch VP for Membership, where she seeks new members,
and encourages them to join one of the oldest organizations in the United States that has worked for women’s rights since 1881.
Born in Boston, Judi grew up in Salem, MA, and immediately after high school graduation married and had two children. Four years later, she began a 28-year career in telecommunications. Following graduation with a BA in history from Fairfield University, when she was 50, she continued her education with an MS, also in history, from Southern Connecticut University. In the following years, she was a substitute teacher in both Connecticut and Florida, where she spent winters, and then an adjunct professor at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
In 2012, Judy moved to Reston to be near her son and stepson, and she joined our branch. Having first joined AAUW in 2000, she was a dual member in Connecticut and Florida, president of the Bridgeport branch, and a member of the Connecticut AAUW state board. She has long been a supporter of AAUW goals.
“I like being with like-minded people who do things, I agree with and support women’s rights.”
Currently, Judi is also an active member of four other area organizations: PEO, the Hunter Mill Democratic Committee, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Reston (which she represents on the Cornerstones board), and the Stratford condominium association where she serves as Secretary. In her spare time, she takes OLLI courses and enjoys hiking, traveling, swimming, photography, and reading.
ROBERTA SHERMAN
Roberta Sherman met AAUW when she was assistant principal of Reston’s Forest Edge Elementary School, a position she held for eight years.
“I had a phone call from a member, Eloise Plavcan, asking if AAUW members could start a mentoring program for at-risk girls at our school, meeting one-on-one once a week after school. She kept calling and had worked out all the details, and once we finally met of course I said yes. The program began in 2002 and lasted for several years and was absolutely wonderful.”
The mentoring program was especially needed at Forest Edge, Roberta says, as it is called a “bi-polar” school, located in a neighborhood of both million-dollar houses and Section 8 housing, in accord with Robert E. Simon’s goal of people with different economic backgrounds living side by side.
As she supported the program, Roberta learned more about AAUW, and she liked what she learned.
“I said that once I retired, I would join, and I did, in 2009. And I joined with both feet, I was not a quiet member!”
Roberta soon became co-membership chair, and later vice president, first when Cyndi Shanahan and Maureen Dwyer were co-presidents, and then when Gail Parsons was president. After that she was co-program chair with Carol Flicker and now, since 20??, she has been newsletter editor.
As for her background, Roberta was born and grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and met her husband, Sy (Seymour), when she was 16. They married when she had finished two years at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn and they moved first to Red Bank, NJ, and then, when Sy joined IBM in 1974, to Reston.
Roberta returned to school at George Mason University and earned a BA in 1981 and, in 1986, a Master of Education, while she was teaching at Great Falls Elementary School. She and Sy have two children and four grandchildren.
These days Roberta is involved in more than AAUW. She is active in the Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation, plays mah jongg and Mexican Train regularly, and travels a lot, and has been to every continent except Antarctica. She reads stories to five Head Start, classes a month. And she volunteers at the Travelers Aid desk at Dulles Airport.
“I go once a week for four hours and love helping people who are so grateful.”
What keeps Roberta active in AAUW is first of all, her own family.
“I have a daughter and three granddaughters for whom women’s rights are so important.
But she is worried about the future of the organization.
“I am concerned that we don’t have more young members, our branch is half the size we used to be. Our mission is so important, women’s rights seem to be going backward and we are still so needed, I hope things can be turned around.”
~ Written by Marilyn Silvey
NEW MEMBER – SUSAN BAIME
Susan Baime moved to Reston from Williamsburg two years ago after her husband died to be near her daughter and a sister. More recently, she joined AAUW, in which she had been a member in New Jersey years ago.
“I remembered it as an organization of intelligent women with left-of-center political views, and I went online and found this branch. I’ve taken part in some meetings in person, including walking near Lake Anne and, virtually, learning about women leaders in Herndon, and I’ve met some members at the Silver Diner.”
Now Susan is taking part in the branch project of writing postcards supporting local candidates. She hopes to get more involved in campaign work.
“I volunteered in political campaigns when I lived in New Jersey, and I wrote a letter that got published–which resulted in a call from a candidate for the state assembly who asked me to be her press secretary, and I accepted. She won but was not re-elected. I learned that getting involved at the local level is so important and so easy for volunteers; candidates higher up can afford to hire professionals and do.”
She also coordinated a statewide lobby day working with women’s organizations.
Originally from New Jersey, Susan earned a B.A. from Nazareth College of Rochester, an M.A. from Rutgers University, and an M.B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She had a series of jobs from 1980 to 2020, including a tour guide at Jamestown Settlement near Williamsburg. Most of the other positions she held were in corporations in New Jersey and Susan laughs that they “are the least interesting about me, I just worked to help pay my bills.” One job she liked was teaching.
“I was an adjunct professor and taught evening courses in management at Fairleigh Dickinson and really enjoyed it. The adult students were highly motivated and kept awake, unlike bored undergraduates.”
After her husband retired, the Baimes moved to Williamsburg, where they lived for 15 years. She liked it there, but says it is “not really a college town, but a town with a college in it.” Now she is enjoying the ethnic diversity of Reston and especially the farmers market each Saturday.
In the wider scene, Susan is especially glad to see the nationwide changes in the greater diversity of gender and race of students enrolled in colleges and working in previously male-dominated professions.
“One of my eight grandchildren is at a medical school where 60% of the students are women and many students are non-white. She does not realize how different this is from how it used to be.”
NEW MEMBER – SHYAMALI ROY HAUTH
Shyamali Roy Hauth is currently the Legislative Director for Multimodal Transportation, Public Safety and the Arts in the office of Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn.
“I love what I do, which is helping to make things better for our community members through improving safety measures for pedestrians and cyclists, ensuring our roads and transit systems are effective, and working with residents to create vibrant, activated and safe neighborhoods. We are still ‘carcentric,’ but things are changing, and transit, walking and biking are becoming more popular ways to get around. I also work with the police on ways to deter crime and create a safer community.”
Shyamali also has a yoga business and teaches Celtic harp music. She was formerly a college professor, a Japanese-English interpreter at a company in Japan, the only woman officer in an Air Force fighter squadron, and a construction inspector.
Born in India, Shyamali came to the United States in 1966 as an infant when her parents came to study at the University of Oregon. Both earned PhDs, her father in cultural anthropology and her mother in American English literature, and became university professors. Though retired, her mother still teaches part-time at Evergreen State College and owns and operates an Indian classical dance company.
“I joined AAUW, after learning about the organization from a friend, because as the daughter of educators and an educator myself, I have always had a warm spot in my heart for education.”
Shyamali says her parents were among the first Indians to come to the United States after immigration opened up for Asians and since then things have changed dramatically here.
“Only a very small group of Asians came here until 1965 when the Immigration and Nationality Act changed everything. When we came, there were no places to buy Indian food. We were fortunate to be given a host family with whom we are still good friends.”
After graduating from high school, Shyamali joined the US Air Force and stayed for 10 years, during which time she earned her BA and MS degrees. She has lived in Oregon, Washington, South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Nebraska, New Jersey, Alabama, Illinois, and Virginia, as well as in India and Japan. She is married and the mother of four grown children. Her husband is retired from the Air Force and works in Reston.
As a college professor in Washington, Shymali taught courses in leadership and team building, English, and speech and communication. While in Japan, she started a yoga business, Mahari Yoga, that she continues in Reston, providing private instruction. She learned to play the Celtic harp and became involved in music while living in New Jersey. Currently, she is on the board of the Reston Chorale, and she has played the harp at the group’s annual garden fundraiser.
Shyamali is involved in many organizations with nine organizations in which she has leadership positions and 17 more in which she is an active member. She says she now gives the largest amount of time to the Faith Alliance for Climate Coalitions (“They approach climate change from a creation standpoint and their success record is phenomenal in helping to reduce greenhouse gases”) and to the Democratic Asian Americans of Virginia. She is also active in other Fairfax County Democratic party organizations and was a candidate for Hunter Mill District Supervisor in 2019, losing to her present boss. She hopes to be more involved in politics in the future.
[ Written by Marilyn Silvey, Sept/Oct Reston-Herndon Newsletter, 2022]
Previous “Spotlight On…” Articles
June 2020 – August 2021
Each month during 2020-21, the branch turned our spotlight on a long-time member who has been influential in getting and keeping the Reston-Herndon Area Branch “on the map.” Enjoy reading about each one of these special individuals.
July-August 2021 “SPOTLIGHT ON” Judith Helmich
How Reston-Herndon AAUW Found Judy
Judy Helmich had long been involved in so-called “women’s issues” – such as child care, working to pass the ERA, equal employment opportunities, and getting benefits for part-time workers – before she found AAUW, or it found her, 20 years ago.
But first, let’s fill in some details. Judy grew up near Pittsburgh, PA, and earned a BS in math and economics at Bethany College, a private liberal arts college founded in 1840 in Bethany, WVA. She moved to New Jersey to work, met and married her husband Hank, and they both got their masters degrees in public administration at NYU. After graduation, they moved to Reston.
Judy worked part-time at Northern Virginia Community College, as head teacher of the drop-in child care program for students. Early on she joined the Fairfax Child Care Association to continue her work on her passion for child care for all working mothers and was newsletter editor, then went on to represent the Association on the Fairfax County Child Care Advisory Council of the Office for Children. By then the Helmichs had a daughter and a son of their own, so she knew the difficulties of getting good childcare firsthand.
“We worked on training for both daycare and in-home childcare, standards for both, and lobbied long and hard for before and after school childcare, which was non-existent at the time. It was a hard sell in the beginning but soon grew to be quite popular.”
Moving to full-time employment, Judy entered the Information Technology (IT) field and began working for the Fairfax County government in 1979, retiring as an IT program manager in 2002. The year before she retired, a colleague, Sonja Vaughan, then a member of our branch, invited Judy to a meeting where she found – and joined – a group of women with similar interests.
“I enjoyed meeting people who had similar interests to mine and were working hard to make them a reality. I’ve made many friends and have enjoyed working with this wonderful group of people.”
In the past 20 years, Judy has held four branch offices as part of a team: co-membership chair, co-program chair, co-president with Stephanie Abbot and then Judi Ornoff from 2010-2012, co-cultural chair and co-administrator with Cyndi Shanahan for 2022-23. A major branch activity was hosting a five-member Russian delegation plus an interpreter the week before the Obama election in 2008.
“I hosted the interpreter the entire time, and all the delegation and our branch members on election night and we watched the results together. We all had a wonderful time with this project.”
In the early 2000s, Judy had a major change in her life – the death of her husband. Several years later, she met and married a widower, Stu Parsley, who joined Judy in some AAUW branch activities.
“We both participated in the GEMS (Girls Excelling in Math and Science) annual program and were both mentors at Forest Edge Elementary School. And Stu has attended several AAUW state conferences with me and has enjoyed getting to know members of our branch.”
These days, Judy and Stu travel as much as possible.
“We each have two children, and nine grandchildren between us, and we spend our time between the mountains and the beach with family and friends. Spending time with grandchildren brings a special joy.”
But Judy has not given up AAUW.
“One of my favorite activities was always the annual Lobby Day in Richmond, and I hope we’ll be able to return to having that. And I will certainly keep up my interest in, and support of, all the issues that AAUW continues to work for!”
May-June 2021 “SPOTLIGHT ON” Fran and John Lovaas
AAUW as a Positive Force 
Fran and John Lovaas, both members of our branch, describe their 56-year marriage as “A life of exciting, adventurous travel!”
After meeting on a school bus in high school in College Park, Maryland, the Lovaases were married five years later, while attending the University of Maryland. During college, they both worked for the U.S. Government–Fran for the Department of the Interior and John for Agriculture. After graduating, Fran taught elementary school in P.G. County and John entered the Foreign Service with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Vietnam War was in full force and John, who had hoped for a Latin American country was sent to Vietnam. One year later, with John in Saigon, Fran joined him in Asia at a safe haven in Manila where he could visit bi-monthly. Their first son, Deron, was born in Manila in 1969.
During the next 25 years, they lived in Lagos, Nigeria; Lansing, Michigan; Niamey, Niger; Washington, DC; Panama, Republic of Panama and San Salvador, El Salvador. During those years their two other children, Terry and Jenni, were born. Stories abound from each place. Ask Fran about her job to locate water well placement in Niger by keeping a tally of the nomads’ camel and goat herds!
John retired from USAID in 1994 and the family moved to the Reston home they had purchased in 1983. Travel was still a huge part of their lives, with several trips a year to distant places – Prague to Phnom Penh, Tromso to Sao Paulo.
In 1999, AAUW became a positive force in Fran’s life, “thanks to a great pitch by then membership chair Marilyn Silvey.” AAUW Book Club and monthly programs became a fun part of U.S. living. Fran served as AAUW Membership Chair, found rewarding work in GEMS (Girls Excelling in Math and Science) conferences 2000 – 2012, the mentoring program at Forest Edge Elementary School (co-chairing it for a while), and restarting the Adopt a Spot program. She was branch Co-President from 2004-2006, working with Abbie Edwards and then Bea Malone. Later she joined the AAUW Lobby Corps.
“I have always felt that AAUW was an exciting group to be with and I am so glad that I found like-minded women to share experiences and equity efforts with.”
When AAUW opened up to male members, Fran talked John into becoming a member of the branch as Publicity Chair in 2004 and he has maintained his membership.
These days, Fran and John are busy managing the Reston Farmers Market at Lake Anne, which John started 24 years ago. “This past pandemic year has been a real stretch, but, with the help of other volunteers, the market was safe and very active, with over 64,000 customers shopping from May to December. This year the market will open on May 1, while still under COVID-19 rules.”
John still writes a column for the Connection newspaper and is active in civic organizations. Fran serves on the Executive Board of the Friends of Reston, which funds scholarships for the Walker Nature Center camps, sets up recycling bins throughout Reston, helps make decisions on COVID supplies for RA and WNC camps and activities, and organizes events like the WNC 5K Race in the spring and the Halloween Trail in the fall.
Fran and John’s greatest loves are staying in touch with two grandchildren (one in university and one entering high school), writing, photography, and watercolor painting. This spring and summer you will find them walking the paths, taking photos, and painting outdoors. Next year, after COVID, they’ll be traveling again.
March-April 2021 “SPOTLIGHT ON” Mary Zane
A Part of the Odyssey: 15 Years as an AAUW Member
In what she calls their “53-year odyssey,” Mary Zane and her husband, Al, have packed in a lot of different experiences. The same goes for Mary’s 15 years as an AAUW member.
The Zanes met in their hometown of Massapequa, NY, and married after Mary graduated from St. Vincent’s Hospital School of Nursing in NYC. They started their Navy life in Pensacola, FL, where their first son was born. Mary tells the next moves:
“Then onto Virginia Beach for eight years, and the arrival of sons #2 and #3. I volunteered for the county’s Family Life program for moms and babies and was a first responder on our local fire and ambulance department. For the next four years, living on Mt. Etna in Sicily became our exciting home, we lived in an all-Italian neighborhood. During that time, I realized that becoming a school nurse was what I wanted to be, though I lacked a bachelors degree.”
Then it was back to Long Island, where Mary obtained a school nurse position and served on an American Nursing Association negotiation team to improve salary and work conditions for nurses in the district.
“We – all women, of course – were paid an hourly wage and had zero benefits. If the school was closed for weather conditions or a holiday, we weren’t paid. It was a fight every step of the way, but the results were gratifying. The number of school nurses was doubled and when the schools were closed for a week due to hurricane damage we were paid!”
Next the Zanes moved to England for five years where Mary served as the school nurse for American high school students whose parents were stationed in more than 30 locations across Europe, Russia and the Middle East.
“It was one of the most challenging and rewarding positions I have ever had. Along the way, bit by bit, I took college courses through the University of Maryland, and finally earned by BS in Nursing in 2000, with my youngest son graduating beside me at George Mason University!”
Three years later, it was off to Germany as empty nesters, where Mary received a Department of Defense Distinguished Service award for her work with American schoolchildren during their parents’ deployment to Iraq. In 2006 the Zanes returned to the US and moved to Reston – and Mary found us.
January-February 2021 “SPOTLIGHT ON” Stephanie Abbott
A Common Bond and a Family Tradition
Before Stephanie Abbott joined our branch in 1990, I had learned some things about her. That’s because her mother, Lee Young, was our membership chair at the time. She told me that Stephanie had earned degrees in Spanish from two US colleges and studied for a year at the University of Madrid and that she had had three distinctly different professions.
But other things I only recently learned from Stephanie, including that she is the great, great, great-granddaughter of Aaron Burr (yes, THAT Arron Burr!) whose son was a barber and a member of the underground railroad in Philadelphia, where Stephanie grew up.
“Genealogical research was part of our family’s life before it became so popular,” Stephanie said.
Stephanie moved to Reston in 1979 with her husband Ed, whom she had met during their senior year at Bates College in Maine, and their two sons. They had lived in Honolulu and in New York state, where Stephanie taught high school Spanish for four years. Here, Stephanie was a bank manager with First Virginia Bank for five years, then in the insurance business for 21 years, as first a New York Life agent, then an independent broker.
Stephanie said it’s obvious why she joined AAUW – “I was recruited by my mother, how could I not join!” — and she at once felt a common bond with our members.
“At that time, most of us had school-age children. We were at the forefront of pushing for more girls in STEM fields with our annual GEMS (Girls Excelling in Math and Science) conferences. We watched each other’s kids go through middle school, high school, college, and some weddings. Our branch started a mentoring program at Forest Edge Elementary School, and I helped as a substitute for several years.”
Other branch activities in those years included an investment club, which after a few years had to disassociate from AAUW due to National AAUW’s concerns about liability, and a gourmet group that shared a fixed menu and met, with husbands, in members’ homes.
In 2008, our branch hosted seven young Russian business people and government managers for about 10 days the week before the first Obama election. The program was financed by an agency of the Library of Congress. The Russians stayed in branch members’ homes and had a busy schedule of meetings with supporters of both parties, capped by attending an outdoor rally at which Barack Obama spoke the night before the election. Stephanie and her husband hosted two of the visitors.
“I am still friends on Facebook with one, Alexey, who we spent a few hours with in St. Petersburg a few years later while Ed and I were on a Baltic cruise.”
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Stephanie was branch membership chair, treasurer, and from 2009-11 the co-president for one year each with Carol Hurlburt first followed by Judy Helmich.
After the election of Donald Trump, Stephanie joined the AAUW Lobby Corps, which for many years was the only weekly lobby program of a national women’s organization. More recently it became a monthly program, and it is not active now due to the pandemic.
“It was a great experience. We met on Capitol Hill and got packets of talking points prepared by AAUW staff at our national headquarters about issues that AAUW wanted to get enacted into laws, supporting our core mission of improving the educational and working conditions for women. We also lobbied for better child care, medical care, and paid family leave. We met with varied levels of success. Hopefully, we can return to our efforts next year.”
As Stephanie looks to the future, she also hopes to follow her mother’s example in recruiting an AAUW family member — her granddaughter Soukeyna, who graduated from Mount Holyoke this year. The Abbotts’ son Michael and family have lived in Senegal for the past 18 years and Soukeyna is there now, but she is applying for jobs in the United States and hopes to work here. When she returns, Stephanie is ready to tell her that membership in one of the oldest and largest American women’s organizations is a family tradition. [Written by Marilyn Silvey, January/February Newsletter 2021]
December 2020 “SPOTLIGHT ON” Cyndi Shanahan
A Role Model for her Daughter in Supporting Women
Many women join AAUW when they are young and remain members for years, while others become active – then drop out – and return to be even more active. Former branch president Cyndi Shanahan, who currently holds a newly-created position on the AAUW Virginia State Board, is one of them.
Originally from the Cleveland area, Cyndi graduated from Jacksonville State University and the University of Alabama where she majored in Home Economics, went to work, got married, and had two children. In 1991, the family moved to Reston, and her busy life continued as she worked full-time at Freddie Mac and cared for 10-year-old Erin and three-year-old Daniel.
Erin attended Armstrong Elementary School, the site of one of our branch’s annual GEMS – Girls Excelling in Math and Science – events. Aimed at 5th and 6th-grade girls, GEMS offered a Saturday morning of hands-on classes led by area women with math and science careers, with an astronaut or other high-profile woman as the opening keynote speaker. Cyndi says it led her to AAUW.
“Erin participated in that program, which got me involved in the branch. The work that we did through our STEM programming in Reston elementary schools was wonderful, and impactful for the girls. I felt I was able to help by providing some speakers from Freddie Mac and by helping at the events.”
And Cyndi was glad to become a branch member. “I joined AAUW to be with like-minded women and to have an interest of my own outside of work. I also wanted to be a role model for my daughter in supporting women.”
Those goals worked – daughter Erin, now married with two children, has also been a member of our branch. But that’s getting ahead of the story.
Cyndi was active for a few years and became branch treasurer, but her life changed when her children became active in band and travel sports and her husband was traveling extensively with his work. And by then Cyndi was vice president of strategy and planning at Freddie Mac.
“I no longer had time to participate actively in AAUW and ultimately dropped out. But a few years later I rejoined, and in 2012 Maureen Dwyer and I were elected co-presidents and served for three years. We worked hard to involve our members in planning and engagement, and we also worked with the new branch in Ashburn, which ended up folding during our last year in office.”
The annual scholarship that our branch continues at Northern Virginia Community College also began then, replacing scholarships given senior girls at South Lakes and Herndon High Schools.
A year later, Cyndi became the Membership Chair for AAUW-Virginia.
“During this time, I worked closely with the Membership Vice Presidents of each branch in the state to encourage them to focus on diversity and inclusion. A membership toolkit was developed and resource on the AAUW-VA website. I was thrilled that the membership in many branches, including the Reston-Herndon branch, not only remained constant but increased!”
As Cyndi’s term was coming to an end, a new challenge was presented. Diversity and Inclusion became a key topic at the state level, and the state conference in 2019 was focused solely on this topic. The state board decided to create a new position – now the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion chair – and appointed Cyndi to be the first holder of it. During the past year, she asked each of the 23 branches in Virginia to identify a member as Diversity and Inclusion contact, and she has led conference calls with all of them to ensure collaboration across the state.
“More than three quarters of the branches in Virginia are actively participating in the program and the work they are doing is amazing. And I am proud that our Reston-Herndon branch is leading the way. We are one of 17 states that have a diversity chair on the state board. This summer, in coordination with AAUW-National, we held the first ever conference call with state chairs across the country to share ideas and information, and we will be checking in later this year to see how things are progressing.”
Cyndi’s five years on the Virginia state board have made her impressed with the focus on the mission, vision and priorities of AAUW and more professional each year, including after “Covid took over the world” this spring.
“Our state leaders have done a wonderful job of pivoting the organization to Zoom presentations and spending sufficient time to effectively manage Zoom meetings. The Board continues to be dedicated to meeting the mission and vision of AAUW, meeting our state goals and engaging our members. Our organization values the empowerment of women and girls and does so in a well thought out and effective way. That is why I remain a solid AAUW member.”
One last thing – daughter Erin, who was our branch membership chair a few years ago, got very busy after having two children and dropped out. Let’s hope she will follow her mother’s example, and later rejoin AAUW and blaze new trails for future members
[Written by Marilyn Silvey, December Newsletter 2020]
October-November 2020 “SPOTLIGHT ON” Judi Ornoff
A Casual Invitation Changed Her Life
