came to us 100% as a word of mouth cohort. I am grateful for an empowered cohort (C37) of students and families. They were fully invested in our process with a lot of uncertainty about what the end would look like in this new world. To be clear, we still haven’t even met C37 in person. However, they were the indispensable foundation for our work throughout the past year. Our students and families remain strong and resilient despite the many barriers they face. Recognizing the additional hardships that pandemic has presented, our team continues to respond with great care, generosity, and flexibility.

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With the recent completion of our C38 outreach cycle, I am also grateful to those families that continue to champion the work of the Alliance by telling friends and families about the best kept secret in the Greater Los Angeles area. 

I am grateful to my team and the staff of the Alliance. The team pivoted to a completely virtual program while continuing to provide unwavering support to the students and families of C37 throughout the cycle with hard work, dedication, and overall professionalism. Throughout the last year, the staff of the Alliance worked to thoughtfully reboot our processes and pilot a new operating system while keeping our core values and families central to all decision making.

Danielle Edwards is in a class by herself. I offer a tribute to her particular genius with relationship management, databases of all sorts, her humor and sound judgment, and her formidable knowledge of the field of Los Angeles area independent schools. I am grateful to have worked with her and wish her well in her newest endeavor at Harvard-Westlake School. 

I am grateful to the member schools of the Alliance for the many energizing and collaborative conversations that we’ve had throughout the last year. By my count, during the last year, excluding our Fall and Spring Membership Meetings, my team and I met with at least forty-five of our member schools throughout the year. Some of those meetings took place over multiple days. Those conversations happened with students, the admissions teams, senior administration, head of schools, and with members of the board. We were able to listen and offer to support our schools as they continue to grapple with creating truly inclusive communities. This is not easy work and I am grateful to have partners in our member schools willing to do the hard and inconvenient work.

I am grateful to the Board of Directors of the Alliance. We owe a tremendous debt to those board members who have generously taken time, under the most daunting of circumstances, to provide leadership and guidance to the various stages of work of the Alliance. In addition, our board has enthusiastically provided resourcefulness and passion for the mission of the Alliance and have sustained us in our efforts to provide educational access to students. I owe a special thank you to board chair, Jeff Clifford. The experience of collaborating with you throughout the last year has been both stimulating and rewarding. 

Moving forward, we will continue to work hard to center racial equity, align our systems for accountability, foster a community of belonging with our cohort, and make space for critical conversations with our member schools. And as the country continues to reopen, we (my team and I) are taking those hard lessons learned from this past year and forging ahead. Sharpened by adversity and our mission statement, we look forward to continuing to partner with the Board to deliver on our mission to empower children of exceptional talent and potential from racially underrepresented and economically underserved communities in order to transform independent schools and society.

In the spirit of gratitude, I invite you to read this second issue of the Culture of Equity. The name Culture of Equity was chosen by the Team at the Alliance to remind us of our mission and highest aspirations. In this issue, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from an Alliance alumna that’s also working to center racial equity in one of our member schools. You’ll also have the opportunity to read about the work of the Alliance over the last few months.