Alumnae Recognition

Since 1974, Marlborough School’s Alumnae Association has been honoring outstanding alumnae with the Woman of the Year award. The Woman of the Year serves as an inspiration to all alumnae and students. They are accomplished, enthusiastic, and have contributed positively to the quality of life around them. They embody the spirit of Marlborough. They are a proud Marlborough alumna who has created a place at the table and has worked to change the world for the better.

With this annual award, we seek to reflect the depth and breadth of our alumnae community and celebrate the remarkable impact of Marlborough women in action.

2023 Woman of the Year: Connie Chung Joe ’95

With years of dedicated work to underserved populations and advocacy for the API and BIPOC communities, Connie’s personal and professional life since Marlborough has been truly outstanding. After receiving her B.A. in International Relations, Spanish, and Peace and Conflict Studies from USC, Connie went on to receive her J.D. from Georgetown, which she immediately put into practice during her seven years as a public interest lawyer. She worked at the Housing Rights Center in Los Angeles representing clients in fair housing cases and the American Civil Liberties Union in Chicago working on immigrant’s rights, reproductive rights, post-9/11 racial profiling, police accountability and First Amendment cases. Connie then served as the Executive Director of the Korean American Family Services (KFAM) for 11 years. Under Connie’s leadership, KFAM nearly quadrupled its budget and staff, with culturally and linguistically responsive services to immigrant families, particularly those struggling with mental health, domestic/family violence, and acculturation stresses. 

Connie is now the CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL), the nation’s largest legal and civil rights organization for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. She co-founded the API Human Trafficking Task Force of LA County, co-chaired the API Mental Health Subcommittee and co-chaired the API Domestic Violence Task Force of Los Angeles County. Recognized for her work by local and state-wide government officials, she was appointed to the Domestic Violence Advisory Council in 2016, and named Senator Maria Elena Durazo's California District 24 Woman of the Year in 2022.

In addition to her incredible professional accomplishments and impactful social justice work, Connie is also a dedicated mother and Marlborough community member. She was one of the speakers for the October 2021 Aiming High event with Dr. Celia Garcia Alvarado '95 and Nia Dawson '95, which highlighted the social justice activism of the Class of 1995’s Latinx, Asian American, and African American alums. Her older sister, Diana Chung ’91 also graduated from Marlborough and their mother was one of the first psychiatrists working in Koreatown who also helped advise Marlborough leadership on mental health issues for Korean American students back in the 1990s. Connie is proud to be an alumna of Marlborough and to be a Marlborough parent; her daughter Lindy is in the Class of 2028 and she has a 4th grader, Cassie. 

We are thrilled to honor Connie Chung Joe ’95 as Marlborough’s 2023 Woman of the Year.

First awarded in 2020, Marlborough's Alumnae Association awards the 20Y Award to a young alumna who exemplifies the core values of Marlborough through their personal and professional endeavors. This award is open to all alumnae who graduated from Marlborough within the past 20 years. With this annual award, we seek to recognize and celebrate the diversity, successes, and passions of our young alumnae community.

2022 20Y Award Winner: Sabaah Folayan ’09

After graduating from Marlborough, Sabaah was set on a pre-medical school track. But her desire to work at a larger scale evolved into a truly multi-hyphenate career path. Through screenwriting, filmmaking, and public speaking, Sabaah has focused her work on answering the urgent questions of our time through a unique practice of storytelling that is informed by principles of behavioral science and social justice. Sabaah specializes in blending care, nuance, and depth with entertainment and popular culture.

Sabaah made her directorial debut at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, with the feature length documentary Whose Streets?. Nominated for Peabody, Critic’s Choice, Gotham and NAACP Awards, the film chronicles the experiences of activists living in Ferguson, Missouri when Michael Brown Jr. was killed. Whose Streets? was distributed theatrically by Magnolia Pictures, broadcast for Television by POV, and is now streaming on Netflix. In 2021, Sabaah wrote the series finale of HBO’s Betty, a critically acclaimed comedy series about a crew of young female skateboarders in New York City. Her second feature documentary LOOK AT ME: XXXTENTACION premiered at South by Southwest in 2022 and is now streaming on Hulu.

Sabaah writes, “The women that I met at Marlborough helped shape the person who I am today. We were told that we were meant to be leaders, and excel in what we chose to do, and I always held onto that.” 
 
When she is not working, Sabaah enjoys meditating, visiting new bodies of water, listening to or making music, and taking naps. 

Marlborough's Athletic Hall of Fame aims to honor our alumnae, coaches, and administrators' excellence in athletics. The inaugural class was inducted in April of 2022.

Biennially, we induct members of our community who exhibited the highest caliber of athletic accomplishments during their time at Marlborough or through subsequent athletic endeavors. With this award, we seek to honor those community members who have demonstrated good sportsmanship, citizenship, and character - truly embodying the ideals of Marlborough and our athletics program.

2020-2021
Maya Humes ’10

2022
Ileana Najarro ’11

2022
Denise Corlett ’76
Gay Wehrli ’85
Shaina Zaidi ’03

On March 23, 2019, to honor the tremendous bravery and unprecedented impact that Chelsea, Mikaela, and our anonymous alumna have had on our community, all three women were recognized with the first-ever Marlborough Alumnae Leadership Board Courage Award. In addition to the planting of a tree in the school’s Alumnae Garden, a permanent plaque was installed as a visual reminder of the courage and conviction of these remarkable women in working to change Marlborough—and the world for all women—for the better. 

This award will only be bestowed when Alumnae Leadership Board wishes to recognize extraordinary alumnae who have left a lasting and meaningful impact on Marlborough and this world we all share. 

2019
Chelsea Burkett '02
Mikaela Gilbert-Lurie '13
An Anonymous Alumna