Winsor Associates Dinner Features Remarkable Alum Athletes

The annual Winsor Associates dinner celebrates the generosity of leadership donors and their gifts to the Winsor Fund. Held on campus, the event takes place in the Carolyn McClintock Peter Hall dining room with dinner, remarks, and a special program. This year’s program featured a panel of remarkable Winsor alumnae—Abi Jackson ’99, Arielle Mitropoulos ’15, and Whitney Zelee ’06—whose experiences in Winsor athletics impacted their lives deeply and influenced their future careers.

“Winsor will educate generations and generations more,” Chief Advancement Officer Erika McMahon told the audience of over 100 guests. She added, “Our alumnae speak about the transformational moments that happened right here in this building and set them on the pathway to who they are today.” Recently returned from a Beyond Boston event in New York City, Ms. McMahon spoke about the compelling priorities of the Winsor Leads Campaign, which will secure the future of Winsor through endowment investment. “We are securing competitive compensation for our unmatched faculty. And expanding financial aid so that we may welcome and fully support the most remarkable students, removing financial barriers to entry,” she explained.

President of the Winsor Board of Trustees Allison Kaneb Pellegrino ’89, P’21, ’22, who traveled to New York City with Ms. McMahon, echoed, “The impact of what we are accomplishing through this endowment campaign today will outlast all of our lifetimes. It is a privilege for all of us at the school, right now, to steward these critical campaign dollars, and generations after us will do the same.”

As dessert was served, Head of School Sarah Pelmas introduced the alumnae panel and highlighted the innumerable ways that sports benefit athletes—mood regulation, leadership and role modeling, receiving instant feedback, making changes and seeing results, learning to work with others, learning to lose, and making friends for life. Ms. Pelmas, who moderated the panel, explained, “As former Winsor athletes, these alums credit their experiences here on the Pilgrim Road fields and courts with the tenacity, resilience, and confidence they carry into the world today.” 

Arielle Mitropoulos ’15 played 14 varsity seasons at Winsor as a triple-threat athlete across field hockey, swimming, and tennis before walking onto Wellesley’s varsity field hockey team as a freshman where she helped the team to an NCAA Elite 8 appearance, and in her senior year was elected captain. The two-time national Emmy Award–winning journalist is a television anchor and reporter at WMUR-TV in New Hampshire. When asked about the coaches that were particularly important to her, Arielle called the faculty and staff “one of the most special parts about this school” adding, “the relationships with the coaches and teachers formed who I was.”

Years later, she is still in touch with former Math Faculty and Coach Lisa Reynolds on a weekly basis. When Arielle was an off-air reporter and producer at ABC News in New York, NY, she helped lead the network’s coverage of the COVID-19 crisis including the statistical analysis. “I used to call Ms. Reynolds to double-check my math…I was afraid of giving David Muir the wrong information!” She shared, “For me, it’s not just certain specific moments, but it’s these deep relationships that you form with adults here that are everything and continue into my life as an adult.”

Featured in the ESPN documentary Born to Play, Whitney Zelee ’06 was also a three-sport athlete at Winsor, where she participated on the soccer, swimming, and crew teams. After graduating from Holy Cross, she took up semi-pro women’s tackle football where she set league records and helped her team win eight national championships. “Having that opportunity to really find my identity through athletics, find a community of young girls to run around, be strong, be spontaneous, be wild, collaborate with, was really impactful in shaping who I am,” shared Whitney. Looking back, Whitney came to appreciate the standard Winsor set. She explained, “what an equitable environment looks like, where you feel valued, where you have a voice…[Winsor] really taught me that.” Now she seeks out environments that support what she calls “quality of life.” Today, Whitney is the chief administrative officer at Trillium Asset Management where she sits on the Executive Committee and oversees firm operations. “If I hadn’t had the type of environment I had at Winsor, I wouldn’t know what places I could truly call home,” she added.

As a middle school student in Class IV, Abi Jackson ’99 started playing goalie for Winsor’s high school varsity lacrosse team, a role for which she successfully lobbied despite her status as an eighth grader. “You learn so much from those two hours after school,” said Abi, “organization, tenacity, dealing with relationships which are good or not always good.” She went on to Williams College where she was again a three-sport athlete competing in soccer, basketball, and lacrosse. Abi went to Williams in part because one of her former team captains at Winsor attended Williams, suggested it was the perfect school for Abi, and encouraged her to visit. “She was 100% right,” said Abi. “We invested so much time in each other and knew each other so well…these people care about me. And I think that’s the key element of being on a team.” Abi spent nearly two decades coaching in NCAA Division III schools. As a member of the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA), she helped create the IWLCA Leadership Symposium for Players of Color, an annual event that offers collegiate players of color a platform for communication, leadership and mentorship skills. Now she works with Athletes Unlimited Pro Lacrosse, serving as the director of sport for lacrosse. She continues to be involved with the IWLCA as a member of the Equity and Inclusion Committee and host of the annual Hall of Fame dinner. “These types of environments where you are encouraged to work as a team, to better everybody or to empower you to stand up for yourself, it’s a really special lesson and something that I think all of us [on this stage] carry in our day-to-day lives,” she said of her fellow panelists.

Acknowledging the power of Winsor and what it gave her, Abi shared, “This campaign shows that whether or not you know it, you are already investing in not only your daughter but everyone else’s daughter that will walk through these halls in the future.” 

To wrap up the event, Ms. McMahon told the audience, “I want to thank you for your belief in the mission of this school, the goals of Winsor Leads Campaign, the loyal support you demonstrate every day, how you entrust your extraordinary children to us, and the important roles each of you play in this community. We are grateful.”

Winsor Associates give $2,500 or more to the Winsor Fund over the course of a fiscal year. If you are interested in becoming a Winsor Associate or making a gift to the Winsor Leads Campaign, we invite you to learn more.