Bettie Warner Thompson ‘46 Lifetime Achievement Award
The highest honor an NCS alumna can receive is the Bettie Warner Thompson '46 Lifetime Achievement Award, annually recognizing one alumna who has gone above and beyond in service and dedication to our community.
Penny is a prime example of an alumna who gives generously of her time, talent, and treasure. She arrived at NCS in 1957 as a boarder from Heidelberg, Germany. While at NCS, Penny participated in Players Club, the tennis team, and served as the Purple team’s head cheerleader!
In the years since her graduation, Penny has held a variety of volunteer roles including Class Representative, Class Agent, Annual Fund phonathon caller, and Reunion volunteer. She has served not only as the glue for her Class, but for the entire alumnae community. Outside of her volunteer work, Penny has consistently placed National Cathedral School among her top philanthropic priorities, which is exemplified by her membership in both our Satterlee and Cornerstone Societies. She is a champion for past, present, and future students of National Cathedral School.
After graduating from NCS, Anja Brau went on to receive her BSE degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University, followed by her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University. Now, Anja is a global healthcare technology executive with 25 years of research and development experience in the field of Magnetic Resonance (MR) Imaging. As a General Manager of MR Clinical Solutions and Research Collaborations at GE Healthcare, she leads a global R&D team, developing the next generation of MR clinical applications from concept to product, working closely with a portfolio of top academic and clinical partners. She is an internationally respected MR technology expert with over 10 patents and dozens of scientific publications and book chapters.
Dr. Ashley Speights has made her mark as a Doctor of Physical Therapy and Black woman business owner in the Washington, DC area. Shortly before Covid-19 hit in February 2020, she opened The PHYT Collective, a physical therapy practice located in the heart of DC. After weathering the unexpected pause caused by the pandemic, which hit merely weeks after her clinic opened, Ashley and her business have grown exponentially, developing a strong and loyal patient base across the DC community, which includes people of all ages and athletic abilities. She has hired a team of employees, expanded to additional locations, and offered education and awareness opportunities such as hosting panels with Black small business owners across the city.
Liz Hirschhorn is a PhD clinical psychologist who has devoted her career to public service by treating veterans' mental health at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). For many years, she has worked tirelessly in a challenging environment at the VA in Puget Sound, Wash., to help improve the lives of our military veterans with PTSD and other mental health challenges. During the pandemic, she was an essential worker who was going in to work when most of us were working at home.
In 1994, Susan helped found the Alliance for New Music-Theatre, a DC-based company that develops and produces original works of music-theatre, fostering artists in their development, and engaging with the community in partnership.
Since 2012, Susan has served as Artistic Director, spearheading a number of projects promoting cross-cultural understanding and preserving and uplifting the stories and voices of communities around the world, including Afghan women, Ukrainian playwrights, and migrants at the southern U.S. border. More recently and locally, Susan and the Alliance have worked with the Black Georgetown Foundation to help uncover stories about the neighborhood’s rich Black history, specifically DC’s early Emancipation.
In all her work, Susan resists being siloed but continues to build partnerships and believes in nurturing Washington’s theatre community as a whole.
Upon her diagnosis of colorectal cancer that had metastasized to her liver in the spring of 2021, Cynthia quickly began radiation and chemotherapy at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She said that although her stage 4 cancer diagnosis was scary, she had hope. In the years since her initial diagnosis, Cynthia has diligently and bravely shared her health journey on CaringBridge, journaling her experiences in hopes of supporting others facing similar challenges.
In June 2023, Dr. Noelle N. Trent began her tenure as President and CEO of the Museum of African American History (MAAH) in Boston and Nantucket. Prior to her appointment at MAAH, Noelle served as the Director of Interpretation, Collections, and Education at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis for seven years. While there, she developed and implemented strategies for major exhibitions, collection acquisitions, education programming, community outreach and interpretation. Before joining the Memphis Museum, Noelle served as a contractor in several roles at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. Between 2009 and 2016, she worked there as a curatorial assistant, researcher, docent curriculum developer and docent instructor. Earlier in her career, she spent eight years as an interpretive park ranger in Washington at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, part of the National Park Service. Throughout her impressive career, Noelle has shown a profound commitment to preserving and uplifting the histories and contributions of Black communities.