Volume 81, Issue   5

President’s Message

Dear Arlington AAUW members,

At age 96 Vivian Kallen rocks-what an example for all of us!  At our annual March meeting, longtime branch member and  retired Associate Professor of Political Science at NOVA-Annandale, Vivian Kallen vividly presented a program entitled “Profile in Courage: Kathryn Stone vs the Byrd Machine and the Massive Resistance Movement against School Integration in the 1950s”.  Vivian herself was part of the group fighting against the Byrd Machine and was able to share her inside information on those who worked tirelessly to oppose the Byrd Machine.

Vivian’s presentation shed new light on some forgotten yet very important moments in recent Virginia history. Kathryn Stone (1906-1995) was a co-founder and first president of the League of Women Voters of Arlington and Alexandria City. She was also the first woman to serve in the Virginia General Assembly’s House of Delegates from Northern Virginia. In fact, while she served, she was the only woman!  During her time in the House of Delegates, she worked to improve funding levels for education and social services, the establishment of a minimum wage, and the integration of schools.  She also served on President John Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women. Kathryn Stone was truly a Person of Vision, which she was posthumously named by the Commission on the Status of Women. Then in a joint resolution in the General Assembly in 2001, she was recognized for all her achievements. Why isn’t she in more history books?

At our Annual March meeting, we had 18 members attending and 4 who sent in absentee ballots, well over the 10% needed for a quorum to elect our new slate of officers: President – Candace Lilyquist, Co VPs for Programs Jeanine Brundage and Terry Bratt, VP for Communications –Rebecca Moscoso, and VP for Membership –Susan Senn.  Teri Doxsee continues in her role as Treasurer and Francesca Reilly McDonnell as secretary. We send many thanks to these members for stepping up and volunteering to keep our branch running.

In early June, the Board will plan our calendar of events for next year and would love to have ideas from the membership. Do you have a topic you would like to more about or know an author who would like to be a speaker? Just let us know by sending me an email! Also check your email for alerts from National about your dues. I got mine last week. If you have trouble navigating the payment on-line, you can just send a check to Treasurer Teri Doxsee.

I hope to see you at our meetings in April and May so you can meet our scholarship recipients.  Happy spring to everyone!

Terry Bratt
Arlington AAUW Branch President.

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Arlington AAUW Branch meetings  in  2025

Here is some information about programs for the months of April and May 2025:

• Monday, April 7, at 7 pm, Lubber Run Community Center. Dr. Heather Spence, Marine Biologist, will be our guest speaker. An exiting event this year — Arlington Science Fair AAUW scholarship winners will present summaries of their amazing projects in person! See below for further details on the winners.
• Monday, May  19, 7 pm, Lubber Run Community Center – The winner of our $2,000 Lunch Bunch scholarship will be introduced and will tell us a little about her goals and plans.

Barbara Smith, Program Chair

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Stem – AAUW Science Fair Awards

At our April 7 Monthly Branch meeting, the girls whose science projects won awards from our AAUW branch will present a summary of their projects to the attending membership. In the past, we have held this meeting on Zoom. This year, depending on the responses of the girls to our request for them to present in person, we hope for an exciting set of live performances. The meeting will be held at Lubber Run, beginning at 7:00 pm. I am sure we all will be just blown away by the depth of their research and their skill at presentation. We also will have Dr. Heather Spence, Marine Biologist, as our guest speaker. The hope is all of you will attend to hear these presentations. This is our premier STEM event for our branch.

The girls presenting were chosen at the Northern Virginia Regional Science Fair held on March 1, 2025 at Wakefield High School. Susan Senn, Rebecca Moscoso and Sara Anderson collaborated in advance by reading ~150 abstracts written by Arlington Public Schools Middle and High School girls in order to select a list ~30 projects to visit on the day of the fair.

Following is list of the award, their names, and the titles of each of their projects:

Outstanding High School Project – $1,000 Scholarship

• Nadia Lach-Hab, W&L – 11^th Grade –“Mathematical Interpretations and Diagnoses of Pediatric EEG Seizure Data

2^nd Place – High School – $25 Gift Card from One More Page Books

• Charlotte Waggy – Arlington Tech – 9^th Grade – “The Effect of Natural Repellants on Isopod Presence”
• Tesla Pfautz – W&L – 10^th Grade – The Effect of Chemical Treatments on Blue-Green Algae”
• Margaret Saperstein – W&L – 9^th Grade – “The Effect of Colloidal Silica Concentration in a Biodegradable Gel on Flame Retardation”
•  Cassidy Wells – Yorktown – 9^th Grade – “The Effect of Different Colored Wavelengths on the Power Output of Different Solar Cells”
• Sabrina Yimer – W&L – 12^th Grade – “Utilizing a Random Forest Model for Glaucoma Diagnosis Through Gene Expression Modeling”
• Anna Brodsky – Yorktown – 12^th Grade – “The Impact of Climate Change on Educational Outcomes: A Global Analysis”

Outstanding Middle School Project – $100 award

• Kayla Sibley – Kenmore – 8^th Grade – “The Effect of Different Machine Learning Models on the Ability to Predict Market Success of a Book Using Cover Art”

2^nd Place – Middle School – $25 Gift Card from One More Page Books

•  McKenzie Kelly, Alessandra D’Amico – Swanson – 8^th Grade – “Purifying Salt Water Using Thermal Desalination”
• Evaleen McClinch – Williamsburg – 7^th Grade – “The Effect of Thickness of Body Protector on Force of Impact”
• Maedot Ayalew – Kenmore – 8^th Grade – “The Effect of Solar Magnetic Flux and Spatiotemporal Interplanetary Magnetic Field Variations on Space Weather Prediction Accuracy”
• Rebecca Zee – Kenmore – 8^th Grade – “The Effect of Cadmium Selenide Quantum Dot Diameter on Photocatalytic Water Purification Efficiency”

Susan Senn, AAUW STEM Coordinator

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Officer Elections at the March 22 Annual Meeting

The following slate of officers was elected by the members at the March 22 annual meeting. Thank you for stepping forward to support our branch in important activities and initiatives!

• President – Candace Lilyquist
• Co VP for Programs – Jeanine Brundage and Terry Bratt
• VP for Communications – Rebecca Moscoso
• VP for Membership – Susan Senn

Terry Bratt, AAUW Branch President

Arlington AAUW Executive Committee 2025-26

Term begins July 1, 2025

• President: Candace L. Lilyquist (2025-2027) presarlvaaauw@gmail.com
• Co-First VP for Programs: Jeanine Brundage and Terry Bratt (2025-2027)
• Second VPs for Membership:  Susan Senn (2025-2027) Memberarlvaaauw@gmail.com
• Third VP for Communications: Rebecca Moscoso (2025-2027) newsarlvaaauw@gmail.com
• Secretary: Francesca McDonald (2024-2026)
• Treasurer: Teri Doxsee (2024-2026) Treasurer4AAUW@gmail.com
• Public Policy:
• Book Group: Barbara Gallagher
• Lunch Bunch: Mary Beth Pelosky and Meg Tuccillo
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

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Let’s Talk About Books

Our April meeting is on Tuesday, April 22, 2pm at the home of Barbara Gallagher, bgallag2@gmail.com. Our book selection is Horse by Geraldine Brooks.   Look forward to seeing you then.

In May we will be meeting at 2 PM on May 27.  Our book selection is The New Dominion by John Milliken and Mark Rosell The meeting will take place at the home of Terry Bratt, theresabratt@gmail.com.

Please let the hostess know if you will be attending the session at her home.

Even if you haven’t finished the book, come join the fun!

Barbara Gallagher, Let’s Talk About Books Chair

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STATE CONFERENCE MARCH 29, 2025

AAUW-VA Celebrates 100 Years!
On March 28 and 29, AAUW-VA celebrated its 100th birthday in style with many members coming from all over the state to Alexandria to recognize AAUW’s many achievements in the past century and to look ahead at the challenges facing us in both the long term and the short term. The conference whose theme was Changing the Conversation was subscribed to capacity and packed with great women and lots of ideas to share.

After a Friday evening social where conference attendees got acquainted and chatted, the next morning the Alexandria Town Crier rang the bell and called everyone in to the Conference Room to hear a welcome from AAUW-VA State President Lane Stone. She, in turn, introduced City of Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins who welcomed us all to Alexandria and told us how much she appreciated the work that our organization has done over the years for women and girls. President Stone next introduced Representative Jennifer McClellan of Virginia’s 4th Congressional District who gave the Keynote Address. She included Virginia history milestones and highlights from her family’s history in the United States before identifying the challenges including voter suppression that lie in the decade ahead. Following her address, VA House of Delegate Elizabeth Parker- Bennett read a proclamation from the General Assembly honoring AAUW Virginia. President Lane also read a resolution that Representative Gerry Connolly read in the US House of Representatives recognizing AAUW-VA’s achievements. The accolades continued when later on in the conference, City of Alexandria Poet Laureate Zeina Azzam read her poem commemorating AAUW-VA’s centennial, Lessons from the Moon.

Other presentations included hearing about community projects funded by AAUW-VA mini grants in McLean, Hampton and the Smith Mountain branches, a panel discussion with experts on Title IX — Emma Grasso Levine from Advocates for Youth and Shiwali Patel from National Women’s Law Center –on how we can continue to advocate for opportunities and safety in education at all levels for women and girls. And that was all before lunch!

After lunch we heard from Rose Dawson, Alexandria City Library Executive Director about the 1939 Alexandria City Library Sit-In and its impact on libraries today. Lisa Varga, Executive Director of the Virginia Library Association spoke about the continuing threats of censorship in schools and public libraries. The last presentation was from Ashley Giordano from the National Inventors Hall of Fame located in Alexandria who spoke about women who innovate and invent.

Every presentation was very informative and interesting and ended with a Q and A where conference attendees had an opportunity to ask for information and advice. I have no doubt that every participant walked away with a wealth of information to share with their branches and friends.

As an added bonus, several local women owned businesses set up mini shops for browsing during the breaks. The conference ended with a birthday cake celebration with the basket raffle that raised approximately $2000 for the Greatest Needs Funds. There were 23 first time attendees at the conference and 5 books were raffled off. VP for Programs Barbara Smith was one of the lucky five to win a book!

Mark your calendars for next year – the tentative date for the conference in the Richmond area is April 17-18, 2026!

 

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Rewards and Renewal in Membership

We belong! Spring is here with a sense of renewed hope about many things. We can continue to affect the affairs of our nation and the world by working with other members of AAUW. This is why we continue our commitment each year to the mission.

Let’s take a minute to recognize the impact of AAUW. There are significant advances to gender equity; including the passage of the Equal Pay Act, Title IX, and the Family Medical Leave Act. We have awarded over $135 million in fellowships and grants. AAUW is the largest scholarship program for women in the world.

The work accomplished at the national level, mirrors the work of AAUW_Arlington Branch. We have scholarships and STEM activities for students. Plus, we regularly honor the work of educators in our community.

Please remember to renew your membership in the month you last joined. There has been a slight dues increase for the national level membership of $2.00. This is $.16 a month. The new dues rate starts on April 1, 2025.

Please let us know how we can help you with any questions you might have about your membership.

Candace Lilyquist, VP Membership

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Lunch Bunch

Our Lunch Bunch young women had a wonderful opportunity on March 20th to hear from our own Arlington AAUW author, Emma Violand Sanchez! Emma shared her personal memoir, Dreams and Shadows, An Immigrant’s Journey. The students were enthralled by her story and engaged in personal dialogue with her. AAUW was able to purchase a copy for each of our young women, and Emma personally signed each book. It was truly a memorable experience.

Another piece of good news regarding our Lunch Bunch is that our board was able to increase our scholarship amount from $1000 to $2000 using some of our contingency funding to better support our students paying college tuition. Since NOVA tuition, for example, is about $6,000 per year, this increase will enable our scholarship winner to better manager her college finances. We will be selecting our scholarship winner in April and celebrating with her at our May 19th meeting.

Mary Beth Pelosky, Meg Tuccillo and Terry Bratt