Alumni are also eligible for alumni awards, such as the Ashley Award, Heritage Award, and the Mimi Morsman Award.
There are no membership fees or dues for members of the Deerfield family, but Deerfield does ask for assistance in a few areas. First of all, in order for Deerfield to have the most up-to-date records possible, we encourage members to keep us apprised of their current contact info. Alumni are also urged to direct all concerns and suggestions regarding Deerfield’s operations through the Executive Committee, the governing body of the Alumni Association. The committee acts as the voice of the alumni body, and works closely with the school administration. In order to keep tuition affordable and the quality of a Deerfield education at its highest, the Academy depends upon the continuing support of alumni and their families. This support can take the form of annual or capital gifts, or time spent volunteering on behalf of Deerfield.
Being a member of the Deerfield Alumni Association means you will always be a part of the Deerfield family. Come back for reunions or just for a visit, write often, and continue to be worthy of your heritage.
Back in 1969 when the Alumni Association began, under the guidance of Alumni Secretary Robert Barrymore Crow, an Executive Committee was formed to serve as the governing body of the association and to perform a vital, positive, and meaningful role on behalf of Deerfield Academy and its alumni.
Today, thanks to our uniquely dedicated alumni and the tireless efforts of the Advancement Office, a growing number of initiatives are bearing fruit. Each year, the committee presents the Heritage Award, the Ashley Award, and the Mimi Morsman Award in recognition of outstanding achievement or service by alumni or members of the Deerfield staff.
Other current initiatives include: Pathways, where current seniors hear alumni present the “pathway” that they took to their career and offer anecdotes of how Deerfield impacted that path; Deerfield Days of Service, with alumni in regions around the country participating in designated volunteer public service activities such as environmental cleanup, food bank service, and the like; From Albany Road, a periodic e-newsletter which communicates news of events, activities, and other matters of interest to the alumni body; and the ongoing development of regional clubs both nationally and internationally. We welcome your suggestions for engaging our alumni with each other and with the school.
To find out more about any of the above initiatives, please contact the Advancement Office.
Deerfield alumni go on to live the values they encountered here. They strive to achieve greatness by embodying goodness. Their accomplishments deserved to be celebrated.
The present-day Executive Committee is composed of up to 30 members. Members are elected for a term of three years and are eligible for re-election to a second three-year term. The committee is led by the president, who serves a single three-year term and also sits on the Board of Trustees during their tenure.
Candidates for election are suggested to the Nominating Committee by the staff of the Advancement Office and by current Executive Committee members. New members are nominated to fill existing vacancies by vote of the Executive Committee. The chief criteria for membership on the Executive Committee are a demonstrated interest in the welfare of the Academy as evidenced by prior volunteer service or other activities on behalf of the school, and a willingness to attend at least two of the three Executive Committee meetings each year (although it is unusual for members not to attend all meetings), with participation via conference call if unable to attend in person. Members are also chosen with the added goal that the Executive Committee should inclusively represent the alumni body as a whole.
Vanessa fondly remembers her Deerfield days, whether in the classroom, dorm, or on the Lower Level. Highlights of her time include serving as captain of the Varsity Soccer Team, playing on the Varsity Lacrosse Team, and mentoring the next generation of DA students as a proctor and as Head Peer Counselor. After Deerfield, Vanessa attended Harvard College. She played on the Varsity Lacrosse Team, serving as captain her senior year. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Social Studies. She then attended UCLA Law School, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the UCLA Law Review, followed by a Ninth Circuit clerkship for the Hon. Kim Wardlaw. After traveling the world for a year, Vanessa began her legal career in New York. Vanessa is now a litigation partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. Her practice focuses on trial work in complex commercial matters. Vanessa lives in Tribeca, not far from her brother, Ben Lavely (Deerfield ’02), who calls Brooklyn home.
Brian graduated from Deerfield after a wonderful four-year experience. He spent his last year as a proctor in Hitchcock House with Chris Flagg ’83 and a motley crew of sophomores. He fondly remembers his life and times at the school. After DA, he attended Duke University where he majored in history and minored in zoology. Upon graduation, Brian returned to his native Texas for law school. Brian passed the bar in 1990 and has practiced civil litigation since that time. He is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is a Member of the American Board of Trial Advocates. He has tried cases in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico in his thirty-year career. He has also been a frequent presenter at the Advanced Personal Injury Trial Law conferences as well as the Texas Trial Lawyers legal education seminars. He served as the Chair of the District 10 State Bar of Texas Grievance Committee. He served as the chair of the San Antonio Bar Association Medical-Legal Liaison Committee for three terms. He is a current Board member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association as well as the San Antonio Trial Lawyers Association. He has served on the Board of Directors for Child Advocates of San Antonio as well as San Antonio Academy and the San Antonio Public Library Foundation. He currently serves on the Board of The San Antonio Zoological Society, Planned Parenthood of South Texas. He is on the Board of Directors of the San Antonio Report. He is the Chair of the Duke University Alumni Admissions Advisory Committee. Brian resides in San Antonio with his wife, Hannah, and their daughter, Grace.
Damaris Acosta attended Deerfield Academy from 1993-1997. During her time at Deerfield, she held numerous student leadership roles including being a founding member of the Latin American Society and Vice-President of the Deerfield Black Student Coalition. Ms. Acosta was the first person to receive the David Currie Lee Award for her campus work with diversity. After Deerfield, Ms. Acosta attended Dartmouth College where she majored in History and minored in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Ms. Acosta was an active member of campus life serving as president of both La Alianza Latina and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Upon graduation in 2001, Ms. Acosta commenced her law career at the firm of Davis, Polk and Wardwell where she worked as a legal assistant. Ms. Acosta received her juris doctor from Columbia Law School in 2007 and was admitted to practice in New York’s First Department in July 2008. At Columbia, Ms. Acosta was a Revson Fellow and served as an editor for the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. After law school, Ms. Acosta worked as a corporate associate with Baker & Mackenzie. Her primary practice area was the Restructuring Group, a hybrid corporate and tax practice. In 2009, Ms. Acosta began her career in government and served as Law Clerk to the Hon. Ellen M. Spodek in Kings County Supreme Court. From 2010 until August 2012, Ms. Acosta was Senior Court Attorney to the Hon. Pamela L. Fisher in Kings County Civil Court. In 2012, Ms. Acosta was appointed as Deputy City Clerk of the City of New York. The City Clerk’s Office is the Clerk of the City Council and operates the Marriage and Lobbying Bureaus. Ms. Acosta is the head of the Lobbying Bureau and serves as the chief regulatory officer for all New York City lobbyists. Ms. Acosta has prosecuted numerous cases concerning violations of the lobbying law before the Office of Administrative Trial and Hearings. Highlights of her tenure with the Lobbying Bureau include the establishment of a training program for lobbyists, revisions to the lobbying law and rules, and the implementation of an amnesty program. Ms. Acosta’s duties also include performing marriage ceremonies. To date she has performed over 12,000 marriage ceremonies.
Brigitte came to Deerfield as a new junior in the Fall of 1996. She is the Founder and Principal of Orange Vista LLC, a market research consultancy focused on the healthcare, education and social sectors. With over 18 years of professional experience, Brigitte began her career in the financial services industry and spent nearly a decade with various financial institutions in Chicago, New York, London, Johannesburg, and Nairobi.
Brigitte holds an AB in Anthropology from Princeton University and an MBA from Chicago Booth. In June 2020, she completed an MS in Biomedical Informatics from The University of Chicago. Brigitte currently serves as Secretary for the Scenemakers Board of the Goodman Theatre and a Vice-President of the Princeton Club of Chicago. She is also active as a mentor and sponsor of entrepreneurial activities with various business incubators.
Chip is one of 10 members of his family who have attended Deerfield. Chip’s father and Chip’s three uncles graduated in the 1930s and 1940s. He had two cousins at Deerfield in the 1960s, his brother Steve graduated in 1972, his daughter Amory graduated in 1999, and his nephew Ian graduated in 2008. On top of this, Amory married Eli Barnes ’99, who is also third-generation Deerfield. Needless to say, Chip’s roots are very deep at the Academy. After Deerfield, Chip graduated from Nasson College in 1970. He then went into the Navy for two years and was trained as a naval flight officer. He received an MBA from Babson College in 1976, and has been in the real estate business his entire career, working for Meredith & Grew, a commercial real estate company in Boston, for nine years. Since then he has spent 30+ years managing properties that he owns. Chip and his wife Lucy have been married for 47 years and have two daughters and seven grandchildren. Chip is hoping for a fourth generation to go to Deerfield.
Abby is a Harlem, NY native who made her way to Deerfield in the fall of 2009 after attending KIPP Academy in the South Bronx. Abby is absolutely grateful for her overall Deerfield experience, both on campus and abroad as she participated in School Year Abroad France her junior year. Upon graduating from the Academy, Abby went on to the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in Africana Studies while minoring in French and English and graduated in 2017.
Inspired by her Deerfield experience and the wonderful professors she had at Penn, Abby decided to begin her own journey as an independent school educator at Kent School as a teaching intern. Following her one year at Kent, Abby returned to Penn as a student in the Graduate School of Education’s Boarding School Teaching Residency through which she taught at Milton Academy in the Upper School English department. Abby now teaches at Greenwich Country Day School. Abby remains invested and involved in Deerfield as a class agent and is thrilled to be a member of the Executive Committee.
John is a member of Frank Boyden’s last graduation class as Headmaster. Most recently, he was Co-Chair of the class’s 50th Reunion, which was a rousing success, both in the number of returning alumni and funds raised as a Class Gift. John and his wife Brigita are also the parents of three Deerfield alumni, Erika ‘98, Marisa ‘01 and Alex ‘05. While at Deerfield, John played varsity baseball and football and was a proud denizen of Dean Hall and Plunkett Hall, both of which are mere memories now. After Deerfield, he attended Dartmouth, graduating with a degree in Government and moved on to Boston College Law School. After practicing trial law for four years, John was summoned to run a family company, which was sold in 2010. Over the years, John has been extensively involved in healthcare and education in Massachusetts, as a trustee of various institutions. He was appointed Trustee of Fitchburg State University by Governor William Weld and chaired the Academic Affairs Committee. John has chaired the boards of Leominster Hospital and New England HealthAlliance and currently serves on the board of UMass Community Hospitals. John loves all things Italian, especially vintage Alfa Romeos. He and his wife live in Princeton, Massachusetts, but can be found from time to time in Fort Lauderdale.
Rose graduated from Deerfield in 2013. At Deerfield, she fell in love with the humanities, which led her to endow the Fisher Chair, a teaching fellowship specifically within the discipline. Her fondest memories took place during Track and Cross Country practice, running through the beautiful Pocumtuck Valley, and in the quieter moments towards the end of feeds, when no one wanted to sleep and everyone wanted to laugh. After graduating from Deerfield, she earned a B.A. in History from Stanford and will be returning in the Fall of 2021 for her MBA. After a year-long stint traveling around the world (she’d love to discuss Silk Road architecture or silent meditations anytime), she moved back to her native San Francisco and joined Gap Inc.’s Rotational Management Program. She spent 2 years in Merchandising, overseeing Women’s Sweaters for Banana Republic. Rose is now a Project Manager at VMG Partners, a consumer-focused Private Equity and VC Fund based in San Francisco. In her free time, she enjoys everything related to food – eating, cooking, devouring cookbooks like books – running, and spending time with her three-month old nephew.
Larry arrived as a “new boy” in the Fall of 1970 to reside in what would become the notorious Plunkett East 2 (formerly adjacent to the Dining Hall and Infirmary). Junior year, with Chet (“the Jet”) Corkum on Pocumtuck 2, was far more settled and studious. Senior year, as a proctor for Bob Hanlon on Plunkett West 1, was the most fun but it went by all too quickly. Following graduation from St. Lawrence University, Larry got his start in fundraising and development work by returning to the Academy to serve as Assistant Alumni Secretary to the legendary Bob Crow. Somehow, that early career influence led Larry to fundraising consulting and then to Yale, Wesleyan and Vanderbilt Universities. He returned to consulting serving numerous clients in higher ed, higher med, and community building. He currently serves as Vice President for Advancement at Wells College in Aurora, New York and resides in Skaneateles, New York.
Elisa is a Chicago native who made her way to Deerfield through the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund. Grateful for her time at Deerfield, Elisa fondly remembers Mac II, the Rhapso-Ds, Greer nights, and her friends. After Deerfield, Elisa attended Georgetown University where she majored in Government and minored in English and Spanish. While at Georgetown Elisa was a tutor and coordinator for the DC Reads program, focused on mentoring, tutoring, and advocacy for elementary school students in Washington D.C.’s wards 7 and 8. Elisa joined Goldman Sachs after graduating in 2014. Elisa is Vice President within Goldman Sachs’s Asset Management Division. In her role, Elisa manages a US based team focused on facilitating fund distribution and onboarding of fund investors. Prior to this role, she managed a trade support team and focused on process and organizational design. After many years on the East Coast, Deerfield and after, Elisa returned to Chicago in 2020 and lives in Pilsen. She is a member of the Associate Board of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, and sits on the Local School Council for Irma C. Ruiz Elementary, which she attended prior to Deerfield.
Meridith came to Deerfield Academy as a new junior and graduated in 2008. She was proud that both of her younger sisters (Margaret ’15 and Madeline ’13) attended Deerfield as well, and has fond memories of playing on the Varsity Golf Team, late nights as a proctor in McAlister, and the endless patience and dedication of Deerfield’s exemplary teachers. After Deerfield, Meridith followed her mother and grandfather to The University of Texas at Austin where she majored in the Plan II Honors program and English and was inducted into the Friar Society, the university’s oldest honorary organization for her academic work and contributions to the university. After college, Meridith received an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and began her career at ABC News as a Frank Reynolds Fellow. While at ABC News, she covered Capitol Hill and the White House as a reporter and producer, traveled the world covering the Trump presidency, and was part of two Emmy award-winning teams. In 2019, Meridith joined POLITICO as a White House reporter and broke stories on the White House and State Department. She is now a National Political Correspondent with POLITICO, and regularly appears on CNN, MSNBC, CBS News, and more to discuss her work. She currently lives in Washington, D.C. with her beloved basset hound, Daisy.
Janie Merkel ’91 came to Deerfield as a junior in the fall of 1989 when the school returned to coeducation. She went on to graduate from Dartmouth, and then to Yale University for a PhD in Biophysics (specializing in protein folding). Professionally, Janie thrives at the intersection of science and service, in roles helping other scientists implement new methods. She led a drug discovery group at Yale for 13 years and is Chief Operating Officer of a biotech start-up in New Haven, Connecticut. She enjoys consulting for the National Institutes of Health about novel therapeutics for all sorts of brain disorders and diseases. She is married to Jonathan Grauer, a spine surgeon on the faculty, and they have two daughters, Julia (13) and Jemma (12).
Stephen is the Founder and Managing Director of Orien Capital Management, LLC, a New York-based privately-held investment firm that focuses on the capital markets as well as private investments. Stephen is also the Chief Financial Officer of Zaber Corporation, Inc., a San Francisco-based real estate investment and management company that owns investments in San Francisco and New York City.
Prior to founding Orien Capital, Stephen was a senior member of the Managed Care equity research team at Citigroup Investment Research that was ranked #1 by Institutional Investor from 2002 through 2004. Previously, Stephen was a portfolio manager of Cornell University’s Cayuga MBA Fund, L.P. Stephen has held positions at the Investment Banking Division of JP Morgan, Jones Lang LaSalle, URS, and Foster Wheeler Corporation.
Stephen holds a Master of Business Administration degree with Distinction from the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. Stephen received a Master degree in Engineering Management and a Bachelor degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University.
Stephen chairs the Membership Committee of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the College of Arts & Sciences at Cornell University. He also serves on the Cornell University Council, the Committee for Alumni Trustees Nomination, the Cornell Alumni Board Nominating Committee and the Major Gift Committee of Cornell University. He was honored as the Distinguished Alumnus by the Cornell Asian Alumni Association in 2018. Stephen serves on the board of trustees of Horace Mann School, a private Nursery-12 school in New York City, co-chairs its Development Committee and is a member of its Finance Committee. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Alumni Association of Deerfield Academy, a private preparatory school in Massachusetts. Stephen is a former co-chair and a trustee emeritus of the Museum of Chinese In America in New York. He is a member of the 1596 Foundation at Sidney Sussex College of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. Stephen lives in New York City with his wife Laura and three children, Jonathan, Catherine and Sofia and their Golden Retriever Toro.
Emmie graduated from Deerfield in 2010. While on campus, she played on the JV tennis and Varsity field hockey teams, enjoyed her time as a Peer Counselor and Proctor and was involved in the dance program. After Deerfield, Emmie went on to the College of William & Mary, where she graduated Cum Laude with degrees in art history and French. She now works at Christie’s auction house as a Features Writer, covering art, artists and art-related news. Her writing has also appeared in a variety of other online and print publications including Brooklyn Magazine, Kinfolk Magazine and the New York Observer. Emmie currently resides in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and dog.
Feranmi graduated from Deerfield Academy in ’03 and certainly remembers his Deerfield Days as “days of glory.” Being honored as the Deerfield Cup Recipient his senior year and the Williams Cup Recipient his junior year, he tried to make the most of what Deerfield had to offer. Whether it was serving as class president, singing in the Mellow-D’s acapella group, playing Varsity Soccer and being nominated as a team captain for both Varsity Basketball and Varsity Track & Field (where he still holds a school record), or being a proctor on Barton 1, there were few corners of the campus and community that were unknown to him. He went on to college at Stanford University where he also ran Track & Field, serving as captain his last two seasons and achieving Academic All American recognition.
Later he earned his MD from the University of Michigan before matching into Orthopedic Surgery at Yale. At the beginning of his 3rd year, he experienced a spinal cord injury, paralyzing him from the chest down. After two surgeries and intense rehabilitation, he was blessed with some return of motor function and went on to earn a Master’s in Engineering, Science, and Technology Entrepreneurship from The University of Notre Dame, and completed his Family Medicine Residency at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana. He was featured on Robin Robert’s Good Morning America Series “Thriver Thursday,” and has a catch phrase, “Disabusing DisabilityⓇ,” hoping to demonstrate that DISability doesn’t mean INability.
Currently, Feranmi is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Urology at Michigan Medicine, and the Interim Director of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) and Director of Adaptive Sports & Fitness within the Division of Student Life at the University of Michigan. He also serves as the Director of Adaptive Sports in the Michigan Center for Human Athletic Medicine & Performance and is the Spokesperson for Guardian Life in their Equal & Able Partnership.
He is the proud father to Alexander (DA ’29), and enjoys running into Deerfield alums all over the world.
Al is an attorney in New York City. Al grew up in Nashville, Tennessee and attended Deerfield for four years during the Pynchon years. He attended Vanderbilt University, graduating with a BA in 1982, and then entered the University of Chicago and obtained a JD/MBA degree in 1986. He moved to Phoenix, Arizona where he practiced law for several years. In 1994 he moved to New York and joined the structured finance group at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP where he continues to practice. Al’s children, Amelia, John, and Robert are all Deerfield alumni.
Jeffrey graduated from Dartmouth College in 2021 and joined PJT Partners as an Investment Banking Analyst. At Deerfield, Jeffrey rowed, swam, and played water polo, winning a New England Championship in 2015 and achieving an All-American title in 2016. He joined former Deerfield Academy Director of Music Maaja Roos for a concert at the Lincoln Center in New York City. Jeffrey also served as Proctor at John Williams. He continues to represent Deerfield outside of the United States as a delegate at King’s Academy in Jordan and MC at a send-off dinner for Dr. Margarita Curtis in Hong Kong. After graduating from Deerfield, Jeffrey attended University of Virginia and transferred to Dartmouth College. At Dartmouth, Jeffrey serves as Captain of the Men’s Water Polo Team and Investment Committee Member of the Dartmouth Investment and Philanthropy Program. In his own time, Jeffrey enjoys DJing and traveling with his parents and sister, Rosa Sun ’21. Jeffrey is passionate about U.S.-China relations, Chinese market liberalization, and public education reform in China.
Bobby attended Deerfield from 1968-72, serving as a proctor and soccer coach, and participating in Bells poetry magazine, the Glee Club, the Drama Club, and the Modern Music Club. He taught an English elective – American Folk Literature – and enrolled in Deerfield’s first architecture course in the spring of his senior year. At Princeton University (1972-76), Bobby majored in architecture, joined the Ivy Club, and sang with the Princeton Nassoons (acapella). He was fortunate to win a Fulbright to study architecture in Italy (1976-77), returning to Princeton to earn a Master of Architecture degree (1977-79).
For fifteen years (1979-94), Bobby taught architecture at the University of Kentucky, The Ohio State University, Savannah College of Art and Design, Tulane University, University of Calgary, New York Institute of Technology, and Pratt Institute. In 1994, he decided to practice architecture, working for BRB Architects in NYC, becoming a partner in 2001, and leading the firm’s design efforts through 2019. He has overseen major building projects at Hamilton College, Molloy College, SUNY Farmingdale, Canterbury School, Trinity School and Nightingale-Bamford, and prepared master plans for St. Paul’s and Hotchkiss.
Bobby has been semi-retired since 2016, turning his efforts towards his earlier interests in the arts. He has written music and recorded four CDs, written two books of poetry and two essays, self-published three books of travel photographs and a collection of architectural sculptures. Bobby serves as a Class Agent for the Class of ’72 and is looking forward to their 50th in 2022.
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