WSGs Welcomes Lina Permut as First-Ever Chief Development Officer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dianna Murchison

Phone: 202-678-1113x116

Email: dmurchison@wsgdc.org

Washington School for Girls Welcomes Lina Permut as First-Ever Chief Development Officer

DC’s only All-girls All-Scholarship Independent Catholic School Seeks to Expand Fundraising Efforts to Support Future Growth

[Washington, DC - July 14, 2021] The Washington School for Girls (WSG) has hired Lina Permut to serve as the organization’s first-ever Chief Development Officer. The expansion of the fundraising office comes as the all-scholarship school prepares for future growth and seeks to attract new support for its well-established programming serving Black and Brown girls in the Washington area.

WSG is an all-scholarship independent Catholic school located in Ward 8 that seeks to provide educational equity for Black and Brown girls. The program is almost entirely funded through private philanthropy. Permut’s appointment as the first-ever Chief Development Officer comes at an important juncture in WSG’s history: as the school approaches its 25th anniversary in 2022, school President Dr. Beth Reaves and the Board of Trustees have a big vision for the future of WSG. The recently adopted Strategic Plan includes programmatic expansions and the pursuit of a unified campus building (the school currently operates on two leased campuses). Permut’s fundraising expertise will be a key asset as the school writes its next chapter: she is a seasoned fundraising professional who most recently served as Associate Director of Development for Individual Giving at Bread for the City, with additional professional experiences with Pathways to Housing in DC and Free the Slaves.

Permut’s background drew her to this position: as a Washington, DC native, an alumna of the Academy of the Holy Cross, and a mother of four children, the school’s commitment to pursuing educational equity for young girls in Southeast Washington, DC resonated deeply with her. “WSG’s strong history of success and clear vision for educational equity drew me to the school. As a product of Catholic education and a DC native, I see myself in these girls. I also believe that to educate a girl, is to change the world. I am honored to be part of a vibrant community that cares so deeply about creating access to opportunities for Black and Brown girls to thrive,” says Permut. Black and Brown girls do not often have the opportunity to see themselves in their schools’ top leadership positions. One of Permut’s priorities is to ensure that WSG students feel represented in both school leadership and among the school’s community of funders, and that the school community and donors from all backgrounds can connect in authentic and intentional ways.

While the fundraising profession is dominated by women (more than 70% of fundraisers are women), women of color are underrepresented in the field. By joining the school, Permut takes the helm of a diverse five-person team, a rarity in the fundraising field which typically sees about 83-85% of professionals identify as white. “I love that WSG celebrated the value I would bring as a Black woman leader in this position and that my team's experiences represent multiple perspectives that reflect the wider-DC community. We are stronger because of our differences and our shared values. It reminds the community that it will take all of us to bring a vision forward. We aren’t looking for just one type of philanthropist to be part of our mission.” With over 15 years of international and local nonprofit leadership experience, Permut will play a key role in helping the school work towards long-term financial sustainability.

Permut will work in close collaboration with Dr. Beth Reaves,Washington School for Girls President, and WSG’s Board of Trustees, who bring a wide variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise to the school. Leading fundraising efforts for the school, Reaves and Permut have an audacious goal. In a study by The Center for Effective Philanthropy, researchers identified that when compared to peer organizations led by white executives, organizations led by black executives had smaller budgets and fundraising revenues. For organizations focusing on women and girls (of any race or economic status), it can be even more dispiriting: less than 2% of philanthropic dollars go to organizations with a specific mission to serve women and girls. Even so, Reaves and Permut are excited about the future for WSG. “We are incredibly fortunate to have loyal donors and institutional funding partners who believe in our mission and are committed to our students’ futures, some who have been with us since day one and some who have recently discovered us,” shares Reaves. “Our future is possible thanks to the nearly 25 years of generous philanthropic support we have received from the greater Washington community.”

While seeking to expand Washington School for Girls through philanthropic work, it is Permut’s and Reaves’ desire to bridge the gap between perpetuating negative preconceptions about historically excluded communities and their need for support. A diverse development staff is a critical indicator to potential donors, volunteers, and partners that all are welcome to be part of the mission at WSG. Permut has shown a strong commitment to equity throughout her career and says that it is her “ultimate goal to lead the Development efforts through insight and innovation. It is an honor to partner with a community that has given so much to every part of this city.”

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The Washington School for Girls ignites the joyful pursuit of learning and inspires lives of faith-filled purpose, leadership, and service. WSG is an all-scholarship independent Catholic school that serves girls in grades 3-8 who reside in communities most impacted by structural racism. The school was founded in 1997 to address the inequities in education that Black and Brown girls face in Washington, particularly in Wards 7 and 8, by offering a rigorous program designed to meet their unique needs. For more information about the school, you can visit www.wsgdc.org or call Dianna Murchison at 202-678-1113x116.

Women in Education

As Women’s History Month comes to a close, I reflect on my new career path with Washington School for Girls. I am proud to join a team that has high expectations for girls, encouraging more advanced opportunities to learn and progress. I specifically reflect on women’s contributions in the classroom and the role they have played in shaping the education system at large. I think of the opening scene in the film Hidden Figures, where the female teacher of a young Katherine Johnson recognizes her talent and arranges for her acceptance and scholarship at a more rigorous school. She tells Katherine’s parents, “You have to see what she becomes.” One woman made a difference for a young girl. But that story truly began many generations earlier, when women’s courage and perseverance catapulted the fight for the right to an education for women and girls, including Black women and girls.

The Washington School for Girls is built on the philosophies of women who dedicated their lives to fighting for educational equity for girls: during and after the French Revolution, Claudine Thevenet worked to educate girls who had been orphaned by the conflict so that they could become self-sufficient; Cornelia Connelly was an innovative educator who believed in educating young women and launched a legacy of all-girls schools in the 19th century; and Mary McLeod Bethune founded numerous schools for Black students who would otherwise not have access to education while also advocating politically for increased opportunities for Black people. So often throughout history, women have led the charge for educational equity, demanding a seat in the classroom, or when not given one, creating their own learning communities.

Black women and girls served at the forefront of desegregation, laying the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education, and were some of the greatest architects during the plight for justice. The fight for educational equality was an inevitable catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement: the segregation of schools further perpetuated racial inequality and injustices, as Black schools were often under-equipped with inadequate conditions for learning. Black girls and women found themselves taking on the responsibility of advocating for change, as they committed themselves to bringing the issues of segregation to the courts. Families began independently filing lawsuits demanding the desegregation of schools, with a substantial portion of them filed on behalf of or by girls and young women.

However, too often the role that girls and young women played in the desegregation of schools goes unnoticed. They selflessly walked through angry mobs and sat in what was once an all-white classroom in the pursuit of integration. Amongst these hidden figures was a young girl, Ruby Bridges, who became one of the first African Americans to integrate an elementary school in the south. Ruby Bridges’ integration was not without challenge. The isolation, sabotage, and violence that Ruby experienced is the story of many young girls today. Last summer, the “Black @” social media movement allowed Black students to anonymously expose the many instances of racism that they experience at primarily white schools, even those schools with proactive administrations committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Thanks to phenomenal women in history, Black girls have made tremendous strides in the fight for inclusion, however, our communities continue to face educational inequity. The issues that affect Black girls' social, emotional, and spiritual growth are prevalent. The stereotypes associated with Black girls further perpetuate disparate discipline practices in schools, and oftentimes administrations’ tainted views of Black girls continue to create systemic barriers, impeding girls’ educational success and self-perception. While women still dominate the education field in the K-12 space, only 34% of university professors are women, and Black women hold less than 3% of tenured positions. As inspired as I am by the impact women have had in education, there is more work to do to ensure that the future of women and girls in schools is brighter.

Black girls need classrooms where they can simply thrive. We are called at WSG to ensure that girls have a safe space to be seen and heard by our community, and to cultivate an environment of support. Our mission, to ignite the joyful pursuit of learning and inspire faith-filled lives of purpose, leadership, and service, is inspired by gratitude for the bold and courageous women who have come before us, and our belief that each of our girls can and will shape the future. We rely on the collaboration and engagement of our community to push forth these efforts. We alone cannot solve the systemic gender and racial inequities in education: the work must continue at all levels, from the teachers in each classroom across the country, to the leadership of schools and school districts, to the philanthropists who invest in our education systems and our politicians who create education policy. We must continue to address the educational barriers that slow the advancement of girls and women in education.

Women’s History Month is almost over, but the future is female.

Sing a Rhythm

For the second year, our faculty and staff have used a collective book read as a way to ground and define our whole staff professional development for the school year. Last year, we read Carol Dweck’s book Growth Mindset (explored in a prior blog here), and spent the year thinking more deeply about the implications of applying a growth mindset to our work as educators and ourselves personally. Through all-school meetings and small and large group discussions, we used the book as an opportunity to connect around a common theme for our work at WSG.

This year, we’re delving into Dr. Monique Morris’s book, Sing a Rhythm Dance a Blues, as our whole school read. Dr. Morris wrote the book as a follow up to her groundbreaking research, book, and documentary Pushout, discussing the school to prison pipeline and the near crisis facing Black Girls in schools. Sing a Rhythm Dance a Blues: Education for the Liberation of Black and Brown girls creates discussion and a framework for exploring what schools could and should look like to fully embrace and support young Black and Brown girls. It is the perfect topic for us to explore as a school composed of girls of color, and is especially connected to our current exploration into defining our pedagogy and all makes WSG special each day (naming our “special sauce”). From policies and procedures to curriculum, teachers, administrators and the community that defines a school, this book has been a great springboard for our team, challenging us to explore all that needs to be uniquely considered and developed in a school that truly focuses on liberation for girls who are typically underserved in their schools.

Discussions with our WSG staff have been robust and plentiful, particularly on our own school experiences as young elementary and middle school students, the discipline policies we remembered in the schools we attended, and the impact that has on our adult selves working in schools. We’ve also explored some of the defining statements in the book (“real queens fix each other’s crowns” as an example) and how those connect to WSG students and our school environment. It has been invigorating for our staff to collectively determine ways to enhance our understanding of best practices in schools serving young girls of color, as a step towards better serving our students.

Recently, we expanded our book study by convening a book club for our WSG volunteers. Because of COVID and distance learning, our committed volunteers have not had the same opportunity to volunteer on campus with our students, and are missing the ongoing connection to WSG. We thought this book club would be a great way for our volunteers to understand, and also contribute to, the exploration that we are undertaking as a staff. Over the course of a month our volunteers read the book and joined in zoom meetings for group discussion. Since our volunteers come from a wide variety of backgrounds both personal and professional, it was important for us to provide insight into our student’s experiences while in school and our overall educational approach. Learning more about the experiences of Black and Brown girls through the context of broader research also provided an additional lens to understanding our students.

When we say our mission is to ignite the joyful pursuit of learning, we don't mean only for our students. We were excited to share in this ongoing learning with our dedicated volunteers and members of our community - something that we hope to continue even as we return to campus. What started as a bridge to keep us connected during COVID brought forth valuable conversations and and again demonstrated the commitment of our wider community to best understand and serve our students.