RE Log Fall 2018

12 Ransom Everglades LOG )$// “I started to realize how dependent most public service agencies are on federal and city funding,” she said. “I’ve learned how impor- tant fact-based advocacy is … We are gathering IDFWV VR HOHFWHG RɤFLDOV FDQ PDNH LQIRUPHG decisions on how to allocate funds.” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed her in 2003 to the New York City Commission on Women’s Issues, where she served for a decade. That committee became the New York City Commission on Gender Equity under de Blasio. Swenson Kahan has served since its inception in 2015. “She’s been very open to learning through- out her life, and she’s so caring and giving,” said her daughter Amanda Swenson Lobell, a lecturer and assistant dean at Harvard 8QLYHUVLW\ ZKR HDUQHG KHU GRFWRUDWH DW WKH school in human evolutionary biology. “She JUHZ XS LQ D GLɣHUHQW WLPH « >EXW@ VKH¶V YHU\ current in the things she’s chosen to spend her time on, which are very, very important in this day.” Katherine and Richard Kahan also serve as co-chairs of the Fellows Program for the /LEUDU\ RI $PHULFD D QRQ SUR¿W WKDW SUH- serves, publishes and celebrates America’s greatest literature. In her free time, Swenson Kahan has been learning Spanish. Family ties Swenson Kahan and her husband moved last summer to a new apartment on Manhattan’s 8SSHU (DVW 6LGH NHHSLQJ KHU LQ WKH KHDUW of the city in which she has invested so much time and talent. Days after moving in, Swenson Kahan greeted guests with a genuine smile that seemed constant and contagious. “I feel very lucky – I’m probably a lot like my mother in that way,” she said. “I feel extremely fortunate for the wonderful life I’ve had. I feel honored to have had the opportunity to join with such dedicated people in serving such admirable organizations. “I treasure the friends I have made and have delighted in being a mother and a grand- mother. The past 28 years that I have had with Richard have been a blessing.” Her daughter Amanda is married to Neil Roach, a fellow Harvard PhD, who is a researcher and lecturer at Harvard. They live on campus in Cambridge, Mass., with their four-year-old twin sons. Swenson Kahan’s mother died after a battle with Alzheimer’s in 2001. Her father died in 2007. Her brother Ted provides management and fund-raising FRXQVHO WR QRQSUR¿W RUJDQL]DWLRQV WKURXJK D Philadelphia-based company he founded. As Hurricane Irma approached last fall, a friend asked Swenson Kahan if she had any family remaining in Miami. “In that moment I realized, ‘My school is my family!’” she recalled. “That’s truly how I feel about it today.” Swenson Kahan appreciates the warm embrace she and her Everglades classmates have received from RE’s Head of School Penny Townsend and Director of Alumni Relations Vicki Carbonell Williamson ’88 . Whenever she travels to South Florida, she loves to visit both the Everglades and Ransom campuses, meeting fellow alumni, attending classes and reveling in the beauty and vitality that pervade the campus. Even now, she said, she perceives the “Everglades spirit” that inspired her as a youth. “When I visit the school I feel the same positive spirit and energy that we Everglades girls felt at the beginning,” she said. “It all began with Everglades School for Girls. What I learned there has strengthened and and guided me to this day, and will continue to inspire me forever.” “ In that moment I realized, My school is my family! That’s truly how I feel about it today.” – Katherine “Kaki” Swenson Kahan ’61