Alumnae Awards

Margaret Crawford Hearst '76

National Cathedral School is proud to announce that the Bettie Warner Thompson ’46 Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Margaret Crawford Hearst ’76, a distinguished alumna whose lifelong commitment to NCS reflects extraordinary service, leadership, and devotion to the Cathedral community.

Margaret comes from a family that deeply valued education, hard work, and service. Inspired by generations of women who attended girls’ schools and women’s colleges, she followed in their footsteps from NCS to Smith College.

She began her career in Washington, DC, working in the bureau for a group of local television news stations, including the NBC affiliate, before transferring to San Francisco in the early 1980s. There, she thrived in a fast-paced newsroom environment, contributing to coverage of major events, including the 1984 Democratic Convention, the AIDS crisis, earthquakes, and local and national news. After a decade in broadcast journalism, she joined the San Francisco Examiner and later led media relations for the International Conference on AIDS.

Margaret has brought that same energy and purpose to her community service. In both Washington and San Francisco, she has been deeply engaged in organizations focused on education and health, including Visiting Nurses, Hospice, AIDS patient support services, and the Junior League. She has also been an active leader in her children’s schools, serving in roles ranging from room parent to Annual Giving Chair and Governing Board Member.

Throughout her life, NCS has remained a constant touchstone. Margaret has served as a Class Representative and has volunteered for several reunions for the class of 1976. She helped develop and was an active member of the Alumnae Board of Visitors, and she served on the Governing Board during Aggie Underwood’s tenure as the school was in the midst of a significant capital campaign.

Margaret’s receipt of the Bettie Warner Thompson ’46 Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes not only her exceptional service to NCS, but also her enduring commitment to the School’s mission. Her example continues to inspire the entire Cathedral community.

Patricia L. Turner '86, P'17, '24, MD, MBA, FACS

On the occasion of her 40th Reunion, National Cathedral School is proud to present the Excellence Award to Patricia Turner ’86 in recognition of her extraordinary leadership in medicine, surgery, and academic excellence.

Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and a clinical professor of surgery at the University of Chicago. She was previously Director of the Division of Member Services at the ACS, and before joining the ACS, Dr. Turner was in full-time academic practice at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where she was the surgery residency program director and the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) surgeon champion. Dr. Turner currently serves as President of the ACS Foundation. Her other roles in national professional organizations include service as a member of the CEO Council of the Joint Commission and Board of Directors of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS). Dr. Turner is a past president of CMSS, past chair of the American Medical Association (AMA) Council on Medical Education, past chair of the American College of Surgeons’ Delegation to the AMA House of Delegates, past chair of the Surgical Section of the National Medical Association, past President of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons, and past member of the Wake Forest/Baptist Medical Center Board of Directors. In addition, Dr. Turner is a trustee of the James R. Rice Family Foundation and has served on the Board of the AMA Foundation and Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre, reflecting her commitment to supporting philanthropy, the performing arts, and STEM training for young people. She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago.

A native Washingtonian, Dr. Turner is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University, and she continued her training as an intern and resident in surgery at Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC. Her fellowship training in minimally invasive and laparoscopic surgery was completed at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Weill-Cornell University School of Medicine, and Columbia University School of Medicine in New York City. She earned her MBA from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business. She is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Turner is board-certified in surgery, is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and is a member of the American Surgical Association, American Medical Association, National Medical Association, Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), Southern Surgical Association, Southeastern Surgical Congress, Society of University Surgeons, Society of Black Academic Surgeons, Association of Women Surgeons, and Latino Surgical Society. She is also an honorary member of the Asociación Colombiana de Cirugia, the Excelsior Surgical Society, and the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

Carolina Brito '06

Celebrating her 20th Reunion, National Cathedral School is honored to present the Service Award to Carolina Brito ’06 for her exceptional leadership in education and her unwavering commitment to equity, access, and community care.

Carolina Brito is a bilingual school leader whose career has centered on building schools where excellence and intellectual identity are normalized for Black and Brown students. At Oyster‑Adams Bilingual School in DC, she led an instructional realignment that produced major gains for students furthest from opportunity—including +10.6% growth in Math proficiency, +19% growth in English language arts proficiency for economically disadvantaged students, and a 92% pass rate for AP Spanish. The community accomplished all this while also organizing direct support for undocumented families during U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) incursions. Oyster-Adams families organized safe carpools and launched a major relief fund to address food and employment insecurity. Previously, as principal of a Boston Public bilingual K-8 school, she expanded bilingual inclusion for students with disabilities, doubled the percentage of students meeting state growth targets, and built a community hub model offering adult education, family services, and a parent‑to‑teacher pipeline.

Across her roles as teacher, dean, principal, and mentor, her work has consistently aimed to dismantle systemic obstacles, strengthen multilingual academic pathways, and ensure that Black and Brown students can thrive as confident, intellectually empowered learners.

Catherine Robertson '81

National Cathedral School is proud to recognize Catherine “Cathy” Robertson ’81 with the Courage Award during her 45th Reunion, honoring her extraordinary advocacy for neurodivergent individuals and her fearless commitment to justice, inclusion, and community.

Catherine Robertson grew up in the DC area and, after graduating from NCS, went to Northwestern University for a BA in English and, later, an MA and PhD in Communication and Performance Studies. She did a variety of research and writing work while doing her dissertation, and then she moved to Oklahoma with her first husband and taught a variety of classes at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City University, and the New School for Social Research. Unexpectedly, she later joined the defense team for Terry Nichols in the Oklahoma City bombing case. Working as a mitigation specialist, Cathy realized that Nichols was autistic, and she led the mitigation case that spared him the death penalty. That experience ignited her interest in criminal justice and disability.  Along the way, she had kids and became the parent of an autistic son, which gave her a front-row seat to some pervasive failures of the special education system. She returned to teaching (a course called “Crime & Punishment” back at the New School in New York, then a professorship in Communication Studies at Notre Dame College of Ohio). Then, the search for support for her autistic son brought her home to DC. Here, she helped launch a new Maya Angelou Public Charter School inside the city’s facility for incarcerated youth—a program that became a national model and also showed her how to have the courage to just start working on what she believed in. In 2016, she put all of it—the interest in social justice, the nonprofit experience, and the challenge of understanding neurodivergent kids, into launching DC Peers, a community for neurodivergent teens and adults in Washington, DC, which has opened its own “third place” in Tenleytown, and she still serves as Executive Director.

Janet Garvin McCabe '76

Janet McCabe is an environmental policy expert who has worked in government, academia, and the nonprofit sector. Her professional experience includes work in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the Obama and Biden presidencies (as Acting Administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation from 2013-2017 and as Deputy Administrator from 2021-2024), Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Air Quality at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Executive Director of Improving Kids’ Environment, Inc., and several positions at Indiana University (IU), including the IU Environmental Resilience Institute. She has been married to Jon Laramore since 1984, and she has children Alice and Peter and stepson Dan and three grandchildren so far (Remy, Jack, and Elliot). She lives in Indianapolis and sings in the Indianapolis Women’s Chorus.

On the occasion of her 50th Reunion, National Cathedral School is proud to present the Conscience Award to Janet McCabe ’76 in recognition of her distinguished leadership in environmental policy and her lifelong commitment to protecting public health and the planet.