LYNN JACKSON QUINN
Community Leader
Degrees: A.B. Harvard ’82.
Harvard–related activities: Co- Founder, Radcliffe Recent Graduates of NYC; Past President, Radcliffe Club of NYC; varied committee work in NYC and Cambridge.
Achievements and Honors: in NYC and Cambridge. Achievements and Honors: Former banker, real estate CFO, then public official, now dedicated volunteer. Giuliani administration agency head developing multicultural approaches to combat domestic violence, breast cancer, osteoporosis. Later work in Mayor’s Office at United Nations developing cross-cultural programming. Current focus on children, including our own two sons.
Major Charitable or Other Activities: Board of Governors - Horizons Student Enrichment Program; Executive Committees - New Canaan Library, New Canaan League of Women Voters. Former: President - Junior League of NYC; Board Member of Planned Parenthood of NYC and President of its Council of Advisors.
Greatest Personal Rewards and/or Reflections on Harvard: I came to Harvard unprepared, academically as well as socially with a big “S” but perhaps not a small one. I attended public schools throughout the US and Puerto Rico, and high school was in hardscrabble coastal Maine where my dad was head of the local naval base and the region’s largest employer, and my mom a special ed teacher working in two-room schoolhouses. My dad then began seminary and has become a pro-choice, antiwar Presbyterian minister -- needless to say, I paid off college loans for a very long time! My parents’ quiet dedication to public service shaped my values and career, but it was the Harvard course credits and credibility which have allowed me to work in compelling arenas with inspiring people. In our class report I lament not comping for the Crimson sooner while emphasizing the importance of well-researched and crafted communications, but I only touch on those who have influenced me. Much is made of “The Greatest Generation” and my take is to acknowledge the amazing women who came of age in the 1940s through 60s and did so much to shape our nation’s social conscience as well as devise hands-on social programs. Many were products of women’s colleges like our own somewhat lost Radcliffe, and most never had a “career” yet were highly skilled but unpaid advocates and organizers, Eleanor Roosevelt being an early example. I have been mentored by these women, several of them ‘Cliffies, who work for reproductive and voting rights, equal access to education and health care, and protection of our environment and civil liberties. My own comfortable adult life allows me to follow in their wake, which in recent times has me more frequently soliciting for good causes than rolling up my sleeves I’m afraid. But raising awareness and funds are needed in equal measures. While women have made great strides in many professions, the renewed repression of women worldwide is appalling. It’s easy to fret over the minutiae of family life while overlooking critical conditions near and far. The women and men of our class could dedicate the years until our 50th in 2032 to whatever greater issues have personal meaning. Likewise, as our alma mater faces its own 400th Anniversary in 2036 I challenge it to utilize its own vast resources of human, intellectual and financial capital to do the same on a far larger scale.