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Tiffany Alexander Aldridge ’87 is Director of Annual Giving at Harvard-Westlake, overseeing a program that leads all American day schools in overall dollars (raising more than $10M in 2022-2023). However, what draws Tiffany to the role is not the program’s size, but its impact—which Tiffany and her family know personally. Tiffany grew up in South LA as the only child of a single mom, gaining access to Westlake School for Girls in 10^th grade due to both her exceptional talent and the availability of need-based financial aid. It was this same combination of talent and resources that enabled her son, Chase Aldridge ’15, to also attend Harvard-Westlake. While Tiffany’s professional career has spanned various meaningful political and non-profit fundraising roles, in 2022 she seized the opportunity to return to HW and direct the very same program that profoundly impacted her family. It is a story that brings Tiffany quite literally to tears, imbued with gratitude for the role she plays now in creating more opportunities for students like her. Tiffany references Westlake educators Hope Boyd, Craig Deutsche, and Elizabeth Gregory as profound influences.

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Kara Nortman ’93 is co-founder of Los Angeles’s professional women’s soccer team Angel City. In this episode, Kara recounts her evolution from leading LA’s largest venture capital firm, Upfront Ventures, to co-founding Angel City alongside partners Natalie Portman and Julie Uhrman in 2020. Since then, Angel City has not only garnered significant fan followings and profitability (quadrupling its revenue projections in year one), but also developed a profit model to enable community and philanthropic impact. Using Angel City as a model, Kara has since broadened her focus–leading a $150M raise to form Monarch Collective, whose mission is to invest in women’s teams, sports, and rights across the world. Finally, Kara describes her own Harvard-Westlake story and personal connections to the team—noting that three of Angel City’s stars, including team captain Ali Riley ’06, Gisele Thompson ’24, and Alyssa Thompson ’23 are all HW alumnae. Kara references Jeanne Huybrechts and Barb Welch of Harvard-Westlake, as well as Alan Blinder and Lori Dauphiny of Princeton University, as profound educational influences.