Distinguished Alum Gail Granowitz ’75 Honored at Alumnae Weekend

The Distinguished Alumna Award goes each year to a person who has made a significant impact on the community. This year, the award went to Gail Granowitz ’75, who celebrated her 50 year reunion and was recognized for her outstanding achievements and career. Alumni can nominate fellow classmates or Holton graduates whom they believe deserve the award; however, alumni in classes celebrating a milestone reunion receive special consideration when deciding the awardee.

Development Associate for Alumnae Giving and Engagement Anne Shannon described the award as honoring “an alumna whose career [or] professional or volunteer service embodies enhanced excellence and purposeful connection.”

The accolade was established in 1973 by the Board of Directors of the Alumnae Association. Since the awardee usually celebrates a milestone reunion year, many classmates and peers are present at Alumnae Weekend, when the award is officially given; however, the winner receives notification in the fall or winter.

Granowitz has had a successful career in both medicine and the arts. Following her time at Holton, she went on to study at Dartmouth College and Columbia University. For more than four decades, she has served as an anesthesiologist, working in New York as well as in underserved areas such as the Caribbean and Haiti, where she has volunteered for over 20 years.

In 2012, she launched SPIRALIS, an online platform highlighting Haitian and African artwork. In 2024, she expanded her vision by opening an Easton, Maryland gallery designed to encourage dialogue, connection and healing through art.

As part of the Women in Power Summit, the upper school assembly featured an address by Granowitz. Drawing on the words of author Marianne Williamson, Granowitz urged students and alumnae to embrace their inner strength and brilliance. She concluded with the empowering anthem “One Woman,” leaving a lasting impression and reinforcing the central theme of the summit: the transformative power of women standing together with purpose and conviction.

Granowitz in part attributes her success to Holton and believes that her experience here gave her “the time and space to believe in the infinite possibility of what [she] could accomplish and achieve.” She described the Holton motto, “I will find a way or make one,” as her “guiding principle.”

She has learned from her multidimensional career that “life is not likely to be a straight line but a series of twists and turns.” She encourages current students to “embrace the serendipity of things” and “remain open to possibilities.” She also advises that students prioritize and “cherish...friendships" as "they will sustain you."