February 2021
In this issue: 2021 Reunion news and Alumni Honors recipients
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2021 Alumni Honors recipients: Mark Burford PhD ’85, and Chris Raisbeck ’81.
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Dear Alumni,
We are excited to announce the recipients of 2021 Alumni Honors, San Francisco University High School's distinguished alumnx recognition program, designed to celebrate alumni who embody our core values of inquiry, care, integrity, agency and interconnection. We received nominations for many remarkable alumni making important contributions through personal accomplishment, professional achievement or humanitarian service. To learn more about Alumni Honors, past honorees or to make a nomination, go to sfuhs.org/alumnihonors.
The nominating and selection committee of Alumni Honors wishes to extend congratulations to Mark Burford PhD ’85, and Chris Raisbeck ’81.
Mark Burford, R.P. Wollenberg Professor of Music at Reed College, and chair of the American Studies program
Mark’s seminal 2018 book, Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field, is the product of an exceptional career of scholarship and teaching. Celebrating Jackson's excellence and virtuosity as an artist, the book has received multiple prizes, including the Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society for the outstanding book in musicology by a senior scholar. Mark’s research and treatment of Jackson and other Black artists such as Sam Cooke have made a significant contribution to the field of musicology. In Mark’s own words, “What is most gratifying about receiving the Kinkeldey Award, beside it being the top honor in my field, is the fact that the book was measured against the entire range of musicological scholarship, from the Renaissance to Bach and Beethoven to high modernism,” says Burford. “For a study on Black gospel music to be recognized in that context suggests shifts in the intellectual terrain of the discipline more broadly and affirms the questions that I pose at the heart of my classes.”
In addition to Mark’s role as the R. P. Wollenberg Professor of Music at Reed College, he is the Chair of the American Studies program and teaches critically important classes on comparative race and ethnicity studies. Through this work he is able to mentor and influence an even greater number of students. The R. P. Wollenberg chair is named for past Reed trustee Richard P. Wollenberg, and is given to professors who embody Wollenberg’s personal mission: to challenge students to think critically and in turn to help them become more effective citizens.
Wednesday February 3 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM see details for Zoom link |
Wednesday March 3 6:00 PM Zoom link will be provided via email |
Thursday April 1 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM RSVP for Zoom link |
Saturday May 8 5:00 PM RSVP for Zoom link |
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ICYMI,
Watch the Video!
2020 Runway Lecture
Advancing Health Equity in the Time of Covid-19
a conversation with four distinguished alumnx
who work in public health
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2020 Showcase Highlights
Five alumni of University High School who are design professionals shared their favorite elements of the 2020 Decorator Showcase.
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After his graduate studies at Columbia University in the 00s focusing on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Austro-German concert music, Mark was director of high school education programs at the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, connecting youth, families, students, community members, aspiring artists, and educators with creative musical experiences, and harnessing the power of the arts to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.
Mark was nominated by Bruce Lamott, UHS music instructor from 1980-2016.
Christopher Raisbeck ’81, certified medical assistant and LGBTQ community advocate and volunteer
Chris has dedicated his life to serving the community. In the first half of his career, Chris was a middle-school biology teacher, health educator, grief counselor, and more, building architecture for the heart, body, and soul of those experiencing life transitions that were mostly neglected by the dominant culture at the time. He did this work with courage, compassion and strength that points the moral compass in the right direction for the rest of society.
Chris’s selfless service has touched people in all walks of life and at all stages of life. He was a pioneer in AIDS/HIV education,
incorporating this topic into his middle school and high school sex education curriculum in the early 1990s. And it is impossible to measure the positive impact he made on the state of California by helping GLSEN establish its presence here.
After decades of teaching in the classroom Chris evolved to become a certified medical assistant, helping individuals at their most vulnerable. Today in his role with HealthRIGHT360 working at a Covid quarantine and isolation hotel, he is once again at the forefront of health education serving San Franciscans during the national crisis brought on by Covid-19: those who are experiencing homelessness and those unable to live with family due to infection, among others.
A lifelong volunteer, Chris has served: Shanti Project, working with HIV/AIDS patients in the 1990s; Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a seminal queer community service group in San Francisco; and, most recently with the Sisters, by handing out PPE masks on the streets of San Francisco. He is a founding member of the UHS LGBTQ Alumni Affinity Group.
Chris was nominated by Katie Hultquist ’92.
Reunion 2021 honoring the Classes of 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016
With an abundance of caution, we have made the decision not to hold an in-person reunion due to unclear predictions about the status of the Coronavirus vaccine rollout this spring.
In 2022, there will be 17 classes that missed their reunion in 2020 and 2021, and nine more classes due to celebrate! So we’re exploring the possibilities of holding reunion at a venue that can accommodate this large group. Mark your calendar for the first weekend in May (Friday 5/7/21 and Saturday 5/8/21), the traditional timing of Reunion Weekend. (Click here to find your private class Facebook Group to connect with classmates now.)
We will hold Zoom reunions for 2021 milestone classes ending in 1 and 6 on Saturday, May 8, 2021 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time. We’re seeking 1-2 volunteers per reunion class to be the Zoom host of your reunion! If you’re interested, please send me an email with the words 2021 Zoom Reunion in the subject line. Look for a Paperless Post invitation and a custom email for your class in early April.
Loyally,
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Questions about any of the announcements, events, or news you've read here? Please be in touch with Marianna Stark '89, director of alumni engagement and giving.
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