Congratulations to Heidi Gage Jenkins ’66, P’08 on receiving this year’s Distinguished Alumna Award for her extraordinary, sustained support and service to Spence, and to Jill Furman ’86 for her professional achievements. The Spence Alumnae Association salutes our extraordinary alumnae for their steadfast support and service to the School and for their many accomplishments beyond the Red Doors.

For Service to Spence

Heidi Gage Jenkins’ ’66, P’08 list of positions on committees that continuously sustain and strengthen The Spence School is impressive: Heidi has served on the Board of Trustees, as Reunion Chair and currently serves on the Reunion Committee, is an Annual Fund Volunteer, on the Long Range Planning Committee, on the recent Alumnae Campaign Committee for the new Townhouse at 17 East 90th Street and formerly served on the Outreach Committee. Heidi is a former President of the Alumnae Association and is currently Chair of the Alumnae Association Nominating Committee. She is an IndiSPENCEable alumna, having given consecutively for 10 years or more to the Annual Fund. She has attended countless Phonathons over the years and always says “yes” to Spence. As a former parent (her daughter, Annabelle, is a member of the Class of 2008 and an alumna volunteer herself), Heidi was also active in the Parents’ Association and now is a dedicated member of the Parents of Spence Alumnae Committee.

For Professional Achievements

Jill Furman ’86 is a leading theatrical producer. She is a producer of the Broadway hit Hamilton and won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical as a lead producer of In the Heights. Jill’s work includes musicals, plays and television. She has also received the Drama Desk Award for The Drowsy Chaperone and In the Heights. In 2011, Jill received the Robert Whitehead Award for Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Theatre Producing and she is a member of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. Other Broadway productions have included: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, The Heiress, Seminar, West Side Story, Sly Fox and Fortune’s Fool. Her off-Broadway credits include: On The Line and Adult Entertainment. She also produces a hip-hop improv show, Freestyle Love Supreme, which performs sporadically around the City and was recently made into a TV show of which Jill is the Executive Producer. Hamilton reunites her with Lin-Manuel Miranda and is already being celebrated as one of the most groundbreaking musicals ever produced on the Great White Way. Hamilton has made American history accessible and compelling to a wide audience, and counts President Obama and the first lady among its fans. Above all this, what distinguishes Jill’s many hit plays is her passion for nurturing talent. Since Spence when she produced, directed and acted in a compilation of Dorothy Parker’s work, she has applied the School’s value of “for life we learn” by always challenging herself. Her son, Sam, her friends and her school are the beneficiaries of her humor, loyalty, good character, humility and boundless interest in all things.