Alumni Office Welcomes Two New Colleagues
Maggie Matthews and Catie Pennoyer have joined HM’s Alumni and Development Office. Photo: Barry Mason
Catie Pennoyer has been appointed Assistant Director of Annual Giving. She arrived at HM in April and has quickly proven herself to be an invaluable member of the team. Catie has worked in development for the past eight years and is excited to share her talents and knowledge with the Horace Mann community.
Working alongside Kristen Pietraszek (Assistant Director of Development and Director of Annual Giving), Catie jumped right in, spearheading the Spring Alumni Challenge in May and the final pushes that allowed HM to hit its end-of-fiscal-year goal. She looks forward to continuing to help with the Annual Fund, especially increasing alumni giving.
Catie is originally from Boston, MA. She attended Mount Holyoke College where she received a B.A. in sociology and art history. After graduation, she moved to New York to work for TADA!, a non-profit youth theater. She then was hired by the Theater Development Fund as the Associate Director of Individual Giving and Events and spent several years there before coming to HM.
Catie grew up in the world of independent schools as the child of a boarding school teacher and then as a student at that same school. During the pandemic, she shared a COVID bubble with her wife’s family, where dinner conversations centered around the different schools where her wife, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law work. Around that time, Catie began considering transitioning from the performing arts world to a school community.
Despite only having been at HM for six months, Catie already has a sense of the power of an HM education and the impact it has on its students. She still considers her high school experience as one of the most informative periods of her life, as it prepared her for college and post-graduate life.
Outside of the office, Catie enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews (who conveniently live around the corner from her), puzzling, baking, and going to the theater. In addition, for two weeks a year (during the US Open), she is an avid tennis fan. Catie can be reached at catie_pennoyer@horacemann.org or by calling (718) 432-3458.
Maggie Matthews has joined the Alumni and Development team as Development Associate for Alumni Relations. Maggie started at HM at the end of August and immediately began prepping for Homecoming and Reunions, which was scheduled for September 30th. Working with Kristin Lax (Director of Alumni Relations), Maggie is excited to develop relationships with the alumni community while helping to plan and execute all of the activities and events that the school offers its alums.
Originally from Charlottesville, VA, Maggie attended the University of Virginia and double-majored in public policy and leadership/environmental science. While at UVA, Maggie led a research project in partnership with high school students living on the Lake Traverse Reservation in Sisseton, SD. This project sparked her interest in education and led to her enrollment at Georgetown University, where she earned an M.A. in educational transformation with a concentration in advocacy and policy. She is passionate about making transformative education accessible and hopes to learn more through conversations with alumni about how HM uplifts its students.
Having grown up in the same town where she attended college, Maggie is nothing if not school-spirited, and she is eager to bring her love of education to Horace Mann. While she is new to the alumni relations field, Maggie has experience in various educational spaces including public, private, and charter schools, after-school programs, and universities.
Once she knew she wanted to work in education, Maggie set out to discover where her talents could be most effective. She spent a summer teaching at a charter school in Brooklyn, worked for Georgetown University’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) as a data analyst, and, most recently, was part of the admissions team at The Oxbow School, an arts-focused semester school in Napa, CA.
Maggie prefers to spend her time outdoors but is quickly adjusting to city living and all it has to offer. She enjoys hiking, baking, painting, exploring new places, and spending time with friends and family. You can reach Maggie at maggie_matthews@horacemann.org or by calling (718) 432-3454.