Alumni News

Two years of the COVID-19 pandemic put Durham Academy's Homecoming celebration on pause in 2020 and 2021. But with the impact of COVID-19 subsiding, a big DA Homecoming celebration with an alumni barbecue on Friday afternoon, campus tours on Saturday and alumni reunion parties on Saturday night is set for this weekend.

Rosati’s message to make the world a better place is being lived daily at the Rosati Leadership Academy.

They are three Durham Academy alumni with graduation dates 20 years apart, spread across the country and living far from Durham — yet all three are committed to giving back to DA. While Tom Beischer ’87, Andy Crawford ’97 and Margie Gudaitis Hess ’07 are more than 14 years removed from their time on campus, staying connected to DA is a priority for each of them.

Lee Patterson ’00, who attended Durham Academy beginning in pre-kindergarten through graduation, is serving as DA Alumni Board president.

Kathleen Clement Johnson doesn’t know how she came to integrate Durham Academy in 1964. She never asked her parents, civic and professional leaders William A. Clement and Josephine Dobbs Clement, about that. But she thinks she knows why.

Collin Suggs ’08 is a young man who sets goals for himself and pursues them with almost relentless determination

Samantha Lanevi ’14 has an international background — her father is Swedish, her mother was born in Cuba, she was adopted from China when she was 6 months old and lived in Switzerland until she was 2-and-a-half — and she’s taking an international approach to pursuing a master’s degree in American history.

Torsie Judkins has more than 20 years of experience working in independent school education, and the Durham Academy Class of 1991 graduate says he owes his career to a chance pairing thanks to his passion for golf. 

At least 25 alumni have been helping out at DA as their lives, like those of DA students, parents, faculty and staff, have been upended by the pandemic.

The Durham Academy Alumni Board has selected two accomplished alumni and a beloved faculty member to honor with distinguished awards.

If you think the interests that grab a teenager’s attention in high school don’t really have an impact, talk with Brendan Bradley ’01 and you may change your mind.

When the winds of COVID-19 touched down in North Carolina, the pandemic was met by Becki Feinglos Planchard, a 2007 Durham Academy graduate who has helped navigate the waters of how to safely reopen the state’s public schools.

I graduated from DA in 1997, filling the next 23 years of my life with adventures that have a common theme — learning and having an open and agile mindset to take on new challenges. I attended Columbia University, where I played Division I field hockey, majored in political science and spent a semester in Beijing, all of which truly challenged me as I worked hard to find a balance between academics, sports and fun.

When Faith Couch ’15 arrived in Baltimore to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art, she had no family living in the area and didn’t know anyone. Her plan was to make friends, to get involved in the community — and did she ever.

Durham Academy alumna Becca North '94 — an author, researcher and teacher in the field of psychology — will host a DA Alumni Book Club meeting on Dec. 3, with discussion centered on her book, Your Hidden Superpowers: How the Whole Truth of Failure Can Change Our Lives.