2020 Brookline Woman of the Year Soon To Be Announced

by Celina Colby
It is that time of year again when the Brookline Commission for Women will sift through dozens of nominations to select Brookline’s 2020 Woman of the Year. On March 25 at 6 pm, the Commission will host a celebration for the winner and other notable community contributors at Hunneman Hall in the main Brookline library branch.

“The Woman of the Year award is part of an annual celebration we do on the Brookline Commission for Women to recognize a woman in Brookline who has inspired many people and done really good work,” says Nancy McClelland, Acting Vice-Chair of the commission. She describes a successful Woman of the Year as someone who has made significant contributions to the community.

But there isn’t just one woman recognized at the Women Who Inspire Us event. Right now, Brookline school students are writing essays about local women who have motivated them. The commission will choose three winners, one from each age cohort: Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, and Grades 9-12. At the celebration, the students will read their winning essays and honor the women who inspired them.

The 2019 Woman of the Year was Lihua Shorter, a teacher at Brookline High in the world language department. Shorter teaches Chinese, advises the Asian Pacific American Club, and helps coordinate the school’s annual China-exchange program. In addition to her important work as an educator (the Chinese program has grown from two classes to nine since she started in 1997), she has made it her mission to educate the Brookline community about Asian cultures. If Shorter is an example of what’s to come, it’s going to be another empowering year for the Brookline Commission for Women.

This year there will be a slightly new twist at the Women Who Inspire Us party. A local historian will present information about often-forgotten female town pioneers. “What we’ve been talking about on the commission recently, especially with the renaming of the Coolidge Corner School and recognizing Florida Ruffin Ridley, is how many women historically have gone unrecognized for their work,” says McClelland. “Another thing we’re trying to do this year is recognizing those women historically as well.” This celebration of historic women is an important gesture in Greater Boston, where most historical lore still centers on men.

The Brookline Woman of the Year award is an opportunity to celebrate the work that women are constantly doing to create a better town. “A lot of the quiet, humble work of helping others is done by women in Brookline and around the world,” McClelland says. “This is a chance to recognize that.”

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