FWCD Honors Five Exceptional Individuals
Five exceptional individuals were honored by FWCD and the Alumni Association at the Alumni Awards Dinner on Thursday, October 23. Alumni Council President Katy Rhodes Magruder ’98 served as the evening’s host, and the following awards were presented. Click on the individual’s name for a full bio.
Distinguished Alumni Award: Emily Stewart Lakdawalla ’92
Honorary Alumni Award: Peggy Wakeland H’25
Jean Webb Service to Alma Mater: Randy Eisenman ’93
Service to Humanity: Geraldine Acuña-Sunshine ’88
Falcon Star: John Solberg ’82
Each of the remarkable honorees represents a life of purpose, achievement and contribution that reflects so powerfully on the FWCD community.
“Some of you have spent decades of your post-K-12 lives at FWCD – Randy and Peggy together totaling more than 50 years,” said Head of School Eric Lombardi. “Others made their mark in the time they had here – John with two years, Geraldine with three, and Emily with five. Collectively, you embody the aspirations we hold for all our students: curiosity, integrity, compassion, and a commitment to the greater good.”
Over the past year, FWCD has been working to formalize the aspirations it has for students into a Portrait of a Graduate. “We envision our graduates as problem-solvers, critical thinkers, purposeful explorers, community servants, and global citizens,” Lombardi noted. “ … it is clear that each of 2025’s Alumni Award honorees is living proof of those ideals. Truly, you all could be the poster children for the characteristics we celebrate in every FWCD graduate.”
Emily Stewart Lakdawalla ’92
Magruder had the honor of presenting the Distinguished Alumni Award to Lakdawalla. In her acceptance speech, Lakdawalla expressed deep gratitude for her FWCD teachers, especially Sharon Foster H’06 and Sharon Hamilton (both of whom were present and sitting at Lakdawalla’s table). She reflected how the two teachers nurtured her curiosity and love of science, as she grew up as a “faculty brat.” Lakdawalla’s mother, Karen Stewart, was FWCD’s Director of Admission from 1987 to 1996. As a faculty member’s child, Lakdawalla spent many afternoons in classrooms where teachers welcomed her questions and encouraged exploration long after school hours. She spoke about how Foster’s biology classes often took unexpected turns as a result of a curious student’s question. Lackdawalla credits these experiences for shaping her path as a scientist, noting that her teachers “always permitted us to be curious in every possible way.”
Peggy Wakeland H’25
Christy Lennox, Upper School Registrar and Community Service Coordinator, who also served as Wakeland’s “right-hand man” from 2021 to 2025 while she was Head of Upper School, presented the Honorary Alumni Award. In her remarks, Wakeland, who has been a Falcon for 32 years, thanked the Class of 2025 for letting her graduate with them. “I will forever be a Falcon thanks to this class,” Wakeland said. The Class of 2025 bestowed the Honorary Alumni status on Wakeland and endowed an award in her name at the 2025 Commencement Ceremony. She also reflected on the deep relationships and mentorships that shaped her years at FWCD. She expressed gratitude to colleagues like John O’Reilly and Bill Arnold ’86 (both sat at her table) for their wisdom, guidance, and friendship, and to mentors such as Geoff Butler, FWCD’s third Head of School, who hired her in 1994. She fondly recalled her early years at the School, including her role as Committee Chair when FWCD earned the prestigious Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education in 1998. “I was young here at that time; I’d been at the School for about three years. I idolized the teachers and felt like I was among FWCD royalty,” Wakeland said.
Randy Eisenman ’93
Board of Trustees member and former Alumni Association President Asad Dean ’90 presented Eisenman with the Jean Webb Service to Alma Mater award. When accepting the award, Eisenman shared that his lifelong commitment to FWCD stems from one of his favorite quotes: “To those to whom much is given, much is required.” He invoked the name of FWCD mentors who guided him, beginning with the award’s namesake, Jean Webb H’01. “Mrs. Webb was my third grade teacher, one of my favorites. I’ll admit, I was very intimidated by her,” Eisenman said. “There was no sugarcoating with Mrs. Webb, even for third graders. Probably the lesson that stayed with me the most is that as a leader, you can be both firm and loving.” Eisenman also spoke about lessons he learned from Coach Joe Breedlove ’78, who gave him the No. 10 jersey (his number while a student at FWCD) to wear as a sixth grader on the eighth-grade basketball team. “He [Beedlove] taught me a really powerful leadership lesson,” Eisenman said. “Leadership is about helping those you lead see their own potential, even when they can’t see it themselves.”
Eisenman also gave a touching shoutout to his parents, and surprised his father, Stanley, with a carrot cake and a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” from all in the room to celebrate his 75th birthday.
Geraldine Acuña-Sunshine ’88
Lombardi had the pleasure of introducing Acuña-Sunshine and her honor: the Service to Humanity award. In moving remarks, Acuña-Sunshine reflected on how FWCD’s purpose, “… to inspire the passion to learn, the courage to lead, and the commitment to serve,” has guided her life’s work. She credits her FWCD education for sparking an “addiction to learning,” which led her to Harvard College, where she was offered the opportunity to attend and graduate in three years. Her response: “I’m going to stay the whole four years so I can have the full college experience. Since then, I’ve attended two graduate schools, served on the University Governing Board, and now also run Khan Academy Philippines, the first international licensee of Khan Academy U.S., bringing this amazing AI-enabled American EdTech platform to the developing world. So the passion to learn, yeah, check.”
Acuña-Sunshine spoke about how her personal experience fuels her courage to lead. “Ten years ago, my brother Patrick, Country Day Class of ’95, who has an MD/MPH from UT Galveston and the Harvard School of Public Health, developed a debilitating form of Parkinson’s that affects mostly people of Filipino descent,” she said. “Realizing that this disease was genetic and affected many indigent people in my area of the Philippines, I created a research center at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School to find the defective gene, study disease progression, build animal models, and test therapeutics. I also run two free clinics to give 500 indigent patients and their families medical and economic support. We’ve begun clinical trials and are working with U.S. pharma to further develop targeted therapeutics. Moreover, what we’ve learned, documented in top U.S. science journals, will have a profound impact on the understanding of Parkinson’s disease. Shoutout to my science teachers, Ms. Wilkerson, Ms. Hamilton, and the late Ms. [Lu] Kelly, whose encouragement not only helped me win regional and state science fairs while I was here, but whose lessons on the scientific method I still lean on today to help generate new knowledge and hopefully save lives, even when the road is hard. Courage to lead, hopefully.”
When summarizing her commitment to serve, Acuña-Sunshine recalled a Harvard commencement speaker’s quote: “For me, living a life of service means understanding the preciousness of that breath and doing something good and worthy of your finite energy and time,” she said. “ Looking back, I now realize that this is exactly what Country Day called each of us to do – to lead lives of kindness, integrity, and compassion for our highest good and the highest good of all, in short, to prioritize our commitment to serve.”
John Solberg ’82
Magruder presented the evening’s final award, the Falcon Star, to Solberg. The Executive Vice President, Publicity, for FX and FX Production immediately cracked a joke. Generally, in my business, people in Hollywood don’t have big egos,” he laughed. “So on award shows, when people take pieces of paper up there, you’re like, ‘God, how long is this gonna last? Please step away from the weapon.’ I promise to try to make this brief.”
Solberg reflected on the lasting impact of his brief but meaningful time at FWCD. He credits Lieutenant Colonel “Rocky” Rosacker H’00 for shaping his character and work ethic. “My first introduction to the School was two-a-day football practices with Colonel Rosacker,” Solberg said. “That was a wake-up call to say the least. Colonel Rosacker said his goal was to make men of us. I don’t know that I’ve come across any coach or educator in my life who was more committed to the development of young people than the Colonel.” Solberg recounted fond memories of football practices, dance classes, and enduring friendships, noting that the true gift of FWCD is its community. He emphasized the enduring importance of the arts. “Storytelling in all its artistic forms is vital to the human experience,” Solberg said. “It is important that we all support the arts. It’s always been a critical component of the Country Day education and still is. My time here was important to me, not for anything I contributed to the school, but for what the school and its teachers contributed to me.”
The evening ended with some final words from Lombardi. “We’re so incredibly lucky that all five of our honorees were willing and able and committed to getting here to join us,” he said. “You have each done so much with your lives so far. May you each keep impacting and influencing and affecting your chosen fields, passions and our school for many years to come.”
