Alumni Award Profiles

Jennifer Huntington, SED '75

Jennifer Huntington ('75) with her former instructor and advisor Professor Emeritus Thomas Culliton (DGE '53, SED '55, '58, '61).

Recipient of the Ida M. Johnston Award

Nominated by Professor Culliton for her exemplary service to her alma mater, her profession, and to her community, Ms. Huntington is currently the principal of Newton North High School.  Since she started teaching in 1962, Jennifer has taught as far from Boston University as Nigeria and as close as Brookline High School. She was elected to the Newton School Committee and serves as a member of the Visiting Committee for the Perkins School for the Blind.

Ms. Huntington, who is particularly concerned with matters concerning health care and the environment, serves on the Boards for Harvard Community Health Board of Directors, the Alaska Conservation Foundation, and the Northern Forest Center in New Hampshire. She has also been president of the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Deborah Isom, CAS '73, SED '91

Recipient Arthur H. Wilde Society Award

Deborah Isom (CAS '73, SED '91) accepts her award at the School of Education's Alumni Awards Dinner and Ceremony.

Dr. Isom grew up in the Farragut Housing Projects in Community School District 13 and came to Boston University, where she majored in Spanish, minored in education, and graduated with honors. During her studies, she often wondered why she had such fortune to leave the Bronx and study while so many of her friends seemed to be struggling back home.

One night, after one of her many phone calls to her family, she understood.
She recalls, "I realized that I had been provided with this opportunity so that I could return home in order to improve my community." And indeed, Dr. Isom has been a force for good.  After graduation, she returned to District 13, where she taught Spanish, music, and bilingual education for fifteen years. 

Currently an assistant principal of foreign languages/ESL/bilingual education for the New York Public Schools, she also supervises foreign language instruction at Long Island University. She volunteers at Rikers' Island, methadone clinics, local parish and community centers. She has also volunteered as a Class Agent and received the BU Young Alumni Achievement Award in 1987. 

Susan Lek, SED '71

Recipient Arthur H. Wilde Society Award

Susan Lek graduated from the School of Education in 1971.  After gradually becoming more active in the alumni community, Mrs. Lek established the Susan H. Lek Scholarship Fund at the School to Education, through which she has made education goals a reality for students such as Carin Daddino, who after receiving the award in 2002, thanked Susan for helping make her dreams of helping children who have autism and pervasive developmental disorder become a reality.

Mrs. Lek frequents alumni activities in New York City, has hosted cultivation events, and attended her 30th reunion in Boston in May 2001. Mrs. Lek served for a number of years on the board of directors at Town School, a private nursery-8th grade school in Manhattan, which her son attended. Since 2000, Susan has served as president of the East Sixties Property Owners Association in Manhattan.

John Zervas, SED '82

Recipient Arthur H. Wilde Society Award

Nominated by Dr. Leonard Zaichkowsky, Dr. John Zervas is a professor of Motor Behavior and Sports Psychology at the University of Athens. He has helped to develop and shape the field of sports psychology in Greece by serving as President of the Greek Society of Sport Psychology for ten years and serving on the managing council of the European Society of Sport Psychology. He is also to be credited with writing scholarly publications in his field too numerous to list.

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