Who Run the World…
As Women’s History Month comes to a close, we’d like to remind our readers of the women who inspire us year round and also happen to have graduated from Andover.
Katie Porter ’92
Porter served as the U.S. Representative for California’s 47th Congressional District from 2019 to 2025. She graduated from Harvard Law School and was a former law professor at the University of California, Irvine before launching her first-ever campaign after the 2016 election. She went on to serve three terms in Congress.
Olivia Coffey ’07
Coffey is among the most decorated American rowers of her generation, winning gold in the quad sculls at the 2015 World Rowing Championships. She represented the U.S. at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and is a three-time world champion. Her athletic career is a testament to the discipline and competitive drive she developed from an early age. Fun fact: she first began rowing while at Phillips Academy in 2005.
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward ’58
Ward was one of the earliest voices in feminist literature. She is best known for her 1868 novel The Gates Ajar, which sold over 100,000 copies and challenged what at the time were conventional religious views on the afterlife. She spoke out against violations of women’s rights, advocating for dress reform and the humane treatment of animals. This was considered radical.
Hafsat Abiola-Costello ’92
Abiola-Costello founded the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) in 1997 in her mother’s honor after her mother was assassinated by Nigeria’s military junta. The organization works in Africa to advance democracy and women’s leadership. For instance, KIND has worked with other major organizations to demand for the reconsideration of the gender bill rejected by the National Assembly of Nigeria. Abiola-Costello has received several international recognitions for her activism, including being named a Global Leader of Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Susan Chira ’76
After graduating from Andover, Chira attended Harvard University, where she was the president of the Harvard Crimson, and then went on to join The New York Times. She rose to Senior Editor and worked on The New York Times team that in 2018 won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for reporting on sexual harassment. She later served as Editor-in-Chief of The Marshall Project, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to criminal justice reporting.
Women of Andover, we love you!
