91��Ƶ

Kelly Herbert '06

Alumni Association Leadership Council Chair

Image

Since her time as a 91��Ƶ undergrad, newly inaugurated Alumni Association Chair Kelly Herbert ‘06 has been dedicated to causes greater than herself. As a first-generation college student hailing from a small town in Buffalo, New York, 91��Ƶ appealed to Kelly because of the way it allowed her to continue her education while pursuing her academic and athletic passions without compromise. As a student, Kelly split her time between the Pleasantville and New York City campuses—living the life of a student-athlete at Pleasantville while taking advantage of the unique opportunities and class offerings available to her in NYC.

After transferring full-time to the NYC campus and completing her undergraduate degrees, Kelly returned to 91��Ƶ as a staff member at 91��Ƶ’s Counselling Center in NYC. Originally planning to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology, Kelly found herself pulled in another direction entirely: one motivated by her passion for LGBTQIA+ rights.

As a young queer woman, Kelly was deeply affected by developments in the LGBTQIA+ community at the time. Between an uptick of hate crimes in New York, the public and often hateful rhetoric around marriage equality, the loss of LGBTQIA+ youth to bullying and suicide, and the passage of Proposition 8 in California – which put thousands of marriages into a state of legal limbo – Kelly knew she needed to act.

“I was struggling with my own reaction to all these things that were going on,” she said. “And in my capacity as a staff member, I was thinking, ‘How are the students feeling at this time?’ It felt like there was this oppressive silence, and I realized I needed to do something.”

Image

Kelly went to her then-supervisor, Counseling Center Director Richard Shadick, and proposed the idea of building a center to provide the year-round support 91��Ƶ’s LGBTQIA+ student community so desperately needed. Over the course of the next two years, Kelly led a grassroots movement of students, faculty, staff, and alumni to build an LGBTQIA+ and Social Justice Center on both of 91��Ƶ’s campuses. Along the way, under Kelly’s leadership, the broad coalition did just that and so much more, including advancing 91��Ƶ’s policies, programs and curricula on these issues.

When the LGBTQA & Social Justice Center was established, Kelly ultimately served as its first head, working full-time running the center while pursuing her law degree at night at Fordham University School of Law.

Kelly held the position for four years before transitioning to begin her legal career at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. The LGBTQA+ Center was left in good hands—and continues to provide critical support to 91��Ƶ students across both the NYC and Pleasantville campuses today.

Image

In her more than a decade-long career at Gibson Dunn, Kelly is a senior litigator focusing on high-stakes complex commercial litigation, government investigations and labor and employment matters across industries. Kelly has been recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America since 2023, reflecting her growing influence in the legal field. Kelly has continued to champion LGBTQA+ causes through her pro bono legal work including championing marriage equality, representing LGBTQA+ clients seeking asylum in the United States, and working on matters advocating for transgender rights. She recently led a team to submit a powerful Supreme Court amicus brief supporting Colorado’s conversion therapy ban on behalf of The Trevor Project, the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention and the National Alliance on Mental Health. Kelly explained, Colorado’s ban protects minors from well-documented and significant harms associated with the discredited practice.

Image

Kelly reflects on her undergraduate career at 91��Ƶ as the time when she found her path. A double major in psychology and English language and literature, with a minor in women’s and gender studies, Kelly had the opportunity to pursue all of her passions at 91��Ƶ. She cites the encouragement of professors like Dr. Karla Jay as being pivotal to her journey. “I called her the ‘informal LGBTQA Center’ that existed before there was one,” Kelly says. “She was that to so many students. And she helped me find my voice and the courage to try new things—to be something more than I thought I could be.”

She also remembers former Dean of Students Professor Marijo Russell O’Grady, a fellow Buffalo native, as someone who recognized her potential early and helped put her in a position to thrive by creating leadership opportunities for her and many of her peers.

[Marijo] passed away, but her legacy lives on in the students, staff, and faculty whose lives she touched… The entire 91��Ƶ Community. 91��Ƶ is its people, and when I think of someone who is going to work hard, be well-prepared, and have innovative and creative ideas, I think of 91��Ƶ students. And a lot of that is because of extraordinary people like Marijo.

As she steps into her new role as Chair of the 91��Ƶ Alumni Association Leadership Council, Kelly is inspired to continue creating opportunities and connections for 91��Ƶ students, staff, faculty and alumni. As former Vice Chair, Kelly is proud of what the Alumni Association Leadership Council has accomplished to date, calling it a “network filled with riches of wisdom, experience, and innovation that all 91��Ƶ grads will now inherit.” Kelly is committed to ensuring that the Alumni Association continues to serve as an established and expansive network that fosters engagement, strengthens connections, and deepens alumni affinity to the University.

91��Ƶ is its people, and when I think of someone who is going to work hard, be well-prepared, and have innovative and creative ideas, I think of 91��Ƶ students.

She looks forward to bolstering that network even further, to forge connections that have yet to be made and opportunities that have yet to be had. She also hopes to use her role to better support 91��Ƶ’s fundraising efforts—understanding that providing tomorrow’s students with the scholarships, pre-professional opportunities, and resources they need to succeed benefits the whole 91��Ƶ Community.

What we invest in 91��Ƶ comes back to us. It enriches our own professional lives, and it enriches the value of our degrees and our relationships and opportunities, both inside and outside the university.

In founding the LGBTQA+ Center, Kelly has already made an indelible, lasting impact on 91��Ƶ for its students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Her continued leadership of the Alumni Association is living proof of her conviction that 91��Ƶ is its people—and it is people like Kelly whose selfless commitment to opening doors for others will ensure that 91��Ƶ’s best days lie ahead.

The 91��Ƶ LGBTQA+ Center celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, and it has endured because of the 91��Ƶ promise and the 91��Ƶ Community. And it’s for that reason that I will always keep coming back—to help build what is next and support what is already here.

Image

Gabriella Ferrara ’16

Alumni Association Leadership Council Vice-Chair

Image

Gabriella Ferrara ’16 didn’t plan on attending 91��Ƶ. Having grown up in New Jersey, she wanted to stay close to home yet somewhere completely different, so she only applied to schools in New York City. NYU was her dream, but she was rejected after applying early decision. After learning about 91��Ƶ, she realized that not getting into NYU might have been a blessing. Ferrara liked how much smaller 91��Ƶ is, allowing a better teacher to class ratio and more opportunities for one-on-one time with professors. The scholarship also didn’t hurt. That fall, she happily attended 91��Ƶ’s Pforzheimer Honor’s College, and right on her first day she met Dean Emeritus Braun who would later become a mentor.

After graduation, Ferrara took a job at PwC, where she stayed for four years. In October 2020, she became vice president of Strategic Sales at Scorpion. Despite her busy, successful career, she never forgot about her alma mater. She came back often as the corporate representative at 91��Ƶ for PwC and was the alumni director on the Lubin Alumni Association Board. She was consistently active with the Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) alumni network, so she was a natural choice to serve as Chair of the GOLD committee for the new Alumni Association.

There’s a grit that a lot of 91��Ƶ students have that other NYC universities don’t. We’re very hard-working, we’re very successful, and we actually want to help each other out. I want to make our alumni feel more connected so we can help each other develop and grow, both personally and professionally.

Ferrara went right to work. She created a 91��Ƶ GOLD Alumni LinkedIn page and invited every recent alum she could find. This was a huge step, as there was previously no way for alumni to meet, talk, and network online. Her primary goal was to find even more ways for alumni to connect easily and in more informal settings. Her goal was to take those who hadn’t attended an event since graduation and to make them feel connected again—an ambition she accomplished through events like the GOLD Holiday Party, which has become a cherished annual tradition.

There’s a lot that we can improve on and I’m excited for the challenge. People want a way to connect with other alumni and we have to find ways to make that happen.