As she looks back on her life and career, Barb Drayer ’89 appreciates the many ways in which Westtown School shaped both. Her first experience with Westtown was during the summer after her seventh grade year at Friends Central, when she attended a lacrosse camp at Westtown and stayed on dorm for a week. She enrolled for ninth grade and lived on campus for four years, not far from her home in Gladwyne, PA

Barb was a standout athlete in lacrosse, field hockey and basketball at Westtown and played lacrosse at Hartwick College. After college, unsure of what to do next, she reached out to people she knew at Westtown: Mary Ann Wagner ’58, Director of Alumni Relations, and Martha Bryans ’68, Director of Development. Together, they created an internship for Barb that included work in both of their offices and housing as a dorm parent. Barb stayed at Westtown for years and was an Assistant Girls’ Basketball Coach and Assistant Athletic Director.

While working at Westtown, Barb  earned a master’s degree in Athletic Administration from West Chester University and was intent on a career in that field. Desiring to move to Washington, D.C., she reached out to another Westtown connection, Heather Hoerle ’77, who had been her advisor at Westtown and was now working at the National Association of Independent Schools. Heather referred Barb to Tina Warnick ’81, Director of Development at Sandy Spring Friends School outside D.C. Tina hired Barb as Sandy Springs’ Director of Alumni Relations. “I planned to stay for a couple of years and then move on to another athletics position,” Barb recalls, “but I enjoyed it so much, I stayed for four, and decided that development and alumni relations was my calling.”

For the next 20 years, Barb led the development programs at the Dalton School in Manhattan and then the Windward School in Westchester County, NY, a school for students with dyslexia. In 2016, Barb  established her own development consultancy, which she operates from her home in Darien, CT — a home she shares with Bertie and Harley, her two rescue puppies from Puerto Rico. Fundraising is Barb’s  profession, but her passion is animal welfare, and she serves on the board of a local animal rescue. 

“It’s easy to do and it doesn’t cost anything. Westtown was a life-changer for me. I truly believe that ‘The world needs more Westonians,’ and this is my way of helping the school thrive long after I’m gone.”

Grateful for the influence that Westtown has had on her life and the lifelong friendships she formed at the school, Barb decided to include Westtown as a beneficiary of several of her retirement accounts. “It’s easy to do,” she says, “and it doesn’t cost anything. Westtown was a life-changer for me. I truly believe that ‘The world needs more Westonians,’ and this is my way of helping the school thrive long after I’m gone.”