2023-2024 Season
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 6PM
LYDIA SHIRE
Award-Winning Chef & Restaurantuer
Lydia Shire, The extraordinary James Beard Award-Winning, pioneering Chef who blazed the “First Female Executive Chef” trail at the Four Seasons, Beverly Hills, while learning the trade from her mentor and “best cook friend,” the legendary Jasper White. Lydia started cooking with her father at the age of four, was educated at Le Cordon Bleu in London, and has gone on to become a renowned restauranteur with a cult-like following craving her creative cuisine. Under Lydia’s ownership, Gourmet ranked Boston’s Locke-Ober, “the 18th-best restaurant in the country,” one of a “must-visit restaurant in your lifetime.” Scampo, her restaurant in the Liberty Hotel, is both a local favorite and a destination for global travelers to New England.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 6PM
(Special Wednesday Forum!)
MORRA AARONS MELE
Author, Entrepreneur & Mental Health Advocate
Morra Aarons Mele, Leadership expert and self-proclaimed Anxious Achiever. Morra argues that anxiety is built into the very nature of leadership, and believes it can—and should—be harnessed into a force for good. Her first book Hiding in the Bathroom, How to Get Out There When You’d Rather Stay Home, followed by The Anxious Achiever, confirmed her belief that anxiety is by no means a rare but common condition shared by millions. Today, Morra is out of the bathroom, and sharing her strategies for how to turn your stress and worries into a source of strength.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 6PM
MARINA CAPPI
CEO & Founder, Marina Studios
Marina Cappi, From Real Estate Broker to Movie Producer. When Marina opened Marina Studios, a massive sound stage in Quincy, she became one of the few women to own and manage a movie studio in the country, with hers located just 12 minutes from Boston’s Logan Airport. Once the new studio signed a deal with Compelling Pictures, a Los Angeles-based film production company to shoot several films, they were off and running with the Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody, a box office mega-hit that is now streaming on Netflix. No doubt about it, more movie hits are in the works from Marina Studios.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 6PM
HOLIDAY PARTY
Details coming soon!
TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 6PM
ALYCE LEE
Non-Profit Professional & Former Chief of Staff to Mayor of Boston
Alyce Lee, The former Chief of Staff to Mayor Tom Menino, and non-profit professional. Alyce may have enjoyed her time at the highest levels of local government but it was her charitable work that brought true fulfillment. If “paying it forward” could be measured in years, Alyce has given decades in leadership roles at Boston Medical Center, the Pine Street Inn, and other organizations that are saving and changing lives. Alyce’s inspiring model of behavior brings new meaning to Ben Franklin’s call for citizens to “Do well by doing good.”
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 6PM
MELISSA FETTER
Owner, Beacon Hill Books & Cafe
Melissa Fetter, From Vice President at J.P. to Small Business Owner. Melissa has opened one of the hottest independent bookstores and cafes on the hill. From closing on the historic building pre COVID 19, navigating the large renovation, and finally opening with the restrictions of the pandemic, Melissa and her staff have outperformed their own goals and sold over 65,000 books. She is an active community volunteer with an interest in equitable access to the arts, education, and public broadcasting. Through her additional work with the Boston Atheneum, the bookstore offers an Authors in Conversation series, book talks and signing, as well as author readings.
TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 6PM
DALIT BALEN HORN
Vilna Shul Executive Director
Before being the executive director of the Vilna Shul, Dalit served as the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Impact at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where she held key responsibilities in furthering the organization’s national strategy, vision, and fundraising efforts. Dalit designed and implemented cutting edge and creative approaches to expand the Institute’s partnerships, educational and programmatic agendas, visibility and effectiveness. She currently lives in Brookline with her family and she uses her dynamic leadership skills to grow the Jewish community in Boston around the Vilna Shul.
TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 6PM
SUSAN HOCKFIELD
Former First Female President of MIT
Prior to serving as MIT’s first woman president and first life scientist, Susan was named Yale University’s Provost, leading initiatives in science, engineering, and medicine. Not only did she pioneer the use of monoclonal antibody technology in brain research, but she also discovered the gene that has a critical role in the spread of brain cancer. Throughout her presidency at MIT, she increased the number of underrepresented minorities and women across the undergraduate, graduate and faculty populations. In 2015, forty five percent of the graduating class were women and twenty four percent were underrepresented minorities. Currently, she serves as a Professor of Neuroscience in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences as well as being a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.
Membership sign up is available NOW for the 2022-2023 season! Visit the ‘Join‘ page to renew or register.
Please don’t forget your mask! In accordance with the current indoors mask mandate, all guests at the Hampshire House are required to have face covering when not actively eating or drinking in designated areas. Members who are not fully vaccinated, immunocompromised, or otherwise MIGHT feel uncomfortable attending in-person will still have the option to enjoy recordings of the speakers.
As always, this is an ever evolving situation, and we are doing our best to have a safe and fun season!
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Program Directors
Lorie Conway
Programs Co-Director
Story-telling through films and video isn’t just a career for Lorie Conway. It’s her passion. Exploring stories about the human condition is a transcendent theme of her work.
She looks for stories that provoke a connection, an understanding, stories that start a conversation. Stories like…the first African American to sail solo around the world, the bravest woman lawyer in Zimbabwe–currently in production as a dramatic film, a marathon runner stopped by exploding bombs, a Bosnian war survivor restoring pianos, a wounded Vietnam War veteran reconciling his experience with his legendary father’s. Conway directed and wrote Forgotten Ellis Island, the first film and a book about the immigrant hospital on Ellis Island. After a ten-year run-on PBS, the film is a favorite on Amazon Prime Video.
Lorie Conway believes in the power of words and images; her work has been awarded the Peabody, DuPont, and Harvard’s Nieman Fellowship in Journalism. Since 2000, she’s been an independent producer for Boston Film & Video, a company she founded. Before that, she produced for Boston’s commercial networks, WGBH, and PBS.
Norah Lawrence
Programs Co-Director
Norah moved to Beacon Hill in 2015, where she attended law school. While beginning work in the legal field, she has been involved in the community through non-profits, neighborhood organizations, and volunteering. Additionally, she loves traveling to learn about other cultures, try new foods, and see the world.
The Beacon Hill Women’s Forum has been nothing but a supportive group of women to not only interact with, but also share new experiences in the city with! This year’s forum will be an extraordinary representation of women in Boston who have done incredible work and really earned their rolls in the community through commitment and dedication.