ALUMNI P.58 P.59 P.60 P.64 Surgical Series Dynamic Duo Film School Alumni Notes Protect and Elect Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State is on a mission to make sure that every vote counts. 56 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Sep | Oct 2020 Illustration by Lincoln Agnew ALUMNI Kathy Boockvar C’90 “When I talk to the morning of June 2, to ensure a smooth transition, mentary series Lenox Hill (see young people, my Kathy Boockvar C’90 and blitzed radio and TV sta- photo, next page). “It was in- hoped for the best tions with a bilingual public spiring. And she became a primary message On while preparing for relations campaign about vot- great role model for us.” is to never have the worst. ing by mail. “We did every A legal studies class taught Since being appointed Penn- layer of communications we by Kenneth Shropshire, the blinders on, sylvania’s Secretary of the could possibly do to make sure David W. Hauck Professor Emer- Commonwealth on January 5, voters knew about this option. itus of Legal Studies and Busi- to never think 2019, she’d been tasked with And boy, did it work.” ness Ethics, sent Boockvar upgrading the state’s voting A former voting rights attor- down the law path, and her life will be a machines to models that pro- ney and poll worker, Boockvar experience at the University straight path.” duce voter-verifi able paper claims that there were fewer proved so formative that records and implementing Act negative incidents reported the native New Yorker de- 77—an election reform bill, than in any presidential pri- cided to begin her career signed into law by Governor mary that she could recall in in Pennsylvania after grad- Tom Wolf last October, that al- at least a decade, which she uating from law school at lows anyone in the state to calls “incredible.” And it’s giv- American University. She vote by mail without needing ing her hope for the general and her husband Jordan an excuse. election on November 3, in Yeager, whom she met at So there was already a “huge which the state is preparing law school and is now a sea change,” Boockvar notes, for more than 3 million mail- judge, opened their own heading into the Pennsylvania in ballots and the possibility fi rm in Bucks County— primary on June 2—even before that votes may still need to be Boockvar & Yeager—which the COVID-19 pandemic swept counted for days after Election they ran for 11 years while through the country (causing Day. At that point, the eyes of raising a daughter. After the election to be rescheduled the nation could very well fall representing, pro bono, a from April) followed by the on one of the decisive swing low-income community civil unrest that enveloped states from the last presiden- group that had its polling major cities the weekend pri- tial contest—and on Boockvar. place moved, she applied for a machine broke, rather than or. “Any one of those changes It’s not a position she ever job at the Advancement Project, being told to “go home and would be challenging,” Boock- thought she’d be in, particu- a nonprofi t organization run by come back later.” var says. “To have all four con- larly when she fi rst arrived at Judith Browne Dianis W’87 After three years at the Ad- verge in one election was ex- college in the fall of 1986 intent [“Alumni Profi les,” Nov|Dec vancement Project, she was tremely challenging. on following the family tradi- 2019] that focuses on racial recruited to run for Congress “But,” the state’s chief elec- tion of studying medicine. justice issues. in 2012 as a Democrat in what tions offi cial adds, “it was incred- “Then I took chemistry the fi rst She accepted a position as a some analysts had identifi ed as ibly and remarkably smooth semester and realized, ‘Nope, voting rights attorney leading a possible “red to blue” Penn- and safe.” not for me!’” She did, however, up to the 2008 primary and sylvania district. Though she Because of the pandemic, lean on lineage in her decision quickly discovered Pennsylva- admits “it was not on my buck- nearly 1.5 million Pennsylva- to attend Penn. Her grandfa- nia’s voting inequities, seeing et list” and she lost to incum- nians voted by mail in the pri- ther, the late Edward Saskin incredibly long lines and poor bent Michael Fitzpatrick, she mary—more than the roughly C’31, and mother, Virginia organization at polling places still calls it a “life-changing” 1.2 million who voted in per- Saskin Boockvar CW’65, at- in communities of color. One experience. “What I realized in son (and way more than the tended before her. Her twin of the biggest issues she that campaign,” she says, “was 84,000 who voted by mail in brothers, Daniel Boockvar worked to correct was urging that I loved having a million the primary four years earli- C’93 L’96 and John Boockvar her future employer, the Penn- balls in the air at one time.” er). “Once COVID-19 hit, we C’93, followed her there, arriv- sylvania Department of State, Her brother John believes knew things were going to ing on campus to fi nd “a lead- to “put a much clearer direc- she’d make a fi ne elected offi - change,” Boockvar says, noting er in the community,” says tive to counties that every cial if she ever runs again, in that the state department John, now a neurosurgeon voter needed to be off ered an large part because she’s a worked closely with counties featured on the Netfl ix docu- emergency paper ballot” if a “glass is half full” kind of per- Photo courtesy PA State Department Sep |Oct 2020 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 57 ALUMNI DAVID LANGER C’85 M’90 GM’98 | JOHN BOOCKVAR C’93 GM’04 son who “doesn’t have that She’s aware that mail-in vot- politicians’ personality.” Boock- ing has become a hot-button var, though, hasn’t followed a issue, in large part due to traditional political path. Not rhetoric from President Don- long after her congressional ald Trump W’68, whose re- run, she served as executive di- election campaign sued Penn- rector of Lifecycle WomanCare, sylvania over its mail-in drop- a women’s healthcare nonprof- off sites for ballots. But Boock- it that blended her interests in var has been working with the public health, law, and policy. National Association of Secre- After four years there, she ac- taries of State (of which she is cepted the “opportunity of a the elections committee co- lifetime” to join Governor chair) and other federal agen- Streaming Before Netflix released the docu- Wolf’s cabinet in Harrisburg, cies to “make sure voters Surgeons mentary series Lenox Hill on June fi rst as a senior advisor on elec- know they can rely on county 10, John Boockvar C’93 GM’04 warned tion modernization and then and state election offi ces to his wife and kids about the potential for cringeworthy scenes. the Secretary of the Common- provide accurate informa- For a year-and-a-half, he and three other doctors—including wealth, where, in addition to tion,” she says. “Don’t think his colleague in the neurosurgery department, David Langer her role promoting the integ- what you see on Twitter or C’85 M’90 GM’98—were mic’d up and followed around by rity of the electoral process, she what you see on Facebook or cameras, allowing for an intimate look into the real-life drama also oversees professional li- whatever is accurate.” at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital. censing, the state athletic com- Indeed, despite “misinfor- “We dropped the f-bomb a bunch, my tag is sticking out the mission, and more. mation” fl oating around social back of my lab coat every now and then, and my bald spot is “When I talk to young peo- media about the potential for apparent in every scene,” Boockvar says. “But this was worth ple, my primary message is to fraud, voting absentee has doing because the world needed to see what life is like as a doc- never have blinders on, to “been an incredibly safe, se- tor, patient, nurse, nurse practitioner, PA, and what our healthcare never think life will be a cure process for decades,” she system is like—the good, the bad, and the emotional.” straight path,” she says. “Be- says, adding that a voter’s eli- The nine-episode series, which has been critically well cause if you do, you’ll miss the gibility is checked before they received, leans in on the emotional, not only in interactions things to the right and left get a ballot and again once the with patients but in the “special relationship” that Langer that might lead to a more in- county receives it. “And none and Boockvar have with each other as chair and vice chair of teresting career. I’m thankful of that has changed. There’s the hospital’s growing neurosurgery department. (Langer was for every experience that’s just more people taking ad- recently profiled in the Gazette for saving a stranger’s life on a come my way—and if I had vantage of it.” beach and later performing surgery on him [“Alumni Profiles,” those blinders on, I would’ve And just as she’s spent al- Jan|Feb 2020], which was captured in an episode.) missed half of them.” most two years fortifying vot- The fact that half of the doctors featured in the documen- For now, it’s hard for Boock- ing systems’ defenses, adding tary got their schooling at Penn was a happy coincidence, var to look beyond November multiple layers of protection notes Boockvar, who wears a Penn lapel on his lab coat and 3.