In Why Girls' Schools Matter, Whitney "Whitty" Ransome writes about her 20-year involvement with the National Coalition of Girls' Schools (NCGS), now the International Coalition of Girls' Schools, a nonprofit that helped reverse the decline of girls' schools that began in the 1970s.
Ransome draws from personal experience growing up in an era that put girls in second place and tells how that experience informed her decision to spend her career advocating for the education of girls and women. As a result of her work, she co-found and co-directed NCGS with Meg Moulton. Part memoir, part history, the book tells the story of how a handful of girls' school leaders launched a movement that transformed girls' education around the world. The entrepreneurial organization shaped by Ransome and Moulton was based on collaboration, research, and outreach. The formula they crafted offers a timely reminder of the power of partnership.
Whitney "Whitty" Ransome grew up in southern New Jersey and graduated from Moorestown Friends School. She earned a BA in Political Science from University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an MA in American Studies from the Unviersity of Miami. Before co-founding the National Coalition of Girls' Schools (NCGS) with her co-executive director Meg Moulton, she was a classroom teacher and a director of admission and financial aid. Long an advocate of women's rights, she was the Equal Rights Amendment coordinator for Common Cause in Florida in the 1970s. During her 20-year career with the NCGS, she helped promote the benefits of single-sex education for girls throughout the United States and beyond. Since leaving the NCGS in 2008, she has served as the founding director of the James Center at Garrison Forest School, an all girls' school outside Baltimore; a founding member of the Baltimore Women's Giving Circle; a board member of several nonprofits, including the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women. She currently lives in Florida and Canada with her husband, Thomas E. Wilcox.
