ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Holly Lowy Bernstein '89
Holly Lowy Bernstein ’89 has channeled her analytical skills into meaningful activism as co-lead of the Missouri Election Protection Coalition’s St. Louis Metro Field Program and founding board member of Access MO, a PAC supporting reproductive healthcare freedom.
Holly Lowy Bernstein ’89, PhD, has channeled her analytical mind and passion for justice into transforming Missouri’s political landscape. As co-lead of the St. Louis Metro Field Program for the nonpartisan Missouri Election Protection Coalition (MOVPC), she coordinates volunteers at polling places across the region, supporting voter education and advocacy to ensure every eligible voter can exercise their right to vote.
Holly’s path to this work began unexpectedly when her oldest child faced obstacles voting for the first time. That experience led her to MOVPC, where she discovered how to translate concern into concrete action. Her commitment to systemic change deepened through years of volunteering with the National Council of Jewish Women St. Louis (NCJW-STL), ultimately inspiring her to become a founding board member of Access MO, a nonpartisan state-level PAC that supports candidates and initiatives working to maintain and restore reproductive healthcare freedom in Missouri.
Holly’s journey to activism was built on a strong academic foundation.
“I’m truly grateful for the outstanding education I received at Burroughs, particularly in my chosen field of mathematics,” Holly says. “Eric Hanson (retired) and the late Alice Snodgrass, in addition to being beloved teachers, provided an incredibly strong foundation that I did not fully appreciate until years later.”
She continued her education at Williams College in Massachusetts, where she majored in mathematics in a department of outstanding faculty that rivaled Hanson and Snodgrass, if possible. Outside of her coursework, she took advantage of everything the college offered, from winter sports to becoming a founding member of the Williams College Feminist Seder Project — a now-defunct project that had impact never anticipated by its founders.
After Williams, Holly earned her PhD in mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis. Fun fact; Rachael Barnes, now a math teacher at JBS, was a student in the very first calculus recitation section Holly taught while in graduate school.
Today, Holly has been married to Marc Bernstein for 29 years. They have two young adult children and two small dogs. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, puzzles, crocheting and knitting, and cooking and baking.
Alums interested in talking to Holly about the work that MOVPC and Access MO are doing in Missouri can get her contact information from the JBS Alumni Office.a
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