Celebrating Our People | 30 Years | Angela Wardlaw '84

Angela Wardlaw ’84 holds a Hopkins “hat trick” (or trifecta) as an alumna, faculty member, and past parent. This multifaceted perspective of Hopkins is something she calls upon regularly in her current role as Associate Director of Admissions.

 

When meeting with prospective families, for example, Wardlaw often shares personal insight into her own parental journey at Hopkins. Hearing from Wardlaw about what did and didn’t work for her son Douglas ’17 helps families imagine their own children as Hopkins students. Wardlaw also takes pride in how far the School has come in matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion since she attended as a student, and the role she herself has played in implementing those changes. 

 

In 1995, Wardlaw was initially hired to return to Hopkins as the Director of Diversity, a new role made possible by a grant from the Dewitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. Because there hadn’t been anyone in such a role during her own time as a student, she was eager to work with the students, earn their trust, help advocate for them and their families, and bring meaningful change to the Hopkins community. 

 

Wardlaw remembers her first day back on the Hill, specifically feeling overdressed in a red suit and high heels. Her office was located in the basement of Hopkins House, far from where any students congregated. 

 

“I remember spending most of those first days over in the student lounge in Baldwin, going where the students were, talking to them, and slowly earning their trust,” Wardlaw recalled. “By the next year, I made sure I had an office in a more trafficked place, where they could find me. I also don’t think I’ve ever worn a suit or heels to campus again!“ she added.

 

After seven years as the Director of Diversity, during which time Hopkins funded the position permanently, Wardlaw joined the Admissions Office full time to bring aspects of the Diversity role into the day-to-day operations of Admissions. Wardlaw has been a friendly face to generations of New Haven–area students applying to Hopkins ever since, and a resource and advocate for families to send their children to Hopkins. 

 

More recently, Wardlaw’s deep roots in New Haven have helped shape her role as Director of Community Engagement, a position she describes as a natural extension of her Hopkins career. She views the role as an opportunity to strengthen partnerships between Hopkins and the city of New Haven, ensuring that the School serves as both a neighbor and a resource. Born and raised in New Haven, Wardlaw takes pride in facilitating collaboration and mutual learning between the School and the broader New Haven community.

 

“It’s been deeply rewarding working with the New Haven Board of Education and United Way, among other groups,” Wardlaw shared. “We have many amazing resources here at Hopkins, not just financial, but faculty and facilities, and so does New Haven. Forging partnerships with New Haven organizations is an opportunity to learn from each other.”

 

A particular point of pride for Wardlaw has been implementing the Dr. Edward A. Bouchet Fund for the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. The endowed fund, given by Hopkins to the Community Foundation, was signed and established in the summer of 2024, and is designed to provide learning and educational growth opportunities for students in New Haven, especially Black and Hispanic children. Wardlaw is proud to have worked on this project that will have a meaningful impact on the youth of New Haven, and honor the legacy of Dr. Edward Bouchet. Bouchet was an American physicist and educator from New Haven who graduated from Hopkins in 1870 and Yale University in 1876 as the first African American to earn a Ph.D. at any American university.

 

When asked what has kept her at Hopkins so long, Wardlaw teared up recollecting how much the Hopkins community of adults has helped and supported her over the years. Through health challenges and life’s ups and downs, colleagues and friends have shown up for her in ways she never could have imagined. “This has made Hopkins a family to me,” she said. 

 

Her story is one of dedication, resilience, and a profound love for the community that has supported her every step of the way. 

 

Wardlaw’s focus for the coming years will be to continue to build on the foundation of impactful work in diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus, and grow the School’s connections with the New Haven community. “I’m very proud of how far the School and this community have come since my time as a student, but there’s still more work to be done,” she said. “It’s really, really important to me that the work continues.”