Celebrating Our People | 25 Years | Tracy Bray

On a wall in Tracy Bray’s Office in the Hopkins School Store (The Hop Shop) hangs an ever-evolving photo collage—a dense, colorful map of what you might call her Hopkins orbit. It is a visual record of a 25-year journey; a collection of students, advisees, and colleagues who have helped shape her career.

Growing up in Woodbridge, Connecticut, Hopkins was a constant presence in Bray’s periphery. Family friend Wini Colleran, a former parent, Trustee, and staff emeritus, first suggested she apply for a position in the Hopkins School Store in 2000. Her first visit to see the Store remains a favorite anecdote: she arrived on campus after finishing her shift at an animal hospital.

“I remember kids were kind of looking at me,” Bray recalled with a laugh. “I came straight there in my scrubs.” After her next visit, which included an interview with Bill Bakke ’60 HGS, former Hopkins CFO, she was hired and had her first day on a quiet July morning.

Bray found herself at the center of a community where she already had ties. She remembered English Teacher Heidi Dawidoff ordering her final set of English books through the store before she retired—the same teacher who had once taught Bray’s mother at the Day Prospect Hill (DPH) School. Other familiar faces from Woodbridge, like JoAnn Wich, her elementary school music teacher, and Bill Ewen, her math teacher and tennis coach who played tennis with her dad, anchored her in those first years.

From 2000 to 2007, book sales within the School Store grew and evolved and were always busiest during the annual book sale. During these book sales, Bray was able to meet and work with many students.

“The book sales were huge in helping me understand the School from a student perspective,” she noted. In 2003, her role expanded when the campus café opened in Heath Commons. Bray would open the café each morning, waiting for café manager Ginger Junkin to arrive with her famous muffins, baked fresh at home.

Though Bray briefly moved into a librarian position in the Calarco Library, the lure of “front-facing” work brought her back to the Store in 2012.

“The Store is a little hub,” she explained. “You really do see every constituency: parents, kids, faculty, and alums.”

Another meaningful shift in her career came in 2002. Head Adviser and Spanish teacher Marie Doval, about to head out on maternity leave, recommended Bray to cover her adviser group. “It was very meaningful because staff weren’t normally advisers back then,” Bray said.

She stepped into the position and never left it. Being an adviser gave her a new perspective on the students—the academic commitments, the personal growth, and the day-to-day navigation of campus life. It led to advising the Student Council, chaperoning trips like the Princeton Model Congress, and to lifelong relationships. Today, some of those former advisees and work scholars are a mainstay of her “orbit,” often sending emails and holiday cards, or returning to campus at Reunion to share news of their lives.

“I keep in touch with so many of them,” Bray said. “It’s nice to see what they’re all up to; it’s a huge web of people.”

The Hop Shop has changed in many ways since Bray first stood behind the counter. She has led the Store through the rise of online shopping, transitioning the business from a cash-only operation to a modern digital storefront. She has rebuilt the Store by implementing Square, an online e-commerce system, and offering global shipping—even sending a Hopkins mug to an alum in Switzerland. “I have a postcard from an alum in Colorado who bought a bumper sticker just so everyone there could see his Hopkins pride,” she said with a smile. The postcard is proudly displayed on her wall.

Despite the digital shift, Bray remains a purveyor of Hopkins pride for the whole community. Every year, newly enrolled families head to the Hop Shop for a specific purpose: their first Hopkins merch. She likens that first purchase to a “spark” of belonging. “That new family needs a gray Hopkins hoodie. When I see a bunch of seventh graders walking around wearing them, I’m so proud to see them embracing the School and the small part I played in helping them get it.”

Looking at the names that have influenced her—mentors like current faculty members Kristine Waters, Jocelyn Garrity, Lars Jorgensen ’82, and Scott Wich ’89, and former faculty and staff Barbara Hanscom, Clay Hall, Julie Roberge, Faye Prendergast, Kristin Taurchini, and Eric Mueller—Bray views her 25 years as a series of shared chapters.

“All these amazing people… they’ve had a big impact,” she said. Bray and the Hop Shop have come a long way over the years, but the connections displayed on her wall are the true legacy she has built on the journey.