Alumni Spotlight

Nina Fleegle ’06

For Nina Fleegle ’06, great success comes with doing what’s been done since the College’s founding. Until recently, Fleegle was executive director of Main Street Chestertown, part of a national nonprofit that works to keep downtowns thriving. 

“In that role, as the town and the College have been doing since probably 1782, we’ve been figuring out ways to improve downtown relations with the students, getting them to come downtown to eat and shop,” she said. 

Fleegle has worked diligently and tirelessly to “spread the college around town,” working on programs and events that invite first-year students to do service projects and taking over operation of the Kent County Visitor’s Center so anyone looking to buy College merchandise can do so without having to go to the Bookstore. 

“That’s the newest exciting piece,” she said. “But we’re not only at the Visitor’s Center. We’re anywhere Main Street has a booth: at festivals or the Farmer’s Market, you can pick up College marketing materials, a WC-ALL brochure, and more.” 

Fleegle touts some of Main Street’s success as “low-hanging fruit,” such as banners around downtown to welcome the students back in fall. But she’s also behind the first Friday ice cream social held in September that highlights the town for students. 

“It was a really lovely event last year,” she said of the inaugural event. “We had several hundred for ice cream, and the College ran shuttles through the evening so students didn’t have to worry about parking, or if they had a sports practice, they could do both.” Students can also visit booths staffed by nonprofits as part of the Kent County United Way’s fundraising campaign. 

Fleegle is now grants administrator for Kent County, but she holds a special place for her time as Main Street Chestertown director. 

“The most rewarding (and the best part) has been getting to know all of the people in our community that care deeply about their hometown,” she said. “Their volunteerism, passion, and love of this area has been inspiring.”

Scott Woolever ’77 P’07

An old connection led to portrait artist Scott Woolever ’77 P’07 painting a portrait of retired Chief Judge Joseph Getty ’74 P’15 that hangs outside the Maryland Supreme Court. It all started with an email out of the blue. 

“I left campus the second semester of my sophomore year,” said Woolever. He was beginning to work as an artist and working to have people represent him. “I was in Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, and that’s where Joe knew me from. When he emailed me, I realized that we knew each other from the past.” 

“I looked into it and thought, ‘we could do this,’ said Woolever. He coordinated sittings in Annapolis. “He wanted a lot of objects in the portrait. A bronze sculpture of an eagle was significant, an inkwell from when Maryland became a colony, his law books, and so on. We posed him. It was a rainy day in Annapolis, so I brought lights with me, had him posing with all the objects in place…and the sun came out. He posed in the window with this beautiful light breaking through. It was amazing.” 

Woolever returned to Washington College, graduated, and earned an MFA from the University of Delaware. After 10 years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he was asked to teach at Washington College, where he taught for several years. He is a member of the American Society of Portrait Artists, and his work is in collections, galleries, and exhibitions across the country. 

Getty was the first chief judge to have served in both the legislative and executive branches of state government. He was appointed to serve as a judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals by former governor Larry Hogan in 2016 and was elevated to chief judge in 2021. He retired in April 2022. 

Woolever’s “talent and skill as an artist shines through in the lighting and colors of the portrait and his attention to detail of the many historic artifacts relating to the Court of Appeals,” said Getty. “As a jurist and historian, I have a deep affinity for the history and traditions of the Court. This portrait reflects the honor and privilege I felt to serve with the Maryland Judiciary.”

Peter Jenkins ’82 P’21

For Peter Jenkins ’82 P’21, it’s all about fish first. The more fish in the water the better. The philosophy is to use science to make better decisions. For this, he received the American Saltwater Guide Associations’ Conservator of the Year award for 2024.

Jenkins owns The Saltwater Edge, a fishing and tackle shop in Middletown, Rhode Island. “In many cases, there’s a contribution of economic fishing that exceeds commercial fishing, but there’s been no overarching voice,” he said. He’s trying to fix that.

The American Saltwater Guides Association (ASGA) is widely known for its work on striped bass conservation, but they have also done extensive work in protecting Louisiana redfish. ASGA, under the leadership of Jenkins, is now also involved in a telemetry and DNA study in cooperation with the New England Aquarium. 

“The ASGA is an effort to create awareness that if you spend any time in nature, you can stress it out, but if you take a break, it will bounce back. Maybe take some of the medicine now versus when you close a fishery for two to five years while it recovers.” 

Jenkins likens the ASGA to a three-legged stool: science, education and advocacy. “If fishing is how you see the world, you see how everything interacts with it,” he said. “We want to create an abundant fishery for everyone to interact with and take a management approach that results in abundance.” 

This approach creates regulations, and Jenkins says this has resonated with recreational fisherman. “Recreational fishermen are piling behind them because they’re informed by science,” he said. “We’re a grassroots organization. We raise money and fund science projects. This creates advocates. We’re only six years old, but we’re teaching people to advocate for nature. We get involved. We’ll help you understand the issue and advocate, how to write a letter and who to send it to. And when you care about something, you want to share it with the next person.”  

All of Jenkins’s podcasts, digital articles, film series, emails, and in-person visits show anglers that ASGA is working to improve striped bass stocks and having significant success. Jenkins said ultimately, it’s about creating passion about something for people. “If it brings you joy, buckle up.”