The Connector

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2022 Dana Hall Bulletin.

Rachel Bebchick Naggar ’92 is a connector — one of those people who is skilled at bringing others together.

She’s done that as the 1992 Class Correspondent, a role she’d held since her graduation, along with countless other Dana Hall volunteer assignments. She’s done that while at Brandeis University as the orientation coordinator, one of the biggest leadership opportunities for students, where she welcomed incoming freshman and helped forge new lifelong friendships. And she’s done that for Team Sheila, a group named in memory of her mother that has raised more than $250,000 for breast cancer-related organizations. It’s what she does; it’s in her DNA.

In April, Naggar was honored with the 2022 Distinguish Service Award at Reunion Weekend. “This validates how much the School has meant to me,” Naggar said. “This award is not so much about my career, but it’s about the things that are important to me as human — and that’s giving back.”

Supporting the Mission

Her interest in learning from and helping others was fostered at Brandeis University when Naggar was a sociology major. As a student, she got involved with event planning and orientation, which led to a job in the Alumni Relations department post-graduation. From there, she moved onto corporate marketing and then ran the marketing department at a Boston-area speakers’ bureau.

When life led her to New Jersey, she decided to combine two of her passions in the Garden State: marketing communications and the education field. Former Dana Hall Head of School Blair Jenkins connected Naggar with Kent Place School in Summit, N.J., where she started as a parental leave replacement and was quickly hired full-time. There, she has led the girls’ school’s Communications Office for 19 years. “I’m happiest when I believe in the mission of something,” she said. “I’m creatively fulfilled and allowed to evolve here, and evolve the school.”

Paying it Forward

When she wanted to honor her mother’s breast cancer battle with a team named in her honor, Naggar wasn’t thinking beyond that year’s Susan G. Komen Greater NYC Race for the Cure in Central Park. They gathered a group of about 10 family and friends and raised a couple thousand dollars. Then three years later, Naggar herself got the call: She’d been diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer. That’s when Team Sheila really took off, expanding to nearly 50 people and raising close to $30,000 that year.

“She’s still the strongest woman I’ve ever met in my life,” Naggar said of her mother, Sheila Bebchick. “I can’t imagine that while she was suffering herself, her daughter was diagnosed.”

Along with raising funds, Naggar began sharing her story to help others survive and thrive, talking with those who are newly diagnosed, their caregivers and fellow survivors. Komen has recognized Naggar and Team Sheila with the Greater NYC Co- Survivor of the Year Award, the Stronger Than You Think Award and the SUPER Squad Award.

A few years ago, Team Sheila shifted its fundraising focus and now supports breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where 100% of the proceeds go directly to Dr. Alphonse Taghian’s BCRL Program at MGH. It’s a way for Naggar and her father, Les Bebchick, to honor a place where Sheila received so much of her treatment as well as the doctor who was an instrumental member of her care team. With Dr. Taghian as her partner, Naggar hopes Team Sheila fundraising will be a part of ground-breaking research to make improvements in the treatment of patients with breast cancer.

“I want breast cancer to end with me,” Naggar said. “I don’t want my kids, my daughter, anyone to think about it. I’m the fourth generation in my family [to be diagnosed], but hopefully I’ll be the last.”

Do Anything for Dana

Along with her three decades of service as a Class Correspondent and her current position on the Alumnae Council, Naggar has been a tireless Dana Hall volunteer: from planning Class of 1992 Reunions and encouraging classmates to support the Dana Fund to speaking at She Sails, serving on the Alumnae Association Board and mentoring Girls Summer Leadership Program participants. When it comes to Dana Hall, she’s always up for the challenge.

“It’s easy to say yes to volunteering,” Naggar said, “and I can’t think of a better place to give back than to the place that helped build the foundation of my life. It’s been a true collaboration and partnership after graduation. I feel incredibly touched and honored and seen.”