Leslie Zuckerwise

Leslie Zuckerwise is sixty-seven and was born in Manhasset, Long Island. She has identical twin daughters and two granddaughters. Leslie says that she visits her kids a lot and now that she has moved closer to them, Sunday night dinners and sleepovers with her grandchildren are regular occurrences.

After graduating college Leslie worked as a paralegal and became involved with technology, managing computer operations for a company. She talks about her work as a teacher's aide at the Fox Meadow School in Scarsdale and how this experience put her on the path to becoming an educator. After working in Scarsdale, Leslie spent the next twenty years working at The Windward School. She started as an assistant teacher and was a middle school teacher for grades five, six, seven, and eight. After years of teaching in the classroom, she became the Assistant Head of the Lower School campus at Windward’s White Plains location and was then promoted to the Head of the Westchester Lower School. As part of that job she led the project to open a Windward campus in Manhattan. Leslie believes that this project was her biggest accomplishment in her life, second to raising her family. She led this project for the first six years, maintaining her position as Principal of the entire Manhattan campus until she moved to Tennessee in 2021. Her Husband became very sick at the beginning of Covid, which made her realize that life is short and she wanted to prioritize time with her family. She says that Covid had a major influence on this decision and that she probably would not have retired if it were not for the pandemic.

In Leslie’s life, her greatest role model was Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She says that looking up to such a strong woman made her also want to raise strong women. Leslie told me that if “you believe in something, you should go after it.” This is exactly what Ruth Bader Ginsberg did throughout her life and Leslie likes to carry that same drive with her. Despite never being politically active, Leslie always believed that it is important to fight for people who are marginalized.

Even though Ruth Bader Ginsberg is her role model, professionally, Dr. John Russel became a very important mentor throughout her time at The Windward School. She says that she learned a lot from him and he taught her how to better understand other people’s perspectives. She also learned how to step back in the face of a challenge and not to be afraid to ask for help. She says that “having a positive attitude and being goal-oriented were always helpful skills for her '', especially during the opening of The Windward Manhattan Campus.

Through all these experiences and tasks, Leslie says that “life is about getting things done, even if they are really hard and that facing challenges head-on, can be the most important thing to finding success.” She also talks about the phrase: “It is too hard, I can’t.” She believes strongly in going after challenges, even if they are hard or seem impossible to accomplish. She says that “It is important to go after what you love, despite the obstacles that may get in the way.” When she felt stopped by the potential difficulties of a task at hand, her family and friends would always tell her to go for bigger things and that they would be right by her side. When she followed this advice she was always pleased with the outcome and felt rewarded for her accomplishment. Leslie was always very happy with her job and she never felt a reason to change something she was so comfortable and pleased with. However, after convincing from her family, she realized that with hard work she could accomplish something even better. Despite her fear of taking on the Windward Manhattan project, she says that with her family's support, it was worth taking the risk, and she ended up in a great place. After all, life has thrown at her, Covid reminds her “not to be afraid of change because change can be good.”

Two very important things that she has learned are to: “not be afraid of change, and to face challenges; no one said life is easy, and if it is, go out and try something new.” “Try new things and make your existence count, leave a mark wherever you go…If your dreams don’t scare you they aren’t big enough, so go for whatever you love.”