Palmer Trinity School

PTS: Where did you go (college/early work) after attending Palmer Trinity School, and how did you get to where you are today? WW: I graduated from PTS in 1999 and attended Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. I studied abroad for one year at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and graduated from Georgetown in 2003. I went directly to Tulane Law School, where I focused on international and criminal law, and spent one summer studying in The Netherlands. After graduating in 2006, I moved to Tampa, Florida and worked as an Assistant Public Defender for the 13 th Judicial Circuit of Florida in Hillsborough County. I was homesick after all my years away from Miami, so I moved back home and started my career as a civil defense attorney at the largest litigation firm in the state in 2007. In 2009, I met my now husband and relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, where I've been ever since. I continued my career as a civil defense attorney until November 2019, when I became a full- time mediator and arbitrator. I have spent this time during the pandemic learning to shift my entire business model to a virtual platform, which included finding new and innovative ways to market and promote my business. Describe yourself as a student at PTS. What were your favorite classes and activities, and how did PTS help shape you into the person you are today? As a PTS student, I enjoyed all of my classes, really— other than chemistry and physics! I was in all honors and AP classes with a very small group of female students. We were lovingly called "The Awesome Women." My teachers were all so kind, considerate and nurturing. They took a great deal of interest in what was important to me and what I excelled at, and they helped me harness those interests to find my passions. I started Palmer Trinity School in 7 th grade and participated in so many different extracurriculars. I was a cheerleader for two years and tried soccer, but I am not coordinated enough to excel at that type of sport! I was part of the yearbook staff and generally tried to find ways to get involved in the school community in any way that I could. The Episcopal tenets of selflessness and caring for others, the international flavor of the school and the encouragement to learn about other cultures and to immerse myself in them nurtured my naturally- empathetic nature. My time at PTS truly made me a global citizen—my time at Georgetown built upon and solidified that. Today, my global citizenship has made me stay fully in touch with my ancestral past (and work hard to make sure my children are as well) and I seek to make such knowledge accessible to others. I use my cultural and linguistic knowledge to help parties to lawsuits be fully palmertrinity.org 40 ALUMNI NEWS class of 1999 Q+A with ALUMNI PROFILE WINTER WHEELER WINTER WHEELER WINTER WHEELER

• Cover