Local Philanthropist Ami Becker Aronson Endows $100,000 Gift to the Women’s and Gender Studies Program
Georgetown is home for Ami Becker Aronson.
She is a Georgetown resident and has roots in the area on both her mother’s and father’s sides. Her father, Dr. Charles Earl Becker (M’64), is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine, and two of her nieces are current Georgetown undergraduate students. Becker Aronson said that the university saved her life when she was treated at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center after being diagnosed with Stage 3 melanoma in her lymph nodes.
“I love Georgetown,” said Becker Aronson, the executive director of the Bernstein Family Foundation. “I live in Georgetown, and I’m everything Georgetown.”
That was on her mind when she pledged her latest gift from the Bernstein Family Foundation: a $100,000 donation establishing Evelyn’s Pushke Endowed Fund to benefit the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. The fund is named in honor of Becker Aronson’s grandmother, Evelyn “Eppie” Bernstein, and “pushke” is a Yiddish word for a small box used to collect money for charity.
Evelyn “Eppie” Bernstein was a longtime DC resident who passed away in 2011 at age 93. (Courtesy of Ami Becker Aronson)
Evelyn’s Pushke Fund will help students conduct research and apply what they’re learning in the classrooms, said Nadia E. Brown, a professor of government and the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. It will also help students with their capstone projects, provide compensation for part-time student research assistants and support faculty members and their research.
Georgetown’s Jesuit mission of men and women for others aligns with the values that Becker Aronson and her family share, and she hopes that the donation will help raise the profile of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.
“I think Georgetown has been a really sacred place for people to learn in such a complex world,” she said. “Georgetown is about opening up dialogue, creating civility, creating new ways to think and creating ways to solve problems.”
A Feeling of Affirmation
The endowed fund is the first of its kind for the Women’s and Gender Studies Program since Brown joined as director in 2021. In their conversations, Brown could immediately sense Becker Aronson’s passion for her community.
“Ami is just really warm, really outgoing and super full of energy,” Brown said. “To have someone with really positive and uplifting energy is great to be around.”
Becker Aronson said she also reached out to other universities in the DC area. Still, her preexisting relationship with Georgetown University — she previously raised more than $100,000 for the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for a fundraising campaign — made communication easier.
Darius Baxter (C’16) served as a key link to Georgetown University for Becker Aronson. Baxter graduated from the College of Arts & Sciences, where he studied women’s and gender studies with a concentration in globalization and poverty. He is the founder and chief engagement officer of GOODProjects, a community-based organization focused on eliminating poverty through long-term, place-based investment in families and youth in Southwest DC and Kenya.
Ami Becker Aronson, left, and Darius Baxter (C’16), right, are friends and collaborators. They are pictured here at GOODProjects’ Thanksgiving community dinner in November of 2025. (Photo by shotbyleke)
The two met at an event for entrepreneurs and became friends over their shared values and connection to DC. Baxter told Becker Aronson how taking women’s and gender studies courses at Georgetown affected the way he approached addressing issues around poverty in DC.
“It pushed me to look beyond surface-level solutions and really examine the structural barriers people are navigating every day,” said Baxter, who is scheduled to be the keynote speaker for the Women’s and Gender Studies Program’s capstone celebration dinner this spring. “At GOODProjects, that shows up in how we design programs alongside the community, not for them, and how we think about long-term investment in families rather than short-term interventions.”
The first thing students learn in the program is how to think critically through social and institutional structures, Brown said. “Having a women’s and gender studies degree, like any other liberal arts degree, teaches you how to think, not what to think,” she said. “We do so in an empowering way that helps people understand who they are, their social location and how they might be of assistance to others.”
Baxter believes Becker Aronson’s donation is a signal for students with interests similar to his.
“If I was a student at Georgetown right now and saw that somebody donated $100,000, that would make me feel more affirmed, like, somebody actually sees us,” he said.
The Power of Giving
Becker Aronson envisions Evelyn’s Pushke Fund as “an enduring spirit.”
“My grandmother believed in empowering women and girls,” she said. “She taught us to stand up for what we believed in, to care about others and give back to the community.”
Becker Aronson sees the establishment of an endowed fund to the Women’s and Gender Studies Program as more than a gift. It’s a partnership.
“We want to be a brain and heart partner,” she said. “We want to be ambassadors and advocates to support and shine a light on this remarkable program.”
Nadia E. Brown, a professor of government, has been the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program since 2021. (Photo courtesy of Nadia E. Brown)
Brown is equally excited about the partnership. “It’s building this community with Ami’s help and increasing our visibility,” she said. “The program will receive more eyes, and that means more support for our students and hopefully more networks for our faculty and students to expand our research and our reach.”
The power of giving, Becker Aronson said, is the ability to change the trajectory of someone’s life, even if they might not realize it at the time. It could be one class, book or lecture that makes the difference. Philanthropy, she said, is also about actively listening to the community and reinvesting in the places you live.
Becker Aronson believes Evelyn’s Pushke Fund, an enduring honor to her grandmother and her resilience, will provide students in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program with more tools and access to pursue their dreams.
“We don’t want students to shut down and graduate with fear,” she said. “We want them to feel expansive and dynamic and creative and curious and open. … I just so deeply believe in Georgetown, and because I live here, I want to know my neighbors. I want to know my students. I want to support the broader community to show that we’re an exceptional community.”
(Top photo of Ami Becker Aronson by Brandi Nicole)