Saturday, March 16, 2002
BY MINDY SPAR
The Post and Courier TV Editor

When Jennet Robinson Alterman was 12 years old, she read the books of Dr. Tom Dooley. One night, the preteen sat down for the family dinner at 6 p.m. and announced to her father, Emmett Robinson, that she was going to be a medical missionary.

Robinson thought for a moment and then explained to his daughter what it would take to achieve that goal. He explained that she would, of course, have to finish grammar school, then high school and college, and after that medical school. She would do a medical residency, and Robinson thought it would be a good idea for her to practice in a rural clinic before attending seminary and working in a parish. He calculated that by the time she was 40 or 45 she would be a medical missionary. "Why don't you join the Peace Corps?" he asked his daughter. "It will be cheaper."

Twelve years later she did and was sent to Afghanistan.

It was the knowledge she gained working with Afghan women in the remote villages of that country as a health educator that made her a natural for the job she now holds, director of the Center for Women. "That experience taught me about working at a community level within existing systems," Alterman says, "and about helping people help themselves."

The walls of her office in the center's bungalow on Savannah Highway tell the tale of who she is and of what is important to her. Front and center is a haunting photo of an Afghan woman that Alterman says has gone everywhere with her. On the opposite wall is a portrait of an old woman taken by her husband, Jack Alterman. "That photo says so much to me about the Lowcountry," she says, "and about Jack's amazing eye."

There is also a pre-Hugo photo of The Battery (also taken by Jack), a painting of a city in Swaziland, a poster for the Footlight Players production of "Master Class," and a photo of her dog.

On a table sits a beautiful collection of hand-carved wooden African combs and a picture of her with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and one of her with the king of Swaziland.

She has just acquired a movie promotional statue of Rhett Butler from a flea market that could symbolize her love for her native Charleston and her love for theater, particularly the Footlight Players Theatre, where she practically grew up.

At first glance, it is hard to imagine this tall, slender blonde traveling the rough terrain of rural Afghanistan or rural anywhere. She looks like she would be more at home at the St. Cecilia's Ball than in the wilds of a Third World country.

But looks are deceiving. Alterman can and does wear many hats. She is director of the Center for Women, president of the Footlight Players board of directors, wife of Jack Alterman, aunt of sister Alix Tew's three children, and daughter of Footlight Players legends Emmett and Patricia Robinson.

'THE GREAT EQUALIZER'

She grew up in a theatrical family. Her father was the longtime director of the Footlight Players, and her mother was an actress and playwright.

She was surrounded by a diverse and creative group of people from the time she was born. Growing up in the theater taught her early on to treat people as equals.

"Theater is the great equalizer," she says. "Dad would have open auditions, and you'd have the Broad Street lawyer up on stage with the sailor just in port for a couple of months. On the stage everyone was treated the same.

"We had this overtly preppy upbringing, but we also had the other side. That was the balance."

After graduating from Ashley Hall School, Alterman went to Mary Baldwin College. She spent a year there and was chosen to participate in an experimental program at Davidson College. It was this experience that taught her women were not always considered equal.

In 1971, the all-male college accepted 10 women from four women's colleges to test the waters before making the school coed. "The goal for the school was to determine whether women could handle the academic work before going coed," she says.

She always had been encouraged by her parents to do whatever she wanted without gender being an issue, so it was a surprise to find out the whole world did not subscribe to that attitude. "It was a shock for me that, outside of my little cocoon in Charleston, as a woman I was considered at a disadvantage."

The women in the Davidson program were determined to succeed despite some of the professors' best efforts to thwart them. Alterman remembers a history professor who told her there was no way she was going to pass his class. One day when he was calling the roll, he stopped at her name and asked her to define Salic Law. She knew exactly what it was, but she got nervous and just said, "I'm sorry, Dr. Lester, I don't know."

The professor continued down the row asking the next two men the same question. Both answered, "I'm sorry, Dr. Lester, I don't know." As it turned out, they both knew the answer. "It was a powerful lesson in support," she says.

(Salic Law prevented women from succeeding to the throne in the French and Spanish monarchies.)

One of those men ended up marrying one of her best friends, and all of the women in the Davidson program earned no less than a B in any class that year. The next year Davidson went coed. "We felt we did what we had set out to do," she says.

Alterman went back to Mary Baldwin and graduated in 1973. After she returned home from a summer trip to Europe, her father told her they were happy to have her home but that she had to get a job. So she got a job as a fill-in receptionist at WCSC-TV, which led to a job as a reporter and anchor.
In 1974, the Charleston Jewish Community Center was asked to send one member of the media on a trip to Israel. Alterman was chosen for the assignment. The group was made up of media representatives from all over the country.

While she was in Israel, a group of Arab terrorists took over a school and held the children hostage. When negotiations fell apart, Israeli soldiers stormed the school to save the children, and there were casualties. The media group was there for the whole episode. The group was allowed into the school after the bodies were removed, and inside they saw children's classrooms with the students' artwork hung on the wall and splattered with blood.

She filed her report but decided this line of work was not for her. "I was more intrigued with the art of communication than with journalism," she says. "I wasn't trained in this, and I didn't think I had the emotional stamina to do this well."

Instead, after a brief stint in California, where she worked for the Ron Bailey School of Broadcast, she joined the Peace Corps and went to Afghanistan. With her went her first husband, Lenny Greene, a Charlestonian whom Alterman met in California. Greene was teaching in Kabul while Alterman was traveling to the rural villages. The two were married for three years and parted amicably.

A NEW PATH

In Afghanistan, Alterman was given the task of educating the poorer population in health care, as well as implementing new health care initiatives. She was given a bunch of beautiful color pamphlets to pass out and a box of Insulite used to rehydrate patients after a bout with dysentery, which was rampant in the countryside.

The problem was that most of the rural population couldn't read, and clean water was needed to use the Insulite. "The only clean water was a mile away. So the women have to go get it and boil it, and to boil it they have to collect the firewood," she explains. "You've got four kids and you're pregnant and you have to go schlep water and collect firewood on the way. It's not a practical solution."

It was her job to find practical solutions, and of course, she did. She made a new pamphlet using pictures instead of words, and she taught the villagers how to build mud stoves so water could be boiled. She traveled as a Peace Corps volunteer implementing these health care programs until the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. The Peace Corps was forced to leave the country.

With her path abruptly diverted, Alterman headed back to South Carolina where she got a job at the Medical University of South Carolina producing and directing educational videos for closed-circuit television.

Then in 1980 Nancy Stevenson went to Columbia as the state's first woman lieutenant governor and Alterman went with her as press secretary. "She had enormous grace and dignity and was smart as a whip," Alterman says of Stevenson. "She was up against the odds. In 1980, the House was not enlightened, to say the least."

Alterman was asked to speak last year at Stevenson's funeral.

The women on Stevenson's staff were up against the odds as well, so they organized a support group. They got together once a month for dinners they called "desperation dinners," where they could vent and moan and also learn from each other's experiences. Group members included Inez Tenenbaum, Jean Toal, Ginger Crocker Lloyd, Betty Hutchins and Beverly Beckwith. The group still meets today, although not as often. "It was a peer and support group," Alterman says, "just like what the Center for Women does."

When Stevenson's term as lieutenant governor ended, Alterman stayed in Columbia and worked for the state Budget and Control Board, but she wasn't satisfied.

When her 35th birthday rolled around, she began thinking it was time to make a change. She ran into Peatsy Hollings,

wife of U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, one day and expressed her desire to do something different. Mrs. Hollings reminded her she had loved the Peace Corps and suggested she look into a staff position. She did and was sent to Swaziland in 1987.

Her experience there was much different from Afghanistan. In Swaziland, she lived like a diplomat, overseeing the 90-plus staff members and volunteers who were stationed in the country. She met visiting dignitaries such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and even attended the King of Swaziland's birthday party.

But on Christmas Day 1988, Alterman's father died and she flew home to Charleston. "Dad was a true gentleman," she says. "He taught me so many lessons. He taught me to treat everyone as I'd want to be treated and to always allow people to walk out of the room with their head held high."

With a heavy heart, she flew back to Swaziland and finished her tour of duty.
In 1990 she returned to the States and worked for the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C., as a liaison with the Agency for International Development and other nongovernmental aid organizations. She was responsible for overseeing Peace Corps projects in Madagascar, Swaziland, Niger, Namibia, Senegal, Tanzania, Eastern Europe, Paraguay, Uruguay, Russia and Thailand.

To say she traveled a lot would be an understatement. Alterman was in her element. She thrived on learning and experiencing different cultures and making things happen to improve the lives of those in less-developed countries, especially the lives of women. "The theme in my life is not just community service," she says, "but also working to empower women."

She was a natural at this type of work. All roads had led her to this place.

But her road again diverged in 1995 when her mother, Pat Robinson, had a stroke. When Alterman asked what she could do to make her mother feel better, Robinson replied, "Move home." So she did.

HOME AGAIN

Nine months after moving back to Charleston, she met her soul mate when a friend invited her for an afternoon of sailing on Jack Alterman's boat. She knew of Jack. She was familiar with his father, Dave, who had been in a number of plays at the Footlight Players Theatre and she had shopped at his mother, Elza's, women's clothing store. Plus, she liked to sail and be outdoors, so she accepted the invitation.

When she saw Alterman, he had on a T-shirt with a photo of an elephant that he had photographed in Tanzania. "That's when I knew," she says. "I say to all of my friends, don't settle."

The pair's love of travel, especially to exotic places, was a steppingstone to their discovering other things they have in common. Jack won't go so far as to say it was love at first sight, but he will say it happened soon after.

"My first thought was how different she was from any other woman I'd met," Jack said. "She had done so much with her life already. I found fascinating the places she had been that I'd also been. I'd never met anyone that interesting and that had experienced so much of the world."

The two were smitten, and they were married Dec. 23, 1996, four months to the day after they met.

"Jack is an awesome talent," Alterman says of her husband. "I am in awe of his talent. He is a commercial photographer, but also an artistic photographer, and I love watching that side of him grow and grow."

"It is obvious in her job and the way she goes about her life how strong and self-assured she is. She has had a great impact on me and my life as a photographer," Jack says. "She made me realize that I have a love and passion for the visual arts, and now my focus has been on the artistic side. She's brought me full circle. She's done that by support and by making me feel more sure of myself.

"She has that positive energy flow coming into my life. She does that with a lot of people by pointing them in the right direction and helping them see they can reach things that might seem out of reach. She's a beautiful, loving woman that I don't know what I would do without."

"It wasn't part of my plan to meet and marry someone who had a commitment to living here, but I don't regret it one bit. I've been blessed with so many choices," Alterman says.

The Center for Women is glad she came knocking on its door.

"The main thing about Jennet, aside from her obvious advocacy for women, was her ability to take global issues and make them local," says Center for Women board President Nancy Currey. "Jennet has allowed us to give women across the board pertinent information about life issues. She believes in our mission and understands it and knows how to make it happen."

Alterman stresses that the center is not a shelter or aid organization, but a resource station. Women can come to the center and receive information as well as support.

On a recent day, a woman walked in who was going through a divorce. Her husband had left her, and she was understandably upset and looking for someone who might be able to relate to her situation. She said that her husband told her she didn't need to get a lawyer because he and his lawyer would handle everything.

Alterman says the center is not there to tell people what to do. Peer counselors listen and explain options, but it is up to the individual to make her own decisions. She was happy, however, when after meeting with a counselor the woman announced she was getting her own lawyer.

"One of the goals of the center is to make personal and professional success an everyday occurrence in the lives of women in our community."

It does this through peer counseling and support groups, as well as seminars and the Brown Bag Lunch Series, which takes place every Thursday at noon at the center.

At a recent Brown Bag Lunch on health insurance, more than 25 women from all walks of life gathered to learn about health care options for women in all situations. Gasps were audible as it became apparent there was a lot to learn. Other Brown Bag events focus on topics such as buying a car, the dollars and sense of separation and divorce, long-term care, Alzheimer's disease and Social Security.

"This used to be called the Center for Women in Transition," Alterman says. "Think about it. Women who come in here are in transition whether it is a breakup, adopting a child, changing health insurance. No one else is doing what we are doing in that nonemergency, noncrisis arena. What we are doing can go a long way in preventing what could be a crisis.

"There isn't anyone that I know who hasn't at some point in their life needed help. Not financial or medical or roof-over-your-head kind of help, but support and encouragement. It is unfortunate more women don't take advantage of that help. It is a sign of great strength to seek to help yourself, not a sign of weakness."

Last week the Center for Women held a fund-raising event that was successful beyond Alterman's wildest dreams. "It's in the Bag" was a silent auction and reception held at the Tippy Stern Fine Art Gallery. Alterman and her staff asked women from all walks in the community to design handbags that were auctioned at the event.

More than 300 people attended, and $11,000 was raised for the center. A beautiful bag designed by Carol Simmons sold for $500. "What was so amazing was the range of people at the event, the range of age and of diversity," Alterman says. "Yes, this event was about being social and about purses, but it was really about women helping women. Women really want to help other women in this community."

Alterman plans to make "It's in the Bag" an annual affair.

HOPEFUL FOR AFGHANISTAN

Since Sept. 11, she has been in demand on the local lecture circuit speaking about Afghanistan then and now. Her experience makes her cautiously optimistic, and her knowledge makes her understanding.

"When I read that women are not taking the veil off, I'm not surprised for two reasons," she says. "Not only because of the strong cultural mores, but also because they've learned to wait and see. Women there have had too many ups and downs in terms of leaders coming in and giving them rights, and then in the blink of an eye, it all changes."

She's hopeful, however, that the quality of life for the Afghan people will improve. "I read something in The New Yorker and thought, 'That's exactly it,'" she says. "It read something like, 'Maybe now or hopefully in the future, Afghans can aspire to something more than just survival.'

"Wouldn't it be wonderful for a woman to give birth to a child and not have it have a one-in-a-million chance of living past the age of 5 or of getting an education? Instead of that being the pie in the sky, one day we could get closer to that being the norm."

Though she has accomplished more than most people do in a lifetime, Alterman will turn just 50 on Aug. 6, and she says she is embracing the milestone.

"I'm in a good place," she says. "Everything's not perfect, but it's good."