Elizabeth Baird Saenger

Elizabeth Baird Saenger has spent her life fighting the evils of mass incarceration and structural racism. Since retiring from teaching, she has been an active member of the Larchmont Mamaroneck Human Rights Committee, taught English to immigrants, served on boards of The Washingtonville Housing Alliance, The Local Summit, and the Community Resource Center, and co-founded Westchester for Change.

Between her junior and senior years of college at Rice University, she tutored children in Boston, where she met her future husband. Returning to Rice University, she started a program to pair Rice students with low-income students for tutoring and support. Ms. Saenger went on to earn her Master of Education from Tufts University.

In 1972, she settled in New York and sought jobs for ex-offenders and Vietnam War veterans with “bad papers.” She volunteered with the Quakers to establish a bail-fund to release people from Westchester County Jail. She would drive there with $100 bills in her pockets, and her own small children in the back seat, to interview people who were simply too poor to get out of jail pretrial. The people she helped were usually Black, young and had been arrested on minor charges, like arguing with a police officer or marijuana possession. Ms. Saenger accompanied them to their court dates so that public defenders and judges knew there was someone outside the system who cared about what happened.

In 1973, Ms. Saenger began her distinguished career as a Social Studies teacher at Hommocks Middle School, and then Ethical Culture Fieldston Lower School.

Ms. Sainger, together with Judge Joseph Clifford, established the Youth Shelter Program of Westchester in Mt. Vernon. During its more than 40 years of operation, it has provided a safe and secure environment for hundreds of young men, ages 16 to 21, as they await trial, and offers educational, vocational and counseling opportunities.

“Injustice is never really hidden,” said Ms. Saenger. “It lurks, harming not only its immediate victims, but our whole society. The work of seeking justice is urgent but accessible. It belongs to everyone, and it is profoundly rewarding.”