Local historian Chuck Langerman has highlighted the current professional statuses of three Cheltenham alumni:
Dr. Chad Womack (above left)
Dr. Womack, a 1984 graduate, was recently honored by Philadelphia City Council for his work to advance STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in the City of Philadelphia.
Currently, Dr. Womack serves as the Vice President of National STEM Programs and Tech Initiatives at the UNCF and has launched many STEM programs across the nation and in Philadelphia.
Dr. Womack earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Morehouse School of Medicine, and is a graduate of Morehouse College, earning his B.S. degree in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Applied Physics.
Atara Saunders (above middle)
Saunders, a 2020 graduate and current Drexel University student, was nominated earlier this year for a prestigious 2024 Udall Scholarship.
The Udall Foundation awards scholarships to outstanding sophomore and junior level college students committed to careers related to the environment, tribal public policy, or Native American health care. Atara is working to complete her BA in global studies and BS in economics in Spring of 2025. She has a concentration in health and sustainability and a minor in Spanish.
Atara spent Spring of 2022 studying abroad at Universidad Nebrija’s Hispanic Studies Program. She is passionate about local sustainable development and has explored the field through her co-op experiences as a fundraising developer for Sharing Excess, a research assistant for Econsult, and will continue to at her upcoming co-op as a research assistant at the Nowak Metro Finance Institute. Additionally, she is involved in two research projects exploring the health impacts and ridership satisfaction of transit systems.
At Cheltenham High, Atara founded two student clubs, the Junior Classical League and the Jewish Student Union.
Robert Gerhard III (above right)
Gerhard, a 1988 graduate, is now in his 28th year practicing law. He was honored with the 2014 “Excellence in Elder Law Award” from the Pennsylvania Bar Association Elder Law Section. The award is peer recognition at the highest level and bestowed annually to a lawyer who demonstrates “superior professional efforts in the field of elder law, significant contributions to the legal profession and noteworthy service to the elderly.”
The Jenkintown lawyer got his start doing estate law work with his father, Robert Gerhard, Jr., an attorney and a 1965 Cheltenham High grad, during breaks from law school. At the encouragement of his father, Gerhard pursued and earned a tax law degree from Villanova University School of Law.
Prior, he earned an undergraduate degree from Dickinson College and a law degree from Penn State University Dickinson School of Law.
Gerhard focuses his practice on areas of law that impact the elderly population, such as estate planning, reviewing nursing home contracts and long-term care community contracts, doing the planning to help clients receive medical assistance benefits and developing guardian petitions. He authored Pennsylvania Medicaid: Long-Term Care, which is the Pennsylvania law treatise on Medical Assistance long-term care benefits. Now in its 20th edition, the book has been fully updated for 2024 and utilized by hundreds of lawyers each year from across Pennsylvania.
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