Kitty Porterfield, Founder of Scholarship Fund of Alexandria, Dies at 85

ALEXANDRIA, VA — When Kitty Porterfield found herself wrestling with college applications and financial aid forms alongside her eldest daughter, Karen, in the early 1980s, she could have breathed a sigh of relief when the paperwork was finally finished. Instead, she started thinking about everybody else’s children.

What about Alexandria students whose families didn’t have the same resources, experience, or connections?

That question would help change the lives of thousands of Alexandria students and their families.

Katherine “Kitty” Burnett Porterfield, founder and first executive director of the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria and a 2025 Living Legend of Alexandria, died October 16, 2026, after an 18-month battle with breast cancer. She was 85 and was surrounded by family and friends.

Her death was announced by Scholarship Fund Executive Director Jasmine Milone, who described Porterfield as a woman whose vision, advocacy, and determination transformed educational opportunities for generations of Alexandria students.

The organization she helped establish in 1985 has since awarded approximately $25 million in scholarships to more than 6,000 Alexandria City Public Schools graduates.

A Mother’s Concern Becomes a Mission

Porterfield was born April 24, 1941, in Albany, New York, to the Reverend Brewer L. Burnett, a Presbyterian minister, and Katherine Burnett, née Howland. She grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, surrounded by a community of first- and second-generation European immigrants who, she later recalled, placed tremendous importance on helping young people succeed.

She graduated from Radcliffe College of Harvard University in 1963 with a degree in government. That same year, she married Jovan Porterfield, a native of Waxahachie, Texas, and the couple settled in Alexandria.

Initially, Porterfield wasn’t entirely convinced Alexandria was the place to raise a family. The city was very different from the Boston she had known, and she wondered what the future would hold for her children. More than 60 years later, having raised Karen, Deborah, and Michael in Alexandria, she considered herself fortunate to have lived in two communities that valued and nurtured young people.

That philosophy would define much of her life’s work.

In 1984, while helping Karen navigate the college admissions process, Porterfield began thinking about students whose families lacked the resources, knowledge, or experience to help them through the same bewildering process. She and fellow parent and School Board member Tim Elliott found allies in T.C. Williams High School guidance director Jim McClure and other community leaders.

Porterfield even traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, to observe a community-based scholarship fund in operation. By the fall of 1985, the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria had taken shape, and she was selected as its first executive director.

“I essentially replicated the process I went through with my own children,” she explained years later in her Living Legends of Alexandria biography.

As the organization’s sole employee, Porterfield spent hours meeting with students and parents, helping them complete applications, understand financial aid, and discover possibilities they might never have considered. She recruited friends and community volunteers to review scholarship applications, establishing a practice that continues today.

In the spring of 1986, the organization awarded its first scholarships, totaling approximately $7,000.

An unexpected encounter on Metro with then-Alexandria City Councilman Bob Calhoun led to an early $25,000 city matching grant, giving the young organization another important boost.

What began as one woman’s determination to help students grew into a community institution that continues to provide financial assistance, college advising, and encouragement four decades later. The Scholarship Fund celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2026.

“We weren’t looking ahead, it’s only looking back now that I’m blown away,” Porterfield once reflected. “All I’ve ever wanted from this creation was to serve the kids in this community.”

Her Fourth Child

Porterfield’s son Michael, a former Scholarship Fund trustee, once described the organization as his mother’s fourth child. Kitty thought that description was just about right.

“It seems so natural to have been my fourth child, it fit my personal ethos,” she said. “While tending to my own children, I knew many of their peers also needed that same care and feeding.”

But the Scholarship Fund was hardly her only contribution to Alexandria. Porterfield was a committed volunteer, organizer, and advocate whose talents extended across education, literacy, youth development, and community affairs.

As president of the T.C. Williams High School Crew Boosters, she helped advance the effort that resulted in the Dee Campbell Rowing Center, dedicated in 1986. She also served as founding chair of the Mid-Atlantic Erg Sprints, an annual rowing competition that remains an important fundraiser for Alexandria’s high school crew programs.

She held leadership positions with numerous organizations, including Senior Services of Alexandria, the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia, Northern Virginia Community College, Hopkins House, and the USRowing Board of Directors.

Her professional accomplishments were equally substantial. Porterfield served as communications director for Alexandria City Public Schools before becoming director of communications for Fairfax County Public Schools, where her leadership was especially important during two of the region’s most frightening periods: the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 2002 Washington-area sniper attacks.

Her work in crisis communications earned recognition from the U.S. Departments of Education and Homeland Security and professional honors, including the National School Public Relations Gold Medallion. She also wrote books and articles on school communications and issues affecting young people and families.

More Than a Community Leader

For all her public accomplishments, there was another side to Kitty Porterfield that friends and family knew well.

She was an enthusiastic traveler who explored destinations from Kathmandu to Tasmania, although New Mexico always held a special place in her heart. She delighted in sharing those adventures with her mother and grandchildren, and, in later years, with her longtime companion, Bruce Miller.

She loved the arts, maintaining season tickets to Arena Stage for many years and regularly attending jazz concerts throughout the Washington area. Photography, rowing, antique prints and maps, and Native American pottery were among her many interests. She also supported Sibshops, a program serving siblings of children with disabilities.

Her curiosity and enthusiasm took her from classrooms and boardrooms to faraway destinations, jazz performances, and family adventures. Through it all, Alexandria remained home.

In 2025, Porterfield was inducted into the Living Legends of Alexandria, recognizing her decades of contributions to the city. Her Living Legends biography, written by Kevin Jahns, now president of the Scholarship Fund’s Board of Trustees, reflected on the journey of a woman who once questioned whether Alexandria was the right place to raise her children, yet went on to help nurture thousands of others.

Watch: Kitty Porterfield’s Living Legends of Alexandria video tribute (2025), produced by Mark Mogle.

A Legacy That Comes Full Circle

In her letter announcing Porterfield’s death, Scholarship Fund Executive Director Jasmine Milone reflected on both the scope of Kitty’s accomplishments and her humility.

“The impact of Kitty’s vision, advocacy and hard work has transformed the lives of thousands of Alexandria students and their families,” Milone wrote.

Porterfield herself preferred to credit the community. “The SFA really represents everyone pulling together to help Alexandria’s kids,” she said during a 2022 conversation with the organization.

She was particularly touched by former scholarship recipients who returned to Alexandria as professionals, volunteers, and donors, helping provide opportunities for the next generation.

Porterfield’s husband, Jovan, died in 2006. She is survived by her brother, John Burnett, of Rochester, New York; her children, Karen Porterfield and her husband, Steve Gamble, of Washington, D.C.; Deborah Porterfield, MD, MPH, and her husband, Christopher Klipstein, MD, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Michael Porterfield and his wife, Emily Porterfield, of Alexandria.

She is also survived by five grandchildren: Keely Porterfield Harrah and her husband, MacGreggor Harrah; Kirby Porterfield; Nicholas Klipstein; Braden Porterfield; and Catherine Klipstein; and her longtime companion, Bruce Miller.

A celebration of Kitty Porterfield’s life will be held Saturday, December 5, 2026, at 11 a.m. at Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Russell Road in Alexandria.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria or Jazz at Meade at Meade Memorial Episcopal Church.

In closing her letter to the community, Milone offered a sentiment shared by many Alexandrians who knew Porterfield or benefited from her work: “What a gift it is to have known Kitty. The difference she has made will be felt for generations to come.”

Kitty herself may have summed up that legacy best when reflecting on the young people whose lives had been changed by the organization she helped create.

“Alexandria invests in its kids, and they, in turn, invest in their community,” she observed. “It really is a thing of beauty.”