Board of Trustees & Governance
St. Anne's Episcopal School is an independent, private not-for-profit school which is governed by a self-perpetuating board of trustees. Board members are responsible for the financial integrity of the school and for hiring, evaluating and supporting the Head of School. The Head of School is responsible for implementing policies and for running the day-to-day operations of the school.
Trustee meetings are held bi-monthly during the school year. Board Committees which include trustees, administrators, and others who are invited to attend, typically meet on the alternate months. These committees include Enrollment Management, Finance, Major Gifts, Strategic Planning, and the Committee on Trustees. An Executive Committee is comprised of the Head of School, the President of the Board, Vice President, and at least two other representatives of the Trustees.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES DIRECTORY
2022-23
Officers of the Board
Ms. Ana Ramirez, (P '22) - President - Ana was born in Costa Rica, but moved to the United States to attend college. Ana graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa from Kenyon College, where she studied English Literature. She holds an MA from Georgetown University in Latin American Studies. Her passion for education led her to St. Andrew’s School, where she has been since 1997. Ana is the Associate Head of School at St. Andrew’s School. Among many responsibilities at St. Andrew’s, Ana has served as Dorm Parent, Advisor, Director of Residential Life, Dean of Students and Assistant Head for Student Life. Currently, Ana is the Dean of Leadership, Chair of the Modern Language Department and Spanish Teacher. Ana and her husband David Miller have one child, Gabriel, who joined the St. Anne’s family in Kindergarten and is currently in the 8th grade.
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Mr. William Robinson III, (P ' 22, '24, '28) - Vice-President - Will and his wife, Lindsay, have been a part of the St. Anne's community for 10 years and are parents to three proud Herons: Greta (1st), Luke (6th) and Liam (8th). Will holds a B.A. from Colgate University and earned his J.D./M.B.A. as a Rubin Public Interest Scholar from Temple University. He spent three years teaching special education in rural Louisiana through the Teach For America program. For the past twelve years, Will has worked at St. Andrew’s School as an administrator, teacher, coach, and advisor.
Trustees
Mr. Harry Baetjer - Harry Baetjer retired from Tower Hill School in June of 2017 where he was a teacher and administrator at the school since 1970. During that time, he served as a Middle School then Upper School history teacher and coach. Harry also was the Dean of Students for the Upper School, Head of Upper School for over twenty years, and Assistant/Associate Head of School. He also served as Head of School from October 2013 until June of 2015, after which he returned to the role of Assistant Head until his retirement. Harry graduated from the Gilman School in Baltimore, MD and received his B.A. in European History from Trinity College in Connecticut and his M.A. from the University of Delaware. He and his wife, Caryl, have three grown children who graduated from Tower Hill and are also proud grandparents.
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Taylor F. Cameron (P’14, ’16) – Taylor is a Mortgage Loan Officer with PNC Bank with over 20 years of experience in the retail and consumer banking industry. A 1990 Graduate of St. Andrew’s School, Taylor also holds an AA degree in Business Administration from Cecil College and holds an honors diploma from the Maryland Banking School at University of Maryland in Financial Institution Management. Prior to working at PNC Bank, Taylor served as a Major Gifts Officer at St. Andrew’s School. Taylor has served on the St. Andrew’s School Alumni Association Board and The Cecil County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Taylor and his wife, Shannon, are the parents of Alexandra ’14 and Logan ’16 and enjoy traveling with their family.
Don Cooney- Don brings more than 35 years’ experience in educational advancement and administration to St. Anne’s. Over those decades he held professional appointments as vice president of the Lancaster Theological Seminary, and associate vice president of Gettysburg, Franklin & Marshall, and Swarthmore colleges. For the past 20 years he has also been a faculty spouse, parent, donor, and/or volunteer with several independent schools, including Lancaster Country Day School (independent K-12; Don’s son, Bryce is a graduate), Holy Child School of Rosemont (Roman Catholic preK-8), Benchmark School (K-8 for students with learning differences), and Media Providence Friends School (Quaker, K-8). In addition to being a donor, Don’s has been connected to St. Anne’s through his daughter, Meghan Ferster, who formerly directed St. Anne’s extended-care program. Among his volunteer services, Don served on the strategic planning council of Holy Child School and is a past member of the Board of Directors of Opera Philadelphia. He currently serves on the Board of Elections for his local election ward. Don and his wife, Dianne, are retired, dote on three grandchildren, and reside in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.
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Dr. Lindsey Rowland Heller (P ’27, P ’29) - As the daughter of Hick Rowland, one of the founding members of St. Anne’s, Lindsey has felt a connection to St. Anne’s since the beginning. She was born in New Castle, Delaware, and
attended Wilmington Friends School through 8th grade before transferring to St. Timothy’s School, an all-girls boarding school in Maryland. Lindsey achieved a B.A. in biology/biochemistry from Colby College, an M.S. in Zoology from Miami University of Ohio, and a D.V.M. from St. George’s University. She now practices as a small animal veterinarian at Red
Lion Veterinary Hospital in New Castle. She and her husband, John, have 2 Herons, Anise and Finnegan, who have happily attended St. Anne’s since preschool.
Allaire (Lairsey) Hummel- Allaire Hummel (Lairsey) is a property manager and real estate investor who splits her time between her family's farm in Chesapeake City, MD and the Florida Keys. Her family has a long history with St. Anne's as her mother, Caroline Prickett, was on the founding committee for the School. Lairsey graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a degree in business and, alongside her husband Dan, manages 'Great House Farm', along with several equestrian and Airbnb businesses. Lairsey and Dan are the parents of Abigail and Topher, both graduates of St. Andrews School.
Mr. Anthony Johnson (P '06, '13) - Anthony is a licensed securities professional with more than 30 years of professional experience. He earned a bachelor's of science in business administration from Ashland University and joined Edward Jones in October 1997, where he currently has a branch office in Middletown, DE. Antony is an active volunteer in the Middletown community. He serves as a board member of the Middletown Historical Society and convened a committee to recognize an Underground Railroad site here in Middletown, DE. He is also a founding board member of St. Anne's Episcopal School. Anthony’s daughters graduated from St. Anne’s, Camille’ 06 and Caleigh ‘13.
Emily Kegerreis - Emily grew up in Chestertown, MD and returned to the Delmarva Peninsula in 2017 with her husband, David, and two daughters Hana and Clara. Emily has lived throughout the US as well as in Spain and Japan and she currently resides with her family in Costa Rica. She spent her early career working in international brand management for Johnson and Johnson before transitioning into higher education, serving as the MBA Program and Admissions Director at Mississippi State University and now as the owner of an admissions consulting firm for prospective MBAs. Emily graduated Summa Cum Laude from Syracuse University and holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Graduate Management at Arizona State University. She served as the St. Anne’s Episcopal School Parents’ Association President from 2020-2021.
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Libby Lakeman- Libby is a proud graduate of St. Anne’s Class of 2007 and St. Andrew’s Class of 2012, and Lake Forest College’s Class of 2016. She holds a bachelors degree in both History and German. For the past five years, she has worked for Bryn Mawr College and is currently the Senior Assistant Director of Admissions, overseeing all visits and event inquiries. She currently lives in Philadelphia.
Mrs. Nancy Leonard (GP '23) - Nancy grew up in New Castle, Delaware, graduated from William Penn High School and attended the University of Delaware. For the past 40 years, she has worked for Sam Beard, President and Founder of the Jefferson Awards for Public Service (presently the Jefferson Awards Foundation) as his assistant and program director. Over the years she helped to create and work on many programs from honoring unsung heroes in the United States Supreme Court Building to training high school students about the importance of volunteerism and community service. To date the Jefferson Scholars are working in 43 Delaware High Schools, and over the past eight years they have trained more than 2000 student leaders. Nancy has worked on every phase of the Jefferson Awards from program development, event planning, and fundraising. She is also the very proud grandmother of Hunter Skelton ('23).
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Mr. K. William Lowa III (GP '27) - President of The Lowa Group, Inc a Property & Casualty insurance firm based in Pottstown, PA, Bill is a Certified Insurance Counselor as well as a Certified Instructor for several insurance carriers. His past board affiliations are the Tri-County Chamber of Commerce, Montgomery County Community College, and The American Red Cross. During his tenure he served as the Board of Directors chair for both the Chamber and the College. Bill’s grandsons Benjamin Roznowski ('26) and Luke Roznowski (' 30) both attend St. Anne’s. Additionally his daughter Lindsay is a graduate of St. Andrew’s School and is currently the Associate Director of Counseling at SAS.
Stephen Ovadje- Stephen Ovadje has a passion for leveraging technology to solve Africa's problems; he is the co-founder and CEO of AcadaPlus, an automation and analytics platform that offers school communities intuitive tools, dashboards, and insights to monitor and drive student performance.
He joined Dovaheights Dialysis Center, November 2020 as Finance Director, bringing with him, his wealth of experience in strategy development and finance to the organization. He is also Finance Director/CFO at Dovaheights Energy Limited, a sister organization to Dovaheights: Dialysis Center Limited.
He is the Executive Director of Acquisitions and Customer Marketing Strategy for Chase Sapphire, JP Morgan Chase's premier credit card brand. Prior to joining Chase, Stephen served as a Senior Director at Marlette Funding, a marketplace lender based in Wilmington, DE. At Marlette, he was responsible for strategic planning, expense management, and reporting and analytics for the Finance organization. He also led the customer acquisition teams responsible for lead generation across digital and offline channels. Prior to Marlette Funding, Stephen spent 2+ years in Strategy/Management Consulting at Deloitte where his experience spanned pricing and profitability management, M&A strategy, business process outsourcing, and business model transformation. He also spent four years at Barclaycard US, a division of Barclays, where he led Marketing Analytics for the Travel & Entertainment portfolio.
Mrs. Avani Parikh - Avani has extensive experience with school finances as a Director and Lead Analyst for S&P Global Ratings in New York and Dover acting as the Director and Lead Analyst of Public Finance Ratings . In layman's terms, she does the credit ratings for independent schools and other non-profits. She has served on boards in NYC before moving to Delaware. Her husband Amol Parikh is a St. Andrew's alumnus of the class of 1997, which makes her the sister-in-law of Vicki and Anush Parikh, former SAES parents. She and Amol have two young daughters, Kira and Nikki .
Dr. Rhae Riegel- Dr. Riegel grew up in Kankakee, Illinois and attended Lafayette College, graduating with a Bachelor's of Science in Biology. She then attended the University of Pennsylvania, School of Dental Medicine, where she completed both dental school as well as residency in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. During her residency, Dr. Riegel also. completed medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Riegel has been practicing in Delaware since 2017 with full staff privileges at Kent General Hospital. In her spare time, Dr. Riegel enjoys spending time. with her husband and young son Jack.
Dr. Vijay Viswanathan- Vijay has been a part of the St. Anne’s community since 2016, with two children currently attending the school. Vijay graduated from Emory University with majors in biology and history, followed by medical school at Texas A&M University. After medical school, Vijay completed his residency in Radiology at Harlem Hospital/Columbia University, and a fellowship in Neuroradiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard University. Vijay is a partner with Kent Diagnostic Radiology Associates, serving central and southern Delaware. Vijay resides in Middletown with his wife Sowmya, daughter Sandhya ('26), and son Keshav ('28).
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Phil Walsh (ex officio - SAPA President, 2021-23)- Phil and his wife Mindy are the parents of three St. Anne's students: Brian (6th grade); and twins, Eleanor and Andrew (3rd grade). He graduated from the College of William & Mary (Classical Studies) and received his AM and PhD from Brown University (Comparative Literature). For eight years he taught at Washington College in Chestertown, MD. His book, Brill's Companion to the Reception of Aristophanes, was published in 2016. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Classics at St. Andrew's School, where he teaches Latin and ancient Greek at all levels, as well as sections of history and English.
Michael Whittaker (P ‘16, ‘20, ‘25)- Michael W. Whittaker's practice focuses on advising companies in business and corporate transactions, including M&A, private equity, venture capital and joint ventures. His clients range from large, multinational enterprises to entrepreneurs looking to form their first company. Mike has helped form hundreds of Delaware companies and can advise clients on all stages of a company's life cycle, from inception, through fund raising and operations, to winding up and dissolution.
In addition, Mike routinely provides advice regarding the formation, operation, and dissolution of Delaware entities, including corporations, limited liability companies, statutory trusts, partnerships, and special purpose entities, and their use in complex business and commercial transactions. Mike also regularly acts as Delaware counsel to banks.
Mike is a member of the Delaware State Bar Association committee responsible for drafting revisions to the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act, the Delaware Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act, and the Delaware Revised Partnership Act, and is a past president of the Commercial Law Section of the Delaware State Bar Association.
Mrs. Louisa Zendt (P '05) - After graduating from St. Andrew’s School and the University of Pennsylvania, Louisa began her school career teaching K-8th grade art for 10 years at the Montgomery School in Chester Springs, PA. After a move to Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, Oregon, Louisa became the Director of Admission and served for five years before returning to Middletown, Delaware. Recently Louisa retired from the role of Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at St. Andrew’s School. Louisa has over 35 years of experience in independent school admissions, teaching and advising in Episcopal schools and is passionate about dynamic school opportunities for all students. Louisa currently serves on the boards of ASSIST, an international exchange program for high school student, and St. Anne’s. Louisa and her husband Harvey Zendt (St. Anne’s founding head of school) live in Oxford, Maryland. Their children, Peter (SAES ‘05, SAS ‘09, Trinity ‘13), Becca (SAS ‘05, Occidental ‘09) and Christy (SAS-Sewanee ‘03, Tulane ‘07) all live in New England.
Ex Officio
Mr. Barry L. Davis, Head of School at St. Anne’s (ex officio) Mr. Davis arrived to St. Anne’s in July 2019 from Greensboro Day School in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he is the Middle School Director. With 38 years of experience as an educator, Mr. Davis has helped young people to reach their potential as an administrator, teacher, and coach at schools including Brooklyn Friends School (New York), Flint Hill School (Virginia), the Metropolitan Learning Center, Inter District Magnet School for Global and International Studies and Technology (Connecticut), Worcester Academy (Massachusetts), Eastern Connecticut State University, St. Lawrence University (New York), and University of Dallas (Texas). Mr. Davis earned his B.S. in Physical Education at St. Lawrence University. Two years later he earned an M.Ed. in Educational Counseling and Human Development. These degrees were followed by a second M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and School Administration and Supervision from Central Connecticut State University.
The Rt. Rev. Kevin S. Brown, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware (ex officio) - Bishop Kevin Brown grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, and studied mathematics and psychology at Duke University. He completed his master of business administration at the University of West Florida while in the U.S. Air Force, worked in finance and marketing at FedEx, and launched an investment firm, before gaining a master of divinity from the General Theological Seminary in New York City. Before his election as the Bishop of Delaware, he served as rector at Holy Comforter in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he led the merger of separate English and Spanish preschools into a single groundbreaking school focused on bilingual education and dedicated to access for low-income and immigrant families. He previously served as rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Paris, Tennessee. Bishop Brown and his wife, Caroline, an accomplished artist, relocated and now live in Wilmington. They have two college-age daughters. The Episcopal Diocese of Delaware encompasses the three counties of Delaware and includes 9,300 congregants and 34 worshipping communities. Bishop Brown was appointed Vice Chair to the Task Force on Theology of Money (General Convention Resolution 2018-A061) and also serves on the Board of Trustees of General Theological Seminary.
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Joy McGrath- Joy is a graduate ('92) of and fifth head of school at St. Andrews School. She previously was a faculty member at St. Andrew’s from 1999 to 2007, serving as director of advancement, a dorm parent, and English teacher, among other assignments. Prior to returning to St. Andrew’s in 2021, Ms. McGrath served as the chief of staff to the president of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. A graduate of Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, Ms. McGrath is a native of Delaware. She and her husband, Ty Jones ’92, live on St. Andrew’s campus.
Trustee Emeritus
Katherine Gahagan- Kitten has four sons and 12 grandchildren (two of whom attended St. Andrew’s, graduating in 2010 and 2011) and one great-grandchild. Kitten was educated at Wilmington schools, St. Anne’s School in Charlottesville, Va., and Wellesley College. She has been active in numerous volunteer organizations, including Planned Parenthood, the Taft School, Brandywine Conservancy, Children’s Beach House, Chichester duPont Foundation, and the founding of St. Anne’s Episcopal School in Middletown, Del. She enjoys keeping up with her scattered grandchildren and hosting their gatherings.
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