Board of Trustees

Chair, Board of Trustees
Board member since 2016
Committees: Advance Plan, Advancement, Athletics, Committee on Trustees, Executive (Chair), Equity and Inclusion, Finance, Head of School Evaluation, Investment

David graduated from Stanford University and has an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. David is a former founding partner of Avista Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity firm based in New York City. He previously worked as a partner at DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and in investment banking at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette. Earlier in his career, David worked in public accounting and achieved the CPA designation. He also serves as a Corporator of the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA, and is the chairman of the Woodway Scholarship Fund. David lives in Darien with his wife and their four children.

Vice Chair, Board of Trustees
Board member since 2016
Committees: Advancement, Advisory Council (Co-Chair), Athletics, Committee on Trustees, Executive (Vice-Chair), Marketing

Samantha attended Germantown Academy and continued her education at Denison University, graduating with a B.A. in Marketing and Communications. She began her career in marketing, public relations, and merchandising at Tiffany and Company. Her focus later turned to retail buying in the fashion industry for Barney’s New York, MaxMara, and later Letarte Swimwear. Since 2008 Samantha has volunteered at GFA with the Lower School PA, Annual Giving program, and been the president of the PA, among other positions. Samantha lives in Southport with her husband and two daughters.

Treasurer, Board of Trustees
Board member since 2007
Committees: Building & Grounds, Executive (Treasurer), Finance (Chair)

Steve, together with his wife Lisa, are founders and principals of Investment Capital Partners, Ltd., a commercial real estate investment and management firm with offices in Shelton and Hamden. He is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. '65) and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (M.B.A. '71). He retired from the United States Marine Corps as a captain in 1970. He and his wife Lisa serve on the board of the Jeffrey Modell Foundation, which focuses on awareness and treatment of primary immune deficiency diseases. Two of Steve's sons attended GFA in the 1980s, and his stepson Michael graduated in 2010. His grandson Greg graduated in 2019 and his son Owen will graduate in 2020. Steve and his family live in Southport.

Secretary, Board of Trustees
Board member since 2013
Committees: Committee on Trustees (Co-Chair), Equity & Inclusion, Executive (Secretary), Marketing

Arlene is a graduate of Indiana University with a degree in Accounting and holds an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University. She spent 10 years working as a CPA in auditing and financial reporting in the banking and securities industry. Arlene has been an active parent volunteer at GFA and currently serves as a member of the Parent Admissions Network. She has served as Co-President of the Lower School Parents Association, Annual Giving Class Captain, Class Parent, and volunteer supporting GFA Performing Arts events. Arlene lives in Darien with her husband John and their four sons.

Board member since 2010
Committees: Building & Grounds, Executive, Faculty Housing

Roger is an architect and founding principal of Roger Ferris + Partners, where he directs the design and master planning work of the firm. He is a graduate and former Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Design of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Roger currently serves on the boards of the Centre Pompidou Foundation and the Watermill Center for the Performing Arts, where he is also a member of the executive committee. He resides in Weston with his wife Wendy and their four children.

Board member since 2011
Committees: Advisory Council (Co-Chair), Committee on Trustees (Co-Chair), Educational Policy, Executive

Mike Greenberg is host of ESPN’s morning show Get Up! For 18 years, he co-hosted ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike with Mike Golic. Together, Greenberg and Golic have been inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the National Radio Hall of Fame. Greenberg is also a member of the Medill Hall of Achievement at Northwestern University. In addition, he has authored five books, all of which have made the New York Times Best Seller list. Greenberg and his wife, Stacy, donate all of their proceeds from his novel All You Could Ask For and their children’s book, MVP, to the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Board member since 2013
Committees: Advance Plan, Executive, Finance

Mike is the Head of Americas Investment Banking at Nomura Securities. Mike is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Mike’s great grandmother, Mary Bolton, founded GFA and his three daughters have all attended GFA, representing his family’s fourth successive generation to have done so. Mike has been a member of the GFA Alumni Council and a member of Vanderbilt's Alumni Association Board. Mike and his wife Lisa reside in Darien.

Board member from 2003 to 2009 and since 2014
Committees: Athletics (Co-Chair), Building & Grounds, Coyle Scholar 

Dr. Henry Backe has been in practice in Fairfield, Connecticut since 1993, and is a partner in Orthopaedic Specialty Group. He is also on staff at Bridgeport Hospital, Division Chief of Orthopaedics at the St. Vincent's Medical Center, and a director of the Fairfield Surgery Center. He is active with the Guatemala Healing Hands Foundation and participates annually in surgical missions to Central America. He is a member of the Board of Councilors for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery. Henry lives in Fairfield with his wife Tara and their four children.

Board member since 2015
Committees: Advance Plan, Committee on Trustees, Educational Policy (Co-Chair), Equity & Inclusion, Horizons at GFA Board of Directors Liaison, Marketing

Vani is a graduate of Northwestern University and has a M.H.S. from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. She worked on women’s, maternal, and infant health issues for 15 years, most recently serving as the Director of the Perinatal Data Center at the March of Dimes. At GFA, Vani has served on the Advisory Council, Education Policy Committee, and as an Annual Giving Class Captain. Vani lives in Wilton with her husband, Manu, and their two daughters.

Board member since 2019
Committees: Marketing

Since graduating from Brown University in 1992, Rebecca Bliss has primarily worked in higher education, with a focus on advising, access, admission, and service-learning. After completing her graduate degree at Stanford University in 1994, she was a freshman dean at Georgetown University, the Associate Director of Foundation Programs and external admissions reader at Dartmouth College, and she spent five years as the sophomore and junior class dean at Dickinson College. Following her time at Dickinson, Bliss served for four years as an external reader at the Carleton College admission office. Earlier in her career, she worked for the Corporation for National and Community Service in Washington, DC, overseeing a portfolio of higher education grants and conducting site visits to dozens of colleges and universities around the country. In 2015, Bliss took a position at Brown University in the Alumni College Admission Program (ACAP), providing free college counseling to the children of Brown alumni. The ACAP program was recently closed after a 25-year run, and she has transitioned full time to Premium Prep, a boutique college counseling company that works with students throughout the United States and internationally. Bliss also serves on the board of trustees at St. George's School in Middletown, RI. She lives in East Greenwich, Rhode Island with her husband and their two daughters.

Board member since 2016
Committees: Committee on Trustees, Investment (Chair)

Michael is a Managing Partner at Kingstown Capital, a New York City-based investment firm that he founded in 2006. Previously, Michael was an investment analyst at Gotham Capital and JPMorgan. Michael is a graduate of Cornell University and Columbia Business School, where he has been an adjunct professor, and currently serves on the advisory board for the Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing. Michael lives in Westport with his wife Julie and two sons.

Board member since 2016
Committees: Advance Plan (Co-Chair), Advancement (Chair), Athletics

Rich Canning has been a Managing Director–High Yield Trading at several banks and retired in 2001. He has been the Board Chair of The Mead School (Stamford, CT) since 2009 and is a Board Director of Silver Hill Hospital (New Canaan, CT). He serves on the Boston College Athletic Director’s Council and the Advisory Board of Change for Kids (NYC). Rich received his M.B.A. from The Wharton School (’87) and his B.S. - Finance from Boston College (’81). Rich and his wife, Celia, have three children: Olivia, Madeline (GFA ’19) and Michael (GFA ’20).

Board member since 2015
Committees: Advancement, Athletics (Co-Chair), Investment

Stephanie is President and a senior macro-analyst at Discovery Capital Management, a global investment firm. Prior to Discovery, she worked at JPMorgan holding a number of senior leadership positions across the Global Markets business. Stephanie is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S. in business and mathematics and an M.S.I.A. from the Business School. Stephanie is a member of Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, Board of Advisors and on the board of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. She lives in Westport with her husband Brian, and their three daughters.

Board member since 2018
Committees: Marketing, Advancement

Sandra Frost graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a B.A. in Graphic Design, though her undergraduate studies began at Eafit University in her native Colombia. After working as a freelance designer with clients such as Schick, The Hour (newspaper), and the SONO Arts Festival, she founded small businesses in skin care and apparel. She has served on the board of Trinity Parish Nursery School in Southport and co-chaired their fundraising campaigns. Frost is an active parent volunteer at GFA and current “Membership” co-chair on the board of The Fairfield County Hunt Club. She lives in Fairfield with her husband Steve and their three daughters.

Board member since 2018
Committees: Equity and Inclusion

Dr. Derrick Gay is an international educational consultant with two decades of experience as a classroom teacher, musical director, senior administrator and educational consultant. He collaborates with thought-leaders, faculty and staff, parents, students and board members to cultivate cultural competency, promote empathy and deepen inclusion. Gay has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and NPR, has produced two Tedx Talks, has served as senior advisor of content and curriculum at Sesame Street, and also served as an adjunct professor at The University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught cultural competency to superintendents, principals, and other school leaders pursuing their doctoral degree in education. Prior to consulting full-time, Gay taught Middle and Upper School Spanish, French and music at The Masters School, Groton, Wilmington Friends, and Nightingale-Bamford. As an administrator, he served as dean of students at L’Académie de Paris in Paris, France; and director of community life and diversity in New York City.

Dr. Gay holds a bachelor of arts from Oberlin College, where he studied Romance Languages; a bachelor of music from The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied Opera Performance. He earned his master of arts degree from the Klingenstein Program at Columbia University’s Teachers College, where he studied Independent School Educational Leadership. Finally, he earned his doctorate in Education from The University of Pennsylvania. He is proficient in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, with studies in German, Korean and Latin.

Board member since 2015
Committees: Building & Grounds, Committee on Trustees, Marketing

Ward, a film and television actor, has worked with studios and networks nationwide alongside some of the industry's leading directors. He earned his business degree from Wake Forest University and subsequently worked in finance at Smith Breeden Associates before focusing full-time on his acting career. More recently he was a series regular on the CBS drama Pure Genius and starred in the Broadway production of Harvey Fierstein's revival Torch Song. Ward has served on the GFA Advisory Council and he and his wife, Alexa, live in Fairfield with their two children.

Board member since 2016
Committees: Equity and Inclusion (Co-Chair), Coyle Scholar, Marketing

After a long career at GFA, Lynne retired as Assistant Head of School and Director of Upper School Student Life. She has a B.A. in English and Secondary Education from Russell Sage College and an M.L.S. from Southern Connecticut State University. Lynne was the President of the NAIS Assistant Heads Association and Chair of the CAIS Commission on Women in Independent Schools. Lynne serves on the Unitarian Church’s Beardsley School Committee and the Pequot Library’s Board of Trustees. She co-chaired the recent Head of School search at GFA. Lynne's son is a GFA alumnus.

Board member since 2017
Committees: Athletics, Marketing (Co-Chair)

Kristen McDonald graduated from Boston College with a B.A. in English. After spending three years in publishing, television, and contracting for the Coca-Cola Company, Kristen was the founding employee of a high-tech firm, Intradiem, where she performed a variety of roles including marketing, product development, creative services, and running their professional services group. She has been a prolific volunteer at GFA, where she has served as co-chair of Grandparents Day, class parent for multiple grades, and member of the Marketing and Educational Policy Committees. She has served on several community boards including the Christ and Holy Trinity Preschool Board and Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County Executive Board. Kristen lives in Westport with her husband Patrick and their three children.

Board member since 2019
Committees: Educational Policy, Finance

Theresa Minson graduated from Georgetown University with a business degree and a minor in Computer Science. She holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and recently completed the Harvard Business Analytics Program. Minson began her career as an auditor and advisor to media and entertainment clients at Ernst & Young LLP where she earned her CPA. After EY, she worked in finance and business development at dELiA*s Inc. and iTurf Inc., and more recently worked at Vineyard Vines as controller before transitioning to finance for the growing retail division. Since 2013, Minson has volunteered at GFA as a Class Parent and various other Parent Association positions, including president of the Parent Association. She lives in Darien with her husband Artie and their three sons. 

Board member since 2018
Committees: Athletics, Advancement, Finance

Tom Murphy graduated from Colgate University with a B.A. in Economics and Stern School of Business at New York University with an M.B.A. in Finance. Murphy is managing director and CFO at General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm based in New York. As chief financial officer, he is responsible for the firm’s finance, accounting, and tax groups and has shared oversight of firm administration. Prior to joining GA in 1994, Murphy was a senior accountant with Deloitte & Touche in their Financial Services division. Murphy served on Colgate’s Alumni Council and was awarded a Maroon Citation in recognition of his service and contribution over the years to the university. He currently serves on the board of the Darien Soccer Association and is a past board member of the Darien Nature Center. Murphy and his wife Sophie live in Darien, have been members of the GFA community since 2012, and currently have three children at the school (four in the fall). Murphy also served three years on GFA’s Advisory Council.

Board member since 2018
Committees: Coyle Scholar (Co-Chair), Equity and Inclusion, Marketing

Kim Keller Raveis is a graduate of Boston College with a B.A. in Education. She worked in the software and management consulting industries providing strategic counsel to chief executive officers in the consumer packed goods and retail segments. She chose to leave her most recent position with BearingPoint (formerly KPMG) to raise her children. As a graduate of GFA, Raveis values the importance of giving back to her alma mater. She has served in multiple roles in the Parents Association, a member of the Advisory Council, and a parent- teacher in the “Learning to Look” art history program. Raveis lives in Fairfield with her three children.

Board member since 2017
Committees: Advance Plan, Educational Policy, Equity & Inclusion

Dr. Kate Roth is a graduate of GFA who went on to Dartmouth College, where she received a B.A. in social sciences. She earned her doctorate in education as well as an M.Ed. from Harvard Graduate School of Education and her M.A. in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University Teachers College. Kate taught kindergarten, first grade, and Reading Recovery in several urban districts and has published more than 20 books for children on how to write. She recently wrote a book on writing instruction for teachers in grades PreK–5. Kate continues her career as a literacy consultant who coaches teachers around the country, as well as those at Horizons at GFA, on writing instruction. She lived in Shanghai, China for many years with her husband Erik and three children before moving to Wilton in 2014.

Board member since 2014
Committees: Building & Grounds (Chair), Educational Policy, Marketing

Peter is past president and current Partner of Tauck Inc., a travel company offering a variety of cultural trips around the world. He is a past trustee of Salisbury School and serves on the board of the Tauck Foundation, which funds social and emotional learning for children K–5 in Bridgeport. Peter lives in Westport and is the father of four children.

Board member since 2018
Committees: Head of School Evaluation (Chair)

Emily Von Kohorn attended GFA from kindergarten through graduation. She holds a B.A. in History and Literature from Harvard College and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She is the co-head of the Global Real Estate Practice at Sheffield Haworth, a financial services-focused executive search firm. Prior to becoming a search consultant, Von Kohorn worked primarily in real estate finance, with an interlude in education. While living Istanbul, Turkey, from 2011-15, she worked as the founding director of advancement for the Hisar School, a bilingual PreK–12 independent school. She has remained a member of the school’s Advancement Committee. She is thrilled to bring her experiences and passion for GFA to the role as a second-generation board member, following her father, Henry Von Kohorn, honorary trustee. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, daughter and son.

Working as ambassadors to unite all alumni with one another and GFA today: communication; orchestrating meaningful events; supporting the school with time and treasure; maintaining life-long relationships and networking to better serve our school and help one another achieve both career and personal goals.

Carl G. Anderson III, '97

Michelle Gallagher Backus, '00

James Bebon, '83, President

Nicole Ganim Brightbill, '95

Nicole A. Chardavoyne, '95

Emily B. Clifford, '02

Michelle E. Cole, '01

Nicholas D'Addario, '04

Rebecca Brock Dixon, '95

Josh Fishkin, '92

Mari Bebon Flicker, '82

Kathleen M. Hennessy, '75

Matthew S. Hintsa, '06

Tracy Wheeler Lennon, '82

Sefra A. Levin, '03

Martha Gates Lord, Ed.D., '74

Sasha S. Mack, '09

Olivia Newhouse, '06

Michele M. Orris-Modugno, '76

Gioia J. Riccio, M.D., ‘84

Christopher E.G. Saxe, '74

Rosamond Koether Stephanak, '82

Elizabeth McKinney Tritschler, '78

Alexa Wheeler, '84