School Committee

The School Committee is comprised of dedicated individuals who include members of the Germantown Monthly Meeting, alumni, parents, faculty and former parents. This distinguished group sets policies for Germantown Friends School and makes all final decisions regarding guiding principles, long-term direction and priorities set forth for the school.

Germantown Friends School is grateful for the direction, leadership and philanthropic generosity that the School Committee offers year in and year out.

Hilary Alger

Hilary is the parent of Amelia ‘21 and serves on the Finance Committee. She is an independent nonprofit fundraising consultant and a senior consultant with Schultz & Williams, a national nonprofit consulting firm headquartered in Philadelphia. Previously Hilary was Director of Development for Pennsylvania Ballet for nine years. Hilary serves on the boards of Pennsylvania Ballet and Target Margin Theater (NYC) and on the board of directors of The Alger Funds, a family of mutual funds. She holds a BA from Yale University.
Back to Top

Carol Baldwin Moody '74

Carol is an industry leader with more than 30 years of domestic and global legal, compliance and management experience in the financial services industry. She is the principal of CAB Moody, LLC, a firm she founded in 2015 to create and implement compliance and risk management programs, as well as to advise insurance companies regarding complex and emerging risks.

A longtime advocate for education, mentoring and economic empowerment, Carol currently serves on the Board of Legal Momentum, the Women’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She graduated from GFS in 1974, and is the mother of Jessica, GFS class of '10, and Justin, who was taught science by Head of School Dana Weeks at Saint Ann’s in New York. Carol resides with her husband in Manayunk.
Back to Top

Patricia Bass

Pat Bass was asked to join the staff of GFS more than 40 years ago to develop and oversee what would become the Community Scholars Program. While at GFS, Pat’s many other roles included school nurse, college placement advisor, and advisor to minority students, as well as teaching health and sex education in the Upper School. When Pat was teaching, the AIDS epidemic was rising in prominence. Pat saw that this disease could potentially become an epidemic and would negatively impact people (and particularly women) of color, which led her to return to LaSalle University to get a Master’s degree in Family Counseling. From there, Pat’s career in health advocacy took off; she became Co-Director for the AIDS Activities Coordinating Office in the Philadelphia EMA, then the Director of AIDS Relief, an international health development project. She continues to be a member of CAEAR Coalition, a group that focuses on reauthorization and appropriations for the Cities and Communities receiving Ryan White funding.

Pat serves as President of the Board of Directors of Johnson House Historic Site, one of five designated Underground Railroad Sites in Pennsylvania. She also is a board member at Action Wellness (formerly Action AIDS), and is active in her church where she serves as Ministry Leader for International Ministry.  
Back to Top

Maureen Carr

Maureen is an education law attorney and a mediator. She holds a B.A. in English from Kenyon College, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. Maureen has been active for many years in fundraising, alumni association, and class agent work on behalf of Kenyon College. Maureen is the mother of Doulin Appleberry ’20 and Cara Appleberry ’24. She and her children are members of Germantown Monthly Meeting.
Back to Top

Michael Cohen '82

Michael, parent of Eliza Cohen '16, entered GFS in sixth grade, and has served as a Class Agent for more than a decade. He completed his undergraduate work at Northwestern University, and earned a Master’s in City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In 1992, Michael launched Rodman Properties (and its affiliate, RP Management), a real estate company that buys and manages apartment complexes in the eastern portion of the United Sates. Still the president of Rodman Properties, Michael has also served as board president of Mt. Airy USA and has been on the executive committee of both the Allens Lane Art Center and the Community Design Collaborative. Michael is a longtime participant in the Friday morning pick-up basketball game in Scattergood Gym.
Back to Top

Ben Cushman '72

Ben attended GFS from Kindergarten through eighth grade. He spent 30 years in senior executive positions building high-growth consumer businesses, ranging from high tech (Atari) to low tech (Supercuts). Since retiring from the corporate world in 2004, he has served in leadership roles on non-profit boards (board chair, governance chair, development chair, strategic planning leader) primarily in the education field, including Hampshire College, Sonoma Academy, 10,000 Degrees and The New School/Lang College.

A seasoned and effective thought leader, general manager and problem solver, with strong results in corporate and non-profit environments, Ben has particular strengths in strategic planning and board development. He also brings deep operational expertise in marketing, sales, operations, capitalization and organizational development, particularly in high change and/or high growth environments.

Ben is a world traveler and fitness buff. He grows Pinot Noir grapes and raises honeybees on his farm in Sonoma County, with his three beautiful dogs and his partner George.
Back to Top

Marc DiNardo '80, Facilities Clerk

Marc is a GFS “lifer” and the son of Thomas DiNardo ’54. He attended MIT, where he earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics. As an aerospace engineer, Marc has played a critical role in the design, assembly and launch of many spacecrafts, including the Terra climate research satellite, the Hubble Space Telescope, and other environmental spacecrafts for NASA, and is currently working on the next generation of weather satellites for NASA/NOAA. Marc has been a frequent speaker at GFS to encourage student interest in science and engineering. He is very active in charitable causes and supports his wife, a physician, in global medical work. A native of Germantown, he currently lives in Wyncote.
Back to Top

Alexandra (Lexa) Victor Edsall

Lexa is a parent of Lydia Victor ‘23 and Thomas Victor ‘20. Lexa has had a deep career in politics and law, serving in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and the Office of the Solicitor General at the US Department of Justice; as an associate at Covington & Burling; as a Judicial Clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the US Supreme Court; and as Senior Adviser to the General Counsel at the US Department of the Treasury. Lexa earned her BA and law degree from Harvard University and also has a Master of City Planning degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Lexa is a member of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Rosenbach Museum & Library, and recently served on the Board of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia.
Back to Top

David Feldman '76, Finance Committee Clerk

David returns to the School Committee after previously serving for nine years, during which time he was the co-chair of the Voices for the Future Capital Campaign. He is Senior Vice President and Regional Director of the National Commercial Services Division of First American Title Insurance Company. A member of the GFS class of 1976, his mother (1948) and his children, Sarah (2006) and Michael (2010), are also GFS grads. David received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. from Boston College Law School.
Back to Top

Carmen E. Guerra

Carmen is an associate professor of medicine, general internist and cancer control researcher at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, whose research focuses on better understanding and overcoming the barriers to accessing cancer screening tests. Carmen is a parent to Carolina Viswanath '21 and Isabela Viswanath '19, and has spoken at GFS on the topic of health disparities and medicine and the predicaments of race, class and doctors of color. Carmen received a BA in psychobiology from New York University, a medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and a Master of Science of Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. In addition to serving on School Committee, Carmen has served as a volunteer leader on several boards including serving as the current Board Scientific Officer of the American Cancer Society Board of Directors in 2018 and previous chair of the board at St. Peter’s School.
Back to Top

Jodeen Hobbs

Jody was appointed to the School Committee by Germantown Monthly Meeting in September 2010. She is a trial attorney for the US Department of Labor, working to enforce labor laws governing coalmine safety, employee retirement plans, child labor, employment discrimination and non-immigrant workers. Prior to joining the Department of Labor, Jody was a partner at a Philadelphia litigation firm. She has been a research associate with the US Sentencing Commission, and was Director of Admissions for Temple Law School, from which she graduated in 1997. Jody is married to Jim Pifer and has children in Lower and Middle Schools. She is also clerk of Germantown Monthly Meeting’s First Day school.
Back to Top

Mimi McKenzie

Mimi McKenzie is the parent of Jake '08, Gus '10, Lydie '12 and Addie '16, and has been an active member of the GFS Parents’ Association for many years. After receiving a JD from the University of Pennsylvania, she worked as a litigation attorney at Dechert and then as Labor & Employment Counsel for Verizon. She is currently a consultant for Morgan Lewis & Bockius. Mimi also serves on the Board of Cliveden in Germantown and is in her final year of the Barnes Foundation’s three-year Horticultural Program.
Back to Top

Takashi Moriuchi

Takashi is a co-founder and Managing Director of Estancia Capital Management, a private equity firm providing growth and buy-out capital to small and middle market companies in the financial services sector. As a member of Estancia’s Investment Committee, he is primarily responsible for leading the sourcing and execution of the firm’s investment activities and subsequent monitoring and value creation initiatives of its portfolio companies.

Takashi recently served on the board of The Philadelphia School, where he was also on the finance and diversity sub-committees. Additionally, he was a member of the Assets Committee at Moorestown Friends School, where he attended school for many years. He received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania. His son and daughter attend GFS and are in the classes of 2021 and 2024, respectively.
Back to Top

Kate O'Shea

Kate has been an active Quaker since attending Haverford College, and became a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting in 2009. She holds a BA in Anthropology from Haverford College and a Masters of Education and a Principal Certification from Arcadia University. Kate has worked as a teacher in the School District of Philadelphia, and was a founder of Wissahickon Charter School (WCS), where she has been an administrator for the past 10 years and helped start the new Mt. Airy campus as the Director of the Lower School. Kate and her husband Pete have lived in Germantown for the past 20 years. Their three children attend GFS.
Back to Top

Dianne E. Reed

Dianne is a Principal at reedǀgroup LLC, a marketing research and management consulting firm based in Philadelphia. She previously served as executive director of three nonprofit organizations, as a senior manager at KPMG and as budget director of the City of Philadelphia. She serves as a member of the finance committee of Friends Life Care and the Cosmopolitan Club, and as chair of the finance committee of Friends Center City. Dianne holds a doctorate from Stanford University and a Masters of Government Administration from the Fels Center, University of Pennsylvania. Her children, Elizabeth Ames and Brian Ames, graduated from GFS in 1997 and 1995, respectively.
Back to Top

Jonathan E. Rhoads '56

Jonathan “Jack” Rhoads is a surgeon at York Hospital in York, PA. He is a graduate of Germantown Friends School (1956), Haverford College (1960) and Harvard Medical School (1964), and was an attending surgeon at multiple hospitals in Philadelphia before landing at York Hospital in 1985. Jack was president of the GFS Alumni Association from 1978-80, and previously served on the School Committee from 1978-79 and 1999-2008. He is a member of the American Medical Association (since 1974), the American College of Surgeons (since 1975), the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (since 1977) and the York County Medical Society (since 1985), as well as numerous other organizations. Jack currently resides in York.
Back to Top

Sam Rhoads '82, Clerk

Sam has many connections to Germantown Friends School: He has been a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting since birth, he is a member of the Class of 1982, and he is the proud parent of a GFS graduate, Class of 2016. Sam is the Executive Vice President at the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), the City of Philadelphia’s economic development organization. He manages PIDC’s finance group, which delivers innovative below-market, tax-exempt, and grant-based financial products to non-profit institutions, developers of large real estate investment projects, and small businesses throughout the city. Sam volunteers on several boards, including the Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, Awbury Arboretum, the Philadelphia Urban Finance Corporation, The Wyck Historic House, and The Wistar Institute. Sam earned a BA from Stanford University and a Masters in Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Planning from Princeton University.
Back to Top

Toni Sharp

Toni Sharp’s association with GFS began as a parent of three Lifers (Elizabeth '86, Matthew '89 and Jennifer '91) in September 1972. Toni worked as an assistant teacher in the Lower School at GFS for three years and then went on to Friends’ Central School, where she taught second grade for 29 years. She now works one day a week at FCS as a Quaker coordinator in the Lower School. Toni is a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting.
Back to Top

Anne Stassen, Recording Clerk; Religious Life Committee Clerk

Anne is a parent of Ben '13 and Daniel '17, both of whom attended GFS since kindergarten, and she and her family are members of Germantown Monthly Meeting. In addition to serving on the School Committee, where she clerks the Religious Life Committee, she has been on a number of project teams. She was a Parent Annual Giving class representative and co-chair for the Lower School for several years. Anne has been involved in higher education administration for over 25 years, working for a range of colleges and universities. She graduated from Earlham College, and did her Master’s and Doctoral work at Harvard Graduate School of Education, focusing on higher-education policy and planning. Anne is currently the Dean of Students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Back to Top

Faye Steacy

A longtime member of the community, Faye is a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting and she taught fifth grade at GFS for 25 years, prior to her retirement in 2015. While teaching at GFS, Faye helped write the Lower School Quakerism curriculum, served on the committee that assessed the need for and created the Middle School, and was on the planning committee that resulted in the building of Hargroves. Early in her career, Faye taught in both independent and public schools in Connecticut for 12 years, and immediately prior to coming to GFS, she taught English at the Baldwin School for five years. Faye’s sons Will and Zach, were GFS “lifers” and graduated in 1999 and 2002, respectively. Since Faye’s retirement in 2015, her volunteer work has included tutoring children who are English language learners. Faye earned a BA in History from Connecticut College.
Back to Top