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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Joan Cannady Countryman '58

Joan entered GFS in 1948 as a third grader, and graduated in 1958, the first African-American graduate of the school. She returned in 1970 to teach Upper School mathematics, and her children were Lifers. Joan was Assistant Head and Director of Studies at GFS before being appointed Head of Lincoln School in Providence, Rhode Island. After retiring in 2005, she served as Founding Head of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa, then as Interim Head of the Atlanta Girls’ School. She is currently Chair of the Board of Directors of Rhode Island Public Radio.
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Ben Cushman

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.
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Caroline Davidson

In 1976, Caroline began a 30-year career teaching music in the GFS Lower School. Her three children—Jenny ’88, Jonathan ’91 and Michael ’91—are all GFS graduates. Caroline is a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting, and volunteers at the Falls of Schuylkill Public Library as well as at the newly-founded St. James School in Allegheny West.
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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.
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Joseph Evans, Jr. '64, Treasurer

Joe returns to the School Committee after several years’ absence. He is one of many Evans’ who have been lifers at GFS, going back several generations. Joe is a graduate of Lafayette College, where he studied Economics and Business Administration, received an MBA from Wharton and worked as a Chartered Financial Analyst. For 28 years, Joe’s firm provided investment advice to endowments and foundations. He has served on a number of corporate as well as non-profit boards, including three different Friends Schools and the Friends Council on Education. For the past 15 years, Joe has been an active private equity investor, advisor and board member. He lives in Center City with his wife Carolyn, and has three married children and three (soon to be four!) grandchildren.
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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.
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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.
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David Loder '72

David, along with siblings Mark '70, Karen '74 and Tom '76, is a graduate of GFS. His three children are also recent GFS alums: Marek '07, Kyle '09 and Julya '11. David graduated from Wesleyan University in 1976, and received a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1981, where he was awarded a Thouron Fellowship for study at the London School of Economics, from which he received an LL.M. with distinction in International Law. In 1982, David began his career at Duane Morris where he is now a partner and chairperson of the healthcare/education law practice group. He has represented and served on numerous not-for-profit boards, including the University of Sciences in Philadelphia and the Wilma Theater.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 GFS graduate and he is the proud parent of a current student. Sam is Senior Vice President for Financial Services 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 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.
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Patricia Rose, Assistant Clerk

Pat has been involved at GFS since her children (Molly Rose '05 and Charles Dabezies '09, both Lifers) were students, and joined the School Committee in 2000. She is the Director of Career Services at the University of Pennsylvania, where she oversees career counseling, graduate/professional school advising and recruiting for all Penn undergraduates and graduate students. Pat holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in English, and before embarking on an administrative career, she taught English at St. Lawrence University and at Penn, where she did her graduate work. Pat has served on various committees for professional associations, and is currently on the board of Philly Fellows.
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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.
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Steve Smith

Steve Smith has served as a class representative in GFS’s Lower and Middle Schools, and as Chair of the Lower School Parents’ Association. A graduate of Temple University and the University of Cambridge, he teaches at Drexel and St. Joseph’s University in addition to his consulting work and research. Steve is a member of the Board of the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance. His sons, Jacob '14 and Asher '16, attended GFS.
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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.

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Anthony Stover

Anthony Stover has been a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting since 1999. His daughter Taylor attended Germantown Friends School through eighth grade, and graduated from Science Leadership Academy in 2013; she now attends Temple University’s School of Media and Communication. Anthony sits on the Board of Directors of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, and previously served a 12-year term for the Support Center for Child Advocacy. He is the Special Events Manager at the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House, where he has been a member of the development team for the past 16 years.
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