Sterling College—Board of Trustees

The governance of Sterling College is vested in the Board of Trustees, a self-perpetuating volunteer group elected to three-year terms. Concern and watchfulness over the College’s operating budget and debt burden, its endowment management, and the management of the board itself, are the guideposts of Sterling’s board of trustees, and particularly the executive and finance committees. But there are dozens of opportunities over the course of a year for the trustees to engage in other important avenues of governance. Trustees lend their considerable expertise in multiple committees from Academics and Student Life, to Admissions, Facilities, and Development.

Peter Chehayl, Alumni Parent ’06, M.B.A., graduated from Case Institute of Technology, now Case Western Reserve University, with a BS in Management Science in 1970. After receiving his MBA from the University of Michigan, he enjoyed a thirty-year career in financial positions, culminating as chief financial officer of Centennial Communications, a $700 million company. He has also worked at Coopers & Lybrand, The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company and Sprint. He is a CPA.

Pete served on the board of directors of Madison River Communications, a $200 million rural local telephone company until its acquisition by Century Tel in April 2007. He has also served on the boards of the National Hemophilia Foundation and the Kansas City Institute of Art. While Naples, FL. is their primary residence, Pete and his wife Liz have a home in Albany, Vermont. Their son, Daniel, graduated from Sterling.

Kate Clark, J.D., Sterling Class of '88, went on to College of the Atlantic and then to Vermont Law School, where she graduated first in her class. She is currently an Associate with a Boston law firm. She represents management in all aspects of employment law and provides seminars for employers regarding compliance with federal and state employment laws.

John Elder, Ph.D. holds a doctorate and M.Phil. from Yale University, and a B.A. from Pamona College. He is a faculty member of Middlebury and Bread Loaf School of English and has taught English and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College since 1973. John’s main areas of interest as a teacher include American nature writing, romantic and modern poetry, Basho and the haiku tradition, and the history of conservation in America. His three most recent books (Reading the Mountains of Home, The Frog Run, and Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa) form a sequence combining discussion of literature, description of the Vermont landscape, and personal memoir. He is presently completing a book on Hurricane Katrina and the future of the environmental movement.

John and his wife Rita live in the village of Bristol, Vermont. They are active in local conservation initiatives and also operate a sugaring operation with their grown children in the hills of Starksboro. Sterling College is thus highly attractive to them, both because of its interdisciplinary curriculum and because of the emphasis placed on the practical skills of stewardship.

Linda Friehling M.D., Alumni Parent ’02, holds faculty appointments at George Washington University, Georgetown University, and the University of Virginia. Linda spent her undergraduate years at St. John's College in Annapolis, Santa Fe, and finally Bennington College in Vermont. At St. John's she learned the value and the joy of humans exchanging ideas. At Bennington she developed a lifelong love of Vermont in a program that combined the arts and sciences. Linda continued her "experiential" education at the University of Health Sciences, Chicago Medical School where she received her MD degree in 1976. Her post-graduate training included Pediatrics and Neonatology.

During the past 27 years Linda has cared for children and families with a wide range of medical problems. She has taken a special interest in facilitating the education of children with learning differences. Throughout her career, she has taken a very active role in the teaching of residents and medical students. Linda's husband Ted is a cardiac electrophysiologist and a rock musician. Along with their three grown sons, one of which is a Sterling graduate, they enjoy skiing, hiking, music and travel.

Richard (Dick) Gaffney, Ph.D., Alumni Parent '02, is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Siena College, Loudonville, New York. He holds a doctorate in Philosophy from Boston College. His areas of research have been in Logic, the History of Logic and the Philosophy of Language, particularly metaphor analysis. In the early 1980s he was a research associate for the New York State Regents. In the 1970s he was Vice-President for Community Relations for the Pepsi Cola Company in Schenectady New York. He also taught at Villanova University in the beginning of his academic career. He served on the executive committee of the Board of Trustees of the Schenectady Museum. He is now trails chairman of the Keene Valley Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club. He lives most of the year in Keene Valley, New York, “The Home of the High Peaks,” with Susan Gaffney. He is an Adirondack 46er, and completed climbing the 46 high peaks over 4,000 feet on his 65th birthday. He has written three novels one of which is being considered for publication. He is the father of Maria Gaffney, Sterling College ’02.

Amy Golodetz, Sterling Class of '84, came to Sterling College from her hometown of Burlington, Vermont in 1983. After one year, she carried her interest in landscape ecology and outdoor education on to Wesleyan University and then the University of Vermont School of Natural Resources. She earned a B.S. in Forestry Biology in 1989. Amy worked in public and private forestry jobs, and taught for two years at Sterling before deciding on education as a career. She holds an M.Ed. from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont and a middle school math and science teaching license. Her teaching experience includes middle school math, Odyssey of the Mind coaching and a natural history/outdoor program in New Mexico. Currently, she is a part-time math tutor at the Stern Center in Williston, Vermont, a full-time parent and new member of The Bellwether School Board of Directors. Given a few hours to herself, she loves to ski, read an Aubrey and Maturin novel or blitz a word puzzle. She has two daughters, and is married to Greg Leech, ‘86.

Ann Guyer is President/CEO of PCS List & Information Technologies, a 28 year old direct marketing company, working primarily with professional associations, publishers, non-Profits, universities, accrediting organizations and others in the areas of law, medicine, heath care, biosciences, finance, education, research and fundraising to expand their reach into respective disciplines and objectives. Ann is a lifelong artist, collector of art, supporter of several arts organizations, AIDS concerns, political initiatives and athletic organizations. She is a former trustee of Montserrat College of Art, active in the governance and finance, and development committees. She is a member of the Arts and Business Council of Boston auction committee, a participant in the Gifted Women's Initiative of Ambassador Swanee Hunt, and a three time award recipient of Top 100 Women Owned Businesses by Babson College and The Commonwealth Institute. She is a member and participant in the Direct Marketing Association List Leaders, Boston College Entrepreneur's Executive Forum and various business organizations.

Gail Manyan Henry is an experienced journalist and is actively involved with environmental works and other civic engagements. She is a past board president and current trustee of the Peabody Home (Franklin, NH), and served for 12 years on the Marlboro College board of trustees. She has “always been a writer of some sort,” retired after 15 years as a senior advertising copy director at Macy's in NYC, and has experience in print and radio news. She chaired the Solid Waste Committee in Salisbury, NH, where she began and runs the recycling program. She also spearheaded the redesign of the transfer station/recycling center there. Gail has served on the Planning Board, was a Trustee of Trust Funds (investing the town's Capital Reserve Funds), chaired the Salisbury Free Library Long Range Planning Committee and wrote grants for the expansion of the library. In her spare time, she works on her 15 acres, creating a sanctuary for birds, wildlife, plants and people.

Wendy Koenig, J.D., has a broad range of experience relating to higher education, politics and business. She entered the lobbying realm as an associate with The Direct Impact Company, a grass-roots lobbying firm in Virginia. While there, she tracked and monitored legislation and gathered support for defense appropriation issues. Wendy later joined R.H. Perry & Associates, a higher education executive search & consulting firm based in Washington, DC. There she engaged in all aspects of the search process, including proposal research and candidate interviewing. Before joining the Association of Vermont Independent Colleges, she served as Director of the Manhattan office of Brain Trust, an innovative staffing agency for the IT and new media fields. Currently, Wendy is the Federal Relations Officer for the University of Vermont.

Wendy graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Foreign Language (Spanish) and received her J.D. from Catholic University of America.

Greg Leech, Sterling Class of ’86, came to the College from his hometown of Spring Lake, Michigan in 1983. He completed one year, took a year off to work, and then returned to finish his A.A. degree and make Vermont his home. A job with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation led to field work with an environmental engineering company. Previous experience in construction and love for Sterling brought him back in 1990 to work with Sam Russell, a parent/trustee, on the construction of the Brown Library. He has worked in commercial and industrial construction ever since and is currently a Project Manager with D.E.W. Construction, a health and safety award-winning, LEED certified firm in Williston, Vermont.

Greg first served as a Sterling Trustee from 1994 to 2003. During that time he went on Winter Expedition four times. Since 1993, he has been a member of the Essex Junction Volunteer Fire Department, served as the Essex Junction representative to the Regional Planning Commission for three years and recently joined the Board of Directors of The Bellwether School. Greg loves to putter in his shop, build furniture and listen to music. He is the father of two daughters, and husband of Amy Golodetz, ‘84.

David McLean, Esq., Sterling Class of ‘86 went on to study at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he received a B.S. cum laude in Natural Sciences. Following this he attended the Vermont Law School and earned a J.D. cum laude. David has had a varied professional career which includes designing and teaching a writing and communications class at Sterling College and editing the College’s long range plan and work as an attorney at Paul, Frank & Collins law firm in Burlington. He is currently an assistant attorney general for the state of Vermont. David lives in Fletcher, VT with his wife Justine and three daughters.

Edward Nef, a graduate of Phillips Academy, Andover, MA and Harvard University, has had a diverse career that often combined government service with teaching. Following two years in the US Army, he served as a US Foreign Service officer in Senegal, Guatemala, Colombia and Canada. While director of International Programming (1968-70) he established a volunteer service in the UN, resulting in the creation of the UN Volunteer Corps. From 1976-82 he served as first, legislative aide to Senator Domenici (R-NM), then as Legislative Director for Senator Baucus (D-MT).

From 1982-85 Ed was an international consultant, and then in 1986 founded Santis Corporation, the parent organization for inlingua language schools in the Washington DC area and abroad. inlingua is now the largest government contracting school for foreign languages in the Washington area, teaching over 90 languages to employees of the defense department, the State Department, and almost all government agencies which work abroad. The English school has an enrollment of approximately 400 to 500 students. Ed has organized schools in Mongolia, Japan and Viet Nam.

Penny Schmitt, worked in the New York City advertising world, first at J. Walter Thompson, then at Medical News, and then with Geer, Dubois. She was an account supervisor on New England Life Foster Grant, American Petrofina, and Teacher’s Scotch. Her community work extended to the Community Planning Board 8, representing the upper east side of Manhattan.  Eventually she specialized in institutional expansion within the district, working with hospitals and their impacts on their surroundings. She also headed communications for the Rat Control Project for the City of New York, working with the NYC Health and Police Departments. She says she “learned a lot, and not just about rats.” I n 1973, she bought, with her husband Michael, the Inn on the Common in Craftsbury Common. After a long, mostly enjoyable run, they sold the Inn in 2003. Penny holds a B.A. from Bryn Mawr, and attended high school at Miss Porter’s in Farmington, CT.

Robert Shelton, J.D., is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Oberlin College and of Harvard Law School.  He was a senior partner in the law firm of Venable LLP, practicing in its Baltimore and Washington offices. In the course of his career Bob has represented banks, hospitals, electric utilities, various corporate entities and a number of educational institutions, including Johns Hopkins University.  He was a reserve officer in the United States Naval Reserve and in 1974 he served as Associate Special Counsel, House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Impeachment Inquiry, regarding the impeachment of Richard M. Nixon. Bob currently is a partner in the firm Shelton and Carey.

Bob is a long time trustee and former Chair of The Maryland Institute College of Art and serves as a trustee of the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and Hospital. For many years he was a trustee of the Dome Corporation, the for-profit affiliate of The Johns Hopkins Institutions. At Sterling, he is the Chair of the Board. Bob owns a home in Craftsbury Common where he is very pleased to be a part time resident.

Dave Stoner, M.B.A, earned his B.S. from Indiana University and his Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He has enjoyed multiple careers: 27 years with Towers Perrin, concentrating on international consulting assignments in the area of human resource management; 5 years with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), serving as Executive Director of the General Assembly Council; and 10 years of volunteer work as a Partnership Consultant of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan.

Dave chaired the very successful capital campaign for the Craftsbury Public Library's new building. He is involved in local civic activities and serves on a number of local and regional boards for non-profit organizations. He lives in Craftsbury Common with his wife, Jenny. They enjoy three married children and seven grandchildren, who live in Maryland, New Hampshire, and Brazil.

Ross Virginia, Ph.D. earned his degree in Ecology at the University of California, Davis where he studied elemental cycling and nitrogen isotope abundance in natural ecosystems. He received postdoctoral training in Soil and Environmental Science at the University of California Riverside. Prior to joining Dartmouth College as a Professor and Chair of Environmental Studies in 1992, he was Professor of Biology and Director of the Systems Ecology Research Group at San Diego State University (1985-92). Ross’s interests are ecosystem science and the impact of humans on elemental cycling in terrestrial systems. He is a co-principal investigator on the NSF McMurdo Dry Valley Long-Term Ecological Research Program. He has also published studies done at Toolik Lake, Alaska examining soil carbon cycling and carbon dioxide flux from tundra ecosystems. He has served on the Board and as President of the Association of Ecosystem Research Centers (AERC), a national professional organization that promotes ecosystem science and its applications to environmental policy. He has been a member of the U.S. National Committee for the Scientific Committee on Problems of Environment (SCOPE). As Director of the Dickey Institute of Arctic Studies at Dartmouth College, he facilitates teaching and research opportunities in northern and polar studies. He teaches courses on the polar regions, global environmental science, and ecological agriculture.

Jim Walton graduated from St. Michael’s College in Colchester with a degree in American Studies in 1963, and went to work for the Dow Corning Corporation in Midland, MI, where he held positions in marketing, sales, applications engineering and technical services. That didn’t last very long, and he left in 1965 to start his own firm, Chase-Walton Elastomers, Inc., in Hudson, MA. The company served the automobile and aircraft industry, including the Space Shuttle and Hubble telescope projects, with 40 percent of sales exported, primarily to European countries. The company grew from the original seven employees to 140 by 2005. In 1987, while still managing Chase-Walton, Jim created and served as president of the SF Medical Corporation, an FDA registered company providing research, development, and finished products for the hospital, medical device, biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Products from this company were sold globally. Then, in 1995 and serving as chairman of his two companies, Jim and his wife, Jackie, moved to London to start a UK holding company, JSJ International. A year later, he purchased a Croydon, UK company, G&K Engineering, that provided metal goods and tooling to the aerospace industry in Europe and the US.

In 2005, Jim sold everything: the United States based companies were sold to a Swedish Multinational and the UK companies to UK investors. He and Jackie moved back to Craftsbury and built their home on property they’d owned for many years.

Trustees Emeriti

David Behrend, Sterling Class of '60, is one of the original Sterling School students from 1958. He served on the Sterling Board of Trustees from 1969 to 1998 and helped build the bridges between Sterling School alumni and Sterling College. Dave was instrumental in planning many of the School’s reunions, starting with its 20th reunion and was co-chair of the 50th Sterling reunion held in October  2008.  He is the Director of Career Planning Services for Lawyers, in Ardmore, Pa., serving the needs of lawyers who are going through employment and career transitions. His wife, Dona has a Ph.D. from Penn, and is a public historian and museum curator. They live in Bryn Mawr, Pa. and between them have five adult children. They summer in Ludlow, VT.

Susan C. Bryant recently retired as Head of School for the Chestnut Hill School in Massachusetts. At Sterling, she served as chair of the board of trustees. Sue’s professional education, which began with a B.S. in child development and early childhood education from Wheelock College, culminated in 1996 with a M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she concentrated in teaching and learning. She has filled many roles over her 25 years in education, including those in admissions, development, academic advising, guidance counseling, and teaching classes from kindergarten through twelfth grade. In 1994, Sue served as Acting Head of Tenacre Country Day School in Wellesley. She has also been active in the Association of Independent Schools in New England and “A Better Chance,” a nonprofit school placement service for minority students. She is currently a member of the Corporation of Tenacre School. She and her husband Carl have two children, Sarah and Reid (Sterling Class of ’00).

Marvin Brown, Alumni Parent ’85 is retired from an investment career in New York City. He served as Chair of the Sterling Board of Trustees and during his tenure, the Brown Library was constructed. He and his wife Linda live in Craftsbury Common. Their daughter Farley Brown (Sterling Class of ’85) is on the faculty of Sterling College.

Lewis Cohen is the President/CEO of an industrial security firm in the Boston area, with additional business interests in California, Israel and Vermont. He is a 1969 graduate of Babson College and a 1974 graduate of Vanderbilt University Owen School of Management, majoring in Corporate Social Responsibility. He and his wife, Phyllis, are involved in many philanthropic and charitable organizations, including: The Fund for Philanthropy & Education, Close to Home, Social Innovation Forum, The Institute for Jewish and Community Research, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center. Their son, Ben, is an alumnus of Sterling College (1996) and Norwich University (1998), where he graduated magna cum laude. Their daughter Liza graduated from Barnard, May 1995.

George J. Hill, M.D., D.Litt., Alumni Parent ’85, father of Helena (Sterling Class of  '85), served as Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, Marshall University School of Medicine, and the New Jersey Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Dr. Hill was a member of the Board of Trustees of Sterling College from 1990 to 2002, and he was Interim President of the college in 1996. Dr. Hill and his wife, Dr. Helene Hill, live in West Orange, N.J. Dr. Hill is the author of several books, the latest of which is Edison's Environment: Invention and Pollution in the Career of Thomas Edison, published in 2007. The Hill family owns and operates a nationally-certified tree farm in Eaton, N.H.

Jackson Kytle, Ph.D., graduated from Middlebury College and earned a doctorate in Social Psychology at Columbia University (attending during the time of the campus uprising in the 60’s). He left Manhattan to work for Antioch University in different roles including Provost and Vice President before coming back to Vermont as President of Goddard College from 1990-94. Following his job as Dean and Vice President at Vermont College in Montpelier, he served as Deputy Provost for The New School in NYC and is now the HealthCare Chaplaincy, which educates chaplains for area hospitals. He lives in New York and Stowe, VT, with his wife Tari Prinster.

Peter Albert McKay, J.D., Sterling Class of  ’63 is a lawyer in New York City. He is a former Sterling Chairman of the Board of Trustees and has helped Dave Behrend build the bridges between Sterling School and Sterling College. Peter notes that, thanks to many Sundays watching Italian television, an Italian friend at the office, and an excellent, dog-eared, manhandled dictionary his Italian is as good as his Spanish and he now has the good fortune to be able to follow the Italian dialogue at the Opera House.

Virginia de Ganahl Russell is the owner of Natural Elegance, Inc., a marble products company based in Brandon, VT, with international connections in Asia. Her abiding interests include Vermont politics and world travel. Virginia is authoring a book; the working title is At My Mother’s Knee, “dedicated to manners in the business world which were taught by our mothers when we were young.” She was first elected to the Board in 1987 and served as Chair from 1991 to 1994. She then was elected to Emeritus status and in 1999 was reelected to the Board. Virginia also served as chair of the College’s recent, successful Capital Campaign. Virginia and her husband Charles Kimmel reside in Vero Beach, FL during winter. Four of her seven children live in Vermont; she has 13 grandchildren.

Mark Schroeder, Ph.D. earned a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from the University of Vermont in 1958. After working on a beef and poultry farm, and in an orchard, he operated a small dairy farm. In 1962 he joined the first Peace Corps group to Nepal where he helped set up a Government Experimental Farm. He then went to Cornell where he received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics in 1968. Mark was the economist on the team that produced the first draft of the Vermont State Land Use Plan in 1971, and was on the joint FAO/World Bank/UNDP team evaluating the Community Forestry Program in Nepal. Mark was also a partner in a successful seed, feed and fertilizer business. He and his wife, Sukey, live in Belvidere, Vermont where they raised their three children on their farm.