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Board

The Board of Trustees has the ultimate responsibility for the School. As an independent corporation, the Board holds title to the School's assets and sees that the School is adequately financed and appropriately run. The Board sets broad policies about the School's purposes and operation, hires the Principal, and delegates to her/him the authority to hire staff. The Principal and staff develop the curriculum and manage the daily operation of the School.

The Board is composed of up to seven members appointed by and from each of the Friends Meetings in Durham and Chapel Hill and seven other co-opted members appointed by the Board. The co-conveners of Parent Meeting represent that organization's perspectives and activities at Board meetings. Board organization includes five standing committees: School Life (includes students, staff and parents), Development, Business, Governance, and an Executive Committee. A Multicultural Education Committee, composed of Board, staff, parent, and student members, has also been established. Board meetings are open meetings. They are held on the third Tuesday of each month during the school year. The location of the meeting rotates among units on the Main Campus, Durham Early School, and Chapel Hill Early School. Check with the School Office for locations and times.

Who’s Who on the CFS Board of Directors (compiled Fall 2007)

From Chapel Hill Friends Meeting:

Mike Bishop is co-convener of the Steering Committee of the Next Step Capital Campaign and serves on the Long-Range Planning Committee. Mike and his wife Melissa are parents of two CFS students, Leah and Joseph, who enjoyed their early educational and social development at DES. Mike is involved in the discovery of new medicines at GlaxoSmithKline, where he is a department director in medicinal chemistry research.

Mary DeCoster is a parent of two graduates of CFS, Rachel (‘95) and Mimi (’04). Mary works in public health education at the Durham County Health Department, and finds ways to stay involved in lactation consulting and international health.

Ani Flash is convener of the Long Range Planning Committee for the School’s fourth five year long-range plan.  She is the mother of graduates Heather Harding LaGarde (‘87), Holly Harding Baddour (‘89), and stepmother of Margaret Flash Bito (‘79).  Her husband served on the Board in the late 1960s and the 1980s.  Ani retired in 1999 from the UNC School of Medicine’s Program on Aging, where she served as nurse practitioner and coordinator of a nationally recognized interdisciplinary clinical practice serving rapidly declining older people in the state.

Deborah Gibbs is parent to Upper School student Madeline Smith-Gibbs. She has been a member of Chapel Hill Friends Meeting for over 20 years.  Deborah is a policy analyst at RTI, evaluating policies and programs addressing child abuse and domestic violence.

Marsha Green convenes the Governance Committee and serves on the Executive Committee. Marsha has three children: Tristan, who attends CFS Upper School, and his older brother and sister, Sebastian and Tamsin. Marsha and her husband Mike are Friends General Conference Couples Enrichment Leaders. When not involved in Quaker activities, Marsha can be found producing communications for the recently established Duke Global Health Institute.

Hugh Meriwether serves on the School Life Committee.  He and his wife Renee Prillaman (Middle School Head Teacher) are parents of CFS alum Caitlin Prillaman (’05) and Upper School student Andrew Meriwether.  Hugh works as a computer consultant.

Nancy Milio is beginning her first year on the Board. She has been serving on the Policy Committee of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and will assume its clerkship and join the FCNL Executive Board. Nancy is also a news editor at Friends Journal. She helped begin Affordable Rentals, Inc, a local nonprofit serving people living below half the median income. A Professor Emeritus of Public Health Policy at UNC and former Associate Dean of Nursing, Nancy was policy analyst, consultant, and teacher with WHO and numerous governments abroad and in the US for several decades

From Durham Friends Meeting:

Annie Caulkins Annie Caulkins was a CFS staff member from 1986-1996, teaching 1 year in MS and 9 years in Lower School’s Sky Class. After leaving CFS, she pursued a graduate degree in Communication Studies, focusing on interpersonal and organizational communication. Recently, Annie started her own coaching and
consulting business. Annie is parent of two CFS grads, Rachel and Eli Kovick, and grandmother of new Campus Early School student, Jackson Kovick.  She serves on Board’s Development Committee.   

Harriet Hopkins serves as a member of Governance Committee.  She is a former CFS Upper School teacher (1975-1979).  Harriet attended law school at UNC-CH and has been in private practice since 1982.  She is certified by the NC Administrative Office of the Courts as an arbitrator and mediator, and currently engages in a wide variety of mediations.  Harriet is the mother of Jason (’05) and Maggie Parker (’07).

Martha Klopfer has served on the CFS board since the founding of the School.  She has worked on nearly every board committee, served as Clerk of the Board for nine years, and currently works with the Development Committee.  She has volunteer-taught, coached, and led interest groups at CFS.  Martha says, “The School has been my occupation, besides farm and family.  A joy!”

Peter Klopfer has served continuously on the CFS Board since founding the School with other Friends in 1962.  He has taught classes, served on nearly every committee, and been Clerk of the Board; currently he serves on the Business Committee.  Apart from his life at CFS, he is a biologist on the Duke Biology faculty.  He and his wife Martha are dedicated athletes:  they run, ride bikes, ride horseback, kayak . . . . the list goes on!

Karen McKinnon begins her first year on the CFS Board.  Her daughter Krista joined CFS at Chapel Hill Early School and graduated from Upper School (‘04).  Karen has fond memories of School Life Committee and 12 years with Parent Meeting, also serving as Co-Convener. She is an assistant professor with UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Karen has been active in Friends General Conference, where she has co-clerked Junior. Gathering and co-coordinated the Middle School program. She also serves on the Volunteer Committee of the Board of Directors of the Piedmont Wildlife Center.

Joel Meyer graduated from Juniata College in Peace and Conflict Studies and Environmental Studies. He then lived and worked for five years in Guatemala, where he met his wife Victoria. Joel is now an assistant professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. Joel is on the Investment and Long Range Planning Committees.
 
Sheilah Thomas serves on the Board’s Long Range Planning and School Life Committees.  As active CFS parents, both Sheilah and her husband Josh Hartford have served as Parent Meeting co-conveners, contributed to School publications, and helped classroom teachers in many ways.  Their son Luke Hartford attends CFS Upper School; Josh's daughter, Samantha, attended CFS in the 1980s.  Sheilah and Josh are owners of the publishing/marketing company Health & Healing, Inc., and publishers of the Triangle-area newspaper Health & Healing.

Co-Opted Members 

Margy Campion joins the Board this year. Her son Austin Campion graduated from CFS in 2002 after four wonderful years in the Upper School. After many years in early childhood education, Margy opened a body work practice in polarity therapy and trauma healing work about ten years ago. She has done extensive volunteer work, for both CFS and the Chapel Hill / Carrboro schools and also serves on the Chapel Hill Planning Board,   She is so happy to be reconnected with CFS.

After many years on staff and then on the CFS Board, Cal Geiger serves as an emeritus member of the Board.  Cal started the Service Program in the Upper School in the 70’s; his youngest son Edward graduated from CFS.  Cal and his wife Virgie are active members of Durham Friends Meeting.

Bill Graves convenes the Business Committee and serves on Executive Committee. He is the father of 1985 graduate and CFS “lifer” Bill Graves. Bill retired from the University of North Carolina after 35 years with the department of Administrative Information Services. He is also serving on the Friends School of Charlotte Boar, which opened this fall.

Mike Hennessy serves on the Business Committee of the CFS Board.  He is the father of Grace Hennessy, who enrolled at CFS starting in Campus Early School and stayed for ten happy years.  Mike is a founding partner in Morgan Creek Capital Management, which brings the university endowment model of investing to smaller endowments, foundations and families.

Mark Kuhn is clerk of the Board.  He has served on the Business Committee and the Development Committee in years past, as well as the Long-Range Plan Committee and the Principal Search Committee.  Mark and his wife Cindy are parents of two CFS graduates, Elena and Eric.  Mark works as a financial advisor in his own investment management company.

New to the CFS Board, Dick Marr enjoyed a long career in education and then obtained a law degree in 2000. Dick has held teaching, administrative, and coaching positions at Milton Academy (MA), Aspen Country Day (CO), and Tabor Academy (MA). He has also held athletic administrative positions at the conference level and has directed a summer collegiate baseball league. Dick served as a board member at Cheshire Academy (CT) before retiring to North Carolina. Dick is married and the father of four grown children.

Steve Nowicki is entering his second year of Board service and continues to serve on the Long Range Planning Committee.  Steve’s son Schuyler began attending CFS at the Durham Early School and graduated from the Upper School last year. Steve is a member of the Duke University Biology Department and has recently been appointed as Duke’s Dean of Undergraduate Education. With his wife, Susan Peters, Steve studies the evolution and ecology of animal behavior, and he has recently published a high school biology textbook.

MEMBERS FROM CHAPEL HILL MEETING

MEMBERS FROM DURHAM MEETING

CO-OPTED MEMBERS