Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees is the governing body of the Stevens Cooperative School, as in all independent schools.  Where Stevens differs is that parents in the school elect trustees every April, rather than trustees electing themselves, as is the case on the typical independent school board.

The trustees serve staggered two year terms, and in a typical year, the board functions with roughly 15 trustees.  Any parent can run for the board of trustees, as long as they are a member in good standing of the cooperative.  Parents can also nominate other parents for the role. Trustees frequently serve more than one term, and are encouraged to do so.  It is hoped that after trustees have served some time on the board that they will take on an officer position.  The officers of the board form its executive committee and include: the Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and Vice Chairs of Development, Jobs, Membership and Strategic Planning.


The Board also can have up to four non parents; they are called community trustees.  This group may include educators, community leaders, alumni parents, and local businesspeople.

Board of Trustees, 2012 - 2013

Jan Wilson Abernathy, Chair
Jan has served as a trustee of Stevens Cooperative School since 2003.  She was elected Vice Chair, Jobs in 2004 and Vice Chair, Membership in 2006.  She is the senior editor of two real estate trade publications, and a writer for (201) Family. Her previous board experience includes being a board chair of the Open Housing Center of New York, and founding chair of Dreams Into Action, a non-profit mentoring organization for teen girls in New York City.  She also served on the advisory board of The Door, a youth services agency, and is currently a member of Northwestern University’s Alumni Admissions Council.  Her daughter Noe is Stevens class of 2012 and Dalton School class of 2016, and her son Sam is in 5th grade.

 

Dave Carty, Treasurer
Dave was first elected a trustee in 2002, and became Treasurer in 2003. He has worked for several small and large companies in various management positions. Most recently he was an International Business Development Manager for Bestfoods Corporation, now a part of Unilever, with sales, marketing, budgeting, forecasting, and product development responsibilities. Dave has an MBA in finance and marketing from NYU. He is currently a stay-at-home dad, working part-time in real estate and construction management, and is an active volunteer in the community. His son Max is Stevens class of 2011 and Millbrook School class of 2015, his daughter Caroline is Stevens class of 2011 and Fieldston School class of 2015, and his daughter Clare is in the 6th grade.

 

Donna Garban, Vice Chair
Donna was elected in 2008. She also has served on the School’s investment committee since 2007.  She is Development Chair and serves on the space, technology and finance committees. She was elected Trustee of The Jubilee Center in Hoboken in 2007 and served as chair in 2009/2010. A Vice President at Goldman Sachs until 2007, she has also volunteered as a Girl Scout Leader. Donna consults for the investment banking firm Greencoast Capital Partners. She has three children attending Stevens. Her daughters, Penelope and Petra, are in 7th and 5th grades, respectively, and her son, Perrin, is in 4th grade.

 

Kathleen Gallagher, Secretary
Kathleen was has served as Secretary of the Board of Trustees since first elected to the position in 2008.  Prior to being elected to her current role on the Board, she served as a general trustee for the 2007-08 school year.  Kathleen is currently an elementary school teacher in the Jersey City Public Schools and she has a number of years of experience as a social worker in the area of special education.  Kathleen and her husband, Drew Tortoriello, have been members of the cooperative for eight years.  Their daughter Cara graduated from Stevens in 2012 and attends the Calhoun School.   Their son, Andrew is in 4th grade. 

 

Cordelia Chansler, Community Trustee
Cordelia Chansler was elected a community trustee in November 2009. She is a graduate of the first 6th grade of Stevens Cooperative School class of 2000, as well as a graduate of the Spence School and Wellesley College. Cordelia brings governance experience to the board of trustees, having served as a student representative on the Investment Committee of the Wellesley College Board of Trustees.

 

David Lowry, Community Trustee
David was elected a community trustee in September 2008.  He retired as the Head of School at The Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood, New Jersey in June 2012. David received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology as well as a Master of Science from Teacher’s College, Columbia University.  He also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Haverford College.  David has worked in the field of education for more than 40 years and his experience includes extensive work in accreditation.  Dr. Lowry is currently the immediate past President of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools (NJAIS).  Additional professional affiliations include membership in the Country Day Headmasters Association of the United States, as well as the Accreditation Commission of the National Association of Independent Schools, from which he retired in 2010.

 

Emily Arnone
Emily is currently a vice president in Financial Operations at MTV Networks.  Her degree is in accounting and she has worked at both public accounting firms as well as at major media companies in a process improvement/internal audit capacity with an emphasis on the television production process.  She has three children at Stevens. Her sons, Hudson and William, are in the 6th grade and 2nd grade, and her daughter, Presley, is in kindergarten.

 

Dean DeChiaro
Dean was elected to the board as a community trustee in March 2013. He graduated from Stevens as a member of the class of 2004 after having attended the school since kindergarten. His relationship with the school, which has spanned nearly two decades, continued throughout his years at Elisabeth Irwin High School in New York City and Occidental College in Los Angeles. After receiving a bachelor's in History from Occidental in 2012, he returned to New Jersey to begin pursuing a career in journalism and joined the Hoboken-based Hudson Reporter newspaper group as a staff writer last fall. He was the Editor-in-Chief of The Occidental Weekly and worked for four summers with Rain Media, a documentary film company which produces films for PBS Frontline. He is a staunch believer in the value of progressive education and is both honored and humbled by the opportunity to serve the school he once called home for so many years.

Liz Groo
Liz is currently a Director in the Loan Portfolio Management group at Citi, and has a background in credit trading and equity research.  She is a CFA Charterholder and earned an MBA degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. degree in French from the University of Rhode Island.  Liz and her husband Matt have lived in Hoboken since 2000 and have been members of the Stevens Community for four years.  She has two children – Megan, who is in kindergarten, and Patrick, who is currently in the 3rd grade.

Djenaba Johnson-Jones, Trustee
Djenaba is the Digital Brand Development Director for W Magazine. Prior to working at W, she owned a consulting company that specialized in developing websites and multi-platform marketing programs for magazine publishers. She earned a Master of Business Administration from Clark Atlanta University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas. Djenaba was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2010.  Currently, she holds the position of Parliamentarian and serves on the Communications committee. She also chaired the Harvest Festival in the 2008 and 2009 school years.   In addition to her involvement with Stevens, she serves as Program Director for the Essex Hudson Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc.  Her son Mason is in the 5th grade and her daughter Nora is in 1st grade.

 

Rebecca Kramnick, Trustee
Rebecca Kramnick is Vice President and General Counsel at the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco), a nonprofit in the South Bronx.  WHEDco develops affordable, green housing and provides social services to community residents.  Rebecca joined WHEDco in 2005 after serving for four years as a senior staff attorney at Lawyers Alliance for New York, a nonprofit law firm which advises New York City’s community-based organizations.  At Lawyers Alliance, Rebecca specialized in advising nonprofits on employment law matters and liability issues affecting youth-serving nonprofits.  Rebecca has lectured frequently to groups on legal issues affecting nonprofits.  She is a co-author of The Volunteer Workforce:  Legal Issues and Best Practices for Nonprofits.  She serves on the Board of the Hoboken Homeless Shelter and the Chair of the Freelancers Co-op Insurance Co. of New Jersey.  Her daughter Madeline is at Friends Seminary and her daughter Anna is in 7th grade.  She has been a member of the Cooperative for eleven years, and was elected as a trustee in 2009.

 

Frank LeCates, Trustee
Frank is the Chief Operating Officer and a founder of Silverpoint, Inc., a company focused on website design and content management software for independent schools serving hundreds of schools across the United States and worldwide. Previously, he led product development efforts at two tech start-ups. Frank is a graduate of Princeton University, where he earned a degree in Economics. He has served on the Head of School Search Committee and the Transition Committee, and works on the school’s website. Frank and his wife Justine have two daughters at the Hoboken Campus, Cora in 3rd grade and Claire in Kindergarten.

 

Kim Lew, Trustee
Kim was elected a trustee in 2007.  She is the Vice President, co-Chief Investment Officer at The Carnegie Corporation of New York, the first private foundation in the United States. She chairs the Audit and Transition Committee and was chair of the Head Search Committee.  She has served on the Bylaws, Space and Head Review committees here at Stevens.  Her previous board experience includes the Port Liberte Condominium Association, Aljira, an art gallery in Newark, New Jersey, and Treasurer of the Essex Hudson Chapter of Jack & Jill of America.  She currently serves on the Investment Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Girl Scouts of America.  Her daughter, Kalli is in 7th grade (Hoboken), and her daughter, Kaamila is in K (Newport).         

 

Elysa Lyons, Trustee
Elysa is currently on hiatus from her career as a financial broker. She recently spent two years as co-chair of the Stevens Cooperative School Auction. Elysa's daughter Sami is Stevens class of 2011 and Trevor Day School class of 2015, and her son Jason is in 6th grade.  Elysa has been a member of the Cooperative for 11 years.

 

Laura Miani, Trustee
Laura Miani is a Senior Vice President of Equity Sales/Trading at Miller Tabak.  She has been an active member of Stevens Cooperative serving as co-Chair and Chair of the Golf Committee in 2008 and 2007.  Prior to that, she served in various roles on the Auction Committee. Laura was elected as a trustee in 2009.   Laura and her husband Rich have a son Matthew in the 8th grade and a daughter Caroline in 3rd grade. 

 

Christina X. Miller, Trustee
Christina is a Vice President in Financial Management at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, responsible for financial planning, analysis and management reporting.  In addition to finance, she has a background in human resources, accounting and technology and previously worked at Lehman Brothers and Price Waterhouse LLP.  Christina served on the Head Search Committee at Stevens, as well as the Membership, Bylaws and Community Connections committees.  She earned a BS in Accounting from the University of Delaware and a MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  Her daughter Claire is in 6th grade at the Newport campus.

 

Ron Russell
Ron is the chair of the school’s Space Committee.  He is a principal at LWDMR & Associates, PC, a Jersey City Architectural and Engineering firm with extensive experience in school design, mixed use urban architecture and historic preservation.  Ron was a member of the Jersey City Historic Preservation Commission for 10 years, two of which he was chairman.  His son, Ian, has attended Stevens for three years and is currently in the 8th grade. 

 

Anthony Uva
After years of allowing his wife Jean to fulfill all co-op job obligations for the family, Anthony joined the school’s Space Committee in 2009. When not reviewing leases for the Space Committee he negotiates leases for Foot Locker, Inc. His son John is in the 8th grade and his son Nicholas, Class of 2010, is now attending Trinity High School in New York.