Board of Managers: (Seated, from left) Martha Smith, Nina Foley, Ida Edelman, Margaret Abraham, Jo Futerman; (standing, from left) Marc Wilkins, Miriam Chaves, Herman Berliner, Barbara Kingsley, Donna Gerzof, Stephen Fortuna

The Board of Managers is the governing body of Westbury Friends School, approved by the Ministry and Oversight Committee of Westbury Friends Meeting. The Board of Managers meets formally four times a year, and the committees that are part of the Board’s structure meet routinely during the school year. The committees currently under the Board’s oversight are the following: Committee on Management, Education Committee, Finance Committee, Financial Development Committee, Financial Aid Committee, and Religious Life Committee. The Consolidated Buildings and Grounds Committee is a part of the Westbury Friends Meeting committee structure. Westbury Friends School has three ad hoc committees under its oversight this year: the Director’s Search Committee, the Strategic Planning Committee, and the Technology Committee, the latter two of which will continue into the next academic year.

We are proud to introduce the current Board of Managers:
Margaret Abraham is Professor of Sociology and Special Advisor to the Provost for Diversity Initiatives at Hofstra University. In addition, she serves as the Co-President of the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Women and Society. She is an action researcher and has published extensively in the areas of ethnicity, migration, and domestic violence. An alumna parent of Westbury Friends School, she has been on the Board since 2006.

Robert Albertson, a life-long member of Westbury Friends Meeting, is senior vice-president for Personal Wealth Management at RBC Dain Rauscher. He has been a long-time member of the Locust Valley Rotary Club and a trustee for many non-profit organizations, including the Grenville Boys and Girls Club and Locust Valley Library.

Herman Berliner is the provost and senior vice-president for Academic Affairs at Hofstra University, where he has worked since 1970. In addition to his work at Hofstra, he is the Associate Professor of The American Economist and is on the Boards of ProjectGrad Long Island, the Latino Jewish Council of Long Island, and the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County. A parent of two daughters at Westbury Friends School, Dr. Berliner has been on the Board since 2006.

Miriam Chaves recently retired as literacy coach on the primary school level in Springfield Garden, New York, where she implemented the Balanced Literacy Program. She has been coordinator for bilingual programs in Ridgewood and Middle Village, New York, and a classroom teacher grades 1-3 in Queens. She has an M.A. in Educational Administration, and two P.D.’s in Bilingual Education and in Special Education. A Quaker, Miriam Chaves is also an alumna parent of Westbury Friends School and has been on the Board since 1995.

Karen Hicks Courts is the granddaughter of one of the founders of Westbury Friends School and has herself been a student here as well as parent. She is a corporate officer of Hicks Nurseries, Inc., and is a past board member and treasurer of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau. A graduate of Gettysburg College, she has been on the Board since 2005 and is the mother of three boys.

Ida Edelman, the Director of Westbury Friends School since 1996, has had previous experience in both public and private education in Philadelphia and New Jersey. Prior to joining Westbury Friends School, she was the Director of Special Education in Marlboro Township, NJ, for eleven years. A baccalaureate from the University of Rochester was supplemented by advanced degrees in reading, psychology, special education and educational administration.

Stephen Fortuna is a member of Matinecock Friends Meeting and has been a Board Member since 2005. A graduate of Stony Brook University, he is president of S&C Services, Inc., a process serving company. Stephen Fortuna also serves on the boards of The Long Island Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependency and the North Shore Sheltering Program.

Nina Foley is a member of Matinecock Friends Meeting. She is the volunteer coordinator and board member of the Nassau Chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Nina Foley has two children attending Friends Academy. She is a part-time instructor of cooking at the Viking Cooking School at Loaves & Fishes Cookshop.

Josephine (Jo) Futerman works with her husband in the accounting firm Libman & Futerman. A parent for several years at Westbury Friends School, Jo Futerman has been on the Board since 1997, and continues her service to the school by being on the Strategic Planning Committee.

Louisa Gerritz Garry is a member of the Westbury Friends Meeting and has been a Board member since 2006; currently she is the secretary of the Board. She works at Friends Academy as associate director of college guidance and is the head of the History Department. Track is one of her great passions: she is the head varsity girls track coach since 1988 and is co-president of Yale Track Association Board.

Donna Cantrell Gerzof is an alumna parent of the school and has been on the Board since 2002. A physical therapist by profession, Donna primarily works as a volunteer in a variety of non-profit organizations. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Variety Child Learning Center for Special Children, the executive vice-president of the Friends Academy Parent Council, and the first grade coordinator of St. Paul the Apostle Church.

Barbara Jo Kingsley is an award-winning artist who taught art at Westbury Friends School for five years until 2002. She is a member of Westbury Friends Meeting and has been a member of the Board since 2003. She serves as Assistant Clerk of the Board of Managers, clerks the Religious Life Committee, and is on the Strategic Planning Committee.

Martha V. Smith, Clerk of the Board of Managers, has been a member of Westbury Meeting since birth. She currently is on the Buildings and Grounds Committee, Cemetery Committee, and Finance Committee. Martha Smith, an architect in private practice, specializes in residential and commercial work. For Westbury Friends School she designed the four new classrooms, the music room, the Library Media Center, and the recent renovations of the gymnasium.

R. Marc Wilkins, parent of a daughter at Westbury Friends School, is Global Managing Partner for Strategic Services for Environmental Resource Management, a company that helps businesses become more green-friendly. A graduate of St. John’s University, Marc Wilkins is currently the Treasurer of the Board of Managers and has been a Board member since 2004.

New Head of School:
Dear Friends of Westbury Friends School,

I am writing on behalf of the Board of Managers with the exciting news that we have named Geraldine Faivre to be the next Director of Westbury Friends School.  Gerri Faivre is an experienced educator and administrator.  She received her AB in Art Education from Marywood University and her MS in Elementary Education from C.W. Post Long Island University.  In addition to her twenty-seven year experience in the classroom, she was Head of Lower School at East Woods School in Oyster Bay for nine years.  She is presently the Founding Head of School at the Jewish Academy in East Northport.   She has served on the Professional Development Committee for the New York State Association of Independent Schools, is a member of the UJA/Columbia Business School Institute for Day School Management, and has been accepted into the Harvard School of Education Principal’s Institute.  Gerri is a strong leader and has demonstrated a commitment to excellence in academics and religious life.  We are most fortunate that Gerri wishes to share her strengths with Westbury Friends School.

Gerri Faivre’s position as the next Director will begin July 1, 2008, the day after Ida Edelman’s retirement formally takes place.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ida Edelman once again for her 12 years of dedicated service to Westbury Friends School.  Ida has been a talented and loving leader for our school and will be missed by the entire community.   Ida and Gerri are already involved in preparing for a smooth transition in June.

I would like to thank the members of the Search Committee for their hard work and commitment to the students and families of our school.  The search process truly included our entire community; faculty, students, parents, members of Westbury Monthly Meeting, Ida Edelman, and the Board.  The Westbury Friends community takes pride in this process, for it has helped us to grow and sharpen our focus as we look to the future of our school.

Our Quaker mission at Westbury Friends School is “to offer a strong academic and creative program that encourages awareness of spiritual and moral values, a sense of self worth with compassionate respect for the worth of others, and a lifelong love of learning.”    We look to the future of this mission with high expectations as we welcome Gerri Faivre to our community.

                                                                                                Respectfully,

                                                                                                Martha V. Smith
                                                                                                Clerk, Board of Managers