Board of Trustees
 Officers
LAUREL LYLE, President
Laurel and her husband Steve live in Wellesley. They have one child entering the middle school at Eliot and a child entering the 1st grade in the Wellesley public schools. Laurel has both a Bachelors and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Prior to having children, she was an HR Director for Homart Development Co., a real estate development firm in Chicago specializing in regional malls. Since then, she has been on the boards of several volunteer organizations, and has recently begun working part-time in Development and PR for Newton Community Service Centers, a large non-profit organization.
LEO BOYLE, Vice President
Leo and his wife Anne live in Dover. They have a daughter who is an environmentalist and a graduate student in Forestry; a son who is a wooden boat builder in Sausalito, California; and a son in Boulder, Colorado. Their youngest son is in Upper El and loving every day of school. Leo is a trial Lawyer in Boston at the firm Meehan, Boyle, Black, and Fitzgerald. Leo has always enjoyed volunteer legal work and has served as President of the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, and Trial Lawyers Care, a volunteer organization of about 1500 lawyers from all over the country which was formed after 9/11 and which represented, pro bono, 1700 families victimized by the terrorist attacks in claims before the federal Victim Compensation Fund.
CLARK ROWELL, Treasurer
Clark is a former Eliot parent who resides in Wellesley with his wife Eve and daughter Amanda. He rejoined the Board in December 2002 and has since assumed the position of Treasurer of the School. He previously served five years as a Trustee of the School, including two years as President of the Board . He has also served as Capital Campaign co-chair for two years. His daughter Amanda attended Eliot from lower-elementary through eighth grade, graduating in June 2000, and is a recent graduate of Connecticut College. Clark works for UniBank Fiscal Advisory Services, a financial advisory firm providing consulting and financing assistance to local and regional government units in Massachusetts and the rest of New England.
JAY PASCO-ANDERSON, Secretary
Jay, his wife Mindy, and their three children have been part of Eliot Montessori for nine years. Jay is an electrical engineer with twenty-five years of communications industry experience following BSEE and MEEE degrees from the University of Virginia. He holds twelve patents and has received numerous awards for technological innovation and for leading highly effective teams. After fifteen years at Motorola and one year at Cascade Communications, he became a co-founder of Sonus Networks (Nasdaq: SONS) -- still one of Massachusetts’ most successful telecommunications equipment companies. While at Sonus for the past nine years, Jay has designed new products and has led talented development teams. Jay enjoys sailing, meteorology and playing clarinet. His will assist the board on its mission to strengthen the future for Eliot’s unique learning environment.
Trustees
LAURIE DAVIS
Laurie and her husband Kirk live in Hopkinton with their 2 children, including Dylan, a 5th grader at Eliot. Laurie grew up in Toms River, NJ and graduated from Kutztown University with a BS in Communications. After several years as Promotions Director for a newspaper group in New Jersey, she moved to New Haven, CT, where she joined Sullivan and LeShane, a legislative lobbying firm specializing in public relations. After moving several more times, Laurie returned to school, attending Springfield College and California State - Northridge to complete her studies in Sports Psychology. Since moving back to Massachusetts and starting a family, Laurie has dedicated her time to being a full-time mom, volunteering and contributing to the family’s newspaper company. She enjoys athletics, reading, movies and being with her family. As a member of the Board, Laurie will be Chair of EMPA.
ROBIN GODINE
Robin lives in Sherborn with her husband Anthony and their two sons, Harry, currently a student in Lower El, and Aaron. Robin grew up in Marblehead, MA and holds a BA in Gerontology from the University of Bridgeport and an MS in Public Affairs from University of Massachusetts. She has worked in the field of Human Services her entire career, primarily working with adults with developmental disabilities. Her experience includes managing large community-based programs that successfully de-institutionalized individuals to lead productive lives in their community of choice. She is currently the Director of Customer Assessment at The MENTOR Network in Boston, where she designs and implements customer satisfaction surveys for people with disabilities, funding sources, parents, and guardians. Robin's survey work and data analysis is national in scope and involves more than 10,000 people per year.
DEB HANDY
In coming to the Eliot Montessori School, Deborah Handy returned home. She attended the Eliot School as a child when it was part of the Natick public school system. Those happy years inspired her to become a teacher, although she tried other types of work before the perfect opportunity presented itself in Ohio. In addition to teaching middle school English at two independent schools, Deb continued graduate studies in the humanities, sang with a choir, and raised her daughter. After almost twenty years, Deb moved to Maine where she taught in a small Montessori school. She immersed herself in the ideas and practices of Maria Montessori until events called her back to Massachusetts. At Eliot, Deb has teaches in the Middle School and, in her free time, serves on the vestry of a large Episcopal church in addition to other committees from Junior League to academia.
SUSAN HIGGINS
Susan is the Vice President at Summit Educational Group, Inc., a test preparation company based in Watertown. She began at Summit in 1993 as a part-time tutor while she was in graduate school. Her main responsibilities now are focused primarily on marketing and business development. She was a member of the first class at the Old Colony Montessori School in Hingham in the 1970s and actually participated in the ground breaking for the school’s current site. She then attended Derby Academy and graduated from Milton Academy. She earned her BA from Columbia University and her MBA from Boston University. She was attracted to Eliot by her love for the Montessori education approach and her commitment to increasing student achievement. She is particularly interested in providing marketing and fundraising support to the school.
JULIE BAKER
Julie and her husband David live in Natick with their daughter Eloise, who is currently a second-year student in Mr. Cohen’s class. The Bakers have been enormously impressed with the supportive and welcoming environment that the school provides. Eloise literally comes home from school humming and singing every day. Julie is excited about the opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors as a way of contributing to and continuing to make this wonderful community available to current and future children and their families. Julie is a graduate of MIT (’87) and B.C. Law (’90), and her law practice focused mainly on criminal defense work. She is currently an Associate Professor of Legal Writing at Suffolk University Law School in Boston and she not-so-secretly believes that many of the techniques for teaching first-year Montessori students translate directly to teaching first-year law students! She has served in the past on the Board of Directors of the Association of MIT Alumnae (AMITA). In her “spare” time, she enjoys reading and hanging around the MFA.
RUTH KAPLAN CALKA
Ruth and her husband, Jim, live in Hopkinton with their three sons. Their two younger boys are at Eliot, currently in Lower El and Kindergarten. Ruth grew up in Weston, MA and has an undergraduate degree from Brown University. After working for several years with developmentally-delayed children and their families, she returned to school and earned an MBA in Health Care Management from Boston University. From there, Ruth worked as a health care consultant, preparing strategic and business plans for small to mid-sized hospitals. She then became Vice President of Quality at Eagle Electric Supply Co., Inc., leading the company through the ISO 9002 registration process. For the past few years, Ruth has concentrated on the variety of thrills and challenges associated with raising three boys. In her sons’ previous Montessori school, Ruth was co-chair of the Parent Association. She is looking forward to her new involvement with Eliot.
MARK SCHMEHL
Mark and his wife, Clare, live in Natick. Their two children are in Kindergarten and Lower El at Eliot. Mark is a portfolio manager at Fidelity Investments. Mark is also a CFA charterholder and holds an MBA from Columbia University, as well as a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University. He is looking forward to using his skills to contribute to the success of the Eliot community. |
