Our board of trustees brings together a diverse group of professionals, alumni, and friends of Olney. With their wealth of experience and deep commitment to our school’s mission, they guide Olney Friends School into the future while honoring our rich Quaker heritage.
Ready to write the next chapter of your story at Olney?
Let’s begin this journey together!
Chris works at The Motley Fool Holdings, a financial advice and money management company with offices in DC, Denver, and Pittsburgh. He has held various roles over the course of his Foolish career, starting in 2005 as an Executive Assistant before working as a business analyst, and later attending law school and joining the legal team as Associate General Counsel in 2010. Starting in 2014, Chris put his legal and technology talents to work for Motley Fool Wealth Management as Director of Product where he works with a tech team to prioritize their work and set the direction for new client features. He also works with the legal team on storing client information, and security and retention policies.
Chris graduated from St. John’s College with a degree in Philosophy, and received his JD from Georgetown University Law Center. He moved to Denver, CO, in 2017 from Washington, DC, where he favored the Portrait Gallery out of all seventeen Smithsonian museums located the district.
Chris is a longtime friend of Headmaster Acemah, and joined the board in 2019.
Dottie (Stratton) Churchwell ’59 lives in Madison, WI. She graduated from Earlham College and has a master’s degree in mathematics from Indiana University. Dottie began her teaching career at Olney and that was followed by teaching at Friendsville Academy in Tennessee. She is now retired from a career in the Math Tutorial Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Twelve years ago she became involved in helping to run a small children’s summer camp in southern Wisconsin and this project continues. Dottie grew up in an Olney connected family with multiple generations of connections to the school and local area. Life at Olney was a good fit for her. She loved sharing a dorm room with two or three roommates, loved her classes and especially remembers learning about spring wildflowers in the Belmont County woods. Traveling with her astronomer husband to international astronomy conferences and telescope sites, having friends all over the world, visiting children and grandchildren in California, New Zealand and England, plus working in the garden at home are all important parts of Dottie’s life.
Drew is currently the Assistant Director of Experiential Learning and Diversity Initiatives at Haverford College’s Center for Career and Professional Advising. His previous experience includes: Director of Diversity and Community Service, Friends Seminary (NYC); Director of Student Life, Rockefeller College, Princeton University (NJ); Associate Director of Student Development, Macaulay Honors College/CUNY (NYC); and Enrollment Manager, Year Up Greater Philadelphia (PA). A graduate of Antioch College with a BA in English and a minor in Theater, Drew is grateful for having had opportunities to perform in a number of off-Broadway, regional theater, and cabaret productions throughout the 1990’s/early 2000’s after earning membership in the Actors Equity Association. He has also been a USTA-certified tennis instructor and coach (New York Junior Tennis League and Friends Seminary), and in 1989 founded the Philadelphia Falcons, one of the country’s first LGBTQ+ allies inclusive soccer clubs. Drew currently lives in Philadelphia and is the enormously proud brother of Suzanne Adair ’82, nephew of Mildred Brinson ’57 (deceased), and godfather of Jonas Robin ’15.
Elizabeth Sikkenga, teaches Entrepreneurship at the Eastern Michigan University College of Business and is a strategy and marketing consultant for small businesses. Her work experience is varied: she was the chief editor of SMID, the annual annotated bibliography of early Aegean script studies; taught English as a foreign language in Greece and Turkey; and developed the University of Michigan undergraduate application following the landmark Supreme Court decision Gratz v. Bollinger. She has an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BA in classics from Earlham College, and also spent many long years as a graduate student in linguistics at UT-Austin.
Most importantly, she is the parent of Joe Velick, ’18.
Gwen graduated from Olney in 1978 and earned a BA in Theater at Otterbein University and an MFA in Acting at Ohio University. She spent several years in Cleveland, working in the Shakespeare in the Schools program at the Great Lakes Theater Festival. She has taught acting, improvisation, voice, scene study and Shakespeare.
Most recently she has worked as a writer and editor in financial services and risk management, managing newsletters, websites and communications planning and execution. She is on the leadership committee of her firm’s Racial & Ethnic Diversity employee resource group, and has also been a diversity & inclusion trainer and consultant, and done pro bono and freelance grant writing. She has volunteered for the Posse Foundation, City Harvest and Streetwise Partners. She lives in central New Jersey.
Joel has deep roots with Olney besides graduating in 1983. He was born in Barnesville while his parents worked at Olney; many relatives have attended and/or worked at Olney in many capacities. After graduating, Joel earned certifications for aircraft maintenance to scratch his aviation itch and studied engineering for a time at Ohio State. Other work included as a technician in a small research lab in Columbus related to environmental chemical cleanup and aviation maintenance work on airliners in Everett, Washington before finding his way back to Olney as head of maintenance from 1999 to 2013. Since 2013 he has been self-employed in construction and repair work, much of which is focused on Locust Hill, the large earth-sheltered concrete building at Raven Rocks.
Raven Rocks, a natural area well known to Olneyites for generations was purchased by a group of graduates in 1970 to preserve the land and share it with others. Joel and wife, Shelley ’82 (you guessed it, we met at Olney), are Raven Rocks members and help with projects in that effort. They live on a separate property just south of
Barnesville amongst the trees and furry/feathered friends.
Judy Stanfield graduated from Olney in 1965, attended Earlham College, and later earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting from Indiana University Southeast in 1975. She worked in public accounting for most of her career, starting with the very large Deloitte and finishing with her own smaller practice, specializing in non-profit audits in Washington, DC.
She is an eighth generation Quaker, and proud to have her tenth generation represented at Olney by her grandson, Will Quinn, Class of 2021.
Lisa attended Olney for three years and graduated in 1972. She attended Wilmington College for two years, and then received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Miami University in 1976. She later earned a Masters’ in Child Care Administration from Nova Southwestern University in 1992. Lisa’s calling in life is to make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable children. She is currently the Director of the Head Start program in Warren County, Ohio, where she has worked for over 35 years.
Lisa is married to Markus Roberts, whom she met at Olney. They have two grown children, Aaron and Rachel, and they dote on three wonderful grandchildren who live nearby! Lisa is an active member of Community Friends Meeting in Cincinnati, where she currently serves as clerk of the Ministry and Counsel Committee and teaches First Day School.
After graduating from Olney, Mimi earned a B.A. from Earlham College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Purdue University. Friends Boarding School, as it was then known, has played a key role in her life, not only through its Quaker values but also as a shaper of her beliefs and practices as an educator. She believes that it is important to meet students where they are, but even more important to challenge them to exceed what they believe they can do. Once, after a difficult descent on a steep ski run, the instructor gathered the class and said, “Don’t rush to the chair lift in a hurry to get out of here. Stop, and look back up the hill. Appreciate what you have accomplished, knowing now that you can do it again.” That’s the kind of spirit Olney fosters.
During her career as a professor of English, she has taught writing and business communication to undergraduates at Prince George’s Community College (Maryland) and to graduate MBA students at Purdue University (Indiana) and Georgetown University (Washington, DC). She also authored college-level writing and business communication textbooks and built a consulting practice that took her organizations across the country. During 12 years as chair of the English Department at Prince George’s, Mimi managed a faculty of 75 and led statewide curriculum development and assessment committees. In 2013 she received the President’s Medal, the highest honor awarded by her college. These experiences as a faculty member, administrator, and educational consultant have informed her service on Olney’s board of trustees.
Mimi and her husband, Gary, enjoy international travel. Their first date was to the American Embassy library in Copenhagen as Earlham students on Scandinavia study abroad. Gary is a chemist, retired from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His current project is restoring a 1946 Harley-Davidson motorcycle. For fun Mimi reads mystery and detective fiction, a hobby that has evolved into a course she teaches at the Johns Hopkins University-Osher Institute. She is a member of Sandy Spring Friends Meeting.
The Kramer home in Gaithersburg, MD, is ruled by two Siamese cats.
Ramona Buck was in the graduating class of 1965 at Olney Friends School. She went on to the University of Iowa, as well as George Mason University in Virginia. She started her working career as a teacher at Sandy Spring Friends School and held other positions there as well, including Director of Admissions. She transitioned to Conflict Resolution and became a mediator, working at the Northern Virginia Mediation Service, the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, the Maryland Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office and finally at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Now retired from full time work, she carries on some mediation activities and serves on a number of Quaker and other committees.
She is a member of Patapsco Friends Meeting in Ellicott City, Maryland and treasures her Quaker background. She began on the Board of Olney Friends School in 2023.
After earning a BS in Biology from Heidelberg University and an MS in Invertebrate Zoology from The Ohio State University, Sandy has had a varied career as a community organizer, mother, Medicaid bureau chief, and organic farmer. She has previously served Olney Friends School in various roles under four different administrations: as Director of Admissions (1999-2004), temporary Cook, Health teacher, and Assistant Farmer (2010-2016). Sandy is delighted to return by joining the Board of Trustees, as she is particularly passionate about healthy food and farming, hands-on interdisciplinary learning, and supportive living in a strong Quaker community.
As an educator with 48 years of experience, I am deeply honored to rejoin the Board of Trustees at Olney Friends School. My career has been devoted to middle school education, specifically grades 6th-8th, where I have worked with students during the formative and often challenging adolescent years. I have had the privilege of teaching in diverse educational settings, including DC Public Schools, Sidwell Friends, and Montgomery County Public Schools. These experiences have shaped my understanding of the unique needs of middle school learners as they navigate self-discovery and growth. My journey as an educator was inspired by my own transformative experience at Olney Friends School, which I attended as a sophomore after learning about it as a ninth grader. Olney provided me with the academic rigor and social connection I so deeply needed, leaving an indelible mark on my life and inspiring my lifelong dedication to science education.
My commitment to education has extended beyond the classroom. I have served on the National Science Teachers Association and the Board of Trustees at St. John’s College in Annapolis, where I worked to promote excellence in science and liberal arts education. Although retired, I remain active in the field as an adjunct professor at Montgomery College, where I continue to share my passion for learning with the next generation of students. As a parent to three children, a grandparent to two, and a proud owner of two cats, I understand the importance of creating supportive and nurturing environments for growth. Returning to Olney’s Board of Trustees is a profound honor, and I look forward to giving back to this remarkable institution that shaped my life so profoundly. It is my hope to contribute to the continuation of Olney’s mission, fostering the same transformative experiences for future generations.
