School Leadership

Member of 15th St. Meeting

Antonia Smith is a special education teacher and advocate living with her husband and son in Brooklyn, NY. She is a first grade ASD Nest special education teacher at the New York City Department of Education and an Early Intervention Therapist. Prior to classroom teaching, Antonia worked at several New York community-based organizations including Greenwich House and Children’s Aid. She served for five years as the Managing Director of Stoked Mentoring, Inc. (STOKED), a sports and education nonprofit that works to close the opportunity gap for underserved young people in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. While at STOKED, Antonia served as a Fellow in Cape Town, South Africa through the International Sports Programming Initiative, a sports diplomacy program using sport to promote leadership skills, tolerance and respect for diversity. For several years, she ran a mentoring program for court-involved and formerly incarcerated youth in Brooklyn. Antonia has taught college and graduate students at Guttman Community College and the College of Staten Island. She earned a BA from the University of Chicago, an MS.Ed from Touro College, and a PhD from Teachers College Columbia University. A member of 15th Street Monthly Meeting, Antonia is committed to a life of service to others.

Member of Germantown Monthly Meeting

Mariana is a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting in Philadelphia and attended Friends Seminary from Kindergarten through High School, graduating in 2007. Mariana works at the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development as Executive Director of Policy and Operations in the Office of the First Deputy Commissioner. Previously she was Chief of Staff to a New York City Council Member and held other roles in the Mayor’s Office and NYC Health + Hospitals.

Mariana attended McGill University, double-majoring in Political Science and Psychology, and the London School of Economics (MSc in International Development). She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Homer (also a Friends alum).

Schuyler Allen-Kalb is an international education expert with more than 20 years of experience in program management, outreach, media relations and campaigns. She holds particular expertise in identifying and curating compelling program participant impact stories, building higher education institutional relationships, and has lobbied for the Fulbright Program on Capitol Hill. During her tenure with the Fulbright Program and the U.S. Department of State, she established the Fulbright Alumni Ambassador Program, which trains talented, diverse alumni to represent and promote Fulbright globally. Schuyler holds a B.A. in English and French from Wesleyan University and an M.A. in international affairs from The George Washington University. She has served on the Friends Seminary Alumni Council and as a Friends Alumni Annual Fund Co-Chair. Currently, she serves as a Wesleyan University Class Chair and the Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee at the Williamsburg Northside School. A native New Yorker who grew up in Greenwich Village, she resides in Brooklyn with her husband Kevin and daughter Helena.

Member of Poughkeepsie Meeting

Peter F. Baily serves as executive director of AIMS, the Association of Independent MD & DC School, which includes four Friends schools within its membership. He began his career in education in 1978 and has worked at six different schools in five states. From 2000 to 2015, he served as head of Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie NY. A graduate of Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, Peter has Quaker roots on both sides of the Delaware River, and he has just completed ten years of board service at Moorestown Friends School in NJ. He is a member of Poughkeepsie Friends Meeting in Dutchess County, NY, and he is a former board member of Friends Council on Education. He lives in Baltimore, MD.

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Nicole is a partner at Summit Rock Advisors, an independent advisory firm that provides financial advice and portfolio management to a select number U.S.-based charitable institutions and families. The firm serves as the outsourced investment office for each client, providing customized advice and solutions. In her role, Nicole leads the design, implementation and ongoing oversight of client investment portfolios and serves on the firm’s Investment and Operating Committees.

Nicole has been a member of the Friends Seminary community since 2016, serving as a member of the school’s Investment Committee for several years before joining the Board of Trustees. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Council’s Investment Advisory Group. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MPA from the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government and a B.S. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Nicole is originally from Bethesda, MD, and attended Sidwell Friends School from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. She lives in the Madison Square Park neighborhood of New York City with her husband Michael, son Henry ’32, and daughter Emma '35.

Member of Westbury Monthly Meeting

Polly has taught French language / French and Francophone literature and cultures, since 1986, first at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Oxford University, then at Andover (Phillips Academy), then as a doctoral fellow at Columbia University, and between 2001 and 2023, as Head of World Languages and Cultures at Friends Academy, a Quaker school on the north shore of Long Island. Along with teaching French at FA, Polly also teaches a Quaker-based senior reflections course, serves as Co-Clerk of Westbury Monthly Meeting, Coordinator of New York Yearly Meeting’s JYM (Junior Yearly Meeting), member of NYYM’s Ministry and Counsel Committee, member of NYYM’s Gun Violence Prevention Committee, and board member of both Friends Council on Education and the Westbury Friends School. Polly is President of the New York-Metropolitan Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French. She has received numerous awards, including Columbia University’s Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching, Friends Academy’s Master Teacher Award, AATF’s Evelyn Popper Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the AATF Outstanding Chapter Officer Award. In 2018, she was awarded Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

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Faculty

Shayri Greenwood is a neuroscientist, educator and currently the Science department chair as well as a Middle and Upper School teacher at Friends Seminary. A native of New York City, Shayri earned her PhD in Biological Psychology (Integrative Neuroscience) and her MA in Psychology from Stony Brook University. She has taught research and writing courses, biopsychology courses as well as life science and biology courses at the undergraduate and K-12 level for over ten years. Shayri is particularly passionate about supporting students of color in the sciences and has mentored and trained a number of science scholars who have obtained advanced degrees in research and medical fields.

After graduating from Friends in 2007, Ian earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and International Relations from Brown University. Ian is the Chief Financial Officer of Talkspace, Inc. (NASDAQ: TALK), a leading healthcare technology company that provides virtual behavioral healthcare services. Prior to joining Talkspace, Ian was a Partner at Hudson Executive Capital LP, a value-oriented investment firm based in New York, where he focused on investments in financial services, technology and healthcare. He is a board member of Cantaloupe, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTLP), a software and payments company that provides end-to-end technology solutions for the self-serve commerce industry. He also serves on the board of Liberated Syndication Inc., a leading provider of podcast hosting and advertising services.

In 2016, Ian helped develop and served as an inaugural member of the Young Alumni Board Fellow program at Friends. More recently, he joined the Alumni Council in 2020 and served as a co-clerk of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force in 2020-2021. As a Friends “lifer,” the Quaker education he received at Friends has had a foundational impact on Ian.

Member of Paulina Friends Meeting

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Isaac is a lifelong Quaker. He grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts and attended the Cambridge Friends School and frequently attended Friends Meeting at Cambridge. During the summer, he attended Farm and Wilderness Camp, a Quaker Camp, in Vermont. He attended the George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania and frequently attended the meeting associated with the school as well as other meetings in Bucks County. His wedding took place in the Quaker Meeting House in Nantucket where his family regularly attends during the summer. He is the parent of Jade ‘25 and Miles ‘28.

Isaac is currently a senior project manager at L+M Development Partners, a real estate development company that focuses on the development of affordable and mixed-income housing.  Prior to working at L+M, he was employed at two real estate development companies in San Francisco and New York, both of which focused on developing affordable housing. He graduated with a Master’s in Urban Planning from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and completed his undergraduate work at Grinnell College in Iowa with a major in Economics.

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Jared is a Senior Managing Director at Centerbridge Partners, a private investment management firm employing a flexible approach across investment disciplines—private equity, private credit and real estate—in an effort to develop the most attractive opportunities for its investors. He focuses mainly on investments in the Technology, Media & Telecom sector. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of various portfolio company investments. Jared joined the Investment Committee of the Board in September 2019 and currently is the co-clerk. He previously served on the Light the Future Campaign Committee as well as a co-chair of the Fund for Friends. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Teak Fellowship and the Partnership Fund for New York City. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Jared is originally from the Washington, D.C. area and graduated from the Sidwell Friends school. He has two children at the school, a daughter in Class of ’29 and a son in Class of ’32.

Member of 15th Street Meeting

Lorraine Kreahling is a writer, editor, TV producer and illustrator.  She came to Friends through the Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology, an eighty-year-old Philadelphia-based Quaker organization with an interest in the intersection of spiritual growth through Quaker practice and depth psychology. She served on FCRP's board for several decades and is currently clerk.

She received her M.A. from NYU where she wrote her graduate thesis on C.G. Jung’s theory of individuation as mirrored in fairy tales, and did post-graduate work in journalism at Columbia. Her B.A. is from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

She has been a regular contributor to the New York Times, including to the Tuesday Science section. She has written for a range of publications—from Cosmopolitan to Crain’s New York Business, and on a wide range of subjects from commercial real estate to eating disorders, from the mechanics of yoga to environmental conservation.

She is at work on a memoir, The Green Hotel, the story of a historic home lost to a propane explosion and fire and rebuilt with local craftsmen and an environmentally friendly heating and cooling geothermal system, a subject she’s written about for The New York Times.

Member of the Ridgewood Meeting

Andrew is a birthright Friend. His family has longstanding connections to the 15th Street Meeting and Friends Seminary. Both his parents were members of the Meeting school committee. He attended Friends Seminary, as did his brother and sister. He graduated from Haverford College with a BA in political science. After a long corporate career in consumer products marketing, he worked in real estate development.

Andrew is a member and past clerk of the Ridgewood Monthly Meeting and is the clerk of the Ridgewood Friends Neighborhood Nature School committee.

Member of 15th Street Meeting

Buxton is the Vice President of Marketing in the New York office for Supima, the promotional brand of the U.S. Pima cotton industry. His background includes working as a Strategy Consultant specializing in retail and apparel for Kurt Salmon Associates (KSA). Previous to working at KSA, Buxton was the Director of Latin American Operations for the U.S. cotton industry. Buxton has an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business, an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Economics and Latin American Studies from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He attended Westtown Friends in West Chester, PA. Buxton lives with his wife and three daughters in Lower Manhattan where he is involved in community activities and is an active advocate for public education. Buxton is a member of 15th Street Meeting and serves on the Budget & Collections Committee.

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Sarah Min promotes the advancement of mission-driven organizations who are transforming how to use technology, media and person-to-person outreach to mobilize people and change perceptions about and build political power for women and people of color. She serves as a director on nonprofit boards, including Color of Change, EMILY’s List and the High Line. Sarah currently serves on President Biden’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians & Pacific Islanders. Previously, Sarah was an independent consultant, working with clients such as HBO, Penguin Random House and other nonprofits, following her tenure as EVP, Marketing & Corporate Development for ScrollMotion, an enterprise software company. Sarah was also the Managing Editor of Vibe and Domino magazines, a Director of corporate development at media conglomerate Bertelsmann, as well as President of literary publishing company McSweeney’s. Sarah holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana. She lives in New York City with her husband Matt Pincus and two sons Sy Pincus '26 and Irving Pincus '28.

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Katherine “KK” Peabody is a Certified Conflict Mediator and Restorative Circle-Keeper who works with families, school communities and workplace teams to build meaningful connections and resolve conflicts compassionately. She implements restorative practices such as conflict coaching, mediation, conflict transformation training and Restorative Circles.

Conflict is never just about the concrete issues we see. Restorative practices help uncover the relational, emotional and energetic elements which exist within a conflict. KK has designed and presented in-school programs for team building, conflict resolution, dignity fluency, as well as Restorative Circle training for faculty and students within independent schools. She led Conflict Resolution training for organizations including CSEE www.csee.org. KK founded Boys Adventure Circles in 2018 www.boysadventurecircle.com, a program combining movement exercises with restorative circle discussions to cultivate emotional fluency, empathy and compassion practices for boys.

KK received her BS in Anthropology from Santa Clara University. She believes in the transformative power of storytelling and was a Trustee for the Williamstown Theater Festival www.wtfestival.org from 2007-2024. There she co-chaired the Cultural Transformation Committee, led Conflict Resolution Processes for the staff and Board, and worked closely with consultants from artEquity www.artequity.org.

KK and her husband, Bo, have three sons who attend Friends Seminary. They live in Tribeca and on their farm in Williamstown, MA.

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Jeffrey Penn is an attorney specializing in executive compensation and employee benefits in corporate transactional settings. He has practiced in the New York offices of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton and has also worked in the employment legal department of Google, Inc. on M&A transactions and as a legal recruiter. Jeff received his BA in anthropology from Brown University and his JD from Columbia University School of Law. He served on the Board of the Montessori Day School of Brooklyn from 2011 to 2015 and as the Board’s secretary from 2012-2013. Since 2015, he has been a board member of the School Empowerment Network, a non-profit organization whose mission is to foster excellence and equity in public schools. He is the co-clerk of the Board's Diversity, Equity, and Belonging Committee. Jeff lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Gingi, and daughters, Zora ‘25, and Althea ‘30.

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Sabrina Philson is Chief of Staff for the Bronx, NY State Assembly Member Michael Blake. She is also the Principal and Co-Founder of Epsilon Advisors, LLC, a strategic planning, new business development and advocacy consulting firm focused on Minority and Women-Owned Businesses.

A native of Washington, DC, and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania,  Sabrina has two decades of experience in financial services and management consulting. While at JP Morgan Chase, Sabrina was the Chief Financial Officer for the Private Bank’s Liquidity Products Group and Vice-President of the Strategic Advisory Group, an internal management consulting team. Sabrina led the team that designed executive management analytics for strategic planning, process reengineering,  and profitability analysis. After over a decade in finance, Sabrina joined Bill Lynch Associates, a  Minority-Owned public relations and political affairs firm, as the Chief Operating Officer and  Head of Client Services. Leveraging her experience in organizational management and politics,  Sabrina has also managed political campaigns.

Driven by a desire to promote educational equity for students of color, Sabrina assisted in the creation of three charter high schools and a charter management organization in Brooklyn, NY.  Recognized for her experience in charter school management, Harvard’s Graduate School of  Education invited her to instruct national charter school leaders on financial management in their annual Charter Schools Institute, for three consecutive years.

With a passion for non-profit board governance and strategic planning, Sabrina has worked with dozens of non-profit organizations as a facilitator and trainer, executive coach, management consultant and Board Member. She has served in a variety of board positions including Board  President, Treasurer, Audit and Finance Committee Chairperson and also trains non-profit  Trustees on governance, strategic planning and financial management. 

As part of her personal mission to promote financial literacy and entrepreneurship in communities of color, Sabrina co-founded a non-profit, Beyond the Bling, Inc., to empower youth through financial literacy. She taught Beyond the Bling’s curriculum to the Harlem Educational Activities  Fund’s high school students from 2008-2012. Sabrina also instructed entrepreneurs through the  Harlem Commonwealth Council and NYC Business Solutions entrepreneurship training programs.

Sabrina heeds her mother’s advice that “each generation must do their part to pick up the mantle of activism”. She is inspired by the activism and political curiosity that she witnesses in youth,  especially in her high school son, Julian.

Member of Morningside Meeting

Lee Rada currently works as senior construction manager for Olshan Properties. She has worked in the NYC real estate/construction industry for more than twenty years and especially enjoys the challenges of working on historic properties. Lee is a convinced Friend, joining NYC’s Morningside Meeting in 2011. She is passionate about building Quakers and Business—a group that works to establish a network of Quaker-friendly entrepreneurs and business people. Lee also served as clerk of Morningside Meeting and has been on many Quaker Committees. She has a BBA in marketing from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and an MBA in finance and operations management from Baruch College in NYC.

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Jackie is an active member of the Friends parent community and served as the Co-Head of the Lower School Parents Association.  She has also served as a member of the Fund for Friends Committee and as a Lower School Class Representative. She serves on the Board's Investment Committee. Jackie recently left a 21-year career at Credit Suisse where she worked in Financial Sponsors, High Yield Capital Markets and most recently served as Head of High Yield Sales. She served as Head of Fixed Income Recruiting at the University of Pennsylvania and also ran the Diversity Program for Leveraged Finance. Jackie was born and raised in Philadelphia and moved to New York in 2000 where she now lives with her husband, Adam and children Jacob '29 and Samantha '32. She is an active member of the Board of Directors at Project Morry, a comprehensive, youth development organization dedicated to providing young people from under-resourced communities in the tri-state area with access to valuable resources, experiences and support.

Member of Morningside Meeting

Naledi Sean Semela ’06 is an equity practitioner, educator, and coach. A graduate of Friends Seminary, Colgate University, and the University of Pennsylvania, he currently serves as the Chief Equitable Practices Officer at the Browning School in Manhattan. Naledi is also a Trustee of the Town School, which runs from 3k-8th grade on the Upper East Side, and a former member of the NYSAIS Diversity Committee. He is a member of Morningside Meeting. Prior service to Friends includes being a clerk of the alumni council and an associate trustee through the Board’s young alumni fellowship. Naledi lives in New Jersey with his wife, Jaliz, their daughter, Amaia, and their French bulldog, Young Seamus.

Member of Ithaca Meeting

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Quaker testimonies were a foundation of his family upbringing, including prominently peace and equality; his family was active in the Anti-war and Anti-nuclear movement and the Sanctuary and Social Justice movements. He regularly participated in Powell House from 4th grade all the way to high school and was also a Junior Counselor. He also was a frequent attendee at Silver Bay for the New York Junior Yearly Meeting during the summer.

His children, Arisa '24 and Sara '30, joined Friends Seminary in 2018. Friends’ philosophy brings Quaker foundations to his children’s daily lives while supporting rigorous intellectual development. It is an important community for his family. A further connection, Doug and Rie Kadota married under the care of the Ithaca Meeting at the Fifteenth Street Meeting House in August 2003.

Doug chairs the Program and Planning Committee for the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) Advisory Council of Cornell University where Doug and Rie met. The Committee is charged with providing direction and support to the CIPA program broadly and its Director regarding programming, curriculum, and other matters to help promote and enhance the professional Master in Public Administration. He is also a board member of the New York Theatre Ballet since 2014.

Professionally, Doug is a Managing Director at Deloitte, based in New York and is the Global Incentives Leader for the Deloitte US Firm, leading tax and financial incentives economic development consulting services for private enterprises with a team located both in the US and globally. He has worked in public policy and economic development for 25 years.