Mike Caine – Director of Security and Environmental Health and Safety.

“Since March Mike has lead the research and fed the processes to keep us all safe from Covid. He is genial and supportive and deeply aware of our needs for safety, physical and mental well-being. He stands out as our voice of calm and consistency.” – Katharine Wardle

Maggie West – Nurse

“Up at 5am, Maggie reviews and calls any Covid possible reports. Calls and guides staff and faculty through the stress and gets us up to speed and keeps the community safe!” – Katharine Wardle

Jodi Biskup – Nurse

“Jodi has been a rock star during the Covid pandemic. She has handled the changing protocols like a smooth sailing ship through rocky seas. We are so lucky to have her! She has led our pandemic response team to meet the ongoing demands of the virus gracefully. Both staff and students alike will go to her for care and she shows them all careful concern. We want to thank her for all her continuing efforts and award a superstar to Nurse Jodi!” – Marya Davis

Olivia Ceja – School Nurse and Campus Healthcare Provider

“Olivia started at our school this summer andhit the ground running, She is our first school nurse, and had to quickly help us navigate the changing protocols regarding COVID, our return to school and return to play plans. She has gone above and beyond to ensure we are taking necessary measures to ensure the safety and well-being of our students and staff.” – Sheila Pauley

“Olivia Ceja was hired as Marlborough School’s inaugural School Nurse in July 2020 and has played a vital role in the day to day operations of a virtual academic year since her first day on the job. Olivia hit the ground running in order to prepare the School for hybrid and in person instruction. Additionally, she has taken the lead on many COVID-19 related tasks including one that has allowed our athletic department to safely and effectively hold small group workouts for our student-athletes. In an unprecedented year like 2020, Olivia has been a ray of sunshine that Marlborough is so blessed to have and in which we would otherwise have been completely lost without her guidance and knowledge. She is an absolute pleasure to work with and is motivated and driven to meet her patients’ needs. I am honored to nominate Olivia for the Magnus Frontline Heroes Program.” – Chloe Kipnis

Smadar Bezalel – Head Athletic Trainer

“Smadar goes above and beyond to ensure her patients get the best care, even during this Pandemic. During these unprecedented times she immersed herself in COVID policies and procedures to ensure the health and safety for our entire school. She has put herself on the front lines doing prescreen questionnaires and temperature checks to ensure our student athletes are able to participate in physical activity in a safe manner. Smadar is hero and I am thankful for her leadership.” – Caitlin Rutherford

Nathan Humphreys – Director of Operations and Campus Safety

“From the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Nathan has worked tirelessly to improve our campus protocols and get our school ready for instruction. He has worked with local leaders and medical professionals to help Milken meet the guidelines needed to reopen. Nathan has personally reached out to families, faculty, and staff to provide support in any way possible. And, he has been a key champion for those faculty and staff members that feel they do not have a voice with senior leadership during this pandemic. If Los Angeles allowed students back on campuses, Milken has established all the proper policies, procedures, and protocols to make it happen in large part because of Nathan Humphreys.” – Robert Miles 

Marcy Kwitny – Health Director

“Marcy is our School Health Director and has been working tirelessly to create and implement protocols and guidelines for all the different facets of our school from lower to middle to high school. She is in constant contact with our Public health department and has been working hard to get our students back to school in a safe manner. She is selfless and always has the students’ best interest at heart. She is well deserving of this nomination.” – Rob Mikels

Cassidie Lewis – Nurse

“Cassidie has been at the forefront of our pandemic response team. She is in constant contact with our team, making the necessary adjustments to our mode of operation depending on the best practices from the CDC and our group of experts. She has worked tirelessly to make our campus a safe and welcoming place for our students once they are allowed to return to campus.” – Kirstin McDonald

Orit Rappaport – Administrator of Operations

“Orit has been living and breathing COVID-19 since it first started. She has taken multiple classes pertaining to COVID-19. She has written all the COVID protocols for our ECC, Day School, and our synagogue. She continues to update our protocols and educate the staff and faculty on our campus. By the beginning of August, she had succeeded in putting all the safety measures that our DPH requires to open our school. She works very long hours and never complains.” –  Marcie Spetner

Heather Elken – Nurse

“Heather is extremely organized, meticulous, shows empathy to both students and families, and has a calming demeanor that is comforting to be around. Her knowledge and expertise about Covid-19 have been paramount to our school’s success in stopping the spread of Covid-19 as it relates to students, athletes or faculty/staff. Heather has thrived as not only the school nurse, but also as head Covid-19 Coordinator for our school. She has done numerous. trainings with faculty and staff, trained a new nurse for the school, and been in constant communication with the Covid-19 Team. Without her, we would not be able to have every girl here every day. Heather deserves all the recognition.” – Christina Cauliffe

Ashley Banks – Director of Nursing

“Ashley has devoted her life the past 8 months to keeping the students and staff safe. Developing policies, testing, planning for the “what-if’s”, worrying, not sleeping, crying, and rejoicing. She has led her health center team to what I call a victory, not one student even had cold-like symptoms. The boarding school nurse role has changed tremendously, and Ashley has stepped up putting in the hours of never-ending work.” – Stacy Banks

Anna Jette – Nurse

“Anna Jette is a hero to Wooster School in her efforts to ensure the safety of our students, faculty, and staff as we returned to campus this fall. Her expertise in health and safety has helped our school put together protocols that guided our mantra – “Stronger, Safer, Together” – so that we could keep each other safe and stay together on campus. Anna has also been tireless in caring for the community despite the difficulties presented by contact tracing, quarantine, isolation, and all of the other complications presented by the pandemic. Anna has gone above and beyond in her tireless efforts to ensure the safety of our community.” – Matt Byrnes

Diane Kerr – Nurse

“I was so very excited when I saw this email! It was immediate that I wanted to acknowledge my coworker and friend, Diane Kerr, as our school hero. We all know the extent that COVID has taken on changing the way our school days go. Everything has changed, from school arrival, the way seats are arranged, specials being discontinued, the way students navigate the hallways, dismissal. Everything has changed…WE all have changed. But, I can honestly say, the one thing which has remained the same in my school, is the never ending care delivered by our school nurse. Diane’s calm nature immediately puts even our youngest kids to ease. Diane has assisted our COVID Team in the development of our new school protocols, built an isolation area, moved offices, delivered care AND became an IT person as we instituted this new Magnus program for our school. In this very overwhelming time, when any thing can change on a dime, Diane remains steady. She is my lighthouse in this storm.” – Kathy Watson

Alexis Herbein – Nurse

“Lexy has been the pillar our school needs to guide us through this pandemic. Every decision is thought out and is made in the best interest of our school and community. She is endlessly working to keep us safe and unified in school.” – Jessica Hart

Elizabeth Hardage – Head of School

“Mrs. Hardage joined the All Saints Academy team as our new Head of School in January 2020. As she was learning our names, we all learned about the pandemic. It soon became clear that Mrs. Hardage would never ask the team to do anything she was unwilling to do. Florida was locked down due to Covid 19 during our Spring Break. Mrs. Hardage went to work developing our Summer Camp Guidelines and our Covid Reopening Plan. This was all in the midst of developing a Distance Learning Plan which eventually became our Flex Learning Plan when we returned to school in August. Our seniors were able to participate in a socially distanced and safe graduation ceremony. A new math curriculum was chosen, our health benefits were renegotiated, and our Strategic Plan (five-year vision of school) was mapped out. We did learn that Mrs. Hardage does NOT do alligators! We had a small alligator waiting on campus for us on a Monday morning when we returned to school after a long weekend but she chose to social distance! She continues to lead by example daily and we are blessed to have her.” – Paulette Wiley

Kimberly Harrison – Clinical Nurse Informatics Coordinator/Occupational Health Nurse

“We are a large school, over 2600 students. Kimberly has help train faculty, families and students to use our Magnus program to the fullest potential. In addition, she is a leader with our Covid response team. Her knowledge, expertise and kind way of engaging with all our community has been a stabilizing force. We are blessed to have her on our team.” – Dana Markham

Kacey Schock – Head Nurse

“Kacey is a veteran Army Soldier that is absolutely amazing! She is constantly working to make sure our school is safe for all individuals that are living on campus.” – Kyllene Carter

Charlene Dougal – Assistant Head of School/Head of COVID Task Force

“Charlene came out of retirement to act as the interim Assistant Head of School, PK3-12th, due to loss of leadership. As part of her duties, Charlene chairs the COVID Task Force, which since May spent countless hours in meetings, formulating action plans and protocols to allow the school to offer face-to-face learning during the pandemic. Currently, the school is beginning our 17th week of face to face learning with the COVID-19 protocols in place. In addition, Charlene fields innumerable amounts of phone calls and emails from parents, faculty, and staff in regard to issues related to COVID. She is objective and supportive of her COVID Task Force and those on campus who report to her daily. Charlene does all of this with a spirit of charity, grateful heart, and an abundance of grace. She truly is amazing and an exemplary hero to our school and the reason the school has remained open to offering learning to the children in our community.” – Missy Collins

Missy Collins – Nurse

“Missy has worked endlessly this year to keep our school safe. She lovingly takes care of the students and staff, has dealt with many issues from technologically challenged parents, and stood firm and true to guidelines when it would have been easier to back down. She is level headed and I would (and do) fully trust her with the care of my children. Missy is a hero at our school who handles every situation with grace and humility.” – Rose Mary Herbert

Lisa Brummer – Nurse

“Lisa is our head nurse at The Paideia School. She has been the lead contact in setting up our coming back on campus plans. She has had a huge task and has done the work with a smile and a kind word always. This is not an easy time and Lisa has made it as easy as it can be.” – Brad Johnson

Cheryl Minor – Lead Nurse

“When the pandemic hit in March, Nurse Minor was on the front line of defense for our school. She gathered information, formed letters to faculty and parents, watched webinars, and prepared her fellow nurses for what was to come. Nurse Minor was calm yet firm as to what we as a school needed to do to be prepared. Once our school board decided to reopen in August, I was in awe as to the vast knowledge of Covid-19 information Nurse Minor acquired quickly in an effort to remain ahead of the situation. She was able to calm the fears of faculty, staff and students all while instructing them on how to be safe while at school and home. Nurse Minor lobbied for the Magnus Covid app to be used in our school beginning with day 1. The app is vital to maintaining low numbers of Covid-related illness in our schools. Our faculty and parents are well aware that the Magnus app is a trusted tool in maintaining in-person learning. I think Nurse Minor is a Magnus Frontline Hero! Thank you, Nurse Minor!”- Phyllis Sullivan

“Cheryl has gone above and beyond for Woodward Academy. I was new to school nursing last year (prior to the pandemic) and Cheryl was always there to help. I can ask her any question and she is always willing to walk me through a situation. With COVID-19, Cheryl has been absolutely amazing for our school. She is available around the clock for any questions and is compassionate with our parents and students. Cheryl is a wealth of information surrounding the pandemic. She has created policies, worked with our COVID task force, and has tirelessly worked to complete contact tracing when needed. She has been pivotal in keeping our students and staff safe at Woodward and we are so thankful to have her!” – Kelly Alladina

“For over 30 years, Nurse Minor has tended the physical and emotional needs of our community of nearly 3000 students and employees. She has been especially attentive during this pandemic, reassuring us all and keeping us open. No one on our campus is respected more nor more deserving of our respect.” – Stuart Gulley

“Cheryl has gone above and beyond to help keep our students and our community safe! She has been a great resource for myself and my team when it comes to contact tracing and is always willing to jump in and lend a hand! She lets us all know that we are all in this together. Without her, I’m not sure our school would function anywhere near as efficiently as it does with her! She has become not just a great colleague but a good friend through all of this. Not sure what I (or anyone at this school) would do without her!” – Laura Taylor

Essence Msimangira – Nurse

“Essence is truly one of a kind. She cares for all of our students and staff as if they were her children or part of her family. She’s gentle, caring, supportive, and devoted to our entire community’s health and safety. I’m Essence’s direct supervisor, and I know first hand how hard she works on campus and even on the weekends. She’s dedicated to keeping up-to-date with the latest changes and announcements concerning COVID-19. Essence is a remarkable person with a heart of gold and a smile that can brighten the room. When she’s not caring for our sick or injured students, she’s supporting our staff emotionally who have concerns being on campus during the pandemic. People always tell me she is so easy to talk to, which is probably why she always has a line outside of her office. Everyone on campus loves and adores Nurse Essence. Our school wouldn’t be the same without our superhero.” – Rachel Pujol

Sarah Frick – Director of Advancement

“Sarah has gone above and beyond in regard to being involved in every aspect of COVID-19 related issues at our school. She is available 24/7 for consultation to set up meetings, send out letters to positive COVID cases, close contacts, faculty and staff and our school community. She organizes and leads our Health and safety Task force meetings, addresses COVID emails from the community, fills in on both of our school campuses as needed and supports the nurses in all we do. Above all, Sarah does all of this with a smile, and she never complains about anything she is asked to do. She always has a positive attitude, an abundance of patience and her number one priority is the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and the school community. Sarah is a true hero at our school!” – Leslie Kelly

Jill Smiley – Nurse

“She took over as school nurse in the middle of the pandemic, during which the school had decided to switch over from paper records to online records. She jumped right in, and learned the program without the benefit of the training the rest of us had. She has spent countless days and evenings talking with parents, teachers, and administration contact tracing and helping keep the school almost completely free from Covid transmission all while being the mother of 3 children. She is able to both help her kids with remote learning and stay in communication with the office staff and athletic trainer seemingly easily; though we know it is not easy.” – Laeh Litin

Lyn Schmidt  – Nurse

“Lyn goes above and beyond to take care of the students, faculty, and staff at St. Francis High School. She has helped create procedures so we can stay in-person for our students. She continues to communicate with our community about our progress. She answers endless questions from our community to instill calm and educate on our policies. All of this is done with a smile (behind the mask) and uplifting energy. We would not be in-person school if it wasn’t for all of her hard work.” – Sarah Anderson

Jennifer Sezonov – Nurse

“As a new hire, Jennifer has been tirelessly learning the school’s culture, students, coworkers, and her nursing job here at our school since the beginning of the 20/21 school year. She was integral in helping our school utilize the Magnus app and has been working hard every day walking the building to quickly check temperatures and reminding all about following the safety protocols. Through a major contribution by Jennifer and the rest of the admin and staff, we have been able to stay in person for the past 61 days! So, grateful for her jumping in and doing a lion’s share of the work to help us get to where we are today!” – Kermit Ellison

Angela Sartin – Nurse

“I have worked with Angela for the past six years at Louisville Collegiate School. Angela is the School’s full-time nurse on campus. She is responsible for the School’s Health Center and health records system for all Collegiate students. During the pandemic, Angela has taken on an incredible leadership role for the school. She has proactively engaged connections with the local health department, school nurse networks, and the state nursing association for schools. She prepares written communications, reviews and drafts school health policy documentation and works directly with administrators and legal counsel on creating our school’s health and safety policies. She leads trainings and is available at almost all hours of the day this past fall in supporting families, students, and employees on managing their health needs, health and safety protocol and best practice. She never waivers in her confidence and abilities and is a true professional. In my role and outside of the pandemic, I work with Angela on a regular basis throughout the year and I am always incredibly impressed with her work ethic, professionalism, attention to detail, and proactive approach to maintaining her skills and knowledge in her profession. Angela researches and remains up-to-date each year on new guidance on immunization and best practice for school age children. Angela evaluates and assess students and makes informed decisions for next steps in care management, including accident, injury, and illness. She communicates with parents professionally, with empathy and follows up timely. Parents appreciate her thoughtfulness, skill, and care. She has a good rapport with fellow colleagues including faculty, staff and the administrative team. She also is a respected community member by parents and students. Lastly, Angela goes above and beyond with supporting wellness programs in the school, including organizing flu shots and other health programs. She manages her time and workload and communicates clearly with excellent writing skills, and transparently when she needs support from colleagues or the administrative team. She is also currently preparing for a masters program in nursing and is a true front-line hero here at Louisville Collegiate School.” – Deana Paradis

Donnette Echols – Head of School

“Dr. Echols steps up and steps in every roll/position at the school to make sure that everyone stays healthy and safe;which includes classroom, technological and cleaning and disinfecting support and tasks.” – Mary Mason

Robert Rappoport – Director of Safety and Security/Leader of the Covid-19 Team

“From the beginning of the pandemic, Robert was assigned the job to be a Leader of our school Covid-19 Team. This assignment required many duties that were not originally mentioned in the hiring job description. Bob has assumed the new job and had worked endless hours investigating and guiding and developing safety protocols that have helped the entire Stone Ridge community. We could have not made it this far without Bob and his diligent work. With much gratitude I wish you the best Bob.” – Giovanna Corcoran

Edie Meacham – Nurse Manager

“Edie has always done a phenomenal job for our Gilman community for the many years that she has been here. However, like many folks, her hard work and dedication often goes unnoticed. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrust her into the spotlight, where all of us have been able to appreciate her calm and reassuring demeanor as she did her best to stay on top of ever-changing information and guidance. We all have such greater appreciation for our front line workers and health professionals now more than ever. However, at Gilman, Edie has gone above and beyond to ensure that our students, faculty, and staff not only were safe and informed, but also FELT safe and informed. And for that, she is our HERO!!!” – Tye Campbell

Liz LaRocque – Nurse

“Liz has been working tirelessly since February of 2020 to make sure our students and teachers could be onsite this fall. Liz is also our Health and Wellness coordinator and has spearheaded and presented at conferences her curriculum design that includes mindfulness, digital citizenship and overall health. Since the summer Liz has been a key leader in our collaboration with the CIC and the Broad Institute Liz has coordinated onsite testing (one of the first schools to do so in Massachusetts) and has been providing important feedback to members of the states infectious disease team members.” – Dolly Ryan

Donna David – Nurse

“Donna has tirelessly managed students, faculty, staff health as well as parent communication throughout this pandemic. She basically had no summer vacation, works over every weekend – often recieving emails late at night that expect a timely response. She has courageously held the line to keep all members of our school community as protected as possible. Her 40 + years of nursing make her immensely knowledgeable and ever-so-qualified. She is valuable beyond measure to many – also serving on her town’s Board of Health. She is certainly a hero and should be recognized as such!” – Cassandra Bolte

Elise Lewis – Director of Health Services

“Elise joined the Cushing community to train and lead a brand new health services team this past summer. Not only did she join Cushing in the middle of the pandemic, but also during the initial implementation of Magnus. While any single one of these issues would be a challenge, Elise took them all on at once to lead a team that successfully kept our community safe and healthy this fall! We are grateful for her work and leadership!” – John Price

Sara Payton-Stone – Nurse

“Sara has worked tirelessly to develop our health office policies this year. Because of her dedication to in-person learning and a student driven focus, we have managed to keep our students in person and our school open. She shows up every day with a smile and a “can do” attitude. Every obstacle is taken in stride. This has been an unusual year for all schools. Sara has shown a deep commitment to our students’ learning and health. She has developed important relationships with our local DPH nurses and has stayed up-to-date on this ever-changing environment.” – Katie Hawkom

Kathleen Donovan – Nurse Manager

“As Nurse Manager, Kat has shown exceptional leadership, mentoring, and guidance. She not only is working her regular schedule daily, but is willingly always on call when we have questions. This has been such a tough year with COVID, yet she handles each day with exceptional nursing skills, patience, and grace. Kat truly cares for all of our Fay students, staff, and faculty, and I believe she is more than worthy of being recognized for everything she has done.” – Kelly Murphy

Kasey Decowski – School Nurse Manager

“Kasey worked tirelessly to create and implement the necessary precautions to allow Kingsley to resume in person learning this Fall and remain open throughout the waves of uncertainty in our city and state.” – Evan Fletcher

Robin Clements – Nurse

“Robin Clements’s role at our school is critical in our response to COVID-19. Her attention to the science of the disease and her care for all members of the community allow us to have in-person learning in a safe and responsible manner. She truly is an unsung hero of the pandemic.” – Dino Vandenheede

Janet Franzen – District Nurse

“Janet has led the COVID preparedness for our district and is our COVID Director. She has answered questions around the clock pertaining to COVID, testing, quarantining, isolating etc. This is amazing enough but she has two young kids one of them was born March 17, 2020. If anyone deserves an award it is Janet. Everyone in our district loves her!” – Stephanie McElroy

Dr. Aimee Goodman – Medical Director

“Dr. Goodman has worked tirelessly since the beginning of March 2020 to guide the Peddie School through this pandemic. She has been vital is developing a comprehensive plan and timeline for what school would look like when it was able to resume in person for the fall of 2020. She is always one step ahead in our implementation of keeping the health and safety of the entire Peddie School community. With her guidance the Peddie School successfully completed a fall term in a hybrid model with plans to resume this model in late January. Without Dr. Goodman, I am certain the Peddie School wouldn’t be in the position we are currently in. I am thankful for her leadership throughout this pandemic.” –  Robin Gerber

“Dr. Aimee Goodman has worked tirelessly to ensure that our entire campus, including students, faculty, and staff stay safe and healthy. She has promoted preventative health measures, spearheaded the COVID-19 school response and preparedness plan, advocated for our school, and prioritized everyone’s health. She successfully carried out a mass COVID-19 testing campaign at the beginning of the school year, testing every student, faculty and staff member TWICE. Her efforts are the reason that we as a school were able to continue to teach students in person and have a successful term.” – Katie Hulit

Kristin Gilmore – Nurse

“Nurse Gilmore is a true hero. Nurse Gilmore is at the heart of Princeton Academy’s wellbeing. New to our school community this year, Nurse Gilmore has entered into her role amidst pandemic and is leading our school with acumen, calm judgment and a loving Sacred Heart approach. As a head of school, I feel blessed and honored to partner with Nurse Gilmore during this extraordinary time, knowing that she places our school community’s health and safety above all else… And she does all of this with a joyful smile and a reassuring confidence. She is a true professional whose leadership is appreciated by all in our community.” – Alfred Dugan

Dr. Stein – Director, Scientific Research Training Institute (SRTI)

“Dr. Stein has implemented in school COVID screening twice a week for over 1000 students and staff. The in school screening takes saliva samples from every person and runs the lab tests on the multiple pods/cohorts in school. This protects the school and can detect potential asymptomatic cases. Dr. Steins goal is to prevent an in school transmission. Dr. Stein is also a dedicated science teacher and is well liked by students and staff. He makes himself available to the staff and parents on any COVID related matter, answering emails and phone calls on the weekends. He spends countless hours in the lab testing and re-testing when necessary, often after school hours. He goes above and beyond to protect our community and school. We could not be open without him.” – Miriam Levy

Tine Boss – Nurse

“She has worked tirelessly to prepare the school for re-opening in the summer and has been on the front line working with students during this difficult time. Her professionalism and knowledge, combined with her work ethics, make her a hero at our school.” – Cheng Yow

“Tine’s expert knowledge and dedication to the health and well being of the entire school community. She guided us through our COVID-19 Preplanning and school reopening. This was a huge undertaking that we could not have done without Tine’s direction.” – Joseph Shiarappa

“Tine has taken a significant role in leading our school community, including our leadership team, faculty, students and families through the pandemic and a safe and orderly return to in-school learning in September. Tine lead our school’s Health and Safety planning team, developed protocols with the CDC, state and county health officials and continues to monitor changes in guidance and the effect on our protocols. Tine has done all of this with great spirits, incredible patience and the collaborative effort of a true leader.” – Darren Malone

“We are a PreSchool through Grade 12 school of 385 students currently operating both in-person and remote learning. Tine is our ONLY nurse. She has been absolutely incredible throughout this COVID-19 crisis. She has partnered with Dr. Peter Krause Senior Research Scientist in Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases), in Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and in Pediatrics (Infectious Disease) at Yale, our Princeton area Public Health nurse and our local independent school nurses to ensure we have followed every single protocol needed to keep our students safe! She has assisted in drafting every single letter regarding our protocols, responses to infection and precautionary measures all while remaining our full-time in-school nurse. In addition, she has been our consistent outreach person with our contact tracing, clearly and calmly walking parents through quarantining processes. I simply don’t know what we would have done without her. After nearly four months of school we have had only one student test positive for COVID-19. I think our success has been directly linked to Tine’s thorough and clear communications with both faculty, staff and administration AND with our families. She is my SHERO!”- Patty Fagin

“When COVID came to our school last year, Tine went from being a standard school nurse, to leading a pandemic response nerve center responsible for the health and safety of our entire school. She was among the first nurses in the area to volunteer with contract tracing for the local health department, and ensured that other members of our staff were trained as well. She has thoughtfully navigated difficult conversations with families, faculty and staff, and went from being responsible for bandaids and belly aches to overseeing how we navigate a pandemic. She stays up to date on the latest protocols, and translates into language that our community can easily understand.” – Christen Jones

“Nurse Tine has led our Health & Safety Team throughout the past 8 months with a high level of thoughtfulness, collaboration & care! As a result, we have been in-person learning since September without closure. Tine’s ability to distill the policies and procedures required to keep our community safe is unparalleled. She is a STAR” – Rose Neubert

Sr. Elaine Bebyn – Principal

“Sr. Elaine has been steadfast in her work to keep Villa Walsh Academy a safe learning environment. She along with a Task Force spent the summer months creating a new academic schedule, modifying classroom spaces, and implementing protocols to keep the community safe and engaged.” – Jennifer Bensen

Shelby Parsons – Nurse

“When the pandemic hit, Shelby went above and beyond creating policies and sharing them across the country. She created algorithms and customized templets in Magnus. After all that, she is still smiling and thankful for everything. Definition of Hero!” –  Alicia Silva

Nancy Rosenthal – Nurse

“Where to start! Nurse Nancy (aka “”NN””) has been a School Nurse for more than 20 years and is a wealth of knowledge! Pinworm outbreak, check! Covid test kits for 3rd and 4th graders, check! Magnus updates for DOH compliance, check! Bandaids, tampons, eye drops, check, check, check! NN has the warmest spirit and the kindest heart. She is generous with her time and energy – always having a little bit more to give out to the community. Teachers and students love her because she is so genuine and offers level-headed and totally reasonable advice based on her years of experience. She is my hero because she has led our school with a steady hand throughout the challenges of 2020. I couldn’t be happier or more honored to call NN my colleague and my friend. Did I mention that she’s COOL and FUN to hang out with, too?! NN deserves this award due to her hard work, loyalty, and compassion.” –  Annie Muire

“Nurse Nancy, also known as “NN”, is someone that everyone knows and loves. She has been the upper school/ middle school nurse here at Berkeley Carroll for over 20 years, and was recently promoted to Director of Health Services. She has worked hard every single day she has been here, and has worked especially hard over the past 8 months while the pandemic has raged around us. She spent the whole summer planning with the school on how to ensure safety for our community in all aspects from policies and procedures, community interaction, right down to ordering supplies for all of our campuses. In addition to being a hard worker, she is also a good friend. When NN tells a story, you can’t help but be pulled in as if it’s a world-class novel that she’s reciting by heart. She is always a good sounding board, and knows when you’re having a bad day and will always offer up her ear and some sound advice. She started a new tradition for our Health Team this year, “Bagel Fridays” and brings fun to work every single day. She is beloved by every member of our community, and she is a true Frontline Hero! What would we do without her?! We love Nurse Nancy!” – Becky Schwartzman

“Nancy has gone above and beyond to keep the BC community safe and healthy for the last 15 years. Her efforts during this pandemic have gone above and beyond to not only keep the school open for students in the safest way possible, but also to support and mentor her Health Team during this challenging time. She is so supportive and inclusive and her office is a safe space for students, staff and faculty. She is just a Brooklyn gem and I am personally so grateful for her. Nancy has tackled all of the new challenges this year with a great attitude and stepped up on so many levels. For example, she is coordinating and seeing through weekly testing of our entire school community. She meets weekly with administration to discuss how best to keep our community healthy and running during such a time of chaos. She knows the school community is what is best for her students and is doing all she can to allow it to continue. She is a fabulous nurse and I really look up to her, as do many!! It would be amazing to officially show her how much her works means to us.” – Jenna Gonzalez

Marisa Riep – Nurse

“Marisa is new to our community this year (a feat in and of itself) but she approaches her job with caring and kindness helping our students to feel safe and comfortable during this difficult time. She displays empathy with the students, parents, and staff that she interacts with helping to build trust. She is a fierce advocate for students who has the desire and willingness to learn and on top of all of that a superb attention to detail. We are so glad to have such a wonderful nurse and partner here at BHMS.” –  Chris Koble

Kristin Dubrow – Nurse

“Kristin has been an invaluable resource to our school community throughout the pandemic. She has approached her Herculean work with kindness, intelligence, and endless effort. It’s no exaggeration to say that our school simply wouldn’t be functioning without Kristin. She is truly a hero!” – Alex Gelman

Michael Tirado – Director of Facilities

“Mike and his maintenance team have done an unbelievable job adjusting to the stringent cleaning and sanitizing standards of operating a school during the pandemic. More importantly, Mike does his work with kindness, love, and flexibility. He greets our students and their families each morning in front of the building, and his joy is infectious. He is a true hero!” – Alex Gelman

Sue Gower – Nurse

“Sue worked tirelessly on the Health and Safety Task Force for Reopening, and she continues to work hard to keep her community safe during this time. She became co-president of the Independent School Nurses’ Association here in NYC and works to keep all of us informed. She stays on top of the latest research and always advocates for us to use evidence as a basis for our new policies related to Covid. Her elementary school started with a phased in reopening in September and she is still going strong with children at school 5 days a week. She really has made a difference in all of the lives of her colleagues, students, and families.” – Stacey Husted

Ken Ambach – Director of Technology and Safety

“Ken had a cushy job (well not really as director of Technology) but the Director of Facilities left and Ken raised his hand to head-up the safey piece. Then came Covid 19 as you can imagine things changed dramatically in schools. He is on the phone everyday with the CDC – initiated the Magnus sign in prior to staff and students entering our buildings, is on the phone constantly with parents all while heading the tech department and making sure technology got into all the new moduals that were brought on campus for social distancing. He also has been helping teachers and staff to do virtual learning as well and bring all those programs that are need to do that. I know I’m leaving so much out – but he is so deserving of this award.” – Aggie Jones

Dina Rosenberg – Nurse

“Dina is a kind person who takes the time to go above and beyond. She cares about the students and provides comfort and care. She is an excellent nurse and Public Health Provider.” – Adina Moskowitz

Ava Dawson – Health Director

“Ava has been working nonstop to keep all of the private schools open. She is the co-president of the Independent School Nurses association, consults with 10 schools outside of her own on policy issues and is shaping the private school policy and disseminating information to make sure that everyone’s policies keep the children and teachers as safe as possible. When she isn’t doing work directly in the schools, she works as as Nurse Practitioner in Pediatric Urgent care and as a provider at a NYC Health and Hospitals COVID Testing site, testing the wider NYC communities to stop the spread of COVID. This woman is shaping the NYC private school response to COVID and should be recognized for her tireless actions.” – Joseph Terranella

Theresa Millerschoen – Nurse

“Theresa has gone above and beyond in working day and night to keep our school staff. She advocated for the Mangus program and did all the work to set it up and continues to support it. Theresa is a dedicated, caring employee who gives of herself to support the staff, students and families everyday.” – Tina McCourt

Cat Scorrano – Nurse

“Nurse Scorrano navigates daily crises with grace and compassion. Her tireless, selfless work ethic has made keeping our school open for nearly 12 weeks possible. She ensures we create and keep safe and healthy protocols and goes beyond the extra mile every single day. We are so grateful!” –  Julie King

Fatmira Purovic – HealthCare Provider

“During such a trying time, filled with families having pressing questions about how school will re-commence due to the pandemic, Fatmira has been cool headed and very helpful. She goes above and beyond when families are having troubles understanding Magnus. Fatmira is truly loved here at Dwight. She resolves any medical problems that arise with such ease. During these trying times for everyone she manages to contact families even on her personal time. She is very selfless and I am so grateful to work alongside her and learn more and more from her every day. She is a Shero to me!” – Kyana Berrios

Judith Rose – Health Care Coordinator and Middle School Nurse

“Judith has worked tirelessly to keep our students and employees safe during this pandemic school opening. Over the summer, while holding a second job as head nurse of a summer sleepaway camp and dealing with covid there, and her own family of three adorable children, Judith spent hundreds of hours making sure we were ready to open school. Judith is one of the most detail oriented people I know and the most calm and caring health practitioner I have ever worked with. Her attention to the finest details to make sure every case is handled discreetly and appropriately is highly commendable. Her understanding of what our families need communicated to them and her level of dedication in responding to every email, text, and phone call, at all hours of the day and night have made opening and keeping our school open easier. Judith is our Ramaz Hero!” – Johanna Shlomovich

Jon Rosenshine – Associate Head of School

“Jon is an unsung hero of The Windward School. Aside from providing excellent support and sound recommendations to the head of school, senior leadership, faculty and staff members, Jon was instrumental in working with our director of technology to launch the first-ever learning management system at The Windward School – a school for children with dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities. While the first version of the LMS eventually was replaced with a new one, Jon worked countless hours to ensure it made sense for our community and rolled it out to our community in the best way possible. Jon does many other excellent things ensuring that all students receive the education they deserve and voices of faculty and staff are heard. Thank you, Jon, for your dedication and perseverance to get things done!” – Heather Pray

Jamie Williamson – Head of School

“Mr. Williamson is in his second year of being head of school at The Windward School. He moved his family of four (including two school-age children) from Ohio to New York to be the person to take Windward into its next chapter. When the pandemic started to surface in the Westchester County area and much was still unknown, Jamie made an early call to keep students at home in early March much before many other schools did. As COVID-19 was alive in the extended community, this one early decision helped keep our community safe and healthy more than we will ever really know. With the support of the associate head of school, technology, and other administrators, Jamie swiftly moved all students into remote learning with Windward’s first-ever learning management system right after Spring Break. While there were many lessons learned initially, Jamie always looks at these as opportunities to grow, and that mentality has helped all faculty and staff members move forward despite any obstacles that come in their way. Since Windward is a school for children with dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities, in-school instruction is crucial for their remediation. Jamie knows this and while a new campus was slated to be finished for the 2021-2022 school year, Jamie did all he could to safely open the campus so that he could make in-person instruction possible for all 941 Windward students. He also leased out additional space in NYC to allow for social distancing of our lower and middle school students – bringing our total campuses to four during the pandemic. There are so many other things he has done to ensure a safe and healthy community, and we are so thankful for his leadership!” – Heather Pray

Colleen Iodice – Assistant Director of Health & Safety

“Colleen was planning to retire and answered our HOS’s request to work part-time. Then, COVID hits. She is probably technically still part-time;however, she is really working 7 days a week to ensure our four campuses and health office staff and communications staff have the knowledge they need to keep our community safe. And she does it with a smile. We are so fortunate to have Colleen guide us through this difficult time!” – Heather Pray

Jean Asinger – Nurse

“Jean has lead our COVID-19 planning since March 2020. She has been informed on all of the appropriate protocols required by the state and local health authorities. She has advised our team on how to operate our school safely in both on campus and remote modes. We could not have done this without her expertise and extra efforts” –  Fletcher Gregory

“Jean spent hours and hours over her summer vacation devising the safest return-to-school plan and continues to spend hours and hours each week keeping her co-workers and our students healthy.” – Virginia Ellison

Emma Farrer – Director of Communications

“Emma worked diligently with our Technology director to pivot to distance learning quickly. She is also responsible for bringing us to Magnus, which has simplified our processes in this pandemic. She manages it all with a smile and seems to be able to do it all seamlessly! Thanks, Emma!” – Mary Stillman

Maria Morrison – Athletic Director

“Maria is teaching PE to ALL of our students (PK through 8th) this year. She teaches outside, all day. The kids are happy, moving, and collaborating. Then, she runs an after-school program that’s critical for our families, and the kids love it. And she does 1001 other things!” – Douglas Norry

Doug Norry – Head of School

“Mr. Norry has worked tirelessly during the pandemic to make decisions to benefit the emotional, social, physical, and academic health of students, teachers, and families. He is involved in all situations and placed a high value on recognizing others’ efforts.” – Bethany Bassler

Maria Cecchine – Nurse

“She keeps cool and keeps calm. She makes herself available to talk and to give helpful advice, and not just about Covid! So much of what she does is invisible to most of us and we really appreciate how much she has had to take care of this year. She is at once discreet and transparent. She maintains this difficult balance so that we can feel assured even at a stressful time.”

“Maria handles our school-related health issues with grace and professionalism. She is tireless in her efforts to keep everyone on our campus safe and healthy during Covid 19. She is patient and thoughtful in her email communication to families regarding health issues, vaccines and emergency situations. She works around the clock to provide information to our staff, faculty, students and parents so that everyone is well informed and feels secure about what our campus is doing to maintain social distancing and appropriate health standards during these challenging times.”

“We have students and staff with serious health concerns and they know they can count on Maria to be there in an instant to manage their concerns or any emergency that arises. I am grateful for her good work, her bright smile, her sense of humor and her caring and kind attitude in the face of difficult times.”

“Maria is amazing to work with–she is very in tune to both the physical health and mental health needs of our students. She handles each situation thoughtfully and discretely, and she is a beacon of calm during such uncertain times.”

“Maria cares deeply about the health and safety of our students, staff and our entire community. Even before the pandemic, Maria provided the highest level of health care and emotional care to everyone who needed her – from those with chronic medical conditions to those who just need a band aid! I have always been impressed by Maria and the way in which she handles the medical and emotional needs of our students. However, now during Covid, I have become even more impressed by how well she calmly and directly communicates with our faculty and our families. She keeps everyone well informed and puts people at ease. It is a pleasure to work with her.”

“The most important attribute of our school Nurse Maria is her smile.She has tirelessly taken care of all of us with a smile and a calm nature. In this Covid age, her job and responsibilities have grown and yet she still continues to treat you with a smile, which radiates from behind her mask. She is a Ninja Nurse, you never see or hear her, but she stealthily swoops in to do her job! Maria is the ultimate professional when it comes to her responsibilities as nurse; however, during the Pandemic she has truly gone way above and beyond in making everyone at school feel safe. She is here first thing in the morning to check everyone in but actually starts her day as soon as someone contacts her with symptoms. I am very impressed by her calm nature and excellent communication skills. We are very lucky to have someone so wonderful guiding us through this very difficult time.”

“Maria is a kind, caring and responsible person and professional. While before the pandemic she worked tirelessly to keep all students and staff healthy and safe, this holy work has only increased since the pandemic and she continues to do all that is necessary to keep us healthy and safe. She is an essential member of our team. Maria is an unsung hero as the school nurse; most people have no idea how much she has to deal with on any given day.”

“Maria is always available to assist students, faculty and staff. She has stepped up to meet the many challenges of a school nurse and exceeds in all areas. She has performed at an outstanding level during the pandemic. Our school is lucky to have such a dedicated, diligent, conscientious, concerned and caring nurse as we have in Maria. First and foremost, Maria is human. Sensitive and caring and always with a smile on her face. She is empathetic, honest, dependable, positive, and to the point and it is always pleasant to have a conversation with her!”

Aimee, Eileen, Anne – SCH Medical Staff

“This trio constitutes the crackerjack team keeping our community safe and informed as we all navigate the ever-changing COVID landscape. They work tirelessly to help parents and employees with their questions and concerns. They chase down details with the utmost professionalism and courtesy. This often requires working into the late evening and weekends or spending hours in a queue for the Board of Health and it always means monitoring health screenings in the early hours of the morning. What makes them special is that they always–always–do their work with a smile and never hesitate to take on one more challenge.” – Karen Tracy

Sara Forgione – Nurse

“Sara has been the administrative lead for the school’s coronavirus planning efforts. Sara has created a task force of epidemiologists and infectious disease experts, researched and documented protocols for the school, coordinated contact tracing with epidemiologists, helped organize school-wide COVID-19 testing, provided resources to help the entire community understand COVID-19, and has been a resource to the concerns of all parents, students, and employees. Sara set up Magnus Health to provide daily screening questions to all employees and parents of students. Sara has done all this with warmth and care and the school is grateful to be in her capable hands during this pandemic.” – Carol Lerner

Theresa Sardella – Health Center Director

“Theresa is the director of the Health Center at Westtown School. Not only does she oversee everyday duties of the multiple staff nurses for K-12 (which includes boarding students), but she now serves on the Pandemic Support Team, laborious and never-ending. Her long days are currently full with contact tracing, mitigation, education, ordering supplies, contacting the CDC, policies, and procedures. She is constantly on Zoom meetings and conference calls, and she is slammed with parent emails full of questions about symptoms and quarantine protocols. In addition to a regular on-call schedule, she now has to be available and on call 24hrs/day for a very busy school, who has continued to push through and remain open for day students and boarding kids during a global pandemic. Theresa has gone above and beyond to keep the school safe, keep us all updated on the ever-changing rules, and continues to have an upbeat attitude through it all.” – DeLea Jacobs

Beth Blaum – Director of Health Services

“Beth has maintained an 8-bed infirmary, provided care to over 350 day and boarding students, and provided information and support to the school’s Pandemic Response Team and well as to me at the Lower School’s health office. She is always available to the students, faculty and staff and is well-respected by the same. She is a kind, compassionate, caring registered nurse who, prior to being a school nurse, was an ICU nurse at a local hospital for many years. What an amazing leader to have during a global pandemic.” – Carol Kollar

JoEllen McMahon – Resource Nurse

“JoEllen is a dedicated compassionate nurse who in the face of this pandemic was instrumental in seeing that her staff of nurses were ready to perform 1000’s of Covid tests. Her organizational skills and thoroughness as a leader allowed everyone here at St George’s to feel confident in remaining here on campus. The vast majority of our student body participated in in-person learning in no small part due to JoEllen’s efforts. JoEllen has the respect and admiration of all her colleagues here at St George’s.” – Patricia Allan

Georgie Goldthorpe – Campus Nurse and Health Service Administrator

“Georgie does it all! For years, she has run health services on our campus, dealing with everything from cuts, bruises, and breaks to lice. Her calm, steady demeanor gives confidence to parents and keeps students safe. This year, her role has grown exponentially. In addition to all of her usual tasks, she is now the nexus of our COVID-19 response team. She stays in close communication with local epidemiological experts, devises our health policies and protocols, and spends hours of time on the phone each day talking to our parents. More than anything, Georgie serves as a support for our families, whom she treats as if she were a concierge health provider. She has spent nights, weekends, and even her birthday working with our parents and students to keep them safe and supported in the midst of a pandemic. We would be lost without her! She is the model of selfless service with a smile.” –  Prentice Stabler

Michelle Ardisson – Nurse

“Dr. Ardisson has been our school’s foundation for making in-person learning possible. She remains calm, patient, and understanding when confronted with any health situation. We did not have a school nurse before the pandemic, but she has been exactly what we needed for a while.” –  Kim McAmis

Margee Brennan – Health Team Director

“Margee stepped up this fall from part-time health team staff with very short notice after departure of our Health Team Director in September to serve as full time Health Team Director. Under her leadership, our school has excelled in contact tracing, testing, case management keeping our students and faculty/staff safe during this pandemic. We wouldn’t be open for in person classes without her leadership and her team.” –  Teresa Standard

Glenn Berry – Medical Director

“Dr. Berry serves as the Medical Director for the Student Health Center which also serves the community residents of Prairie View. He has come in on his days off including his birthday to help the university provide COVID-19 testing and clinics. He has been committed to keeping the students and greater PV community safe during this pandemic.” – Tondra Moore

Amanda Boardman – Director of Health and Wellness

“Nurse Boardman has thoughtfully, safely, and tirelessly led our school through reopening to in person learning. She has consulted trusted medical professionals, listened to science and reason, followed our local, state, and national recommendations and produced protocols and procedures that are keeping our school safe. She has balanced teacher concerns with student and faculty and staff safety and spent numerous hours studying numbers in our county and state.” – Anne Kim

Melissa Baumholtz – Nurse Coordinator

“Melissa has worked tirelessly since the pandemic started last spring. She coordinated a Wellness Task Force, which included an epidemiologist and several doctors including a pediatrician. They met weekly through October and continue to meet monthly. She has kept our community abreast of all the CDC, TEA, and Metro Health guidelines – which change frequently. She has held numerous zoom calls/ meetings to educate staff, faculty, and students of our mitigation practices; thereby relieving their anxiety. She has ensured our community has more than enough PPE, hand washing stations, the latest air filtration systems, and education to keep us safe. She even had our Epidemiologist do a walk thru – after students were on campus /to ensure we were doing everything we could to keep our community safe. Once we had a confirmed positive case or exposure, she stayed up all hours of the night notifying all the faculty, staff and parents involved. Most recently she applied and received over 500 BINAX rapid antigen tests to utilize so we could expedite testing and contact tracing, if need be. She also is an amazing single mom and a wonderful advocate for SMH. We are blessed to have her !” – Eileen Petter

Lisa Cruz – Nurse

“Lisa Cruz has been exemplary in her handling of the Covid-19 epidemic. She took on extra duties and responsibilities in training, advising and defining protocols. But where Lisa has surpassed herself has been in the planning and implementation of our Covid tracking policies. All this she has done with good cheer–she has been a source of support for all of us. I do wish it were possible to nominate more than one of our heroes because Gina Sharman and Véronique Moore are worthy of great praise, fulsome acknowledgment and heartfelt gratitude for their work, attitude and dedication.” – Richard Durst

Logan Bohn – Database Administrator

“Logan has the unenviable task of having to managing our students in both our Student Information System, Veracross, and within the Magnus system. This year, with students constantly shifting between our in-person and remote learning modes, this has been a herculean process, coordinating with each of the three divisional office in addition to the health center. Her ability to manage this in a way to make our reporting easier and more efficient towards the goal of keeping our campus healthy and secure as part of our COVID protocols quietly, behind the scenes has been admirable.” – Vinnie Vrotny

Judy Grisell – Director of Health Services

Judy normally has a challenging job, keeping and managing our health center staff to ensure that the 2000 members of our school community, students, faculty, and staff stay healthy and well. Due to COVID, she has had to add the additional momentous task of managing and contact tracing our students and families to make sure that we are following our health and safety standards. She has gone over and above her normal duties and has been an active participant in both our Medical and school’s COVID Task Forces to continue to plan, react, and pivot as needed. – Vinnie Vrotny

Susie Murray – Nurse

“She has taken on the COVID crisis and managing the students, parents and faculty with patience and thoroughness” – Mary Campise

“While Susie has always done an amazing job serving our students and faculty, she really went above and beyond this year. During a crazy and unprecedented time given the COVID-19 pandemic, Susie consistently remained calm and guided the school through the safety and prevention efforts needed in order to keep our doors open as much as possible for our students. She worked countless hours over the summer with local authorities in order to develop protocols that were guided by scientific facts and research in order to implement policies to keep everyone on campus as safe as possible. During the school year, she has been an amazing resource for both faculty and students and has worked tirelessly to make this year as “normal” as possible for everyone given the circumstances. I can not thank her enough for everything that she has done for us this school year! :)” – Katy Valente 

“Susie spends all of her time and energy keeping our students and faculty safe during the pandemic and always. She educates the school community and is knowledgeable of all the safety protocols and follows CDC guidelines consistently. She is consistent, compassionate, professional and empathetic. I highly recommend Nurse Murray for the frontline hero award.” – Tanya Hamilton

“Nurse Murray is the only nurse in all girls high school with 900 students. She tirelessly learned all she could this summer to help us prepare for our students return to campus. She leads the contact tracing at our school and manages all sick or suspected sick people including about a 150 adults. She is available for questions 7 days a week and has taught us a lot about how to be safe. She must be physically and mentally exhausted but she comes to work every day ready to help. She has had to make personal sacrifices by not seeing her grandchildren or health care daughter as not to expose them. She is beyond amazing and undoubtedly a hero.” – Patty LaValle

Bernadette Berset – Head School Nurse

“Bernadette already had a full plate caring for over 1000 students at our school. With COVID, she has stepped up to be the person who is our go-to for COVID questions, patiently answering questions from students, faculty, staff and parents. She is the lead in interacting with our local health agencies, always takes the time to make sure she is knowledgeable in all aspects of this pandemic, and has been proactive in making sure that our school is conforming to the best practices in keeping our school population at as low a risk as possible. All that, and more, and always with a smile! And a whole lot of patience. I can’t imagine having a better lead in our school clinic.” –  Jeanmarie McFadden

Mary Hart – Director of Health Services

“Mary is among the most kind, nurturing, and caring health care professionals I’ve ever worked with. Our students, teachers, staff and parents know how much she loves us and cares for our physical and mental well-being. Over 1200 families have her cell phone number and many use it every day – including weekends. She’s always there for everyone. Simultaneously, she has the ability to help lead the school and her team of capable nurses through this global pandemic. We wouldn’t be where we are today with Mary Hart!” –  Meredith VanDuyne

Liz Brennan – Nurse

“Liz is a gifted nurse. Her clinical skills are excellent! Liz is compassionate with students, putting them at ease when they are injured or sick. In the same way, she puts parents at ease as she assists them in caring for their child. This school year has been particularly challenging due to COVID. Liz has handled the many issues we have faced with great skill, and she has spent countless hours, over snd above her contract hours, working with the executive team, making recommendations, and keeping faculty, staff, and families informed. In addition, we implemented Magnus Health for our school during COVID lockdown! Liz was on top of all that needed to be done and spent hours learning the system and working with the Magnus implementation team to set up the system for our school. Liz is truly one of the best nurses with whom I have ever worked. She is a frontline hero!” – Susan Colletti

Susan Colletti – Nurse

“Susan goes above and beyond her hours to keep our school safe & healthy with student screening and parent & staff communication in kindness.” – Liz Brennan

Anita Pozin – Director of Summer Programs

“As we prepared to open school in August, Anita was placed in charge of our school’s COVID testing program. With very little notice, she led us to our first testing company, and then arranged for the testing of 1,500 faculty, staff, students, and auxiliary staff within two weeks. This first run of testing required extensive choreography, as the students were not yet on campus so we had to take over a gymnasium and schedule times for all of our 1,200 students to come in and get tested. We then decided to test everyone every two weeks, so Anita has the responsibility to schedule all of these tests, coordinating with division directors, teachers, and the testing company. This effort requires quite a bit of administration, as every saliva test vial must have its barcode read and matched up with a corresponding student or staff ID number, placed in a Ziploc bag, and then distributed to divisions, teachers, and advisors as appropriate. Anita has developed an incredibly smooth process for this logistical challenge. Since August, we have administered over 8,300 tests, and Anita has been crucial in our ability to do so. This is not at all part of her job description, but she has risen to the occasion and provided immeasurable service to Norfolk Academy.” –  Jeff Martin

Myra Pellissier – Health Coordinator / School Nurse

“Myra joined our school just before the start of this school year, a year none of us ever imagined. She jumped into a roiling sea of unknown faces and families and helps us navigate the virus and its effects – social, workplace and personal – daily. I could not do my job without Myra’s diligent leadership and level-headed nature. She is a beacon of hope and experience in a year of uncertainty. Above any single person at our school, she has worked like a dog – and continues to do so – to keep our families and school community safe and healthy. She is my superstar.” –  Jennifer Dawson

Chandra Burnside – Nurse

“Chandra worked with a team of administrators, parents, health professionals, and school employees to create a safe in-person learning environment for our PK-8 school. She continues to provide us the most up-to-date information about staying safe while in person and has ensured that if a positive case is found, the proper protocols are followed. She has made every parent, teacher and student feel safe about returning to school.” –  Emily Stocker

Elizabeth Blanton – Nurse

“Elizabeth has been my go-to person since the pandemic hit in March. She has created school procedures that we are all using daily, graphs showing our positivity rate, logged over 100 hours in webinars, took the Johns Hopkins Contact Tracing course, created classroom first aid kits for teachers, taken food and gift cards to quarantining students/teachers, Zoomed with parents and faculty offering education about COVID and just as importantly, displaying confidence and compassion about our mitigation efforts and the struggles our community is experiencing. She’s gone well above her job description, without complaining, instead, with a smile and brightness in her eyes behind her mask! We truly would not be here with in-person learning for 950 students, without her efforts, devotion and intellect.” –  Stacia Schoeffler

Jenny Jones – Head Nurse

“Jenny Jones has worked in Trinity Health Services since August of 2006. She has always been an advocate for our students and a source of guidance and wisdom for our teachers. She is calm, kind, and has a genuine desire to serve our community.
Jenny’s role as Head Nurse has made her a critical member of the team that allowed us to open our doors in August, and has led us safely to Thanksgiving Break without a school closure. As state mandates and regulations have changed over the past months, she has written mitigation plans, updated mitigation plans, and revised mitigation plans. She has attended countless webinars, been in direct communication with our county health department, and kept our administration, faculty, and families fully informed of the most current and relevant COVID-related information. And in all of this, Jenny has led our efforts to launch Magnus Health this school year! Jenny is a gem. We are so thankful for her service to our school and for her leadership. She keeps us safe with a smile on her face. Jenny Jones is our Health Services Hero.” – Jennifer Fletcher

“Jenny Jones has worked in Trinity Health Services since August of 2006. She has always been an advocate for our students and a source of guidance and wisdom for our teachers. She is calm, kind, and has a genuine desire to serve our community.
Jenny’s role as Head Nurse has made her a critical member of the team that allowed us to open our doors in August and has led us safely to Thanksgiving Break without a school closure. As state mandates and regulations have changed over the past months, she has written mitigation plans, updated mitigation plans, and revised mitigation plans. She has attended countless webinars, been in direct and constant communication with our county health department, and kept our administration, faculty, and families fully informed of the most current and relevant COVID-related information. And in all of this, Jenny has led our efforts to launch Magnus Health this school year! Jenny is a gem. We are so thankful for her service to our school and for her leadership. She keeps us safe with a smile on her face. Jenny Jones is our Health Services Hero.” – Jennifer Fletcher

Lea Hysom – RN, BSN

“Lea took on the role of being the “head” school nurse in the year 2019/2020. She jumped into this position with confidence, grace, and humility. She has kept herself well informed and has kept up with all the COVID updates throughout the pandemic. She is very understanding, approachable, and knowledgeable. Lea also made the decision to use Magnus to consolidate the health records for the students at our school, which has been a monumental task for her, but should also help us all long term as we streamline our care for our community. I am so thankful to work with this leader of grace, who has prioritized the health of our community.” – Mary Thompson

Kellie McGill – Counselor/Health Center Director

“In her role as school counselor, Kellie goes above and beyond for the students, many of whom suffer from increased anxiety, sleepless nights, and depression made worse by the circumstances of the pandemic. She makes herself available, even after hours, and is willing to talk to a student in crisis, or a worried parent who is in another time zone, not because she has to, but because she genuinely cares about the well being of each student. Kellie is also a compassionate and supportive leader to the health staff at our school, advocating for our professional and personal needs during the increasingly stressful pressures of the pandemic.” – LeighAnn Shafiq