TSA Board of Trustees

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Our Board members hold rich and varied experience in a broad spectrum of corporate and educational environments. Many of our Board members are also parents of current students or alumni. What they all share is an absolute commitment to The Sharon Academy and to the education we provide.

 

2023-24 Board Members

Role Name Town of Residence Committees Year Joined
President Tanya Swett Norwich, VT Committee on Trustees, Development and Executive Committees 2018
Vice President Tulio Browning Philadelphia, PA Committee on Trustees, Executive Committee 2016
Treasurer Phil Lapp Sharon, VT Finance and Executive Committees 2019
Secretary Dee Gish Sharon, VT Committee on Trustees, Finance and Executive Committees 2017
         
At-Large Erik Skarsten Sharon, VT Development and Executive Committees 2022
Members Kylie Eastman Chelsea, VT Development Committee 2021
  Steve Farrington Stockbridge, VT Development Committee 2011
  Miranda Gray Chelsea, VT Finance Committee 2023
  Julie Groppe Gaysville, VT Development Committee 2016
  Katye Reed Sharon, VT Development Committee 2022
  Cora Swanberg Wilder, VT Development Committee 2022
Student Member Jack Doris Sharon, VT Committee on Trustees, Development Committee 2023
Student Member Bryce Rikert South Royalton, VT Development Committee 2023
Trustee Emeritus Ken Wright Sharon, VT Development Committee 1996/2006

 

 

Meet Our Board Members

Tulio Browning Tulio is the Marketing Director at the Farm and Wilderness Foundation. Tulio has a BA in English Literature from Colorado College and an MS in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin. He is married to storyteller and artist Jools Skeet and lived with her in the Basque Country of Northern Spain where their three children were born and raised. In 2008 the family moved to Vermont where all three children graduated from TSA. Tulio currently lives in the East Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Jack Doris

 Jack Doris ’23 was appointed as Student Representative in the Fall of 2023.
Kylie EastmanKylie Eastman Kylie Eastman is a TSA parent of  Riley ’22 and Lydia ’21. She grew up in Tunbridge, Vermont, attended Chelsea High School and now resides with her family in Chelsea. She has served as the TSA Athletic Booster Club president for the past several years. Kylie works in the field of occupational therapy, serving Vermont senior citizens. She is excited to join the board and finds that purposeful engagement is very important to her.
Steve Farrington Stephen is the founder of Transcend Engineering, which specializes in extracting hidden insights from sensor data using machine learning and artificial intelligence, and CTO of Landscan, a climate-smart farming technology startup. Stephen has served on several non-profit boards, is Lead Coach/Mentor of the local FIRST Robotics team “Archytas,” and recharges by composing and producing music. His wife, Catherine, is his business partner. They have a daughter and a son who graduated from TSA in 2014 and 2018 and are amazing young adults.
Dee Gish

 

 Dee is a parent of two TSA graduates (2014 and 2016). Daughter Margaret TSA’14 works as a special educator at TSA Middle School and her husband Kevin was a former math teacher and coach at TSA. The Gishes moved to Sharon from Missouri in 2008, due in large part to an impressive visit to the TSA middle and high schools on a house-hunting visit. Dee works at the Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment and also serves on the board of Building A Local Economy(BALE) and the Sharon Planning Commission and Energy Committee. Dee has a BA in International Business from Temple University, an MBA from Western Washington University, and a Masters in Environmental Law and Policy from the Vermont Law and Graduate School. Personal interests include environmental advocacy, yoga, hiking, and gardening.

Miranda Gray

 Miranda joined the board in 2023. Miranda is a parent of two TSA students in the class of ’27 and ’25 and has a third child in another local middle school. She began her career working for the Orange County Parent Child Center and presently works for the State of Vermont in the Agency of Human Services. She has a BA in Psychology from Saint Michael’s College. You will often find Miranda on the sidelines of sporting events cheering on the athletes.
Julie Groppe Julie Groppe is a parent of a TSA graduate ’19. She has over 20 years of experience as a retirement plan administrator. Outside of family and professional interests, she enjoys music (especially classical) and theater.
Phil Lapp Phil is a managing partner with Gallagher, Flynn & Co., an accounting and consulting firm with offices in Burlington, VT, and Lebanon, NH. He has sat on numerous other charitable and community boards in the area and lives in Sharon. He has two children, who graduated from TSA in 2019 and 2023. He enjoys riding on and off-road motorcycles in the woods of Vermont. Phil has a BA from Goshen College in Indiana and studied accounting at Portland State in Oregon. More recently he has pursued continuing education at Case Western Reserve University.

Katye Reed
Katye serves as a Senior Solutions Engineer at Smartsheet, a cloud-based collaborative work management platform driving impactful change. Currently pursuing an MBA from Norwich University, she holds a BA in International Affairs with a Peacekeeping concentration from American Military University.
 
Katye’s commitment to education grew during her service as a Marine in Afghanistan. Working directly with the local education department, she ensured equal access to education for boys and girls in the Musa Qal’ah district of Helmand province.
 
As a parent to two exceptional children—one attending TSA High School in the class of 2028 and the other in elementary school—Katye, along with her family, eagerly embraces the opportunity to contribute to and support the TSA community.

Bryce Rikert
Bryce ’25 joined the board as a student trustee in 2023. He enjoys music, traveling, running, strength training, and being in nature. He loves spending time with his friends and family, and looks forward to helping build the TSA community by being a liaison to his fellow students.

Erik Skarsten
Erik joined the board in 2023. He holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and has been teaching science in private and public schools in Vermont and New Hampshire since 2004. He has also been involved in various non-profit organizations focusing on surface water quality, school advisory, land conservation, and land stewardship. Erik and his family moved to Sharon from southern Vermont in 2016 in part because of the excellent educational opportunities for his 3 children. His middle daughter is a member of the TSA class of 2025, and his younger daughter will be joining TSA in a few years. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, biking, and skiing, and has been a National Ski Patroller since 1998. As a teacher and parent, Erik understands and appreciates the value and experience that TSA offers its students.

Cora Swanberg
Cora graduated from TSA in 2014 and joined the board in 2022. After high school, Cora pursued a career in social work and currently works to support children, youth, and families utilizing healthcare and rehabilitation services. Without TSA, Cora believes she would not have the foundations of community, empowerment, and hope for possibilities. In her free time, she loves to sing and dance in her kitchen with her husband and child.
Tanya Swett Tanya has devoted the past 25 years to supporting quality teaching and learning in a wide range of school environments. Her desire to teach and interest in schools as organizations began as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College where she created a self-designed major combining education, psychology, and organizational behavior. Following college, Tanya earned a Master of Education degree and began teaching elementary school. After becoming a mother, she took a temporary break from teaching and worked as a doula, supporting women and families at births and during the postpartum period. In addition to chairing the Board of Trustees at TSA, Tanya is a middle school math teacher and a special education tutor. She and her husband, Matt, live in Norwich and are the parents of three daughters, two of whom graduated from TSA in 2019 and 2023. 
Ken Wright Ken moved to Sharon one year after graduating from the University of Connecticut with a BS in Recreational Services. He took a job as a mechanic at Kelton Motors where he remained for ten years. He has been employed as a carpenter since 1987.
Ken and his wife Nancy have led bicycle tours during the summer break since 1988, including 10 tours across the United States. Ken is involved in local government, holding the elected office of Lister since 1994. He has been involved with the Sharon Academy since its inception and is the parent of one of the earliest graduates, from the class of 2004.

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Former Heads of School

Judy Moore

The Sharon Academy (TSA) began as a dream of its founder, Judy Moore, one afternoon on her back porch overlooking the White River. The idea was to open a school with high academic standards where students would feel safe; a place where students came first, were able to be themselves, to be accepted socially, and to be challenged academically. TSA would be a place where students were able to take responsibility and to thrive.


TSA opened as a middle school with 12 students in one classroom of an old schoolhouse in September of 1996. Judy served as Head of School and Teacher of Language Arts, Spanish and French until 2006.Judy received her BA in  French and Spanish from Vanderbilt University; and her M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction, and her Ed.D in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from University of Vermont. She is an active member of Next Generation Commission for the State of VT charged with developing a plan to encourage Vermonters to live and work in Vermont. Judy is also currently responsible for placing volunteer groups to help rebuild after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico for UCC Disaster Response. Recent groups have and will include TSA Alumni and current TSA students.

Michael Livingston

Michael Livingston retired in June 2020 after 20 years of service.  Michael played an integral role in the growth and success of TSA, building off of the foundation Judy Moore laid when she established the school in 1996 with 12 students.

Highlights of Michael Livingston’s Tenure include achieving stable Enrollment despite a 25% decline in the statewide student population; leading TSA to its first National Accreditation through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC); expanding student services to help support their educational, emotional, and social growth including hiring a full-time School Counselor, introducing a College and Career Advisor, and implementing two categories of Special Education; transitioning TSA from an application process to open enrollment; completing a successful Capital Campaign to raise $1.5 million to enhance student support services, increase faculty development opportunities, and strengthen programs at the school, including scholarships, creating trails throughout our 100-acre property, kayaking and sugaring equipment, raising a barn for outdoor education classroom space and storage of outdoor equipment, and bus service to a number of towns. Under Michael’s leadership, TSA adopted a proficiency-based system of teaching, assessing, and reporting, and introduced flexible pathways for education: and Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs).