Meet Our Board Members
Ed Oliver, Co-Chair
Ed Oliver is co-chair of the Board of Trustees and is the parent of a lower school student. Ed is a Quaker and a member of Brooklyn Monthly Meeting. Having served as a co-opted member of the Nominating and Governance Committee, Ed is excited to have the opportunity to continue his service to the Brooklyn Friends School community as a member of the board. Ed received his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a BA in Business Administration from Morehouse College. He is the Director – Finance at Dataminr, a real-time information discovery company, supervising a New York and London based team.
Penny Windle, Co-Chair
Penny is an attorney and a former Partner of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP. Over more than 20 years at Cahill, Penny focused on commercial litigation and government investigations, with particular emphasis on complex securities and insurance matters, and served a four-year term as Co-Administrative Partner of the firm. Prior to her legal career, Penny was a financial analyst at Kidder Peabody & Co. and Bear Stearns & Co.
Penny retired from private practice in 2019 to focus on service in the public interest sector. In addition to her service on the Board of Trustees, she serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Center for Family Representation, a groundbreaking nonprofit organization that provides families and youth in crisis with legal representation and social work services to enable children from vulnerable families to live with their parents safely, and as a member of the Development Board of Phillips Academy.
Penny has lived in Brooklyn Heights for more than 25 years. She and her husband John have a daughter in the Upper School.
Nicole A. DuFauchard
Nicole has been the Head of School of the Advent School since 2013. Her career work spans the full spectrum of education from early childhood to her work in student affairs and development in both public and private universities across the country.
Nicole has spent the last 20 years exploring equity and access in education. Nicole is a well sought out consultant that works with school and nonprofit faculty, administrators, and boards across the country to engage in equity and justice work and serves as a mentor and facilitator for Administrators and Faculty of Color and Women aspiring for school leadership roles with the National Association of Independent Schools and the Association of Independent Schools of New England.
Before her time at Advent, she served as the Director of Multicultural Affairs at Providence Day School in Charlotte, NC. Nicole holds a BA in Political Science and International Affairs, and an MA in Organizational Communications and Development with a concentration on Cross-Cultural Communications. Nicole is a faculty member for the National Association of Independent Schools’ Diversity Leadership Institute and an executive board member and chair of the Trustee Committee for the Association of Independent Schools of New England.
Nicole is also a board member for Waynflete School in Portland, ME and Brooklyn Friends School in Brooklyn, NY. A board member of the 1911 Heads’ Association, Membership Committee Member on Diversity and the ESHA Annual Conference Chair for 2016. She served as a Partner for the Planning Committee for the 2017 Progressive Educators Network Annual Conference and the National Anti-Racist Teaching Institute in 2021. She is a founding executive board member for Schooling For Hope in Massachusetts. Nicole is an adjunct faculty Member at Longy School of Music and has produced curriculum, assessments, and strategic planning for over 20 schools and nonprofits. Nicole is a diversity, equity and inclusion coach and consultant across the country. She has worked with numerous organizations to support their equity and inclusion efforts. With her work with Nashville and Cincinnati Symphony, Shelter Music, Beacon Academy and the Whitby School, Nicole believes that organizations can live fully in mission through the work of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. Nicole is a Global Ambassador for the Queen Morta School in Vilnius, Lithuania, a member of the corporation of the Community Music Center Boston. She lives in Boston, with her partner, son and two French Bulldogs.
Allison Dunn
Allison is the parent of two children at BFS — Joshua ’25 and Sidney ’28 — a partner at WorkLab LLC, and the Associate Director of the Dynamics of Consulting program. Prior to joining the Board of Trustees in September 2020, she was a long-time co-opted member of the Advancement Committee, through which she and her husband Mark co-chaired BFS’s most recent capital campaign and served on the Brooklyn Friends Fund committee. In addition to her service on the BFS Board, Allison sits on the board of the Prospect Park Alliance, co-chairs the Camp Advisory Board for Camp Sea Gull & Camp Seafarer, and serves on the Steering Committee for the Society of 1918 at the College of William & Mary. Trained in management and behavioral sciences, Allison draws on a systems perspective to inform her work and service, seeking to understand and nurture the underlying, interconnected factors that shape outcomes in each of these complex organizations. Allison holds a BA in English from the College of William & Mary and an MA in Industrial & Organizational Psychology from New York University. A Virginia native, she now lives in Park Slope with Mark and her sons.
M Salomé Galib
M Salomé Galib is a writer and an attorney. She promotes, and fundraises for, not-for-profit organizations that advance issues close to her heart. Besides serving on the Board of Trustees of Brooklyn Friends School, she is on the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and the Hostos Community College Foundation Board. She also serves on the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust’s Advisory Council, and the Sila M. Calderón Center for Puerto Rico’s Diaspora Advisory Council. Early in her career, Ms. Galib was a business reporter and the Washington correspondent for El Nuevo Día, the leading daily newspaper in her native Puerto Rico. She was also a Clinton Administration appointee at the US Information Agency, now part of the US State Department. Besides her past work as an associate at two NY law firms, Ms. Galib was the NY Office Director for the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico and Development Director for LatinoJustice-PRLDEF. Until recently, she owned Bebe Sol LLC, a purveyor of children’s apparel. She holds a JD from Columbia Law School, an MIA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a BSFS from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. “We moved to Brooklyn on the first week of September 2007. Our oldest daughter moved into Kindergarten at Brooklyn Friends that same week. We cannot imagine our lives outside of either community and are grateful for it.”
Lakisha Grant
Lakisha Grant is the mother of a current lower school student. She is a member of Brooklyn Monthly Meeting and serves as co-clerk of the Childcare Committee. After graduating from Westtown School, Lakisha received her BS in Hotel and Restaurant Management. She also holds a MS in Human Resources Management and a MFA in Acting. Lakisha has worked for NYC for 10 years and is currently the Deputy Director in Human Resources at the Office of the Mayor. She and her son reside in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Martha Hyde
Martha Hyde, a member of Brooklyn Monthly Meeting, is a professional musician who plays woodwind instruments. She has performed in venues ranging from Alice Tully Hall to CBGB’s to the Cathedral of St. John the Devine as well as tours on four continents. She can regularly be seen in the orchestra pits on Broadway and Radio City Music Hall and has performed with such luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Hugh Jackman, Whoopi Goldberg and Glenn Close. She is also on numerous cast recordings. She is a co-founder of the New River Ensemble which has toured the eastern United States from Massachusetts to Georgia. She has run band programs and taught classes in New York City public schools as well private schools. She is on the faculty of Friends Music Camp, held every July on the campus of Earlham College. She has two sons, both in their twenties and lives in East New York with her husband. Her board experience includes Friends House at Rose Hill, the Musicians Health Fund at Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians and the Executive Board of Local 802.
Bill Morris
Bill Morris is joining the Brooklyn Friends Board of Trustees after a 40-year career in education. This June, Bill retired after 13 years as Head of School at Friends Academy on Long Island. Prior to that, he spent 27 years at the Taft School in Connecticut, a boarding school for grades 9-12. Bill began his career as a teacher, coach, and dorm advisor, and over time undertook a broad range of school leadership roles before becoming a School Head. Bill has served on the New York State Association of Independent Schools Board of Trustees for eight years, and he has chaired the NYSAIS Commission on Accreditation for the last seven years. He is a member of Country Day School Headmasters Association and The Headmasters Association. He now lives near Lake Placid, NY. He and Sue, his wife of 42 years, have 3 adult children and 5 grandchildren. “The opportunity to continue my association with Quaker education, work closely with my long-time friend and colleague Larry Weiss, and offer what I can to advance the service Brooklyn Friends provides for students and families so excites me about joining this vibrant and forward looking community. I have found that the values of a Friends community resonate deeply with me personally and spiritually. I believe that the essence of Friends education is to develop in students a sense of gratitude, patience, and forgiveness. My hope is that the graduates of Brooklyn Friends will appreciate how they owe the world a life rather than the world owing them a living, to paraphrase the words of Amy Willets, a Quaker.”
Adam Sacks
Adam is a parent of two children at Brooklyn Friends School, Alexander (‘33) and Julian (‘35). As a product of a liberal education, Adam believes very strongly in the power of an independent school education to develop lifelong learners with a deep curiosity, a drive for educational excellence, and an appreciation for their responsibility to our world. Adam and his wife Azi live in Brooklyn Heights.
Jill Simeone
Jill Simeone is the mom of Stella (class of ‘26) and Arlo (class of ‘24). She lives in Park Slope, and has called Brooklyn home for almost 30 years. Jill is the Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, of Etsy, Inc. She manages a global cross-functional team, overseeing legal, compliance, government affairs, marketplace policy, advocacy, and regulatory matters. Since joining Etsy in 2017, Jill advised the board and management on Etsy’s rapid pivot, turnaround, and scaling. As a trusted advisor to the Etsy Board and its committees, Jill has counseled on complex governance matters, litigation, business strategy and risk management, and Integrated ESG Reporting. In addition to her close work with public boards, Jill has served on various non-profit boards for the past decade, including as a director of Praxis Housing, and Vice President and President of the UC Hasting School of Law Board of Governors. Jill is deeply committed to STEAM education, and for five years chaired the STEAM Committee at PS 107, running the school’s annual STEAM Day, as well as teaching the before school math enrichment program. Jill’s husband, Stephen Kitts, is a graduate of The George School, and was greatly influenced by his Quaker education. Jill & Stephen are proud to be members of the BFS Community.
Gloria Thompson
Gloria Thompson’s Quaker roots began in Jamaica more than 60 years. There she attended Top Moro and Worthington Friends Meetings and Happy Grove High School (Quaker). Presently, she serves as the Clerk of Manhattan Monthly Meeting; a semi-programmed Meeting located on the same premises as 15th Street Meeting House, Manhattan. Gloria has served on various New York Quarterly, New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM) and National Quaker Organizations Committees, for example Quaker United Nation Office (QUNO), Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). She also serves as FWCC Northeast Regional Coordinator as well as Co-Clerk for Representative Engagement Program Group (REPG). Gloria is a trained Alternative to Violence (AVP) facilitator.
Gloria is an Education Consultant, whose career spans more than 40 years as a middle school computer technology coordinator, high school science teacher, instructional technology specialist, Early Intervention Specialist, Staff Developer and Workshop Presenter. Over the years, she has forged collaborative partnerships and bonds with like-minded educators to strengthen her foundational skills, as well as the future of Early Childhood and Rural Education in Guyana and Jamaica. Gloria has participated in education roundtables in several countries including China, Australia, Jamaica, Nepal, Kenya and Guyana. She has served as staff developer; Instructional Technology, Chairperson: School Leadership /Principal’s Advisory Team Workshop Facilitator; GESA Program, The Eisenhower K-16 Alliance, Early Childhood and Instructional Technology;
Participated in:
- NASA Explorer Schools Program, NASA Goddard Space Center, Maryland.
- Syracuse University – TIPS Program
- Teaching Matters Inc. Train-the-Trainer
Gloria is a Mico University College Gold Medal recipient for excellence in education.
Eisa Ulen Richardson
Eisa Ulen Richardson and her husband, Ralph Richardson, Jr., are the proud parents of Ralphie, Class of 2027, who started his education at the Family Center. Eisa has served Brooklyn Friends in various capacities, including member of the Brooklyn Friends Fund Committee, Co-Chair of the PAT Diversity Committee (now DEIP), Co-President of the PAT, Executive Vice-President of the BFF, Class Parent, and member of the Search Committee for a New Head of School. She is currently a member of the Advancement Committee. Eisa holds a BA in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA in Philosophy and Education from Columbia University. An educator with over 20 years’ experience, Eisa teaches the literature of Africa and the African Diaspora at Hunter College. She is an award-winning writer whose essays on African American culture have been widely anthologized, and author of the novel Crystelle Mourning. Eisa is also the Executive Director of Greeneprints, a local nonprofit that runs the summer program she founded, Camp Fort Greene. Chapter President of Mocha Moms Brooklyn for four years, Eisa currently serves on the Play:GroundNYC Advisory Board.