Behind the decisions: Inside Catlin Gabel’s Board of Trustees
By Addison Kelly ‘28
Photos from Catlin Gabel Board of Trustees website. Order of appearance from left to right and top to bottom: John Gilleland, Nitesh Sharan, Marc Hill, Deepthi Madhava, Lisa Ericksen, Susie Greenebaum, Kate Warren Hall, Juliet Hillman, Mark Holliday, Robert D. Kelly, June Kim, Henry “Harry” Miller, Angela Patrick, Chris Park, Hannah Pscheid, Laura Tremblay, Jacob Winkler, Jason Zidell, Aline García Rubio, Kymberly Herbst, Sam Braff, Joe Hall, Rose Hogan, Don Vollum. Collage by Addison Kelly.
Tuition, class sizes, faculty recruitment, and academic programming are all crucial parts of the Catlin Gabel School (CGS) experience. But who really puts the time and thought into the decisions that shape CGS’s holistic student experience? The Board of Trustees at CGS have responsibilities that can seem distant from student life, yet each member helps shape decisions impacting the resources and opportunities available to students.
While students experience the results of the Board’s decisions every day, the process behind those decisions is less visible. From planning the school’s financial future to considering how it can best serve students, the Board has to balance a range of institutional needs while keeping the CGS mission in mind.
“The mission, values, and outcomes are the top level of focus for our budget,” said John Gilleland, Chair of the Board of Trustees. While the Head of School, Aline García Rubio, oversees the school’s daily operations and leads faculty and staff, the Board’s responsibilities center on long-term strategy, financial sustainability, and the institution's broader direction. According to Gilleland, both the Head of School and the Board pursue the same unified mission: ensuring positive long-term outcomes for students and the broader CGS community.
Members of the Board bring their experience from various fields and professions to discussions. For instance, Angela Patrick, a Board member who joined in the 2025-26 school year, brings her background in finance and accounting. Patrick’s experience with corporate budgeting and forecasting has shaped how she thinks about the school’s long-term financial health.
These financial priorities become particularly apparent in discussions of tuition, where affordability must be weighed against the cost of sustaining the school’s prestigious educational programs. CGS relies heavily on tuition to fund faculty, staff, and the overall experience it provides students. Patrick said that “balancing the desire to keep tuition as affordable as possible for families, while also providing great programming to the students,” is one of the crucial considerations she tries to keep in mind.
Another Board member, Chief Financial Operating Officer Sharon Keiser, works very closely with García Rubio and provides the Board with financial projections that account for enrollment, inflation, and future needs. These financial projections ultimately influence students’ experiences by helping the school sustain its academic programs, maintain qualified faculty, and allocate resources to support future educational needs for students.
In addition to Keiser, Kymberly Herbst, a Board member and President of the Employee Forum, brings her experience as faculty to Board discussions. When Trustees discuss enrollment, she explains how changes may affect teachers and staff, as she says, may add “some nuance and texture to conversations around enrollment.”
Although the Board operates largely outside students’ immediate view, its deliberations and decisions have lasting implications for the CGS community as a whole. Patrick understood the significance of incorporating student perspective into the Board’s work, noting, “Student voice is so important, you know, from a part of Catlin’s culture.”
Rose Hogan, CGS Upper School Student Body President, serves on the board as an ex-officio member, meaning she holds her position because of her role in student government. This allows her to bring student experiences and concerns into conversations about the school's long-term goals. From her point of view, student representation is not just about relaying concerns raised by her peers.
Hogan explained that she feels comfortable contributing to a wide range of Board discussions.
Additionally, Hogan emphasized that the student government and Board serve “different but complementary functions.” While student government focuses on day-to-day student life, the Board oversees school-wide governance and long-term planning.
“Student perspectives are particularly valuable when the Board considers how its policies and long-term decisions affect the school community.” Hogan shared.
She was also astonished by the number of alumni who serve on the Board, noting that it speaks to “their continued investment in the school and commitment to sustaining its mission and community for future generations.” Through alumni and student representation, the Board has a means of integrating the experiences and concerns of its student body into broader discussions concerning the school’s priorities, institutional values, and long-term future.
The Board is not only open to discussing issues with Hogan or alumni. They periodically invite the general student body to contribute directly to discussions surrounding budgetary allocations and institutional values. In sum, it takes perspectives from many different stakeholders at CGS for the Board to understand the community’s needs.