The Gunston School is pleased to announce the addition of two members to its Board of Trustees, as well as several new faculty members. Joining the board this year are Joe Janney, P’21 of Annapolis and Jill Caron, P’17 of Chestertown. Janney was a long-serving executive at Oracle, and in addition to his service on a number of educational and environmental non-profit boards, he serves on Gunston’s Chesapeake Watershed Semester Advisory Board. Caron has been a long-serving member of Gunston’s Advancement Committee, and she has provided dedicated leadership through her service on the Gunston Parents’ Association.
In addition, Gunston’s new board chair is Patrick Shoemaker ’03, who has served on the board since 2012. Shoemaker is a founding partner of PEAKE Technologies, a healthcare information technology services firm. Joining Shoemaker on the Executive Committee is Pat Parkhurst, P’18, 21, 23 as vice chair, Megan Cook, P’22 as secretary, Mark Freestate as treasurer, and Mara Schmittinger, P’16, ’19 as member at large.
Gunston is excited to add several faculty and support staff to its team for the upcoming year. Will Freda will be teaching English and hails from Kennebunk, ME. He attended Deerfield Academy and then Kenyon College where he double majored in religious studies and Italian. A world traveler, Freda spent a year studying in Italy, at a Buddhist monastery in China, and as a Fulbright Scholar in Thailand. He recently taught literature and creative writing at St. Paul’s School, NH, and history, literature and English language at Hebron Academy’s new China campus in Hangzhou.
Carter Law will serve as Gunston’s new Assistant Athletic Director, rowing coach, and science teacher. Law most recently worked with Greenwich Academy (CT) where he was highly regarded as an educator and coach. He is a 2017 graduate of Penn State with a degree in Agricultural Science, and has a strong background in the domains of environmental science and sustainability. In addition, Law is certified by the EPA in watershed management.
Ronnie Vesnaver is Gunston’s new Environmental Humanities teacher for the Chesapeake Watershed Semester, although this year she will be teaching English and history. Vesnaver spent the last five years teaching U.S. history and government for both middle and upper school students, as well as living as a residential faculty member at the Pennington School in Pennington, NJ. In 2017 she and a colleague formed and led a sustainability committee that is now a growing and essential part of the school program at Pennington, stressing the importance and power of environmental education. Vesnaver is a graduate of Colby College in Waterville, ME where she majored in American studies and art history. She recently earned her Master’s degree in environmental history from Rutgers University-Newark.
Fairuz Manion, MSN, RN, joins Gunston as the new School Nurse/Health Coordinator. Manion brings a wealth of experience to this newly created position, both as a registered nurse and an educator. Most recently, she worked for BayHealth Medical Center in Dover for more than 15 years, specializing in patient care, discharge planning, and overseeing outreach programs. She has a Masters degree in Community Health, and an extensive background in nursing education, serving recently as a Professor at Wesley College, Wilmington University, and Ana G. Mendez University.
Juan Camilo Angarita joins the Gunston faculty full-time as a Spanish and English teacher. Angarita is a 2005 graduate of The Gunston School where he was the winner of the school’s top honor: The Gunston Award. He earned his B.A. in government and legal studies and Latin American studies from Bowdoin College, where he was awarded The John H. Turner Prize in Latin American studies. For nearly a decade, Angarita worked in the corporate world before recently returning to the Eastern Shore, where he has been serving Gunston as a soccer coach and long-term substitute teacher.
Finally, Gunston welcomes Millicent Sheets as the new Math Department Chair. Previously Sheets worked part-time at Gunston as a teacher and a lacrosse coach and had a distinguished and lengthy career at The Country School in Easton, MD. Most recently, Sheets taught at Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia. She earned her B.A. in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The Gunston School is an independent, nonprofit, nonsectarian, coeducational, college preparatory high school located in Centreville, Maryland. Learn more at gunston.org.
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