Board of Trustees

2023-2024

The Waverly School Board of Trustees serves as the guardian of our Mission State­ment and is account­able for the finan­cial stabil­ity and future of the school.

Primary work and focus:

  • In collab­o­ra­tion with the Head of School, the Board engages in long term finan­cial plan­ning and works towards annual goals that stem from the mission statement. 
  • The Board facil­i­tates finan­cial plan­ning, assumes primary respon­si­bil­ity for the preser­va­tion of capital assets and endow­ments, over­sees oper­at­ing budgets and partic­i­pates actively in fund raising efforts. 
  • The Board is respon­si­ble to select, support, nurture, eval­u­ate, and set appro­pri­ate compen­sa­tion for the Head of School.

Waverly’s Board of Trustees adheres to a set of by-laws and prac­tices consis­tent with NAIS Best Prac­tices for Boards and NAIS Best Prac­tices for Trustees.

To contact the Board of Trustees, email boardoftrustees@​thewaverlyschool.​org.

Waverly’s Board of Trustees strives to main­tain a compo­si­tion that reflects the strate­gic exper­tise, resources, and perspec­tives (past, present, and future) needed to achieve the mission and strate­gic goals of the school. The Board works delib­er­ately to ensure that it is repre­sen­ta­tive of the diver­sity that is present in the rapidly chang­ing and increas­ingly diverse school-age popu­la­tion in our country.

Board of Trustees 2023 – 2024

Photo not available

Anthony Alvarado

Anthony joined the Board in 2021. He and his wife, Desiree Carva­jal, and their daugh­ters, Francesca 26 and Zoe (currently attend­ing a Meher Montes­sori School) joined the Waverly commu­nity in 2020. Anthony serves as Board Secre­tary and as a member of the Devel­op­ment, DEI, and Finance commit­tees. He is a licensed clin­i­cal social worker with expe­ri­ence in commu­nity mental health, serving people with severe and persis­tent mental illnesses. In the past 27 years, Anthony has held direct service and manage­r­ial roles and is currently a Program Manager with Los Angeles County Depart­ment of Mental Health Contract Manage­ment and Monitoring Division. 

Board Jessica Clements

Jessica Clements

Jessica joined the Board in 2019 and serves as the Board Vice Chair and as a member of the Exec­u­tive, Compen­sa­tion, Audit, Devel­op­ment, Finance, and Strate­gic Plan­ning and Advance­ment commit­tees. Jessica has been in the music and enter­tain­ment indus­tries for over 20 years. She is an E‑Commerce exec­u­tive who special­izes in build­ing out, launch­ing, and scaling E‑Commerce busi­nesses. Jessica, her husband Steve, and their two chil­dren, Devin 26 and Everett 29, have been part of the Waverly commu­nity since Devin started kinder­garten. Jessica is honored to serve on the Board and work with the Waverly community.

Board Lorne Green and family 2023

Lorne Green

Lorne began his Board member­ship in 2021 and serves as a member of the Devel­op­ment, DEI, Facil­i­ties, and Strate­gic Plan­ning and Advance­ment commit­tees. Lorne has a back­ground in educa­tion, ethnic and Africana studies, as well as being an actor for over 20 years. His work centers on race and the role of Black excel­lence in educa­tion. He has expe­ri­ence in Los Angeles schools and is currently devel­op­ing an African Amer­i­can heritage school for chil­dren. Lorne and his wife Rachel have two chil­dren at Waverly, Bennett 33 and Ceciliana 35.

Biz Lawrence Board family photo

Eliz­a­beth Lawrence

Eliz­a­beth Biz” Lawrence joined the Board in 2023. She and her partner, Stefan Lawrence, and their chil­dren Ellis 32 and Katy Belle (currently attend­ing CS Arts High School) joined the Waverly commu­nity in 2018. Biz served as the WPO Pres­i­dent for two years and enjoys being a part of the Waverly Halloween Plan­ning Commit­tee. She serves as Co-Chair of the Facil­i­ties Commit­tee and as a member of the Board’s DEI and Devel­op­ment Commit­tees. Biz is the creator and host of the comedy podcast about parent­ing, One Bad Mother, which is enter­ing its 11th year. She also volun­teers at the Pasadena Humane Society and serves as the Repro­duc­tive Justice Chair for the San Gabriel Valley Chapter of the National Orga­ni­za­tion for Women. 

Board Debbie Lennon

Debbie Lennon

Debbie has been a Board member for about 18 years. She serves on the Trustee Affairs, Devel­op­ment, DEI, and Strate­gic Plan­ning and Advance­ment commit­tees. Debbie worked for 35 years for LAUSD in a variety of posi­tions – her most reward­ing being her time in an elemen­tary school class­room. Currently, she is a Dual Language Learner Special­ist and part-time faculty at the Center for Equity for English Learn­ers at Loyola Mary­mount Univer­sity. Debbie, Lester, and Megan 11 came to Waverly when Megan was in Young Kinder­garten (now called preschool) and continue to appre­ci­ate the gift of progres­sive educa­tion and the endur­ing friend­ships formed with the Waverly community.

Board Wendy Lopata

Wendy Lopata

Wendy has been on the Board since 2012 and serves as Chair of Facil­i­ties and Co-Chair of Trustee Affairs. She is also a member of the Exec­u­tive, Compen­sa­tion, and Finance commit­tees. Wendy is a licensed clin­i­cal social worker in private prac­tice, special­iz­ing in depres­sion, anxiety, sexual trauma, and eating disor­ders. She has worked at USC and Caltech and contin­ues to work with college and grad­u­ate students in her private prac­tice. Wendy, her husband Bradley, and their two boys, Nolan 22 and Murray 25, have been part of the Waverly commu­nity since Nolan was in preschool.

Board Noah Mayer

Noah Mayer

Noah joined the Board in 2016 and served as Chair­man from 2019 to 2021. Noah’s three chil­dren are all students at Waverly. His oldest child, Lucy 28, has been at the school since she started in the preschool in 2012. Noah earned an MBA and MA in Inter­na­tional Studies from the Univer­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia. He is a Port­fo­lio Manager at Hotchkis & Wiley, an invest­ment manage­ment firm, and is Co-Chair of the Board’s Finance commit­tee and Chair of Strate­gic Plan­ning and Advance­ment. Noah also serves as a member of the Exec­u­tive, Compen­sa­tion, and Audit committees.

Board Keseh Morgan

Keseh Morgan

Keseh joined the Board in 2020 and currently serves on the Audit, DEI, and Facil­i­ties commit­tees. While she has been an active WPO parent for many years, she is excited to dig in and make some mean­ing­ful change through Board service. She is a Produc­tion Designer, working in film and tele­vi­sion. Keseh and her daugh­ter Asha 24 have been a part of the Waverly commu­nity for ten years.

Board Vijay Natraj

Vijay Natraj

Vijay joined the Board in 2020. He is Co-Chair of Devel­op­ment and serves as a member of the Exec­u­tive, Finance, and Trustee Affairs commit­tees. Vijay is a Research Scien­tist at the Jet Propul­sion Labo­ra­tory working on the remote sensing of Earth and plan­e­tary atmos­pheres. His research inter­ests extend from study­ing climate change and air pollu­tion to looking for biosig­na­tures on planets outside our solar system (exoplan­ets). Vijay, his wife Sowmya, and their chil­dren, Avan­tika 31 and Siddarth (Sidd) 33, have enjoyed being a part of the Waverly commu­nity since 2018.

Board Monti Olson

Monti Olson

Monti joined the Board in 2023. He serves on the Board’s DEI, Devel­op­ment, and Strate­gic Plan­ning commit­tees. Monti is an accom­plished and dedi­cated Senior Music Exec­u­tive with over twenty-five years of expe­ri­ence as a music publisher and entre­pre­neur. He served as Depart­ment Head at three major music compa­nies and is the founder of three inde­pen­dent music publish­ing compa­nies. Monti has earned four Music Publisher of the Year Awards, two Inde­pen­dent Music Publisher of the Year Awards, and one Latin Music Publisher of the Year Award.

Board Shelby Ottengheime

Shelby Ottengheime

Shelby, who grad­u­ated with Waverly’s Class of 2018, began her Board member­ship in 2022. Currently, she is serving as a member on the Devel­op­ment and DEI commit­tees. As a Waverly lifer, she is dedi­cated to support­ing the contin­ued flour­ish­ing of Waverly, which helped shape the student and indi­vid­ual she is today. Soon to be a Pitzer College alumna, she is study­ing anthro­pol­ogy and archae­ol­ogy with plans of going on a dig in Caracol, Belize in the spring of 2023. Ulti­mately, Shelby is thrilled to be on the Board because it enables her to give back to and contin­u­ally partic­i­pate with the Waverly community.

Board Michael Pinto bio

Michael Pinto

Michael joined the Board in 2022. He is a co-chair of the Facil­i­ties Commit­tee and a member of the DEIJ and Devel­op­ment Commit­tees. Michael is a prac­tic­ing archi­tect and educa­tor. He is Direc­tor of Design and Inno­va­tion at NAC Archi­tec­ture and has taught at the South­ern Cali­for­nia Insti­tute of Archi­tec­ture. Michael special­izes in design for educa­tion and has created spaces for early educa­tion to univer­sity programs but has been involved in civic work of all types. Recently he has been leading projects to address home­less­ness. Michael, his wife, Juli­ette, and their son, Amadeo 25, love being part of the Waverly community!

Board Stephen Rountree

Stephen Roun­tree

Steve joined the Board in 2021. He is Co-Chair of Devel­op­ment and serves as a member of the Audit, DEI, and Finance commit­tees. In more than two decades of leading nonprofit arts orga­ni­za­tions, he has been CEO of the Center Theatre Group, from which he retired in 2018; the Music Center of Los Angeles County; and the Los Angeles Opera, as well as the chief oper­at­ing officer of the Getty Trust. Steve currently also serves as chair of the Occi­den­tal College Board of Trustees, as a trustee of The Ahman­son Foun­da­tion, and is a trustee of Children’s Hospi­tal of Los Angeles. He and his wife, Carol, reside in Pasadena and are active in the lives of their two daugh­ters and five grand­chil­dren, all Pasadena-area resi­dents. Grand­son Charlie Arredondo 23 has been a proud Waverly Raven since the 4th grade.

Ebesu Family

Nadine Tanio

Nadine’s Board service began in 2018. She co-chairs the Board’s Trustee Affair’s commit­tee and also serves on the Audit, Compen­sa­tion, DEIJ and Exec­u­tive commit­tees. Nadine earned her Ph.D. in Educa­tion from UCLA in 2020 and is a researcher with UC Irvine’s EcoGov­Lab. Nadine and her family have been part of the Waverly commu­nity for over 13 years.

Board Joanne Toll

Joanne Toll

Joanne has served on the Board of Trustees since 2010. She has served as the Board Trea­surer and co-chair of the Finance Commit­tee since 2015, and served as Board Secre­tary for three years prior to serving as Trea­surer. She is also a member of the Exec­u­tive, Compen­sa­tion, and Strate­gic Plan­ning and Advance­ment commit­tees. Joanne is a tele­vi­sion producer, mostly in come­dies, includ­ing Better Things for Fx, Grace and Frankie for Netflix, Atyp­i­cal for Netflix, Enlight­ened for HBO, and the occa­sional drama, such as In Treat­ment for HBO. Joanne and her wife, Gloria, have a son, Jamie 22. Jamie is a Waverly lifer’ who started in Young Kinder­garten (now called preschool) with Marina and Cheenu. She consid­ers herself a Waverly lifer’ too, and is honored to serve on the Board of Trustees.

Faculty Weatherspoon Clarke

Clarke Weath­er­spoon, Head of School (ex officio)

Clarke is Waver­ly’s head of school and is an ex officio member of the Board. With more than 20 years as an educa­tor, Clarke brings tremen­dous school lead­er­ship expe­ri­ence. His passion for educa­tion and dedi­ca­tion to creat­ing ways for students to engage authen­ti­cally and invest in their learn­ing has been evident in his role as a history teacher, dean, divi­sion head, water polo coach, and community volunteer.

Board Serita Young

Serita Young, Chair

Serita has been on the Board since 2017 and serves as the Board Chair, a Co-Chair of the DEI Commit­tee, and as a member of the Exec­u­tive, Compen­sa­tion, Trustee Affairs, and Facil­i­ties commit­tees. Serita is an attor­ney and repre­sents public agen­cies in a wide range of govern­men­tal issues. Serita, her husband Brian, and their two sons, Riley 28 and Aaron 29, have been a part of the Waverly commu­nity for over five years.