A Small Island With a Global Vision

Will and his wife Suzanne are super proud parents of three Island School daughters: Maddie Spring 15, Lilly Fall 15 and Hazel Spring 20 and Spring 21. Will is a founder of the Boston-based law firm Nystrom, Beckman & Paris, LLC, specializing in representing victims of financial fraud. He is active at St Andrews Church in Wellesley Ma and currently serves as Senior Warden. Will also is a director of Active Kids + Minds, a functional fitness program powered by volunteers currently in over 12,000 schools in the US, Canada and abroad. Outside of work, Will enjoys family time, CrossFit, soccer, skiing, and his latest obsession, golf.

Dominique attended The Island School Semester in Spring 2007 and has stayed connected to CEF and IS since, first returning for her brother’s Family Weekend when he attended the Semester in F08. Dominique’s professional work focuses on climate and investing for impact. She has spent most of her career so far in renewable energy infrastructure investment, previously doing community solar M&A at NRG in San Francisco, where she helped build this new business unit for the company. Dominique also worked in the Power & Renewables investment banking coverage group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York, and more recently has worked with venture firm Harlem Capital and Closed Loop Partners’ private equity fund focused on the circular economy. Dominique holds a B.A. in Biology from Barnard College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Christopher “Kit” Norris attended The Island School Semester during the spring of 2008 and later returned to serve as an Alumni Mentor during the summer of 2011. Kit attended Colgate University, where he graduated in 2013 with a degree in Environmental Biology. Since then, Kit has worked in investment banking – first at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and currently at Evercore, where he focuses on special situation private capital raising. Kit helps organize alumni functions for Island Schoolers in the greater New York City area and is an active member of City Squash, an academic and athletic after-school enrichment program in the Bronx and Brooklyn. Kit and his wife, Susanna, live in New York City with their dog, Chester.

Currently residing in Darien, CT, Bill is an Island School Semester parent of Charlie S17. He serves as President of Oak Hill Advisors, a global alternative investment firm with headquarters in New York City where he has been a member of the senior team since 1993. Bill’s other current foundation work includes serving on the board of trustees of the Darien Land Trust.

Georgianna ‘Gigi’ Anderson attended The Island School Semester in Spring 2011 where she was elected by her peers as the S11 semester cacique. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 2016 with a B.A. in English and Environmental Studies. Gigi is currently living in San Francisco and working with Headspace Health, an accessible mental healthcare platform, as a Senior Customer Experience and Advocacy Manager. Gigi previously worked in marketing communications at Acquia, a technology provider specializing in open source and cloud solutions. Gigi has served as a reunion and fundraising committee member for the Noble and Greenough School, in addition to serving as a founding member of The Tide, The New England Aquarium’s community of young professionals. She joined the Cape Eleuthera Foundation Board of Directors as an Alumni Director in 2018 and ended her term in 2020. The Island School continues to be a beloved institution for Gigi’s entire family, including her sister, Noelle S13. 

Mary Kate is Assistant Headmaster and Director of Advancement at The Lawrenceville School where she oversees all fundraising and alumni engagement activities. Over 28 years she has partnered with headmasters and trustees to amplify the School’s endowment and renew the physical plant and Olmstead landscape. Along the way she also raised three daughters, Emma S09, Kelley, and Meg S17. She is a proud aunt to Tess S14, Emmett S17, and Ava S19. Mary Kate graduated from Bowdoin College and has served in numerous volunteer capacities including chair of reunions and The Alumni Council. In 2010 she joined the Cape Eleuthera Foundation Board. Mary Kate and her husband Dave live in Lawrenceville, NJ.

Jessica attended the Island School Semester in Fall 2002. Jessica is a Program Officer at the Klarman Family Foundation and has experience across the for-profit and nonprofit sectors in a variety of human resources and philanthropic-related roles. Jessica has a certificate from the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM-CP) and earned a Master’s degree in Organizational Change Management from the New School and a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies and French from the College of Wooster. Jessica is on the YWCA Newburyport Board of Directors, the Steering Committee for the Boston Chapter of EPIP (Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy), the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Alliance for the City of Newburyport and serves on the Graduate Council and the Grads of Color Committee for the Noble and Greenough School. She lives with her family in Newburyport, MA.

Carter is currently the Assistant Director of Principal and Major Gifts at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. Prior to this, he worked in development at the Clean Air Council. He is a former student (S09), CEI intern (2013-2014), and faculty member (2015-2016) of The Island School. Carter graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 2015 with a BA in Environmental Studies. From 2015-2021 he served as a Trustee of The HBE Foundation Irrevocable Trust, founded by his father, Bruce Brown, and in December of 2022 he was recruited into the Dana-Farber Division of Philanthropy’s ID&E Council.

Bill has had a long and rewarding career in the financial services industry. He is a 1982 graduate of Bates College and had the privilege of serving for ten years on the Board of Trustees for the college. His wife Scarlett, their three children, and daughter-in-law also attended Bates. In addition, Bill is the proud Island School Semester parent of Charlie F06, Maggie S08, and Lilly F13. Bill and Scarlett reside in Lincoln, Massachusetts and Kennebunk, Maine.

Ande is an Island School Semester parent of Chelsey S09, Read S13, and James F14 and has been an active member in our community through the years. She lives in Narragansett, RI with her family and also serves as the Vice President of the Board of Trustees at the Rocky Hill School in East Greenwich, RI.

Andrew is the Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Director for Finance and Budget Administration joined the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. He is a senior level financial and operational leader with 30 years of experience in the higher education, nonprofit, and government sectors. Prior to joining the museum, Andrew served as Vice President for Finance and Administration at Roosevelt University in Chicago where he helped to strengthen the university’s financial position, upgrade the bond outlook, return the university to profitability, and double the school’s endowment fund to over $160 million. As Chief Financial Officer of the University of North Texas and the UNT System, he was named CFO of the Year for the public sector by the Dallas Business Journal.

Ben is Director of Client Services at IPG Media Lab in New York, where he educates and advises clients on virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and other innovation trends. IPG Media Lab identifies and researches innovations and trends that will change the media landscape and how brands engage with their audiences. Prior to his work in media, Benjamin worked as an Equity Specialist at Merrill Lynch. He is a S04 Semester alumnus and holds a B.A. from the University of Miami.

Brian Sanghee Lee attended the Fall 2008 Semester at The Island School and was honored as the Cacique of his class. Brian is passionate about empowering students to access a global education. Previously, he has conducted education research in rural China under a Fulbright-Hays grant. After graduating from Swarthmore College with a BA in Psychology, he went on to complete his MA in China Studies at Zhejiang University. Brian then joined Whittle School & Studios, helping to launch their global boarding programs in Shenzhen and Washington D.C. In addition to advising startups on global strategy, he now directs an online life coaching program designed to develop self-awareness and teach cross-cultural communication to students. He was named a 2014 Project Pengyou Leadership Fellow and speaks English, Korean, Mandarin, and Japanese.

Amy Richardson is a consultant, most recently to Bloomberg Philanthropies, exploring the unmet needs of military-connected children and to Room to Read, a nonprofit organization that works to improve literacy and gender equality in education in the developing world. Previously, Amy was a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation for ten years, where she conducted research in healthcare and education, particularly for the Army. Amy has three daughters who have attended the Island School Semester, Lilah F16, Tess F18 McCormick and Ava F20.

David is an Island School Semester parent of Krissy S09, Sarah S13, and Haley S15. He is the President of IBS Capital LLC, a private investment company based in Boston, Massachusetts, which he founded in 1990. Prior to founding IBS Capital LLC, he spent ten years working in corporate finance with Drexel Burnham Lambert, Winthrop Financial, and Merrill Lynch. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.

Julie Ukpong is an innovative educator and student advocate driving academic success, college completion, career readiness, and social-emotional development. Born and raised in New York City and the product of public education, Julie has dedicated her professional career to serving historically underserved communities primarily in the not-for-profit education sector. Currently, she serves as the Director of Academic Success & Experiential Education at Boys Hope Girls Hope of New York. More than promoting academic success, her drive resides in indwelling seeds of curiosity, vision, grit, and compassion. It is with pride and confidence that she annually encourages her scholars to attend The Island School, as she has witnessed first-hand the positive impacts this program has had on the scholars she serves. After her scholars complete their stay, it is clear these seeds have bloomed. Julie is eager to join the board and expand her impact on The Island School community through her lens of equity, inclusion, and holistic education.