Board of Trustees
Alison DiSalvo-Ryan | President
After attending the Pine Hill Waldorf School and St. Mark’s School, Ms. DiSalvo-Ryan earned a B.A. from Bowdoin College in Art History and Education. She has worked in HR and recruiting, served on several non-profit boards, and assisted her alma maters with development and alumni outreach. Alison is a mother to five children—she is a current parent and a ‘21 and ‘23 alumni parent.
Kathleen (Kat) Williams | Vice President
Ms. Williams has over 20 years of storytelling experience within the media and television industry. She is an award-winning video and website producer as well as a former high school social studies teacher in the New York City public school system. Ms. Williams began her career in media at The History Channel, where she helped to build History.com from the ground up. This included the ideation, development, and production of editorial franchises including This Day in History. Later, she led a team of 20+ producers, designers and writers and managed several complete site redesigns. She was responsible for the digital side of History's biggest television launches, such as Vikings and The Bible and produced and executive-produced hundreds of short-format videos, which have been watched by tens of millions of people. Ms. Williams has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, and won in 2013 for her work with the short series Remembering 9/11. Ms. Williams holds a BA in History from Dartmouth College and a MA from Columbia University’s Teacher College.
Christian Weeks | Treasurer
Christian Weeks is the Chief Executive Officer of enVerid Systems, a pioneer and global leader in air quality and energy efficiency. Christian is an entrepreneurial general manager and business strategist who is passionate about bringing disruptive technologies to market and scaling innovative early to mid-stage companies. Prior to enVerid, Christian was an executive with EnerNOC, Inc, which was acquired by Enel X, the Enel Group’s advanced energy services business line, in 2017. Prior to EnerNOC, Christian worked in Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy & Operations practice. Christian attended the Waldorf School of Lexington from kindergarten to third grade and is a graduate of the Pine Hill Waldorf School, ConVal Regional High School, Dartmouth College, and Harvard Business School.
Ann Wiedie | Secretary
Ms. Wiedie received a PhD in Statistics from the University of Massachusetts, and then taught at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She serves on committees involving agriculture, recycling, and solid waste in her town, and is the treasurer of Weston Forest and Trail Association. Her days always include animals and the woods. Ann's daughter attended WSL from early childhood through graduation in 2018, and the experience was treasured by the whole family.
Lance Brisbois
Mr. Brisbois is a higher education administrator and works at Harvard University. Earlier in his career, he spent 10 years as a fundraiser. Born and raised on Boston’s North Shore, Mr. Brisbois graduated from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, where he first learned about Waldorf schools from a friend. Deeply impressed by what he heard, Mr. Brisbois eventually became, and remains, a student of the holistic philosophy that helped inspire Waldorf’s distinctive approach to teaching and learning.
Walter Duncan (Leave of Absence)
Mr. Duncan is Co-Founder at Validated Learning Co. // Quick Key. He is also a current WSL parent (Class of 2028) and a graduate of the Detroit Waldorf School. He has served as a Waldorf teacher at The Waldorf School at Moraine Farm, The Highland Hall Waldorf School, and The Brooklyn Waldorf School. Mr. Duncan has also served on the Board of Trustees of Validated Learning Co and The Brooklyn Waldorf School. Mr. Duncan earned a BA in Spanish Language and Literature from Earlham College. He is considered a forward thinking innovator who sees the future of education. From his experience as a dynamic teacher and a cooperative colleague, he now works to bring cutting edge innovation to teachers and provides a unique perspective to how Waldorf Education can meet the needs of the 21st century.
Marcie Holmes
Marcie Holmes is a specialist in compliance, regulatory affairs and business development within global trading companies in the financial technology sector. She has nearly 15 years of experience providing compliance oversight and strategic direction for algorithmic trading firms such as Quadrature Capital, Jump Trading, and RGM Advisors. She holds a MA in Fine and Decorative Art from the Sotheby's Institute at the University of Manchester, UK, and is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Phillips Exeter Academy. Marcie is the mother of two children currently attending WSL in the Early Childhood program.
Dr. Lydia Knutson
Dr. Lydia Knutson is a chiropractor and founder of the Lydian Center, a multidisciplinary holistic health clinic in Cambridge, MA. She is the developer of Axial Stability Method (ASM) chiropractic, the signature treatment approach offered at the Lydian Center. She is interested in how biomechanical injury affects the development of the somato-sensory system and its subsequent role in chronic pain and dysfunction in adulthood. She recently developed a 220-hour postgraduate course for Axial Stability Method, and has received IRB approval for 3 research studies involving ASM with Life University in Atlanta. She is currently researching COVID Post-Viral Syndrome and chiropractic treatment. She has a strong commitment to the non-profit sector and has sat on multiple boards. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Breakthroughs International, an educational non-profit. In addition to her work in the health field, she was for many years, a professional classical singer. As a graduate of High Mowing, she is honored to be back serving within a Waldorf community.
Arthur M. Pittis
Mr. Pittis is a retired Waldorf educator and writer, both his adult daughters being Waldorf ‘lifers’. He has a B. from Lake Forest College in English and a MDS from Johns Hopkins University in dramaturgy. He did his teacher training at the Waldorf Institute of Mercy College and served as a class teacher for nineteen years and a high school humanities teacher for eighteen where his focus was history, formal writing and theater. During his career he served as faculty chair in Baltimore, high school pedagogical chair in Austin, and at the Pasadena Waldorf School high school pedagogical administrator. During the non-teaching part of his career, he served AWSNA for over twenty years, first as a delegate, then as a founding member of the AWSNA Leadership Council, and as a leader and member of a dozen accreditation teams, as well as briefly working the AWSNA Accreditation. He is the author of Pedagogical Theater: Dramaturgy and Performance Practice for the Lower, Middle, and High School, the five book Waldorf Reader Series, and the libretto for a full-scale musical production of A Tale of Two Cities, which he produced and directed in Austin. Currently he focuses his interests on reading a wide range of American pollical, social and indigenous history, as well as editing and publishing friends’ poetry and books on environmental activism. He and his wife, a retired professor of nursing, divide their time between New England in the winter where they provide grandparent support and the south shore of Lake Superior in the summers where they kayak on the sloughs and rivers.
Nick Lim
Bio coming soon.
Samarjit Shankar
Mr. Shankar is an investor, global macro strategist and economist with over 25 years of experience. In addition to receiving an MBA in Finance from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, he has conducted research and analysis at the London School of Economics and Harvard Business School. He has spearheaded numerous thought leadership initiatives with global money managers and central banks, having worked closely with the International Monetary Fund and on World Bank projects over the years. For the past 15 years, he was a Managing Director, Head of iFlow & Quant Strategies, Global Markets at BNY Mellon in Boston. Prior to this, Mr. Shankar was the Head of Global Flow of Funds at JP Morgan in New York, head of currency research at State Street Bank, and Chief Economist and Chief Equity Strategist at Barclays BZW in London, Hong Kong and Singapore. Through living and working across Asia, Europe and the US, traveling extensively to six continents, and being quoted in visual and print media globally, he has built a robust international network. Mr. Shankar currently serves on the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Board of Directors and Board of Advisors and chairs their Investment Committee. He enjoys the outdoors, especially snowshoeing and hiking, music, photography, chess and spending time with his two daughters. He is a current parent at WSL.
Carlos Trostli
Mr. Trostli joined the WSL Board of Trustees in 2018 and made significant contributions as a member of the Finance Committee and through his involvement in multiple task forces including the Budget Taskforce, the Governance Taskforce (Chair), and the Culture Taskforce. Most recently, Carlos served as WSL’s Head of Strategic Initiatives. Professionally, Carlos is a global business leader with over 20 years of experience working across culturally diverse environments in North America, Latin America, and Europe. Carlos has held various leadership roles in marketing, sales, business development, and general management with major consumer packaged goods companies including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and PepsiCo, internet service and content provider AOL, and multiple construction and real estate development companies. Carlos has an MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and is trained as a consultant using an Anthroposophical framework to mobilize organizations and provide coaching.