Our Staff
Executive Director: Grace M. Hawkins has been involved with tutoring refugee students since moving to Atlanta from Seattle in 2006. "The first boy I tutored needed help, supposedly, in geometry. I worried about how much I remembered about that subject but within minutes of starting I realized he did not even know his times tables! This was my first experience of 'back to the beginning, full speed ahead.' When I had a chance to work with people helping these students get up to grade level against all odds, I was thrilled to have the chance." Grace came to GVS from a background in publishing management, internet marketing and communications. A graduate of Middlebury College, she traveled widely in Asia and Africa for 10 years before returning to the US in 1981. Her goals at GVS are to foster an atmosphere of safety, community and simplicity for the students and faculty, and maintain clear, open communications between the school and those who can support its goals.
Academic Director: Kelley Provence has a passion for teaching reading and a talent for developing and running programs which she nurtured as the director of Literacy Volunteers and The Learning Center in Newton County as well as principal of Peachtree Academy in Conyers. She earned a B.A. from the University of Texas in Austin and her M.B.A. from the University of Connecticut in Storrs. She has traveled extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia. As a college student she spent a summer in West Africa and loves to travel with her husband and two children whenever her family can coordinate their schedules. She loves working with the wonderful girls, staff and volunteers at GVS.
Our Teachers
Darryl Lorick is a new teacher who recently graduated from the Agnes Scott College Masters of Arts Teaching in Biology program. In 1996, after receiving a BS in Environmental Sciences from Rutgers University, Darryl enlisted in the US Marine Corps. He was stationed throughout the United States in North Carolina, South Carolina, California and Oklahoma and eventually became a commissioned officer at Quantico, VA and completed his service with the rank of Captain. Darryl returned to his wife in New Jersey and worked for Public Service Electric and Gas until they moved to Baltimore, MD where he worked as a hazardous waste technician on a chemical weapon neutralization project at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. In 2005, one year after their first daughter was born, they moved to Georgia for his wife's new job. Their second daughter was born in Atlanta in 2007. From the time of the move to Georgia until the time both girls started school, Darryl was a stay-at-home dad with numerous interests and projects always underway including developing a deep love for nature – including ‘bugs’ – in his beautiful girls. After that stint, he returned to school himself, completing his M.A.T. in science at Agnes Scott College. Darryl has had a close association with GVS since it started in 2009, first as a volunteer and now in what he considers to be his dream job - their science teacher.
Ricky Jacobs, Ph.D. is an English teacher with years of public school and university experience in the USA, Britain and Canada. His degrees are in both literature and languages and he is the author of a number of books. Before coming here, he was the dean of one of the colleges of the University of Hawaii. Since 2001, when he helped set up the International Community School, he has been working with refugee students in the Atlanta region. He taught English in the Saturday School program at ICS and participated in the founding of The Global Village School, where he has taught English since 2009. He also teaches graduate courses at Georgia State University.
Amy Pelissero is a new English Language Arts and Writing teacher at GVS. She is delighted to be sharing teaching responsibilities with Ricky Jacobs this year and is thankful for the opportunity to teach refugee young women from around the world. Amy is currently pursuing her Ph. D. in Language & Literacy at Georgia State University and previously taught middle school Language Arts, English, and Social Studies. Amy also works as an in-home, family literacy teacher with a Sudanese refugee family. Amy and her husband, Brandon, have two adopted daughters from China. Their older daughter, Maddy, attends the International Community School, and the younger, Betsy, is currently at DPCC. Amy looks forward to helping the students at GVS find ways to bring their unique thoughts, histories, and voices to paper in Writer’s Workshop this year and to developing a GVS class newsletter.
Linda Smiley is happy to be teaching math to the wonderful and eager students at the Global Village School. She has taught math to middle school students for 13 years in independent and parochial schools in Atlanta. Before earning her teaching certificate from Oglethorpe University, she spent several years tutoring children in various levels of mathematics. She is from Mississippi and has a degree in English from Emory University. After a few years in Washington D.C., she and her husband, Brian, returned to Atlanta. They have two children and a lively dog and enjoy traveling, reading, movies, and theatre. Linda also enjoys yoga classes and is amazed that her garden actually produced vegetables this summer! She is looking forward to many great accomplishments on the part of the GVS students this year.
Our Board of Directors
Chair Elizabeth A. Eggers (Betsy) brings a variety of business and leadership experience to GVS. For over twenty years, she was co-founder/CFO of ArchiTech, a design-develop-build firm that built single- and multi-family homes and redeveloped warehouses into mixed-used spaces. With a Master's in Occupational Therapy, Betsy worked in the Rehab Department of DeKalb Medical Center for twenty-three years. She was the founding president of the Brookhaven Fields Civic Association, founding Board member of the Fugees Family, and a former treasurer of the Atlanta Friends Meeting. She and her husband, Jack Honderd, parented three children and now raise Southeastern Guide Dog puppies.
Vice Chair Kris Birkness has been a research microbiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for over 30 years, currently doing research on tuberculosis pathogenesis in the Division of TB Elimination. She graduated from Duke University followed by post graduate work and the molecular biology masters program at Georgia State University. She is a member of All Saints Episcopal Church and has been a part of All Saints’ Refugee Ministry since 1996 and served on the board of advisors since its beginning. She has been tutoring and mentoring refugee children from many parts of the world for more than thirteen years and has been involved in the creation and building of the International Community Charter School, the Saturday School, and the Global Village School.
Treasurer Sharon McKelvey is a certified public accountant with her own firm, McKelvey and Russell, LLC. Sharon graduated from Emory University’s Business School, worked for DeKalb County as an internal auditor for several years before entering public accounting where she has been ever since. Her main focus has been working with not-for-profit organizations. Sharon serves as treasurer for several not-for-profit organizations. She lives in Snellville with her husband, three children and two dogs.
Secretary Julia Levy is a self-employed business writer. A graduate of Yale with a degree in Medieval Studies, she has worked as a financial analyst for a bank and was employed for many years on Wall Street as an Equities Division Vice President in Product Marketing. She was one of the founders of the Decatur Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit that engaged in community-building through historic and greenspace preservation. Julia served as Board Chair and later Executive Director of that organization. She lives in Decatur with her husband, two teenage sons, one dog and three cats.
Members
Pia Sabharwal Ahmad has spent a number of years working in the non-profit sector all over the world including in India, Russia, Belarus and the US. She brings an international perspective to the Board. During her career Pia has worked on Development issues with the International Finance Corporation, UNDP, A School Bell Rings and Counterpart Alliance for Partnership. She has always held a keen interest in the role of the private sector as an agent for change and has focused on corporate social responsibility in the supply chain during her work at Social Accountability International, Reebok and Nordstrom. Most recently Pia was employed with the Department of Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs at the City of Atlanta. She holds a Bachelors degree in International Relations from Vassar College and an MBA in Strategy from Goizueta Business School at Emory. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, two children and labrador.
Ann Blocha has over 20 years of experience in Human Resources, most of which is with non-profit organizations. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Master’s degree in Human Resources and Industrial Relations from Loyola University of Chicago. She is certified as a Senior Human Resources Professional (SPHR), a Compensation Professional (CCP), and a Benefits Professional (CBP). Ann currently works as the Director of Human Resources for The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. Ann was a math tutor and substitute teacher for GVS, and a volunteer for the Board HR Committee before joining the GVS Board in March, 2011.
Chris Burgess, now retired from the Social Security Administration, is a history buff, having studied historic preservation technology in Chapel Hill, NC. He previously spent two years in the Peace Corps in Barbados, publishing a magazine teaching farmers how to coordinate their crops so as to eliminate gluts and shortages. He spent eight more years in the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, helping growers developing for export such fruit crops as mangoes and pineapple, and various root crops. Chris is deeply involved in refugee issues and served for five years as a member and coordinating team member of the Refugee Ministry at All Saints Episcopal Church and its Refugee Resettlement Committee. He has been actively involved in the Saturday School for Refugees, an extension of the International Community School, and worked on the team that founded the Global Village Project and School.
Sam DeSimone has served as the Executive Vice President, General Counsel of EarthLink since 2000 and was the Executive Vice President, General Counsel of MindSpring Enterprises from 1998 until its merger with EarthLink Network in 2000. He was the Vice President of Corporate Development and General Counsel of Merix, a printed circuit board manufacturer in Forest Grove, Oregon, from 1995-98. Sam was an associate attorney and partner at Lane Powell in Portland, Oregon from 1990-95, and an associate attorney at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston from 1984-90. He received a J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1984 and a B.A. from Amherst College in 1981. Sam currently serves as a member of the Board of Advisors of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law. His wife, Liz, and youngest daughter, Joely, have been volunteering at the Global Village School since 2009.
Ana Kolar is a Portfolio Manager with Riverside Advisors, LLC, an investment firm in Atlanta. Ana studied Finance and played tennis for GSU. Furthering her education, she received CFA designation in 2004. Ana moved to the US from Croatia in 1996. Having grown up during the war in Croatia and experiencing moving to a new culture and educational system as a teenager, she is fully committed to the mission and purpose that GVS serves to refugee girls. An avid traveler, Ana loves immersing herself in other cultures, understanding the differences and always finding out that similarities are what is strongest. She speaks Croatian, English and Spanish.
Peter J. McGuire received his Ph.D.in English and Linguistics from Brown University in 1975 and joined the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology where he served as a Professor of Communications, a member of the faculty of the Center for Graphics, Visualization, and Usability in the College of Computing, Director of the B.S. program in Computational Media and the M.S. and Ph.D program in Digital Media, and as Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. He is co-author and co-editor of three books on communication and numerous professional papers. A specialist in the industrial use of digital media, he has served as a consultant to to a number of major organizations including the U.S. Space Flight Center at Langley, VA and AT&T corporate headquarters at Baskin Ridge, NJ. After he retired from Georgia Tech in 2008, he and his wife joined the Peace Corps and were assigned to Ukraine where he served for two years as a Visiting Professor at the Ukraine's National Aerospace University and established outreach programs to teach English to K-12 students and members of the local business community. Returning to Atlanta in 2011, he became a volunteer at the Global Village School and in 2012 was elected to the School's Board of Directors.
Beth Wilson Vaughan is an associate at the law firm of Alston and Bird, where she practices in the ERISA Litigation Group. She learned of the Global Village School through her law firm, and she is grateful to be a part of this wonderful organization. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 2010, where she was a member of the National Moot Court team and winner of the Ray H. Jenkins Trial Competition and Advocates' Prize. In 2007, Beth graduated summa cum laude with her Bachelor of Arts in College Scholars from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and named a Torchbearer.
Chair: Gayle Gellerstedt
Walt Drake
Bill Funk
Elizabeth Kiss
Ron Martin
Bill Moon
Mark Pope
Judy Turner
