NBOA Leadership Academy: 2020-21 Cohort

Jeff Shields, FASAE, CAE, has served as President and CEO of the National Business Officers Association (NBOA) since March 2010. NBOA is the premier national association serving the needs of business officers and business operations staff at independent schools in areas including accounting, finance, tax, risk management, human resources, facilities and information technology. The association has grown from 23 founding member schools in 1998 to over 1,400 US member schools, plus member schools in Mexico, Canada and 23 other countries around the globe during its 18-year history. Today, NBOA provides its member schools a full range of live events, webinars, online courses, publications, online toolkits and resources, research and other services to its growing membership.

Prior to this role, Jeff was employed by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) for 10 years. At the time of his departure, he served as the organization's Senior Vice President and Chief Planning Officer. He began his career in association management as the Assistant Director for Leadership Training at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

Jeff, an active member of the American Society of Association Executives, is a member of the 2008 Class of ASAE Fellows (FASAE) and earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation in 2002. He has also been recognized by the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives (GWSAE) with the “Super Star” award as their active member of the year.

He currently serves as a trustee for One Schoolhouse, an innovative online school offering supplemental education to independent schools and formerly served as a trustee for Georgetown Day School. He is a proud independent school parent of a 12-year-old daughter, Samantha, who is in 7th grade at the Edmund Burke School in Washington, DC.

He holds a BA from Shippensburg University and an MA from The Ohio State University.

Patrick J. Schuermann is an assistant professor of the practice of educational leadership and public policy at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. Patrick has authored numerous articles, commissioned reports and books on leadership. Successful School Leadership: Planning, Politics, Performance and Power is the anchor text in the Peabody Instructional Leadership Series. Leading Schools to Success: Constructing and Sustaining High-Performing Learning Cultures is used in schools, districts and graduate programs across the country. Most recently, Data Fluency is a practical text that seeks to help leaders empower their organizations with effective data communication.

Patrick served as the founding co-editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Education Online and in 2014 won an Emmy Award for Best Educational Piece for his documentary “A Matter of Principles” – a piece that sought to tell the story of effective leadership in a more compelling manner that traditional print form. He has also received several Telly Awards for short films about his recent work developing school leaders in Abu Dhabi.

Patrick created and directs the new Master’s in Independent School Leadership program at Peabody College – an innovative program that draws on experts across the higher education and independent school community in Tennessee and beyond. For the past four years, Patrick has served as the director of Vanderbilt’s Abu Dhabi Leadership Development project, and founded the Tennessee / Shanghai shared leadership initiative. He is a member of the Gates Foundation project studying the ways leaders use teacher effectiveness data to make critical human capital decisions and has developed several policy manuals and tools to support this work.

Prior to these international leadership development projects, for 5 years Patrick served as the policy director and director of technical assistance for the federally funded Center for Educator Compensation Reform (CECR), the comprehensive assistance center for Department of Education’s Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant. In this capacity, Patrick coordinated support to states, districts and charter schools in domains such as communication planning, data quality, the evaluation of teachers and principals, utilizing value-added measurement to assess teacher and school effectiveness, the alignment of professional development to performance award programs, and fiscal and programmatic sustainability.

Patrick developed the Peabody Professional Institutes to offer intensive one-week professional development during the summer for new and aspiring independent school teachers and leaders. Previously a teacher, tutor, coach and leader at the elementary, middle and high school levels, Patrick holds BS and MA degrees from Furman University and a Doctorate in Education Leadership from Vanderbilt University.

Valerie has served as Hathaway Brown’s business officer for nearly two decades. At the all-girls independent school in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Hughes has mastered the ability to not only serve as a hands-on manager involved in day-to-day operations, but also lead several large-scale strategic initiatives. These include the construction of the Jewett-Brown Academic Center, which features a four-story glass atrium; the state-of-the-art Carol and John Butler Aquatic Center and an all-new turf field — a rarity for a school of HB’s size. Perhaps her greatest source of pride is her leadership in creating a financially sound summer program called “Aspire,” which brings 150 inner-city middle school girls to campus each summer for academic enrichment. In 2020 NBOA awarded her the Ken White Distinguished Business Officer Award.

Cindy joined St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in 2018 as the Chief Financial & Operations Officer. She is currently in her 34th year as a Business officer in independent schools having served as the Assistant Head for Finance and Operations at Kentucky Day School, Director of Finance and Operations at Dwight-Englewood School and the Business Officer at Princeton Day School. Her early career began as a CPA with KPMG auditing independent schools, hospitals, real estate ventures, banks and not-for-profit organizations. She has served on several not-for-profit boards in officer roles with ABOIS, INDEX, YWCA of Princeton, Young Audiences of NJ, and NBOA. In 2008 NBOA awarded her the Ken White Distinguished Business Officer Award.

Dr. James Palmieri, Executive Vice President at National Business Officers Association (NBOA), joined the staff in 2018 following thirteen years of strong experience in school business operations leadership and with a passion for independent education. James serves as a partner to the President and CEO in carrying out strategic initiatives as directed by the NBOA strategic plan, and he supports program and product expansion in partnership with members of the senior staff. James also supervises the Communications and Research team, which produces Net Assets Magazine and manages NBOA’s Business Intelligence for Independent Schools (BIIS) data platform.

Most recently, James served as Assistant Head of School at Trinity Hall (NJ), an independent all-girls high school, where he began his work as a founding consultant and the school's first employee and had primary responsibility for school finance, facilities, and business operations. Prior to opening Trinity Hall, James served as Director of Strategic Initiatives and faculty at Kent Place School (NJ), an N-12 all-girls day school.

James' related experience includes board service for One Schoolhouse, where he is the incoming Board President for a three-year term; board service for Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart (NJ); as a Fellow in the NAIS Fellowship for Aspiring School Heads; and as an adjunct professor for the College of Saint Elizabeth (NJ), where he had taught an online doctoral-level course on leadership management of K-12 schools and systems.

Academically, James earned his doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; his MA in K-12 Educational Administration and Supervision from Seton Hall University; and his BA in Elementary/Special Education from Providence College.

As chief learning officer, Jennifer is charged with oversight of NBOA's full line of professional development offerings including the NBOA Annual Meeting, Business Officer Institute, webinars and online courses, as well as many partnerships with other associations serving independent schools. As a subject matter expert and former independent school business officer, the VP oversees the development and delivery of content and services to independent schools related to their business operations, leadership and governance, nonprofit accounting practice, tax issues, and other matters of regulatory compliance, as well as develops and delivers such content herself. Jennifer is the staff liaison to the NBOA Board's Strategic Initiatives Committee.

A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Jennifer worked in assurance and advisory services for international “Big 4” public accounting firm, Ernst & Young, before joining Harpeth Hall School, an all-girls school with 700 students in grades 5-12, in 2009 where she served as controller followed by associate director of finance and operations. In 2018, after joining NBOA in the new role of director, accounting, finance, and tax programs the year prior, Jennifer was named to her current senior leadership role with the organization, serving 1,400 independent schools.

In 2018-19, Jennifer is serving as president of the Junior League of Nashville (JLN), a 1,600-member organization of women volunteers, the 15th largest in the world under the Association of Junior Leagues International. She is honored to be a member of the Leadership Nashville class of 2018 and serves on the board of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt from 2017-2019. Her past JLN positions have included serving as the League's first-ever executive vice president, the inaugural chair of the Mentor Program, chair of the Community Impact Committee, and co-chair of the new member program. Jennifer is an alumna of the Young Leaders Council and has served on advisory councils for W. O. Smith School as well as LEAD Public Schools. She was also a 30 Under 30 honoree of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in 2013 and a 2019 Nashville ATHENA Awards nominee.

Jennifer graduated in the top 7% of her class, magna cum laude from Birmingham-Southern College with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting, Spanish, and business. She studied abroad at St. John's College of Oxford University, England in 2004.

Jennifer wrote and illustrated the bestselling book, GOODNIGHT, NASHVILLE, and gives a portion of each sale to a local non-profit.