Leadership

Clare Sisisky is currently the Executive Director of the Global Education Benchmark Group, working to support its member schools around the world in all aspects of global education. Clare has written and spoken on many topics relating to global and intercultural competencies in K-12 education in national and international forums. Prior to beginning her tenure with GEBG in 2018, she spent 8 years at the Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia as the founding Director of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship and the Director of Strategic Planning. Her leadership responsibilities included overseeing all programming, curriculum, and professional development in the ares of global engagement, DEI, service-learning, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. She also led the school’s strategic planning process in partnership with the Head of School and the Board of Trustees. She began at Collegiate as the Director of Global Education, where she created the International Emerging Leaders program and developed a network of 12 partner schools around the world. She previously worked as the director of a humanities magnet high school for a large public school district, for the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations in Beijing, and was on the faculty at Phillips Academy Andover. Clare has an undergraduate degree from George Washington University and a graduate degree from Harvard University where her research included a year-long research fellowship in Mauritius and extended time in India. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania’s MidCareer program at the Graduate School of Education where her research is focused on global competence development in students and teachers. She was a founding board member of the Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG), served two terms as a board member of the Council for Standards in International Education Travel (CSIET), and currently leads the K-12 working group for the World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence.

Elsie Stapf has been the Director of Operations for the GEBG since 2014, using her expertise in management of all GEBG operations systems to help support member schools as the organization has grown. Elsie continues to focus on membership and leads both the benchmarking data work for GEBG and the execution of the annual Global Educators’ Conference. Prior to her work with the GEBG, Elsie spent 5 years at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut where she supported students as a Gap Year Advisor in the College Advising Office, coordinated several globally focused on-campus programs, led travel programs throughout the world and chaired a class-wide service learning initiative. Previously Elsie also spent time working for the Becket Chimney Corners YMCA where she directed an international youth travel and service program serving more than 200 teens annually, including hiring and training all program leaders. She served as an officer of the board for Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut and chaired committees. She holds a B.S. in Biology from Truman State University and lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Melissa leads GEBG’s work in intercultural dialogue and our global dialogues program. She is a skilled facilitator and leads numerous programs for educators and students, collaborates with schools to develop intercultural competence and design competency-based global education initiatives, and supports many of GEBG professional learning programs. With over 30 years of experience in public and independent schools, Melissa is a dedicated school leader and National Board Certified language teacher. Most recently, Melissa spent 15 years as the Director of Diversity, Wellbeing, and Global Education at Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland. At the forefront of shaping Holton’s educational philosophy, "Learn Well, Live Well, Lead Well" (LW3), Melissa was instrumental in fostering an environment that puts this philosophy into practice using a competency-based approach to academic excellence, social-emotional growth, and intercultural proficiency. Through close collaboration with cross-divisional teams, Melissa spearheaded innovative curricular and co-curricular initiatives tailored to grades 3-12, and played a pivotal role in the school’s hiring process and designed countless professional development initiatives. Melissa ensured that inclusion and equity were not just ideals but lived experiences across the school community. Melissa served multiple terms as a Board Member of the GEBG, and currently serves as a board member for both the International Coalition of Girls Schools. Melissa is the co-author of NAFSA’s manual on health and safety for secondary study abroad programs, and is a frequent presenter at professional conferences on topics related to experiential program design, faculty leadership, whole-school approaches to strategic change, and intercultural competence development for students and faculty.

Leah Rockwell, Licensed Professional Counselor and trauma therapist, is the School Counselor at James Buchanan High School in Mercersbury, PA with a focus on college and career counseling. In clinical practice, Leah specializes in supporting clients to heal from trauma, anxiety, and chronic stress. Her consulting work focuses on training educators in how to approach their work in a trauma-informed way to maximize student well-being, in addition to their own.

Hilary McDonough, Director of Global Programs at McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Maryland, will serve as this year’s GEBG Global Educator-in-Residence. While continuing in her leadership role at McDonogh School, Hilary will lend her expertise to our work in curriculum design and intercultural dialogue as a pedagogical tool across the school.

Having entered the world of global education through French and Spanish classrooms, Hilary is passionate about facilitating experiences for students and faculty that help them understand the world in new and inspiring ways. Under her leadership, McDonogh has expanded its global education curriculum from a language exchange paradigm to a K-12 curriculum. Most recently, Hilary and her team designed a Lower School Global Connections course. She also spearheaded an intercultural dialogue series with schools in France, Germany, Peru, and Senegal, which led to the launch of a new student leadership program, Global Ambassadors. Hilary contributed a chapter to GEBG's 2024 publication Intercultural Dialogue: A Field Guide for Educators & Schools. She enjoys sharing student voices and experiences at professional conferences. In addition to curriculum development, she is also responsible for managing all aspects of McDonogh's global and domestic travel learning programs. She is currently focused on how global engagement can unify and integrate a multitude of schoolwide programming and initiatives, from civil discourse to social impact initiatives.  Hilary has a BA in French and Government from Wofford College, a MA in French Language from Middlebury College, and a Diploma of Business French from the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Prior to McDonogh, she taught in a boarding school as well as International Baccalaureate courses at a public high school. Before coming to education, she worked in marketing and communications in the nonprofit and corporate sectors in Paris and the United States.

We are excited to announce that given GEBG expanding work in support of climate education, we are welcoming our inaugural Climate Educator in Residence, Lindsey Lohwater, who is the Sustainability Coordinator, the director of the Taft STEM Fellowship, and a science teacher at St. Mark's School in Southborough, MA. While continuing in her leadership role at St Mark’s Lindsey will help lead our new work in support of sustainability leaders and climate educators across the curriculum. She will continue to serve as a committee chair advising our Climate Education Summit, taking place this year in San Francisco at the Drew School from February 708, 2025 again in partnership with the Klingenstein Center at Columbia University.

As an educator, Lindsey is passionate about helping students engage meaningfully with science content and empowering them to use this knowledge to help address and solve some of the myriad problems facing our planet. As the Sustainability Coordinator, Lindsey has spearheaded St. Mark's commitment to the environment through such initiatives as developing purposeful waste diversion practices, establishing a Green Revolving Fund, developing St. Mark's first Climate Action Plan, and working to support development of experiential and global programs with a sustainability focus. In 2022 Lindsey formed the Independent School Sustainability Leaders group with the sole purpose of providing a space for individuals who are passionate about climate education to come together in a grassroots capacity to share ideas, curriculum, resources, and best practices. In 2024, St. Mark's was the recipient of the Best of Green Schools Award for the K-12 School category by the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council and Green Schools National Network.  Lindsey has a B.S. in Biology from Boston College, a M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction from Boston College, and a Post Master's Certificate in Mind, Brain and Teaching from Johns Hopkins University.