About Us | Board of Trustees

Rebecca London

Board Chair

Rebecca has been a member of the MSGH community since 2009. She was drawn to the Montessori pedagogy through her own experience in a quaker education, which celebrates the principles of peace, justice, and equality.  Rebecca attended college at Brandeis University where she double majored in History and American Studies.  She went on to pursue graduate studies in American History at the University of Delaware, she spent several years as the Manager at the beloved West Hartford institution The Three Dog Bakery. She continues to devote much of her time to community building, community service, and advocacy projects within the West Hartford community. Rebecca is a true Montessorian and frequently lends her passion to all causes MSGH. Before joining the board of Trustees, Rebecca served as MSGH's Family Association Chair for four years. Two of Rebecca’s children have completed the MSGH programming through the 9th year and one is a current student in the Upper Elementary Program.

Gloria Harris

Board Vice Chair

Attorney Gloria L. Harris is a native of Los Angeles, California. She left home to attend Jackson State University in Jackson, MS. While there she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and graduated cum laude. After leaving Mississippi she went north to attend law school at the Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in Long Island, NY. Following graduation, and while her eventual husband embarked on his own post baccalaureate educational journey, she moved south to Nashville, TN where she worked as the Director of the Office of Civil Rights for the Tennessee Department of Education, and later as a staff attorney for the Tennessee Human Rights Commission. After Tennessee she moved north to Hartford, CT where she joined New Haven Legal Assistance Association representing low-income families and children in New Haven county, initially in matters related to housing and consumer protection.  Eventually she transitioned to a legal and social work team within the organization to represent children and youth who were court involved with the CT Department of Children and Families. Recently, she launched a solo practice, Grace Legal Initiative, where she endeavors to close the wealth gap through estate planning and community education. Gloria resides in West Hartford with her husband and two sons.

Jennifer Apgar

Board Secretary

Jennifer grew up in DeLand, FL where she was fortunate to have had many public school teachers who encouraged independent, student-driven learning. Jennifer is the only one of her siblings whose career is not in the field of education. That tradition started with her great grandmother who taught at the college level, and then passed a love of learning and teaching on to Jennifer's grandmother and so on. Jennifer first moved to the Northeast to attend Dartmouth College where she studied Engineering and Psychology. She completed her BA in 1995 and BE (Bachelors of Engineering) in 1996.  Jennifer then moved to Atlanta and began working in the reinsurance industry as a property underwriter for General Reinsurance Company.  She completed her MBA at Georgia State University in 1999.  Jennifer moved to the Hartford area in 2000 and continued working for Gen Re in various roles until 2007, at which time she and three others left to form the management team of Arch Re Facultative Underwriters Inc.  Jennifer is now the Chief Underwriting Officer of Arch Re Fac, a subsidiary of Arch Capital Group.  Jennifer lives in Avon with her husband, Mike, and their three daughters all of whom started at MSGH as part of the Toddler Three Community.

Gülen Tuncer Senecal

Board Treasurer

Gülen Tuncer, CFA, is a Director and Research Analyst at Conning Asset Management, responsible for corporate and emerging markets bond research. Prior to joining Conning in 2011, Gulen was with Goodwin Capital Advisers, Inc., following corporate and emerging markets credits, as well as leveraged loans. She also served as the sector manager for emerging markets and foreign exchange. Prior to joining Goodwin, Gulen was with Phoenix Trust Company, co-managing various client portfolios. She is a graduate of Middle East Technical University with a BS in Applied Mathematics and earned an MBA in Finance from the University of Hartford. She and her husband reside is West Hartford with their two children both of whom attend MSGH.

Gloria Addonizio

Board Member

With a passion for talent and impacting outcomes, Gloria is a Fortune 50 HR Vice President with more than 20 years of global leadership experience across all disciplines of Human Resources. Having served as a senior executive for many years at both Lockheed Martin Corporation and United Technologies Corporation (UTC), she applies her strategic leadership, talent management skills, broad world view and collaborative approach to positively impact organizations and people.

As HR Vice President, Integrated Talent Management for Lockheed Martin Corporation’s Rotary & Mission Systems (35K employees, $16B revenue), Gloria leads strategic talent management for the business, driving an integrated approach across the talent life cycle to attract, develop, engage, reward and retain the people needed to achieve organization objectives. Leading a team of 180, she is responsible for delivering business-driven solutions spanning HR strategy, talent acquisition, talent management, talent development, organization and culture, diversity and inclusion, total rewards and HR analytics.

Previously, Gloria served as Vice President, Enterprise Human Resources for Sikorsky Aircraft, with a strong focus on high potential, leadership and organization development; total rewards alignment; and senior HR business partner leadership. She was integral in supporting the strategic review, divestiture and $9B acquisition and integration of Sikorsky from UTC to Lockheed Martin.

Throughout her career, Gloria has led many critical human resources initiatives, including development and implementation of succession, talent planning and development programs to accelerate leadership readiness; organization design and culture alignment; design and oversight of total rewards programs to drive performance and retention; and significant international, change management, and M&A activity. She is skilled at talent assessment and leadership coaching, as well as program/process governance, with a focus on continuous improvement and data-driven solutions. She is an empathetic, caring leader known for balancing the needs of both business and people to optimize outcomes.

Prior to joining Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin Corporation, Gloria held a variety of senior HR leadership roles at UTC’s Carrier Corporation and Pratt & Whitney divisions, with operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia. In line with her love of cultures and all things international, she was fortunate to be based in France twice and has traveled extensively. Other prior experiences include communications and retail management.

Gloria holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA in English and French from the University of Richmond. She is the grateful mom of two sets of twins and a quadruplet set of kittens; partner to Kevin and caregiver for her mom; and an aspiring gardener. She loves the water, photography and believes that anything is better covered in string lights. 

Steve Bonafonte

Board Member

Attorney Steven J. Bonafonte is a partner at DCB Law Group, LLC (formerly the law firm of Davis Clark & Bonafonte) and maintains active practice in Connecticut and Washington, D.C.   

In addition to the general practice of law, Steve provides general counseling services to corporate and government entities; government relations and public policy counsel; special counsel relating to privacy and cybersecurity; advice on information technology contracts and policies; counsel regarding ethics, compliance and corporate governance; and conducts complex anti-fraud and corporate internal investigations. Steve is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) and speaks nationally on cybersecurity, privacy and anti-fraud issues.  

Previously, Steve served as a partner and co-chair of the Privacy, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection practice group of a large Connecticut law firm and prior to that as managing corporate counsel and the enterprise privacy and corporate compliance officer at a Fortune 100 financial services company. In prior legal roles, Steve served as the principal anti-fraud counsel to a major insurance company, developing legal anti-fraud protocols and directing major case investigations and filing of affirmative civil anti-fraud RICO litigation against suspected fraudulent medical providers and other organized ring activity.  As in-house counsel, he also has provided principal legal counsel to several diverse internal business groups including Information Technology (internal compliance, vendor contracts), Marketing and Communications (legal review and compliance) and Global Sourcing (cross-border data transfer, business continuity).

Steve was appointed by the Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court as a representative member on the State of Connecticut's Commission on the Death Penalty, serving from 2001-2003. He also served as a member of the City of Hartford's Civilian Police Review Board from 2000-2002 and as the City of Hartford's human relations commissioner from 2000-2002.

Steve serves as the General Counsel of the Connecticut Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and is a member of the newly formed Connecticut Cybersecurity Task Force.  Steve also is a member of the ISAO Standards Organization Working Group 6 – Government Relations. Steve’s children are currently enrolled in MSGH.

Michael Chambers

Board Member

Sue Dana

Board Member

Sue Dana is the Director of Development focusing on major gifts at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. Prior to that she served as Director of Major Gifts at Hartford Hospital for 12 years. Her career also includes working in various independent schools as an administrator, math teacher and coach.

When not at work she enjoys reading, running, spending time with her family, including boy/girl twins and her two labradoodles.

Tricia Jorden

Board Member

Tricia Jorden, serving as an Associate Director of College Counseling at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington CT, has been a part of the Miss Porter’s community since 2011. Along with her experience as a college counseler, she spent some time in the admissions office as well. She takes pride in having the privilege of helping girls come to Miss Porter’s and then prepare them as they move on to new adventures upon graduation.

Tricia’s own academic path included a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public health. Professionally, she drew on that passion for political science at The Washington Post and went on to positions in health care policy and academic administration at Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University. Tricia’s favorite work has centered on helping talented students investigate and plan for their own next steps. At home, Tricia lives in Simsbury with her husband and two daughters.

Cynthia J. Martinez

Board Member

Nadja Soper

Board Member

Nadja is a Strategy, Product & Digital Transformation Executive with extensive expertise in driving business & product strategies, developing digital experiences (e.g. online communities), and creating end-to-end customer journeys in the US and Europe. As a seasoned liaison between business, product, creative and technology-oriented groups, her specialty is in providing clarity, understanding and alignment in areas that are not clearly articulated. Her focus is on interpreting complex data, identifying key insights, troubleshooting issues, and developing measurable, action-oriented go-forward plans. She enjoys coaching cross-functional teams in developing impactful business strategies, driving business process improvement projects and developing effective cross-channel engagement strategies. Nadja graduated from NEOMA Business School (France) with a BA in International Business and from European School of Business (Germany) also with a BA in International Business. She also received an MBA from Goizueta Business School (Emory University) with a focus in Marketing and Leadership.

Nadja and her husband Jeff have three children attending MSGH.

Mildred Unfried

Board Member

Mildred Unfried is a MSGH grandparent of a primary and a toddler student.  She is a retired mathematics teacher who taught at the middle school, the high school and the university level.   She and her husband, Douglas, are residents of Hartford and appreciate being able to spend time with their grandchildren before and after school.

Mary McHale

Head of School

Mary McHale, MSGH’s 10^th Head of School, has been an integral member of the community for the last twenty-eight years. As the Head of School, Mary is delighted to embrace the work of providing the most authentic Montessori experience for children and their families. She feels fortunate to have a passionate and dedicated staff with her on this journey.

Before being appointed as Head, Mary was the Director of Admissions for twelve years. Her other responsibilities included mentoring teachers, particularly at the Elementary level, and overseeing programs at both the Elementary and Adolescent Program levels. Overall, she has had sixteen years of Montessori teaching experience, having worked with various age groups in schools both in Europe and the United States. 

She holds a Master of Education from Harvard University with a focus on language and literacy and an undergraduate degree with a concentration in Sociology from University College Cork, now part of the National University of Ireland. She received her Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) teaching diplomas in Dublin, Ireland for both the Primary (3- 6+ years) and Elementary (6-12 years) levels. She also holds a Montessori Special Education Diploma and is qualified as a Reading Specialist.

She lives in West Hartford with her husband, Billy, and daughter, Emma. Emma completed the entire program at MSGH, graduating from the Adolescent Program in 2017 and is in her second year of College.

In her spare time, she enjoys walking, cycling, cooking, reading, and spending time with her family. And though, she’s lived in the United States for almost thirty years, she still likes to keep up with the Irish news. 

Rachel Flood

Family Association Chair

Rachel has been a member of the MSGH community since 2015. She has three children attending the school. In Rachel's free time, she enjoys spending time with her children, traveling, entertaining her large extended family and volunteering for the community.