Essentials In Education: Board of Directors

• Mark Berner is currently engaged in incubating a series of initiatives focusing on renewing the moral, intellectual and spiritual foundations of public culture. He also serves as a consultant and advisor to several charitable foundations. Previously, he was Managing Partner and Co-Founder of SDG Resources, L.P., an oil and gas company based in Texas and New Mexico. For many years he managed hedge funds focused primarily on investing in distressed assets, first at the Credit Suisse First Boston Special Situations Fund and then with Turnberry Capital Management. Prior to joining First Boston, Berner was a partner and senior member of the bankruptcy and restructuring group at Anderson Kill & Olick, a New York law firm. Berner is also an active member of several charitable boards, including the John Templeton Foundation. He also has served on public and private company boards. Mr. Berner was educated at Yale (BA, History), Oxford (MA, Philosophy and Theology) and Villanova (JD). He is married to Ashley Rogers Berner, a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. They live in Manhattan and Bridgehampton, NY.
   
• Kevin J. "Seamus" Hasson is Founder and President of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a bipartisan, interfaith public-interest law firm that protects the free expression of all religious traditions. Hasson lectures and debates frequently, in venues ranging from Oxford to the Vatican, from Harvard to BYU. He is the author of The Right to be Wrong: Ending the Culture War over Religion in America. Before founding the Becket Fund in 1994, Hasson was an attorney at Williams & Connolly in Washington D.C., where he focused on religious liberty litigation. From 1986 to 1987, he served in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department where he advised the White House and cabinet departments on church-state relations. He is a 1985 magna cum laude graduate of Notre Dame Law School and also holds a Master's degree in theology from Notre Dame.
   
• Pamela Scurry is a noted designer, author and retailer. She has a passion for creating an inviting and comfortable environment for both family and friends. A devoted wife and mother of two, Scurry currently holds licenses with Bassett Furniture, Mohawk Home, and Troutman Furniture. She owns Wicker Garden's Children, an exclusive store of elegant children's furniture and clothing located on Madison Avenue in New York. Her design work, retail store and homes have been featured in House Beautiful, House and Garden, Victoria, Gourmet, Good Housekeeping, and The New York Times. She has been seen on CNN as well as ABC and CBS home shows. She is also the author of Cradle and All (Clarkson Potter, 1992).
   
• Richard R. Vietor is President of R.R. Vietor LLC, which performs special consulting services for healthcare companies on corporate strategy, capital markets, and communications. Previously, he was a Vice-President of WebMD Corp, where he reported to the CEO on investor and strategic issues. Mr. Vietor spent most of his career at Merrill Lynch, most recently serving as a Managing Director of investment banking teams providing services to specialty pharmaceutical, generic, drug distribution and medical IT companies. Mr. Vietor is a member of the Board of Directors of InfaCare Pharmaceuticals, Longitude Health, and Nuclea Biotechnologies. He is a graduate of Yale University and received an MBA in Finance from Columbia University. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Mystic Seaport, the Museum of America and the Sea.
   
• Chuck Stetson serves as Chairman of the Board of the Bible Literacy Project. Stetson was formerly Vice Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Education Committee for the National Bible Association. Mr. Stetson has been a board member of an independent private school for six years. He is also a Managing Director of Private Equity Investors, Inc., a private investment firm where, among other things, he invests and builds value in privately held companies. Stetson holds a master's degree in business from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business and an undergraduate degree from Yale University. He has authored articles for Harvard Business Review, Pratt's Guide to Venture Capital, and The Journal of Corporate Strategy. He has also created the Doubleday Pocket Bible Guide. He is co-editor of The Bible and Its Influence and General Editor of Creating The Better Hour: Lessons from William Wilberforce. In May, 2008, he was honored by Concordia University at Portland with a Doctor of Laws degree.