Sandra Jerez received a B.A. in American history from Columbia University and an M.S. in health policy and management from Harvard University. She’s also served for nine years as chief strategy officer of MDLinx, a DC-based internet healthcare company that was acquired in 2006 by M3 USA, a publicly traded healthcare company. Over the past 10 years, Sandra has focused on raising her children and serving in volunteer leadership positions at their schools and in the Seattle community. At SCDS, she served as the Parent & Guardian Council president for two years. Currently, Sandra is a director at Water1st International, a Seattle-based nonprofit, and lives in Queen Anne with her husband, Patrick, and their three children ’18, ’20, and ’24, all of whom attended SCDS.

Kent Patton has had a diverse career in both international and domestic public affairs, focusing on the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and policymaking in Washington, D.C., and Washington state. Kent has worked with presidents, prime ministers, party leaders, mayors, and nonprofit organizations in areas as diverse as strategic planning, international relations, communications, crisis management, and governance.

Kent currently serves as founder and CEO of Patton & Associates, a consulting firm focused on international affairs and democracy promotion. He has worked with multiple U.S.-based and international clients in Europe, Asia, Africa, and across the Middle East.

In 2007, Kent was appointed deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Kent’s specific duties included managing the G-8’s Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative for the U.S. government, entailing extensive diplomatic negotiations among the G-8 members and with governments of the broader Middle East and North Africa. Kent also managed the Middle East Partnership Initiative, an effort to advance economic, educational, and political reforms, as well as the empowerment of women. Kent also co-led the strategic dialogue with Saudi Arabia.

Prior to joining the State Department, Kent ran USAID-funded democracy-promotion programs in Kabul, Afghanistan, and the West Bank/Gaza. While in Kabul, Kent worked with President Hamid Karzai on the first presidential election in modern Afghan history. In Ramallah, he worked with independent democratic leaders during the first legitimate presidential election in Arab history.

Kent has also managed democracy-promotion programs in all countries in Central and Eastern Europe, with particular focus on the Balkans.

In addition to international consulting, Kent works with local elected officials and serves on the board of advisors for the Slade Gorton International Policy Center. He has one child currently attending Seattle Country Day School and one child graduated from SCDS in 2023. They both tend to monopolize his spare time.

Leonora Stevens Diller is a communications leader with 15+ years of experience creating and executing strategic communications programs in the philanthropy, global health/development, and technology industries. She currently leads communications campaign planning at the Gates Foundation after several years managing her own consultancy practice. Prior to that, Leonora spent 10 years at the Gates Foundation in a variety of communications roles, including leading the foundation’s global media relations team, and several years in Silicon Valley driving PR programs and strategy for a range of start-up and mid-stage technology companies.

Leonora is British/American, a Seattle native, and a graduate of Lakeside School. She received a B.A. in comparative literature from Georgetown University and lives in the Mt. Baker neighborhood with her husband, Jesse, and four young children — Cosima (’29), Georgia (’31), Tessa, and Julian. Together, Leonora and Jesse chaired the SCDS Annual Fund in 2022–2023.

Catherine Burns Humbert ’91 is an alumna of SCDS and Lakeside School. She received a B.A. in economics from Pomona College. While studying abroad in Strasbourg, France, she attended the Institut d’Etudes Politiques and met her husband, Olivier. They are the parents of two SCDS students (’22 and ’26). Together, Catherine and Olivier chaired the SCDS Annual Fund in 2018–2019. Catherine has been a longtime member of the investment committee for the Seattle/King County YWCA. Catherine is a managing director at United Capital Financial Advisors. She holds the designations of chartered financial analyst and certified financial planner.

Kirsten Camp has served in almost every independent school role — from teacher, to administrator, to student, to parent, to volunteer — and continues to synthesize her prior experience and apply it to SCDS. Kirsten spent her K–12 school years in two independent schools. She graduated from Brown University with a dual concentration in educational studies and philosophy. Kirsten holds an M.Ed. in early childhood and elementary education from Bank Street College of Education, and she worked at her alma mater, The Chapin School, as an assistant kindergarten teacher (three years) and later as a head kindergarten teacher (four years). While at Chapin, she also spent two years as director of lower school admissions. She is now the managing director of Harvard Avenue School (a local preschool), where she has worked from July 2007 to the present. Kirsten has been an active SCDS parent volunteer over the years. In addition to volunteering often at the classroom level, she chaired the New Family Committee for several years and served as Parent Council president for two years. Kirsten was the vice president of the board for the 2017–2018 school year, chaired the Advancement Committee for two years, co-chaired the Head of School Search Committee, and served as board president from 2018–2020. Kirsten's daughters are members of the SCDS classes of ’17 and ’19.  

Kim Dawson is the head of school and principal of Holy Names Academy in Seattle. Kim has worked at Holy Names for 30 years, teaching English and theology and serving as the vice principal of student life. She received her B.A. in English and a master’s in teaching from Seattle University. Originally from California, Kim has been in Seattle for over 30 years. She lives in Shoreline with her husband, Russell, and dog, Spencer. Her daughter lives in Spain with her husband and a 4-year-old son.

Ryan DiRaimo is a project manager at Corgan, specializing in aviation and transportation architecture nationwide.

Ryan’s passion for creating safe and equitable communities has led him to volunteer with advocacy groups focusing on revitalizing Highway 99 to feature thousands of homes and businesses, and to create a multimodal transit corridor ensuring safety and economic vitality.

Originally from Houston, Ryan received undergraduate and master’s degrees in architecture from Texas Tech University (’06 and ’08). It was here that he developed his passion for the built environment, sustainability, and urban design. After a professional trip, Ryan fell in love with Seattle and packed his bags the first chance he got, relocating to the Emerald City. 

Ryan is a contributing writer to The Urbanist, taking the voice of community to a public venue. His writing has been featured in both The Urbanist and The Seattle Times, where he communicates upon a range of topics, including housing, diversifying land use, and expanding on sustainable transportation. 

He enjoys spending time with his wonderful family in Greenwood, taking the kids on his e-bike or bus to various parks and coffee shops all over the city. Ryan’s wife, Cyanna, is on the Parent & Guardian Council and volunteers as a first-grade mom, cultivating SCDS with her experiences as a child of Africa. Their daughter is a student in SCDS’s Lower School, class of ’30.

Madhu (sudan Hosaagrahara) grew up in Hyderabad, India, and received his B.Tech (Hon.) from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India. He received an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Drexel University in Philadelphia. He has lived in Seattle since 2006 and loves it here. His professional career has taken him to several companies, including Google, Facebook, and, more recently, the TradeDesk, with work spanning search, ads, Android, and infrastructure tools, with an emphasis on leading teams and helping organizations and processes adapt. His two children, Aadi ’28 and Aadhya ’30, are thriving and eagerly look forward to attending school every day. Madhu has served as a Parent Council representative, a Camp Orkila circle leader, a member of the Annual Fund team, and a parent ambassador, and he has helped with a number of other community-building events.

Krystle Jalalian-Chursky is an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at Seattle Pacific University (SPU), where she has served on faculty since 2016. She holds a B.S. in K–12 education and special education, an M.S. in education from St. John’s University, and a Ph.D. in education (with a specialization in special education) from the University of London. At SPU, she also serves as the director of undergraduate teacher education and teaches across the teacher preparation and special education programs. Her research focuses on neurodiversity, twice-exceptionality, and the intersection of educator preparation and classroom support — particularly for children with disabilities. She is committed to empowering educators to create inclusive, supportive learning environments that honor the strengths and needs of every student.

Prior to joining SPU, Krystle worked as a clinician and behavioral therapist at the University of Washington’s Experimental Education Unit at the Haring Center and Seattle Children’s Research Institute, where she specialized in developing intervention programs for children and families with autism and other developmental disabilities.

Deeply dedicated to community service, Krystle is the founder of UNITE, a program developed in partnership with Seattle United that offers inclusive soccer opportunities for individuals with disabilities. She is also an active volunteer at SCDS, where she has served as a kindergarten soccer coach, class parent representative, and member of the Parent Education Committee of the Parent & Guardian Council.

Krystle believes in creating spaces where students feel safe, brave, and seen. Her favorite expression — “pay it forward” — guides her approach to teaching, mentoring, and leadership. Outside of her professional and volunteer work, she shares a love for soccer with her husband, Alex, and their three wonderful children: Lennox (2^nd grade), Nixon (kindergarten), and Roxana.

Andrew Hwangbo received his M.S. in civil engineering and his MBA from the University of Washington and Seattle University, respectively. Andrew spent the last 17 years with the Microsoft Corporation and currently leads a technical PM team in Azure. He has served, with his wife Yoo-Lee, as class representatives for the school’s Annual Fund for multiple years. The Hwangbo family lives in Madison Park with their children AJ ’21 and Alex ’25. 

Jane Mills, a Seattle native, serves as the finance advisor to the board of Tillamook County Creamery and as the chair of its finance and audit committee. After she received a B.A. in history from Whitman College and an MBA in finance/accounting from the University of Chicago, Jane worked for HJ Heinz and PepsiCo and returned to Seattle, where she spent 20 years as the CFO for the Starbucks/Pepsi joint venture. She and her husband, Dan, live in the Green Lake neighborhood with their daughter, Katie (SCDS ’18). Jane has served on various community boards, including the audit committee at the Seattle Foundation and on the board of the Seattle Shakespeare Company; she also volunteers as a math tutor at Seattle World School. 

Yousri Omar is a director and associate general counsel at Amazon, where he leads the global business conduct and ethics team. Before Amazon, Yousri was a litigator in Washington, D.C., with the firm of Vinson & Elkins. He started his career as a law clerk for the Hon. Michael F. Urbanski in Roanoke, Virginia. Yousri received a B.S. in finance and a B.A. in international studies from Virginia Tech and a law degree from Washington and Lee University.

Yousri has always had a penchant for community service and work. During his undergraduate years, he worked with underserved immigrant families in the Roanoke area. During law school, he helped serve the community as a volunteer income tax preparer for low-income families. After Hurricane Katrina, Yousri mobilized law-firm donations to fund a spring-break trip for 25 law students to travel to New Orleans to provide legal assistance and manual labor to nonprofits working to rebuild the city. During his time at his law firm, Yousri maintained an active pro bono practice and was an officer of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia. In that capacity, he helped run legal clinics for people in need in southeast D.C. He was also a co-chair of the annual Equal Justice Campaign for the Legal Aid Society of D.C. In 2021, Yousri co-chaired the annual Servants of Justice award dinner for the Legal Aid Society of D.C., which raised $1.45 million. 

Turning to his time at Amazon, Yousri has been involved with pro bono work from day one. Most of his work has been focused on his relationship with Mary’s Place, where he serves as a member of the board of directors. Starting in 2017, Yousri helped establish a legal clinic for guests and to provide legal services to the organization.

Yousri is the proud father of two SCDS students, Calvin and Caden.

Patrick Ringland is a dedicated SCDS parent and an enthusiastic resident of Magnolia, where he lives with his exceptional wife, Sheri, and their three sons: Roman, Westley, and Bodhi. He holds degrees in classics and economics from the University of Washington and a graduate degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Patrick serves as president and managing director of Meridian Capital, a middle-market investment bank, and holds director positions on several boards. His commitment extends to the University of Washington, where he has been a board member of the College of Arts & Sciences since 2014. Additionally, he volunteers his expertise by teaching an economics course in applied finance and economics.

On the personal side, Patrick enjoys spending as much time as possible with his family — chasing fresh snow in the winter and coaching baseball in the spring. He is passionate about learning, with interests ranging from fundamental physics to philosophy. To unwind and express his creative side, Patrick enjoys playing his guitar, cooking, and a good spy thriller.

Ryan Schofield was born in Hawaii and raised in Bellevue. He graduated from the Bush School during the grunge era and attended Bucknell University. He is the founder/principal of Aedifex, Inc., a boutique real-estate development and construction firm. Ryan served as the president of the Board of Trustees for 4 years, was co-chair of the 2015–2016 SCDS Annual Fund, and coached his daughters’ SCDS basketball teams from 2012–2019. His daughter Emma, Class of 2018 and Maddie, Class of 2021, graduated from the Bush School. When not working or volunteering at SCDS, Ryan can be found golfing, or attempting to keep up with his wife and girls.

Vidya Subramanian grew up watching trial rocket launches, satellite testing, and space research as part of the thriving and supportive community of ISRO — the Indian Space Research Organization. 

A computer scientist and software engineer by profession, she started her career in Microsoft as an engineer for the Windows operating system. She hired and managed a global engineering team at Expedia across the U.S., France, Hungary, India, and China. After Expedia, she founded her consulting business and advised numerous software transformation journeys in companies like GE, Boeing, and start-ups, and did the same for Accenture. She is currently working for Oracle, influencing thousands of software engineers to write reliable and scalable software through a data-driven approach.

Vidya and her husband, Ramesh, have been part of the SCDS community since 2010 and believe wholeheartedly in the inquiry-based education at the school, which both their children (Advik, 2019, and Aditri, 2025), have attended since kindergarten. Together, they have volunteered for many school events, annual funds, and class parties, but their favorite contributions are serving as school ambassadors and supporting admissions. 

In her free time, Vidya likes to advocate for Indian classical and community dance forms and empower women software engineers to have a fulfilling career in engineering.

Yi Jenny Xiao is a social psychologist by training. She received a B.A. in psychology and a B.A. in biology from Bard College in New York in 2010 and completed a Ph.D. in social psychology at New York University in 2016. Since then, Jenny has been a faculty member at several colleges/universities, including Macalester College (Minnesota), Hofstra University (New York), and now the University of Washington, Tacoma. Jenny is broadly interested in how identities shape our perception, attitudes, and behaviors, and has been designing/offering courses in stereotyping prejudice and discrimination, attitudes and persuasion, and Asian American psychology. Jenny’s family has been part of the SCDS community since 2020, when her daughter, Amber, started as a kindergartener. In the past two years, Jenny has been actively engaged in the school community, volunteering in various roles such as class rep, speaker for the RIPPLES series, and so on. Jenny is passionate about education, particularly educational equity. She has been serving on the executive committee, as well as volunteering as a mentor, for Minds Matter Seattle — an organization preparing accomplished high-school students from low-income families for college success. Jenny lives with her family in Bellevue and is an avid reader in her spare time.

Jessica Zen is an SCDS parent who has served as the school’s Parent & Guardian Council president, as a class representative, on several auction committees, and as chair of both Cultural Night and the annual SCDS Carnival. She serves on the MIT Sloan Alumni Board and previously served on the board of directors for Pacific Northwest Ballet and Let’s Get Ready, an organization focused on tutoring and college access for low-income students. She is also an active supporter of FareStart. 

In 2025, Jessica opened Pure Art Co. Craft Studio, a creative space in Queen Anne that offers children’s art classes and camps, open studio hours, adult workshops, and private parties. A graduate of Columbia University, she holds a B.A. in economics and Spanish language and literature. She is a part of Columbia’s Young Leaders Council and also holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. In her free time, Jessica enjoys playing golf, watching basketball, creating art, reading, hosting parties, and traveling with her family.

Kimberly A. Zaidberg has been the head of Seattle Country Day School since July 2018. In this time, she has launched a new-teacher training program, an electives program in the Middle School, a band program for grades 4–8, and an associate teacher program in the Lower School.

Ms. Zaidberg has more than 25 years of experience in education. She received a B.A. in sociology from Oberlin College and a master’s degree in education (curriculum and teaching) from Teachers College, Columbia University.