Welcome New Trustees

This fall, Brimmer and May welcomes four new members to its Board of Trustees.  As parents and an alumna who have been actively engaged in the School community, they are all excited to take on this important volunteer leadership role and serve the School. 
 
Carol Croffy ‘67 
Swampscott, MA 
 
Carol Croffy graduated from Brimmer and May in 1967 and never forgot her roots.  After graduating from Newton College for the Sacred Heart with a BA in Biology, Carol went on to earn her MS in Biology from Boston College.  She worked in the field of Microbiology under Annamaria Torriani-Gorini at MIT.   
With the arrival of her daughters, Danielle and Alessandra, she began to focus on the field of education, earning an M.Ed from Boston College Graduate School of Education. 
 
She was hired by Brimmer and May in 1985 as the Assistant Director of Admissions and Director of Financial Aid, a post which she held for 15 years.  Eventually, Carol’s interest in School operations lead her to move to the Business Office here as the Assistant Business Manager, where she stayed until her retirement in 2017. 
 
During her tenure at Brimmer, Carol was involved in many aspects of the School’s growth involving benefits, maintenance, dining, insurance, transportation, and security. She served as the liaison for the Chestnut Hill Neighborhood Association, working to establish a positive relationship between the School and its neighbors, especially around topics of traffic, parking, and construction.  She assisted the School’s facility rental to local church, music, and theater groups and worked closely with architects and contractors during the construction of Orr Field, several Chase Building additions, the Corkin Art Center project, and most recently, the construction of The Hastings Center. 
 
Carol has worked with Heads of School here on many strategic plans and several 10-year NEASC accreditation processes over the years. She also worked closely with the Board run Building Committee as well. 
 
She is a former Trustee at The Tower School in Marblehead, MA. 
 
The Board of Trustees is eager to tap into Carol’s deep institutional knowledge and operational expertise acquired during her 33 years as an employee at Brimmer. Welcome back, Carol! 
 
 
Karine Ernest P ’19, ’14, 09 
Milton, MA 
 
Karine Ernest is a Senior Product Manager at the Wireless Center of Excellence at Verizon Communications Partner Solutions, an expert at product management and marketing strategy, and mother to Brimmer lifers Senior Ben ‘19 and alumni Christian ’14 and Justin ’09. Karine has been involved in the Brimmer community for years serving in many capacities including Admissions Volunteer, Parent Class Representative, Parent Liaison, Greenline Chaperone, Athletic Booster and more. Karine and her husband Manny have been parents at Brimmer since 2001 when Justin started here in 5th grade.  After that, both Christian and then Ben started in Pre-K and went all the way through to 12th grade!  Karine and Manny have been on the sidelines at too many Brimmer sporting events, plays, musicals, musical concerts to count. 
 
Karine received her M.B.A. at the Olin School of Business at Babson College and her BA in Economics from Wellesley College. She is also an MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional (MEF-CECP) and CompTIA Cloud Essentials certified. 
 
Karine has worked in the telecommunications industry in many capacities, working at Verizon Communications since 1988 where she has overseen triple digit product revenue growth, currently responsible for managing Carrier Ethernet and Optical Wave Services products that generate $530M revenue stream for the Wireless customer segment.  She has won several professional awards including the 2017 Verizon Award for Professional Excellence and the Global Telecom Innovation Award. 
 
In addition to her thriving career, Karine is an active volunteer at her church and currently serves as the Parent President and Board Member at Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra.  She reports that her son Justin recently completed his  Master’s Degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from Seton Hall, Christian completed his Bachelors in Business Management from Skidmore College. They are both gainfully employed, showing that a Brimmer education continues to pay dividends well past graduation. 
 
The Board of Trustees is excited about Karine’s extensive experience as a parent in all three divisions of Brimmer and about her professional expertise in product development, strategic planning, and marketing as we continue to move the institution forward. Karine and her husband Manny have been parents at Brimmer since 2001 when Justin started here in 5th grade.  After that, both Christian and then Ben started in Pre-K and went all the way through to 12th grade!  Karine and Manny have been on the sidelines at too many Brimmer sporting events, plays, musicals, musical concerts to count. 
 
Karine received her M.B.A. at the Olin School of Business at Babson College and her BA in Economics from Wellesley College. She is also an MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional (MEF-CECP) and CompTIA Cloud Essentials certified. 
 
Karine has worked in the telecommunications industry in many capacities since 1990, working at Verizon Communications since 2001 where she has overseen triple digit product revenue growth, currently responsible for managing Carrier Ethernet and Optical Wave Services products that generate $530M revenue stream for the Wireless customer segment.  She has won several professional awards including the 2017 Verizon Award for Professional Excellence and the Global Telecom Innovation Award.

In addition to her thriving career, Karine is an active volunteer at her church and currently serves as the Parent President and Board Member at Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. In addition to her thriving career, Karine is an active volunteer at her church and currently serves as the Parent President and Board Member at Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. She reports that her son Justin recently completed his Master’s Degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from Seton Hall, Christian completed his Bachelors in Business Management from Skidmore College. They are both gainfully employed, showing that a Brimmer education continues to pay dividends well past graduation.   
 
The Board of Trustees is excited about Karine’s extensive experience as a parent in all three divisions of Brimmer and about her professional expertise in product development, strategic planning, and marketing as we continue to move the institution forward. 
 
Derrick Rossi P ‘24, ’26, ‘28 
Newton, MA 
 
Dr. Derrick Rossi and his wife Nina Korsisaari are parents to Inka (7th), Lumi (5th) and Oona (3rd) and when they joined all the Brimmer community two years ago and Derrick and Nina immediately got involved as volunteers.   
 
In his first year as a parent at Brimmer, Dr. Rossi agreed to be the Keynote Speaker at the Kenyon Bissell Grogan Humanities Symposium with a talk entitled “Stem Cell Science and the Genesis of Innovative New Therapies for Patients”.  He fascinated the Upper School students who learned about how stem cell science is at a tipping point for the emergence of innovative new therapies to treat deadly diseases.  Dr. Rossi also encouraged Brimmer students to take their own path to success by illustrating his own life story where one interest lead to another and where his journey to earn his Ph.D. was not linear. 
 
Derrick earned a Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki in Molecular and Cancer Research and B.Sc and M.S. degrees in Medical and Molecular Genetics from the University of Toronto.  He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and an Investigator in the Program of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital He is also a Principal Faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Dr. Rossi’s development of cutting edge technologies and new therapeutic strategies are at the forefront of regenerative medicine and biotechnology. He has founded multiple successful biotechnology companies that are focused on developing life-changing therapies for patients suffering from many different diseases. 
 
Prior to joining the faculty at Harvard Medical School, Derrick trained as Post-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University in the Department of Pathology. 
 
Among his many awards and honors, Time Magazine cited Derrick’s discovery of modified-mRNA reprogramming as one of the top ten medical breakthroughs of 2010, named him as one of the “People Who Mattered” in 2010, and as one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2011 (Time 100).  
 
The Board of Trustees is excited to tap into Derrick’s extensive knowledge of Science and Technology and his passion for creativity, as they begin to work together this School year.  
 
W. Garth Smith P ’25, ‘27 
Brookline, MA 
 
Garth Smith and his wife Susan Kirwan have devoted themselves as volunteers and supporters of Brimmer and May ever since their daughter Adia started in Pre-K seven years ago.  Today, daughters Adia and Dahlia are in 6th and 4th grades and continue to love the School and their teachers.  Because of their deep appreciation for the joy and learning that their daughters have experienced here, Garth and Susan have been instrumental in funding many restricted gifts to further science and innovation in all three divisions of the School and Susan is currently in her second year as Co-Chair of the Parents Association.  Over the past few years, one of their passion projects has been imagining and funding the Lower School Garden. They were also generous supporters of the Realizing the Vision Campaign which afforded the School additional classroom space for science classrooms, maker space, innovation space, and community gathering space, all areas this family cares so much about. 
 
Garth holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from West Virginia University and has devoted himself to technology of virtual worlds, 3D culture, and pattern of life scenarios ever since. Garth is the President and Co-Founder of MetaVR, which was founded in 1997 as a classic technology disrupter. MetaVr creates 3D real-time PC-based commercial software products that provide the fidelity of geographically specific simulation with game quality graphics. The company creates virtual worlds, providing realism that exceeds video game standards.  MetaVR’s software is used primarily by the U.S. military to train aircrew and soldiers for certification and currency and to reduce civilian casualties during operations. 
 
The company is privately owned and maintains zero debt, and since its inception, the work environment has consisted of small home offices with no central office location.  He and his partner value providing a high quality of life for their 14 employees. 
 
Besides their many philanthropic initiatives at Brimmer and May, he and Susan have also been supportive of his high school alma mater in West Virginia.  Additionally, MetaVR has sponsored the Honor Flight New England trips for 300 veterans to see the WWII memorial in Washington DC. 
 
The Board of Trustees is eager to tap into Garth’s expertise in engineering, science, technology, entrepreneurship, and his passion and excitement for education. Welcome to the Board, Garth! The possibilities are endless for this partnership.
As an inclusive private school community, Brimmer welcomes students who will increase the diversity of our school. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, or any other characteristic protected from discrimination under state or federal law, in the administration of our educational policies, admissions practices, financial aid decisions, and athletic and other school-administered programs.