Board of Directors

Anne Haxo discovered the Walden School in 2003 while searching the internet for music camps for her daughter, Cara, who attended the Young Musician’s Program for six glorious summers and is now a faculty member. Starting back then and continuing into the present, Anne and her husband Thom faithfully attended concerts, Festival Forums, and choral concerts.

Anne is a founding faculty member of the Four Rivers Charter Public School in Greenfield, Massachusetts, from where she recently retired after a long stretch of teaching and working with high school students. She chaired the Williamsburg Board of Library Trustees for many years and sang in the First Church of Williamsburg choir. She previously served on Walden’s board of directors, including several terms as Board Secretary. She lives in Haydenville, Massachusetts, with Thom, a sculptor and professor emeritus from Hampshire College, and Cara, when she is in town.

Bob Bassett recently retired after a successful career as an international lawyer that was focused on representing the mining industry. He served on the Board of Trustees for Historic Denver, Inc., and was Chairman from 2017 to 2020. He completed a nine-month Leadership Arts Training Program presented by the Colorado Business Council for the Arts. He has served on the boards of Alaska Light Opera Theater, Community Radio for Northern Colorado (KUNC 91.5 FM) and Denver Educational Broadcasting, Inc. (KUVO 89.3 FM). He also served on executive committees and as an officer in professional legal organizations including the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and the International Bar Association.

He studied piano and conducting with Dr. Antonia Brico in Denver. He received a BFA in music from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he studied with David Burge (piano) and Charles Eakin (composition). He received an MFA from California Institute of the Arts where he studied with Leonid Hambro (piano) and Morton Subotnik (composition). He attended Walden’s Creative Musicians Retreat in 2019. His works have been performed by the Mivos Quartet, the Del Sol Quartet, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the Playground Ensemble. His works include film scores, vocal pieces and chamber works, and he is currently the pianist with the Colorado Jazz Workshop.

Vice-Chair

Danielle Schindler Cheung has been connected with Walden since age 11, spending 6 summers as a student, and later returning as staff and faculty until 2001.  In recent years she has been involved in the Alumni and Reunion Committees, and remains deeply grateful for the lifelong understanding of musicianship, creativity and community that Walden has given.

It was bittersweet when summers in New Hampshire came to an end, but as Lynn Hebden said, You take Walden with you wherever you go. Danielle is now a physician specializing in emergency medicine at St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale, WA. While most of her time is spent in clinical practice in two emergency departments, she also directs the emergency medicine rotation for St. Michael’s family practice residency and is a Clinical Instructor in the University of Washington’s Family Medicine Department.

Danielle and her husband Jason live outside Seattle, doing their best to keep up with their 3 exuberant children, ages 18, 7 and 7.

Danielle received her BA from Harvard University. She graduated from UC San Diego School of Medicine and completed residency and chief residency in emergency medicine at UCLA/Olive View Medical Centers. She earned board certification in emergency medicine in 2010, and achieved fellowship in the American College of Emergency Physicians in 2016.

David Keller, CMT is Chief Market Strategist at StockCharts.com and President of Sierra Alpha Research LLC, where he helps investors make better decisions using behavioral finance and technical analysis.  He is the host of The Final Bar, the daily closing bell show on StockCharts TV, and he relates mindfulness techniques to investor decision making in his blog, The Mindful Investor. Dave is a Past President of the CMT Association, a global nonprofit organization of technical analysts, and was formerly a Managing Director of Research at Fidelity Investments.

David is a classically trained musician and student pilot, and resides in Duvall, WA with his wife and two children. He received degrees in Music and Psychology from The Ohio State University, where he studied trumpet and voice.  David’s perpetual pursuit of musical experiences led him to The Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat in 2018, and he has literally not stopped thinking about it ever since.

Secretary

In 2015, David travelled with his son, Marco, from Beijing to Dublin, New Hampshire to enroll him in the first of six magical summers at Walden. Having grown up in China, it was Marco’s first time living away from home—a life-changing journey from a bustling Asian metropolis to a musical paradise nestled in the New England countryside.

Before moving his family to the Seattle area in 2016, David lived and worked in China for 20 years, most recently as a partner in the Beijing office of O’Melveny & Myers where he practiced corporate and securities law. As a kid, David spent seven years in the San Francisco Boys Chorus and also studied piano and trumpet. For a brief period, the four-piece Roberts Family Band rocked the Beijing elementary school and office party circuit with an eclectic mix of Beatles, Cui Jian, and Soundgarden covers until breaking up over creative differences.

David graduated with a B.A. in History from the University of California, Santa Cruz, studied Chinese at Peking University, and graduated with a J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law. Having retired from his law career, David spends his time writing fiction, competing in table tennis tournaments around the U.S., and skiing every storm possible in the Cascade Range.

My life is shaped by who I am as priest, educator, friend, and mother.  I am passionate about creating communities that thrive in the life of service, generosity, listening, and learning.

For twenty years, I was both an educator and administrator at Phillips Exeter Academy, NH, teaching religion and philosophy and overseeing the health and welfare of students in my role as dean.  In October 2014, I was called to become the Rector of All Saints Church in Peterborough, and for seven years I was blessed with a dynamic fellowship of parishioners who celebrated the joy and mystery of faith by attending deeply to how God was calling us to love each other and to be a sign of healing in the world.

In October 2021, I retired, and I am now living in Jaffrey, enjoying the sweet time of leisure and wondering what’s next.  In the midst of all of this, I look forward to returning to serve on the Board of the Walden School.

Jennifer Weidman became enchanted with The Walden School during Festival Week of her son’s first summer there, and she is particularly appreciative of the creativity and confidence that Walden engenders in its students/campers.

Jennifer served until late 2022 as Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel of Simon & Schuster, where she worked for three decades. She advised on all aspects of the business, including intellectual property, pre-publication review, litigation, digital strategy, product safety, antitrust, licensing, transactions, and direct marketing. She has served on various committees of the New York City Bar Association (Copyright & Literary Property; Communications & Media Law; Civil Rights) and of the Association of American Publishers.

Jennifer is a volunteer tutor with Literacy Suffolk, and she also volunteers at Longhouse Reserve, an art exhibition space and garden in East Hampton, New York. She graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School.

JoAnn Balingit is a poet and essayist who served as Delaware’s poet laureate from 2008 to 2015. Mother of four, JoAnn became a Walden parent in 2016 through her son, Julian, who’s pursuing a BM in Composition at Lawrence University. Julian attended YMP sessions three summers in a row, as well as recent Creative Musicians Retreats. Watching Composers Forum for the first time in 2016, JoAnn was moved and delighted by the confidence, creativity and sense of belonging that radiates at Walden. A second-generation Filipinx American, JoAnn writes visual-lyrical memoir essays and poems about migration, mixed-race identity, family secrets, and reclaiming history. Her work has been supported by fellowships from Delaware Division of the Arts, Hedgebrook, The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and The Camargo Foundation. The author of three collections of poetry, JoAnn holds an MA in Literature from UC Irvine and an MLS from Indiana University, and taught for twelve years as a librarian and teacher trainer in public schools in Delaware and Pennsylvania. She earned an EdD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Delaware in 2008. Currently a teaching artist and performance coach for Poetry Out Loud, a national high school poetry recitation contest, JoAnn teaches creative writing classes for students of all ages at schools, libraries and non-profit organizations. JoAnn grew up in Lakeland, Florida, and lives in Newark, Delaware with her husband, Fred Hofstetter.

Kate has long been an admirer and supporter of Walden, and only wishes she had discovered its programs during her formative years as a young musician.  Through her career in arts administration, Kate has had the privilege of working for the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where she served as Associate Director of Development.  She then returned to graduate school to pursue interdisciplinary studies at the intersection of cultural sociology, arts institutions, and public policy, earning an MA from New York University.  She now lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband, Alex Johnston, who works as an administrator for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and their teenager, Seven, who enjoys theater, guitar and ukulele, drawing, fantasy fiction and mythology. 

In addition to the Walden board, Kate currently serves as a trustee of the Hoboken Historical Museum, and as board chair of the Fund for a Better Waterfront, an advocacy organization working to promote responsible development, public open space, and the protection of the riparian zone along Hoboken’s stretch of the Hudson River.  Kate is honored that Walden has given her the opportunity to be directly involved in the non-profit arts sector again, and to support transformative experiences for young people through music and composition.

Chair

Peter Colohan is the Executive Director of the Internet of Water, a project based at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

Peter comes to the IoW after nearly a decade of Federal service with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). At NOAA, Peter was a key advocate for the development of the National Water Model and the creation of the NOAA Water Initiative. He also served as a Federal Coordinating Lead Author for the Water Chapter of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, published in November 2018.  Peter was an enthusiastic participant in the 2017 Aspen Dialogue Series on Water Data, co-led by the Nicholas Institute, which led to the creation of the Internet of Water.

From 2012-2014, Peter served as the Assistant Director for Environmental Information within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barack Obama, on assignment from NOAA, where he worked closely with all Federal agencies responsible for climate, water and environmental science and technology. Prior to his federal service, Peter advised NOAA as a consultant on the development of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), an intergovernmental body dedicated to the global exchange of environmental data and information. He served as that body’s Executive Officer from 2003 to 2005.

Rachel Burdick Fissell grew up with her younger brother Joshua Burdick in Baltimore, where they both studied in the Preparatory department of the Peabody Institute. Rachel was in the dance certificate program where she studied Ballet and Flamenco, and Joshua studied violin, piano, and music theory.
Rachel spent 3 summers at Interlochen 1982-1984, but heard quite a bit about Walden from her younger brother Josh, who attended Walden for 7+ summers. Rachel spent 3 glorious summers at Walden, from 1985-1987. She has sung in many choruses over the years, in high school, as an undergraduate at Yale, and for three years with a local chapter of the Sweet Adelines in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She also helped assemble props for several Gilbert and Sullivan productions for the University of Michigan’s Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Rachel and her husband William and son Liam now live in Nashville, where they both have academic appointments as Nephrologists at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. They live south of Nashville in Brentwood, with two cats and several gardens, and a new 4 month old puppy. Liam has sung with the Boys’ Choir directed by Mary and Tucker Biddlecomb at the Blair school of music for 5 years. About 3 years ago he began playing electric guitar and piano.
Inspired by Liam, Rachel has recently begun to learn bass guitar, so they can play Green Day songs together. Liam is about to attend his 3rd summer at Walden, and literally brings this up every day – “I can’t wait until Walden”. And so now because of Liam, Rachel feels fortunate to be spending more time with the Walden family, and contributing to the Walden mission.

Vice-Chair

Rita Mitra became involved with the Walden School through her daughter, Danielle Oberdier, who attended Walden for three summers. She continues to be deeply appreciative of the musical and personal growth and creative spirit that Walden inspires in its participants, well after their time there. Rita served on Walden’s board from 2006-­‐2010, chaired the Program Planning and Development committee from 2007-­‐2010, and in 2015-2016, and is currently Chair of the Board.

Rita is an Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Information Systems and Cyber Security and Director of Online Programs in the College of Business at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She holds an M.S. in Computer Science from New York University. Prior to her tech career, Rita was a freelance performer and teacher, with a D.M.A. in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, an M.M. in Piano Performance from the Juilliard School of Music, and a B.M. in Performance from Texas Tech University.

Sarah Stroud is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Parr Center for Ethics at UNC-Chapel Hill. Prior to 2018 she taught for 25 years at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where she and her husband raised their two children. Sarah holds degrees in Philosophy from Harvard (A.B.) and Princeton (Ph.D.). Her field of specialty is ethics, and she was a co-editor of the International Encyclopedia of Ethics (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), which was honored by the American Library Association as one of the three best reference works published that year across all fields. She played piano in her youth and has been a Walden parent since 2011.

Treasurer

Steve Messner has over 30 years of experience in finance, general management, operations, and strategy. He works with the top management of small and medium-sized companies to help them define their goals; develop and implement plans to achieve them; and improve their profitability and cash flow, typically as a part-time CFO.

His current work includes serving as the outsourced strategic planning department of a growing $75m security company and as a member of its board of directors; the part-time CFO of a $20m professional services firm whose bank brought him in after the company ran into severe financial problems; the part-time CFO of a $10m telemarketing company that ran into a cash crunch; the part-time CFO of a $3m testing lab; and the part-time CFO of a $3m government contractor working to recover from a sharp drop in its business.

He has been a trustee of the Levine Music, the largest community music school in Washington, DC, with over 3000 students, since 2003. He chaired the strategic planning committee from 2004 to 2010 and has served as chair of the Finance and Investment Committees since 2010, as Treasurer since 2011, and as Secretary/Treasurer since 2014.

Steve received a BA and an MS in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, an MS in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He has attended Walden’s Creative Musicians Retreat every year that it has run but one.

Tessie McGough spent three transformative summers at Walden, and she is grateful for the generous financial aid that made it possible for her to attend and for the lifelong friendships, exceptional musical education, and unforgettable memories that Walden provided.

Today, Tessie is a data scientist at a large tech company in New York City. She holds a BA in economics from Harvard College and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In her spare time, she enjoys playing violin/viola, running, and taking advantage of the vibrant music scene in the city.