Our Faculty and Staff is Here For You Like Family
Crosland’s teachers and staff are the cornerstone of our personalized and distinctive educational experience. Fostering relationships and nurturing trust are fundamental to our approach. They empower students to explore and innovate within a nurturing and secure environment. Discover more about their unique skills, teaching milestones, and personal passions below.
Learn About Opportunities to Join Us
We have the following positions open for the 2025-26 school year:
We celebrate and embrace every child’s unique needs when it comes to education. We would love to speak with you more about your child and find out if the Crosland School is the right choice for you and your family!
Our Board of Directors
Genevieve deLemos – Chair of the Board
Genevieve deLemos is an attorney who runs a research compliance consulting firm serving hospitals and physician practices across the country. She feels fortunate to be the parent of a now 5th grade Crosland student, and has seen the impact of the school and its mission on her daughter over the past five years. Genevieve enjoys spending her downtime running, reading historical non-fiction and traveling with her family.
Betsy Deupree
Betsy is retired from IBM. She was in sales and marketing management, concluding in business management consulting, focusing on what customers value and operationalizing mergers & acquisitions. Currently, she works with her husband’s business, ChapterTwo, a business helping senior-level executives pivot to satisfaction and passion from their careers. Previously Betsy has enjoyed serving on non-profit boards, focusing on Governance and Executive Committees including Apparo, WE WINGS Foundation and Tosco Music. She also sings at church and tutors reading for 2nd graders. She is a graduate of Vassar College with graduate classes at Uni of Penn, and Uni of Ga.
Tom Balke
Tom received his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from UNC Charlotte, and his Masters of Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis. His 32 year career with Little Diversified Architectural Consulting has been focused on the design of schools, including many Independent schools in our region. With a focus on school design and successful student outcomes, his role serving for JCS allows me to learn more about education and have a very direct impact on student outcomes. Tom and his wife Sheri have been married for 34 years, have a 29 year old son who is a forester. Tom enjoys travel, the outdoors, fishing and is a novice banjo musician.
Luis Betancourt, MD
Dr. Luis Betancourt is a child and adolescent psychiatrist. He is a partner at Pediatric and Behavioral Health, where he’s been providing mental health care to children, adolescents and their families since 2014. He is devoted to providing evidence-based and compassionate care. He enjoys spending his free time golfing, fishing, or hiking with his family.
Josh Teague
Josh is the co-founder and CEO of Abacus RED, a real estate development company specializing in healthcare properties. Additionally, Josh is an executive member of Southeast Solar Solutions and focuses on providing solar solutions for commercial real estate. Josh received his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Iowa and his Juris Doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis. Josh and his wife, Jamie, have four children, the eldest being an 8th-grade student at The John Crosland School. Josh is active in his church and enjoys coaching youth sports, outdoor activities, and travel adventures.
Kelly Cipriani
Kelly Cipriani is a stay-at-home mother of three children, Jordan, Megan, and Gavin. Megan attends and is thriving as a middle schooler at The John Crosland School. Prior to changing directions to stay at home to raise her children in 2008, Kelly was the Controller for Consolidated Theatres, a Charlotte based regional movie theater chain which was sold to Regal Entertainment. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Virginia Commonwealth University. Kelly is a member of the Board of Directors of Gift of Adoption of the Carolinas, which she and her husband, Jason, founded in 2012. Kelly’s other interests include tennis, travel, animals, and spending time with friends.
Leesa Thomas Clardy
Leesa Clardy is a native Charlottean who graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in nursing. For twenty years, she worked in operating rooms in NC, MD, AZ, CT, NY and did pro bono cleft lip and palate repair in Thailand, Peru and Honduras. In addition, she has been an active volunteer at Christ Episcopal Church, Children’s Theater of Charlotte and the Charlotte- Mecklenburg School System. She and her husband, Jim, have two children, Julia and James. James is a middle schooler who has thrived at John Crosland. It is an honor to serve the school that has been such a gift to our family.
Courtney Gentzel
Courtney Gentzel is a former marketing executive and brand consultant who spent 15 years at Marquee new york city-based agencies creating brand strategies and developing advertising for M&M’s, McDonald’s, Chevrolet, Barbie, Kraft, Sony, among others. originally from charlotte, she is happy to have been back for 9 years with her husband brett and their three children – perry (9), scottie (4), and ridge (7), a crosland first-grader who has finally found his educational and social home. courtney is now a full-time mom and excited to put her past experience toward the future of the john crosland school.
Austin Harper
Austin Grant Harper is the first alumnus (Class of 2015) Board member who was diagnosed with ADHD, Dyslexia, Auditory Processing Disorder and enrolled at Dore Academy in the 2nd grade. He has overcome his fear of failure and learned the importance of taking risk in one’s life. His passion/hobbies are to help motivate people who aspire to change themselves in various ways of their life through the importance of mental wellness and exercise. He fancies himself as an amateur lumberjack, who is a nerd of various things such as cars, comic books, video games, music of all genres. He is quite fond of Anime and Japanese/ Eypytian culture.
Kim Hurst
Kim Hurst is a Senior Vice President and Regional Practice Leader for Aon’s East Region. She works with clients on all areas of group welfare benefit programs, including design strategy, cost, plan management, and administration. Kim is an active member of Aon’s Health Solutions Executive Committee where she leads discussions on performance management, growth strategies, margin expansion and pipeline development. Prior to joining our firm, Kim was a senior consultant at KPMG and served as a Trial Clerk at the U.S. Tax Court. Kim has a Master’s degree in Public Policy and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of William and Mary.
Laura Jackson
Laura Jackson graduated from Vanderbilt University with a double major in Psychology and Sociology and went on to graduate from Cumberland School of Law. From there, Laura worked in both the public and private sector of law, where she handled a wide variety of cases—from prosecuting and defending fraud to elder abuse. Five years ago, Laura decided to combine her background in criminal law, sociology, and psychology, with her passion for helping people to establish Ordinary Graces. Together, Laura and Ordinary Graces serve as a constant and fearless advocate for the elderly—ensuring that clients and their loved ones are safe, secure, cared for, and “as happy as they can possibly be.”
Jim Kelligrew
Jim Kelligrew joined U.S. Bank in 2009, focusing on fixed income and capital markets. He co-led the Corporate & Commercial Banking and his distinguished industry experience also included leadership roles at Wells Fargo Securities and Bank of America Securities. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and sociology from the University of Michigan. He is a returning Board member after recently returning. His son attended Dore Academy years about and received a solid academic foundation as a spring board for future opportunities.
Chris Youse
Chris is a Director in Wells Fargo’s Corporate Finance organization leading global process and technology transformation initiatives. His 25 years of experience has focused on change leadership at the intersection of finance, technology and risk management. Chris and his wife Jennifer are blessed with son Peyton, a college freshman, daughter Avery, a high school sophomore, and three rescue dogs. He enjoys traveling and hiking with family and any opportunity to hear live music. He is awed by the commitment and passion of the entire John Crosland family to provide an environment where students can belong and thrive.
Mark Mealy
Mark is the Managing Partner of Colville Group, a private investment firm that owns several companies in the industrial distribution space and is designed with a commitment to long-term value creation. Mark graduated from Berkeley High School and Princeton University, worked at Morgan Stanley in New York and moved to Charlotte in the late ‘80s to join a boutique investment bank, Bowles Hollowell Conner. When BHC sold to First Union in 1998, Mark stayed with First Union/Wells Fargo as Head of Mergers & Acquisitions until 2004, when he left to acquire and build a manufacturing business. After it was sold in 2005, Mark started Colville with a small group of investors and friends. Mark and his wife Posey are happily married with three grown children and a thankfully increasing number of grandchildren. He has served on the boards of a number of organizations in Charlotte.
John Wahr
John has 31 years of experience in the financial services industry and is currently Head of Rates Sales for US Bank’s Derivative Products Group. Prior to joining US Bank in 2014, he spent 21 years at Bank of America holding positions in the areas of corporate banking, high grade debt capital markets, and fixed income derivatives. John earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Indiana University. He lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife and two children and has been active in supporting several important organizations including Charlotte Speech & Hearing, and Wing Haven (board member).
Tina Rosensteel
Tina Rosensteel does Accounts Payable for a medical practice. Prior to that, she spent 16 year at Bank of America and 3 years at Carolinas Healthcare System in various Finance and Accounting positions. She feels very strongly about the impact that JCS makes on students who learn differently and is happy to be able to support that through being a board member. She currently has 2nd and 4th grade boys who attend JCS. She enjoys exercising, spending time with friends and traveling with family.
Rich Simons
Rich Simons has spent over 23 years at Daimler Trucks North America serving as its first Chief Diversity Officer and now serves as the Head of Parts Sales and Marketing. As an advocate for inclusion and the growth of our children, Rich offers an array of assets to drive sustainable culture, governance, and vision for the school. Rich and his wife enjoy watching their daughter compete in USTA Jr. tennis tournaments when he is not on the golf course.
Madelyn Smith
Madelyn Smith received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with minors in Spanish for the Legal Professions and Women and Gender Studies from UNC-CH. She works at the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, a nonprofit law firm serving low-income Mecklenburg County residents in a variety of areas. At CCLA, she serves on many committees, including Racial Equity Change Team, Outreach, and Education Team, and Party Planning Committee. Her entire life has revolved around community service and involvement; from volunteering at elementary and middle schools in a variety of roles (sports coach, dance chaperone, beautification, etc.), to taking care of children of all ages throughout my years as a camp counselor, to my current job where I am consistently in the community providing clinics and events to reach people in need in our communities and provide free legal services and education. She is passionate about Crosland, not only because of its great mission and purpose but because she wishes her brother, who has autism, would’ve had an experience like Croslnd as an option.
Cassandra Tydings
Cassandra Tydings holds a B.S. from Louisiana State University, a law degree from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, and a Masters of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center. Cassandra’s practice is focused on estate planning and tax law; special needs planning; estate administration; business succession planning; as well as corporate and tax work for nonprofit organizations. She assists families and individuals with a range of estate planning services – including wills, trusts, family limited liability companies and charitable and gifting opportunities – as they seek to balance personal and tax objectives. She often works with owners and management of closely held businesses to develop succession plans. Cassandra also represents nonprofit organizations in organization, governance and compliance matters.
Sylvia Yarbough
Sylvia Yarbough has over thirty years of experience in various leadership roles within the financial service industry. Sylvia is currently leveraging her financial experience and knowledge as an independent consultant. Sylvia’s greatest asset is her decisive leadership with the required flexibility in responding to constantly changing organizational needs. Sylvia holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Meredith College and a Bachelor’s Degree from Barton College. Sylvia volunteers her time providing financial counseling on topics such as budgeting, general banking, credit, and investing to individuals, non-profits, and small businesses in underserved communities. Sylvia has two adult sons and resides in the Charlotte area with her husband and extended family.
Walt Fisher
Walt currently works at Showalter Construction Company in both project management and preconstruction. He started his career at InterCon Building Corporation, working in the field and the office on a variety of commercial projects. Walt serves on both the personnel committee and the building committee of his church. He enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife and two children. Walt is a native of Charlotte and a graduate of Clemson University, having majored in Construction Science and Management.