Meet the Board
Joe Robbins, Chair
Neela Pal, Vice Chair
Raised in New York and Tokyo, Neela is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Business School. She has spent most of her career in strategy and marketing leadership – helping to build brands and drive growth at companies like P&G, McKinsey, Arnold Worldwide, Tripadvisor - and is now at Roblox as Head of Brand. Neela has enjoyed volunteering at Park, as both a class-rep and co-chair of the Faculty and Staff Appreciation Lunch Raffle. A member of the Board since 2016, she helped with Park’s re-branding, served as the co-chair of Head of School Transition Committee, and is the Chair of the Committee of Trustees. Neela is the parent of Nina '17, Nikhil '19 and Devan (Grade 8).
Peter Barkan '86, Secretary
Peter leads The Barkan Companies, a regional competitor in multifamily real estate development, property management and affordable housing. Before joining Park's Board in 2016, Peter was an active volunteer, serving on the Alumni Committee and on the Buildings and Grounds Committee. Peter chairs the Buildings & Grounds Committee, led the Master Planning Committee and serves on the Executive Committee. He has a BA in urban studies and the history of architecture from Brown University and an MBA from Duke University. Peter has two children, Lila (Grade 7) and Seth '21.
Sara Leventhal Fleiss '95, Treasurer
After graduating from Park, Sara attended Milton Academy and Harvard College, where she studied applied mathematics. She then went on to receive an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she is now a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration. Sara was the co-founder and co portfolio manager of Emeth Partners, an emerging markets arbitrage hedge fund. Sara joined the Board in 2016 and currently serves as Treasurer and is on the Executive Committee and Investment Committee. Previously, she co-chaired the Head of School Search Committee and the Transition Committee. Sara has three children: Solomon (Grade 6), Morris, and Annabel (K).
Idris Abdur Rahim
The father of a current Park student and a successful Park alum now at Roxbury Latin, Sean is deeply familiar with schools through his work as Facilities Manager at the Benjamin Banneker Charter School in Cambridge. He appreciates the opportunity to give back to Park however his Board service will allow, and hopes to support Park with his experience in management of educational facilities as Park considers the ways in which its campus may evolve in the coming years. A native of Brooklyn, Sean’s family relocated to Cambridge, where he attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and UMass Amherst. Sean and his wife, Nadia Fenton-Rahim, have been members of the Park community since 2012, serving together as Class Reps for their daughter’s Kindergarten class, in addition to Nadia’s many other volunteer roles. Sean believes Park students benefit from learning with an exceptional peer group, noting "My children are being shaped by the Park community, gaining the tools they need to grow as young men and women.”
Neeraj Agrawal
Neeraj is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in New York, Cornell University, and Harvard Business School. He is a general partner at Battery Ventures, a venture capital, and private equity firm, where he invests in technology companies. On Park’s Board since 2017, Neeraj serves as the Chair of the Investment Committee and as a member of the Finance Committee. Neeraj is the parent of two Park alumni: Devan '21 and Dillan ’24, who attend Milton Academy.
Rahul Ballal
Rahul was born in a small town in the UK and immigrated to the US when he was four. Growing up in Michigan and later Ohio, he attended a small independent day school similar to Park. He traveled east to attend Brown University to study biology and then moved to San Francisco to run a knowledge management startup, which eventually brought him to Washington DC. In DC, he met his wife Sonia and they together completed graduate work and moved to Boston for jobs and additional training. Rahul is currently the CEO of a venture backed biotech startup developing novel drugs for patients suffering from sickle cell disease. He has three children, Meenu '23, Shyla (Grade 4), and Saavin (PreK) and is always working on improving his jump shot in basketball.
Kathrene Tiffany Bell '96, Alumni Committee Representative
Kathrene Tiffany Bell ’96 joined the Park community in Kindergarten and loved her Park journey. She treasures memories of Lower Division teachers who instilled a lasting love of learning and creativity, as well as the Upper Division opportunities to grow as a leader. A graduate of Buckingham Browne & Nichols and Bates College, she worked in marketing in the biotech, advertising, and real estate investment fields before deciding to step away from these roles to devote herself to raising her two children. A dedicated volunteer, she has been involved with the Max Warburg Courage Curriculum, which provides training and resources to classroom teachers to help empower children to explore their capacity for courageous action. In addition, Kathrene has been a member of the Park Alumni Committee since 2008, has served as co-chair of the Committee and of the Alumni Annual Fund, and as a Reunion Chair, and was honored by Park in 2019 with the Alumni Award for Distinguished Service.
Lise Charlier
Nicole Danforth
Nicole graduated from Amherst College and soon after, competed around the world on golf tours in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. After several years of competing at an elite level, Nicole parlayed her curiosity and interest in young people and healthy development to attend medical school at Dartmouth. Following a fellowship in child psychiatry at the McLean/MGH program, Nicole worked as the Medical Director of the MGH Sports Psychology Program while serving as the psychiatric consultant to an outpatient addictions program. This has evolved into her dream job, where she wears three hats: as the Director of Outpatient Programs in the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Newton-Wellesley Hospital; is a psychiatric consultant for local college and professional sports teams; and has a private psychiatric practice in Newton. Nicole and her wife Judy juggle two careers, three children – Elias (Grade 5), Jordan (Grade 5) and Sam '05 and their oversized well-loved dog, Moxie.
Mark Dolins
Mark attended Weston High School and holds a BA from Denison University and a JD from Duke University. He co-founded the Boston office of Lazard in the fall of 2007, a financial advisory and asset management firm. Prior to joining the Board in 2017, Mark was an active Park volunteer and served as a member of the Major Gifts Committee. On the Board, Mark serves on the Development and Finance Committees. Mark has two children – Grayson (Grade 8) and Avery '19.
Ken Frieze
Ken and his wife Tamar have three daughters, Sloane (attending Park in Grade 6) and identical twins Avery and Marin (Grade 3 at another school). Ken is the past co-chair of the Major Gifts Committee of Park's Annual Fund. When Ken can’t spend time with his family, he goes to work as the CEO of Gordon Brothers, a more than century-old global special situations investment company headquartered in Boston. He is a current member of the American College of Bankruptcy and a co-founder of the Boston Corporate Finance Community’s Gathers to Give Benefiting More Than Words. He holds a BA from Lehigh University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Abigail Ross Goodman '91
Abigail is a graduate of Phillips Academy, Andover and Brown University. She has over 15 years of experience in contemporary art as a gallerist, independent curator, and advisor. Prior to founding her current firm, Goodman Taft, she was the director and owner of the Judi Rotenberg Gallery in Boston. At Park, Abigail has served as a Class Representative, co-chair of the Alumni Annual Fund, a member of the Alumni Committee, and as a PreK Class Representative. A member of the Board since 2017, Abigail serves on the Buildings & Grounds Committee. Abigail is the parent of three Park alumni: Rebecca '19, Esme '24 and Hannah '21.
May Hara
May attended international schools overseas before graduating from the National Cathedral School, Cornell University, and the University of Wisconsin, where she completed a PhD in Educational Policy. A former middle school English teacher in the New York City public school system, she is currently Associate Professor of Teacher Education at Framingham State University, where she teaches courses in pre-service teaching methods and in educational policy. May, her husband Michael, and their children Margot (Grade 6) and Hugh (Grade 2) live in Jamaica Plain.
Eliza Hoover, Parents' Association President
Eliza Hoover will serve the Park community for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years as president of The Park School Parents’ Association and as a member of The Park School Board of Trustees. A graduate of Colby College, where she majored in art and history, Eliza teaches at Spruce Street Nursery School in Boston. She has been an active volunteer since joining the Park community when her daughter, Sophie, now a rising sixth grader entered Kindergarten. Most recently, she helped set up a task force to create activities to support and engage families during our time away from campus during distance learning. A big proponent of community building, she says, “We looked for ways to bring families together, even though we couldn’t be together physically.”