Leadership

Sarah Dahleen, Executive Director

Sarah Dahleen is a proven leader with 20+ years of experience in identifying and improving strategies to achieve financial, sales and fundraising goals. She is mission driven with the ability to understand details and think strategically using advanced marketing, advertising, social media, and communications. She has over a decade of experience serving in a leadership capacity in education institutions. In addition to her knowledge of fundraising and community building, Sarah also has expertise in capital campaigns, strategic planning, brand development, event management, and recruiting. She recently relocated to San Diego from Seattle.

 

Horizons at Francis Parker School Board

  • Carin Canale-Theakston – Board Chair
  • Irene Kim Coppedge – Community Member
  • Christine Hickman – Community Member
  • Claire van der Lee – Board Secretary
  • Kevin Yaley – Head of School, Francis Parker School
  • Troy Markowitz – Community Member
  • Alana McNulty – Board Treasurer
  • Mary Taylor – Community Member
  • Patsy Tomlin – Community Member

 

 

Meet Our Board Chair

Carin Canale-Theakston
Horizons Board Chair

Carin Canale-Theakston is a seasoned entrepreneur and impact investor with over 25 years of experience helping organizations navigate a myriad of complex business strategies. As a seasoned life science executive, she has had a strategic seat at the table in over 500 life science companies, having helped shape countless strategies – and often business models – over the two-plus decades she’s been working in the sector. Carin is currently an Independent Board Director for two life science companies and is actively involved on several non-profit boards including serving as vice chair of the board of directors for Biocom California and chair of its nominating-governance committee; a member of the board of managers for Life Science Cares San Diego and a member of the national leadership committee; a member of the board of trustees for Francis Parker School; and the founding chair of Horizons San Diego, a position she has held since the program was launched at Horizons at Francis Parker. 

Carin previously was the founder and CEO of Canale Communications, a national life science strategic communications firm. She sold the company to Inizio, a multi-billion-dollar strategic partner for health an life sciences companies in 2019 and maintained and executive leadership role until the end of 2024. Carin founded Canale Communications in 2010 after serving as president of the life sciences division of international public relations firm Porter Novelli. Under her leadership, Canale Communications received the Best Places to Work Award from the San Diego Business Journal on multiple occasions. Carin also was named an E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year, a “Woman of the Year” by the California Assembly, PR Week’s Outstanding Agency Professional, and she has been named to the “San Diego 500” list of influential business leaders in the life sciences for the past six years.

Meet Our Board Members

Irene Kim Coppedge

Irene Kim Coppedge has been an active member of the Francis Parker School community for almost a decade and has two children – Luke and Phoebe. Both Irene and her husband Schuyler volunteer in a leadership capacity to support the Parker community. 

Schuyler is a member of  the Parker Board of Trustees and Irene has served as a room parent,  ambassador, and community leader. She will also add a strong financial background to our board. Prior to taking on full time parent responsibilities and starting her own interior design business, Irene was a Vice President at Barclays Capital and holds an MBA from Columbia University.

 
Christine Hickman

Christine Hickman graduated from Yale and Harvard Law School. She worked in public interest law, the California judicial system, and as a law professor in San Diego. She has served on various boards, including the Elementary Institute of Science and Francis Parker School. 

Christine is proud to be affiliated with Horizons, which offers building blocks for San Diego students. While I hope this generation does not have to be “twice as good for half as much,” programs like Horizons will have them prepared --- just in case.

 
 
 
 
Troy Markowitz

Troy Markowitz is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Drata, one of the fastest growing software companies.  He oversees global and go-to-market operations, as well as revenue. Troy initially served as Drata’s Chief Revenue Officer for the first two years where he quickly scaled the GTM team to a billion dollar "unicorn” in the first 10-months from coming out of stealth to a $2B+ hyper-growth company.

Prior to Drata, Troy served as Senior Vice President of Sales for Portfolium that was sold to Instructure (NYSE: INST) and the VP of Strategy for Instructure (INST) post-acquisition. Portfolium helped students bridge the ensuing entry-level skills gap from college and career. Troy is a Contributing Writer to Forbes on the topic of education and workforce development. He also serves on the Board for Tech San Diego in support of their mission of making San Diego a world-class center of innovation, technology, and quality of life.

Alana McNulty
Board Treasurer

Alana McNulty is currently an Independent Board Director for Janux Therapeutics (NASDAQ: JANX), where she serves on the audit committee, and Lipidio Pharmaceuticals.  She also serves on the Advisory Board and Grants Committee for Life Science Cares, a community service organization for the life sciences industry, and is a board member for Female Athlete Volunteers (FAV), a community service organization she helped found in 2012.

Over her career, Alana McNulty has led or played a key role in transactions with an aggregate value greater than $3 billion, including private and public financings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate partnerships, and debt financings. She was most recently the Chief Business Officer of eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on pioneering the development of a new class of oncology drugs known as selective translation regulator inhibitors (STRIs).

She also served as Chief Financial Officer for eFFECTOR for more than eight years. Prior to eFFECTOR, Ms. McNulty served as Chief Financial Officer of a number of biopharmaceutical companies, including Lumena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Shire plc), Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Pfizer Inc.), BrainCells Inc., and Elitra Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Mary Taylor

Mary Taylor serves as the Associate Chief Diversity Officer for Outreach and Success at SDSU. In her role, Mary oversees Educational Opportunity Programs, Outreach and Success; Inclusive SDSU; and the Office for Restorative Practices. Mary has over 18 years of student services experience and a passion for student access and success In the non-profit sector. 

In 2014, she was the recipient of the San Diego Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business Award for creating and developing the College Apps Academy Program and was a Janet Chrispeels Doctoral Fellow in Educational Leadership at UCSD in recognition of her work serving low income/underserved students and families. As a scholar, Mary has a research agenda focused on educational equity and access for marginalized and underserved students, Black student success in higher ed, college access, success and completion, and non-profit collaboration with educational institutions.

Patsy Tomlin

Patsy Tomlin is attending Columbia University’s M.S. in Nonprofit Management as she has been an involved community member in San Diego. 

She has served as Board Chair for the Elementary Institute of Science (EIS) and is passionate about educational equity and access.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claire Deeks van der Lee
Board Secretary

Claire Deeks van der Lee graduated with a BA in International Affairs from Emory University and an MA from The George Washington University in International Affairs and Development, Claire’s early career was spent working with International Organizations, NGOs and the US Government in the areas of progress reporting and policy analysis. She has worked with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation in Hanoi, and the US Government Accountability Office (GAO). While taking a sabbatical to live in Thailand and travel throughout Asia, Claire found harmony between her research and writing expertise and her love of exploration in the form of travel writing. Upon relocating to San Diego, Claire began writing for Fodor’s travel guides and has contributed to more than a dozen guidebooks to date.

After witnessing her own child’s journey with language-based learning differences, Claire has become a passionate researcher and advocate for early identification and intervention of learning challenges as well as creating awareness of alternative educational tools and teaching children self-advocacy skills. For all the success she celebrates along her own child’s journey, she worries about the children that are left behind due to lack of awareness, support, or resources for intervention. She is beyond excited at the opportunity to dedicate her time and passion to a program like Horizons, with its long-term commitment to removing the barriers to equitable education and helping children discover their own success.

 

Kevin Yaley, Ph.D.
Head of School, Francis Parker School

Kevin Yaley, Ph.D., has served as Head of Francis Parker School since 2010. Prior to joining Parker, he taught history, ethics, and philosophy for a decade at the University of San Diego High School. He also coached cross country, track and field, and soccer. Kevin chaired four California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) accreditation visits. He was a fellow of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Edward E. Ford Fellowship for Aspiring Heads and was awarded a fellowship to the Klingenstein Center for Independent School Leadership’s Heads of Schools Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. He also served on the CAIS Board of Standards from 2008 to 2016.

Kevin received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Notre Dame, an additional master's degree from San Diego State University, and his doctorate in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego.