Board of Trustees

Scott Anderson

Board Member

  • Scott lives in San Antonio, TX. He received his Bachelor's Degree at the University of the South and his MBA at the University of Texas – San Antonio. Scott has 24 years of experience in sales and manufacturing management within the food industry, along with 10 years as Senior Advancement Officer at the University of the South. That experience makes him the perfect fit for the Development Committee Chair leading St. Mary's Sewanee in its efforts to secure resources and further its mission. Scott has many interests, including golf and fly fishing in Idaho with his two sons.

The Rt. Rev'd John C. Bauerschmidt

Bishop of Tennessee, Board Member

  • Bishop Bauerschmidt is the eleventh bishop of the Diocese of Tennessee. He was elected on October 28, 2006 and was consecrated at the non-denominational Christ Church in Nashville on January 27, 2007. Bishop Bauerschmidt is a graduate of Kenyon College, the General Theological Seminary and Oxford University. Prior to becoming bishop, he served in South Louisiana. Bishop Bauerschmidt and his wife, Caroline, have three adult children. He has a professional interest in theology and an amateur love of history—particularly the history of ideas.

David Bass

Board Member

  • David was born in Alabama and migrated to Tennessee in 2000. He has worked for several universities in Tennessee and Alabama as a fundraiser and is presently with Lipscomb University in Nashville. He and his wife are the parents of 4 children who are all now married and dispersed throughout the country. He is prone to have non-traditional hobbies including being a regular visitor to death row in Nashville and is presently involved in walking from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. He loves to read and is always open to book recommendations.

Nora Bernhardt

Board Member

  • Nora Bernhardt has been coming to St. Mary's Sewanee for centering prayer retreats and other programs for over fifteen years and treasures her experiences on the mountain. She has been on the board since 2023, co-chairs the new Centering Prayer Retreat Planning Team, and serves as a member of the Advancement Committee. She and her husband Bob live in Signal Mountain, just outside of Chattanooga.

James Bradford

Board Member

  • James is a partner in the Birmingham law firm of Balch & Bingham LLP, and is a former senior warden and current Vestry clerk of the Cathedral Church of the Advent (Episcopal). He graduated from Sewanee (B.A. in English) in 1977, and received his law degree from the University of Alabama in 1980. He served three terms on the Sewanee Board of Trustees, as a lay trustee from Diocese of Alabama, and was a member of the Board of Trustees of Advent Episcopal School in Birmingham for fifteen years, serving as Board president and vice president.

Lorie Brawner

Board Member

  • Lorie grew up in Nashville, where she still lives today. She currently serves as Operations Assistant at Open Table Nashville, an interfaith nonprofit that works to end homelessness through outreach, housing navigation, and advocacy. Before joining Open Table, Lorie spent many years supporting executives and small businesses in administrative and financial roles, including as Office Administrator at TriStar CPAs and Executive Assistant to the Co-Founder of Meritage Funds, a Brentwood private equity firm. A Lipscomb University graduate, Lorie and her husband, Marc, are parents to college-aged twins, Joey and Kate.

Sister Hannah Winkler, CSM

Board Member

  • Sister Hannah has been a member of the Community of St. Mary, Southern Province, for nine years. She made her life profession in January 2021 and became Prioress of the Community in January 2023. She helps manage the Community's website, social media, and online gift shop and promotes convent events online. She has been active in preaching at a variety of Episcopal churches and schools both in-person and online. Prior to entering Community, she graduated with her bachelor's and master's degrees in nutritional sciences in 2008 and 2011 from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, respectively. She became a licensed registered dietitian in 2011. She graduated from the University of the South with a Master of Arts in Theology in December 2020. She is looking forward to the ways God will use her diverse backgrounds as part of the Community's various ministries.

Adam Hill

Board President

  • Adam grew up in Nashville, where he now works as a lawyer who handles probate, conservatorships, and estates. He has served as President of the board of St. Mary's Sewanee for the last 7 years. He and his wife are parents of a 5-year-old daughter, who keeps them up most nights. An avid fan of English Premier League Football, Adam loves to talk soccer with anyone who will listen.

Carrie Hodges

Board Member

  • Most of Carrie's professional career was spent in the commercial real estate field, working as an appraiser and a multifamily lender. About 15 years ago she obtained a Master's Degree in Conflict Management and did pro bono work in the local court system. She also began mentoring a young girl in 1993 through Buddies of Nashville, a relationship that continues to this day, and served on the board of YMCA/YCAP, an inner city program for at-risk youth. She and her husband have taught classes at the Tennessee Prison for Women as part of the Lipscomb LIFE program and have recently established Global Schools for Change, Inc., a private foundation focused on building schools in underdeveloped countries. Her involvement with St. Mary's began 25 years ago when she attended her first Centering Prayer retreat, and it continues to be a place of respite and peace for her.

Lisa McDonough Howick

Board Member

  • Lisa is a Class of 1981 graduate of the University of the South. She spent twenty-five years as a high school counselor, educational consultant, and community organizer in Georgia and Maine before returning to Sewanee, first as a University Admissions Counselor and then as Associate Director in the Office of Career Development, retiring in 2019. She recently rotated off the administration and Board of College Choice Foundation, a college access organization focused on helping first-generation, under-resourced high school students get into competitive colleges with as little debt as possible. She has four adult children, all educated at St. Andrew's-Sewanee School, and a first grandchild on the way.

The Rev. Robert C. (Rob) Lamborn

Board Member

  • Rob is the Rector of the Parish of St. Mark & St. Paul (formerly Otey Memorial) in Sewanee. He grew up in Georgia, and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in music before seminary. He first experienced St. Mary's Sewanee as a School of Theology student in the early 1990s, and has attended numerous events there since returning to Sewanee. In addition to the M.Div. from Sewanee, he holds the D.Min. from Virginia Theological Seminary. Rob served churches in Indiana and New York before coming to St. Mark & St. Paul in 2015. He plays trombone in the Sewanee Symphony Orchestra and teaches trombone as an adjunct faculty member at Sewanee. Rob also enjoys golf, walking, and home repair. He is married to the Rev. Dr. Amy Bentley Lamborn, and they have an adult daughter.

Dr. Deborah McGrath

Board Member

  • Deborah is a Professor of Biology and Associate Dean of the Environment at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. Her research includes payments for ecosystem services and carbon sequestration in agroforests and regenerative farms; constructed wetlands for water pollution mitigation; impact of land use on nutrient dynamics; and place-based and community-engaged learning. As a teacher, her aim has always been to engage students' hearts and minds through collaborative work with diverse communities to address local and global environmental challenges. As Associate Dean for the Environment, she advocates for 45 faculty with environmental expertise across the campus, fosters novel partnerships and programs, and promotes Sewanee's excellence in environmental study.

Dr. Robert W. Pearigen

Vice Chancellor, University of the South, Board Member

  • Rob is the 18th vice-chancellor and president of the University of the South. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University, earning a B.A. in political science from Sewanee before attending Duke University where he earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in political science. Pearigen returned to Sewanee in 1987 to serve as dean of men and as a member of the political science faculty. Over the next 23 years, he served as dean of students and vice president of university relations while continuing to teach courses in constitutional law and political theory. In 2010, he was elected president of Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, and served there for 13 years. He returned to Sewanee in 2023 as vice-chancellor and professor of political science.

Dr. Robbie Pinter

Board Member

  • Robbie just retired from a 38-year career of teaching English at Belmont University. At Belmont, she enjoyed teaching a wide variety of writing genres that connect a writer's deepest longing with the sacred call to be fully human. She has offered workshops and retreats about life writing and its connection to contemplation in both academic and non-academic settings. The latter part of her career includes a "career within a career": after being trained by Shalem, she began serving as a spiritual director. Her husband, Mike, and she have a 31-year-old son, Nicholas, who offers the world his special gifts as a pre-school teacher despite significant challenges as someone who lives with special needs.

Tracy Randolph

Board Member

  • Tracy is the director of marketing and communications for St. Andrew's-Sewanee School. An accomplished educator, she was a member of the SAS Humanities faculty for 25 years, serving as department co-chair for three years. Tracy previously worked as an Adjunct Instructor at The University of the South in Sewanee, teaching undergraduate Children's Literature for the Education minor program. Her professional background includes nearly a decade as a writer and editor at Dye, Van Mol & Lawrence Public Relations (now Finn Partners) in Nashville, where she developed content for various organizations ranging from local small businesses to multinational corporations. Tracy holds a Master of Education from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University and a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from Middle Tennessee State University. Her volunteer experience includes serving on the Communications Committee for the South Cumberland Community Fund and as a Certified Narrative 4 Story-Exchange Facilitator, demonstrating her commitment to fostering community engagement and social justice.

John Solomon

Board Member

  • John, originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a member of the Class of 1970 of the University of the South.  After obtaining an MBA from the Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management, he worked in the banking industry for over thirty years, mostly in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2008 he had the opportunity to return to Sewanee to teach Pastoral Spanish at the School of Theology, which he did for nine years. He has since retired but he maintains an active lifestyle and sits on several boards. He is very active in community engagement, and he enjoys traveling, change bell ringing, bicycling, and participating in sports. He is often seen with his wife, Kathy, walking their two dogs.

Bonnie Stringer

Board Treasurer

  • Bonnie is the Founder and President of Bonnie Stringer Consulting, Inc., an administrative consulting and bookkeeping firm for small businesses, which she opened in 1995. She specialized in companies with annual revenues under two million dollars as well as personal finances for private individuals. Bonnie's expertise includes basic bookkeeping, budget planning, payroll and payroll tax returns. She provides Human Resource guidance for staff along with consulting on current and pending changes in business practices. As part of her personal recovery, Bonnie has a passion to educate women in recovery with the skills necessary to earn a living wage. Her work includes developing individuals, along with creating new positions in small businesses that enable both to thrive. As she enters retirement, Bonnie continues to work with nonprofits and recovery homes where her skills can be of service. She serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors for Music City Recovery Resources Foundation, Inc., was an original committee member of the YANA Recovery and Halfway Houses, volunteers for the Tennessee Alliance of Recovery Residences, Inc., and serves as treasurer for the nonprofit Music City Round Up, Inc. Bonnie recently rotated off her position as Retreat Organizer for the Sewanee Serenity Retreat after ten years of service. This retreat is held twice a year at St. Mary's Sewanee. She has attended it for 33 years.

The Very Rev. Dr. James F. Turrell

Board Member

  • Jim was appointed vice provost and dean of the School of Theology on July 1, 2020. Turrell studied history as an undergraduate at Yale (B.A., 1991) before pursuing a divinity degree there (M.Div., 1996). He was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) in 1996. After parish work, he studied history at Vanderbilt University (Ph.D., 2002), focusing on religion in early modern Britain. Turrell joined the faculty of the School of Theology in 2002. He teaches courses on liturgy and on the history of early modern England. He has served on the Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music and on the House of Bishops Theology Committee.