Mary Danahey and Sharon Schrage are uniquely qualified to launch and execute this long-term educational initiative. Both have extensive volunteer experience and a commitment to Incline Village. While raising their respective families locally, they have each built a strong network of community and school relationships that foster educational support and collaboration in Incline Village.
Mary and Sharon are both former Incline High School (IHS) Booster Board members and were instrumental in launching the Incline High School Technology Initiative in 2014-16. At the time, the school had 19 outdated and/or broken computers for more than 300 students.
They spearheaded a platform for a multi-year raise that continues today and which has raised more than $500,000 thus far. The initiative brought the 1:1 computer program to IHS – the first of its kind in Washoe County School District – and led to the success of many other IHS Booster programs, including:
An Incline Village resident for more than 15 years, before starting IEF, Mary held multiple volunteer positions at both Lake Tahoe School and Incline High School and has been a force in the community as a volunteer for numerous local nonprofits. (In 2020, Mary also founded InclineServes.org, a grassroots response to the COVID-19 crisis. The undertaking provided thousands of meals for those in need while helping local restaurants stay afloat.)
Mary holds an MBA from San Francisco State University, and dual B.S. degrees in Political Science and Psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Her twin children, (now adults) grew up locally and attended Incline schools from K-12. She lives in Incline Village full-time with her husband, Barry and their beloved dog, Duncan.
Sharon currently serves as Administrative Director at Gateway Mountain Center, a Truckee area nonprofit.
Sharon came to Incline Village 10 years ago, after having served on executive educational boards in both California and Illinois. Those include the Hubbard Woods PTA, Skokie/Washburne PTO and Winnetka District 35 Referendum Committee.
Two of her four adult children also attended Incline Village schools. Sharon lives in Incline full-time with her husband, Kevin and their two dogs Charlie and Rae and as well as the newly adopted cat, Leonard.
Sharon holds a B.S. Management with a Marketing Minor, and B.A. English with a History Minor from the University of Denver.
“Mary and Sharon have been a force in our community for many years. Their tireless efforts helped transform the high school into a leader in advanced technology education and 21st century learning.”
Leslie Hermann
President, Incline Rotary & Former Principal Incline High School
Ruth Huyler Glass brings to the Incline Education Foundation Board of Directors her experience honed during career in education that spans five decades.
Ruth was the head of school for Lake Tahoe School from 2011 – 2018. Prior to that, her journey had Ruth teaching, administrating and heading schools across the nation. Those including places in Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Ohio and Virginia. Ruth co-founded and co-directed the New Teacher Institute at the Virginia Association of Independent Schools, where she worked from 1986 – 2000.
Ruth also currently serves on the Board of Governors and on the human relations and personal development committees at San Francisco-based education consulting nonprofit WestEd. Over the years, Ruth has volunteered her time in similar roles for the Northwest Association of Independent Schools and at kindred independent school organizations in California, Virginia and the Washington, D.C. area.
Ruth speaks and presents at workshops for independent schools on a variety of topics including working with difficult parents, creative scheduling, setting standards and tone and becoming an educator.
She holds a M.Ed. from Ashland University in Ohio and a B.A. in Elementary Education from the University of Arizona. Ruth also writes a blog, Glass Full, where she opines on education and other topics.
Nancy Mayrose and her family migrated from part time to full time residents in Incline Village from the Bay Area over eight years ago so her two sons could attend Incline High School. The smaller class size and the outstanding reputation of the high school is what attracted her family to join this community.
Professionally, Nancy has spent her entire career at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in several offices including Tucson, Orange County, San Francisco and now as a full time telecommuter in Incline Village. Throughout her career Nancy has held many roles including Tax CPA and Tax Partner Affairs Leader. She is currently Managing Director of Partner Succession and Talent Management. In these roles Nancy has worked with the leadership teams to develop and implement various strategic initiatives and has focused on the admission, evaluation, compensation and the development of PwC’s partners as leaders. She also focuses on succession planning for PwC’s clients and firm leaders.
Nancy has served on several non-profit boards including Incline High School Boosters, Hillsborough Schools Foundation and Make-A-Wish – Orange County. She has taught financial literacy at Incline High School and has served as a volunteer for the Voluntary Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA) in Incline for the past seven years.
She is a CPA (currently inactive) and has a B.S. in Accounting from DePaul University in Chicago and a M.S. in Taxation from the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Sean O’Connell brings to Incline Education Fund more than 20 years experience as a strategic legal executive for leading global tech firms.
Sean worked extensively to establish relationships with enterprise customers in the era of modern cloud computing and his proven track record of advising and representing global technology companies brings a wealth of experience to the IEF board.
He currently works as senior legal executive for Ridgeline, a Tahoe-based startup that focuses on software and applications for the investment management industry. Sean’s prior work experience includes executive legal roles at cloud applications giant Workday and at business software pioneer PeopleSoft.
During the course of his career, Sean developed a keen understanding of matters surrounding online strategies, security, privacy and ethics – matters he sees being just as important to education as they are to the business world.
Sean received his Law Degree from the University of California, Hastings School of Law. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Davis.
A highly respected school finance analyst, Michaela Tonking rejoined Denver-based public education consulting firm Augenblick, Palaich & Associates in March 2020. She also worked at APA from 2016-2018.
At APA, Michaela primarily focuses on reviewing/creating school finance formulas and analyzing educational resources, including supporting resource adequacy studies conducted for 10 different states.
Michaela’s past work includes posts as a research assistant for Rhode Island’s School Funding Formula Working Group, as a school finance expert for Nevada Educate Now and as an auditor for Big Four accounting firm Deloitte.
At Educate Nevada Now she advocated to change Nevada’s labyrinth, antiquated school funding formula and advises school districts and state legislators on the impact of school funding across the state.
Michaela holds a M.S. in urban education policy from Brown University and both M.S. and B.S. degrees in accounting from the University of Colorado, Boulder.