Christ School's prosperity now and moving forward can be largely attributed to the work of Assistant Head for External Affairs Betsy Ellis P'24, who has taken fundraising to unprecedented levels since her hiring in 2018.
Each fiscal year reaches new heights, an upward trend that continued with 2023-24. Donors generously pledged more than $1.6 million on "Give Now & Go Green," the school's annual day of giving.
Last year's extensive renovation to Patrick Beaver Student Center was largely made possible by the 2022 "Work Hard, Play Hard" auction.
Mrs. Ellis assists Head of School Dr. Sean Jenkins with strategic initiatives, ever mindful of affording every boy the same opportunities she would want for her son, Ben '24, who was a 2023-24 Job Prefect.
Mrs. Ellis previously worked in Christ School's Advancement Office from 2002 to 2004, assisting with fundraising for the renovation to St. Joseph’s Chapel. In 2004, Mrs. Ellis became Director of Advancement at Asheville's Evergreen Charter School. After the birth of her son, Mrs. Ellis joined Asheville's Pisgah Legal Services, where she worked for 11 years. Her job grew to Director of Philanthropy, managing a talented team, 1,600 donors, and increasing the non-profit's annual campaign from $200,000 to more than $1.4 million a year.
Mrs. Ellis was ready for a new challenge and the opportunity to return to Christ School came at the right time.
Mrs. Ellis, her husband James (an attorney in Black Mountain, N.C.), and their three sons live in Van Every House. When she is not working, Ellis loves to travel, cook, and entertain. She also enjoys spending time at the family's place on Lake Champlain in Vermont.
Cissy Elmer and her family have been ingrained in the Christ School community for some time.
The 2023-24 academic year will be her 18th and notable as the first for the bookstore in the newly-renovated Patrick Beaver Student Center.
Mrs. Elmer handles all purchasing for the store as Bookstore Manager. Mrs. Elmer’s husband, Danny, is Director of Human Resources and Facilities. Their two sons, Ben ’09 and Sam ’13, attended Christ School from the eighth through 12th grade.
Mrs. Elmer received her A.A. degree in Arts from St. Mary’s College in 1980.
In her spare time, Mrs. Elmer enjoys beekeeping, hiking, spending time with her family, and checking out Asheville’s ever-growing culinary scene.
As the Director of Human Resources and Facilities, Danny Elmer manages the employee personnel files, the company health and benefits packages, as well as the progress of all new construction.
Look around campus and you can tell he has been busy lately with the renovation of Beaver Student Center (completed, 2023), Stolz Dining Hall (completed, 2016), the renovation of ’30 House into a new Wellness Center and offices for Advancement (completed, 2017), the Close-Krieger Athletic Center (completed, 2018), Father Kirk Brown Outdoor Chapel (completed, 2018), and new on-campus housing for faculty and staff. With the help of his maintenance and grounds crews, Mr. Elmer keeps every Christ School building – academic, residential, athletics – in working order and ensures the grounds are well-manicured.
Being in the wilderness is Mr. Elmer’s great passion, and when he finds the time, he shares that passion with Christ School students, either taking a group fishing or to the skeet-shooting range. These trips keep Mr. Elmer connected to the community, and the love the boys have for him was acknowledged in 2016, when they dedicated the Angelus, Christ School’s yearbook, to him. You can see his effect on his sons, too. Sam ’13, a fanatical fly-fisherman himself, works for Vanguard Financial. Ben ’09 is a professional fly-fishing guide in Cashiers, N.C.
Mr. Elmer graduated from N.C. State in 1985 with a double major in Business Management and Economics. After managing the financial operations for businesses in Asheville and Raleigh, Mr. Elmer worked as the Director of Finance for an all-boys summer camp in Flat Rock, N.C. He joined Christ School in 2007, and what’s kept him here is “Hands down, the people – great faculty and staff, great kids!”
Cissy Elmer, his wife of more than 30 years, manages the Student Center and Bookstore.
Allegiances can change over time, even in the Christ School-Asheville School rivalry.
Assistant Athletic Director for Logistics Doug Embler P'19 grew up in west Asheville as the son of legendary Blues coach and teacher William "Doc" Embler. But he is about to begin his 17th year as a Greenie.
Mr. Embler is instrumental to the daily operation of the Athletic Department, coordinating all aspects of the gameday experience, especially when the Greenies are home.
Mr. Embler and his wife, Tina, live in Asheville. Their son is Hunter '19.
Jay Farrell’s family tree is full of independent school educators.
The new English instructor’s parents as well as a grandfather have preceded him, and Mr. Farrell looks forward to the relational side of learning with his students at Christ School.
Along with growing up on a school campus, Mr. Farrell experienced firsthand what it was like to be a boarding student when he did a postgraduate year at Pomfret School in Connecticut. He graduated from Ursinus College in 2017 with a B.A. in Media and Communication and began his teaching career last year at nearby Brevard Middle School.
Mr. Farrell has already gotten to know the baseball players by assisting the program's fall team. He played collegiately at Ursinus.
Outside of baseball and teaching, Mr. Farrell’s interests are literature, soccer, writing, fitness, film, and fly-fishing.
Dr. Lisa Garner P’24 hopes that every Christ School boy will grow and develop into the best version of themselves as Director of Student Counseling and Wellness Programming.
She is a native of western North Carolina and was happy to return home and join the Christ School community starting with the 2021-22 academic year. Prior to this, Dr. Garner spent more than 20 years living and working in Chicago with a professional practice that focused exclusively on work with children, teens and families in residential, community mental health, and school settings.
Outside of school, she enjoys travel with her family to locations near and far, exploring local trails, gardening, and reading historical fiction.
Dr. Garner and her husband, Lee, are proud parents to Lawson, Lily, and Luke '24.
Many of the fondest Christ School memories emanate from the weekends and evenings.
Jim Goodrum P'29 seeks out the best arts, entertainment, and dining for the boys in his position as Director of Student Engagement and Summer Programs. Asheville attracts 12.5 million tourists annually, so options are abundant, but Greenies have also taken trips to Charlotte, Greenville, S.C., and Knoxville, Tenn.
Mr. Goodrum is also head coach of the middle school basketball team.
Even though he is a Georgia native, Mr. Goodrum spent much of his childhood going to the Falling Creek Summer Camp for boys in Tuxedo, N.C. He later worked at the camp as an activity leader, program director, and staffing director. Mr. Goodrum and his wife, Kristi, are parents to Thompson '29.
Mr. Goodrum attended Mercer University, earning a B.A. in History. He returned to his college alma mater in 2002, serving as Assistant Director of Admissions and Recreational Sports and Wellness. Most recently, Mr. Goodrum was in charge of student enrichment and summer programming at Carolina Day School.
Mr. Goodrum and his wife, Kristi, have a son, Thompson, and a daughter, Alice.
Empowering his students inside and outside the classroom motivates Will Gordon on a daily basis as a Learning Resource and English teacher.
Mr. Gordon graduated from Clemson University in May 2020 with a B.A. in English and minors in Film and Sports Communication.
Mr. Gordon has also been a dorm parent and coach for JV soccer and golf. His favorite pastimes include spending time with loved ones, watching movies, and golfing.
Joseph Graziosi P’25 knows that Math can be infinitely frustrating to the average student. He never wants to see a Christ School boy give into their struggles, which is why his method of expediting confidence has worked so often over the course of a three-decade career in boarding schools.
Mr. Graziosi and his wife, Learning Resources instructor Stacy Graziosi P'25, live in South Carolina House. Their son is Elijah '25.
His previous position was Director of STEM/Math and Science Department Chair at West Nottingham Academy in Maryland. There, he taught Algebra, Geometry, Pre-Calculus, Finite Mathematics, and Quantitative Reasoning with Statistics. Mr. Graziosi said his approach to teaching involves uplifting students as they progress to more advanced levels. His personal mantra comes from the ancient Roman poet Virgil: “They are able who think they are able.”
Outside the classroom, Mr. Graziosi has been an assistant coach for Greenie lacrosse and soccer.
He holds a B.A. in Communications from Mount Union College and a master’s in Teaching and Learning from New York’s Oneida University.
For hobbies, Mr. Graziosi is an ardent musician and enjoys spending time with his family.
Attentively meeting the needs of her students comes first and foremost to Stacy Graziosi P'25, a longtime educator at boarding schools.
She and her husband, Math instructor Joseph Graziosi P'25, are parents to Elijah '25.
Before coming to Christ School, Mrs. Graziosi was at West Nottingham Academy in Colora, Md., as Director of the Chesapeake Learning Center and Coordinator of STEM Peer Tutoring. Mrs. Graziosi is entering her 16th year of teaching, including Math, English as a Second Language (ESL), Literature and Composition, and Health.
Ms. Graziosi has also previously been an assistant athletic director, campus blood-drive coordinator, and a dorm parent. Prior to teaching, her experience was that of a health educator, administrator, program director and counselor providing education and support services to those in need.
Mrs. Graziosi earned her B.A. in Social Services from the New York’s State University and her master’s in Health Care Administration from Boston’s Simmons College.
Mrs. Graziosi has a passion for theater, music, singing, and sports. She spent many years performing community theater and was a member of the Treasure Coast and New Lyric Theater opera societies in Florida.
Carrying on Christ School lacrosse’s winning tradition spoke to Patrick Haley, as did the Greenie value system, which mirrors his own.
Along with head coach and Program Director, Mr. Haley has been Assistant Athletic Director for Student Life since 2022.
Mr. Haley came to Christ School from St. John’s College High School near Washington, D.C., where he was an assistant coach and offensive coordinator for the country’s No. 1 ranked high school team, according to Inside Lacrosse and USA Lacrosse. Prior to his eight years at St. John’s, Mr. Haley was offensive coordinator and the first coach and employee of IMG Academy’s program in Bradenton, Fla. He was responsible for launching IMG Academy’s residential lacrosse student program. Mr. Haley has a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Maryland University College.
Mr. Haley brought 14 years of coaching experience to Christ School and comes from an extensive lacrosse family. Mr. Haley has mentored dozens of NCAA lacrosse players, including two of his younger brothers (Georgetown University and University of Maryland) and four of his cousins (University of Denver, Georgetown University, University of Maryland, Ohio State University, and United States Naval Academy).
Mr. Haley played collegiate lacrosse at Towson University. Through his education and work experience, he has built a network that will support and build Christ School lacrosse.
Mr. Haley and his wife, Kellie, live on campus with their sons, Pax and Rowe.
Science Department Chair Dr. Brent Harris quickly made an impact at Christ School.
He was voted 2018-19 Teacher of the Year following just his second year with the faculty and promoted to head swimming coach in 2020.
During his doctoral work in Astrochemistry at the University of Virginia, where he received his Ph. D in 2014, Dr. Harris was a National Science Foundation Fellow. For four years after that, Dr. Harris employed his research as a principal investigator, commercializing and inventing new instrumentation for chemical sensing. As a result of his entrepreneurial and technical experience, Dr. Harris served as an expert reviewer for the National Science Foundation engineering directorate.
Dr. Harris teaches AP and Honors Chemistry at Christ School. He and his wife, Robin Pulliam-Harris have three children – Charlie, Kathleen, and Simon. In his spare time, Dr. Harris enjoys choir-singing as well as hiking and running trails in the Asheville area.
Lisbeth Harrison provides invaluable support to College Guidance as Office Manager, working closely with Director Kirk Blackard and Associate Director Tracy Weldon.
Ms. Harrison came to Christ School in 2019 after 23 years at Carolina Day School where she was a teachers assistant and also worked in the Advancement and Admission offices.
Outside of work, Ms. Harrison likes to travel, work in her garden, hike, read, and spend time with her family. She is involved in the French Broad River Garden Club and serves on the hospitality team at St. Eugene's Catholic Church. Ms. Harrison has lived in Asheville since 1975 and has three sons.
Spontaneous standing ovations in the relative calm of St. Joseph’s Chapel only happen for a very good reason.
Peter Hartwig was moved to tears during an April chapel service in which the boys loudly showed their approval for his hiring as the next Chaplain.
Mr. Hartwig has been at Christ School for three years now and most recently served as Director of Spiritual Life, a role in which he oversaw the chapel program and anchored the school pillar of Spirituality. He has also taught Public Speaking and three other religion courses.
Mr. Hartwig was an Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia, receiving his B.A. in Religious Studies & Classics in 2016. He then went on to receive master’s degrees from the University of Cambridge (Master of Philosophy) and Princeton Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity).
Mr. Hartwig's employment before Christ School included posts at Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash., and the Westminster Theological Centre in the United Kingdom. He was also a Communications Associate for Global Endowment Management, LP out of Charlotte.
Mr. Hartwig lives on campus.
Point guards are the glue that holds any good basketball team together.
Associate Director of Admissions Erasto Hatchett has always led from the front and has strengthened the Admissions Department with his depth of educational knowledge and experience.
Mr. Hatchett grew up playing basketball in one of the hotbeds for the sport (Lexington, Ky.) and was a point guard at the college level for Johnson C. Smith University. He knew then how to motivate and make teammates better, lessons which he carried into roles in administration, admissions, teaching, coaching, and as a case manager at schools in Charlotte and Raleigh the past 22 years.
Prior to coming here, Mr. Hatchett was Athletic Director, head basketball coach, and a physical education teacher at Charlotte’s Northside Christian Academy from 2016 to 2022, and prior to that was Assistant Director of Admissions at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh from 2010 to 2016.
In addition to his role in Admissions, Mr. Hatchett has been an assistant coach for Greenie basketball.
He has been married for 21 years to his wife, Tiffany, and they have two daughters, Aaliyah and Madison. Mr. Hatchett’s hobbies include basketball, naturally, as well as pickleball, table tennis and barbering.
Katharine Hoffman has been an honorary Greenie for as long as she can remember.
“It is because of Christ School that I grew up having the neatness of my bed-making skills tested with the bounce of a quarter,” said Mrs. Hoffman, who joined the English Department starting with the 2023-24 school year.
Her father, Edward “Bru” Izard ’69, was the fourth boy in his family to attend Christ School and passed on much of its values.
Katharine has been involved in education since 2011, most recently as an Environmental Educator and Administrator at the Green River Preserve in Cedar Mountain, N.C., and a substitute/after-school teacher in Asheville.
She is expected to complete her master’s in English Literature from the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English in 2026 and graduated from Sewanee: The University of the South in 2011 with a B.A. in Theatre Arts and English with a minor in Shakespeare.
Mrs. Hoffman has backpacked solo in more than 15 countries and has been an outdoor educator for more than a decade. She gravitates to the inherent sense of community found in boarding schools and summer camps.
Mrs. Hoffman is married to Richard, a fellow teacher. The couple enjoy hiking and getting outside. Mrs. Hoffman encourages students to seek her out for creative explorations or creative solutions and likes crafts, traveling, jokes, and putting to use interesting facts with crossword puzzles.
Boys need to be thinking one or even two steps ahead in an ever-changing world of technology.
Matt Houston has given Christ School's students that advantage with his Engineering and Mathematics curriculum following a decade in higher education. Along with teaching, Mr. Houston is one of the faculty advisors for the school robotics team, which began attending competitions in the spring semester of 2023.
Mr. Houston has been at Christ School since 2020 and was previously an Associate Professor at Middle Georgia State University for 10 years.
He earned his B.S. and master's degrees from Tennessee Tech University before going on to receive a Ph.D. in Math from the University of Georgia in 2018.
Mr. Houston's hobbies include reading, coding, tinkering with electronics, and traveling. He lives on campus.
Dean of Students Drew Hyche '94 has been a beloved mainstay of the administration for 25 years.
He was a natural choice as the 2023 winner of the Water Carrier Award, which annually goes to a faculty or staff member who largely works behind the scenes and embodies the ideals of compassion, humor, a sense of history, humility, loyalty, the ability to teach, and an unshakeable commitment to the Christ School community.
"You won't find many people working here with more personal knowledge of Christ School," said Head of School Dr. Sean Jenkins.
After graduating from Clemson University in 1998, Mr. Hyche came back to his alma mater to work as an intern in Residential Life and to coach basketball and tennis. Since then, he has worked in Student Activities, Admissions, and Student Life.
Mr. Hyche also serves as one of the Administrators on Duty and as one of the advisors to Form VI (12th grade). He lives on campus with his two children, Harper and Burns.
Dr. Sean Jenkins became the 14th Head of School at Christ School in July 2021.
Originally from Knoxville, Tenn., Dr. Jenkins received his B.A. in English from Wake Forest University and his M.Ed. from North Carolina State University. He completed his Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Virginia, where he served on the honor council and was inducted into the Raven Society.
Dr. Jenkins is a graduate of the McCallie School and former member of its Board of Trustees. His other civic associations have included serving as senior warden at Christ Episcopal Church, serving on the Board of Trustees for the Virginia Episcopal School (VES), and the Charlottesville Free Clinic.
Dr. Jenkins joined the Christ School community from the University of Virginia after serving stints at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Jenkins served UVA Presidents John T. Casteen, III, Teresa A. Sullivan, and James E. Ryan as a senior assistant where his responsibilities included admissions, accreditation, development, board-governance, education policy, global programming, strategic and academic planning, and operations.
At UVA, Dr. Jenkins taught and advised undergraduate and graduate students. He was recognized for outstanding leadership and teaching by The Society of the Purple Shadows in 2015. His broad range of experience and expertise benefit our community in his role as Head of School.
Dr. Jenkins' family - wife, Lawson, a Spartanburg, S.C. native, and a fellow Wake Forest and UVA graduate, and sons Coleman and Jack - are also members of the community.
Greenie football players obviously have an incredible resource in George Johnson, who played defensive end in the NFL for nine years.
There is more to Mr. Johnson’s life than just football though, and his background in philanthropy and working with youth has aided him greatly as Assistant Dean of Campus Life.
Coming to Christ School reunited Mr. Johnson with Varsity Football head coach Chad Walker – the two men were previously on the same coaching staff at Cambridge Christian School in Tampa, Fla. Mr. Johnson played professionally for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions, and New Orleans Saints from 2010 to 2018.
Mr. Johnson is completing his B.A. in Labor Studies and Labor Management from Rutgers University where he was a four-year starter at defensive end.
Mr. Johnson has six years of volunteer experience for the Boys and Girls Club of America and has also been involved in benefits for youth and families in need through a church food pantry. Mr. Johnson lives on campus with his wife, Rebecca, and their children, Olivia, George, Mae, and Bo.
