The Island School Board of Directors

Francesca is a post-doctoral associate at the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami and has a Ph.D in Marine Biology and Fisheries and an MSc. in Marine Affairs and Policy. She attended The Island School in Fall 1999 and returned to work as a SCUBA instructor in Fall 2001. She served on the Cape Eleuthera Foundation Board from 2004 until she joined the CEIS board in 2012. Francesca lives in Miami with her husband Ian.

Chris founded The Island School in 1999 while serving as a residential house master and teacher in the Interdisciplinary department at Lawrenceville School. After graduating with a BA in history from Yale University, Chris served six years as an officer in the US Navy SEAL community. While at Lawrenceville he received a Joukowsky Fellowship and holds an M.A. degree in Marine Studies from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.

Dr. Téemar Carey is a board-certified diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry. Dr. Carey earned a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Louisiana State University in 2007, and then went on to serve as a high school teacher in her home country, The Bahamas, for four years before pursuing her career in dentistry. Some of her academic interests are interprofessional education and game-based learning in medical/dental education, while her clinical interests include contemporary operative caries management and expanding care to vulnerable child populations. Dr. Carey is a graduate of The Island School Semester in Spring 2002 and is currently a Pediatric Dentist in Nassau, The Bahamas. She has a diverse array of experiences that revolve around two themes, education and child welfare. She has served in both childhood and adult education, at the junior high school, senior high school, graduate, and post-doctoral medical and dental education levels, for over a decade. While her clinical specialty is pediatric dentistry, she advocates to ensure the well-being of the whole child.

Mr. Fields served as Senior Vice President of Retail Services and Public Affairs for Atlantis from 1998-2020 and continues to serve as General Manager of Ocean Club Residences and Marina. He is the Principal of EF consulting with clients such as Atlantis, Lyford Cay Club and Global Ports Holdings. A well-known radio host with a diverse background, he serves as Director of the Bahamas Airport Authority, Catholic Board of Education and Downtown Nassau Partnership. Mr. Fields is the Founder and Chairman of the non-partisan, non-profit organization ‘We the People’. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Government from St. John’s University in Minnesota and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Georgia.

Jerome Lightbourne is a Pediatric Cardiologist who returned home to The Bahamas in 1995 and serves as the country’s only Board Certified Pediatric Cardiologist with responsibility for public and private patients. He is a consultant physician of the Public Hospitals Authority and Doctors Hospital where he is department chair of pediatrics. He is trustee of the Sir Victor Sassoon (Bahamas) Heart Foundation and a past president of the Bahamas Heart Association. He sits on the board of the Nazareth Centre for Children. He is the founding and current chairman of the Bahamas Antidoping Commission. He is founder and managing director of the Children’s Heart Centre (1995) and Pediatrics Specialists of the Bahamas (2000), with a satellite office in Spanish Wells, Eleuthera. He is married to Natasha nee Chea and they have 3 daughters: Teisha, Alicia and Adrienne, all avid competitive swimmers who have represented The Bahamas at many international swimming competitions including the World Championships.

David and his wife Beverly have sent daughter Renee (S03) and son Travis (S05) to The Island School Semester program. Dave is a doctor of ophthalmology in private practice in Grand Rapids, MI. He is a member of several medical associations and serves in an advisory capacity to many community-based organizations including the East Grand Rapids Schools Foundation, Macatawa Park Cottagers Association, and the Grand Rapids Art Museum.

A native of Boston and Maine, Mark earned his Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Bates College and a graduate degree in education from Harvard University. He worked in both secondary and higher education as an educator, college counselor, and admission officer including roles at Bates, Harvard, Harvard-Westlake School, Marlborough School and Occidental College. In 2001, he assumed his current position as Vice President for Enrollment at Colorado College. Mark is a Foundation Trustee for the Cloud Forest School in Monteverde Costa Rica, serves on the Enrollment and Marketing Committee at the Colorado Springs School, and is on the Advisory Board of the Mastery Transcript Consortium. Mark is married to an independent school English teacher and has two daughters ages 19 and 17. His youngest daughter, Heather, attended The Island School (Summer Term 2019) and served as an Admission Ambassador.

Viana Gardiner is the Chief Operating Officer of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) in The Bahamas. During 2013 and 2018, Viana served in the private sector, including as Vice President (Legal & Business Affairs) of More Development, an international project development company, and Vice President (Government Affairs) & Assistant General Counsel of Baha Mar Ltd. Her early public service included being posted to The Bahamas’ High Commission to Canada, where her final diplomatic post was Second Secretary/Vice Counsel, with emphasis on trade, investment, and commercial matters. Viana is a Counsel & Attorney-at-Law, having received her Bachelor’s of Law Degree (LLB) from the University of the West Indies and Legal Education Certificate from the Eugene Dupuch Law School, and subsequently called to The Bahamas Bar in 2009. She also holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s Degree in History from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and a Master’s Degree in International Relations (with a concentration in comparative trade policy) from Carleton University, Canada.

Ian is the head of AOML’s Coral Program. His research focuses on understanding the responses of corals and reef biota to global change. He is particularly interested in the impacts of warming and ocean acidification on the persistence of coral reef framework structures that provide essential habitat and support numerous ecosystem services. Enochs applies a multidisciplinary approach, conducting research in both the laboratory and the field, as well as developing new technologies to address pressing research questions. He is a PI of the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program, and leads several projects pertaining to the Coral Reef Conservation Program’s restoration pillar and NOAA’s Omics initiative. Enochs graduated cum laude from the University of Miami in 2006 and later earned his Ph.D. at RSMAS in 2010 for his research on the environmental determinants of coral reef cryptic metazoan biodiversity in Pacific Panama. Enochs is a research ecologist with the Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami.

Dr. Brown is the founding chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. After graduating from medical school in 1986, he completed his EM residency training at Butterworth Hospital, subsequently joining the faculty. During this period, he developed a passion for summarizing evidence in a form that is useful to clinicians. This interest led to an M.Sc. in Epidemiology focusing on evidence synthesis (i.e., meta-analysis). Dr. Brown serves as the University Physician, on the Editorial Board for Cochrane, and the Editor for Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods. Dr. Brown’s two daughters, Nikki and Randi, attended The Island School in S’06 and S’09.