Melanie Harris

Chair

Melanie Harris is a graduate of Professional Children’s School.  She trained at the School of American Ballet and studied ballet while attending PCS.  Melanie received her Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Organizational Communications from Emerson College.  She has spent over 15 years as a private equity professional focused on Investor Relations. She is currently the Head of Marketing & Investor Relations at Centerview Capital, a private investment firm focused on the consumer and technology sectors. Melanie has served on the Board of Trustees since 2015 and was elected Board Chair in 2019.

Donald B. Brant

Don joined the Board in 2005. He is chair of the Audit Committee and co-chair of the Governance Committee and a member of the Finance Committee. Don’s son William, a visual artist and musician, graduated from PCS in 2006 and from Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 2010. Until he retired in 2003, Don had been a partner in the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy for 25 years, specializing in corporate and securities law. He recently retired as Chairman of National Conveyors Company, Inc., a privately-held engineering and manufacturing firm. He has served on the Advisory Committee to the Trustees of the Convent of the Sacred Heart School in New York (3 years), co-chaired with his wife, Susan, the Kent School Parents Fund (2 years) and was a member of the Connecticut College Parents Committee (4 years). He is active in Princeton alumni affairs, having served a five year term as Class Agent for his Class of 1964 and is now serving a second five year term as Class Secretary. He holds a B.A. from Princeton University, an LL.B. from Yale Law School and an LL.M. from NYU Law School. He and Susan live in Manhattan. In addition to Will, they have a daughter, Katherine, who graduated from Connecticut College in 2007 and is currently a teacher in San Francisco. (August, 2020)

Dr. James Dawson

Head of School
James has served as Head of School at Professional Children’s School since July 1995. He received his Ph.D. in Behavior and his B.S. in Biology from the State University of New York at Albany where he also served on the faculty. James was elected to the Board of Trustees of the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) in November 2013 and currently serves as President; he served one year as Vice-President from 2015-2016 and he continues to serve on the Membership Committee; in 2014, he was also elected and continues to serve on the NYSAIS Health Insurance Program Advisory Council, the governing body of the NYSAIS Health Consortium. He was a trustee of The Caedmon School from 2012-2015, at The Brearley School from 2009-2011, where he served on the Development and Affordability Committees, and at The Spence School from 2000-2008, where he served on the Personnel and Long Range Planning Committee, the Diversity and Student Life Committee, and was Chairman of the Head Search Advisory Committee during Spence’s two-year national search in 2005-2006. He served two years (2006-2008) as Secretary of the Board of Directors of the HMAE, the oldest National Association of Independent School’s organization for heads of school, with over 100 active members who are heads of girls and coed schools along the Atlantic coast, along with over 50 affiliate and associate members from throughout the nation. He was co-Chair of the HMAE national conference in Princeton in November 2010. James served as a member of the Educational Advisory Committee for the American Boys Choir School in Princeton, New Jersey from 2009-2010. He is a past director and President of the Board of Directors of the New York City Guild of Independent Schools. He was as a member of the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) Professional Development Committee and served on the faculty of the Beginning Teachers’ Institute. He was selected as a member at large of the Heads Network (formerly the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls (NAPSG)) Council from 1998 to 2000. James was a member of the Advisory Board of The Mountain School in Vershire, Vermont; he served on the Middle States Association of Independent Schools, Commission on Secondary Schools; and he served as Chair of a five-year NYSAIS evaluation team in 2008 and as Chair of a decennial NYSAIS evaluation in October 2015, both teams assigned to independent day schools in New York City. Prior to his appointment as Head of School at PCS, he served as Head of Upper School at Spence from 1988-1995. A long-time advocate for people with HIV and AIDS, he was the Director of Development for the Hands of Hospice 1990 Designer Showhouse in Sharon, Connecticut and frequently spoke about HIV and AIDS to high school students at other independent schools from 1998-1999.

Bob Musiker

Trustee
Bob Musiker has worked in US and international education management for over 40 years. He is a founder and owner of Summer Discovery and Summer Institute for the Gifted (SIG), a pre-college enrichment organization that partners with several prestigious universities to operate their high school and middle school summer programs.

Summer Discovery manages the official high school summer programs for The UCLA Anderson School of Management, University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School, Penn Law, UC Santa Barbara, University of Texas, University of Colorado, Yale NUS Singapore, and others.

Bob received his BA in Political Science and Education from Colgate University. He has served on the Board of Directors of the REACH Charter School, Roads to Success after-school programs, Oasis Children’s Programs and the Joyce Theater Foundation. He is a native New Yorker and resides in Manhattan.

Bob was elected to the Board of Trustees in January 2021.

Sonya Schroeder

Sonya was elected to the Board in December 2021. She is the Co-Founder and Head of Corporate Services for iiWisdom, a company building connectivity between public companies and their institutional investors. Sonya graduated from Duke University and attended Harvard Business School. She has served as Director, Strategic Planning with The Geppetto Group, Vice President, Marketing for Youth Intelligence and Director, Consumer Marketing with Time Inc. Sonya is a past trustee of the Head-Royce School in Oakland, CA. She and her husband Darren have two sons and one daughter, Natalie, who is a 9th grader at PCS.

John Tucker

Assistant to the Board of Trustees
John has served as assistant to the Board for over 20 years. He joined PCS in 1989, first serving as assistant to both the Head of School and the Director of Development. He was appointed Director of Public Relations in 2012.