Board Biographies
The Rev. Earl D. Beshears, President, has been rector at Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Georgetown, DE since September 2002. Before being called to ordained ministry, he was in correctional management for twenty years in North Carolina and five years in Maryland. His last correctional position was Warden of Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover, MD. As Warden he was responsible for more than 3,000 inmates, 1,000 employees, and a budget in excess of 53 million dollars. The Rev. Beshears holds an MS in Sociology from N.C. State University and an M. Div. from Virginia Theological Seminary. The Rev. Beshears brings to the board organizational leadership experience, management skills, an enthusiasm for children and a strong sense of advocating for people who are not able to advocate for themselves.
Carole Palmer, Vice-President is a retired kindergarten teacher from the Cape Henlopen School District after 36 years of teaching. She has her bachelor and master degrees from the University of Delaware plus 95 credits and certification as a teacher in Early Childhood Special Education. Carole has served on many local and state committees to enhance teaching and teachers. She served as a Science test writer for the Delaware State Testing Program. Carole is a member of St Peter's Church Vestry (Lewes), The Diocesan Council of the Episcopal Church in Delaware (Bishop's Vestry), was a founding member of the Mission Outreach of St Peter's Church where needy children and their families from the Cape Henlopen School District are given assistance with situations to help them find better success in life. Carole also serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Summer Program of the Children's Beach House.
The Rev. Rita B. Nelson, Treasurer. Rita has been Rector of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Laurel, DE since 2005. Rita is also the Chair of the Diaconate Ministry in the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware and has been in this position for almost three years. Previously Rita was Rector of Church of the Ascension, Claymont and Curate at St. John’s Church in Clearwater, Florida. Rita has served on the Claymont Community Center Board, the Laurel Boys and Girls Club Board, the Siesta Key Condominium Association Board as President, and various condominium boards. Prior to being ordained a priest in 1999, Rita spent over 15 years in management consulting for the General Electric Company and her own firm, Nelson Peters, Inc. After retiring to Sarasota, Florida in 1991 with her husband, Ralph Peters, Rita was a licensed property manager where she and Ralph managed a large resort condominium complex on Siesta Key. Rita has her B.S. in Chemistry from Sacred Heart University, an M.B.A. from the University of Connecticut, and her Masters in Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary. In addition, she completed course work in the Management Science doctoral program at the University of New Haven.
Sister Rosa Alvarez came to Georgetown, Delaware in October 1994. She is a member of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity and a native of northern Spain. She fills out applications for birth certificates, schools, jobs and Medicaid for the women who cannot read or write their names. She takes women to clinics for their prenatal care, to the hospital for the birth of their children (over 1000 since 1994) and to clinics for the well baby check ups. In the Wilmington Sunday News Journal, June 20, 1999 there was an article about Sister Rosa which describes her as the mother to all the Guatemalan women and the grandmother to all our children. She also works with battered women. Since coming to Georgetown, she has been honored by the Dept. of Health & Social Services for serving as an interpreter, transporter and spiritual mentor to mothers and children and from the Prenatal Association of Delaware for her volunteer work with pregnant women.
André Beaumont, before his retirement was President of the Council on Career Development for Minorities of Dallas, Texas - a national, non-profit organization dedicated to the career advancement of minority college students and graduates. He was affiliated with this organization for 22 years from its inception as a Ford Foundation project. In addition, he worked for eight years as Director of Career Services at New York University. He also has over six years of corporate business experience with Rockefeller Center, Inc. (now Rockefeller Group) in human resources management. Finally, he has been an adjunct professor on several college faculties teaching Economics and Political Science. Throughout his career, he has been involved with many community, civic and professional organizations as an officer, board member and consultant. He has an AB degree (Economics) from Harvard College and an MBA degree (Human Resource Management & Labor Relations) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has completed all requirements, save dissertation, for a Ph.D degree (Economic Theory, Political Economy) from New York University.
Anne Camasso moved to Sussex County in September 2006 to join the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension Service as the Family and Consumer Science Educator. She has been an employee of the University of Delaware since 1989 when she was hired as Coordinator of the Adult Day Care Center and to teach courses in gerontology in the Individual and Family Studies Department; a position she held for 11 years. In 2003 she became Coordinator of the Nonprofit Community Resource Center for the University and held that position until 2006. She has many years experience in nonprofit and for profit home health care settings and has served on numerous boards in both Delaware and Maryland. Early in her professional career she was an elementary school teacher in Pennsylvania working with children with learning disabilities. Anne earned her B.S. from College Misericordia and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University. All of her degrees are in Family and Consumer Science Education.
Penny L. Deiner is the recently retired chair of the Department of Individual and Family Studies at the University of Delaware. She received her Ph.D. from Penn State and teaches in the areas of family and child risk and disability. She has is the author of Resources for Educating Children with Diverse Abilities: Birth to Eight. The fourth edition of this book was published in 2005. She is completing the second edition of the text Infants and Toddlers: Development and Programming. Her research interests focus on the prevention of early childhood obesity, bullying, and inclusive early childhood education.
Pilar (Fernandez) Perez was born and raised in a small fishing village in Northwest Spain. She came to the United States in 1978 and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where she lived and raised two children. In 2002 she moved to Delaware. In 2003, a son was born in Seaford, DE. She has been involved in community work. In Baltimore she had success teaching preschool children Spanish/English in an after school program. She received numerous state and local government recognitions for her work as a volunteer in many community outreach program. Her most recent achievement is an Honorary Certification for Volunteer work from the University of Maryland, the Department of Labor, Delaware State Police Rural Community Policing Unit. As a board member of Georgetown’s Primeros Pasos Early care and Education Center, she will continue to offer her skills as a volunteer in the community programs in Georgetown, Delaware.
Bobbie Quillen is a retired teacher with 34 years of experience. The last 29 years of her teaching career were spent as a Kindergarten teacher in the Indian River School District. With an interest in how young children develop math skills she served as a math lead teacher and also as a consultant for Kendall Hunt Publishing Company as a math consultant to districts adopting the Math Trailblazers curriculum. She graduated in 1964 with a BS in Elementary Education from Kutztown University in Kutztown PA. After experiencing the many emotional needs of young children she decided that it would be beneficial for her students to concentrate her graduate work in counseling and obtained a Master's degree in Elementary Counseling from Wilmington College in 1994. She is a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Georgetown where she has served in various capacities. She served several terms on the vestry as a vestry person and Senior Warden. She presently serves as a lay reader and a member of the altar guild. She has also served on various diocesan committees including Diocesan Council and a facilitator for parishes in transition.
Angie Rummel is a native of Washington, D.C. where she raised her five children. She moved to Seaford, DE in 1974. She has served on many Episcopalian committees including Lay Reader, Alter Guild, Eucharistic, Trustee, Vestry and Junior Warden. She is currently a member of the Diocesan Council Mission Committee and the Commission on Ministry. This committee interviews, evaluates and recommends candidates for the priesthood and the deaconate. At St. Peters, she is on the Outreach Committee and the Global Mission Committee and serves as chaplain to the Bishop. In 1990, she was asked to go to South Africa as a representative of the Diocesan Companion Exchange Committee where she spent six months. She has worked as secretary for the Sussex County HIV Clinic and as a member of the Sussex County Aids Committee. She was also Sussex County Coordinator for Project Care which was a federally funded program under the direction of the Division of Aging. She has served on the Seaford Cay Care Board and Adult + program at Delaware Technical College. As a mother and grandmother, she knows the importance of education, especially in our changing culture.
Anna M. Scovell has been working with young children and their families for twenty-five years. In the public schools of Delaware, she has taught preschoolers and kindergarteners with developmental delays and fourth, fifth and six graders with special needs. She has also worked with parents and their children under the age of three in a home visiting program funded by the Delaware Department of Education. In private child care, she was program director of a new facility which served more than 100 children. She has taught child development and education classes at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Wor-Wic Community College, Salisbury University, and Delaware Technical and Community College. She is currently coordinating the Sussex Parents As Teachers program and the Delaware Early Childhood Center's early intervention program for Sussex and Kent counties. She is also a validator for the Maryland State Department of Education early childhood accreditation program.
Linda Williams, is a Certified Christian Educator and is presently serving as Christian Educator at Buckingham Presbyterian Church in Berlin, MD. She has experience teaching in the Early Childhood Education Department at Delaware Technical and Community College. She has also worked at Department of Rehabilitation Services in Illinois which administered Federal Grant money, managed an office for a non-profit agency and has some experience in writing grants. Linda has served on the board of three child development centers and those centers received the National Association for Education of Young Children Accreditation. Linda has been a mission Trip Leader to Yucatan of Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. She has volunteered at the Delaware learning Center as an ESL teacher and with Read Aloud Delaware. Her religious affiliations include member of Coolspring Presbyterian Church, volunteer at Georgetown Presbyterian Church, Member of Peacemaking Committee of New Castle Presbytery and member of Guatemala Partnership Committee of new Castle Presbytery and Association of Presbyterian Church Educators.