Ravenscroft has announced a leadership transition and several new members joining the Board of Trustees, which provides high-level governance and visioning around long-term strategic priorities.

As board chair Amy Batten concludes her eight-year term as trustee and three-year tenure as board chair, she shared in a letter to the school community that trustee Laura Helton Kalorin ’92 will assume the role of chair on July 1. 

Helton Kalorin brings extensive board experience to her role. She has most recently served Ravenscroft as secretary of the board and as chair of the Educational Stewardship Committee. In addition, along with Batten, she is co-chair of the Head of School Search Committee. She also serves as Executive Director of the Helton Family Foundation and is on the Board of Directors for WakeMed Health & Hospitals. She has previously served on the Board of Directors for the WakeMed Foundation. 

A member of the Ravenscroft Class of 1992, Helton Kalorin graduated from Emory University with a B.S. in biological anthropology in 1996 and continued to Emory University School of Medicine, graduating with an M.D. in 2000. In 2006, she completed the New York State Preventive Medicine Residency and a Master of Public Health at the University at Albany. She received an MBA from North Carolina State in 2016. She has served as Medical Director for Alliance Medical Ministry and for The New York State Department of Health Newborn Screening Program as well as Assistant Medical Director for Campus Health Services (formerly Student Health) at NC State.

She is also the parent of three current Ravens.

“Given her deep connections to the school as an alum, parent, trustee and philanthropic supporter, she is the ideal person to lead our board as we continue moving forward with the implementation of the strategic plan and transition to a new Head of School,” Batten wrote in her letter. 

Batten also thanked three trustees who, like her, are concluding their terms on the board. “I would like to recognize and thank Sandy Costa, Kristin Replogle and Nelle Shantz,” she wrote. “They have served a combined total of 20 years on the Ravenscroft Board of Trustees and have been integral to many of our strategic initiatives.”

New board members as of July 1 are John Meier, Jason Meggs, Sara Gregory and Ellen Mann O’Connnor ’98. Batten thanked them for their willingness to serve and share their experience and acumen with the school. Learn more about these and all returning board members on our website.

Batten’s term as board chair, which began in the summer of 2020 as the school planned and implemented a return to in-person learning amid the challenges of the pandemic, has been characterized by visionary leadership and success across a number of institutional priorities. This includes the opening of the Olander Center for Student Life at the A.E. Finley Activity Center, the development and launch of the strategic plan, the school’s reaccreditation by SAIS and succession planning as Head of School Doreen Kelly prepares to step down at the end of the 2023-24 school year.

In reflecting on their three-year partnership, Kelly had words of praise and appreciation for Batten.

“The hallmark of an excellent independent school is the strength of the relationship between the head of school and the board. As board chair, Amy was the perfect thought partner: she was calm, thoughtful and offered supportive and pragmatic advice,” she said. “We are so grateful for her unflappable leadership, commitment to good board governance training and practices in support of the Ravenscroft community.”