CloudForestSchool Foundation

The Cloud Forest School Foundation (CFSF) is a not-for-profit educational organization providing support to the Cloud Forest School. It was founded in 1993 to provide the School with an international network of friends, financial support (annual, capital and endowment funds), professional development opportunities, and teacher and volunteer recruitment.

The volunteer Trustees bring hands-on expertise in a variety of fields and travel to Monteverde each March for a joint meeting with the Cloud Forest School Trustees.

CFSF also publishes The Rainbow, a newsletter about the School and its activities, twice a year. The Foundation raised the funds to purchase the campus from The Nature Conservancy in 2000 and since then has conducted capital fundraising for the construction of six new classroom buildings, in addition to providing ongoing annual operating support.

Recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization, it accepts tax-deductible gifts at the following address:

Cloud Forest School Foundation
PO Box 3223
Sewanee, TN 37375

Or give online by clicking here

Board of Trustees

Doug Cameron is a retired teacher (7th grade science and 10th grade biology) at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School and outdoor program leader at the University of the South.  He has led numerous wilderness trips around the United States for both schools and still conducts courses for Wilderness Medical Associates.  More recently, he has led outreach trips for the University of the South to Honduras and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  He is currently Assistant Fire Chief in Sewanee (33 years), and just retired as a volunteer EMT in Sewanee.  He is on the board of the local public education foundation, Leadership Franklin County, Housing Sewanee (a habitat group – in which he is a founding member), The Land Trust for Tennessee, and the Tennessee Environmental Council.

Douglas A. Caves, Treasurer, is founder, owner, and Vice-Chairman of Laurits R. Christensen Associates, Inc., Madison, Wisconsin, an economic consulting company, which employs 60 professional economists. He has published over 40 academic papers in economic journals. A former Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa, his other charitable boards and activities include Madison Campus Ministry, Boy Scouts of America, and First United Methodist Church. He did volunteer teaching (8th grade) and other projects at the CEC (Centro de Educacion Creativa) during the semester he and his family lived in Monteverde. He is a major supporter of The Nature Conservancy on both the local and national level. (B.A., M.A., Oklahoma State University; Ph.DUniversity of Wisconsin)

Tom McPartland, is a graduate of Hofstra University and also received his law degree there. A member of the New York State Bar, Tom is a resident of Sea Cliff, New York. He has worked as in-house legal staff for RCA, Deputy General Counsel for Bertelsmann Media Group, was the founder, President and CEO of Liberty Digital, a founding investor and member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Moscow Cablecom Corp, and is currently a member of the advisory board and recent Executive Chairman of Redwood Capital Partners.  He has served as President of the Board of Trustees of the Green Vale School, and is currently on the Boards of The Russian Children’s Welfare Society, Plant America/Environmental News Network, Old Westbury Gardens, the Police Relief Fund of Nassau County – among others!

Mary Bruce Alford graduated from Sewanee: The University of the South in 2005 as an Environmental Policy major. During her four years there, she participated in the Island Ecology Program, outreach trips to Ecuador and New Orleans, the Environmental Resident Program, a summer program in Madrid,  and the Senior Alumni Leadership Council. She was a member of the Order of The Gownsmen (the academic honor society) and on the Dean’s List. Mary Bruce now works at The Trust for Public Land in Massachusetts.

Jason D. Hamilton is the Director of Admissions at The University of The South – Sewanee. Prior to assuming this position in June, 2005, Jason was Sewanee’s Associate Director of Admission, arriving from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, where he was also Associate Director of Admission and the International Student Counselor.  Jason is a 1999 graduate of Sewanee and majored in Spanish, spending a summer abroad in Spain. He spent a post-graduate year in Johannesburg at the University of Witwatersrand, and has completed prerequisite classes for the MBA program at Oglethorpe.

Elizabeth M. Lowell, Secretary, from Harvard, Massachusetts, is a Partner in Raybin Associates, Inc. (Counsel to Non-Profits). Formerly she was Director of Development at Fay School, Assistant Director of Development at the Lahey Clinic Foundation, and a consultant in planned giving. Her current and recent trusteeships include Friends Academy, Locust Valley, New York and the College of Preachers, Washington, DC. (B.A. Smith)

Scott Shannon, Vice Chair, is a registered landscape architect and certified planner. Scott is currently Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the State University of New York - College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY, where he is also Undergraduate Curriculum Director. He is the co-director of the Sustainable Futures program at the Monteverde Institute, Monteverde, Costa Rica, and a partner in Acanthus Associates, LLC, a community planning and housing consulting firm based in Cazenovia, New York. Scott is a former Fulbright Scholar in urban design in the Czech Republic, and serves on the boards of a number of not-for-profit groups advocating land conservation, historic preservation, and community planning. (BS, BLA, MLA SUNY - College of Environmental Science and Forestry).

Christopher R. Tompkins, Chair, is the Assistant Head of School for Enrollment at Mercersburg Academy, where he is also a member of the History Department, Curriculum Committee and Marketing Committee. Currently, a student of the Cloud Forest School is attending the Mercersburg Summer ESL Plus Program. Prior to coming to Mercersburg in 2000, he was the Assistant Head of School at The Canterbury Episcopal School, Director of Admissions at St. Andrew's-Sewanee School, and Director of Admissions at South Kent School. He has taught in Quito, Ecuador, at Greens Farms Academy and the Wellington School. Chris is a graduate of Colby College (where he also served in the Admissions Office) and Syracuse University.  Chris also has earned certificates from the Harvard Principal’s Center and Cornell University.  He has published articles in a variety of independent school publications and been a featured presenter at various independent school associations. (B.A. Colby College; M.S.Sc. from Syracuse University).

Stephen Watters is Headmaster of The Green Vale School, Glen Head, New York. He served as Director, Middle School, William Penn Charter School, Philadelphia, and taught five years at Kingswood-Oxford School, North Hartford. He is on the boards of the Pennsylvania Association of Private Academic Schools, Friends Council of Education, and Philadelphia Council of Women in Independent Schools. He directed the Quebec-Labrador Mission Friends Camp in Mic-Mac-Malisett for Native American children, ran the SPHERE Program, and coordinated a program for adolescent girls in the public and private schools of Hartford, Connecticut. (B.A. Denison University, MAT University of Massachusetts, Amherst)