Board of Directors
Deacon Robert Benyo earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Penn State University. He and his wife, Emilia, were married in 1998, and are the proud parents of five sons and grandparents of six grandchildren. A specialist in Turfgrass management, Benyo started a division of a major company serving the sports fields industry. He co-founded Premier Sports Fields, LLC, which specializes in sports field construction and maintenance in Northern Virginia. He also started Synthetic Sports Turf Solutions which specializes in synthetic athletic field construction and maintenance.
John M. DeJak, ex officio, received the B.A. Classics (Latin) degree from Loyola University Chicago and embarked on a teaching career that has spanned over 20 years. He attained his J.D. from Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, practiced law, and served on active duty as an officer in the U.S. Army prior to being named the founding headmaster of two private high schools in the Twin Cities area: Chesterton Academy and Holy Spirit Academy. He has taught Latin, Greek, literature, government, and theology in high schools in Chicago, Cleveland, the Twin Cities, and Ann Arbor. He is the co-editor of With God in America: The Spiritual Legacy of an Unlikely Jesuit (Loyola Press, 2016). A member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, his articles have appeared in Chronicles, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Gilbert Magazine, the Distributist Review, and the St. Austin Review. He and his wife, Annie, are the proud parents of eight children and live in Front Royal, Virginia.
Luke Fier earned his bachelors of business administration degree at James Madison University and subsequently worked as a CPA in the audit practice of a Big 4 accounting firm serving clients in a variety of industries. After public accounting, he followed the call to serve in the not for profit realm, first as the Controller and then as the Director of Finance at Christendom College and subsequently, as the CFO at Chelsea Academy. Most recently, he moved back into the for profit world as the Controller at Roofsimple, a rapidly growing regional roofing contractor. Luke and his wife, Kristin, have been married for 15 years and have six children, five of whom currently attend Chelsea Academy.
Mrs. Anna Freska has practiced law in the United States and Hungary for over twenty years. A native English, Polish, and German speaker, she has also taught in Switzerland, China, and Japan, in addition to serving on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations. She lives with her family in Great Falls.
Mr. James Kelly is passionate about Catholic education. Originally a New Yorker, he is still adapting to the southern lifestyle. For over 20 years, he has operated Paladin Financial, an investment practice, and has been fortunate to serve on a variety of non-profit boards as well as assisted in establishing two Catholic private schools. In his spare time he enjoys coaching youth sports, including the Chelsea Knights. He and his wife Ellen and their 6 kids have called Front Royal home for the last 25 years.
Father Bjorn Lundberg is the pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in Winchester. Father Bjorn was raised in an Army family, and grew up in Germany, Texas, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington State. After graduating from Christendom College with a B.A. in History, and interning at Vatican Radio in Rome, Father was an Associate Producer for two years at the Eternal Word Television Network in Irondale, Alabama.
Joseph Lyons is GM and VP of Services at CLD Partners. A graduate of Thomas Aquinas College in Ojai, CA, he is committed to Chelsea's program of Catholic liberal education. Joe has served in a variety of high-level corporate positions in his career. Before CLD, Joe served as CTO at Formatta Corporation, an enterprise software product company focusing on business process automation and data integration. There he oversaw the design, development and support of the product suite and also managed many customer implementations of the software. Joe has an extensive background in professional services and in application delivery.
Mr. Douglas McCarthy is an attorney and founding Partner and CEO of the law firm McCarthy & Akers, PLC. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Chelsea Academy and the Chelsea Academy Foundation. Doug has also served on the boards of numerous other non-profit organizations, including Lord Fairfax Community College, Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, New Eve Maternity Home, and iVerbum, Inc., the creator of the iPieta app, one of the highest rated and most downloaded Catholic apps for iPhone and Android. Doug was elected to the Frederick County Board of Supervisors in 2017 and 2019. With the assistance of his wife and children, he operates Aisling Hill Farm, LLC, an organic farm that has been in Doug’s family for over 180 years. Doug and his wife Megan have been blessed with twelve children, half of whom are current or graduated Chelsea students.
Mr. Patrick David McCarthy, Jr. has been teaching Politics, Government and American History for more than 40 years. He began his career at St. John’s College Christian Brothers High School, in Washington, DC and retired from full-time teaching from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, in Alexandria, VA after seventeen years. He currently teaches part-time at the Classical Cottage School, in Winchester, Virginia. Patrick lives in Winchester, Virginia and is a parishioner of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church.
Patrick Miggins currently teaches English in the Middle and Upper School at The Heights School. Miggins began his teaching career in 1996 at The Heights, teaching 6th Grade Homeroom, 8th and 10 Grade literature, 9th Grade Core, Ethics, and Irish Literature before leaving in 2011 to help Western Academy in Houston. At Western Academy, Pat served as Assistant Headmaster, Director of Readings and Culture, Summer Camp Director, and Director of the 8th Grade DC Trip. At Western, Pat taught 7th and 8th Grade Homeroom, Latin, literature, history, language arts, and religion. Pat has enjoyed coaching baseball both at The Heights and at Western Academy. A graduate from the University of Dallas in 1996 where he majored in English, Pat then earned an M.Ed. from the University of Virginia in 2003. He and his wife, Nancy, reside in Silver Spring and have three children: James, Rory, and Brigid.
Ken Reuwer is a retired Special Agent, having last served as NCIS' Deputy Assistant Director, where he managed a budget in excess of $500M as well as the agency's Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence programs. He had served as the Chief of the Joint Counterterrorism Coordination Cell (JC3), multiple tours as Operations Officer in Iraq for the Strategic Counterintelligence Directorate, as an NCIS field agent and operator, and prior to that as a Special Agent with the Central Intelligence Agency. In retirement, he taught Counterintelligence at the FBI Academy. Mr. Reuwer has vast experience in numerous cultures and environments, having operated in over 100 countries. He attended Johns Hopkins University, graduated from Virginia Tech, and has a Certificate of Legislative Studies from Georgetown University. He served as a legislative fellow for the 109th US Congress. He is the father of 6 children, and has parental experience in public, foreign, diocesan, DOD, and Church of England schools, as well as home school coops. Through it all, he and his wife Michelle chose their retirement in the Shenandoah Valley specifically to have his last two children attend Chelsea Academy.