Founding Team

SANDI PASSALACQUA brings more than forty years of experience in education to The Healdsburg School. During her career, Ms. Passalacqua has been a teacher in public, private, and parochial educational institutions. In addition to teaching, Ms. Passalacqua has held numerous positions within education, some of which include tutor, consultant, and principal. She has worked in Special Education and designed and implemented ESL (English as a Second Language) and Title I programs (federal funds for programs for low-income students), as well as foreign language curriculums. She has traveled extensively and sought to create unique travel opportunities for her own students. She holds a Master of Education degree and is an accomplished painter and pianist. She is married to Tom Passalacqua and has three children and eight grandchildren.

ANDREW BIEHL moved to Healdsburg four years ago from New York City where he was an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank. He is currently Vice President of D.C. Peek & Associates, Inc., a portfolio management company. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Duke University and a B.S. in math and economics from UC Berkeley. He is married with two children.

BILL LOFTUS has been a resident of Sonoma County for more than fifty years. In 1979, he graduated from the University of California with a B.A. in English. For the past twenty-seven years he has worked in the wine industry and today is a sales executive for Amorim Cork America. Mr. Loftus has coached youth soccer and baseball for several years and is active in the Healdsburg Little League. He is a past school board member at St. John School in Healdsburg and Dads’ Club president. He and his wife Kathy have two boys.

SANDI PASSALACQUA brings more than forty years of experience in education to The Healdsburg School. During her career, Ms. Passalacqua has been a teacher in public, private, and parochial educational institutions. In addition to teaching, Ms. Passalacqua has held numerous positions within education, some of which include tutor, consultant, and principal. She has worked in Special Education and designed and implemented ESL (English as a Second Language) and Title I programs (federal funds for programs for low-income students), as well as foreign language curriculums. She has traveled extensively and sought to create unique travel opportunities for her own students. She holds a Master of Education degree and is an accomplished painter and pianist. She is married to Tom Passalacqua and has three children and eight grandchildren.

KRISTIN SCHINELLA is a clinical psychologist specializing in individual psychotherapy with adults and pediatric neuropsychology. Her pediatric practice focuses on evaluating children with learning disabilities. Kristin has consulted with teachers and school administrators to design individual education plans for children in private, parochial, and public elementary and high schools across California. She has an M.A. in child psychology from Boston College and a Ph.D. from the California School of Professional Psychology. Kristin and her husband, Jim, have three young children.

JIM SCHINELLA is working in land development and sales. Prior to moving to Sonoma County, he was Vice President of Global Business Development for Yahoo!, before which he was with Netscape and AOL as Vice President of Strategic Development. Jim has an M.B.A. from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and a B.S. from Bentley College. Jim and his wife, Kristin, have three children.

BEV ZEIGLER was a member of the board of Sonoma Country Day School, where she was co-chair of their successful capital campaign to build a new campus. She was the founding board chair of Sonoma Academy, a founding board member of Sonoma Jazz, and a member of the Leadership Council for the Valley of the Moon Children’s Home. Bev has been a volunteer fund-raiser for Marin Academy in San Rafael and for Pitzer College in Claremont, California. She is married to Kirt Zeigler, with whom she has two daughters.

KIRT F. ZEIGLER is an attorney and a director of Anderson Zeigler Disharoon Gallagher & Gray. He was the volunteer building project coordinator for design and construction of the new campus of Sonoma Country Day School and is currently performing that task for Sonoma Academy, of which he is a founder. He is a past board chair of Sonoma Country Day School, past chairman of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, past president of the Redwood Empire Estate Planning Council, and former board member of the Sonoma County YMCA. He has a degree from Stanford University (A.B.) and an LL.B. from the Stanford Law School. Married to Beverly Zeigler, Kirt has five children and eleven grandchildren.