Board of Directors

Mary Arpe, Founder & President

Mary has experience in educational, corporate, legal, and nonprofit sectors. A graduate of Vassar College and the University of Florida Law School, she has worked for a large state university, for IBM, and for the law firm Gelfand and Arpe, P.A., where she has been an equity partner since 1991. Mary has served in leadership roles with the United Way, the Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition, the Nelle Smith Residence for Girls, Toward a More Perfect Union, and the Palm Beach Habilitation Center. She is a graduate of Leadership Palm Beach County and has led local social justice initiatives and programs focused on diversity and inclusion.

From this experience, Mary was inspired to create Community Compact. The nonprofit originally focused on opportunities for establishing complementary partnerships between nonprofit organizations and college students. Subsequently, it created several initiatives including Gleaning Greatness, designed to provide college choice programs to high-potential high school students in rural areas of the country. Her desire to create Summer Scholars came, in part, from being a long-time summer visitor and resident at the Chautauqua Institution.

Chris Payne, Vice President & Scholar Alumni Network Advisor

Chris Payne attended Wilton High School in 2004 as a 14-year-old kid from the south side of Chicago via the ABC (A Better Chance) program of Wilton, CT. One of very few Black students in Wilton, he graduated as a member of the National Honor Society, president of the Wilton High School band, and a decorated football player.

Chris attended Amherst College in Amherst, MA, where he studied English and Music. After college, Chris moved back to Chicago and was under the mentorship of Will Garrett at the Kellogg School of Management.

Currently in Brooklyn, Chris leads the Audio Department for educational technology companies Nearpod and Flocabulary. He is most passionate about how storytelling can improve communities.

Chris heads up our Summer Scholar Alumni Network which connects our alumni monthly to share ideas, opportunities, and strategies in reaching their personal & professional goals.

Ellen Kentner, Secretary/Treasurer

Ellen earned a B.A. in English from the University of Florida and worked promoting children’s books and planning authors’ appearances for Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Crown Publishers in New York City. After moving to Florida, she continued to promote education, working with schools, the Episcopal Church, Toward a More Perfect Union, and a rural branch of the Palm Beach County Library System.

Ellen initiated and coordinated civil rights attorney and author Bryan Stevenson’s first appearance in West Palm Beach in 2016 and co-facilitated the first Sacred Ground program in Southeast Florida in 2020-2021. Sacred Ground is a film and readings-based dialogue series on race, created through the Episcopal Church’s Becoming Beloved Community initiative, focused on racial healing, reconciliation and justice in our personal lives, our work, and our society.

Ellen has served on the board of Community Compact since 2011.

Kathleen King, Board Member

Kathleen King returned to university as a non-traditional student and mother of three. Through her experience in higher education, she took an active role honors education. Her most recent position was as Director of the Dr. Lydia R. Daniel Honors Program at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida. Her more than 18 years of service to honors education includes two terms on the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) Board of Directors, recognition as an NCHC Fellow, and a recipient of the Ron Brandolini Award for Excellence at a Two-Year Institution. As an advocate of NCHC Partners in the Parks, Kathleen has facilitated director retreats and student projects in the Everglades, Acadia, Rocky Mountains, and Smoky Mountains. She has traveled with students throughout the nation and abroad.

Kathleen earned her MS in Higher and Adult Education at University of Southern Maine. Always an “active learner,” she became enthralled with the concept of transformational learning and how it ties into the precepts of higher education. She is thrilled to be a part of Community Compact and its supportive role in providing access to active adult learning and networking.

Transfer Success Program

Dan Sullivan, Senior Transfer Advisor

Dr. Daniel F. Sullivan (Dan) is President Emeritus of St. Lawrence University (in Canton, New York), former president of Allegheny College (in Meadville, Pennsylvania), former chair of the board and senior fellow of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), and former tenured faculty member and then Vice President for Planning and Development at Carleton College (in Northfield, Minnesota). He holds a B.S. in mathematics Phi Beta Kappa from St. Lawrence, a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, and has honorary degrees from St. Lawrence, Clarkson University, and SUNY Canton.

From his St. Lawrence retirement in 2009 until very recently, he has been an advisor to over 30 independent colleges and universities and three independent schools, a mentor to several current college presidents, the author of numerous articles based on his higher education research, and a consultant with the Education Advisory Board (EAB).

He and his wife, Ann, have been property owners and devoted members of the Chautauqua Institution community since 1993. He became involved in Summer Scholars at Chautauqua in the summer of 2022 and leads the effort to facilitate the successful transfer of Summer Scholars from their two-year institutions to four-year colleges and universities with high graduation rates and welcoming student
cultures.

Staff

Beth Brockman Miller, Executive Director

Beth loves introducing Chautauqua to bright young people who will enrich and be enriched by the Chautauqua community. Her time in Chautauqua as a young person fostered her lifelong passion for peace, education, and community building. Creating her own interdisciplinary major in Peace Studies, Beth graduated from Princeton University. She co-founded the Princeton Peace Prize which recognized remarkable people and organizations working locally and nationally for peace, economic justice, and environmental justice.

After college, Beth co-founded the PeaceWeavers, a nonprofit educational organization and community with a retreat center and organic farm in the Finger Lakes region of New York. She worked with this group for over 30 years to foster greater peace, well-being, and sustainable living for hundreds of individuals and families. During this time, Beth also helped facilitate several educational cooperatives.

Beth has been involved with Community Compact since the fall of 2021. In 2022, she and her husband moved to Chautauqua where, in 2023, she co-founded Chautauqua Common Grounds, a space for residents, staff, locals, and visitors to gather and connect in the off-season. In addition to being Executive Director, Beth is part of the management team of the Ecumenical Community of Chautauqua, an inclusive community which provides hospitality and affordable accommodations during Chautauqua's 9-week season. She enjoys photography and shares pictures of Chautauqua on FB and Instagram @Chq4u.

2023 Week 4 Whole Group Pic