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Board Member Profiles
Susan Rietano Davey
President
Susan and husband Bob are 30+ year residents of Avon. They have four children (Tucker, Jackson, Hannah and Luke), all recent AHS grads and athletes who would have loved to play under lights on a turf field. Among Susan’s many community roles: she was a longtime coach for Avon Soccer Club, is past-president of the Avon Booster Club, past-president of the AHS PTO and active member in other PTO’s. Two of her favorite undertakings are designing GO Avon, AHS new student orientation program, and creating the annual Roaring Brook May Fair. For over a decade, Susan has been teen music director at St. Ann’s Church and Vice-President of the Avon Land Trust, under which she founded and still leads Avon’s outdoor learning initiative, The Unplugged Learning Project. A longtime Falcon fan, Susan teaches at the Yoga Center of Collinsville and is co-founder/owner of the training and consulting firm, Prepare to Launch U.
Ben Coleman
Vice President
Ben has lived in Avon for fifteen years with his wife, Melanie, and their three sons - Jack, who graduated from AHS this year, Zachery, a rising junior, and Tyler, who’s entering eighth grade. Ben started his professional career as a management consultant with Accenture. He then worked in industry for several years and in 2008 joined Women’s Health USA, a healthcare management services organization headquartered in Avon. The organization was acquired by a private equity company in 2017. Since that time, Ben has been the CEO of a healthcare software company called Vizium360, also headquartered in Avon. In 2010, Ben was appointed to the Board of Education and he served for two years. In his spare time, Ben snowboards, mountain bikes and spends a ton of time attending all of his sons’ sporting events.
Jim Stapleton
Treasurer
Jim and his wife, Sally, have lived in Avon for 28 years. They have two sons, Reed (AHS 2016) and Ian (AHS 2019) who both proudly wore the Avon Falcon uniform (for the soccer and tennis teams). This past June, Jim completed a six-year run as Treasurer of the Avon High School Booster Club, overseeing years of significant investment in Avon High School athletics. In addition to now being ACORN’s treasurer, he is also treasurer of Trinity Episcopal Church in Collinsville. Jim is an Investment Accountant at The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., overseeing the accounting and reporting of fixed income and equity investments managed by the Hartford Investment Management Company (HIMCO).
Louisa Hogan
Secretary
Louisa is the only current ACORN board member who served on the last ACORN board that restored and lit the Avon Middle School tennis courts - and we’re delighted she decided to stay on with us. A 22-year resident of Avon, Louisa is married to husband Kevin and has two children - recent AHS graduate Jack, 18 and rising junior, Delia, 16). She has been involved with the community and the schools for most of the time she’s lived here. For several years when her children were young, Louisa was on the PTO Board of Pine Grove School and served as President for two years. Recently, she accepted the position of Treasurer for the 2019-20 Avon Booster Club. A golf enthusiast, Louisa serves on the Board of Governors for the Golf Club of Avon. She works part-time for Risk & Regulatory Consulting, LLC in Farmington as a Billing Specialist.
Michelle Hards
Michelle has been a longtime Avon resident – but she’s only been in Avon, CT for three years, having moved here from Avon Lakes, OH. The Hards, dad Brad and daughters Kristen (a senior at Miami of Ohio), Kaitlyn (AHS ’19 and joining her sister @ Miami the fall) and Kendra (AHS ’20), moved to CT for Michelle’s job as Director of Investor Relations at Stanley Black & Decker, in 2016. (Recently, Michelle took a new job with UTC as Finance Director of the Digital Technology Team.) Michelle wasted no time getting involved in our community, participating in Newcomers Club, serving as a Avon Booster Club team rep and being ‘promoted’ last year to lead the club as its president. The Booster Club and all of Avon athletics, in turn, have thrived under Michelle’s leadership, which will continue next school year.
Lauren Magel
Although Lauren is a ‘newbie’ among us (having lived in town only seven years), her involvement in the Avon community is deep. Married to Stefan, and mother to sons Jack and Ryan and daughter Grace, she is one of the few ACORN members whose children will actually play under the lights we are funding. Lauren is a board member of the non-profit group Mental Health Matters, and currently leads or is involved in the PTO’s at RBS, TBS and AMS . The Magels are active participants/leaders in Avon Youth Soccer and Avon Youth Lacrosse and love spending family time outdoors. An avid runner and outdoor enthusiast, Lauren is a reading specialist in the Farmington Public Schools.
David Magrini
David is no stranger to this athletic field project – having been one of the early and longtime proponents – so we are delighted to have him on our board. A 20-year resident of Avon, he is married to Kerry, with whom he has three children - all recent AHS graduates (Maggie, 2013; Danny, 2015; and Robbie, 2016). David was on the board of Avon Youth Lacrosse for 8 years, and was a founding board member of Concerned Citizens for Avon (CC4A), which campaigned for more and better investment in the public schools. A serious sports fan, he has coached his children and their teammates in youth lacrosse, soccer and basketball, over the years. David is General Manager of Merkle Health, one of the largest global health marketing agencies in the world.
Joe Pavano
A 28 year resident of Avon who has been very engaged as a community leader, Joe is perhaps best known as the “Voice of the Avon Falcons”; he has announced AHS football and basketball games for years – even though the youngest of his and wife Ann’s three sons (Ryan, Colin and Jack) graduated in 2015. An optometrist, Joe has a robust practice with offices in New Britain, Bristol, Newington and Rocky Hill. In addition, he delivers lectures on eye care for major companies like Bausch & Lomb and Allergen. Joe is past-president and longtime leader/member of UNICO, where one of his responsibilities is chairing the annual CCMC fundraising gala. He is chair of the Avon Citizen of the Year committee, founding member of AHS performing arts groups FAME and Dramatic Friends, and a performer (musician) himself.
Matt Woods
Matt and his family (wife, Chris; son, Will; and daughters, Lily and Cate) have called Avon ‘home’ for thirteen years. The three Woods children keep active all year round participating on Avon youth sports teams: soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and lacrosse in the spring. A former college lacrosse player himself, Matt has served for eight years on the Avon Youth Lacrosse Board and is presently the President of AYL and VP of Girls Lacrosse. He has coached boys’ youth lacrosse for nine years, and next year he takes on the new challenge of being a girls’ lacrosse coach. When not participating in youth sports activities in Avon, Matt can be found at The Johnson Gage Company in Bloomfield, CT where he gets to help lead a group of great people in designing and manufacturing gages.
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