Board Resources
Board of Directors
Alyssa Bryan, Board Chair & Parent Member
Email: alyssa@agamim.org | Phone: 952-856-2531 | Term Expires: 6/2024
Ms. Bryan has a background in French, Spanish and Organizational Leadership and has a Bachelor’s degree from Bethel College. She served in the Peace Corps teaching English and later served as the director of a federal agency in charge of making disparate government agencies more collaborative. She now works at home as a cultivator of character in three young boys.
Keri Grafing, Vice Chair & Parent Member
Email: keri@agamim.org | Phone: 952-856-2531 | Term Expires: 6/2024
Ms. Grafing currently leads the compliance and ethics function of a large retailer after initially serving as legal counsel to the company. Prior to that, she co-founded a gourmet food company with responsibility for brand development, sales and marketing, and HR. She is a parent of two scholars at Agamim and is passionate about Agamim’s approach to education, the strength and diversity of its staff, and the diversity and well-being of its scholars.
Andrew Weig, Treasurer & Parent Member
Email: andrew@agamim.org | Phone: 952-856-2531 | Term Expires: 6/2026
Mr. Weig is an active CPA in the state of Minnesota and manages global accounting functions for a Fortune 200 company. At least one of his three children has attended Agamim every year since the school opened. He deeply values the school's commitment to its diverse student body and the structured curriculum that it provides to each scholar.
Libby Barrios, Community Member
Email: libby@agamim.org | Phone: 763-377-0822 | Term expires: 6/2025
Ms. Barrios was a founding teacher at Agamim. Throughout her seven years there, she taught second grade, served on the Academic Leadership Team, and was a new teacher mentor and coach. She now works at the nonprofit organization Every Meal, providing free weekend meals for students in schools across Minnesota. She is grateful to continue to serve Agamim in this new role and help its staff and students flourish.
Rhiannon Beckendorf, Parent Member
Email: rhiannon@agamim.org | Phone: 952-856-2531 | Term Expires: 6/2026
Ms. Beckendorf has been an employment lawyer for the last fifteen years and is currently counsel with the law firm of Faegre Drinker. She is a parent of two Agamim scholars and aunt to one more. Ms. Beckendorf has seen these scholars thrive within the close-knit Agamim community and especially appreciates the school’s rigorous but individualized approach.
David McCarthy, Teacher Member
Email: dmccarthy@agamim.org | Phone: 952-856-2531 | MN File Folder Number: 505403 | Term Expires: 6/2025
Mr. McCarthy has been a teacher at Agamim Classical Academy since 2020. He taught 3rd grade at Agamim for two years and is now the school's Academic Interventionist (K-8). Before becoming a teacher, he worked in media, mostly managing and editing websites for PBS. He has a BA from Columbia University, where he enjoyed studying the ancient classics along with contemporary scholarship. He speaks Spanish and some Hebrew, and delights in the range of languages that Agamim scholars speak. He is thankful to teach at a school with a great diversity of students united by common purpose. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two daughters.
Lucas Menzies, Teacher Member
Email: lmenzies@agamim.org | Phone: 952-856-2531 | MN File Folder Number: 499905 | Term Expires: 6/2025
Mr. Menzies teaches history, geography, and geometry in Agamim’s Upper School and worked as a special education paraprofessional at Burnsville High School and as a history teacher at the American School of Kuwait in Kuwait City. Having an academic background in Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East, he loves teaching at a school that understands the traditions of Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem to be the inheritance of every American. More than anything, he is proud that Agamim works to advance the citizenry of this country without cynicism and with America’s unifying, pluralist value of e pluribus unum (“out of many, one”) always in mind.
Craig Petersen, Parent Member
Email: craig@agamim.org | Phone: 952-856-2531 | Term Expires: 6/2024
Mr. Petersen has a Manufacturing Engineering degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. He has done sales and marketing for Fortune 500 companies and has served on a several boards. Currently he is a client consultant for Swanson Flo Systems focusing on industrial process improvement and has his own start-up venture helping foreign companies sell in the U.S. Mr. Petersen is passionate about the classical approach and about keeping the foundation of what made and continues to make Agamim a world-class institution.
Ilan Sharon, Community Member
Email: ilan@agamim.org | Phone: 952-856-2531 | Term Expires: 6/2026
Mr. Sharon speaks at conferences, high schools, churches, synagogues, and non-profits across the nation educating Americans on the topic of Israel. Mr. Sharon was born in Haifa, Israel and served as an officer in the Israeli Defense Force before starting his own software company which brought him to the United States.
Advisory Partnerships:
*Great Minnesota Schools (GMS) in Minneapolis is focusing on schools and is uniquely committed to transforming education equity for students of all races, means, and origins. GMS helps to create more schools that work, ensuring a rigorous, relevant education that meets students’ diverse learning needs. By working with community partners, GMS supports parents in making informed enrollment decisions and advocating for their children within schools.
*Hebrew Public in New York City is a partner organization with Agamim Classical Academy in addition to seven other public charter schools nationwide. Hebrew Public can be reached at info@hebrewpublic.org.
*Agamim Classical Academy is authorized by Novation Education Opportunities (NEO). NEO’s Executive Director can be reached by email: executive.director.neo@gmail.com.