Field School Founders

Board of Directors

Todd Barnett, President of the Board, is the former Paul Landon Banfield Ethics Chair at the Landon School for boys in Bethesda, Maryland. He has 17 years of teaching experience at Landon, Woodberry Forest School, Grand River Academy, St. Anne’s-Belfield School, and the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Pennsylvania and has taught a wide range of classes in English, History, and Leadership Skills, from Grades 5-12, with primary experience in AP Government, AP Economics, AP U.S. History, AP European History, the Civil Rights Movement, and Latin American Studies. He has published educational and historical articles in a variety of journals, and has been involved in a wide range of school programs including baseball, basketball, newspaper, Landon’s Brown and White Yearbook, music clubs, the Landon-in-the-British Isles travel program, and Landon’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity. In 2000, he co-founded and co-directed the Field Camp of Charlottesville, a successful local day and overnight camp, held annually each summer. He has won awards for both his teaching and writing. In 2006-2007, he has founded 1-on-1 Tutoring in Charlottesville. Todd will be Field School’s first Head of School.

Jay Fennell is a real estate appraiser and consultant with Pape and Company. Jay grew up in Charlottesville and attended Transylvania University . A veteran schoolteacher, he was the Development Director at Free Union Country School from 2002 to 2006. He co-founded and co-directed Field Camp of Charlottesville with Todd Barnett from 2000 to 2002. He and his wife Erika and their son Lio live in Free Union.

Proal Heartwell is the co-founder and co-Director of the Village School, a Middle School for Girls in Charlottesville. He has a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in English from George Mason. He has taught all levels of English from AP to English as a Second language, both in the Charlottesville public school system and at Village School. He has won fellowship and grant awards from the council for Basic Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Foundations for Excellence in Public Education and the Center for Liberal Studies. He and his wife Susan and their daughter Elise live in Charlottesville.

Isabel McLean is a former elementary and middle school teacher in Albemarle County, instructional coordinator at Clark Elementary, and Director of Elementary Education in Greene County. She has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education. A mixed media artist, she has had work exhibited at the National Institute of Health, the Washington Cancer Center, Martha Jefferson Hospital, Towne Bank Center, the Renaissance School, and Friends School in Virginia Beach. She and her husband Chris and their three children Jake, Reid and Church live in Charlottesville.

Mimi Pohl has a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Florida. She spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana before a five-year stint as a killer whale trainer at SeaWorld Orlando. She has also directed Field Camp’s Outdoor Leadership School. She has taught and coached at Tandem School, and she is an avid runner, biker, and triathlete. She lives in Charlottesville with her husband Frank and their daughter Anna.

J. Walker Richmond III is an attorney with Richmond and Fishburne. He did his undergraduate work at Dartmouth College, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1995. While at Dartmouth, he studied in St. Petersburg, Russia and London, England, and also spent a semester as a White House intern in the Office of Cabinet Affairs. He has taught middle school and high school history for six years in Massachusetts, Florida, and northern Virginia. He completed a masters degree in education at Columbia University in 1999, and received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2004. His note, "Charter School Accountability: Rhetoric, Results, and Ramifications," will be published in Volume 12 of the University of Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law. He is an avid runner and has completed three marathons.