New Trustees

SA Welcomes Three New Members to the Board of Trustees

Robert A. James ’85

A Sewickley Academy lifer, Robert played baseball and was active on the Curriculum, Activities, and Fundraising committees. He went on to earn his bachelor’s degree from Boston College before completing a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. He then pursued dual Master of Business Administration and Master of Health Administration degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. A leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as corporate strategy, Robert has been Vice President for Allegheny Health Network/Highmark Health since January 2021. He had previously spent five years as Supplier Diversity Program Director with Highmark Health during which the program was recognized with the Procurement Leaders Americas Supplier Diversity and Inclusion Award. He has also worked as a practicing lawyer for more than 20 years, general counsel for a physicians’ practice, and as an advisor with the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion in the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission. Robert is on PA Governor Wolf’s Advisory Council for Diversity, Inclusion, and Small Business Opportunities and a board member with the Three Rivers Chapter of the National Association for Corporate Directors, Riverside Center for Innovation, Pittsburgh Opera, and Pittsburgh Child Guidance Foundation. He has received DiversityPlus Magazine’s Top 30 Champion of Diversity Award and the New Pittsburgh Courier’s Men of Excellence Award, among others. He has completed Northwestern University’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) certificate program, Highmark Health’s Higher Mark leadership development program, and the Executive Leadership Academy through Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business/The Advanced Leadership Institute (TALI).

Rodney L. Smith

Currently CEO of Advanced Environmental Monitoring (AEM) in Pittsburgh, Rodney began his career in Washington, DC, with Andersen Consulting, where he focused on IT and management solutions for Fortune 500 clients, primarily in telecommunications. In less than a decade, he had moved on to CFO of Krone Global (the Communications Segment of GenTek) in Denver, CO. He later served as president of several divisions within Thermo Fisher Scientific, including four years leading their global Environmental & Process Instruments division from its headquarters located in Shanghai, China.

In addition to his work with AEM, a private-equity-backed roll-up focused on helping companies facing escalating environmental risks, Rodney is currently an independent director on the board of PharmaJet Inc., an advisory board member at the McGowan Institute within UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh, and also works as a private investor. Rodney attended Cornell University earning a bachelor’s degree in operations research and industrial engineering. He also achieved a master’s of engineering from Cornell and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He now lives in Sewickley Heights with his wife, Kristene, and their two children, Kylie ’20 and Garrett ’23.

Joseph J. Zaluski

Joe served Sewickley Academy from 1988 through 2005 as Head of Lower School, Assistant Head of School, and Interim Head of School. In 1998, he was part of the strategic plan that resulted in building both the Early Childhood and Middle School buildings as well as renovating the Lower and Senior schools.

Joe began his career as a teacher and naturalist at an outdoor education center in Ohio before moving on to teach Grade 6 with The Miami Valley School, an independent PreK - Grade 12 school where he subsequently served as Head of Lower School for nine years before joining Sewickley Academy. From 2005 until his retirement in 2019, Joe was Head of School at the Gulf Stream School in Florida during which the school’s endowment grew 350% and enrollment grew nearly 20%, capped by an agreement with the town where the school is located. While in Florida, he also spent eight years on the Board of Trustees at the Benjamin School, an independent school with 1,100 students. Joe holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education from the University of Dayton as well as a master’s degree in administration. He and his wife, Sally, have two children, Zachary ’00 and Katelin ’02. Joe and Sally live outside Columbus, Ohio, where Joe volunteers at The Nationwide Children’s Hospital.