Board of Directors

Keyri Ambrocio

Keyri Ambrocio serves as the Outreach Coordinator and Press Secretary for Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro. In this role, she manages the office’s outreach efforts within the community and media relations and communications strategy in Connecticut. Keyri has previously held roles with the office of U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce handling political communications, public policy, and public affairs. She has a B.A. in Political Science and International Affairs from the University of New Haven. She currently resides with her husband in East Haven, CT.

Jessica Herrington

Jessica Herrington is a senior federal law enforcement professional with over 20 years of experience in investigations, compliance, and organizational leadership. She currently serves in an oversight role, managing internal compliance for a major federal agency.

She previously led a regional office, supervising multi-state investigative operations and a diverse team of agents and support staff. Jessica has also deployed internationally and has facilitated training programs for newly hired federal agents across the country.

A graduate of the University of New Haven’s Henry C. Lee College of Forensic Sciences, Jessica is committed to ethics, accountability, and public service. As a mother of two, she is passionate about early childhood education and supports social justice initiatives in her community.

Jean Lamont

Jean Lamont began her career in education as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, teaching biology in an all-girls high school in Kisumu, Kenya.  Upon returning to the United States, she was hired by the Nashville, TN public school system to teach in an all-black, inner-city junior high school during the first two years of their desegregation initiatives. When she returned to the northeast, she moved into the independent school world. At an all-boys school on the Upper East Side, she took on admissions work and helped launch Early Steps, a collaborative program of over 30 independent schools in greater New York City, to recruit and support students (and families) of color entering first grade. Participating schools paid a membership fee and agreed to dedicate financial aid beginning in kindergarten. A cutting-edge initiative, Early Steps is now over 30 years old. When Jean came to New Haven to be Head of School at the Foote School, she had the opportunity to help the school increase its diversity and inclusivity and implement collaborative programs with neighboring public schools. After stepping down as Head, she joined Educators’ Collaborative, a partnership that worked with independent schools and other non-profits on executive searches, strategic planning, and governance. She has served on several non-profit boards in New Haven, including Horizons at Foote, which offers academics, arts and swimming for underserved k-8 New Haven students. 

Greg Melville

Greg Melville retired in 2005 from a career as a freelance editor and writer for CT businesses and magazines, as well as photographer and reporter for daily newspapers in New Hampshire and Vermont. 

For the past twenty years, Greg and his wife, Susan Fox, have devoted themselves to community service and philanthropic work in Cheshire, Lyme and New Haven, as well as Pomfret – and E. Setauket, NY. In Cheshire in 2006, Greg served as founding Secretary of the Boulder Knoll Community Garden, a CSA in Cheshire – and remains a life member.

Greg and Susan helped direct and fund NextGenLeaders, Inc., a Guilford-based, New England affiliate of PeaceJam, Inc., an international non-profit, founded in 2000. The organization connects Nobel Peace laureates with high-school youth around the globe to support local peacemaking and ecological initiatives.

Under the organization’s auspices, Greg helped produce “Children of the Light,” an award-winning documentary about the late Desmond Tutu’s South Africa by PeaceJam Productions.

From 2010-2017, he served as a member of the Development Committee and the Board of Directors for Woolman Hill Quaker Retreat Center in Deerfield, MA. During his tenure, Greg helped spearhead Woolman Hill’s suit against the application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permit of the Northeast Direct Pipeline proposed by Kinder Morgan – which later resulted in the company withdrawing its application.

A graduate of Pasture Lane Nursery School and New Canaan (CT) Country School, Greg’s a 1968 alumnus of Pomfret School in Pomfret, CT and holds a BA degree, cum laude, in English Literature, from Carleton College, in Northfield, MN, as a member of the Class of 1972. From 1968-70, he was a news reporter, managing editor and co-editor of The Carletonian, the weekly student newspaper.

As a member of the Board of Trustees of the Pomfret School since 2014, he chaired the recent, successful $82.5 M. Amplify capital campaign for the School. With Susan, he helped fund the construction of the J. Timothy and Anne Richards Health & Wellness Center, as well as the newly-completed VISTA, Science and Engineering Building.

In 2022, with Susan and his 1972 classmates, Greg established the Get Started Fund for the Class of 1972’s 50th Reunion at Carleton College. The Fund now provides on-going financial assistance not covered by scholarship grants to first-generation and other students at Carleton challenged by the costs of starting college.

Since 2007, he’s served as Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of Frank Melville Memorial Foundation, a private park open to the public in E. Setauket, NY. 

A longtime financial supporter of Friends Center for Children, he’s a member of Friends Center’s Quaker Advisory Council, as well as New Haven Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, where he was Recording Clerk and Treasurer and participated in several committees of the Meeting. 

Greg serves Friends Center for Children, Inc. as a member of the Board, as well as the Development and Scalability Committees and Construction Task Force.

Nnamdi C. Obukwelu

Born and raised in the greater Boston area, Nnamdi attended Boston College High School in Boston, MA and chose to stay close to home for college, attending Harvard College, where he majored in Economics and was a standout athlete. Nnamdi’s passion for youth and education led him to spearhead the Harvard Football after-school program that partnered with nearby elementary schools to provide homework help and after-school sports sessions to students during winter and spring months. In addition, Nnamdi is a coach and mentor for the Next Level Football (NLF) program, a partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Brockton, MA, that works to provide high school athletes with college visits and exam prep with the goal of placing high-performing student athletes at top universities across the Northeast. Nnamdi resides in New Haven, CT with his wife and their two young children. Nnamdi has been a Friends Center parent since 2022.

Thayer Quoos

Thayer Quoos graduated from Yale Divinity School (1975) and completed CPE training at Yale New Haven Hospital in 2001. She has worked as an On-call Chaplain at YNHH since 1996 and is a member of the Religious Society of Friends, more commonly known as Quakers.

Over the years, she has worked with women leaving Niantic Prison, substance abusers (upstate NY) and teenage parents and their families (Windham Region in CT). In New Haven, she worked for many years at AIDS Project New Haven overseeing services to people living with AIDS/HIV and supervising the city-wide case management team (6 agencies). Thayer then commuted to New London where she served as the Executive Director of the Women’s Center of Southeastern CT, an agency serving victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Thayer worked at Chapel Haven in Westville, supervising programs for adults with cognitive disabilities who live independently. In 2008, she became a fulltime chaplain at Masonicare. She retired in 2022 but remains an On-Call Chaplain at YNHH.

Thayer has also owned a bed & breakfast in Chester, CT and every year hosted the teachers and visiting actors for the National Theater of the Deaf. Thayer loves being a grandmother to Sonia, the best kid in the world! She also enjoys gardening, painting, walking, and bicycling.

David Soper

David is a retired finance executive with 40 years of financial and managerial experience in corporate and higher educational settings. He has also spent over 30 years working with non-profit organizations in the New Haven area serving as treasurer or president of several of them. David’s brings a broad understanding of the financial and organizational structures of corporate and higher education institutions and sophisticated knowledge of financial modeling, budgeting and reporting.

David is pleased to be asked to serve as treasurer of the Friends Center for Children and work with Allyx and the Center’s amazing staff providing childcare to many children in New Haven.

Scot Wrocklage

Scot Wrocklage has a long history with the Friends Center for Children beginning with his daughter’s enrollment in late 2010.  Scot gladly worked within the classroom for his co-op commitments and eventually joined a committee tasked with certifying FCfC to the Friends Council on Education which led to his serving on the Friend Center board.  Over the course of six years on the board, Scot served as board clerk for five years and sat on numerous committees.  In 2023, Scot returned to the board with great enthusiasm. Scot also has a profound appreciation for the Quaker process and the Quaker values that embody the work at FCfC.

Professionally, Scot is a Technical Fellow in the domain of software engineering for Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company.  Scot has been with Sikorsky for 15 years and has served in roles of increasing technical and team leadership.

Scot and his wife Kristen have two wonderful children who both attended FCfC for their infant, toddler, and pre-school years. Through his children and his personal experiences, Scot has witnessed first-hand the incredible impact that quality early childhood education can have.