Graduating from all public schools and universities in the Midwest, Daphna Ben-Chaim only discovered the special qualities of independent schools when she began to teach high school in the 1980s. Earning her Ph.D. in 1981 from The University of Iowa with an interdisciplinary focus on dramatic theory and intellectual history, she taught in the Rhetoric Program at The University of Iowa and later in the English Department at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. As a professor she wrote two published books, Analytical Sourcebook of Concepts in Dramatic Theory and Distance in the Theatre: The Aesthetics of Audience Response. While in Connecticut she also served as Assistant to the Director of an interdisciplinary research institute at Yale University. When she and her husband, Oscar Lee Brownstein, decided to move to Israel for his sabbatical from Yale, Dr. B decided to experiment, switching from college to high school teaching. Within two weeks of working at the American International School in Israel, she fell in love with teaching teenagers, inspired by her bright and creative students from around the world—Europe, Asia, the United States, and the Middle East. At the end of that year when Dr. B and her husband returned from Israel, she worked for five years at Westover School, an all-girls boarding school in Connecticut, in the roles of Director of Theatre, Academic Dean, Director of College Advising, and teacher of Senior English and an interdisciplinary course in Ancient and Medieval History. In 1990 she and her husband returned to Israel where she again taught at AIS for three years in such courses as Ancient and Medieval Literature, British Literature, and Russian Literature. In 1993 she and her husband moved to Annapolis, Maryland, where Dr. B designed and taught interdisciplinary courses at the Key School, a prep school founded by the tutors of St. John’s College. In 1995 she took the position of Head of Upper School at Lancaster Country Day School, and several years later was also appointed Assistant Head of School. She continues to explore her passion for interdisciplinary study in the design of courses in the upper school. In her 12th year at LCDS and in her 29th year working in education, she still loves working with teenagers.

Daphna Ben-Chaim has three wonderful step-children, four grandchildren, and two adorable dogs. She and her husband enjoy reading, jogging, traveling, and watching films.

Rudy was an Upper School English teacher and English department chair at LCDS, where he has taught since 2002. He holds a Ph.D. in rhetoric and linguistics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a master of education degree in English literature from Shippensburg University. Before coming to LCDS, Rudy taught in the Manheim Township School District (Lancaster County) and in the Lower Dauphin School District (near Harrisburg, Pa.). He is a past president of the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English/Language Arts, a past president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National State Teachers of the Year, and is a past chair for the Conference of English Leadership of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Christina served as Head of Lower School at the Chatsworth Hills Academy in California, a preschool through eighth grade coed day school with 285 students. Before working at Chatsworth, she was a principal at Chestnut Hill Academy in Bellevue, Washington. Christina has served as a committee member with the California Governor's Committee for the Employment of Individuals with Disabilities, and is a 2007-2008 NAIS Fellow for Aspiring School Heads. She brings a wealth of relevant experience, intelligence, and a lively sense of humor to our community. Christina has three children who attend school on the East Coast.

Michaele O’Brien, parent of LCDS students Katherine and Morgan, is the School’s director of admission. She comes to LCDS from Millersville University where she was a faculty member in the Department of Educational Foundations in the College of Education. She also served as All-School Coordinator at the New School in Lancaster. Michaele will use her expertise in research methods to enhance the School’s admission process and continue to build upon the marketing and communications plan begun three years ago.

Junior's diverse work experience provides a good backdrop for the many roles assumed by business managers in independent schools, including financial aid, food service, human resources, purchasing, construction and facilities management in addition to the traditional roles of budgeting, financial reporting, accounting, payroll and regulatory compliance.

Born and reared in eastern Kansas, Junior spent summers working on his grandfather's farm and feels a special connection to the agricultural heritage of Lancaster County. Following graduation from Kansas State University in mechanical engineering, he married his high school sweetheart and accepted employment at Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, enrolling in a work/study program at the Univ. of New Mexico to earn an MS in mechanical engineering and gain experience as a manufacturing development engineer in the nation's foremost non-nuclear component weapons lab. Relocating to Kansas City, Junior worked for TWA while pursuing an MBA degree from UMKC in night school, after which he accepted a position in the finance department at TWA headquarters in NYC. Junior then joined Chemico Air Pollution Control Co. as Director Information Systems. Following the acquisition of this company by GE, he was named a manager in the finance unit and relocated to Lancaster, PA when the offices were moved to Lebanon, PA. Junior later became Project Manager in a design-build construction firm in Lancaster. In 1992, he became the Business Manager of Lancaster Country Day School.

Community involvement has included positions of responsibility in several churches as well as Lancaster Northeast Rotary Club, Boy Scouts, and Manheim Township school parent associations and district committees. Junior and wife Sherron are the proud parents of 3 grown sons, all of whom served their country as officers in the armed forces.