Distinguished Alumni

Every year the School Faculty votes to honor two men and two women as Distinguished Alumni. Every Charter Day those Distinguished Alumni are invited to speak to our senior boys and senior girls about how their life journeys and the lessons learned at ANC intersect in meaningful and valuable ways. This year's Distinguished Alumni are Dr. Stefani Niles and Shannon Good.

Girls School

Dr. Stefani Davis Niles currently oversees the offices of admission, financial aid, and university communications in her role as Vice President for Enrollment and Communications at Ohio Wesleyan University. In her 23-year career in enrollment management, she has served in leadership positions at Dickinson College, Bryn Athyn College, Hollins University and DePauw University.

She was the 2018-2019 president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the leading national organization for college admission professionals. She led the organization’s board during the U.S. Department of Justice inquiry into the organization’s code of ethics and during the Operation Varsity Blues scandal which captured the attention of the public and mainstream media. In 2017, she received a Fulbright grant to study higher education systems in France. Stefanie has also completed the American Academic Leadership Institute, co-sponsored by CIC and the AASCU, and the Harvard Institute of Educational Leadership. 

Stefanie graduated from the Academy of the New Church Girls School in 1990. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, a master’s degree from Indiana University-Bloomington, and a doctor of education degree from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Shannon Smith Good grew up in Bryn Athyn. She, like her parents and grandparents, attended ANC, from which she graduated in 1980. She was awarded the Theta Alpha Award. She then earned her Associates In Arts from Bryn Athyn College, where she was again awarded the Theta Alpha Award. After Bryn Athyn College, she earned her bachelor’s degree in General Social Sciences and Secondary Education from James Madison University., then her Masters in Library Science, with an emphasis on school libraries, from Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Shannon then married and moved away from Bryn Athyn for 23 years, living first in the DC metro area where she was a school librarian at a High School for 4 years, then for 20 years in central PA, where she was a librarian for an elementary school for learning disabled and emotionally disturbed children. Her two children, Brianne (now 27) and Brandon (now 25) were born. She homeschooled her children until her daughter graduated, then Shannon and her children moved back to Bryn Athyn where her daughter earned her Education degree from Bryn Athyn College and her son first attended ANC then earned his Psychology degree from Bryn Athyn College.

Shannon is currently a librarian at Bryn Athyn Church Elementary School, and she also owns and operates a bed and breakfast, Bryn Ellis Guest House in her home in Bryn Athyn.

If you would like to recommend an ANC Secondary School graduate for consideration for the honor of Distinguished Alumna or Alumnus, please fill out the form linked below:

ANC Secondary Schools Distinguished Alum Nomination Form