Three alumni are returning to their Catholic high schools in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington this school year to serve in leadership positions at their alma maters. They are among four new Catholic high school leaders taking their posts this new academic year. The following are the new school leaders:

Dr. Lisa M. Grillo, a 1989 graduate of Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg, Maryland, will serve as Seton’s interim president for the 2021-22 school year.
Dr. Grillo brings more than 25 years of experience in school districts across Maryland, the District of Columbia and North Carolina, having served as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent for special education services and chief human resources officer. As a principal at a Washington, D.C. public school, Dr. Grillo led her school community in earning Autonomous School Status, an award given to a select cohort of high-performing schools. As the chief of human resources for Baltimore City and Baltimore County, she designed talent management frameworks and oversaw performance management systems.

Dr. Grillo most recently served as an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Howard University’s School of Education. In this role, she taught graduate courses in educational administration and governance and organizational change, and also coordinated programs for doctoral candidates. She earned her bachelor of arts and master of teaching degrees from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, and her doctor of education degree in educational administration and policy from Howard University. She resides in Bowie, Maryland with her son.

“I am both humbled and honored to serve as interim president during this unique and exciting time of change and opportunity,” said Dr. Grillo. “As an alumna and daughter of Seton, I believe deeply in our school’s mission to prepare well-rounded young women to become exceptional scholars and leaders who are in service to others.”

Jesuit Father Joseph Lingan, a member of Gonzaga’s class of 1975, is the new president of Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C.

Father Lingan entered the Society of Jesus in 1979 and professed his first vows in 1981. He was ordained in 1990 and pronounced his final vows in 1996. He previously served as interim president of Gonzaga in 2010 to 2011 after the death of Jesuit Father Allen Novotny,

In addition to his previous service as interim president, Father Lingan served as a Gonzaga faculty member from 1991-1995 and a member of the school’s Board of Trustees from 1999- 2008. He was awarded the Gonzaga’s Alumni Man of the Year Award in 2011, the St. Aloysius Medal in 2018, and the Rev. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Service Award in 2019.

Father Lingan holds a master’s degree in theology and a master of divinity degree, both from the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts; he pursued special studies in philosophy at St. Louis University and in humanities at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska; and earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Over the years, Father Lingan has held many posts. Among them, he has been an associate director of the Jesuit House Jesuit Retreat Center in Atlanta; a member of the Board of Trustees for Cristo Rey high schools in Atlanta and Baltimore; a member and former chairman of the Board of Directors of Loyola Retreat House in Faulkner, Maryland; rector of the Georgetown University Jesuit Community in Washington, D.C.; a member of the School Advisory Board of Holy Trinity Catholic School in Washington, D.C.; a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Jesuit Academy in Washington, D.C.; the master of novices for the Maryland, New England and New York Provinces of the Society of Jesus; province consultor for the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus; a member of the Board of Trustees of Loyola Blakefield School in Baltimore; and rector and president of St. Michael’s Institute in Spokane, Washington.

“I pray that I serve the school and all those who love her in a way that reflects well the confidence and hope this appointment suggests,” Father Lingan said. “I am humbled and honored to have this opportunity to return and serve Gonzaga, and to begin doing so in the year Gonzaga recognizes and celebrates her bicentennial.”

Leonor (Nori) Limarzi Ponzio, a 1997 graduate of Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, D.C., has been named the new principal of that school.

An award-winning Catholic educator, Ponzio has devoted her career to serving in schools. A multi-linguist who is fluent in Italian and Spanish, she taught middle school language arts, social studies, and math before returning to her alma mater in 2005. 

At Visitation, she was a member of the English Department for more than a decade, and was selected as Visitation’s New Teacher of the Year in 2008. In 2016, she became Visitation’s director of educational technology, where she has spearheaded the school’s development of a collaborative, mission-aligned vision and program for educational technology, which was essential this past year as the school pivoted to virtual and then hybrid learning during the pandemic.

While working at Visitation, she earned her master of science degree in educational studies with dual certification in technology for educators and administration and supervision from Johns Hopkins University. During her tenure, she has directed the school’s Saturday School program, coached its championship soccer team, served on the admissions committee, helped update the schedule and handbook, and served as senior class moderator.

Rich Dumais, formerly the chairman of the Board of Directors of Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Takoma Park, Maryland, has been named interim president of the school.

Prior to serving at Don Bosco Cristo Rey, Dumais was the chief operating officer at the Washington Jesuit Academy in Washington, D.C. In 2015, he was a partner with Brown Advisory, where he had been a strategic advisor since 1996 and managed the Washington Office. Before joining Brown, Dumais practiced law with Piper & Marbury and Stewart, Plant & Blumenthal in Baltimore, where he concentrated in estate and charitable planning and trust administration.

Dumais graduated with honors from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1986 and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland in College Park in 1981. He now lives in Kensington, Maryland, with his wife, Nicole, and has three grown children and seven grandchildren.

During this interim period, Charles Abell will serve as acting board chair of the school.

Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School is a co-ed Catholic college-preparatory school where students earn much of their own tuition through an innovative Corporate Work Study program.