Board Members - Fayetteville-Manlius Schools

Board member biographies

Jason Catalino

Jason Catalino, of Fayetteville, is serving his second term on the board of education. He has lived in the district for ten years and he and his wife Karrie have three children: one who attends Wellwood Middle School and two who attend Fayetteville-Manlius High School.

Catalino is an accounting manager with National Grid and has more than 20 years of experience as a certified public accountant. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from SUNY Geneseo and a master’s degree in business administration from LeMoyne College.

Catalino previously served as an assistant coach for F-M Little League and is a member of the board for the Syracuse Chapter of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is an active volunteer for various Wellwood Home and School Association events and actively supports the Immaculate Conception Church youth ministry.

Rebecca Cohen

Rebecca Cohen, of Fayetteville, is serving her third term on the board of education. She and her husband Brendan McGinn have three children: two who attend Wellwood Middle School (grade 6) and one who attends Fayetteville Elementary School (grade 4). Cohen is a Fayetteville-Manlius High School graduate and has been a district resident for 21 years.

She attended Brown University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. She earned her Juris Doctor from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Cohen is an attorney with Bousquet Holstein PLLC, where she practices immigration law.

She currently serves on the InterFaith Works of Central New York Board of Directors and is an active pro bono immigration attorney with the Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY, Inc.

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Sarah Fitzgerald

Sarah Fitzgerald (she/her), of Manlius, is serving her first term on the board of education. She and her spouse Patrick have four children who attend Fayetteville-Manlius schools.

Ms. Fitzgerald has been a district resident for 20 years. She volunteers in support of Enders Road and Eagle Hill’s home and school associations and she also serves as Chair of the Vera House Foundation.

Ms. Fitzgerald graduated from LeRoy High School and received a Bachelor of Science degree from LeMoyne College. She is also a graduate of Leadership Greater Syracuse. She is a former human resource manager and program manager for Sensis & Saab Corporation, and is currently a stay-at-home parent.

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Cynthia Hefti

Cynthia Hefti, of Manlius, is serving her first term on the board of education. She and her husband Jonathan have two children who are Fayetteville-Manlius High School graduates.

Ms. Hefti has been a district resident for 20 years. She is an Oneonta High School graduate, received a Bachelor of Science degree from SUNY Oneonta, and a Masters in the Art of Teaching degree from Colgate University. Before retiring in 2020, Ms. Hefti was an F-M English teacher for 24 years. During this time, she was the pilot teacher for the high school’s former ILEX program, which is now called ACCESS, and received a Teacher of Excellence award from the New York State English Council. She also served as advisor for two high school student groups: an animal shelter assistance club, and a club focusing on supporting the LGBTQ+ community.

Ms. Hefti is a member of the Fayetteville-Owahgena Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).

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Sharon Lindars

Sharon Lindars, of Manlius, is serving her second term on the board of education. She has served as board vice president since 2019, participated on the district’s policy and community relations committees, served as a board legislative liaison and represented the board of education on the F-M Education Foundation.

Shari is an F-M graduate, having attended Mott Road and Fayetteville elementary schools, Wellwood Middle School and Fayetteville-Manlius High School. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University, from which she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and a Master of Arts degree in elementary education. She taught in elementary schools for 14 years in Maryland, Texas and North Carolina.

She moved back to the Fayetteville-Manlius area in 2010 and was a certified teacher in New York. She worked as a substitute teacher and a teaching assistant for the Fayetteville-Manlius School District and as a substitute and adjunct teacher for the Liverpool and Syracuse school districts. She served as co-president of the Mott Road Elementary School Home and School Association from 2015-2017 and coordinated after-school clubs at Mott Road from 2014-2019. She and her husband Paul have two children who attend F-M High School.

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Marissa Joy Mims

Marissa Joy Mims, of Manlius, has lived in the school district since 2006 and was elected to the F-M Board of Education in 2009. She previously served as the board’s vice president from 2010-2011 and served as president from 2011-2015.

Ms. Mims is the Legislative Liaison for the board of education. She serves on the board’s audit and community relations committees in addition to the New York State School Boards Association Resolution Committee.

Ms. Mims was the 2017-2018 Vice-President of the Caucus of Black School Board Members, previously serving as the Area 4 Director. She is chair of the Onondaga County Justice Center Oversight Committee, which develops policy recommendations for the Onondaga County sheriff. Ms. Mims serves on the board of directors for Fayetteville-Manlius A Better Chance and Focus Greater Syracuse. She is vice-president of public relations for the Manlius Lions Club and serves on the steering committee and as communications chair for the East Area Support Network. She was a member of the district’s former special education advisory committee. Ms. Mims is a Class of 2008 member of Leadership Greater Syracuse.

She received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Syracuse University and completed the National Writing Project program at SUNY Cortland. She is pursuing a second career in teaching after working in nonprofit management. She is currently a long-term substitute eighth-grade science teacher in the Syracuse City School District for the 2016-17 school year. Her twin son and daughter are in 10th grade at Fayetteville-Manlius High School.

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Kristen Purcell

Kristen Purcell, of Fayetteville, is serving her first term on the board of education. She and her husband Eric Boye have one child who attends Wellwood Middle School. Purcell has been a district resident for eight years.

A Jamesville-DeWitt High School graduate, Purcell received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology, a Master of Science degree in elementary education and a Certificate of Advanced Study in school building and district administration from Syracuse University. Purcell is the Director of CNY/Oswego County Teacher Center.

Prior to her current role, she served in various educational roles, including Coordinator of Social Emotional Learning, Community Partnerships and Family Engagement for Solvay Union Free School District; assistant principal of Eagle Hill Middle School; Assistant Coordinator of Innovative Teaching and Learning at Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services; and elementary teacher for Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District. She is currently a member of New York State Association for Women in Administration – Central New York Chapter and is involved in Wellwood Middle School’s Home and School Association, and Site-Based Team.

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Daniel Seidberg

Daniel Seidberg, of Manlius, is serving his second term on the board of education. He has lived in the F-M district his entire life, having attended Mott Road Elementary School and Wellwood Middle School before graduating from F-M High School. He and his wife Jenée, also an F-M graduate, have two children: one who is a 2021 F-M graduate and one who attends F-M High School. He volunteered as a trustee of the FM Education Foundation, served as a youth soccer coach for 14 seasons, co-chaired the Cavalry Club swim program, served as a member of the F-M Community Facility Task Force and has been involved in other F-M programming.

Mr. Seidberg received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Colgate University and earned his Juris Doctor degree from Boston University School of Law. Mr. Seidberg is an attorney and also the president and co-founder of an international company that provides emergency technology and communication tools to fire departments, emergency medical services agencies, police departments and other first responder entities throughout North America.

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Daryll Fitch Wheeler

Daryll Fitch Wheeler, of Fayetteville, is serving her third term on the board of education. She has been a district resident since 1950 and attended F-M from kindergarten through grade 12. She and her husband David M. Wheeler Sr., also an F-M alumnus and former principal of Wellwood Middle School, have seven children, all of whom are F-M graduates. They currently have three grandchildren attending F-M schools and three who graduated in 2017, 2021 and 2023.

She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Nazareth College of Rochester, a Master of Science degree in Reading and Language Arts from Syracuse University, and a Certificate of Advanced Study in School Administration from LeMoyne College.

Before retiring in 2011, she taught English at Fayetteville-Manlius High School and English and reading in the Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District at Jamesville-DeWitt Middle School and Moses DeWitt Elementary School. She finished her career at OCM BOCES in the Regional School Support Center and the Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment department, working directly with teachers and administrators in a three-county region. A member of the parish of The Immaculate Conception in Fayetteville, Mrs. Wheeler serves as a lector and Eucharistic minister and recently co-chaired the parish’s celebration of its 150th anniversary.

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