About Common Circles

Rye Country Day School is a coeducational, college preparatory school dedicated to providing students from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 with an excellent education using both traditional and innovative approaches. In a nurturing and supportive environment, RCDS offers a challenging program that stimulates individuals to achieve their maximum potential through academic, athletic, creative, and social endeavors. They are actively committed to diversity. RCDS expects and promotes moral responsibility and strives to develop strength of character within a respectful school community. The goal of Rye Country Day School is to foster a lifelong passion for learning, understanding, and service in an ever-changing world.

Students emerge from RCDS with strength of character, ready to engage in continuous learning, to show kindness and empathy, to adapt and thrive within a changing global context, to contribute meaningfully to their communities large and small, and to find joy and fulfillment in life. Experiences that promote these outcomes are woven throughout the program with increasing complexity and expectations.

Ellen Berger is a City of White Plains District Leader, member of the Nominating Committee, the Executive Committee, and Program Chair of the White Plains Democratic City Committee. Ellen created and executed the White Plains High School Student Essay Contest sponsored by the WPDCC (White Plains Democratic Committee) to engage high school students to think about how to solve problems within our communities and to inspire young people to become active citizens, think proactively to help build community. ria She organized a Citywide photography exhibit, at the White Plains Public Library, “Countdown to Eternity”, The Last Year of Martin Luther King’s Life, showing the work of renowned photographer Benedict Fernandez, also sponsored by the WPDCC. Ellen also brought Emmy award winning documentary film producer, Emily Driscoll, to the Democratic City Committee for a screening and discussion highlighting environmental issues.

Earlier in Ellen’s career, she was appointed Membership Chair of Westchester County for Channel 13 and later started a nationwide art gallery representing outstanding American craft artists. She was a dealer of contemporary art by American artists.

Ellen was instrumental in bringing the exhibit “We Are White Plains” featuring the Shoah Foundation’s “Dimensions in Testimony”, funded and organized by “Common Circles” to the White Plains High School and Middle Schools.

Ellen is also on the Board of “Steve’s Camp at Horizon Farms”, the Gedney Association of White Plains, and Friends of Museums in Israel, among others.  She holds a degree from New York University in Fine Arts and French and an MA from the University of Buffalo in French Literature. Ellen began her career as a high school teacher in Buffalo, NY.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Steve attended University City High School, where he excelled in academics as well as in sports, playing competitive baseball, basketball, football, and track. He attended the University of Missouri on a track scholarship. Steve went on to receive his medical degree and specialized in diagnostic radiology. He practiced radiology in a private group, worked as an associate professor of radiology and published scientific articles for 30 years.

In 1996, Steve and his wife had a near death experience, which had a profound effect on him. Now retired, that experience continues to influence how he spends his retirement years.

Steve has served on a variety of philanthropic boards such as the American Cancer Society and Missouri Healthcare For All and was the recipient of the 2000 Wendell Scott Award. He is a weekly volunteer at Fox 2 News Call for Action, and enjoys working with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Washington University in St. Louis.

Gregg is the CFO and Board Treasurer of Common Circles, and a Managing Partner of Altus Power. Until 2013, Gregg was the head of the Liberty Harbor team and the chief investment officer of Liberty Harbor, the credit alternatives platform at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). He oversaw the flagship Liberty Harbor fund, a value focused, event driven credit hedge fund, as well as related funds and separate accounts. Gregg joined Goldman Sachs as a partner in 2006. Prior to joining the firm, Gregg was a senior portfolio manager at Amaranth Advisors, a multi-strategy hedge fund located in Greenwich, Connecticut. Gregg led Amaranth’s global corporate credit investment team from 2000 to 2006. Before joining Amaranth, he was a vice president at Chase Manhattan Bank. From 1997 to 1999, Gregg served as a portfolio manager and senior analyst for Chase’s Special Situations Fund. Prior to that, he worked in the High Yield Finance Department of Chase’s Global Investment Bank.

Gregg earned a BA in Economics from Tufts University and a JD and MBA from the Georgetown University Law Center and School of Business.

Karen Handelman, founder and owner of 501creative, has been on a journey to learn about bias and equity since the early 90s. She spent a year volunteering full-time for Habitat for Humanity, has sat on multiple nonprofit boards working to create more equity and inclusion, and continues to support organizations that are making a difference for individuals in our communities.

When Karen first met Marla and Sue in 2016, she realized quickly that their vision for Common Circles – working with students and teaching them about bias and commonality at an early age – was missing in many of the organizations she had worked with. She believes that learning about implicit bias and accepting that it exists in all of us is a huge first step.

501creative is a design and communications agency for nonprofit organizations. Founded by Karen Handelman in 1995, 501’s tight-knit team of designers, programmers, and strategists work closely with nonprofits around the U.S. helping them create brands, messaging, and materials to fundraise, recruit, and educate. 501 has been working with Common Circles since 2016 helping develop the overall brand, website, and a variety of educational tools including the “We Are White Plains” Traveling Museum. Learn more about 501creative. Learn more about 501creative.

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