Experienced Practitioners and Dedicated Parents

Our founding team is dedicated to serving the needs of our unique demographic of students

Gary Sobolow

Mr. Sobolow is the originating founder and project leader of the Whole Life/Learner Alternatives Charter School as well as the father of Calli, a 2010 graduating senior at Cheltenham High School. As an individual diagnosed with ADHD and as the father of a child who is similarly diagnosed, Gary has experienced the problems of the disability from many perspectives. Entrepreneurial in the design and manufacturing industries until a bout with cancer in 2001, Gary swiched careers to become a teacher of computer technologies in order to offer his skills to the next generation of designers. His time as a teacher gave him another lens through which he saw the hardships encountered by students with learning differences. It was all of these experiences and his deep appreciation for the amazing potential of these different children that brought him to begin this project. He now sits on the Board of Directors of the Northeast Philadelphia Satellite of CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder).

Kathleen Dzura

Ms. Dzura was the lead founder of the Montessori Academy Charter School where she served as Principal and CEO for five years .Kathleen has been with the Whole Life Charter School/Learner Alternatives Charter School founding team since our Springfield Township application in 2007 and brings her wealth of school operational knowledge and experience to the WLCS team.

James Cohen, Ph.D.

Partner & Vice President with Micromarketing Strategy Partners, Willow Grove Dr. Cohen has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare arena, carrying out research for major pharmaceutical firms across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia.  Previously, he served as Group Director, Cardiovascular Products, in the Worldwide Strategic Product Development department of SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.  In that post, he was responsible for guiding the commercial development and coordinating the worldwide launch of a new heart failure drug, Coreg (carvedilol), as well as serving as the commercial advisor to several R&D project teams in the cardiovascular category.  Prior to that, he held the position of Director of Rheumatology & Autoimmune Disease in the same department, with responsibility for worldwide marketing of Relafen, as well as providing commercial input to rheumatology/autoimmune R&D project teams.  He also served as Senior Product Manager for the blockbuster ulcer drug Tagamet, coordinating all marketing strategy and tactics during the critical period when the product patent expired.  Other posts held at SmithKline Beecham included Product Manager for Triostat (intravenous T3 under development for use in open heart surgery and transplantation), and Halfan (for malaria prophylaxis), and Manager of Product Research, where he helped reorganize the US marketing research department along strategic lines and led a group of market researchers supporting the full antibiotic and vaccine product line. Prior to commencing his career in business, Dr. Cohen was a research biologist, specializing in animal behavior, ecology and evolutionary theory.

Portia Hunt, Ph.D.

Director of School Counseling, Coordinator of Counseling Psychology, Temple University Dr. Hunt received her doctorate in Counseling and Psychological services in 1975 following a Bachelors of Science degree in Psychology and Secondary Education and a Masters of Science degree in Counselor Education. She has been a Professor of Counseling Psychology at Temple University since 1986. She has written a multitude of papers, reports, and presentations on race and gender differentiation and maintains membership in several national organizations including the American Counseling Association, Association of Multi-Cultural Counseling and Development, American Psychological Association. Dr. Hunt has offered to ground our faculty in basic counseling skills and has consented to provide graduate and undergraduate counseling students from Temple University to work with our students and faculty as they engage in practicum assignments.

Beryl Katz


Founder and CEO, SAGE (Senior Adults for Greater Education)
 Ms. Katz is the director of one of the many 501(c)3 organizations that we are partnering with. SAGE places senior adults in mentoring positions at schools around the Delaware Valley. We will be the grateful beneficiaries of her work. Her organization, with the clever acronym SAGE, Senior Adults for Greater Education, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Beryl is working with the Whole Life Charter School to develop a program that would match senior adults with an understanding of the unique needs of our population.

Martha Christine Kenty, Ph.D.

QUAD2 Consulting / Evaluation Consultant to the A B A Center on Children and the Law

David Meketon


Dean of Students / Assistant Principal, Ret., Masterman High School, Philadelphia, PA

Khara Schonfeld, MEd.

Advisor, El Centro de Estudiantes, a Big Picture School, Philadelphia, PA Ms. Schonfeld earned her Masters in Education Degree in Art Education at Kutztown University in 2009 with her thesis work on non-traditional schools. It was during this time that she learned about Big Picture Schools and began to pursue her role as Advisor during the start-up of Big Picture‘s first Philadelphia school, El Centro where she currently continues her practice. Khara has been very helpful in helping our founding team look at a Big Picture School through the lens of one of its faculty as it goes through the difficult beginning stages of being a school and has helped us to improve aspects of our original plan based on her real life experience. 

Gary Deutsch

Senior counsel, PNC Bank, N.A., Philadelphia, PA Mr. Deutsch manages litigation for PNC Mortgage Company, a division of PNC Bank.  Prior to joining PNC, Mr. Deutsch was assistant general counsel for another financial institution in which he was responsible for managing all litigation for the company and its affiliates.  Mr. Deutsch graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  Mr. Deutsch is also on the board of trustees for the Support Center for Child Advocates and Steppingstone Scholars, Inc. Mr. Deutsch is the parent of a future Whole Life Charter School student and a resident of Springfield Township. 

Vincenetta Murphy, R.N.

Senior Care Corp Ms. Murphy is a Springfield Township resident and the parent of two SDST school children. Her daughter recently graduated and is currently attending the University of South Carolina. Her son is ending his freshman year in high school, a year he needed to complete away from the high school as he found it a difficult environment and to which he refused to go. Vincenetta is hoping that the smaller class sizes and the individualized instruction that will be offered at the Whole Life Charter School will be the answer to his learning needs. She will be bringing her fundraising talents to our school as she did to St. Genevieve’s when her children were in elementary school, helping to raise $64,000 as co-chair of the live and silent auction in 2004.