Alumni
Alumni Achievement Awards
2026 Alumni Achievement Award Recipients
Harrisburg Academy is delighted to announce the 2026 Alumni Achievement Award winners
and inductees into our Hall of Fame.
Professional Achievement Award
Joseph P. Gillette ’82 is an entrepreneur and business executive whose connection to Harrisburg Academy began when his family moved to Harrisburg for his father to serve as Headmaster. While at the Academy, Joe was a multi-sport athlete and discovered lacrosse during his freshman year—a sport that would become a lifelong passion. He went on to earn a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania, where he walked on to the lacrosse team and ultimately became captain of an Ivy League championship team.
Joe spent more than three decades as an entrepreneur and leader in the telecommunications industry. In 1995, he founded Gillette Global Network, which merged with Eureka Broadband in 2000, after which he served as CEO of the combined company. In 2004, he founded Stage 2 Networks and spent the next 15 years building and leading the company before selling its customer base in 2020. Today, Joe remains active in entrepreneurial ventures, strategic advisory work, and nonprofit service.
Joe's relationship with Harrisburg Academy has continued throughout his life. He currently serves on the Academy Foundation's Board of Directors, having served the Academy's Board in recent years as Treasurer and in other leadership capacities supporting the school's financial strength and long-term sustainability. Lacrosse, too, has remained a constant—from playing competitively after college to sponsoring and coaching the game and, eventually, watching all three of his sons become accomplished players. Joe considers both his Academy experience and the relationships formed there to be enduring influences on his approach to leadership, competition, service, and family. Married for 28 years, Joe and his wife Lisa have 3 sons aged 26, 24 and 17.
Academic Achievement Award
Benjamin Rose ’89 is a traditionally published author of four young adult novels, and a professional researcher. He also ghostwrote a memoir for a colleague. His love of writing was enhanced by attending English classes taught by Lee March.
Ben’s years at the academy were interesting, and his journey beyond led him to travel for a couple of decades by bus, car, freight train, Amtrak, and foot in an effort to see America and find stories to write. He also sought himself but upon finding himself found that he didn’t get along with himself if you dig the riff.
Ben’s novels include: Everybody But Us, The Long Game, Bury Me Upside Down, and Found Family. He ghostwrote From The Streets to The Steps: One Day at a Time by Jimmy Pidgeon. All of these books were published by Oracle BookArt Publishing and can be found online at Barnes and Noble.
Service to Humanity Award
Katherine Browne '78 is a New York City-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice combines public art, oral history, performance and social engagement. Her work has been seen in the United States, Europe and Latin America. Before developing her COCOON series, she spent more than two decades creating experimental theatre works centered on symbolic objects, light, sound and collective creation. Since 2008, her COCOON series has evolved into an internationally recognized body of work that brings communities together through immersive artistic experiences grounded in memory and place. In 2022 she began work on her ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS series that she calls her democracy artworks.
Kate Browne’s COCOON is an ongoing, site-specific performance-installation series. Since 2008, she has collaborated with communities impacted by forced or voluntary migrations to construct large-scale, illuminated Cocoon sculptures that share their memories of displacement. The sculpture is a 10-foot by 26-foot temporary outdoor structure constructed from local natural materials. Browne records in-depth interviews with residents, weaving them into a loop of audio that plays directly from within the sculpture. The work culminates in a community event where the community process through the neighborhood carrying lights and symbolic objects before illuminating the sculpture and gathering inside to listen to the shared stories.
In 2022, Kate Browne began work on her Roadside Attractions series, making artworks in public space that could be experienced from a moving car. Her first work in this series was Hero’s Hill, a 200-ton, 10-foot tall, gravel mound with WE WANT THE NEXT HERO TO ARRIVE ON TIME repeated in stainless steel letters down the sides. The work exists for a limited time – long enough to make an impression, but not long enough to become familiar. For a while the work interrupts the landscape. Then the landscape returns to its former self.
Rising Star Award
Dalia Shvartsman ’20 is an avid violinist, violist, and teaching artist. She currently holds teaching positions at Temple Music Prep and The Philadelphia School, and is an artist-in-residence at Temple University. After graduating from the Academy in 2020, she attended The Pennsylvania State University as a Schreyer Honors Scholar where she earned a Bachelor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance studying with Professor James Lyon and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Dalia completed her Master of Music at the University of Delaware, where her teachers included Professors Xiang Gao, Elias Goldstein, and Jeremy Berry. Shvartsman is a registered Suzuki teacher, having completed training at the Greater Washington and Japan-Seattle Suzuki Institutes, and is a member of the Greater Philadelphia Suzuki Association. Shvartsman’s honors thesis, titled “The Role of Music in the Development of Emotional Granularity in Children,” was published through Penn State University Libraries in 2024. Building on this research, Shvartsman started the SoundWorld Music Program— a series of workshops and concerts geared toward developing auditory emotional awareness in children. In the spring of 2026, the program was piloted in Mr. Gamon's 4th grade strings classes here at the Academy! Dalia plays on an Oliver Radke violin, generously loaned to her by the Virtu Foundation. She remains deeply grateful to her teachers before college, including Peter Sirotin and Marina Kozlova. Thrilled to be back visiting her alma mater, she sends particular gratitude to Mr. Gamon for his mentorship during her time at the school and beyond.
Alumni of the Year Award
Upon graduating from Harrisburg Academy, Teri Rooney ’92 earned an undergraduate degree from Elizabethtown College and a master’s degree from Temple University’s School of Social Administration . Her career in public service at the local, state, and federal levels included roles as a policy specialist, program administrator, grant analyst, and executive assistant. She was selected for the Governor’s Leadership Development Institute in 2008 and retired from the Commonwealth’s Executive Staff that same year following the birth of her daughter, Ava.
In 2012, Teri and her husband, Shane, enrolled Ava in Harrisburg Academy’s preschool program. Now, as Ava completes her senior year, Teri and Shane are celebrating their fifteenth year as Academy parents. For Teri, watching Ava grow at the school she first joined as a student four decades ago has been especially meaningful.
Teri has devoted countless hours to the Academy through Family Dances, Outdoor Workdays, Spring Galas, Fine Arts productions, and other school initiatives. She and her family have also been generous supporters of the Academy, contributing to campus improvements, Fine Arts equipment, furnishings, special events, and annual faculty and staff initiatives.
For the past six years, Teri has served on the Board of Trustees and for the past two years on the Harrisburg Academy Foundation. During her tenure, she has served on numerous committees, chaired the Schools Committee, co-chaired the Interim Head of School Search Committee, and currently serves her second term as Board Secretary.
Teri’s enduring commitment to Harrisburg Academy - as an alumna, parent, volunteer, trustee, and philanthropist - reflects a deep dedication to the school and its future.
2026 Athletics Hall of Fame Inductees
Aja Washington Teich '09
“Being a three-sport athlete at Harrisburg Academy since 6th grade was one of the biggest blessings in my life. My coaches constantly poured into me, challenging me to be the best version of myself, teaching me how to be a great teammate, and encouraging me after every win and loss – all life lessons I have taken with me in every phase of my life. I am grateful for my experiences, my coaches, and all my teammates over the years who helped shape me into the woman I am today.”
2009 Boys' Tennis Team
2009 Mid Penn Team Tennis Champions - P.I.A.A. District III Runner-Up - P.I.A.A. State Quarterfinalist
Head Coach April Gift, Assistant Coach Richard Rauenzahn, Max Bernstein ’09, Doug Caplan ’11, Zach Cohen ’10, Scott Fasnacht ’10, Andrew Kantor ’10, Dan Montchal ’09, Andrew Nguyen ’09, Theo Otto ’10, Steven Pecht ’09, Sebastian Rauenzahn ’10,