Sarah Daignault Outstanding Support of Independent Schools Award

Nominations are currently closed. Sign up here to be notified when nominations for this award open in late summer 2025. If you have any questions, please email membership@nboa.org or call 202-407-7140.

Given to those who have consistently shown generous support and advancement of NBOA and independent school business officers.

Criteria

A person who has consistently shown generous support of NBOA and independent school business officers through their thought leadership, participation in NBOA programs, and/or financial and practical support of the national independent school business officer community. Nominees must be affiliated with an NBOA member organization and may include, but are not limited to association executives, heads of school or senior administrators (other than a business officer) at an independent school, corporate partners, and consultants.

Nomination Questions:

  • Is the nominee retiring during this current school year?
  • Has the nominee's head of school been notified?
  • Number of years in current position?
  • Total number of years of independent school business office/operations experience?
  • Describe how the nominee has demonstrated consistent support for and advancement of independent schools and the role of the business officer. Please give specific examples.
  • Describe the leadership exhibited by the nominee within the independent school community. Please give specific examples.
  • Share in your own words why your nominee is deserving of the NBOA's Outstanding Support of Independent Schools Award.
  • What is your relationship to the nominee and how long have you worked with or known them?

Recipients

The recipient is announced in January, and the award is presented at NBOA's Annual Meeting.

 

2025 Recipient

John Gulla

John C. Gulla

Executive Director
The Edward E. Ford Foundation

John Gulla has served as the executive director of the Edward E. Ford Foundation since 2013. E.E. Ford, in its more than 65 years of making grants, has distributed more than $133,000,000 to approximately 1,000 different independent schools. These grants have helped recipient schools leverage an additional $250,000,000 in matching grants. Over his tenure, Gulla has visited approximately 750 schools across the U.S. that represent the full range of independent schools. In addition, he has written dozens of articles, is frequently invited to speak to groups of independent school leaders, regularly presents at workshops and conferences, and continually works to advance the missions of the schools the foundation aims to serve. During Gulla’s tenure, the foundation has also supported the development of NAIS’ Market View tool and NBOA’s Mission-Anchored Compensation Strategies research among many other high-profile projects. Gulla authored the forward to NBOA’s book, “Effective Financial Governance for Independent School Trustees.”

Before joining E.E. Ford, Gulla served for 14 years as head of school at The Blake School, a 125-year-old school enrolling more than 1,400 students on multiple campuses in and around Minneapolis. He has held administrative and teaching positions in physics, mathematics and history of science at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, Isidore Newman School in New Orleans, and St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn.

A graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University, and Amherst College, Gulla has served on many boards. He helped found Fund for Teachers in 1998, has served on its board since its inception, and chaired the board for many years. He also served on the board of High Mountain Institute, where he was chair of the finance committee for many years. Other board service includes ISACS, MAIS, Milkweed Editions and the Minnesota Chapter of the ACLU.

Past Recipients

NBOA has given out the Outstanding Support of Independent Schools Award since 2011. View the award's past recipients.

 

About Sarah Daignault

The Outstanding Support of Independent Schools Award honors the legacy of Sarah P. Daignault, who served as the Executive Director of NBOA for the first 12 years of its existence. The award recognizes the instrumental role in developing strong relationships in the independent school industry in support of the efforts of the business officer. It honors Sarah's vision and dedication, which transformed NBOA from a small group of like-minded business officers into a thriving organization supported by hundreds of members across the country.