Staff Directory

Mrs. Roxanna De Peña-Elder recently completed her 26th year in education. She started her
educational career in the Diocese of Brooklyn as a teacher, where she saw the significant and
lasting impact she had on the lives of the students. After teaching for 10 years, she
realized that she could impact an entire school as an Assistant Principal, which she did for 5
years. She then took on the responsibility of her own school, serving as Principal for 5 years.
Seeing the impact that she could have and the change that she could bring about as a Principal,
eventually fueled her desire to do so on a larger scale, so she became a District Superintendent,
where she was responsible for thirty three schools located throughout Brooklyn, New York. She
served as District Superintendent for 5 years, leaving that role to join The De La Salle School.

Mrs. De Peña-Elder earned her Bachelors of Arts from Bernard Baruch College, her Masters of
Science in Administration of Education from Saint John’s University and holds New York State
certification in School Building Leadership. The driving force in Mrs. De Peña-Elder’s life is
her belief in the importance of creating opportunities for students to achieve their full potential
and she is excited for the opportunity to join the leadership team of The De La Salle School to
further this belief.

Mrs. Jeanmarie Becker is entering her seventh year as principal of The De La Salle School which is experiencing
strong growth under her innovative vision. Working collaboratively with faculty and administrators, Mrs.
Becker has spearheaded the implementation of numerous programs and organizational changes that enhance
the educational programming provided by the school; the performance and experience of its students and the
overall engagement of the students’ parents/guardians.

Prior to joining The De La Salle School, Mrs. Becker served as Assistant Principal at Holy Family School in
Hicksville from 2015 to 2017. While there, she led and managed numerous administrative tasks in addition to
serving as the principal’s liaison to families, faculty and administrative staff. Prior to beginning her
professional tenure at Holy Family, Mrs. Becker interned at the school fulfilling her Master’s of Education
Administration requirement receiving the degree from Fordham University in 2015. During her internship she
served as the 7 th  and 8 th  grade Math teacher and demonstrated valuable administrative and leadership qualities
that led the Holy Family pastoral and administrative leaders to appoint her as Assistant Principal.
Her extensive career in education includes 14 years at St Raymond’s Elementary School in East Rockaway
where she served as a preschool teacher and the 7 th  and 8 th  grade Math and Religion teacher with 8 th  grade
homeroom responsibilities,  Mrs. Becker initiated change and innovation that resulted in the spiritual and
educational enrichment of the students as well as an increase in the participation and engagement of their
parents. Mrs. Becker was vital to the integration of leading-edge educational technologies such as the
SmartBoard and Castle Learning, that filtered across the entire school curricula. Working with parents, she
also refined essential fundraising events, from the Annual School Yard Sale to Italian Night, that successfully
raised thousands of dollars in support of essential school activities, the 8th Grade spiritual and team-building
retreat in particular.

Mrs. Becker’s experience in education is also highlighted by 5 years serving as head coach of women’s and
men’s volleyball programs at NCAA Division II Quincy University, which was followed by 9 years as varsity
and junior high head coach at Lynbrook High School. She is a 1989 graduate of LIU-CW Post with a BS in
Elementary Education.

Mr. Holden’s years in the workforce have spanned a number of careers from teaching and coaching to
government bond brokering and currently to development.  A number of those years were spent building a
business based on personal relationships as a Wall Street broker, ultimately rising to a managing director’s role
at Cantor Fitzgerald. As a businessman, he actively took a leading role as a board member and special events
coordinator for a number of nonprofit organizations.
Leaving Cantor in 1997, prior to the events of September 11th, has Mr. Holden to concentrate his efforts in the
mission based nonprofit world. He has been instrumental in building business partnerships for Futures in
Education Foundation in the Diocese of Brooklyn; developing a fundraising council and tripling the money
donated to the Annual Fund as a development professional at Msgr. McClancy Memorial High School in
Queens; directing a $12.5 million capital campaign to build a home for the aged poor on behalf of the Little
Sisters of the Poor in the Bronx; and most recently to leading a highly successful development team at Family
& Children’s Association raising over $12 million over a span of seven years. 
Mr. Holden received his nonprofit management training from Hofstra University. Committed to the concept of
maximizing potential, Don’s dedicates himself to tirelessly working on behalf of those in need. He and his
wife, Diana, live in Port Washington, NY.

Ms. Spohr joined the De la Salle Family in 2022 as the new full-time Graduate Support Director. She spent
the previous four years in the same capacity at the NativityMiguel School in Scranton, Pennsylvania. A Long Island
native, Ms. Spohr received both her BS and MS degrees in Counseling from the University of Scranton. We
are blessed to have her talent and expertise gained at the NativityMiguel School here at The De La Salle
School. Her academic credentials serve our De La Salle gentlemen well.

Mrs. Orrego begins her third full year this September at The De La Salle School. Her bright, upbeat
personality is exactly what any organization needs as the first person a visitor meets upon arrival.  We are
blessed to have Mrs. Orrego's organizational talents which she developed in the business world and her
ability to communicate with our Spanish speaking parents.

Mrs. Jonza-Sormilic will be starting her fourth year as The De La Salle School’s social worker. She earned a
bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Molloy College and a clinical master’s degree in Social Work from
Fordham University.  Her caring, compassionate love for the students and alumni of The De La Salle School
and her training in social work make Mrs. Jonza-Sormilic’s presence as a staff member during the school day
and in the Extended Program vital to our De La Salle Gentlemen.