Our people
Azark Foundation
Board of Directors / Officers
Richard Kitzmiller
founding member; President; CEO
Dr. Kitzmiller retired from Kingsport City Schools in 2011 after a career as teacher/coach and a ten-year stint as Superintendent of Schools. He was selected as Tennessee’s State Superintendent of the Year in 2011. He joined the Niswonger Foundation in 2012, retiring in March 2024 as its Vice President; during his term as VP, he was instrumental in significant revenue growth, from $2.5M in 2016 to $12.7M in 2023.
Rosemary Kitzmiller
founding member; Vice President; Secretary
Rosey retired from Kingsport City Schools (TN) after a successful career teaching a variety of STEM subjects in several middle- and high-school positions.
Matthew Kitzmiller
founding member; Treasurer
Matt is employed as Director of Budgeting and Purchasing at Northeast State Community College in Blountville, TN. He has experience as an auditor (State of Tennessee) and in a private accounting firm. He holds credentials as a C.P.A. and an M.B.A. degree.
Christopher Beach
joined board in April 2023
Since July 2024 Chris has been serving with Clarvida as Tennessee Director of Operations. In this role, he oversees operations in 16 locations across the state; these locations support a dedication to empower children, adults, and families through family counseling and foster care services. He recently completed his role as Financial/QA Officer in Fairview Housing’s Bristol Lifestyle Recovery, where he leveraged his experience and expertise in financial management, budget development and adherence, and program and contract development to provide essential support to the recovery treatment facility and its clients. In total, Chris has dedicated over 30 years to a career in the social services (Behavioral Health) sector. He has occupied diverse roles in therapeutic foster care and adoption, spanning from direct care to executive leadership. He has held prior leadership roles at Camelot Care Centers Inc., OmniVisions Inc., and SteppenStone Youth Treatment Center.
Charles (Chuck) T. Ervin
joined board in April 2023
Chuck serves as a Senior Engineer for SAP HANA Solutions and High Value Systems. In this role he oversees a world-wide team of Lenovo employees, based out of the US office in Morrisville, NC, and is part of Lenovo’s expanding research into growth areas to advance “New IT” technologies (client, edge, cloud, network, and intelligence). He brings to the board a high level of technical expertise, based on his successful career with IBM and Lenovo. He balances this expertise with an understanding of K-12 schools and students, having served as a mathematics teacher and district-level Director of Technology.
Ronnie Gross
joined board in April 2023
Dr. Gross currently serves as Executive Director, East Tennessee State University (ETSU) TRIO Programs, with budgets that exceed $3.2 million annually, while supervising 27 full-time staff and over 100 part-time staff who serve over 2,400 individuals residing in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia. In this role , he oversees Federal outreach and student services programs designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, in the academic pipeline from middle school to postbaccalaureate programs. He serves as Principal Investigator for Educational Opportunity Center, Educational Talent Search, Ronald E. McNair, two Student Support Services programs (Classic and STEM/Health Sciences), and Veterans Upward Bound. Additionally, he serves as a Director for the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development –(ETSU) Workforce Investment Opportunity Act (WIOA) Eligible Training Provider Program. He is active in state, regional, and national TRIO professional organizations, serving in various leadership capacities.
Lawrence (Law) Loving
joined board in April 2023
Law currently serves as the Director of Career and Workforce Readiness for the Niswonger Foundation in Greeneville, TN. In this role, he oversees the CareerConnect program, manages the Work Ethic Diploma/Distinction (WED) initiative for the state of Tennessee, and supports the federally-funded STEM.LD project. He has seen growth in the WED program from three school systems in Tennessee to over forty and in the CareerConnect program from five high schools to 23. Prior to joining the Niswonger Foundation, Law worked in a marketing research firm, responsible for conceptualizing, executing, and analyzing custom and syndicated research studies. He received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Economics from Tulane University in 2012 with Departmental Honors in Economics and Public Health. He earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from East Tennessee State University and is currently completing his doctoral studies at the University of Arkansas.