Landmarks for Families is excited to announce our new and returning board members for the 2023-2024 term. We are happy to report Andrew Rhea’s return for his third term and welcome our newest additions, Maya Simmons, Tom Daffron, Rob Fowler, and Garrett Reuber. These individuals share Landmarks for Families’ vision that all children will have loving and stable families and a nurturing community empowering them to lead successful lives and are committed to our mission of cultivating thriving children and families in Charleston and the surrounding communities.
Below, you can learn more about our esteemed board members with a look at their biographies.
Andrew Rhea
Andrew Rhea is an associate in the Charleston Office of Evans, Carter, Kunes, and Bennett, P.A. He holds a master’s degree in taxation law from New York University School of Law. As an associate, Andrew assists clients with tax issues and implications in a wide variety of areas, including tax planning and business transactions.
Andrew’s practice focuses on individuals and families with sophisticated estate and tax planning. He also works with business entities in structuring their affairs to achieve efficiency and compliance in tax related matters. His work also includes facilitating commercial real estate transactions, complex lease structuring, and negotiating local tax incentives.
Thomas Daffron
Tom is responsible for the demand and inventory planning processes, S&OP, customer service, and quality Performance Materials Business.
Prior to joining Ingevity in 2018, Tom spent 18 years working for Mahle-Behr, a large tier one automotive system supplier. The last seven of these years were spent as Plant Manager with P&L responsibility for a $270M production facility with over 350 employees. Prior to that, he spent three years based in Germany as the Global Quality Director for the $650M commercial vehicle division. Early in his career he gained significant experience in product design and development, operations management, and quality assurance.
Tom was commissioned as an Engineer Officer in the United States Army and spent 12 years in various assignments in the Army Reserves and active-duty deployments.
Prior board experience includes 12 years as a board member with the Low Country Manufacturers Association and two years served as the Board Chairperson. He also spent two years as an executive member of the South Carolina Manufacturers Association Board of Directors.
Tom received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and his MBA from The Citadel.
Rob Fowler
Rob is WCBD-TV’s Chief Meteorologist, a position he has held for more than 30 years. Rob received the Order of the Palmetto in 2006 from the Governor of South Carolina and has been the recipient of numerous “Best of Awards” in different newspapers and magazines, He is a member of both the National Weather Association and American Meteorological Society and has been awarded Seals of Approvals by both organizations.
Rob is a well-known and well-respected member of our community and has faithfully supported us as a volunteer and advocate for several years. Every summer, he participates in our summer Freedom School as a volunteer reader and, for the past three years, has volunteered to emcee our “Night for the Children” Gala. He even served as the volunteer auctioneer in 2023. Rob is very well connected across the community and is a trusted leader who can help expand our network and enhance the reputation of its board of directors. Rob values our work and legacy and is looking forward to helping to deepen our connections within his circle of friends and colleagues. Rob is also interested in helping us improve our marketing and communication activities in the coming year and has expressed interest in Strategic Planning, Program Development, and Donor Appreciation activities.
Garrett Reuber
Garrett is the Vice President, Business Banking Relationship Manager at Bank of America. He was recommended by the Senior VP of Local Markets for service on our board. Garrett is a graduate of Wingate University where he majored in Business Management & Finance and minored in Spanish. He is an active member of Ashley Ridge Church, volunteers through Bank of America at the Ronald McDonald House, and coaches his sons’ sports teams. Garrett is a member of the Bank of America Charleston/Hilton Head Market President’s Leadership Team. Over the last 17 years, Garrett has worked with a variety of nonprofit organizations across diverse sectors and with diverse needs and is experienced as a board member and in his knowledge of nonprofit organizations both large and small.
Garrett is an engaged member of the Charleston and Summerville communities and is looking forward to supporting and advocating for our programs and the children and families they serve. He is interested in helping to promote our work and legacy through financial management, donor appreciation activities, board development, strategic planning, and resource development.
Maya Simmons
Maya Simmons currently holds the position of Materials Director for the Charleston Turbo & ReCon Plant within the Cummins Engine Components (CEC) business unit. She is an accomplished supply chain professional with over 20 years of experience with a background in material planning, master scheduling, program management, and Six Sigma methodology, including extensive proficiency in: Integrated Business Planning, MRP/ERP, End-to-End Process Design, Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), Processed Based Leadership, and Six Sigma methods. Mrs. Simmons is a dynamic leader with a primary focus on equipping, empowering, and inspiring teams to accomplish goals and reach potential through proven coaching, mentoring, change management techniques, and best practices.
As the Materials Director for the Charleston Turbo & ReCon Plant, Mrs. Simmons is responsible for 100+ employees at two manufacturing sites in Charleston, South Carolina. The teams she leads manages and governs the planning, scheduling, inventory control, material flow, shipping, and warehousing for both Charleston locations. Under her leadership, the materials team has helped reduced customer arrears by over 80% from 31K units to below 4K units within her first year as director. This improvement was driven through collaborate work, redesign of team structure, and the redeployment of standard work and controls.
During her 17-year tenure with Cummins, Mrs. Simmons has served in a variety of roles within the supply chain, including four years as the Cummins Turbo Technologies Global Material Leader. While serving in this role, she led the planning swim lane of the Neptune Project aimed to relocate the Memphis, TN, ReCon business to Charleston, SC. Her team developed, tested, and implemented processes which integrated the ReCon business across the Order Management, Planning, Scheduling, Inventory and Packing functions. Mrs. Simmons also facilitated the reduction of CTT Global Inventory through safety stock reductions, global repositioning, and SMI calculation revisions, delivering over $5M in annual savings.
Prior to joining Cummins, Mrs. Simmons worked as a Demand Planning and Logistics Coordinator for Briggs Industries, a major supplier of bathroom and kitchen fixtures for residential, hospitality, and commercial applications. As a Demand Planner, she developed demand forecasts, reviewed historical sales trends, research demand drivers, prepared forecast data, developed statistical forecast models, and evaluated forecast results. While serving as a Logistics Coordinator, she analyzed the financial impact of proposed logistics changes, such as routing, shipping modes, and product volumes.
Mrs. Simmons is the founder of the Charleston site LEED Women’s Affinity Group 2015-2018 (now known as Women’s Empowerment Network (WEN)) which aimed to lead, empower, educate, and develop women in the Charleston area. During her leadership, the group developed the network structure, guidelines, budget, and worked to establish the community relationships.
Mrs. Simmons earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management in 2017.
