The Role of the Covenant Board of Trustees
Authority and responsibility for the successful operation of the school begins with the Board of Trustees. The Board sets policy and a budget, and gives authority to the Head of School to administer these policies and to employ the necessary staff to implement them. The Head of School, in turn, delegates authority and assigns responsibility to the Staff and Faculty. This network of authority and responsibility is Covenant Academy’s chain of accountability for both job performance and communication.
Board of Trustees Directory
Rob Grooms
Chairman
Rob grew up in Sherman, Texas and during his freshman year in college, came to know Christ through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin University with a B.B.A. in Accounting in 1994 and has worked in public accounting, performing audits of hospitals and other not-for-profit organizations. Since 2006, Rob has worked for Houston Methodist Hospital in the supply chain management department.
Cathy and Rob have been married since 2003 and have three sons, Witt (Class of 2022), Charlie (Class of 2026), and Sam (Class of 2034). They are members of Houston’s First Baptist Church, where Rob serves as a Deacon, and where Rob and Cathy both teach third grade life Bible study. They have attended Covenant since 2016 and are beyond grateful to be part of the Covenant community.
Ed Austin
Treasurer
Ed received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy, West Point and began his professional career as an aviation officer in the United States Army. During more than nine years of service, he served in a variety of leadership and staff roles globally. Following assignments in Korea and the U.S., Ed moved to Germany serving as the Air Traffic Control safety and standardization officer responsible for ATC services at all military airfields in Europe. In this role, he forward deployed to Iraq at the onset of the war designing all terminal airspace and leading the rebuild of the military’s logistics hub, Balad Air Base. He concluded his Army career commanding a Blackhawk unit in Afghanistan.
After receiving his Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Illinois, Ed joined ExxonMobil in 2008. Since joining ExxonMobil, Ed has progressed through a variety of business development, strategic planning, and analytical roles based out of the U.S., Qatar, and Singapore. In 2016, he was acknowledged for concluding the industry’s first long-term LNG sales agreement into Brazil. In 2018, Ed was named Vice President of ExxonMobil LNG Market Development and continues in that role leading a global team conducting business development activities focused in Asia, Africa and South America.
Ed resides in Cypress with his wife, Amanda, and their two children, Gabi (Class of 2025) and Crews (Class of 2027). He and his family are active members of Second Baptist Church. Ed understands the value of a Christian education having attended a small private parochial K-12 school himself.
Andy Ellis
Secretary
Andy grew up in Kingwood, attended Texas A&M University, and graduated with a Petroleum Engineering degree in 1995. Leigh and Andy were married in 1999, and spent their first fifteen years of marriage in Midland, Texas. In 2014 the company that he worked for closed their Midland office, and they relocated to join the Houston office. Andy is now the COO of Escondido Resources, an oil and gas company focused on drilling and producing natural gas in the South Texas area.
Leigh and Andy have three children, Jack (Class of 2021), Abby (Class of 2025), and Sam (Class of 2025) who began attending Covenant Academy the fall of 2014. They have grown to love Covenant Academy, the teachers, staff, Mrs. Collins, and the parents and can think of no better place for their kids to be learning about God’s plan for their lives. He is excited about the bright future and amazing leaders that this school is creating in obedience to God.
Michael Gaines
Board Member At Large
Currently residing in Cypress, Texas, Michael Gaines holds the title of The Voice at NOV. He is the creator, producer, editor, and host of several media programs including the company’s internal and external podcast NOV Today, which is distributed to the company’s 36,000 employees in 64 countries. He most recently began hosting the company’s online livestream shows, NOV Live and Ask Assaad.
In addition to his communications responsibilities, Michael is also charged with leading the company’s content team, which is responsible for all press releases, social media content, articles, technical papers, industry magazine publications, and intranet content.
Before his communications role, he served in various product management roles, acting as an incubated business owner within the organization. Having experience in the full scope of technology commercialization, Michael honed his experience managing product lines with annual revenues in excess of $90MM and successfully engaged the full complement of functional groups within the company, including Finance, Engineering, Manufacturing, Sales, and Business Strategy.
Michael holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marketing from LeTourneau University, a Master of Business Administration from Amberton University, and is a graduate of NOV Ventures – a joint Technology Commercialization program with NOV and the University of Texas.
Born in Dallas, Texas, Michael came to understand his need for a Savior and accepted Christ at the age of 11. He was later baptized at his then-home church Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. Michael and his wife, Rachel, were married in 2008 at Second Baptist Church in Houston, where they currently attend the Cypress campus. Michael is an ordained deacon in the church and has directed and taught in bible study classes since joining Second Baptist. They have two daughters, Emily, and Madison, who both attend Covenant. Michael is fully aligned with the Covenant Academy mission of serving Christ and His Kingdom by sharing the Gospel and partnering with parents to train students by way of Scripture and the classical liberal arts.
Dr. Steve Jones
Ex Officio
Dr. Steven L. Jones is a long-time friend and advisory board member of Covenant Academy. He currently serves as the Teaching and Training Pastor of Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy, Texas. In addition to serving at Kingsland, Steve is a professor of Medical Terminology at Rice University, and has held previous faculty appointments at Houston Baptist University, Trinity University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Baylor University.
Steve holds a BA in Greek and Latin from Baylor University, an MA in Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies from Bryn Mawr College, and a PhD in Classics from the University of Texas at Austin.
Steve and his wife Tamber have six children: Bethany, Rachel, Hannah, Madelyn, Asa and Ezra. When not reading, studying, or teaching, he enjoys taking road-trips with his family, watching baseball or football (whichever is in season), drinking ice-cold Dr. Pepper, eating hamburgers, and showing off his parallel-parking skills.