Rachel DeGuzman convenes A Call to Action Advisory Task Force
A little over a month after the groundbreaking "Diversity in the Arts: A Call to Action in ROC" symposium, I am excited to announce the formation of the A Call to Action Advisory Task Force - convened to instigate dialogue and actions that advance sustainability and relevance in the local arts and cultural sector. The first task force meeting will be held on September 9 in downtown Rochester, New York.
As its first actions, the task force will review information presented at the "Diversity in the Arts" symposium and data from the post-symposium surveys as well as the plan for the upcoming "Entrepreneurship in the Arts: A Call to Action in ROC" event, which will be held this fall.
I will serve as chair of the A Call to Action Advisory Task Force and its members include:
-Paul Allen, Ph.D. - Research Assistant Professor at University of Rochester Medical Center and Chair of the Board at ImageOut: The Rochester LGBT Film and Video Festival
-Luis Burgos – Photographer and Painter, Retired Administrator at City of Rochester
-Susie Chodorow – Owner at In Balance Complementary Therapy Holistic Services and Education
-Rachel DeGuzman–President and CEO at 21st Century Arts and Founder/Executive Producer of "Diversity in the Arts: A Call to Action in ROC" symposium
-Janice Gouldthorpe - Executive Director at Genesee Center for the Arts & Education
-Lisa Helen Hoffman – Owner and Consultant Trainer at LHH Consulting
-Hoffman Moka Lantum, M.D., Ph.D. – Founder/President of the Board & Chief Curator at Baobab Cultural Center and President at MicroClinic Technologies
-Ruby Lockhart – Executive Director Emeritus, Garth Fagan Dance and Executive Business Consultant
-Debora McDell-Hernandez- Coordinator of Community Programs and Outreach Initiatives, Memorial Art Gallery/University of Rochester
-Margot Muto – Owner & Principal Consultant at Margot Muto Contemporary Art and Gallery Director and Co-Curator at AXOM Gallery and Exhibition Space
-Mark Nerenhausen - Founding Director and Professor of Practice at Janklow Arts Leadership Program/Syracuse University
-John Rodriguez – President at Palacio Group
-Deborah Tretter – Marketing Consultant and Freelance Designer
-Thomas Warfield – Founder and Artistic Director at PeaceArt International and Assistant Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology
-Gaynelle Wethers – Campaign Manager at Lovely Warren for Mayor, Educator, Diversity/Inclusion Expert, and Community Volunteer
For more information about the A Call to Action Advisory Task Force members go the hyperlinked names listed above or read the bios below.
Luis Burgos
Luis Burgos was educated in Rochester public schools, Hobart College, City of Rochester management and leadership programs, and the National Recreation and Parks Association Executive School.
He was employed by the City of Rochester for thirty two (32) years in various assignments before retiring in March of 2014. His last fourteen years with the City of Rochester was spent as the Director of the Bureau of Parks and Recreation and as the Commissioner of the Department of
Recreation and Youth Services. In those capacities, his responsibilities included: management of Recreation/Community Centers; park stewardship and development; youth programs (employment, leadership development, arts, culture, education, pregnancy prevention, and gang outreach/violence reduction) and the Public Market. He aggressively pursued arts and cultural programming in all of those areas as he viewed such programming as a critical nexus for youth development, community development, healthy life-styles and for quality city living.
As an artist, Luis Burgos was an original member of the Borinquen Dance Theater, studied dance with Garth Fagan Dance, studied cello at the Hochstein School of Music and is an avid photographer and painter (acrylics).
He has been active in his community service with a focus on agencies and initiatives with youth, health, education, arts, culture, and housing missions. He has held board leadership positions in the past for Borinquen Dance Theatre, Rochester Love-15 Tennis, NeighborWorks Rochester, and the Puerto Rican Festival.
Susie Chodorow:
Susan Quan Chodorow (Smith College, A.B.; University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, M.A.) has maintained a private practice
in integrative holistic health therapies and education since 2007. Chodorow's interests include community and youth development, raising diversity awareness and promoting cultural competencies. She has extensive experience in mentoring and providing technical assistance to artists and community-based multicultural arts and cultural organizations.
From 2003-2006 Chodorow held the position of Folk Arts Program Director at the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester. As public folklorist, she provided outreach to Greater Rochester's many ethnic communities, and technical assistance to their traditional artists. She developed public and educational programming of ethnic folk arts and local traditions, including the Arts Council's 2005 exhibit, Gifts from the Creator: Native American Traditional Arts. Chodorow served as New York State Council on the Arts Folk Arts Program Panel Member from 2006-2008.
Chodorow staffed the Arts Council's Cultural Diversity Initiative (CDI) in 2005-2006. She developed the initiative, identified committee members, and facilitated strategic planning sessions in which the CDI committee members sought to define diversity and the steps needed to promote access and inclusion in the arts in Rochester. The CDI resulted in the Arts Council conducting a Cultural Diversity Needs Assessment in 2007 and issuing the subsequent report, Not by Invitation Only: Building Diversity in Arts Programming and Audiences.
Chodorow was Special Arts Services Program Northwestern Regional Consultant to New York State Council on the Arts from 2000-2003. She developed and managed a multi-year technical assistance pilot program designed to identify and strengthen small and mid-sized multicultural arts and cultural organizations in 9 counties in upstate New York.
From 1999 to 2003, Chodorow developed and administered after-school and summer arts programs for underserved youth in Rochester, including ArtWorks '99, the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester's inaugural arts-based summer jobs-training and mentoring program modeled on Chicago's award-winning Gallery 37.
Chodorow brings a multidisciplinary knowledge of the arts (graduate studies in ethnomusicology, musicology and fine arts; museum work; and 17 years as a practicing visual artist) to her work with artists and arts organizations. She has served in a leadership capacity with numerous organizations, including the Diversity Initiative Committee, Association of Fundraising Professionals Genesee Valley Chapter, 2006-08; Board of Directors, New York Folklore Society, 2003-2006; Executive Board of Directors, Women Helping Girls Program, AAUW, 2002-2003; and Board of Directors, Smith College Club of Rochester, 2001-2005. She is a past Board Member and has been a member of the Honorary Board of Directors of APAA (Asian/Pacific Islander/American Association of Greater Rochester) since 2008.
Rachel DeGuzman:
Rachel DeGuzmanis president & CEO of 21st Century Arts, a Rochester, NY based, arts consulting business that specializes in organizational development, strategic marketing, planning/implementation of special projects/initiatives, and development of customized approaches for connecting arts and cultural organizations to diverse communities and other business sectors.
DeGuzman is chair of the Travel Trade & Convention Publicity Task Force of the VisitRochester Industry Council, past chair of New York Presence Committee at VisitRochester Industry Council, board member of William Warfield Scholarship Fund, and member of Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council Tourism/Arts Work Group.
Since 2010, DeGuzman has written the "We Dance" blog at democratandchronicle.com.
Rachel was 1 of 14 national arts professionals selected by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters for 2012/2013 Leadership Development Institute -where she spent a year in collaborative inquiry focused on theme of Knowing and Connecting Art with Community. She was a contributor to the report "Building Meaningful Relationships in Your Community," which provides tools, tactics, best practices, & case studies for effective community engagement.
Her past positions include director of advancement/external relations at Rochester City Ballet and the marketing and publicity manager of Nazareth College Arts Center where she was instrumental in founding its dance festival & established an affiliation with the New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Awards. She was also director of development/communications at The Commission Project and director of development at Garth Fagan Dance.
She served on Mayor Warren's Neighborhood: Quality of Life transition focus group. She was a panelist for the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester and the NYSCA/Regional Economic Development Council grant panels. A member of Intercollegiate Diversity Agora, and Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester's Cultural Diversity Initiative Committee.
DeGuzman is a creative person, though not a professional artist, that loves to paint, make jewelry, read, cook, write as well as practice interior design in her mid-century modern home.
Janice Gouldthorpe:
Janice is currently the Executive Director of the Genesee Center for the Arts & Education. She is responsible for all financial management, organizational leadership, and fundraising and development activities for the organization. Prior to joining this organization in 2005, she was with Eastman Kodak Company for 24 years. She spent her career at Kodak in various engineering and management positions across research, manufacturing, human resources and quality leadership departments. Janice is active in the Monroe Avenue Merchants Association and the Council of Agency Executives, serving on committees for each. She also is on the board of directors and helped found Kamina Friends, a non-profit whose mission is to help start small businesses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The work of this non-profit is now ongoing in 3 communities in the Congo and has helped over 200 businesses start or expand and more than 1000 people gain new employment.
Lisa Helen Hoffman:
Lisa Helen Hoffman, one of the few audio-description consultants and trainers in the nation who is blind, brings her unique experience to the field of audio-description. Born with retino blastoma, cancer of the eyes, Ms. Hoffman has been totally blind since the age of 2. During her many visits to Manhattan for medical treatment, the welcome diversion of a Broadway show kindled her passion for the theatre at a very young age.
She loves to listen to the acting, the singing, and the music as her family's whispered descriptions created access to the visual element of each production. Today her team approach creates access and others who are blind or visually impaired enjoy experiencing theatre independently. Her team approach to access services, her first-hand knowledge of the strategies required to create a truly accessible event, and her keen understanding of the satisfaction experienced when accessibility results in independence for people who are blind or visually impaired all guide Ms. Hoffman's approach to creating access.
2014-2015 marks her twenty-first season as the Audio-Description Consultant, Trainer and Coordinator at Geva Theatre Centre in Rochester, New York. www.gevatheatre.org/aboutus/accessibility.php
Audio-Described Theatre: The Team Approach is the manual developed by Ms. Hoffman. She consulted on the development of the Audio-Described Theatre Service and trained Audio-Describers for Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, New York (www.syracusestage.org). Ms. Hoffman taught a course on Audio-Described Theatre for the Theater Department at the College at Brockport.
At the Royal National Theatre in London, England, she consulted on Mother Courage and Her Children. Ms Hoffman attended audio-description training at the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State University and is a graduate of the
University of Buffalo.
Art Access, a program that Ms. Hoffman conceived and consulted on at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York created opportunities for people who are blind or visually impaired to experience works of art from the museum's collection through Touch Tours. She consults on the ongoing project to provide Audio-Description for select paintings in the collection. mag.rochester.edu/aroundmag/audio-descriptions
In the Disability Community in Rochester, New York, Ms. Hoffman serves on the County/City Council for People with Disabilities. She has served as Corresponding Secretary and President of the Rochester Chapter of the American Council of the Blind. At the Regional Center for
Independent Living, she served on the Board as Vice-President of Advocacy and Education and later on staff for over five years as the Disability Rights Advocate. Nationally, she is a Charter Board Member of Audio-Description International (ADI) and aparticipant in the First National Forum on Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities at the Kennedy Center. She was a member of the now dissolved Association for Theatre and Accessibility (ATA).
An artist in her own right, Ms. Hoffman is a violinist in the Rochester English Country Dance Ensemble. Dancing the English Country repertoire for over twenty years prepared her to teach this dance form for three years at Camp Abilities, a program for youth who are visually impaired hosted annually at the College at Brockport. She designs and creates gemstone and pearl jewelry.
Dr. Moka Lantum:
As managing partner of MicroClinic Technologies Ltd., Dr. Lantum oversees the R&D and market launch activities for an enterprise health systems management application, called ZiDi, designed for use in health centers and dispensaries in East Africa. Dr. Lantum has over 20 year's experience in health service delivery and health care management. He had held multiple management roles in a Fortune 500 health-related manufacturing company. Prior to joining MicroClinic Technologies, Dr. Lantum was director of business process improvement for a $6 billion New York-based health insurance company with 2 million members for which he designed programs and systems to optimize member enrollment and patient flow across the continuum of care, with a 24% reduction in readmission rates. Dr. Lantum obtained his Doctor of Medicine training at Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon; a Diploma in Nutrition and International Child Health, from Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; a doctorate in Pharmacology, from the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. He is trained in supply chain management and obtained a Six Sigma Black Belt certification from Eastman Kodak Company. He holds a Masters in Health Care Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. He is also President of the 2020 MicroClinic Initiative, a NY-based
organization that promotes safe maternal and child health in Africa. Over 500 babies have been delivered under a program called Operation Karibu, which is done in partnership with the OGRA Foundation, Kisumu, Kenya, with zero mortality.
Debora McDell-Hernandez:
Rochester native Debora McDell-Hernandez joined the Memorial Art Gallery in 2001. Prior to coming to the Memorial Art Gallery, McDell-Hernandez worked for The Chase Manhattan Bank in Rochester, NY as Community Relations Coordinator for five years where she enhanced the image of the corporation through initiatives in philanthropy, volunteerism, employee recognition, and customer entertainment. Later, she landed a position as a Sales Officer in the Retail Sales Department where she expanded banking relationships through the sale of Chase personal products and services to existing corporate customers and their base of employees.
As Membership Manager at the Memorial Art Gallery, she implemented strategies to increase member acquisition and retention and encourage increased giving among members, and managed member-based special events. In 2002, she was hired by the Education Department for her present job which was a newly created position ─ Coordinator of Community Programs and Outreach Initiatives, where she forms vital liaisons between the Memorial Art Gallery and the Greater Rochester Community.
McDell-Hernandez is an accomplished professional with nearly 20 years of experience in developing and nurturing community relationships within organizations. Current job responsibilities include implementing public programs to make the museum experience accessible and enjoyable to broad sections of the community, overseeing a monthly lecture series, orchestrating multicultural Family Days, leading diverse advisory councils, participating in the evaluation of programs, and representing the Gallery on various community boards.
She has served on the board of directors for ARTWalk, Borinquen Dance Theatre, FOODLINK, International Sister Cities of Rochester, William Warfield Scholarship Fund, and Democrat and Chronicle's board of contributors. She also served on Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester's Cultural Diversity Committee. The 1998 graduate of United Way's Loaned Executive Officer program has volunteered countless organizations in the community.
A former board member for Borinquen Dance Theatre, she now serves as an advisor and has been on their fundraising committee for the last five years. McDell-Hernandez currently serves on the board of Rochester Police Department's Do the Right Thing program and is an honorary board member of the Asian Pacific-Islander American Association.
Leadership posts that McDell-Hernandez holds for her employer, the University of Rochester include UR/Strong Staff Diversity and Inclusion committee and chair of Sankofa (formerly African American Network), an affinity group for University employees. She has also been a volunteer for the City of Rochester's Pillars of Hope Program for seven years. McDell-Hernandez and a team of colleagues from the University of Rochester meet with students at School 29 in their classrooms once a month during the school year and develop innovative lessons to encourage team work, instill a love for learning, impart knowledge on academics, and share knowledge on careers.
McDell-Hernandez holds a B.A. in International Studies from St. John Fisher College and an M.S. in Human Development with a concentration in Family Studies from University of Rochester's Warner School of Education.
Margot Muto:
Margot grew up in a household and lifestyle committed to the arts and her community. During high school at The School of the Arts, she began developing an extensive art education and also worked as a teaching assistant at the Memorial Art Gallery. She continued her education at the Cleveland Institute of Art studying Glass, Painting, and New Media. While in Cleveland, Margot joined the education department at the Cleveland Museum of Art, working with children on exploring the museum and creating their own artwork. She also worked with high school students, helping to prepare their portfolios for submission to colleges and art institutions.
After Cleveland, Margot continued her higher education at Rochester Institute of Technology, focusing on printmaking and painting. She began to work alongside her father, Rick Muto, as an assistant in creating murals for residential, community, and corporate spaces. In 2006 she joined the New York State Literary Center as a teaching artist working alongside its founder, Dale Davis, in creating art-based collaborative projects for at-risk youth in Monroe County.
Margot's passion for contemporary art emerged from walking through the collections of The Cleveland Museum of Art and having a rare opportunity to travel to Germany to visit the Documenta 11 Art Showcase. From here she realized that the versatile direction in which the arts were moving would be a prominent influence on designing her career path. Upon returning to Rochester, New York Margot partnered with her parents, Rick & Robin Muto, and opened Rochester's fore-running commercial contemporary art gallery AXOM Gallery & Exhibition Space. Margot's curatorial aesthetic and contemporary art expertise has helped to garner AXOM Gallery's high standing reputation for contemporary art in Upstate New York.
In early 2013 Margot founded Margot Muto Contemporary Art out of a rising need to help artists and collectors in her community expand growth and exposure.
Mark Nerenhausen:
Mark Nerenhausen serves as both founding director and professor of practice of the Janklow Arts Leadership Program. He brings more than two decades of professional arts administration experience to Syracuse University, having most recently served as president and CEO of the $354 million AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas. In this capacity, he secured AT&T as a naming sponsor, raised more than $4 million in the first year of operations, created a governing board, and instituted an integrated business information platform. He also brokered strategic partnerships with regional and national organizations, several of which were devoted to minority arts, and initiated the Jazz Roots series.
From 1998-2009, Nerenhausen played a similar role at the multi-venue Broward Center, fashioning it into a catalyst for tourism, economic development, education, industry innovations and cross-cultural exchange. Under Nerenhausen's tenure, the center's main concert hall consistently ranked in the world's top 10 venues for ticket sales, according to Pollstar and Venues Today magazines.
Nerenhausen has held other major positions at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center in Kahului, Hawaii (1993-98); the Oshkosh Grand Opera House in Wisconsin (1990-93); the Bijou Theater Center in Knoxville, Tenn. (1987-89); the Milwaukee Performing Arts Center in Wisconsin (1985-87); and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville (1983-85).
His academic experience includes faculty positions at Florida International University in Miami; Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Fla.; and Florida Atlantic University in Fort Lauderdale. A sought-after keynote speaker and consultant, he serves on the boards of the Bluegreen Corp. in Boca Raton, Fla., and is a member of the Dean's Advisory Board for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School of Business, from which he earned an M.A. in arts administration.
John Rodriguez:
John is a former advertising industry executive who has taken his experience with corporations and consumer behavior into the fields of culture change and leadership coaching. He works with organizations and leaders that have a passion for innovating by challenging and disrupting conventional thinking, particularly their own. If you have an appetite for bold action and fostering a culture of innovation and creativity, John's approach may be right for you.
For over 14 years, John has coached leaders and designed major culture change initiatives for companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Kellogg, Conoco Philips, Verizon and Whirlpool. He has also worked with leaders within the public education, government and the non-profit sectors. John helped a $6.2 billion dollar organization with over 7,000 employees shift from a blame and silo culture to a more profitable and high-performing organization, during one of the worst economic downturns in U.S. history. This was accomplished in-part by developing a critical mass of frontline leaders capable of effectively coaching others through high anxiety business cycles while modeling leadership maturity during professional and personal crisis.
Deborah Tretter
Deborah Tretter is an award winning marketing consultant and freelance designer with a growing clientele in greater Rochester, New York's arts and cultural community. The website design that she created as a subcontractor of 21st Century Arts for FuturPointe Dance was the recipient of the 2014 Rochester Business Journal's "Best of the Web Cultural Non-Profit" award. Her clients include the India Community Center Rochester, 21st Century Arts, and Jennifer Sertle –Agility 3R.
Among her many creative skills, Deborah Tretter is also a couture quality costume designer whose work includes custom period clothing construction and an upcoming line of ballet attire based on vintage designs.
With over 15 years of service, first as a volunteer and then as staff at Rochester City Ballet – Deborah Tretter instituted the company's successful social media campaigns, managed and wrote e-publications, designed its website – winning the 2012 Rochester Business Journal's "Best of the Web Cultural Non-Profit" award, the 2011 Online Marketer of the Year for RCB's integrated online marketing presence, and a Rochester PRSA Chapter Award of Excellence for the blog "Nutcracker Memories." She was Rochester City Ballet's in house graphic designer.
An integral member of the administrative team during her tenure at Rochester City Ballet, Ms. Tretter also served on the artistic staff as the new costume coordinator, overseeing the creation of over 300 costumes for The Nutcracker and more contemporary ballets, and contributing her own skills to the design and construction of costumes.
Deborah Tretter is a graduate of SUNY Geneseo.
Thomas Warfield:
Thomas Warfield is the founder and artistic director of PeaceArt International and director of dance and faculty member at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. He is the director of the RIT / NTID Dance Company, associate director of Kaleidoscope Dance Theatre at the New York Institute of Dance, as well as the vocal soloist at Unity Church.
Having a minister for a mother, conductor for a father, and being the nephew of internationally renowned singers William Warfield and Leontyne Price, it is no small wonder that at the age of 4, while studying piano, Thomas Warfield began a career on the stage.
His 14yrs. with the Opera Theatre of Rochester, and performances with the New York City Opera and Metropolitan Opera afforded Mr. Warfield the experience of working with many of the world's leading artists, including directors Franco Zefferelli and Spike Lee, composers John Adams and Marvin Hamlisch, scientist Carl Sagan, singers Placido Domingo and Beverly Sills and many others.
While a music & theatre major at Nazareth College, Thomas Warfield's vocal repertoire expanded into German Lieder and French Chansons. Some of his numerous theatrical productions have included: directing & producing multi-cultural/multi-arts concerts, the "Tinman" in The Wiz, "Tulsa" in Gypsy, the "MC" in Cabaret, and "Scipio" in Porgy and Bess, cabaret singer, guest vocalist in churches around the world, dozens of operas and musicals, along with performing plays of Ibsen, Chekov, Racine, and playing Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Mr. Warfield earned a BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase, receiving the President's Award for Excellence. Thomas Warfield has danced in works by Balanchine, Anthony Tudor, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Jose Limon, Isadora Duncan, Mary Wigman, Doris Humphrey, B. Nijinska, Valslav Nijinsky, Jane Dudley, Twyla Tharp, Bill T. Jones & Arnie Zane, Sally Hess, and Tandy Beal among others. He's choreographed for HBO 'Short Takes Films' as well as for dance companies around the world.
An in demand dancer and choreographer, Warfield has danced with some of the most renowned companies and in most prestigious venues around the globe.
As a professional dancer, singer, pianist, actor, composer, choreographer, music & theatre director, teacher, producer and poet, Mr. Warfield has traveled to dozens of cities throughout the U.S. as well as Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Athens, Taiwan, Bangkok, Seoul, Stockholm, mainland China and Macau - where he was associate director and guest artist for a Chinese dance company, and decorated as an honorary citizen of Macau.
Receiving a Research Fellowship, Thomas Warfield was a MFA degree candidate at the University of Utah, where he founded and was president
of DanceArt, a performing arts company dedicated to social and environmental awareness.
Thomas Warfield has presented solo concerts and workshops in schools, hospitals, community centers, theological seminaries, homeless shelters, and correctional facilities; working with urban youth, professional dancers/musicians, the elderly, mentally & physically disabled, drug/alcohol abusers, blind & deaf children, AIDS/cancer patients and many others around the world. Thomas Warfield has taught extensively in the U.S.A. and abroad on a variety of subjects including: ballet, modern and African-based dance, choreography, improvisation, piano, voice, drama, poetry, English, African-American studies, art/religion, classes on self-esteem, and workshops on nurturing compassion. Mr. Warfield is also a facilitator/trainer for the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI).
Mr. Warfield is a member of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Dance Critics Association, International Dance and the Child, the Earth Society Foundation, the National Peace Foundation, Association of American Cultures, the Human Rights Campaign Fund, Amnesty International and Greenpeace.He is a founding member of both World Dance Alliance (where he serves on the Int'l committee for Africa) and International Association of Blacks in Dance, and serves as vice-president of two boards: Peace For Education and The China Millennium Council. He was recently appointed to the board of the Rochester Area Community Foundation.
Gaynelle Wethers
Gaynelle D. Wethers has had an expansive and celebrated career as an executive administrator, educator, diversity/inclusion expert, and
community volunteer. Her most recent accomplishment was as strategist and campaign manager for Rochester, New York's new mayor, Lovely Warren.
Wethers retired from Nazareth College in May 2013, after serving more than 20 years as its founding director of Multicultural Affairs.
Gaynelle's current volunteerism in greater Rochester includes her service as president of the board at Baden Street Settlement, secretary of the Jordan Health Center corporate board, vice president of programs at Association of American University Women/Greater Rochester Area (NY), and past-president at Rochester Women's Network.
Her past positions include the pastoral associate of Immaculate Conception Church; principal and teacher at St. Monica School, teacher in the Rush-Henrietta School District and for the Roman Catholic Diocese. Wethers' has received formal Mediation Training and Training in HIV Infection and AIDS. She is also a field reader for the U.S. Department of Education.
Wethers, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, received her BS degree from Xavier University, New Orleans, Louisiana, and MS degree in Elementary Education from Nazareth College. She holds a New York State Certification in Public Administration from the University of Rochester and attended St. Bernard's Institute.