Who We Are

Lee Carstens

Program Administration

Lee combines his interest in cooking as a catering chef

Lee Carstens grew up on a wheat ranch in the Pacific Northwest. After graduating from

Washington State University with degrees in communications, business, and hotel and restaurant administration, he headed into world of advertising. After completing that chapter, Lee worked in retail management for 23 years managing retail stores in Spokane, Santa Barbara and then with Nordstrom.  Using this experience and know-how, he partnered with a group to create a series of stores in West Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Tempe, AZ.  As the retail bug waned, Lee then served as Director of Operations for CCD Innovation and Wharf Research, a world-wide food and beverage innovation company, for over 20 years until he was pulled out of retirement to gladly join the Getting To We Team as Program Administrator.

Deborah L. Plummer

Founder/Executive Director

Deborah L. Plummer, PhD is Founder/Executive Director of Getting to We, Inc., a non-profit that develops and promotes charitable initiatives and educational projects that turn us and them into we, especially in high conflict, emotionally charged social issues such as racism, sexism, and heterosexism. As a psychologist, university professor, and author, she speaks on topics central to racial equity, inclusion, and mutual respect. An international leader in the field of diversity and inclusion, she brings her deeply humanist and Gestalt-trained skills to workshop participants and readers to examine themselves as social beings in relation to our programmed fear of “otherness.” Her work and writings introduce a relational model for managing differences that support the development of the competencies necessary to live authentically out of one’s core identity as a human being and master the challenges of diversity dynamics.

Jo Salvatore

Finance and Operations

Jo aspires to do at least one act of kindness each day

With a professional background in education and grocery retail management, Jo served as a business executive for over 20 years of in procurement and supply chain management for Chevron before utilizing her strong business acumen to manage all operational and financial aspects of Getting To We. As a leader, she most enjoys working with, empowering, and advocating for team members to achieve a mission and meet business objectives.

Taylor Smith

DEIB Edutainment & Documentary Production

Taylor Smith is a film producer living in New York City. Taylor studied public relations and English at Ohio University before graduating and returning to Cleveland, Ohio to join her mother in their family’s business of owning and operating a restaurant franchise. Taylor worked in marketing for the franchise for 8 years before becoming more hands-on in the operations side of the business during the Covid-19 pandemic. After spending some time learning different aspects of the industry, Taylor realized that she had the tools and tenacity to pursue her dream of entering the film production industry and moved to New York City. Learning on commercial and film sets, she continues to write screenplays as a hobby and study film.

Lori Stevic-Rust

Education Programs & Documentary Production

Lori Stevic-Rust, Ph.D. ABPP is a clinical health psychologist, news media consultant, author, and award-winning keynote speaker for women’s empowerment, gender solidarity, bias, and racial equity along with topics related to the health benefits of courage and gratitude. Her strong advocacy for women and seniors, earned her the outstanding leadership award in the field of Adult Abuse, Awareness & Prevention by the Western Reserve Area on Aging. She was honored as a Woman of Achievement from the YWCA and inducted into the KSU Hall of Fame as a distinguished Alumni. She has written six books on topics ranging from depression, heart disease and wellness, a personal memoir on the art of aging with gratitude, and women’s empowerment. Her children’s book focuses on inclusion and the importance of being an upstander.

Susan Berger

A lifelong advocate for children, Berger joined Positive Education Program in 2000 following successful stints in development at Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, United Way and several political campaigns. PEP is one of Northeast Ohio’s child-serving organizations. Berger’s portfolio at PEP includes fund development, board development, communications and government relations. She is a graduate of Kenyon College – an institution where she remains deeply involved, having served as a trustee and as president of the alumni association. She is a member of the 2007 Leadership Cleveland class, an active board member of Canopy Child Advocacy Center and Getting to We, past president of the board of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, a recipient of Crain’s Cleveland Business’ 40 under 40 recognition and recipient of the 2007 Athena Award.

Valerie Butler

Secretary

A native of Cleveland, Ohio and sales and management professional with more than 30 years of sales and leadership experience in Greater Cleveland who has amassed a sales portfolio exceeding $25 million in revenue. Best known for her expertise in leading hospitality management teams to exceptional customer service.

Wife of retired college administrator Terry, and mother of one son, Michael, a decorated officer in the U.S. Air Force active service. Aside from being a loving wife, Valerie has loaned her skills to multiple community service and social organizations and her church, The Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Cleveland, OH.

Valerie resides in Richmond Heights, Ohio and devotes her leisure time to travel, reading, fashion design and my new “stay-fit hobby” …roller skating!

Gilbert Edmond

Gilbert Edmond has been the owner of a thriving State Farm Agency, providing insurance and financial services to clients in the Chicagoland area for more than 17 years. Gilbert has led his team of insurance professionals in selling auto, fire, life, health, and commercials lines of insurance – always with an approach to educating and providing top notch customer service.

Gilbert holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago and several designations – CLU® & ChFC® from The American College of Financial Services. Gilbert also holds a Mortgage Loan Originator (MLO) license, which enables him to sell and market mortgage products thru Rocket Pro.

Gil has been married to his wife Elise since 2003. They are the proud parents of their twin daughters Lauren & Janean, and son Ethan. He loves taking family vacations in his personal time and often volunteers his time working with clients from the Chicago Urban League, Lawndale Employment Network & CPS students associated with the Economic Awareness Council.

Andres Gonzalez

Andrés Gonzalez has successfully created and implemented community engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and supplier diversity programs for a number of the country’s most respected health care organizations. His teams have positively affected their organization by penetrating diverse markets and make a substantial impact on thecommunities they serve, ensuring patients receive culturally and linguistically competent care that can lead to better health outcomes. They proactively address community health needs through innovative programs and partnerships that improve population health and reduce disparities.

Gonzalez joined Froedtert Health in 2015. He currently serves as the Vice President for Community Engagement and Chief Diversity Officer for the health network, which includes 11 hospitals, over 2,000 physicians and more than 45 health centers and clinics in Wisconsin.

Gonzalez served from 2012 to 2015 as the Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer for Baystate Health in Springfield, Massachusetts. From 2007 to 2012, Gonzalez was the Director of Diversity & Community Outreach and Interim SupplierDiversity Director at Cleveland Clinic Health System.

Gonzalez began his career as an alcohol and drug prevention specialist and was promoted to Executive Director of the community-based Hispanic Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach Program (UMADAOP) in Cleveland. He also served as Executive Director of El Barrio, a workforce development agency in Cleveland.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in education (M.Ed.) with a concentration on community agency counseling, both from Cleveland State University. He also completed the certification program at Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations Department and earned a Cornell Certified Diversity Practitioner/Advanced Practitioner (CCDP/AP) certification. He is a member of the faculty at Elevate, an education andcareer-development partnership with University of California-San Diego Rady School of Management.

Gonzalez is a graduate of Cleveland Public Schools, is a German Marshall Fund Fellow, and a graduate of: Esperanza (Cleveland); Cleveland Bridge Builder’s Flagship Program; Leadership Cleveland; and Next Generation Executive Leadership Program (The Partnership Inc., Boston).

Gonzalez serves on the national boards of American Heart/Stroke Association’s Diversity Leadership Committee and Health Equity Taskforce, American Leadership Council for Diversity in Healthcare (ALCDH), American Hospital Association Institute for Diversity and Health Equity’s Equity of Care Committee, CDO PowerCircle, Institute for Corporate Productivity’s CDO Board and National Hispanic Corporate Council’s Latino DEI Collective.

He is a member of the National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives (NALHE). He also serves on the following local boards: Employ Milwaukee; Hispanic Collaborative; La Causa, Inc.; Milwaukee Repertory Theater; National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives Wisconsin Chapter; Nativity Jesuit Academy; Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers; YMCA Metro Milwaukee and Waukesha County Land Conservancy.

Jason Craige Harris

Robert (Bob) Hartl

Robert (Bob) Hartl, Associate Professor of Management, is Director of the MBA in Leadership & Change at the College of St. Scholastica (CSS), an avant-garde graduate management program based on organization development principles. He is recipient of the Max H. Lavine Award for Teaching Excellence, the highest academic recognition given by CSS. In 2019, Bob was a seminar leader on the principles of organization development at the internationally-known Cape Cod Institute, in Eastham, MA.

Bob began his career in municipal government where he rose through the ranks to become the Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Duluth. He then moved into the health care industry, serving as Vice President of Human Resources & Organization Development for the St. Mary’s/Duluth Clinic Health System (now Essentia Health System). He became Chair of the Management Department at St. Scholastica in 2001.

Bob began his organization development (OD) consulting practice in 1987. When not teaching, he is CEO and Senior Partner at Hartl Pearson Consulting, LLC. He works in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, frequently with health care organizations, government agencies, and in higher education.

Tomica Holmes

After spending several years as an Emergency Room Charge Nurse and a Pediatric Nurse, she advanced her clinical expertise thorough local and national travel nursing assignments. Her career highlights include receiving nominations for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Nursing Excellence Award and the March of Dimes Nurse of the Year Award, to name a few. She holds a number of professional certifications in Healthcare Compliance, Nursing Informatics (board certified), and Healthcare Information Security and Privacy. She is currently Director of Compliance and co-chair of the Diversity & Inclusion council at a large healthcare system in Atlanta.

Tomica jumpstarted her career in 1998 as a Registered Professional Nurse and graduate of Georgia Baptist College of Nursing at Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia. Her natural skills for leadership emerged during college, where she led the Cultural Diversity Student Organization and served as Chief Newsletter Editor. Her educational achievements were honored with an induction into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society and with the Davidson-Mckie-Newton Award for Nursing Excellence. Tomica’s service extends beyond her profession and into her community. She has served as a Fulton County Court Appointed Special Advocate on behalf of children in custody of the Department of Family and Children Services, a Board Member of the Case Management Society of America’s Atlanta Chapter and a volunteer at Hillside Chapel and Truth Center. She has travelled internationally alongside Ambassador Andrew Young to South Africa to bridge healthcare and economic relationships, and with the late Bishop Dr. Barbara Lewis King to her village in Ghana to furnish schools with books, supplies, and computers. She is also charter member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. – Alpha Alpha Phi Omega chapter.

Tomica lives in Atlanta, where she enjoys running, traveling, listening to music, and reading.

Elaine Martin

Elaine Martin joined the Countway Library as the Director and Chief Administrative Officer in 2016. Under her direction she oversees and manages a complex organization with one of the largest collections of both current medical research materials and historical and rare collections in the world, holding more than 630,000 volumes. The Countway Library serves both academic and practicing physicians at Harvard Medical School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and the Massachusetts Medical Society.

At Countway, Elaine is responsible for providing leadership in strategic planning, development and the promotion of library resources and services. Under her leadership, the Countway Library just concluded an 18 million dollar building renovation, that brought the Countway Library into the 21st century. For the first time in Countway’s history, the library welcomes the surrounding community into new collaborative spaces and provides access to extensive health information resources.

Joe Matuszewski

Joe Matuszewski is a partner with Ernst & Young LLP, a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services.  Joe has more than 20 years of public accounting experience serving a variety of multinational clients in the manufacturing, technology, automotive and consumer products sectors. Through deep understanding of his clients’ business issues and thorough risk assessment, Joe is committed to early collaboration on significant business transactions and accounting issues, further deploying innovation and leveraging a multi-disciplinary service delivery model. Joe is one of EY’s appointments to the partnership’s Inclusiveness Advisory Council; a platform that convenes EY’s senior leaders to elevate and advance diversity, equity and inclusiveness across the organization. Joe also takes an active role in supporting EY’s actions to eradicate racism and discrimination. Joe is a member of the leadership team for EY’s Entrepreneurs Access Network, which helps Black and Latine founders through a 12-month immersive business accelerator program designed to connect participants to peers, sponsors, capital, and customers. Additionally, Joe sits on the selection committee for the Social Justice Fund of the Ernst & Young Foundation, investing in organizations dedicated to addressing the root causes of inequity, discrimination and/or racism. Joe is highly involved in his community and has current and past involvement with several Northeast Ohio non-profit organizations. Joe is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of Playhouse Square Foundation, Baldwin Wallace University and the Stark County Economic Development Board. Joe is a Certified Public Accountant in Ohio, holds an MBA in Accounting from Baldwin Wallace University and is a member of the AICPA and the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants.  Joe is married (Nathan) with two daughters (Addyson – 7; Anderson – 4) and lives in Medina, Ohio.

Deborah L. Plummer

Ex-Officio

Deborah L. Plummer, PhD is Founder/Executive Director of Getting to We, Inc., a non-profit that develops and promotes charitable initiatives and educational projects that turn us and them into we, especially in high conflict, emotionally charged social issues such as racism, sexism, and heterosexism. As a psychologist, university professor, and author, she speaks on topics central to racial equity, inclusion, and mutual respect. An international leader in the field of diversity and inclusion, she brings her deeply humanist and Gestalt-trained skills to workshop participants and readers to examine themselves as social beings in relation to our programmed fear of “otherness.” Her work and writings introduce a relational model for managing differences that support the development of the competencies necessary to live authentically out of one’s core identity as a human being and master the challenges of diversity dynamics.

Kathleen Q. Powers

Kathleen Quinn Powers currently serves as the Vice President, Academic Strategy for the Beth Israel Lahey Health System and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Over the course of her career, Kathleen has served in various executive level positions for not for profit organizations including hospitals, health systems, universities, and a membership advocacy organization.

Prior to joining BILH, Kathleen was the Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance at the NVNA and Hospice where she oversaw patient accounts/accounts receivable, accounting, accounts payable, payroll, information technology, clinical applications, and patient access in addition to leading the strategic planning and strategy deployment efforts at the Agency. Kathleen joined the Agency in 2018 as Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Integration.

From 2011- 2017, Kathleen was the Vice President, Physician and Network Development at South Shore Hospital/Health System. Kathleen worked closely with senior administrative and medical staff leadership on program development with clinical affiliates including Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham Health, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute with the goal of expanding local access to academic level health care.

Kathleen has held leadership positions with the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, University of Massachusetts Boston, Caritas Christi Health Care System (now Steward Health Care), The Catholic Health Association of the United States, and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center of Boston.

Kathleen Powers is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and earned her MBA from the Questrom School of Business at Boston University.

Donna Skurzak

Chair

Donna is a Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. Donna joined Cleveland Clinic in 2007 providing consultation, coaching, strategic input for the D,E, I business case, health equity in the workforce and at the bedside. She has held senior leadership roles across the healthcare continuum as a practitioner, administrator and executive director in hospital, home care/hospice, private practice and consulting roles. Donna drives strategic initiatives to impact effective culture change.

Her expertise includes systems thinking and strategic visioning, organizational effectiveness, end of life care, healthcare disparities, bioethics, cultural and emotional intelligence. She is a D.E.I practitioner, and licensed provider of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). She has been actively working with the impact of unconscious bias in the workforce and at the bedside, conducted research in workplace inclusion and is developing application of cultural intelligence in a global organization. She pursues the best patient care and employee relations to achieve positive outcomes in patient and employee experience at Cleveland Clinic.

Lorraine Shoto

Treasurer

Lorraine Shoto is an attorney who lives in Chicago, Illinois and works for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, focusing her practice on regulatory law, enforcement litigation and troubled asset workouts. She has 23 years of legal experience and has dedicated her career to public service. She was previously an Assistant State’s Attorney with the Cook County, Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office; counsel with the Chicago Transit Authority; and bar counsel with the Illinois Supreme Court Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. Lorraine earned her Juris Doctor degree from The Ohio State University. She serves as a pro bono attorney with Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, is an active member of St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and a long-time member of the Chicago International Film Festival’s Black Perspectives Committee. Lorraine enjoys opera, theater and art. She is an avid traveler who is always looking for her next adventure.

Teri Trautwein

A born and raised Wyomingite, Teri attended Sheridan College and University of Nevada Las Vegas where she was a team captain in both basketball and track & field. After graduation, Teri decided to spend three months on a backpacking trip across Europe and completely fell in love with travel.

After her time abroad, Teri spent eight years in Las Vegas working for Cintas Corporation in a variety of sales and leadership roles. She moved to Boston in May of 2013 as a VP of Retail Operations to help lead Citizens Bank through a two-year project preparing the organization for IPO. Teri ran national sales strategy at Brightview Landscaping before landing the job of her dreams at EF Educational Tours where she is a Senior Director of Sales overseeing the Eastern United States—blending two of her loves—people development and travel!

Philanthropy and community involvement have always played important roles in Teri’s life. During her time in Las Vegas, Teri was a Founding Board Member for Dress for Success Southern Nevada. During her four years with DFSSN, Teri was responsible for creating on-job training seminars as well as establishing a professional women’s group for the clients at Dress for Success. Teri also partnered with other board members to create a sustainable giving campaign for the organization that is still being used today. When Teri moved to Boston, she joined United Way’s Executive Women’s Leadership Council and served for 9 years, stepping down this past spring. During her time at with United Way, Teri helped found WINGS (Women Investing in the Next Generation)—a mentorship and giving campaign to start philanthropic giving among young professionals to lead them to the “Women United” giving level of $1000 or more a year. Teri also developed a United Way Ambassador Program helping companies use their development dollars to gift United Way as their staff gained leadership and philanthropic development.

Katerina Uribe

– is a supply chain leader consulting organizations on strategic purchasing, contracting practices, creatively exploring procurement and supply chain operations to transform organizations achieving the best total cost and streamlining operations. Katerina’s experience covers a broad spectrum of functions including strategic planning, project management, operations, supply & trading, business development across energy sectors of the economy.

Prior to consultancy, Katerina was a senior director of supply chain & procurement at Golden Pass LNG, joint venture of Qatar Energy and Exxon Mobil, focused on growing the supply chain function and orchestrating all procurement, warehousing, contracting and material management activities. She has over 20 years of hands-on international business expertise working at Chevron, ABB, international oil & gas major capital projects in APAC, Russia, and the United States.

Katerina is a diversity and inclusion champion, passionate about coaching, mentoring, and developing talents, has deep appreciation of cultures and is recognized for her lasting contributions to the advancement of organizations.

Katerina is a mother of two children and one grandchild. For leisure, Katerina likes tennis, horse-riding, and time with her family.

Scilla Andreen

Scilla Andreen, CEO and founder of iMPACTFUL is an award-winning Producer, Director, Author & Founder of ImpactfulFund.org. Working closely with mental health professionals, brain scientists, educators, and experts in Wellness, DEIB and HR; she created the Creative Coping Toolkit (CCT): A film-based, interactive, online learning platform built around the mental health film collection, Angst, LIKE, The Upstanders and RACE to Be Human. Using story the CCT is designed to normalize talking about mental health by bringing about awareness, deeper understanding and impact through engagement tools and support services for employees and their families.

Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Good Morning America, Today and South China Morning Post. She is Included in Screen International’s, Multichannel Women to Watch, Variety’s Women’s Impact Report and Puget Sound Business Journal’s Women of Influence. Additionally, she’s produced and/or directed and distributed social impact films, Nevertheless, Screenagers, Empowerment Project and Finding Kind.

Scilla works with corporations, nonprofits and thousands of schools around the world. She loves learning and exploring new technology and uses stories to bond, bridge and model empathy to build community. Scilla is a popular speaker at Sundance, Cannes, CES, SXSW, BeBold, Women in Film and now mental health summits, educational institutions and corporate HR and DEIB panels. She is a mother of 6 and resides with her husband Eric and two dogs in Seattle WA. Scilla is on a mission to change the world with film. Impactful.co

Alexandria Boone

Alexandria Johnson Boone is President and CEO of GAP Communications Group, a full-service public relations, advertising, marketing and special events firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. Under her leadership, GAP has gained local, regional and national recognition. She is also widely recognized and respected in the communications and public relations industry as the architect of the LeBron James media persona.

Alex is also the Chairwoman and Founder of the Women of Color Foundation, a 501c3 organization, dedicated to the education, empowerment, training and leadership development of women and girls of all colors. Over the past 20 years, the Foundation has produced several annual personal and professional development retreats, conferences, awards luncheons, and other special events across the region.

A graduate of the Cleveland Public Schools, Alex also holds a master’s degree from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University; a Certificate from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College; and was a 1997 National Fellow at the Boston University School of Public Health’s Join Together Program. She was also a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 1988.

In 2014, she founded C L Magazine, a career and lifestyle digital magazine for women and girls of color. The magazine has been continuously in publication since that time.

Her Current and past Board service include: The Club at Key Center; The SHINE Foundation; The Urban League of Greater Cleveland; the Community Advisory Board of The Flora Stone Mather Center for Women; The Visiting Committees at the Weatherhead School of Management & the Office of Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity at Case Western Reserve University; and the Board of Directors at the Greater Cleveland Partnership, all located in Cleveland, Ohio; and the Urquhart Memorial Foundation located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Alex is a servant leader.

Eve Bridburg

Eve is the Founder and Executive Director of GrubStreet, one of the nation’s leading creative writing center in Boston. Under Eve’s (she/her/hers) leadership, GrubStreet has grown into a national literary powerhouse known for artistic excellence, working to democratize the publishing pipeline and program innovation. An active partner to the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, Eve was the driving force behind securing chapter 91 space in the Seaport to build a creative writing center. The Barr Foundation recently named her a 2019 Barr Fellow in recognition of her leadership. Having graduated from its inaugural class, Eve remains active with the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program, a consortium of 200 of the world’s top cultural leaders, which addresses the critical issues that face the arts and cultural sector worldwide. Eve has presented on the future of publishing, what it takes to build a literary arts center, and the intersection of arts and civics at numerous local and national conferences. Her essays and op-eds on publishing, the role of creative writing centers and the importance of the narrative arts have appeared in The Boston Globe, Huffington Post, Cognoscenti, Writer’s Digest and TinHouse. Eve serves on the Advisory Board of The Loop Lab, a new Cambridge-based nonprofit dedicated to increasing representation in the Media Arts. Eve worked as a literary agent at The Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency for five happy years where she developed, edited, and sold a wide variety of books to major publishers. Before starting GrubStreet, she attended Boston University’s Writing program on a teaching fellowship, farmed in Oregon, and ran an international bookstore in Prague.

Edith Guffey

Dr. Edith Guffey, MSW

Ms. Edith Guffey, has served in the United Church of Christ denomination (UCC) for over 30 years and retired as Conference Minister of the Kansas Oklahoma Conference in 2021. While serving in the UCC, in addition to Conference Minister, she served as an elected officer of the Church as the Associate General Minister and Chief Operating officer of the UCC National Offices in Cleveland. This is where Guffey gained extensive experience in the effective management of organizations and the particular skillsets needed to balance the business realities and the core values of many nonprofit organizations. Guffey also served as the Chair of the Board of Directors of both United Church Funds and of the UCC Insurance Board. In her home community of Lawrence, Kansas, Guffey has also served on the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and task groups focused on racial disparities in the jail and the criminal justice system.

Although retired, Guffey continues to be engaged and involved in her community and in the work, which she thinks is most critical. Currently she works as a Project Coordinator for the Southern California Nevada Conference of the UCC, and she continues to serve on the Affordable Housing Advisory Board in Lawrence. Guffey Vice President of the Board of Directors of the national PFLAG, the first and largest organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people, their parents and families, and allies. Edith has experience in conflict mediation and facilitating conversations on race and white privilege and takes the opportunity to use these skills as often as possible.
Edith has a Master’s Degree from the University of Kansas, is married to Jerry and has two adult children and now a grandchild, all in California that demand her travel time and attention.

Julia Johannsen

Julia is a bold changemaker who works to leverage her privilege in the service of racial and social justice. Driven by her belief that white people of privilege have outsized responsibility to activate their influence and affluence to impact positive change, she founded The Impact Collective in 2021, an organization that works to activate wealthy white individuals and families to close the racial wealth gap. She is also an effective leader and consultant with over 15 years of experience working in the non-profit world. Thanks to the combination of her life experience and her background in teaching and counseling, Julia highly values relationship building, authenticity, equity, and inclusion. She strongly supports organizations led by people of color, and has dedicated herself to working alongside these leaders, which has increased her understanding of the challenges they face. With master’s degrees in French and counseling psychology and a lifelong-learning mindset, Julia is unflinching in both leading and learning through frank conversations about the intersections of race, wealth, and power—including her own.

Jill Karp

Affiliations:  White Elephant Resorts

Jill has been a friend and ambassador to Facing History for over twenty years, with a passion for education stemming from her time as a teacher. She serves on the FH  Board of Directors and Development Committee, was Chair of the New England Advisory Board from 2011 to 2015, and prior to that served on the Board of Directors since 2007, the Board of Trustees since 2003, and the New England Advisory Board since 2000. She and her husband, Stephen, chaired the 2006 New England Benefit Dinner  She also co-chaired the Upstanders: Portraits of Courage exhibit. In addition to Facing History, Jill is a member on the boards of the Nantucket Film Festival, Nantucket Book Festival, Nantucket Comedy Festival, Boston Youth Sanctuary, Grub Street as well as Ploughshares. She is a founding member of The Nantucket Project. More recently, JIll  is an active member of Getting To We, an organization that works on cross racial friendships and relations.  Jill has worked closely with Boston Children’s Hospital and is a Past President of the Boston Children’s League.

Renee Richard

Ms. Renee Tramble Richard is a strategic thinker executing C-Suite leadership for a regional corporate training center. As CEO, Ms. Richard leads a team that provides training in leadership and organizational development, quality and continuous improvement and professional development.

As an accomplished legal advisor with strong finance and business acumen, she has over 30 years’ experience working to provide companies with access to capital markets through the issuance of debt financings. Renee has led debt offerings for numerous organizations, in the healthcare industry, housing, real estate, financial and banking industries. She has worked with various regulatory bodies, state and local governments and government agencies.

Ms. Richard has served on many Boards including, AES Management Corp., a family owned business, and franchisee of 15 retail restaurants in northeast Ohio operating as Louisiana’s Popeyes Chicken, 1995-present; Care Alliance Health Center, a federally qualified health center in Cleveland, Ohio. Chair 2022-present; member of Governance Committee, 2020-present; YWCA of Greater Cleveland, Vice Chair (2023); member of Governance Committee, 2019-present and has previously served as an Audit Committee member for Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority and Cleveland Metroparks.

Renee has also served as President of The Links, Inc.—Cleveland Chapter (2019-2023), a national organization of 16,000+ professional women of color providing thoughtful leadership and service to the African American community. She is a member of the Finance Committee and Chair of the Fundraising Committee, NAACP Cleveland Branch (2017-2022).

Ms. Richard is currently the Interim President & CEO of the corporate training center and Vice President—Legal Services and Risk Management of Cuyahoga Community College, one of the nation’s largest community colleges. In these roles, Renee is a member of executive leadership, serving in the President’s Cabinet and the President’s Council. She represents the College Board of Trustees at its Audit Committee, Investment Committee, Management Committee (procurement and compensation) and Executive Committee (governance) meetings. As the CEO of Corporate College, she leads the division responsible for corporate training and providing workforce training solutions. As the Chief Legal Officer of the College, the Internal Audit, Risk Management, Compliance and Institutional Equity departments are three of her five reporting units.

Renee is a certified public accountant (inactive) licensed in the State of Ohio, who holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Kent State University, an MBA, with a concentration in Management, from Cleveland State University and a JD from Cleveland State University College of Law. Ms. Richard completed Data-Driven Decision Making for Business Leaders at Harvard University Extension School and is a member of the Deloitte Board Ready Women 2021 Cohort and In Counsel with Corporate Women.

Renee is the recipient of numerous professional and civic awards, including being a 2023 inductee into the Cleveland State University College of Law Hall of Fame, being named the 2022 Black Professional of the Year, a YWCA 2022 Woman of Achievement, Crain’s 2021 Notable General Counsels, the 2021 Smart Business Women Award and the 2018 Women of Color Foundation Woman of the Year. She has been married for over 30 years and is the mother of three adult children.

Katherine A. Sherbrooke

Katherine Sherbrooke is the author of a family memoir and three novels: the New York Times notable Leaving Coy’s Hill, which was selected for 2022 MA Book Award’s Honors in Fiction prize; Fill the Sky, the winner of a 2017 Independent Press Award and finalist for the May Sarton Award for Contemporary Fiction; and The Hidden Life of Aster Kelly, selected as PopSugar’s #1 historical novel for 2023. She served for the past ten years as Chair of the Board of GrubStreet, the nation’s largest creative writing center and Boston’s first public arts space dedicated to the written word. Before turning her attention to writing, Katherine, a graduate of Dartmouth College and Stanford Business School, co-founded a Boston-based company called Circles which was acquired by Sodexo in 2007. She remained at Circles as CEO until 2010. She lives south of Boston and shares her newly empty nest with her husband and black lab.

Zeta Smith

CEO, Seniors
Sodexo, U.S.

Zeta Smith is a leader known for developing talent and driving growth. As CEO of Sodexo Seniors, she oversees more than 3,600 employees in more than 500 senior communities throughout the U.S. Her relentless focus on progress consistently moves senior living communities forward, implementing evidence-based innovations powered by teams who are deeply committed to care. As CEO, Ms. Smith champions Sodexo’s commitment to supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and safety, while upholding the highest standards of corporate responsibility and ethical business conduct. With over 25 years of experience, and working for Fortune 200 companies such as ExxonMobil and Starbucks, she authentically leads teams through extraordinary growth and evolving market trends.

Karen Tucker

Karen Tucker has long been engaged in foundation service as a co-founder and member of nonprofit boards. She is a past chair and current Advisory Board member of the New England chapter of Facing History and Ourselves, an international organization that educates teachers and students about human rights, democracy and civic responsibility.

For three years she led the Boston-based Miriam Fund, which makes grants to non-profits that work to improve the lives of women and girls and is past president and a current board member of Alosa Health, a non-profit that provides unbiased education to physicians about prescription drugs.

Karen is also currently a member of the New Israel Fund’s International Council, and a Council Member of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston. Prior to her community work, Karen co-founded KIDVIDZ, which designed, produced, and distributed award-winning educational videos for children on key issues for families such as moving, having a new baby, and managing media use at home. With her business partner, she wrote Stay Tuned! Raising Media Savvy Kids in the Age of the Channel-Surfing Couch Potato, published by Doubleday.