Board of Directors
Executive Committee:
Diane Lefebvre, Board President, is Director of University Financial Systems Management and Planning for Princeton University. Previously she worked at JP Morgan Chase directing the global business management department for Investment Management Technology responsible for project management governance, financial management and reporting, and status reporting and metrics. Prior to that, she spent 20+ years at Telcordia Technologies in various management positions managing all aspects of the software development life cycle, project management, product management, contract management and finance.
Diane is currently a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) in Somerset County and a member of Children’s Hope Initiative (CHI). Previous community involvement included President of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Lowell (MA), Somerset County Handyman program, Literacy Volunteers of America, Girl Scouts, and chair of the finance committee at her local church.
Diane lives in Skillman with her husband, daughter, mother-in-law and dog, Lucky.
Suzanne Tame, Treasurer, is a Partner in Strategy and Transformation at IBM. With over twenty years of experience, she has focused on delivering solutions in drive global enterprise transformation, performance improvement and finance transformation. Sue has a broad industry focus and has worked in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America in addition to USA. Prior to joining IBM, Sue was a Partner of Deloitte Consulting for 9 years, where she held leadership roles in both its Energy practice and CFO Services practice. Sue moved from Australia to the USA in 2001.
Sue has a business undergraduate degree, post-graduate diploma in Financial Management, Masters in Finance and Accounting and is a Chartered Accountant. She brings deep understanding of finance operations including finance strategy, business process outsourcing, shared services, best practices, process re-engineering, financial reporting, business valuation business intelligence and service delivery model. Sue also has a long and accomplished track record of reducing cost through process re-engineering, strategic sourcing, shared services, outsourcing and supply chain management.
Sue has a long history of championing the empowerment of women.
· As one of Deloitte’s Women’s Initiative leadership, Sue designed and piloted a workforce flexibility program to allow consultants to balance the pace of their career with their other life goals such as parenting and caring for the elderly. This program was refined and made available to approximately 30,000 employees across the USA.
· A mentor to approximately 200 female practitioners, Sue also developed a school mentorship program wherein employees mentored 12-14 year old girls within a Chicago Public school in a disadvantaged area. The program provided email pen-pals and mentors to children, teaching computer skills, providing role models, and organizing monthly day trips.
· Sue developed a business mentoring program called “The 100 Wise Women” to provide networking and mentoring opportunities between executive women and their organizational protégés. This program encompassed many of Chicago’s top performing organizations and afforded up and coming business women with the opportunity to develop personal relationships with senior executives outside of the work environment.
Sue now resides in West Windsor, having relocated from Chicago in 2010. She is mother to a 8 year old son. She joined the Board of the YWCA Princeton in January 2011.
Karen Klein, Secretary, is the Director of Private Banking & Investment Corporation, Merrill Lynch.
Maria Sypek, 1st V.P.,is a retired Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, assigned to Mercer County Vicinage. In this role, she has held various positions including Presiding Judge of Criminal, Family and Chancery. As Judge, Maria focused on a number of community-based areas, including presiding over Drug Court to emphasize rehabilitation. While in Family Court, Maria presided over the Children in Court docket that handles all of the DYFS cases. As a result, she became knowledgeable of that system and the social service issues and servicers in the state. In Chancery, Maria helped to shape a Court initiated mediation program into a successful vehicle to help homeowners attempt to save their homes. Mercer County’s program was used as a template for the statewide effort. Maria also sat on the Intensive Supervision Program which allows for convicted individuals who meet certain criteria to serve the balance of their sentence in the community under individualized intensive supervision.
Maria also acted as Managing Partner and practiced in litigation and Probate at the Stockman, O’Donnell & Sypek P.A. law firm. She lives in Ewing with her husband, Arthur.
Janet Smith Dickerson, V.P. at Large was Princeton University’s vice president for Campus Life from 2000-2010, Janet Smith Dickerson had oversight responsibility for five departments: Athletics, Religious Life, University Health Services, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, and the Pace Center for Civic Engagement. She served as liaison to the ROTC program and represented Princeton on the Policy Committee of the Ivy League. At Princeton for a decade, she advocated for undergraduate and graduate students through her work on cultural issues including health and well being, diversity and inclusion, equity of experience and residential life.
Dickerson served as vice president for student affairs at Duke University from 1991-2000 and was dean of the college at Swarthmore College from 1981-1991. Earlier in her career, she was associate dean and founding director of the Supportive Services program at Earlham College (Indiana) and was a teacher and guidance counselor in Cincinnati Public Schools. She holds degrees from the Western College for Women (now Miami of Ohio) and Xavier University, Cincinnati. She pursued advanced graduate study the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University and has received honorary degrees from Xavier and Swarthmore. Dickerson has an extensive record of consulting for higher education and was a Fulbright administrative fellow to Germany in 1997. She currently serves on the boards of Swarthmore College, the United World College USA, and the Princeton Blairstown Center, among others.
Judy Klitgaard, V.P. at Large, husband Bill, and son Miles have lived in West Windsor since December 1997. They moved here from the San Francisco Bay Area, where she had spent 14 years as a branch manager for a municipal bond investment banking firm and 1½ years as a full-time volunteer with several organizations in the Bay area.
Since relocating, Judy has served as secretary for the Village School PTA, and president of the YWCA Princeton Newcomers’ Club as well as Interest Group vice president. In her capacity as Newcomers’ president, she sat on the YWCA Board of Directors for a year, then was elected to a three-year term in 2001. Following completion of her 6 years she rotated off the board due to term limits and is now back on the board. She has been a member of the Board’s Executive Committee for four years, chairs the Board’s Nominating Committee, is a member of the Development Committee, and has co-chaired three Evenings at McCarter Theatre, annual major spring fundraising events. She has also participated in the Patron Cocktail party. Additionally Judy sits on the Investments Committee and is a member of the Executive Committee, and chairs the HR committee. Outside of the YWCA, Judy is a member of Princeton United Methodist Church. Judy is co-owner of Provence-At-Home which features handmade table linens from the Provence region of France.
Doodie Meyer, V.P. at Large, has been vice president of business development for the Howard Design Group, Inc., of Princeton since 1994. She identifies new business opportunities, and works with clients as project director. She is also the president of Meyer Educational Consultants, an educational firm offering college admission counseling.
Prior to her current position, she worked in development at the Newgrange School in Princeton, with responsibility for workshops, events, and fund-raisers. She also was a vice president with Peterson’s Guides, Inc., managing the school division with products and services focused toward public and private secondary schools and camps. She was charged with developing new products and services targeted at the market segment. From 1972 to 1988, she worked in the admission’s office at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. From 1982 to 1988 she was the director of admission and in 1985 was the President of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
Doodie has served as a board member of the Trenton After School Program, and the YWCA. She chaired the funds development committee and served on the Mission Council Committee of the Presbytery of New Brunswick. She is an elder at Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton.
Board Members:
Laurel Cameron is a senior level business executive with a 32 year career in sales management. Beginning in the retail food trade and then as a food broker, she trained and managed sales teams and had direct customer responsibility. Accepting an opportunity from Ore-Ida Foods, an H.J. Heinz company, she again held various sales and marketing positions and created a charity (Coats for Kids). During that time she also earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration and served on the board of the Idaho Humane Society. Laurel then led sales for Bumble Bee Foods as Senior Vice President, US Sales. There she implemented new strategic direction, reorganized the sales forces, championed the company’s values and served on the Executive Board.
When personal plans necessitated a move to the east coast, Laurel redirected her efforts to make a positive difference in the lives of others. She returned to college and earned a certificate in non-profit management and began serving on several non-profit boards, including the YWCA Newcomers Club, first as Vice President of Special Projects, then as President. The following year she chaired the Crafter’s Marketplace / Bates Benefit, and is now in her second year. Additionally she works as a consultant educating retailers on global tuna sustainability for the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation. Laurel has two daughters, as well as a stepson and stepdaughter and lives with her husband Scott and their family in Tinton Falls.
Andrea Darling most recently worked for a law firm in Boston, where she represented employers in diverse employment discrimination actions and represented clients in a broad range of litigation matters. She also served pro bono as a court-appointed guardian ad litem for children involved in the family court system through abuse and neglect cases. Previously she worked as a summer associate with a law firm in Portland, Oregon. Before law school, Andrea worked as a graduate instructor at Duke University, where she designed and taught interactive French courses to undergraduates.
Andrea holds an A.B. in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in French from Duke University, and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law.
Andrea currently serves on the Board of Princeton Community Housing as the YWCA liaison. She is also chairing the YWCA's 36th annual Crafters' Marketplace. The Marketplace raises funds for the YWCA's Bates Scholarship Program, which allows economically disadvantaged community members to participate in YWCA programs.
Andrea lives in Skillman with her husband, Todd, and their two young sons, Alex and Nicholas, who have participated in various YWCA aquatics, gymnastics, and other preschool programs.
Patricia Mae Doykos, Ph.D. is Director of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. She works on health strategy for the Foundation and leads the Together on Diabetes® iniative, a 5-year $100 million program launched in November 2010 to improve health outcomes of people living with type 2 diabetes in the United States by strengthening patient self-management education, community-based supportive services and broad-based community mobilization. In line with the Foundation’s mission to reduce health disparities, this initiative targets adult populations disproportionately affected by type 2 diabetes.
In the area of HIV/AIDS, Patricia’s role is to assist in mobilizing lessons learned from the Foundation’s program for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Secure the Future, to other regions of the world affected by the epidemic so that they can be replicated and inform evidence-based public health policy and investments. This involves ongoing outreach, advocacy and partnership development with major donors like the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), U.S. based AIDS service and advocacy organizations, and corporate philanthropy and social responsibility peers.
Patricia received her B.A. in German and Government from Dartmouth College, M.A. in German Language & Literature from the University of Virginia and doctorate in German Literature & Cultural Studies from New York University.
She lives in Titusville, New Jersey with her son, Culver.
Cheri Hennessy Durst is the Director of Events for the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce. Serving in this role for nearly seven years, she oversees all of the Chamber’s signature fundraising and networking events. Cheri has an extensive knowledge of the local business community, is organized and detail-oriented. She possesses the ability to view and understand both sides of just about any issue.
Cheri has served in several leadership positions within the Junior League of Greater Princeton: Development Chair, Administrative VP and most recently President, where her responsibilities were wide ranging and included oversight of a volunteer organization of over 300 women and a nine member board. Other volunteer organizations in which Cheri has served include Trenton Small Business Week, Floyd Fete, National Junior Tennis & Learning of Trenton and Villa Victoria Academy, to name a few. She is also a proud member of the Leadership Trenton Class of 2002.
A graduate of The College of New Jersey, Cheri resides in Ewing with her husband Sandy and their daughter Charley.
Michelle A. Emerson owns and operates Melting Pot Gifts, an online business specializing in interracially-themed gift products. With the encouragement and support of her husband, the business began offering products to this underserved market in 2002.
Michelle has served in numerous volunteer positions since moving to the area from Dallas in 1999. She is currently president of the Junior League of Greater Princeton, having been active in that organization for ten years and on the board for four. She helped launch and grow the ROCKETS (Raising Our Children’s Knowledge by Educating Through Science) program which provides science and math literacy enrichment activities to local preschool classrooms.
An alumni interviewer for Rice University, she also has served on the boards of Passage Theatre, the Trenton Museum Society, the Trenton Film Society, and the Child Placement Review Board.
Michelle is also planning the inaugural Alexander’s Run for October 30, 2010, a memorial run dedicated to the memory of her son Alexander Michael Dodson, a healthy, happy, 19½ month old toddler who passed away unexpectedly in his sleep in December 2008. Funds raised from this event will be used to support the Alexander Michael Dodson Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood Program.
A graduate of Rice University, Michelle lives in Trenton with Dan Dodson, her husband of ten years.
Lily Just is the Director of Admissions for THINK Global School, an international non-profit IB high school that travels the world. She is a marketing strategist with 14 years of diverse experience in both corporate and educational institutions, such as Merrill Lynch, Tax Technology Services, EXAMCO, and the Tulane University. Her experience includes strategic business planning, market planning and strategy, sales and promotions, student recruitment, admissions and tuition financing planning.
Lily has a BA from Yale University and an MBA from the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. She also serves on the Yale Alumni Committee of Central New Jersey interviewing admission applicants and belongs to the National Society of Hispanic MBAs.
Heather Kisilywicz has turned a hobby into a passion. She chaired the 2009 Nassau Nursery School Annual Fundraiser and was immediately hooked on volunteerism. She gained life-long friendships, as well as exceeded the fundraising goal, despite it being the year the market crashed! Heather called upon the skills she honed at Merck for almost a decade before leaving full-time employ to volunteer within her community and make her family her priority. By the time her third son entered full-day elementary school, she started referring to herself as a Professional Volunteer. Her positions expanded from President of Nassau Nursery School PTO to Board of Trustees; various positions on Johnson Park Elementary School PTO; Development Committee Chair for the YWCA of Princeton Board of Directors, as well as Board of Directors of VolunteerConnect. Now she minds "the resume gap" of paid positions, as virtual marketing volunteer through her wisdom collaboration website Kleverness. She pairs her professional development experience with her geeky love of technology by providing simple, easy-to-understand tips for marketing, fundraising and volunteer management. She is looking forward to launching the AuctionsAutomator website, which will provide volunteers free fundraising event management tools. Finally, she hopes to be a solid 3.0 in tennis by summer 2013.
Catherine Kossou
Geniva Martin currently serves as the President Elect for the Junior League of Greater Princeton. She has been active in Junior League since 2005 and has served in numerous leadership roles, including as Community Vice President for two years. She received the Cherish the Children Award in Mercer County in 2009 and the Junior League Presidents Bowl award in 2010, both for outstanding community work.
She has also served on the board of the Corner House Foundation since 2009, where she chaired their 2009 and 2010 Spring Benefits. She first became involved in Corner House as a part-time employee. In 2011, Geniva joined the YWCA board, after successfully chairing the Bates Benefit in 2010. She has been a dedicated YWCA volunteer in the Bi-Lingual Nursery program for many years.
She and her husband Bill live in Skillman, NJ with their three children.
Cynthia Ricker, Vice President, Branch Manager of PNC Bank. She has been a Business Banking Relationship Manager at PNC Bank since 2005. In her role there she supports not-for-profits and commercial clients in the Princeton market.
Cynthia began her banking career in 1981 as a Training Coordinator with Princeton Bank and Trust. When Princeton Bank and Trust merged with Horizon Bancorp., she returned to the retail branch bank system in Princeton. When Horizon Bank merged with Chemical Bank, she became Assistant Branch Manager and later Assistant Vice President of what would become PNC Bank. Cynthia was later appointed as a Vice President at PNC Bank.
Cynthia is on the board and past President of WomanSpace, a leading not-for-profit agency providing services to individuals impacted by domestic and sexual violence, a volunteer for the Breast Cancer Resource Center at the YWCA Princeton, a past grants committee member for the Susan G. Komen Central and South Jersey Affiliate for the Cure and past co-chair and committee member for Komen's "Spirit of Jane Rodney" annual event. Previously she was a member of the Rotary Club of Princeton and served on the board of trustees of the Pennington Public Library and was on the Pennington Day Grants Committee.
A native of Massachusetts, Cynthia earned her bachelor's degree in education from Lesley University. She lives in Pennington with her husband, daughter and son, and is a six-year breast cancer survivor.
Andrea D. Spuck served most recently as Development Director for Crawford House where she increased fundraising revenue across all areas and sustained the largest positive media presence in the organization’s history.
The bulk of her career has been spent in the United Kingdom, and the U.S. as a director/administrator in the field of international education and study/work abroad, and as a communication studies professor and trainer. Most recently she was on assignment for 10 years with her family in Brussels, Amsterdam and Bonn/Cologne. Prior to going abroad she was President of the YWCA Princeton, spearheading its continued transformation to a strategic governance structure, and a former President of the Princeton Newcomers’ Club. She has also served stints in public relations, student recruitment and international development. The latter most notably with PATH: a catalyst for global health based in Seattle, Washington where she created its public, donor and media relations function and helped lay the groundwork resulting in an internationally known private foundation becoming the largest private funder of all international health initiatives. Over the years she has had the privilege to serve on many boards, commissions, national and state advisory groups concerned with education, youth, family, community and international issues. As Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Bonn International School she opened the first school in Germany to be built with the support of the federal/local government, corporate and private donors.
Andrea has a graduate degree from Penn State. A native of Oregon, she completed her undergraduate studies at Willamette University. A dual national of the U.S. and U.K., she lives in Montgomery with her two daughters (who attended preschool, and learned to dance and swim at the YW), son, and husband, Tim Southerst, who is a marketing executive with Bayer Healthcare.
Parizad Srivastava is a seasoned event manager and finance professional. She owns her own financial consulting firm, Blue Lotus Financial, which offers financial services to small and mid-size businesses.
She was first introduced to the YWCA's mission in 2011 when she helped organize the Breast Cancer Resource Center's (BCRC's) annual fund raising event - 'In the Pink' Fashion Show and Auction.
Parizad holds a degree in economics as well as event management. She has over 15 years of experience in event management for non-profit organizations and 5 years of expertise in personal budget management, HR training and accounting.
Parizad has a passion for the non- profit work. She has been volunteering in different non-profit organizations since she was 12 years old. She has been on the executive management team for educational non-profits both in India and New York.
She lives with her husband Sanjeev and two daughters Jasmine and Kesari in Lawrenceville NJ.
Wanda Y. Taliaferro has worked in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries for most of her career. She has a project management and process improvement background and has worked for many divisions of Johnson & Johnson. She is currently the Vice President of Process Improvement for Covance, Inc. in Princeton. Wanda is a graduate of MIT, where she earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering and also holds a MBA in Operations Management from Columbia University.
Wanda enjoys mentoring and supporting young people. She is on the board of the New Jersey Orators, Inc. - an organization that teaches young people the art of public speaking. She is also on the board of the MLK Youth Center of Bridgewater, NJ - a tutoring and after school care program.
Wanda is a freelance writer for the greeting card and gift item industry. She is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Wanda currently resides in Edison, NJ.
Miquelon (Micky) L. Weyeneth has worked for Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, NJ as an Executive Director in their finance division since October 2001. Prior to that, she served as VP of investor relations for US Healthcare, held several positions in international finance with Rhone-Poulenc (RP) Inc. and Johnson and Johnson, and operated her own consulting company, Weyeneth Consulting LLC. She was a YWCA Princeton Tribute to Women (then called “TWIN”) honoree in 1989.
Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Micky received a degree in political science from the Graduate School of International Studies in Geneva. She earned a master’s degree in international finance from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Massachusetts, and an MBA from NYU.
Micky is the mother of two grown daughters, and enjoys volunteer work in her spare time. She is a past president and treasurer of the Board of the YWCA Princeton, a member of the Princeton Adult School board, cofounder of the Princeton chapter of FENG (Financial Executive Network Group), and past treasurer of the Swiss-American Historical Society.
