About WFNH: Our Board
Chaired by Christina R. Hill, the Board of Directors of the Women's Fund consists of 14 women who represent all regions in New Hampshire and a variety of backgrounds and experiences. All members of the Board share a common vision of effecting social change that will enable New Hampshire's women and girls to reach their full potential.
The current Board of Directors includes these women. Click on a name to read her biography,
or scroll down on this page to read all posted biographies.
Marylou
Blaisdell, Nashua Gail VanHoy Carolan, North Hampton Ellen Fineberg, Portsmouth Kristen
Laine, Orange |
Kate Rochefort Murray,
North Hampton Robin Pollard, Sunapee Beverly Decker Reed, Grantham Jill G. Schiffman, Hanover Lindley Shutz, Concord Susan W. Thoresen, Portsmouth Perry Forbes Williamson, Hanover |
CHAIR, BOARD OF DIRECTORS: CHRISTINA R. HILL
Ms. Hill resides in Charlestown, NH. She is co-owner of TSV Media, in Claremont. Before being elected Chair, she served on the Women's Fund Board of Directors for 6 years. Ms. Hill is also an active community volunteer. In addition to being a Women's Fund Board member, she serves on the Board of Trustees of Fort at No. 4, in Charlestown; on the Advisory Board of the River Valley Community College, in Claremont and as an Incorporator of the NHCF, Upper Valley Region in Hanover. She has also been on the Nominating Committee of Vital Communities in White River Junction, VT; an Incorporator for Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont; Board of Directors of West Central Behavioral Health, in Lebanon; on the Board of Directors of the Claremont Opera House, and the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Norris Cotton Center in Hanover, NH. In her spare time, Ms. Hill enjoys gardening, beekeeping, and hiking with her husband, Harvey.
WFNH BOARD MEMBER BIOGRAPHIES
Marylou Blaisdell
Ms. Blaisdell resides in Nashua NH and owns DesignWares, a handcrafted art gallery and fine paper gallery in Nashua, New Hampshire. She is an active volunteer not only for the WFNH board but also in the Nashua area working as Chair for the City of Nashua, NH Board of Assessors, board member of Bridges, and member of the Nashua Area Women’s Investment Network. Ms. Blaisdell holds a BA degree in Behavioral Science from the University of Southern Colorado.
Margaret Clowes Bowles
Recent migrants to New Hampshire, Margaret C. (Mardi) Bowles and her husband Frank resided for more than three decades in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where they were part of the scientific community and where they raised their two children. A self-employed editor, Mardi began her journalistic career in the early 1980’s with a stint at The Falmouth Enterprise, a local newspaper on Cape Cod. She subsequently wrote and edited for a national ocean biogeochemistry program headquartered at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as well as for an ecological center at the Marine Biological Laboratory. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College in history, Mardi did graduate work in social anthropology at Brandeis University. She is extremely partial to gardening, swimming, cross-country skiing, hiking and birdwatching, all excellent reasons to live in the Upper Valley. Current volunteer activities include serving on the boards of Converse Free Library in Lyme, the Marine Biological Laboratory and The Clowes Fund, a family foundation, in addition to WFNH.
Gail VanHoy Carolan
Gail VanHoy Carolan comes to the Board of the Women’s Fund with experience in team building, synthesizing, and communicating gained in both private sector and not for profit career settings. Currently, Ms VanHoy Carolan is on the Board of Trustees of the Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH and has served as Board Chair from 2003 to 2007. She led the effort to secure a financial footing for the 128-year old theater and reposition it as a thriving, dynamic performing arts anchor for the Seacoast of NH. Recently, she has worked with the Monarch School of New England in Rochester to support their development and marketing efforts. Formerly, she has been an automobile industry sales executive with Lydall, Inc and has resided in the Detroit area as well as North Carolina. Ms. VanHoy Carolan currently resides in North Hampton with her husband Jim.
Ellen Fineberg
Ellen Fineberg brings more than 30 years of experience with nonprofits to her new position on the Board of the Women’s Fund. For more than six years, Ms. Fineberg directed the Women’s Business Center, an organization building the New Hampshire economy one woman owned business at a time. Prior to the WBC, she worked for the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the Peabody Essex Museum, and Historic New England in addition to consulting with New England nonprofits, government and educational organizations. Ms. Fineberg received an MS from Antioch New England, an MAT from George Washington University and her BA from Kenyon College. Ms Fineberg, who is passionate about using the arts and culture as a community building strategy, currently serves as Vice-Chair for Art-Speak! the cultural commission of her city Portsmouth.
Kristen Laine
Kristen Laine joins the Board of the Women’s Fund with a background in writing and editing. Her articles and essays have appeared in magazines and books and on the radio. She is the author of American Band, a book of narrative nonfiction (Gotham Books, 2007). Ms. Laine has also edited magazines, websites, user manuals, newsletters, and corporate reports. She has been a guest lecturer for the New Hampshire Humanities Council since 2002. Ms. Laine received degrees in English and American Literature from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and from the University of Wisconsin. Her volunteer work includes serving on the Mascoma School Budget Committee, as trustee of Fuller Library in Hillsborough, and on the board of the Upper Valley Rowing Foundation, in NH; and on the boards of Book-It Repertory Theatre, Mountaineers Books, Women Climbers Northwest, and the Women’s Funding Alliance, in Seattle, Washington. Kristen Laine is married to the writer and editor Jim Collins; they have two children and live in Orange, New Hampshire.
Susan Mayer
Susan Mayer of Newbury has always believed in the values of education and community service. As an active leader in the New Hampshire community, she has served as a trustee at Planned Parenthood and The Fenn School. In addition to being on the board of the Women’s Fund, she also serves as a trustee of The Walker Home and School. She served as past trustee for The Fells: John Hay National Wildlife Refuge, Northern Stage and Colby Sawyer College, for a number of years. Mrs. Mayer is a past member of the development committee of Lake Sunapee Visiting Nurse Association and of the outreach committee of St. Andrew’s Church. Mrs. Mayer earned an Associates of Arts degree from Colby Junior College in 1950, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education from Tufts University in 1953. In appreciation of their service to Colby Sawyer College, Ms. Mayer and her husband, Gerry, received the Susan Colgate Medal for Distinguished Service in 1995. Mrs. Mayer has eight children and 20 grandchildren.
Kate Rochefort Murray
Kate Murray holds doctoral degrees in both Music Education and Religious Studies. She held positions as Assistant Professor of Music at the University of California in Los Angeles (’78-’83), as a software Trainer, for Frame Technology Corporation (’86-’89) and as an Independent Consultant for KRM Consulting, Gilroy, California (’89-’91). She has numerous publications and presentations in the fields of both Music and Religious Studies. Currently, in addition to being on the board of WFNH, Ms. Murray serves on the boards of The Music Hall, The Statewide Partnership Committee for Affordable Housing, The Currier Museum of Art, and The Greater Piscataqua Community Foundation. She has held past board positions for United Way, and The San Jose/Cleveland Ballet. Kate resides in North Hampton, NH with her husband, David, and recently has taken up riding and studying dressage with her Lusitano horse.
Robin Pollard
Robin Pollard joins the board of the Women’s Fund from the town of Sunapee where she has lived for the past twenty nine years. After graduating from the University of New Hampshire in 1976, she worked for many years in retail sales and restaurant management. Robin currently works with her husband, Everett, at their company, Northcape Design, Inc., a residential design/build firm. She is very active in the volunteer community throughout the lake Sunapee area and has served on the board f the Sunapee harbor Riverway, a grass-roots town revitalization organization, for the past ten years. After a session on last year’s Grant making Committee, Robin is looking forward to her increased participation with The Women’s Fund of New Hampshire.
Beverly Decker Reed
Beverly Decker Reed moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire in 2002. Over the last forty years, she has held senior positions at leading non-profits in the fields of education, environment, and health. Employed as a first-grade teacher for several years, Ms. Reed then moved on to Williams College, where she served in a variety of capacities in the office of Alumni Relations and Development. After fourteen years at Williams she moved to the Boston area where she served as Associate Director for Resource Development at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Vice President of Development for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and for Development Guild as a Senior Consultant. Most recently, Ms. Reed was employed as Vice President for Resource Development at Pathfinder International. Ms. Reed has three children, two stepchildren and eight grand children. She enjoys traveling, golf, and gardening. In addition to her work with WFHN, Ms. Reed is active as a Reiki practitioner, and does volunteer work for Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center as well as several community groups.
Jill Schiffman
Ms. Schiffman is a native of New Hampshire, and a resident of Hanover. She is assistant professor of psychiatry emerita at Dartmouth Medical School where she has taught and practiced as a psychotherapist/clinical psychologist for more than 30 years. She retired from practice in 1998, and has continued to teach in the department of psychiatry at the medical school. She holds an undergraduate degree from Smith College and a graduate degree from Columbia. Ms. Schiffman became intrigued by philanthropy as a result of being involved in the Smith College Alumnae Fund, including chairing that committee from 1991-1994. A combination of 35 years as a psychologist, and working with women donors through Smith, led her to examine in depth, women and philanthropy. This was further developed when Ms. Schiffman joined the board of the Women’s Fund in 2000, chairing the board from 2002 to 2006. She has brought her many years of experience in fundraising, psychotherapy and speaking to developing the national topic of Women and Philanthropy into a lecture program for WFNH.
Lindley Shutz
Lindley Shutz is an adjunct professor in the English and continuing Education Department at the New Hampshire Community Technical Institute in Concord. Lindley has been a volunteer in her hometown of Concord, having leadership roles for the Friends of the Concord Public Library Board and the Concord Public Library Foundation Board. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College and a Masters in Literature from the University of Virginia.
Susan W. Thoresen
Susan Werner Thoresen is Associate Vice President and financial advisor of Morgan Stanley. She works with individuals and organizations to meet their goals and manage their wealth with less risk. She particularly focuses on people in transition – life changes, job changes, and retirement, including estate planning and charitable giving. Previously, she was a co-founder and principal of a planning and development consulting firm, The Thoresen Group with her husband Bob. Ms. Thoresen has over 30 years of volunteer experience, having served as a member of governing and advisory boards for various nonprofit institutions, such as the Society for the Protection of NH Forests, Greater Piscataqua Community Foundation, Strawbery Banke, Inc., Seacoast Family YWCA, the League of Women Voters, the Wentworth-Coolidge Commission, the Smith Club of New Hampshire and her church endowment. Ms. Thoresen is a Founder of WFNH, and currently lives in Portsmouth. She is a graduate of Smith College and has a Masters of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse where she met her husband. They have two children, two grandchildren, and one more on the way.
Perry Forbes Williamson
Perry Forbes Williamson, of Hanover, NH, is a Founder of WFNH. For many years she has volunteered and held professional positions in development, including Director of Development of Sterling College, Director of Development of Hospice (Hanover); work on a capital fund drive for WEVO (now NHPR); and fundraising for Arnie Arnesen’s bid for Governor. Ms. Williamson currently serves on the board of the Hanover Conservation Council. She holds a masters degree in psychotherapy from Antioch, and has worked as an intern for Women’s Supportive Services in Claremont; the Veterans Hospital in White River Junction, Vermont; and Upper Valley Family and Youth services. Ms. Williamson has served as both chair and member of the board of the Children's Workshop in Barrington/Lee NH, as well as on the boards of the Nottingham Conservation Commission; the Vermont Natural Resources Council; and the Cambridge School of Weston MA. She has been involved with Outward Bound (OB) for many years, and was an instructor at OB schools in Colorado, Maine, North Carolina and New Hampshire.