About WFNH: Our Board
Chaired by Kate Rochefort Murray, the Board of Directors of the Women's Fund consists of 16 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.
Sandy
Belknap , Nashua Gail VanHoy Carolan, North Hampton Martha Cottrill, New London Ellen Fineberg, Portsmouth Martha Fuller Clark, Portsmouth Sally Gayer,
New Castle
|
Sadhana Hall, Warner Heather Krans, Exeter Kristen Laine, Orange Maria Holland Law, Bedford Kate
Rushford Murray, New Castle |
CHAIR, BOARD OF DIRECTORS: KATE RUSHFORD MURRAY
Mrs. Murray grew up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Her college career took her from the University of North Carolina to graduate schools at the University of Connecticut and the University of Illinois, where she earned a doctoral degree in Music Education, and then to Santa Clara University and the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned a second doctoral degree, in Religious Studies. She was an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of California at Los Angeles ('78 -'83), a software trainer for Frame Technology, and an independent consultant in Gilroy, CA, while raising her two children, Paul and Hannah. After moving back to the East coast, Murray authored Field Guide to the Saints , a traveler's guide to religious art. She has written numerous articles and led frequent discussions in the fields of both music and religious art.
Murray currently lives in New Castle , NH with her husband David Murray. Along with the Women's Fund of New Hampshire Board, Mrs. Murray also serves on the Board of The Music Hall in Portsmouth , NH , and the Advisory Council of the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester , NH .
WOMEN'S FUND BOARD MEMBER BIOGRAPHIES
Sandy Belknap
Sandy Belknap is a Communications and Marketing professional with 20 years of experience working in both start-up and global Fortune ranked technology companies. Currently, she is responsible for Executive Communications in Hewlett-Packard's Enterprise Storage, Systems and Networking-Americas organization. She also teaches small businesses how to integrate Social Media with traditional Communications and Marketing plans to engage employee and customer communities. Prior to joining HP, she worked for Sun Microsystems as a Marketing Director and focused on communications and organizational change management.
Belknap is a resident of Nashua , NH , and graduate of Rivier College. In addition to her Board seat with the Women's Fund NH, she has been a neighborhood voice for the cleanup and redevelopment of the Mohawk Tannery Superfund site in Nashua since 1998. She was recently appointed to the City of Nashua 's Planning Board and is a Neighborhood Watch leader with the Nashua Police Department's Community Policing team. As a Community Blogger for NHPTV, Belknap contributes local stories and insights about Nashua.
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.
Martha Cottrill, CFA is a principal and owner of Taylor, Cottrill LLC, a registered investment advisor in New London, NH. Her career in the financial services began with two years in New York City in a Morgan Stanley training program. After a career hiatus that included a semester at the National Outdoor Leadership School, a summer of full-time triathlon training, and a winter season of working as a ski instructor, she got back into business at fledgling investment firm, Taylor Investments. As this firm grew and changed hands over the next twenty years, Ms. Cottrill’s career expanded to meet the firm’s growing needs, and she ultimately became a senior portfolio manager, a member of the investment committee, and Chief Operating Officer. In 2007 the opportunity arose to start her own investment advisory firm in New London. Ms. Cottrill has been Trustee of Trust Funds for the Town of New London and currently sits on the Investment Committee for New London Hospital, but the bulk of her experience with non-profit work to date has been helping investment committees with their endowments. Ms. Cottrill is married and has four children currently ages 16, 14, 7, and 5.
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.
Martha Fuller Clark
Martha is a founder of the Women's Fund of NH, and served briefly on the founding Board of the Women's Fund prior to running for public office in NH. Martha served in the NH State Senate from 2004-2010 representing the Portsmouth district; and also spent twelve years in the New Hampshire State House of Representatives. Martha participates on many different boards and commissions in her community. She presently serves as President of the Board of Strawbery Banke, as an advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and is the past President of Scenic America. Senator Martha Fuller Clark is Vice-Chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and a member of Democratic National Committee, serving on the Resolutions Committee. The senator earned a master's degree in art history from Boston University , and an undergraduate degree from Mills College . She was born and raised in York , Maine . Since 1973, Senator Martha Fuller Clark and her husband, Dr. Geoffrey Clark, have lived in the city of Portsmouth where they raised their three children, Caleb, Nathaniel and Anna.
Sally Gayer
Sally Gayer grew up in Milton, Massachusetts. She has a BA in European History from Connecticut College, a M.Sc. in Elementary Education from Southern Connecticut State College, and a M.ED with a concentration in English from Emory University. She has lived around the world in Oxford, England; Mexico City, Mexico; Atlanta, Georgia; and Toronto, ON. Sally has worked as a 4 th and 5 th grade teacher and also as a learning disabilities teacher. She is the former Education Director of Young Audiences of Atlanta, Inc., an arts-in-education non-profit organization, and the former Associate Director of Development for the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. The Alliance is the largest regional theatre in the Southeast. During her time in Toronto, Sally served as co-chair of "Bravery Beads", a program for children with cancer and as the chair of the Education Advisory Committee for Soulpepper Theatre, a local theatre, and worked with their teaching artists in the Toronto schools.
Sadhana Hall is the associate
director for The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center's Student and Public Programs
at Dartmouth College. She has over 20 years of experience in health and
development including strategic planning, staff and program management,
financial planning, program development, community needs assessment, implementation,
evaluation, and customer relations. Hall has developed programs targeted
toward addressing public policy issues and has designed, developed, implemented,
monitored, evaluated, and managed community development programs in Tuvalu,
Bhutan, and
the Caucasus. Her experience also includes managing primary health care
programs for the state of New Hampshire. Ms. Hall has directed three annual
conferences for a nonprofit organization with 1,500 participants representing
80 countries and served as a liaison for the Peace Corps volunteers program
in the Pacific. She holds a B.S. from the University of
Delhi, India (1978); an M.A. from the University of Rajasthan, India (1980);
and an M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School
of Public Health (1986).
Heather Krans is an attorney at
Wiggin & Nourie, PA in Manchester, NH. She represents clients in a wide
range of matters including domestic relations, commercial litigation, and
appellate litigation. She is also vice chair of the Unemployment Compensation
Appellate Board, where she conducts appellate hearings and authors decisions
in New Hampshire unemployment compensation appeals. Ms. Krans served as
president of the New Hampshire Women’s Bar Association from 2004-2006.
She currently serves as a trustee of Planned Parenthood of Northern New
England. She is also chair of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England
Action Fund, which is comprised of three state political action committees.
She is a frequent presenter on domestic relations and other legal topics,
and has served as a guest lecturer to University of New Hampshire students
on several occasions. Ms. Krans received her B.A. from the University of
Vermont and her J.D., with distinction, from Emory University School of
Law. Ms. Krans resides in Exeter, NH.
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.
Maria Holland Law
Maria Holland Law has an extensive background as an attorney with broad experience in professional, business and philanthropic settings. A graduate of the Derryfield School, Vassar College, and Boston Law School, Maria is currently working as an attorney at Rath Young & Pignatelli in Concord. She has previously worked at Nixon, Peabody LLP and McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton, P.A. Maria's extensive community engagement includes serving on the Board of the Palace Theatre Trust, VNA Foundation of Manchester, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Child Health Services, The Derryfield School, and New Hampshire Performing Arts Center.
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.