Directors

There are fourteen members who serve on the Linkages Board of Directors, each for a three-year term. They attend a monthly Board Meeting and also meet with their committee(s). Included are present and former educators, business people, a lawyer, a nurse, an historian-librarian and a social worker. Most have visited Russia at least once but each one has her/his own story of willingness to be involved with Russia from afar and up close.

Walter Boston is a retired history professor from SUNY College at Brockport, where has taught courses in American History, Women’s Studies and International Business. Currently, Walter serves as an adjunct Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology's Center for International Business & Economic Growth. He is the Chairman and CEO of Genesee-Volkhov Connection, Inc, a Russian company specializing in photography. As the Vice-President of Linkages of Rochester, Inc., Walter brings to the board his extensive expertise in the fields of business and intercultural communication. He has been to Velikiy Novgorod several times and continues to be instrumental in organizing the business exchange between the two sister cities. Walter is also a member of the International Business Council of The Rochester Business Alliance.

Paul L. Caccamise our current president,  has been a member of the Linkages Board since 2002 and has been involved in Linkages activities since 1998. He has been the chair of the Linkages Partnership for Childrens Services. Paul has traveled to Novgorod four times to deliver training and consult with Russian colleagues around the development of child welfare services in the Novgorod region. He has also been a member of the Partnership for Elder Services team that arranged seminars both in Rochester and in Novgorod on aging issues such as elder abuse and geriatric addictions. Both he and his wife, Sandra, have hosted Russian visitors from Novgorod in their home in Irondequoit, NY. Paul continues to learn Russian in order to understand the culture better and to communicate with the many friends he has made in Russia through Linkages activities and homestays in Novgorod. Paul is a licensed social worker in New York State who retired from Monroe County Department of Human Services in 2002. He is presently the Vice President for Program at Lifespan of Greater Rochester, Inc., an agency that helps older adults take on the challenges of the second half of life through a variety of programs.

Debra Fromm Faria joined the Linkages Board in June of 2009 as co-chair of the Partnership for Elders. She has participated in the Linkages Partnership for Children committee since 2004 and has co-taught two Linkages sponsored educational training programs (2004 & 2009) in partnership with Jed Metzger to Novgorod child welfare staff.  Debra is a licensed clinical social worker with a specialization in gerontological social work. She has been a social work educator since 1990, first as adjunct faculty at RIT and the University of Buffalo.  In 1995 she joined the RIT social work faculty as a  assistant professor and director of field education.  Since 2001 she has held faculty appointment in the College at Brockport  and serves as the Director of Field Education for the Greater Rochester Collaborative MSW Program of the College at Brockport and Nazareth College. Debra  is also co-director of the College of Brockport Center for Excellence in Gerontological Social Work (a federally funded project of the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center) and has sucessfully administered a number of grants to enhance models of gerontological social work education. Debra serves on the Board of the State Society of Aging of NYS and holds appointment to the Council on Social Work Education Field Council.  In fall 2009, Debra was appointed as a   faculty mentor for  northeast schools of social work participating in  New York Academy of Medicine Social Work Leadership Institute's gerontological normalization program.  

Joe Gersitz has been the life and spirit of Linkages for decades. In 1991, he retired after 31 years of teaching, chiefly foreign languages, in McQuaid Jesuit, Rush-Henrietta and Brighton schools. In the late 1980s a partnership between Brighton High School and Moscow School 67 sparked his interest in the Soviet Union and then Russia. Upon his retirement, he joined the Board of Linkages and since has been active in many of the humanitarian, social services and educational activities of Linkages. He has led groups of Rochestarians to see the sights in Moscow, Velikiy Novgorod and St. Petersburg.

Barbara LeSavoy, PhD,  is a seasoned academic who serves as the Director of  Women and Gender Studies at  The College at Brockport in Brockport, NY   In addition to directing the Women and Gender Studies Program, Barbara teaches Feminist Theory, Sex and Culture, and  a senior seminar course that bridges feminist theory and practice.  Barbara is active in college governance  and also maintains a dynamic scholarship agenda.    Her research interests include attitudes on feminism,  intersectionality and  educational equity/success, women’s stories, and  women’s global human rights.  Barbara chairs the Linkages Women's Partnership Committee, focusing on linking women leaders in Novgorod with a newly founded women's leadership and learning institute  in Seneca Falls, NY. Other Rochester/Novgorod collaborative initiatives include exploring opportunities to advance women in business, women’s human rights, and domestic violence concerns. Barbara resides in the village of Brockport with her partner John and her two daughters, Maeve, age eight, and Savoy, age eleven.

Jed Metzger joined the Nazareth College department of social work in 2005, leaving a 23-year full-time career in providing service to children and families involved in the child welfare system, children's mental health system, and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. He received his B.A. in psychology from Emory University, an M.S.W. from New York University, and a Ph.D. in clinical social work from NYU. He has worked as an adjunct professor for the past ten years, first at the University of Buffalo, then at Syracuse University, and finally at the GRC MSW program since it opened. Jed's research relates to kinship care. He is interested in the application of service learning to the development of civically engaged social workers. Jed participated in a cultural exchange to Russia and has ongoing interest in developing learning opportunities between America and Russia for social workers. Jed enjoys cooking, the arts, and music.

Parker Moore is a senior at Fairport High School and very interested in foreign affairs. He took a trip with some other students and faculty members from Fairport High School to western Russia in February 2009. This trip, along with his love of foreign language and culture, helped cultivate his interest in Russia and the affairs thereof. After he graduates from high school, Parker wishes to attend a higher-level institution where he hopes to study International Relations with a double minor in Russian and German. He then wishes to continue on to law school where he hopes to gain knowledge and experience in relation to international law. He aspires to be a part of the United Nations to some degree, and will someday live in either Russia or Germany, his two favorite places in the world.

Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck is the Rochester City Historian and author of multiple books, including: Runnin Crazy: A Portrait of the Genesee River with Edward P. Curtis, Jr., Rochester: A Pictorial History, A Growing Legacy: A Centennial History of Rochester's Parks with Dr. Blake McKelvey and Shirley Cox-Husted, Rochester Neighborhoods with Shirley Cox-Husted and A Young Peoples History of Rochester. She is also the editor of Rochester History, a quarterly journal published by the Office of the City Historian. Ruth, the mother of two daughters, has interests ranging from archaeology and world culture to rivers and canals, education, music and children. She has learned to speak Russian and has visited Novgorod twice, where she has also sent her daughters. Over the past three years, she and her family have hosted students from Novgorod, two of them for a full year. This relationship and growing friendship has been richly rewarding as my family has grown with many of those in Novgorod.

Jack Schottmiller is chairman of the Partnership for Prevention of Substance Abuse and also serves on the Business Committee of Linkages. He has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2001 and has made five trips to Russia, including three to Velikiy Novgorod. Jack is retired from Xerox Corporation and continues to do consulting and training in quality management. He holds a Ph.D. from Syracuse University, where he did research in physical chemistry, and a BA from the University of Rochester. Jack lives with his wife in Mendon and has a son John Jr., living in Rochester. One of his interests is the study of languages (naturally Russian is his current favorite). He is a pupil of Linkages member Ludmila Fayn-Girsh.

Tanya R. Schueler-Choukairi has been teaching EFL/ESOL  the English Language Center ( ELC) of Rochester Institute of Technology since 1992 when she returned to the United States from an extended residence in Morocco. Her interest in Russian culture stems from a family heritage, and from a desire to be involved in providing the local community with a window on the world. She has been a member of the Linkages Education committee for five years and has - in the past- participated in the ISCOR celebrations at High Falls with her students at the ELC.

Roger Young has a nickname, 'Corky', which worked fine until he became involved in Russian language and culture.  It turns out that 'korka' translates as banana peels and orange rinds.  Roger has hosted some Russian visitors, visited Novgorod socially twice, and learned a little of the language.  Roger has a small family firm, which manufactures specialty adhesives, as it has done since 1961.  Roger handles this website and some other communication tasks for Linkages.