Anne is Executive Director of Girls Education Collaborative. Public affairs and education have always been at the heart of her career.  While earning an Executive Masters of Public Administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, she was inspired to take a deliberate ‘pivot’ into the newly emerging field of global girls education. She served as Executive Director of the Kakenya Center for Excellence, a girls school in Kenya, before founding Girls Education Collaborative in 2012.

Previously, Anne served as the President of the Board for the East Aurora School District and helped launch Enterprise Charter School in Buffalo, New York.  She has lobbied on Capitol Hill for public education and has served as a Trustee for the Buffalo Seminary, an all-girls secondary school. She was also Campaign Director for Alice Kryzan for Congress in 2008.

Anne has a Bachelor of Arts from Bowdoin College and describes herself as “a Buffalo gal who is passionate about things that happen both here and beyond”. She has three grown children and a delightful grandson.  She enjoys canoe tripping (except during thunder storms), kayaking, hiking, reading, doing new things and dancing with her husband.

Judy Caraotta is a Buffalo native and longtime friend of ED Anne Wadsworth, with whom she has worked in the past. She has a diverse background that includes working in the advertising and production departments of the Buffalo Courier-Express, starting a corporate and special events catering business in East Aurora, working as the Executive Assistant to a national political strategist and starting a fund development program at Crisis Services in Buffalo. She currently lives with her husband in East Aurora, two blocks from the GEC office.

As a graduate of the all-girls Holy Angels Academy in Buffalo, Judy knows firsthand the power of girls education. She hopes to accompany Anne on one of her Kitenga trips in the near-future and meet the girls that have found a special place in her heart.

Guillemette is GEC’s Programs & Partnerships Manager. With an honours degree in International Development from McGill University in Canada, Guillemette began her career in the NGO and public sectors in Australia, before venturing into entrepreneurship, establishing two technology companies. Notably, she founded Chatterbox, a highly successful Social Enterprise recognized as one of Europe’s foremost ventures.

Guillemette’s journey with GEC started back in 2015 when she first visited Kitenga as a volunteer. Over the years, she has actively contributed to our online communications efforts, lending her creative skills to produce engaging GEC short movies, and even tutored language lessons with the Kitenga students and young Sisters from IHSA.

Today, Guillemette’s extensive experience in project management and social impact work has led her to join GEC. Working closely with our valued partner organizations, she ensures the seamless execution of our programs, reinforcing our impact within communities.

Bob Berger, Board Chair, is an Emeritus Professor at the University at Buffalo Law School. His research and teaching interests for the past 20 years have been in the area of environment and development, focusing most recently on renewable energy and climate change. Bob also directed the environment and development legal clinic at UB in which he and students worked with non-profits and local governments on a number of projects in the domestic and international context. He has been an active participant or board member for many local and regional organizations focusing on renewable energy and climate change concerns.

Bob has a BA degree from Kenyon College and a JD from the University of Chicago. He has traveled throughout the world, and has been fortunate to visit Tanzania and the Kitenga school three times.

Board Secretary Dr. Christine Brown is a Buffalo native and board-certified Pediatrician. After completing her residency at the Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, she served as Chief Resident, taking an active role in pediatric medical education. She earned her Doctorate from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and her Bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio.

Crediting a strong and empowering all-girls high school education to Buffalo’s Nardin Academy, she supports GEC’s mission to further girls’ education globally. She provides input and guidance to GEC on medical and health-related issues pertinent to the Kitenga project. Dr. Brown has interests in wilderness medicine and promoting child development from a holistic point of view.

Having travelled to Kitenga, Tanzania to the IHSA Kitenga Secondary School for Girls in 2018 and 2020, Christine saw firsthand the immediate positive impact of GEC on the lives of the girls and also the families in the Kitenga Village.

Georgia Dachille, GEC Board Chair, is the Executive Vice President of Global Growth and Technology at Rich Products Corporation. In the 27 years Georgia has worked at Rich’s, she has held various positions across the business.  In her current role, she leads Rich’s innovation efforts including oversight of R&D, global marketing and strategic growth initiatives.  Prior to working at Rich’s, Georgia worked at Ernst & Young as a senior auditor.

She is a graduate of Canisius College where she received both a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and her Master of Business Administration degree.

Ryan Knowles is Board Treasurer and the Owner of Knowles Solutions, a firm he founded to provide accounting and consulting services to creative agencies. He has over 10 years of accounting experience, including work at not-for-profits. 

Ryan is a graduate of Boston University with a Bachelors degree in Accounting. He also has a Masters degree in Marine Biology from Northeastern University which he attained while taking a multi-year sabbatical from the accounting profession.

Ryan lives in Buffalo with his wife and two kids.

Robynn McPartlan Rich is a Human Resources Consultant with RM Rich. She has more than three decades of Human Resources experience across numerous industries including manufacturing, banking and financial services, healthcare and technology. Her areas of expertise are organizational leadership, recruiting, salary planning, talent and performance management, coaching, succession planning, regulatory compliance, change management, team and organization development.

In her former role as Director of Human Resources at Mattel/Fisher-Price, Inc., Robynn was a strategic business partner for executives and associates. She has extensive experience in succession planning, employee development and facilitating organizational change initiatives to impact cultural change and building successful teams. 

Robynn earned her MBA from Canisius College and currently holds extensive training and creative problem solving certifications.

In addition to being a part of the GEC board, Robynn’s community activities include; Advisory Board Member, Canisius College, Wehle School of Business and a Board Member, United Church Manor.

Brianne, GEC Board Vice-Chair, is an associate attorney with Hodgson Russ Real Estate and Finance Practice, where she represents clients in various commercial and real estate matters, including banking and finance, public-private partnerships, real estate development and real estate leasing.

“I’ve always been passionate about education, as I’ve experienced the benefits firsthand. I understand and appreciate how education helps with all forms of independence, particularly with girls and young women. I’m interested in helping reduce the barriers girls and women in particular face in obtaining an education. Furthermore, as an attorney practicing in the real estate and finance area, I don’t consider myself to practice in the public interest. By serving on GEC’s Board of Directors, I hope to use my legal skills to help further the public interest through GEC’s mission,” Brianne Szopinski.

Brianna R. Cornelius is an Educator, Linguist, Author, Social Activist, and Cultural Strategist. She is the founder and principal researcher of Evolve Initiative, an LLC which specializes in equity and inclusivity consulting by employing strategic planning processes. As an educator, Brianna has 13 years of extensive experience in the classroom with students ranging from Pre Kindergarten to the University level.

Brianna earned her B.A. in Romance Languages from Bowdoin College (2009), her M.A. in Linguistics from SUNY Buffalo (2013), and her Doctorate in Sociolinguistics (2020) from the University of South Carolina where her research centered around the interface of language and socially constructed realities (notably identity as intersectional and multiplex). Her current work examines the ways in which communities use language to create imbalanced and unjust societies via cultural practices and systems.

Kari partners with not-for-profit organizations, foundations, and start-up and emerging companies to provide strategic thought partnership, program leadership, and project management for multi-stakeholder initiatives and grants; strategic communications direction; and organizational strategy and development. 

Prior to forming her own consulting agency, Kari helped to build a multi-disciplinary team at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc., leading the organization’s strategic communications and branding, programming and external affairs, and collaborative grants and Campus-wide initiatives. Before relocating to Buffalo, Kari worked in Washington, DC and New York City, with national foundations, not-for-profit organizations, and academic centers dedicated to advancing social change. 

Kari is a graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. She is the president of the Advisory Board of the Women’s Business Center at Canisius College and on the Board of Trustees for Elmwood Franklin School. 

Toni L. Vazquez was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. She is an entrepreneur, a wife, and a mother of four. Toni is the Vice President of CINQ Care, New York. CINQ recently acquired G-Health Enterprises, a company she co-founded. G-Heath was a conglomerate of eight individual healthcare companies, including GBUAHN (Greater Buffalo United Accountable Healthcare Network) and Urban Family Practice, PC. She co-founded (GBUCBO) Greater Buffalo United Community Based Organization, formerly The Raul and Toni Vazquez Foundation.

Toni’s commitment to community extends beyond her entrepreneurial endeavors. Her active involvement on various committees and boards, including Visit Buffalo/Niagara, the Buffalo/Niagara Convention Center, the WNY Women’s Foundation, and Medaille University, underscores her dedication to civic engagement. Additionally, she was an elected member and former president of the Williamsville Central School District Board of Education. She currently serves on the board of trustees for Shea’s Performing Arts Center and the Buffalo Zoo.

Toni earned a doctoral degree in Health Administration from D’Youville University, an MBA from Medaille University, and a BA in Psychology from the University of Buffalo. Her relentless pursuit of excellence is further demonstrated through acquiring a Six-Sigma Black Belt certification from Villanova University, a diploma from the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University, and a certificate in Promoting Racial Equity in the Workplace from Harvard University.