Board and Staff

Currrent Board (2009)

Jeffrey Weissmann - Chair
Attorney – Weissmann Abruzzo LLP; Fellow of American College of Mortgage Attorneys
Director since 2005

John Budesa, Secretary
Marketing Executive; Past President
Director since 2003

Patricia Franco
President-International Division & CIO, SPAR Group, Inc.
Director since 2009

James A.Smith, Board Treasurer
Retired; Past President;Exchange Club Member
Director since 2003

Jeffrey Stone
Private Investor; Past President
Director since 1999

Albert L. Sturmer
Rabbi; Retired Private Banker – Merrill Lynch; Exchange Club Member
Director since 2000

William Waterman
Insurance Broker – Waterman Insurance Agency; Exchange Club Member
Director since 2004

Edward F. Beane, Counsel
Attorney- Keane & Beane, P.C.; Exchange Club Member
Counsel since 1982; Past President

Current Staff:

Laura B. Schwartz, LMSW, ACSW Executive Director

Ms. Schwartz received her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Adelphi University in 1983. She joined the Center’s staff as Assistant Executive Director/Program Director in 1993 and was appointed Executive Director in December 1997. Ms. Schwartz is Past President of the National Parent Aide Network (NPAN) and sits on the Westchester Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect’s coordinating committee.

Linda Paver, LCSW-R Assistant Executive Director

Ms. Paver received her Master’s Degree in Social Work in 1978 from the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University. She was Program Director of Bronx House, a Community Center, was the trainer and supervisor of volunteer group facilitators of the Mother’s Center of Rockland County, had a private social work practice for over 10 years, and was Director of the Family, Work and Life Center of the JCC on the Hudson. She came to the Center in 1998 as a part-time Volunteer Coordinator and became the full-time Assistant Executive Director in September 2004.

Sandra Bowen Jenkins, Parent Aide Supervisor

Ms. Bowen Jenkins has worked at the Center since 1988. She previously worked for the YWCA of White Plains for 8 years as a Community Outreach Group Worker in the low-income housing areas of White Plains with girls 6 – 18 years old. Ms. Jenkins returned to school and received her Bachelor’s in Arts from Empire State College in 1993.

Paola Gomez, Parent Aide Supervisor, Bi-Lingual, Bi-Cultural

Ms. Gomez came to the Center as a Social Work Intern and joined the staff in January 2007. Previously, she ran after school programs for the YMCA for five years. Ms. Gomez obtained her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Fordham University in the spring of 2008.

Ruth Ipince, Senior Intensive Parent Aide, Bi-lingual, Bi-Cultural

Ms. Ipince joined the Center staff in March of 2001 as an Intensive Parent Aide and was promoted to Senior Intensive Parent Aide in 2004. Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Ipince owned a store, did private childcare and was a Teacher’s Aide for a Spanish speaking student in a local elementary school.

Monica Valdovinos, Intensive Parent Aide, Bi-lingual, Bi-Cultural

Ms. Valdovinos came to the Center as a student intern getting her Associates Degree in Human Services from Westchester Community College in January 2005. She was hired as an Intensive Parent Aide in June 2005. Ms. Valdovinos is studying for her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work at Lehman College.

Lynn Becker, Executive Assistant

Ms. Becker joined the staff in January 2009. Previously she worked as an attorney, an executive recruiter, a substitute teacher, a full-time parent and as a freelance writer.