Board of Directors 2008-2009

The Board members and their contact details are:
   »  President: Karen Benjamin
   »  Past President: Renee Davias
   »  VP of Programming: Nancy Middleton
   »  VP of Finance: Barbara Kassnoff
   »  VP of Communications: Cindy Mandrycky
   »  VP of Outreach: Amy Carey
   »  VP of Web Development: Emily Ryan
   »  VP of Membership: Susan Ippoliti
   »  VP of Public Relations: Nancy Poisson
   »  VP of Operations: Pat Rice
   »  National Representative: Crista Deniz

Karen Benjamin: President

Karen Benjamin is the co-founder and co-owner of Worldleaders, an executive search firm focused on hiring top leadership talent for executive clients across practices that include Executive Leadership, Information Technology, Finance/Accounting, Sales/Marketing, and Human Resources. In addition to account and search management, Karen leverages her organizational management expertise to provided management consulting services to Worldleaders clients relative to their business strategy, organizational structure and staff alignment.

Prior to launching Worldleaders, Karen was a Vice President at Ciber, a $1B international Information Technology consulting firm. She specialized in project delivery, services sales, recruiting and fiscal (P&L) management for the Upstate, NY territory. She was awarded “Branch of the Year” in 2004 and received her company Presidents Club award 9 times.

Karen serves on several boards and committees in her local community including the Association for Women in Computing (President), St. John’s Meadows Advisory Board, The Wilmot Cancer Center Underwriting Committee, RIT Marketing and Advertising Board, Rochester Rotary, the Women’s Presidents Organization, Entrepreneur’s Organization and the Women’s Executive Network. She is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management and has been a volunteer for Junior Achievement and Compeer. She has also been a member of the Rochester Downtown Development Association.

She was recognized as a “RIT Distinguished Alumna” in 2008. She was named “IT Woman of the Year” by the Association for Women in Computing in 2004 and a “Top 25 Up and Coming Executive” in 2003 by the Rochester Women’s Network.

Karen holds a B.S. in Professional and Technical Communications from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a M.S. in Management from Roberts Wesleyan College.

Renee Davias: Past President

Renee is an applications developer for Nixon Peabody LLP, one of the largest multipractice law firms in the United States, with offices in sixteen cities and more than six hundred attorneys collaborating across fifteen major practice areas. The firm’s size, diversity, and state-of-the-art information systems enable them to offer a comprehensive, integrated range of legal services to individuals and organizations of all sizes in local, state, national, and international matters.

Renee is responsible for the design, development & administration of the firm's client extranets. She has an MBA in International Business and Marketing from the University of Connecticut, a BS in Computer Science from Clarkson University and an AS in Mathematics from Monroe Community College. Prior to Nixon, Renee worked as a consultant in the IT departments of many Rochester area companies including Citibank Student Loan, Corning, ITT Industries & Xerox.

Renee was elected President of AWC-UNY after serving two years as the organization’s VP of Communications and one year as the AWC National VP of Student Chapters.

Barbara Kassnoff: Vice President of Finance

Barbara B. Kassnoff: Ms. Kassnoff specializes in computer business applications support, primarily on Healthcare and Finance applications, using Enterprise Resource Planning tools.

Her career includes more than ten years in medical device manufacturing, healthcare insurance processing, hospital operations, university research, and pharmacy point-of-sale organizations in New York and Ohio.

Her recent implementation projects include the Electronic Data Systems product, MetaVance healthcare insurance (membership/enrollment/billing and finance modules). Techniques used are Capability Maturity Model processes for design, development, test, configuration and project management.

Ms. Kassnoff also holds more than ten years of financial computer applications systems analysis and programming experience, primarily running on mid-range hardware. Production support projects in her career include: GL, AP, billing, payroll, benefits, manufacturing, warehouse automation, data migration, and asset management. She has visited customer and implementation sites across the US and Canada.

Cindy Mandrycky: Vice President of Communications

Cindy Mandrycky is the Business Manager for Worldleaders, a professional search firm with national and international delivery capabilities in the following five practice areas: (IT, Sales/Marketing, Finance/Accounting, HR and Executives). Cindy is responsible for assisting the sales team as well as providing problem resolution for clients and candidates.

Cindy leverages over 8 years of experience in the recruiting industry and has focused on providing client and candidate support for executive recruiters throughout her career. Cindy holds a BA degree in Sociology with a minor concentration in Human Resources Management from St. John Fisher College. Cindy joined AWC in 2008 and this is her first year as VP of Communications.

Pat Rice: Vice President of Operations

My name is Patricia Rice I am a widow who lives in upstate New York in the town of Sodus, which is near Rochester New York, where I own a tree farm. I have a two grown Daughters one who lives in Arlington Virginia and works for the State Department, the other lives in Syracuse with her husband. I started a new business in Syracuse New York we have a contract from the state of New York to train people in computer technologies. We also have a stream of income from selling products on the internet. We just started a new area that does outsourcing to NYC firms in Syracuse New York.

I have worked for many companies such as General Electric, Merant, and Harris Communications in the Software field. At General Electric I went though GE Management training. I have also worked as a college professor at C.W. Post College, NYIT, Polytechnic University, and Monroe Community college. I received my Bachelors in Mathematics from C. W. Post College, my first masters is in Applied Mathematics from C.W. Post and my second Masters in Computer Science from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn New York.

I am heavily involved in charitable work and enjoy tutoring and helping over comers. I have worked with abused women, migrant workers, and re-entrant prisoners. I am also a Star –Trek fan and draw lessons from the TV series.

For the first thirty-nine years of my life, I lived in the New York City area. I have become aware of the technically disenfranchencied. The technically disenfranchencied are people who society blocks from entrance into the information society. I would like to find methods and techniques for purveyor of technology to aid in re-integrating the technologically disenfranchised.

Amy Carey: Vice President of Outreach

Amy joined Entre’s consulting practice in 2007 as a Managing Consultant. Her role at Entre is to provide consulting services to our clients which support the alignment of Information Technology (IT) with business objectives and processes. She provides those services through direct consulting engagements and project management assignments. Amy also works closely with Entre’s Sales Staff by providing subject matter expertise, presentations and training when appropriate.

Amy is a career IT Professional with 25 years of experience in many technical engineering and administration facets of IT including: infrastructure management, telecommunications design and security, application development, database administration, web application architecture, security best practices and audits, data center management, business continuity, change control, standards and procedures, and process improvement. Her experiences have been with both distributed systems and mainframe platforms.

Professional affiliations include the Association for Women in Computing (AWC) and the Rochester Women’s Network. She has participated in speaking engagements for Rochester’s eBusiness Association and the AWC, as well as educational seminars sponsored by Entre. Most recently, Amy was instrumental in spearheading the formation of the Rochester Area SharePoint User Group. Amy is a graduate of Roberts Wesleyan College with a BS degree in Organizational Management. She enjoys playing golf and hockey, and spending time with her husband and 3 children.

Nancy Poisson: Vice President of Public Relations

Susan Ippoliti: Vice President of Membership

Susan G. Ippoliti is the VP of Litigation Support and Senior Technology Paralegal for Function5 Forensics in Rochester, NY. She graduated from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY in May of 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science.

Susan’s past work history includes a long career as a paralegal in the Rochester community. She has worked in several specialties of litigation such as: labor and employment law, architectural design and construction malpractice, products liability, trade secrets misappropriation, asbestos litigation and personal injury.

Susan has been named as one of the paralegals featured in author Carole Bruno’s most recent book published by Thompson Delmar Learning: “Lessons from the Top Paralegal Experts: The 15 Most Successful Paralegals in America and What You Can Learn From Them.”

Susan is the Vice President & Director of Profession Development (VPPD) for the National Federation of Paralegal Associations, Inc. (NFPA), headquartered in Seattle, Washington. As VPPD she also is a member of NFPA’s Ethics Board. Susan’s past leadership roles with NFPA include Vice President & Director of Membership, member of the Marketing Committee and Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee. She has been a proud member of the Paralegal Association of Rochester, Inc. since 1998.

Susan is a National Estrin Paralegal Conference speaker and has presented such topics as electronic discovery, legal technology, ethical dilemmas facing today’s paralegals, networking, media relations, vendor selection, legal drafting and regulation. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Monroe Community College’s Paralegal Studies Program, teaching Litigation Support Technology.

Emily Ryan: Vice President of Web Development

Emily is the Manager of Client Services, Global Information Systems, for international business integration firm Software AG. She is also a student at the E. Phillip Saunders College of Business, RIT, currently completing her Master of Business Administration with concentrations in technology management and environmental sustainability.

Emily graduated with highest honors from RIT with a BS in Information Technology and has been working in the IT field for over 7 years. Designing and maintaining several independent websites, along with developing an environmental consulting service for IT, fills up her spare time.

Crista Deniz: National Representative

Crista Deniz has held various Board positions for the AWC-UNY since 2001, including President, Past President and National Representative, Outreach Chair, Annual Event Chair, VP of Communications and Sponsorship Chair for the ITWOY Awards Event. During her tenure on the Board she worked on a team to rewrite the organization's By-Laws, establish a Scholarship at RIT and helped organize the collegiate AWC-RIT chapter.

Her professional experience includes five years in the Business Consulting division of Arthur Andersen, specializing in the assessment, modification, testing and implementation of package software systems. Since 2001 she has been a community leader in several non-profit organizations, most recently as the Executive Director for a Rochester Women’s Network. She has an MBA from Clarkson University and a BA in Computer Information Sciences and Mathematics from SUNY Potsdam.