Recker Fellowship
History of the Fellowship
In 2006, PSVP partner Bill Recker made a generous donation to provide one-year Fellowship opportunities for community-minded individuals who would not otherwise be able to afford to join as a partner.
Fellows participate fully and are involved in PSVP just like any other partner. Participation in PSVP includes involvement in an investment committee, participating as a volunteer, and attending partner meetings. We ask for an interim and final report on the Fellow’s experiences and recommendations, and expect a minimum average contribution of five hours of volunteer time per month.
This is a unique opportunity to receive hands-on learning experience on grant giving, community issues, and how to work strategically with a nonprofit. The PSVP experience is centered on our community of like-minded professionals from the Allegheny County community. Involved partners not only help us grow and add value to nonprofits, they also learn from each other in our team environment.
Applications will be available for the 2007 Recker Fellows in April of 2007. For more information, contact Terry Beggy at: 412-394-2614 or terry@psvp.org.
2007-2008 Fellowship Information & Application PDF
Fellowship Application - Word
The 2007 Recker Fellows are:
Jaime Arguello is a Ph.D. student at the Language Technologies Institute in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He spends most of his time thinking of new ways to get computers to do useful things with the increasing amounts of (textual) information available to us while we work and play. Prior to starting his Ph.D., he worked at Infosys Technologies, an India-based technology consulting company, as a software engineer. Within the Pittsburgh community, he worked as a summer intern at Idea Foundry, a non-profit that provides funding and consulting to entrepreneurs with good ideas, with the aim of increasing the number of successful Pennsylvania-based start-ups. Jaime was born and raised in the beautiful country of Honduras and has found a newhome in Pittsburgh.
Kenya Boswell
Kenya’s professional experience includes a diverse background in managing various community programs focused on education and youth in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors. She recently served as the Sr. Community Relations Representative for Duquesne Light where her responsibilities included managing the company’s signature Partners in Education initiative, developing innovate partnerships with nonprofit organizations and identifying opportunities for employee volunteerism. Kenya obtained her Masters Degree in Nonprofit Management from Robert Morris University in 2006. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Bloomfield Garfield Corporation, serves on the City of Pittsburgh’s East End Weed and Seed Steering Committee, and is an Agency Review Volunteer for the United Way of Allegheny County.
Joy Braunstein
Senior Manager, Planning & Funds Distributions, United Jewish Federation
It would be an understatement to say that Joy wears many hats in the Pittsburgh Community. Aside from her professional career as an Environmentalist, she serves on numerous boards and committees and spends the majority of her free time volunteering for non-profits too numerous to list. She recently served as Interim Executive Director of Pittsburgh Volunteer Network, is a member of the United Jewish Federation’s Environmental Sub-Committee, holds a leadership position with the University of Pittsburgh’s Investment Club, leads trips and coordinates events for Venture Outdoors, and has worked as an adjunct professor and independent consultant for the University of Pittsburgh. On top of all of this she is an internationally recognized expert on water policy and has spent a substantial amount of time in the Middle East conducting PhD level research on Transboundary Water Security. Joy’s broad experience gives her skills in fundraising, project management, public relations, finance, capacity development, and legislative governance.
She is also a member of a myriad of local organizations including: PUMP, Pittsburgh Young Professionals, United Jewish Federation, Discover Pittsburgh, Venture Outdoors and Sustainable Pittsburgh. In her spare time, when she finds it, she enjoys spending time in the outdoors with her Boyfriend Mark and their many pets including her new horse, Hollywood, and their dogs, Ringo, Lexi, and Cosmo.
Kevin Jenkins
Kevin holds the position of Senior Program Officer for the Pittsburgh Foundation with responsibility for Health and Special Needs Populations. Kevin came to the Pittsburgh Foundation after a 21 year career at Holy Family Institute where he was most recently Executive Director with Holy Family Social Services, an affiliate organization of Holy Family Institute. During his tenure at Holy Family, Kevin filled the roles of Chief Operating Consultant, St. Mary’s Villa for Children; Community Initiatives Administrator; Director of Clinical Services; Supervisor/Clinical Manager; and Child and Family Therapist. He is President of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Community Providers Association, and he serves on a number of civic and community boards of directors. He earned a Masters Degree at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work.
James Kuemmerle
Jim currently serves his community as a volunteer firefighter at Undercliff VFC in Shaler Township. He is second lieutenant and training officer there. He also volunteers as an EMT with Parkview VFD/EMS in O’Hara Township and as a hazardous materials technician with the Silver Team, an Allegheny County HAZMAT Team. Jim works as a volunteer with the Pittsbugh Area CISM Team. He is a member of the state behavioral health emergency response consortium, an advisory panel to the state departments of public welfare and health.
When he is not running into situations where everyone else is running out of, he is professionally trained as a licensed clinical social worker and works as a special projects manager for Value Behavioral Health of PA. He teaches part-time in the social work department at California University of PA. This fall, Jim will be entering the Master of Science Degree program in emergency management at Millersville University.
Kara Newmeyer
Kara received her BA in Sociology from John Carroll University and an MSW at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Social Work. She was a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in San Antonio, TX. Presently, she is employed by the Allegheny County/DHS/Area Agency on Aging as a Care Management Supervisor.
Kara is an avid volunteer and donates her time to the Change a Heart Volunteer Program Advisory Board, Diocese of Pittsburgh Young Adult Leadership Team, Girls on the Run, as well as a local Grief and Bereavement Support Group. In her spare time, she enjoys travel, working in her garden, running, swimming and skiing.
Lori Spears
Lori Spears A native of North Carolina, Lori moved to Pittsburgh three years ago to pursue her career with Carnegie Mellon University as a Major Gift Officer. She is a nine year veteran in the field of university advancement and has served as a director of planned giving and the assistant vice president for major and planned gifts at Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC. While employed with Claflin University, she raised funds for a $20 million capital campaign, which was the largest in the history of the institution. Fortunately, the university surpassed their goal by $10 million.
Future aspirations include completing the Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management that she is currently pursuing at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Lori is conducting a qualitative comparative case study on fundraising strategies used to increase alumni giving at a Historically White Institution and a Historically Black Institution. The study will focus on alumni giving within the minority population of each institution. Upon completion of the degree, Lori would eventually like to migrate into a position that would allow her to utilize her management skills and knowledge obtained through the Executive Doctorate program.
Educationally, her background is in English, media-journalism where she completed a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC. Although there is little spare time available, she enjoys reading, skating, writing and horseback riding. Eventually Lori would like to settle down, marry and start a family.