Board of Directors

Ginger Duiven

Chair

Virginia (Ginger) Duiven is director, institutional relations for the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services. Ginger leads a team to raise more than $10 million each year from foundations, corporations, and government, adding critical resources to the agency’s $230 million budget to provide support to New Yorkers most in need. Prior to joining the Jewish Board, Ginger has held executive director roles with the Academy for Systems Change and Literacy Services of Wisconsin. Her experience includes strategic planning and successful execution, mergers, innovative program development and partnerships, and fundraising. Ginger holds a BA in Business from Michigan State University and an MBA from Alverno College. She was awarded the competitive Harvard Business School Club of Wisconsin Scholarship for Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management Executive Education at the Harvard Business School.

Kathleen A. Hinchman

Vice Chair

Kathleen is a professor in the Reading and Language Arts Department at Syracuse University. She teaches courses and seminars in literacy methods and is a co-editor of the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Among her achievements are grants, articles, and books, including work on Reconceptualizing the Literacies in Adolescents’ Lives, Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, and the Adolescent Literacies Handbook of Practice-based Research. Her current work explores policy implications of literacy-related school reform and the use of formative design of assets-based literacy instruction methods. Long involved in community literacy initiatives in Central New York, Kathleen has also served as a board member and president of the New York State Reading Association and the Literacy Research Association.

Jack Burke

Treasurer

Jack is an equity member in the accounting firm of Dermody, Burke & Brown, CPAs, LLC, headquartered in Syracuse, N.Y. He has over 40 years of audit and accounting experience and has developed a wide range of industry specialties. Currently, he serves as the firm’s chief financial officer. He has also served as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and was the head of the Quality Assurance Committee.

Kate Costello-Sullivan

Secretary

Kate is professor of Modern Irish Literature and former Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y. She is the author of two monographs, Mother/Country: Politics of the Personal in the Fiction of Colm Tóibín and Trauma and Recovery in the 21st-Century-Irish Novel, as well as the editor of two critical editions, one of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's novella Carmilla and the other, Norah Hoult's Poor Women! As current president of the American Conference for Irish Studies—the oldest Irish academic organization in the world—she interacts frequently with the Irish Embassy, as well as with academics from all over the world. Kate currently serves as the first female editor of the Syracuse University Press Irish line—the oldest such series in North America.

Ruth Colvin 

Lifetime Member

Ruth J. Colvin is the founder of Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA), which she started in 1962. In 2002, Literacy Volunteers of America merged with Laubach Literacy to become ProLiteracy. Ruth is an honorary member of the board of directors of Literacy New York and a member of the board of directors and a tutor at Literacy CNY

She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006, the nation’s highest civilian award. She was also inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993 and received the U.S. President’s National Volunteer Action Award in 1987. She is the author of Tutor 8th edition, READ, I Speak English 5th edition, A Way With Words, In the Beginning Was the Word, and My Travels Through Life, Love, and Literacy. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and nine Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees.

Denine Torr

Denine leads strategic development and execution of national, regional, and local philanthropy-related programs and initiatives for Dollar General’s 17,000+ store communities, corporate headquarters, and distribution center network. In her role, she oversees corporate and Foundation giving, in-kind donations, employee engagement, and cause marketing partnerships.

As a frontline ambassador for Dollar General’s mission of Serving Others, she works to enhance employee pride and consumer affinity through philanthropic partnerships. In addition to traditional corporate and foundation philanthropy, Denine is also responsible for disaster relief efforts and the company’s Employee Assistance Foundation.

Under her leadership, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has flourished as a national thought leader and has invested more than $203 million in programs that have helped more than 14.8 million individuals learn to read, prepare for the high school equivalency test, or learn English.

Denine has 20 years of experience in corporate philanthropy. She currently serves as a director on the Nashville Public Library, Nashville Public Television, and Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation boards.

David J. Rosen

David was executive director of the Adult Literacy Resource Institute at the University of Massachusetts in Boston—a greater Boston adult education professional development and training center—from 1986 to 2003. Since then, David has worked as an independent consultant and has recently provided education and evaluation services to World Education’s Education Tech Center, Jobs For the Future on competency based higher education, and TERC as an evaluator of the Massachusetts SABES adult basic education mathematics professional development center. He developed online guides to blended learning for adult educators for New Readers Press and for Essential Education. He is the moderator of two U.S. Department of Education-sponsored LINCS communities of practice: Integrating Technology and Program Management. He is also a co-moderator of Adult Educators Using Facebook for Education (AEFE) as well as an online group focusing on competency-based/proficiency-based adult education.

Maria Bartoszewicki

Maria is senior director of digital publishing for Aptara Inc. She oversees interactive e-book design and development across multiple platforms and devices. She has a wide range of experience in educational publishing, e-learning, and digital technology. After graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2005, Maria spent her first several years helping big publishers such as HMH and Pearson grow sales with leading-edge e-book production and digital solutions. Having driven the development of a highly skilled team of 250 interactive e-book specialists, she has a significant amount of experience managing onshore and offshore resources. Over the past five years, she has led the development of unique workflows and scalable production models to produce over 10,000 advanced digital solutions for tablets, mobile devices, and web browsers for leading clients in both publishing and enterprise.

William Manzanares IV

William Manzanares IV was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, and is a proud member of the Puyallup Tribe. He is an entrepreneur, literacy advocate, and speaker. William is passionate about helping small business owners and struggling readers. To that end, he spends much time speaking with students about business and goal setting. William hopes his book I Can't Read: A Guide to Success Through Failure will equip students to improve their literacy and inspire them to pursue their dreams.

Denise Nelson

A longtime advocate in the nonprofit sector with a career spanning twenty-five years, Denise is a seasoned fundraising expert. She is currently the vice president of development at Jumpstart, a national early education organization working toward the day every child in America enters kindergarten prepared to succeed. Prior to that, Denise worked at Accion Opportunity Fund (AOF), a nonprofit and microlender working to create an inclusive, healthy financial system that supports the nation’s small business owners- especially entrepreneurs of color and women, and at a leading NYC-based advocacy and social service agency FPWA (formerly Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies). Previously, Nelson led the development efforts for two leading educational organizations, Eagle Academy Foundation and PENCIL, and served as associate vice president of major gifts at United Way of New York City.

Denise is an alumna of Rutgers University, where she earned her B.A. in political science, and has participated in the Harvard University Business School Social Enterprise Program. She currently serves on Facing History’s Los Angeles Advisory Board and was a member of the AFP-NYC Board until 2020.  Denise resides in California and aims to stay close to the beach.

Marc J. Strohl

Marc J. Strohl, a multi-state licensed CPA, is the founding principal at Protax Consulting Services Inc., established in 2001 in Manhattan. Protax has quickly become the world’s leading U.S.-based individual international income tax CPA firm. Marc was previously with Deloitte & Touche LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Ernst & Young LLP. Marc’s experience includes digital and print marketing, accounting procedures and process, internal controls, human resources, and cash management and finance.

Marc, originally from Montreal, Canada, has published many authoritative tax articles, is a frequent guest speaker within his field of specialty, and serves as featured faculty providing online CPE and CLE courses to CPAs and attorneys worldwide. Marc earned a master's degree in public accountancy from McGill University and a Bachelor of Science with honors in chemistry. Perhaps Marc's proudest accomplishment is his devotion to his family, both as a husband and as a father to two wonderful daughters.




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