Maria Pencheva
President
Maria Pencheva is a Managing Director at Innovative Shareholder Strategies, LLC where she advises middle-market companies on mergers and acquisitions, ESOP transactions, refinancings and recapitalizations.
Maria began her career at the Leveraged Finance division of Barclays Capital and later led the execution process on more than 20 transactions at CSG Partners. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and sits on the Board of Directors of the Mount Holyoke Club of New York City. Maria is also a member of the National Center for Employee Ownership, the ESOP Association, the ESOP Emerging Leaders Group and the National Association of Professional Women.
Deepta Venkataraman
Treasurer
Deepta Venkataraman is a Managing Director and co-head of Americas Securities Lending at Morgan Stanley based in New York.
Deepta joined Morgan Stanley in 2001 as an analyst and has spent the majority of her career in the Securities Lending business at the firm. Deepta holds an MBA from Cornell University and an undergraduate degree in Finance from Baruch College at the City University of New York.
Molly Vozick-Levinson
Secretary
Molly Vozick-Levinson is the Director of the Children’s Learning Center (CLC) at Morningside Heights, a Columbia University-affiliated preschool which believes in hands, minds, and hearts-on exploration of materials, concepts, and emotional worlds.
CLC employs an inclusive educational model and believes strongly in supporting every child’s different needs. In her capacity as Director, Molly works closely with families, therapists, and the Department of Education to coordinate evaluations and services for children across learning domains. Molly has worked at CLC as a classroom teacher, curriculum specialist, and administrator since 2010, and holds a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College.
Joshua Berwitz
Member
Josh is the Chief Commercial Officer at Ascenda, leading a global organization focused on delivering end to end loyalty and engagement solutions.
Starting his career as a business consultant at Arthur Andersen, Josh spent 24 years at American Express as a senior executive with business development and loyalty responsibilities. Josh holds a BBA from Emory and an MBA from Emory’s Goizueta Business School. He currently resides in northern NJ with his family where he is involved in a number of local causes.
Rubain Dorancy
Member
Mr. Dorancy founded TRIAD Consulting Strategies Inc. three years ago to provide professional development and strategic support to schools and districts to ensure compliance and adherence to public policy, regulations, and federal and state laws.
TRIAD Consulting Strategies has delivered leadership development and management consulting services to over 25 schools over the past three years. As an advisor and consultant to NYC DOE schools and service providers, Mr. Dorancy conducts planning sessions as well to enhance the quality of teams.
For almost 25 years, Rubain J. Dorancy, Esq. has been directly involved in public education and support services to students in the New York City Department of Education of which 15 years were as an administrator and executive in the NYC DOE. He led professional development initiatives, advocacy support, and leadership development for school administrators, school counselors, district staff, and special educators to ensure that students were receiving appropriate services.
Mr. Dorancy provides workshops and technical assistance to NYC DOE employees and organizations and has served as an education policy consultant to policymakers and elected officials. He has also advocated for hundreds of individual parents and students to assist them in obtaining special education services, tutoring, and accommodations. Finally, he also provides advice and representation to students in general education in private and public schools.
In addition to TRIAD Consulting Strategies, Mr. Dorancy is also a partner in The Dorancy Law Firm PLLC, which is a special education law practice to ensure that Students with Disabilities are protected under the law.
He has his law degree from Brooklyn Law School, a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Baruch College, and Post-Master’s Professional Diploma and Advanced Certificate in School District Administration from Long Island University.
Mr. Dorancy is admitted to the Second Judicial Department.
LaVida Dowdell
Member
LaVida is a trained paralegal with more than 20 years of experience in the field, with an emphasis on real estate law.
LaVida has worked with both solo practitioners and in a boutique law firm. LaVida has her JD from Rutgers University School of Law, Newark, and received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Mount Holyoke College. In addition to her service on Counseling In Schools’ board, LaVida serves as the Director at Large for the Mount Holyoke Club of New York and is deeply involved in her alma mater’s alum community. She currently resides in Brooklyn.
Jessica Peters
Member
Jessica Peters’ success at Douglas Elliman has rivaled that of the Brooklyn market, and that has been by design. In 2008, Jessica moved to Douglas Elliman’s Williamsburg office, sensing a great change was coming to greater Brooklyn.
Fourteen years later, Jessica has established herself as one of Brooklyn’s most accomplished residential real estate brokers, especially in New Development and townhouse restoration.
Jessica is among one of the highest achieving agents in the nation, having collectively sold over $1 billion of closed real estate deals in Brooklyn to date. She is excited to further expand Douglas Elliman’s footprint in Brooklyn, as she and her talented associates work with some of the most exciting real estate New York City has to offer.
Inspired to enter real estate by her family in the business, Jessica is at the top of her game in Brooklyn, with unsurpassed knowledge, experience and instincts. While real estate is her first passion, she also loves to cook, and foster dogs for New York Second Chance Rescue, where she serves as the Vice-Chair of Corporate Sponsorship.
Corrissa Faber
Member
Corrissa Sanford-Faber serves as the Head of Quality and Compliance at Essen Health Home. She is also the Sole Proprietor of CJ Faber Advisory LLC and the Co-Founder of BEST Brooklyn, Inc.
Judie Park
Member
Judie Park is a lawyer at Macquarie Capital, where she supports the firm’s investment banking and equities divisions. She began her legal career at Sidley Austin in New York after earning her J.D. from New York University School of Law. Judie also holds a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University.
Judie joined the Board of Counseling in Schools because she is passionate about children’s well-being and believes every child should have someone they can trust and turn to when they are struggling. Seeing Counseling in Schools in action has been truly heartwarming for her — from witnessing the organization’s close partnerships with schools to seeing how it supports students’ families and helps build warm, engaged school communities. She is honored to work with the Board to help create opportunities for New York City children, their families and their school communities to receive the support they need.