The CCS Advisory Board is well into its first year of utilizing its collective intelligence to guide the future of the College. Formed in December 2001, the advisory board plays many roles in helping CCS evolve into a national leader devoted to lifelong learning and workforce development.

Members serve as advocates for the college and provide advice to the Dean on a number of critical issues. The CCS Advisory Board helps to identify needed curricula to respond to emerging trends in diverse fields and provides a curricula task force to test ideas. The Board also offers input on fundraising and enhancing CCS customer service.

Since its incarnation less than a year ago, the advisory board has accomplished many objectives. The board assisted in the development of the BGS 25th anniversary celebrations and the CCS fundraising campaign. With the help of Board members, Fleet Bank employees learned about CCS programs at an in-house expo and People’s Bank featured the BGS program in its online employee newsletter.

“Looking back at the past nine months, the advisory board has helped the College move forward with many initiatives,” says Dean Krista Rodin. “They have helped us refocus our non-degree strategies, helped us develop ‘Take UConn to Work with You,’ and helped us understand the educational needs of the local communities they represent.

“Members of the board are helping us focus our programmatic efforts along the Continuum of Learning, helping us identify key people for programmatic advisory boards, and they provide an excellent testing mechanism for ideas, both structurally and programmatically,” Rodin adds.

Members hail from across the state and include Ray Oneglia, Jr., Vice Chairman of the Board at O & G Industries, Inc.; Robinson A. Grover, UConn Professor Emeritus; Pamela Koprowski from Community Relations at Stamford Health Systems; William Gash of the Connecticut Maritime Coalition; and BGS graduate Wendi Richardson, Vice President at People’s Bank.

Other members include John Kovaleski, Connecticut State Representative 65th District; BGS graduate Paul R. Blackman, National Senior Accounts Manager for Northeast Utilities; Doe Hentschel, former Dean of Extended and Continuing Education at UConn and current Program Director, Third Age Initiative, Leadership Greater Hartford; and Joyce Resnikoff, owner of Mystic Town Village.

Holly Schaefer, Vice President of Human Resources at Fleet Bank; Fletcher Fisher, President of the Northeastern Connecticut Central Labor Council; Kathleen Innaurato, Director of Workforce Preparedness at Mashantucket Pequot Academy; and Art Brodeur, former Assistant to the Chancellor and former Director of UConn’s University Communi-cations round out the board member-ship.