President

Holly Thompson

Holly Thompson began her almost lifelong connection to Rowe in 1986 as a camper at Junior High Camp. After reading the camp description in the catalog, she knew instinctively that Rowe would become an important and influential home. Following her first year as a Junior High camper, she served as a CIT, staff, and eventually co-director alongside her husband Matt Morrison, whom she met at JHC as teenagers. Holly and Matt were married by Doug Wilson in the Rowe Chapel in 2001. Their daughters, Annie and Maisie, are also Rowe lifers who became campers as soon as they were eligible and are now thrilled to be giving back to Rowe as camp staff. Holly is returning to Board service after serving as Treasurer and then Vice President of the board from 1998-2006. She credits Rowe and all the mentors she met along the way for shaping the leader, parent and person she is today. She works as a nonprofit executive leadership coach and organizational development consultant and looks forward to using her knowledge in these areas to help steward Rowe into its next chapter.

Vice President

Daniel Farbman

Daniel Farbman first came to Rowe as a camper at Junior High camp in 1993. Like so many others, Dan's experience as a camper was a transformational experience and an inflection point in his life. He returned as a camper at Senior High and served as a counselor at Junior High Camp on and off for the next decade. Dan has remained deeply connected to Rowe over the years through the network of friendships and connections that were forged during his time there. In the meantime, Dan went to law school and graduate school, worked as a civil rights lawyer, and became a law professor at Boston College Law School. He also had two children and the older (Hazel) went to Rowe for the first time in 2022. Having a child at camp reenergized Dan's connection to Rowe and inspired him to step up to serve Rowe as a Board member with the purpose of ensuring that many more people may find Rowe and be transformed by it.

Treasurer

Kim Gabert

Kim Gabert first came to the Rowe Center with her extended family to attend a wedding which was held behind the Farmhouse in the seventies. She attended Junior High Camp from 1977 to 1983, first as a camper, then as a CIT and Counselor. In 2009, Kim attended her first Kindred Spirits Camp, and has only missed one year of it since then. Kim has worked as a librarian for over 20 years in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, and is currently the Library Director for the Tyler Memorial Library in Charlemont. She lives in the Town of Rowe with her mother (Prue Berry) and her step-father (Douglas Wilson), both retired Directors of the Rowe Center, along with four cats and a twenty three year old cockatiel. She looks forward to contributing to the Rowe Center as a Board member and to adding another layer to her lifelong connection to the Rowe Community.

Clerk

Ann Crawford

Ann Crawford found Rowe through an unusual web of connections from librarians to singers. Her first workshop experience at Rowe was deeply moving, and she has been returning regularly ever since. Ann has worked in higher education administration for over two decades, particularly in libraries, IT, facilities, and finance. She holds masters degrees in library and information science, education, and business administration. She is an enthusiastic but inexpert singer, a lifelong knitter and stitcher, and a sometime gardener. Ann looks forward to putting her experience into service for Rowe.

Member at Large

Julie Blattman Baeder

Julie Blattman Baeder has been involved in Rowe since she came to camp in 1972 as a 10 year old “staff brat” with her mother, Margaret Woodside. Since then Julie has been a camper, CIT, counselor, staff person and Financial Advisor for the Rowe Center while at Morgan Stanley until her retirement in 2021.  Julie has been on several non-profit boards, most notably Girls Inc. of Alameda County, CA  (Inspiring all girls to be Strong, Smart & Bold) and as co-founder and Chair of Women of Impact. Julie is a second generation Unitarian Universalist.

Member At Large

Jenna Cusack

Jenna Cusack first came to Rowe as a YPC camper in 2008, since then she has attended ten years of camp and served as a CIT, Spirit, and counselor. More recently, Jenna has been a member of the Youth Programs Advisory Committee and the Summer Camp Task Force. Jenna works as a First Assistant Director for feature films, where she facilitates on-set creative and logistical operations for productions. In her professional career, Jenna utilizes the leadership and community building skills she cultivated at Rowe.

Jenna previously served as an ex-officio voting member on the Board of Trustees at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts when she was the Student Body President in her fourth year of college.

Jenna joined the Rowe Board as a means of continuing her commitment to and care for Rowe. She hopes to uplift and advocate for the voices of recent campers and staff along with the greater Rowe community.

Member at Large

Alice Goldfarb

Alice Goldfarb has been involved with Rowe since she enthusiastically arrived to be a YPC camper. Alice hopes to bring her experience from many summers of being a camper and staff member, as well as a previous stint on the Board, to working with Rowe as we approach the centenary. Away from camp, Alice has taught high school, worked as a flight instructor, and thought about messy data for national organizations.

Member at Large

Andrew Kerivan

Andrew Kerivan came to Rowe with the Labor Day Men's Retreat in 2020, and has been returning ever since. For the past 10 years Andrew has been leading retreats helping individuals in 12 step recovery. Andrew works in affordable housing operations and low income housing tax credit finance. Andrew brings his real estate operations and finance background to the Rowe Board. He lives in Quincy, MA with his husband Steve and is always under the ever vigilant eye of their sheepdog, Rex.

Member at Large

George Nichols

My deep love and appreciation for Rowe began in 1971 when I was welcomed here as a shy junior high school camper. By the summer of 1978, I was elected to Spirit, a senior high leadership group, and became a Rowe camp counselor-in-training. Later, I returned to Rowe in my forties to serve on the conference side of the Center, fulfilling various roles, including care of the facilities, and managing teams and volunteers. Together with my parents, Rowe became the formative experience of what I later only fully understood to be a very special form of a caring and transformative combination of leadership qualities and skills.

My experience of Rowe then and since as an active alum has served me incalculably throughout my life, giving me the confidence I needed during my early days as a professional chess player, to graduate with degrees from Evergreen State College and the University of Washington, to raise a family, and especially in my current life as a consultant helping to transform how we care for our seniors.

It is my honor to serve as a Board Member, ensuring Rowe continues to play the vital role it does today and long into the future.

Member at Large

Karl Paulnack

Karl Paulnack first became aware of Rowe as an invited keynote speaker at the Labor Day Men’s Retreat, a group he now co-leads. Karl and his husband Dave were active UU’s as members of Boston’s Arlington Street Church, where Karl served on the board (Prudential Committee) and Dave chaired the men’s spirituality group. While Karl and Dave have been partnered for more than 30 years, they are one of the first legally married American same-sex couples (at ASC, on May 20, 2004.) Karl is a retired classical pianist who served as Director of the Boston Conservatory, Tanglewood Music Center faculty, and Dean of Ithaca College School of Music. After retirement, he became a clinically trained interfaith hospital chaplain serving Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, NY. Karl is also an independent consultant who works with the Aspen Leadership Group, National Association of Schools of Music, and several other communities.

Member at Large

Phoebe Westwood

Phoebe Westwood is an educator and school administrator who credits Rowe Camp for her belief in the importance of creativity, open-ended exploration, and community for shaping young minds. Junior High Camp was her spiritual home for over a decade, where served as a CIT, counselor, and co-director from 2001-2011. Phoebe received her M.S.Ed. from Bank Street College of Education (New York, NY) and has trained with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Harvard’s Project Zero Classroom, and the Institute for Teaching Diversity and Social Justice. Committed to anti-racist and anti-bias education, her work includes serving on a school-wide equity cohort and leading efforts to adopt the Social Justice Teaching Standards. Phoebe is a graduate of Goucher College (Baltimore, MD), an AmeriCorps alumna, and a founding member of Rowe’s Youth Programs Advisory Committee. She is looking forward to her next chapter of service to the Rowe Center through her membership on the Board of Trustees