Fall Conference Presenter Biographies

• Robyn Davis

  Robyn joined the Freedom House family in 2007 as a member of the Board of Directors and served on the Executive Committee as the Secretary. In January of 2009, she joined the staff, serving first as Executive Vice President and then as President a few months later. Her compassion for the homeless comes in part from personal experience. For a while as a youngster, her family was homeless in New York. Fortunately they had relatives able to take them in, but she realizes how scary it is to be homeless without anyone to help or knowledge of available resources.

  Robyn has both a Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in English/Sociology from Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. In her career legal work, Robyn worked in Rhode Island with RI Legal Services, the State Department of Attorney General and in private practice before serving as an associate housing court judge. She represented low-income persons in civil cases; investigated, mediated and prosecuted consumer fraud complaints; and specialized in bankruptcy, consumer fraud and family law. She has served in ministry in numerous capacities and holds a Joint Certificate in Biblical Counseling from the Biblical Counseling Institute in Mobile, Alabama and the Smith Center for Leadership Development, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

  Robyn represents Freedom House on the Brown County Homeless and Housing Coalition, the Nonprofit Resource Group and serves as a member of the Salvation Army Community Center and Social Services Council, Mayor Schmitt's Nonprofit Advisory Board and is currently the chair of the Bylaws Committee for Management Women.

• Jane Delcore

  Title One (Reading Recovery/Interventionist). Jane is beginning her 12th year at Howe Elementary School in Green Bay. Jane left her previous teaching position specifically to come to Howe and work with this challenging population. She enjoys the challenges of making parents feel they are an integral part of the learning process for their child.

• Jim Golembeski

  Jim is Executive Director of the Bay Area Workforce Development Board, responsible for the administration of federal job training grants in a 10-county area of northeastern Wisconsin. He has been working in the employment and training field since 1990, before which he worked as a Catholic priest. Jim holds Masters Degrees in Theology (St. Paul Seminary 1981) and Public Administration (UW-Oshkosh 1997). He is a folk guitarist, biblical historian, bird watcher, one of the dozen or so stamp collectors left in the country, and an inveterate Dr. Who fan, who never dreamed that he would marry anyone so normal. He is most proud of the "Governor's Cares About Kids Award" he received in 1998 from the Wisconsin Public Defenders Association and the "Community Quarterback Award" from the Green Bay Packers in 2004 for his work with victims of domestic violence.

  Jim is also proud that his board was a co-sponsor of the 2004 Northeast Wisconsin Economic Opportunity Study that led to the creation of the NEW North regional economic development organization. He was part of the team that initiated the Northwoods Economic Summit series that began in 2005 and continues annually. He helped create the NEW Manufacturing Alliance in 2007 and the North Coast Marine Manufacturing Alliance in 2011. Jim is active in offender reentry efforts and a popular speaker at graduation ceremonies in the state prisons. The Bay Area Workforce Development Board continues to work in close partnership with Lakeshore Technical College and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College to increase the skill level of our workforce so that our businesses succeed and grow.

• Sarah Inman

  Sarah has served as the Community Impact Director for the Brown County United Way since January 2012, having been a Community Impact Manager and coordinator of the Community Partnership for Children initiative for the seven years prior. She serves on the Board of Directors for Start Smart of Brown County/The Early Childhood Council, the Achievement Gap Committee of New North, Inc. and the Advisory Committee for the State of Wisconsin Early Home Visiting Outcomes Project; she also co-chairs the Family and Community Partnerships Team of the Governor's Early Childhood Advisory Council.

  Prior to her employment with the United Way, Sarah worked as a policy analyst and legislative aide in the Wisconsin State Legislature for nearly twelve years. She has extensive experience in grass roots advocacy and public policy development, particularly in the areas of education and healthcare. She earned a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and completed coursework toward a Master's Degree at UW-Madison's La Follette School of Public Affairs.

• DeAnn Lehman

  DeAnn is the principal at Howe Elementary School in Green Bay. She has worked hard to create a welcoming environment where all parents feel welcome. During her time at Howe school, she has worked hard to educate all staff on meeting the needs of parents and creating a partnership between teacher and parent.

• Eileen Littig

  Eileen is an independent producer and former director of NEWIST/CESA #7 working in concert with Wisconsin Public Television. She has produced more than 300 television programs for children and has received more than 100 national and international television production awards, including two Midwest Emmys. Teen Connection, a series of hour-long, live call-in programs on contemporary teen issues, is in its 28th season of statewide broadcast via Wisconsin Public Television. A parenting series, Parent Connection, modeled after Teen Connection, completed five seasons of statewide broadcast. Additionally, many of Ms. Littig's award-winning half-hour documentaries on critical teen social issues are broadcast statewide during in-school time on Wisconsin Public Television, as well as by other public television networks and stations across the country. Working with her daughter, Melissa Godoy, Cincinnati, Eileen produced a 60-minute documentary on creativity and aging, "Do Not Go Gently" which has been broadcast by television stations nationwide and was awarded a Gold at the New York Film Festival and 2008 National Media Award from the Society of Aging. Eileen has received over twenty community awards for her work, including the Athena award in 2007. She received a Friends of Education Award in 2009 from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for her work with Teen Connection. She produced a documentary on four homeless teens in Wisconsin and Michigan entitled "The Hidden Homeless." Just recently, she produced a documentary, which looks at the achievement gap in Wisconsin. The documentary "Bridging the Gap" examines two low-income schools in Green Bay and Milwaukee and how they are addressing the issues of poverty and culture. She has been appointed by two governors to serve on the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board (ECB), which operates Wisconsin Public Radio and Public Television.

• Lisa Merkel

  Lisa has been teaching science at Green Bay West High School (West) for 10 years. At West, she participates on the Safe and Supportive School Team, the School Improvement Team and the AVID Site Team. She tutors in the After School Tutoring Program and is the Student Council Advisor and Solar Olympics Team Advisor. She earned a Master's Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (Spring 2011). Her thesis examined the impact of poverty on academic success. She is currently co-teaching a graduate course called Children and Poverty through the UWGB Outreach program.

• Michelle Messenger

  Title One (Reading Recovery/Interventionist/Parent Involvement). Michelle's primary role is to design family involvement opportunities for Howe Elementary School in Green Bay. She has an incredible knack for finding out what parents want, what teachers feel needs to be developed in the parent/teacher relationship and combining these things to create dynamic offerings. Students enjoy the engaging opportunities during family events.

• Regenia Mitchum Rawlinson

  Regenia is a national and international expert, author and educator. She has been an educator for over thirty years and worked as a special education teacher, an elementary school counselor, a high school counselor, a director and district administrator. She earned her BA from Winthrop College and a master's degree from Winthrop University. Rawlinson grew up in poverty and since 1997, has been sharing her ideas and insights with educators and other professionals to help them understand a mind shaped by poverty and how poverty-mindedness affects academic achievement and behavior.

• Donald Rosin

  Donald is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. He works for the federally-funded Parent Training and Information Center of Wisconsin—Wisconsin FACETS, and his primary responsibility is to engage the tribal communities in the educational outcomes of their children. As a multi-cultural specialist for the Parent Technical Assistance Center—Wisconsin FACETS, he assists the nine states within the region on Native American resources and issues. He also serves as tribal ambassador for the CREATE initiative of Wisconsin.

• Laurice Snyder

  Laurice is currently the Supervisor of Community Education Services for the Fond du Lac School District. Her position requires her to wear many hats including providing support for students and families of color, living in poverty, homeless or identified as "at-risk." She provides case-management support at the micro-level but also works at the macro-level to address policies and practices regarding responsiveness to the racial and cultural needs of students and families served by the district. A Green Bay native, Snyder graduated from Green Bay West High School in 2001. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology and Spanish, with an emphasis in social work and social control and deviation from UW-Stevens Point in 2005. After college she served one year as a national AmeriCorps Volunteer in upstate New York as crisis intervention counselor for high school youth. She has also worked as a Boys & Girls Club program director and YMCA family camp director. This past August, Snyder also earned her Masters Degree in Cultural Foundations in Education from UW-Milwaukee.