The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo announced in January that three local leaders have joined its Board of Directors for the 2019 – 2023 term. New members include: Tamara O. Alsace, Ph.D., retired Director of Multilingual Education for the Buffalo Public Schools; Steve Finch, Senior Vice President of Automotive Services at AAA Western and Central New York; and Cheryl A. Jankowski, CPA, Partner with Chiampou Travis Besaw & Kershner LLP.
With extensive leadership backgrounds, Alsace, Finch and Jankowski all bring unique expertise to the Board of Directors to assist the Community Foundation with its mission of connecting people, ideas and resources to improve lives in Western New York.
The Community Foundation is also pleased to welcome Cindy Odom as our new Chief Community Impact Officer.
“Cindy brings deep knowledge of our community, significant experience and a visionary and values-based leadership style that will further our transformative work on behalf of our clients,” said Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker, President and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo. “She will ensure that our growing portfolio of initiatives continue to be collaborative, coordinated and effectively integrated to advance our community impact strategy.”
Odom most recently served as Interim President and Chief Advancement Officer for Hillside Children’s Foundation, where she was responsible for a $9.2 million budget for fund development activities as related to income generation. She was previously the Executive Director of Hillside, overseeing a staff of 300, over 25 programs and a $12 million budget. Prior to that, Odom had a distinguished 16-year career with the Girl Scouts, serving as Chief Executive Officer after leading a nine-county merger that resulted in the Girl Scouts of Western New York. Later, she served as Council Leadership Strategist for the Girl Scouts of the USA.
Odom earned her Master of Science in Management from the State University of New York College at Buffalo and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Canisius College. She is currently a Board Member of the Buffalo State College Council and Chair of the WNY Women’s Foundation.
Join us in welcoming Tamara, Steve, Cheryl and Cindy to the Community Foundation!