Wendy Ross, the Executive Director of the Friends of John Jay Homestead, was raised in Buffalo, New York, and attended Miss Porter's School in Farmington, CT and the Buffalo Seminary. She then attended Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, MA, and received a B.S. in Business Administration from Babson College in Wellesley, MA.
Her business career began in New York City with the media department of Grey Advertising and the account team of McCann-Erickson. After she moved to Katonah in 1986 with her husband Stuart and three children -- Eliza, William and Nathaniel (now aged 25, 23 and 17), Wendy became involved with the Friends of John Jay Homestead as a volunteer. Then, as Vice President, and later as President of the Friends, she worked at increasing membership, recruiting volunteers and initiating new programs such as long-range planning, landscape restoration and family events, including creating the highly popular Barn Dance and Country Fair, now in it's 17th year.
In 2004, Wendy became Executive Director of the Friends, and is currently responsible for managing the Friends' office, planning the budget, scheduling annual events, coordinating with New York State on all Friends' activities and working with the Friends' major donors. In addition to her activities at the Homestead, Wendy is a member of the Bedford Garden Club, the Bedford Golf & Tennis Club and the Conanicut Yacht Club in Jamestown, RI. Her outside interests include tennis, golf, sailing and travel.
Claire
began her career with the Friends back in 1996 as the Executive
Assistant and is currently our Membership Coordinator in charge of
maintaining the database of all of our members and volunteers. Claire
received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture cum laude from the
University of Massachusetts. A native of New Jersey, she worked after
college, on an educational grant, at the Johnson Atelier, a sculpture
foundry funded by Johnson and Johnson. A career switch to computer
services put her in office management at Douglas Elliman where she set
up the database for their Manhattan Offices.
Claire lives in Bedford with her husband of 20 years and their three children.
Nancy
was born in Bronxville and raised in Scarsdale, NY. She attended
Denison University in Ohio, spent her junior year in Vienna, Austria,
and graduated with a B.A. in English. After graduating, she moved into
New York City, working in the Advertising Department at Women’s Wear
Daily for two years. She then switched into medical publishing, helping
to start a newsletter that later evolved into a magazine for the
Medical Society of New York, for which she wrote articles, took
photographs and sold advertising. Following this position, she became
Associate Editor for a family physicians’ magazine based in Greenwich,
CT.
Currently, in addition to working for the Friends, writing
and editing the newsletter and doing publicity for their events, Nancy
writes for the Record Review newspaper, contributing articles and a
monthly ‘Talk of the Town’ column. She is also the secretary for the
Bedford Village Business Association, and writes occasional articles
for the Mt. Kisco Boys & Girls Club and the Native Plant Center at
Westchester Community College.
Nancy and her husband, Bruce,
live in Bedford and their daughter, Katie (18) is in college. Outside interests
include tennis, gardening, travel and photography. Nancy is also a
member of the New York Unit of the Herb Society of America and Pound
Ridge Tennis Club.
Lisa started at the Friends in July of 2007 as the Events Coordinator/Executive Assistant. She switched gears in May of 2008 and is among other things now in charge of redesigning our website and designing our newsletter. Lisa grew up in Syracuse, New York, and attended SUNY Binghamton, graduating with a B.A. in Communications. Lisa worked for several years in retail management at Neiman Marcus. Later on, she moved into graphic design, spending about 12 years doing graphic design for book and magazine publishers; and most recently, worked for a small graphics firm in Chappaqua NY. Volunteer efforts in the community include work with the Westchester Land Trust, Feed Me Fresh for Mt. Kisco Day Care Center, and ROAR, an animal shelter in Ridgefield.
Lisa currently lives in Pound Ridge with her husband of 13 years and their two children, Sam (9) and Lucy (7). She loves animals, traveling, and spending time with her family, particularly at the beach.
Dot Voorhees grew up in Rye, New York, and attended the University of Miami in Florida, graduating with a degree in Biology. Following that training, she worked for the National Audubon Society and Everglades National Park in Florida as a wildlife research biologist for five years, focusing her study on birds and alligators. Following this outdoor career, she moved back to New York and worked in advertising research in Manhattan for two years. More recently, she developed an equestrian program at a local barn and currently does the bookkeeping for another barn. Other pursuits include raising five Labrador retrievers for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, and serving as the Area Coordinator for the Westchester Puppy Raising region of Guiding Eyes.
Dot lives in Katonah with her husband of 28 years and has two children, Emily (22) and Kristen (18). She loves horseback riding, hiking with her whippet and spending time with her family.
