2012 Board of Trustees

Andrea learned of World Fellowship after moving to New Hampshire in 1995 and seeing the film, Rights and Reds, The Cold War in NH. She first visited the Center in the fall of 1998 after completing the application for the co-director position with her husband, Andy Davis. Since moving to World Fellowship May 1, 2000, Andrea has enjoyed exploring the wild places between Whitton Pond and Mt. Chocorua and sharing the hopeful, forward-looking spirit of the World Fellowship community.

In addition to serving as Co-Director of World Fellowship, Andrea currently serves as an alternate on the Town of Albany, NH Planning Board and on the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Eastern Slopes in Tamworth, NH. She has volunteered, served on Boards, and been employed with non-profits of many stripes over the past two-plus decades: White Mountain Waldorf School; American Friends Service Committee-NH; Guatemala Accompaniment Project; Witness for Peace international team; Women’s Crisis Center of Ann Arbor coordinator, Recycle Ann Arbor Drop Off station manager; and was elected and served as a Washtenaw County Commissioner for a two-year term. In addition to trying to stop cruise missile engine building on the University of Michigan campus, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics from that institution. Originally from lush farm land of mid-Michigan, Andrea treasures raising their daughter, Fiona, with Andy providing great entertainment as they try to improve the soil for growing organic vegetables in the Granite State. Andrea also loves to knit, enjoys long-distance self-propelled journeys (bike, walk, hike), and wants to engage with people who want to slow down and join in making the world a better place—for everybody.

Gina Bilander discovered World Fellowship when her parents, Sylvia and Leo, came in 1959 to join other guests in singing hymns in front of Willard Uphaus’s prison. She, along with her parents and sister, Dianne, has been very grateful to feel part of the WF community of progressive and creative people since that time, and to have a sense of being at home in a place of such natural beauty.

Gina studied music and photography at the High School of Music and Art in NYC, where she grew up, and from the Boston Museum School of Fine Art, respectively. While a photographer in residence for a modern dance company in Cambridge, MA, Gina’s responsibilities included documenting the company’s programs bringing dance and theater to children of diverse backgrounds throughout MA. Her photographs were used as posters for Performing Artists for Nuclear Disarmament. She has greatly enjoyed the chance to share her love of light and the White Mountains with the many guests she has met while giving photography workshops at WF.

Gina is currently working toward a book of photographs and text about Vincent van Gogh, and has traveled through Holland, Belgium and France to photograph where he lived and worked. She will soon begin another project in Bergen, Norway: photographing the extreme changes in light as well as well as the Aurora Borealis.

Wijnie de Groot first learned of World Fellowship in 2003, when a friend suggested she join her for a week’s vacation in a ‘low-key and interesting resort’ in New Hampshire’s White mountains. Wijnie instantly loved WFC, and the following year she brought her family to let them share the same experience she had during that first visit. Wijnie has been a regular ever since. It is the combination of intellectual stimulation, relaxation in beautiful surroundings and feeling of community that especially appeals to her.

Wijnie currently works as a lecturer of Dutch at Columbia University, teaching Dutch at all levels to undergraduate and graduate students. She also works as a translator. She lives with her husband and daughters in Queens, NY. Their youngest daughter, still in college, spends her summers at WFC as a staff member.

Wijnie is a member of the German Chapter of Nature Friends, a European organization dedicated to the preservation of nature and the advancement of social justice. She enjoys getting together with friends and family, hiking, camping, and reading.

Joan began coming to the center in 1983. She most enjoys the community spirit, the natural world, and the political discussions. Joan is the co-owner of the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, MA, which was founded in 1963 by her father. The Odyssey is an independent bookstore which hosts over 125 author events a year. Joan lives in Granby, MA, which is the town she grew up in. She lives with her husband, Jon Weissman, who is the Western MA Coordinator of Jobs with Justice. She has a stepson, a stepdaughter, and three granddaughters. Over the years, Joan has been involved in the labor movement and various peace and social justice organizations. She is also involved with Pioneer Valley Local First and the South Hadley Farmer’s Market. She enjoys reading, cycling, hiking, and cooking.

Deirdre Jordan first visited WF 30 years ago at the suggestion of a friend, and she has been a regular ever since. The general ambiance, sense of community, and beautiful setting in New Hampshire’s White Mountains kept her coming back every year, not to mention the pressure of her young daughter at the time, who would beg her parents to go back to World Fellowship whenever vacation plans were being discussed.

Deirdre is a retired policy analyst who is now a volunteer tutor of adult literacy, which she describes as the best job she’s ever had. She also enjoys practicing yoga and tai chi.

Rejin Leys is an artist and community activist. She lives in Queens, NY with her son Geoges. Rejin first came to WF in 1992 with her late husband Andre, who had learned of WF years before when he had been invited to lead a program on the political situation in Haiti. Rejin fell in love with the fresh air, the quiet nights, and the welcoming, engaged community. The family has returned every summer since.

Zenobia Mann first came to World Fellowship about 12 years ago. She most enjoys the intentional community created by the interplay of guests’ abilities, actions, ages and beliefs.

Zenobia is a teacher of Special Education. In addition to being on the World Fellowship Board, she is also a member of St. Paul’s Community Baptist Church.

Zenobia lives in New York City with her husband, son, and daughter, who along with her mother, brother, and nieces all enjoy WF.

In her spare time, Zenobia is involved with The Grail at Cornwall-on-Hudson, an international, interfaith women’s movement committed to change. Her hobbies include reading, swimming, and wandering around NYC.

Jeff Petrucelly was introduced to World Fellowship by friends 38 years ago, and has come every summer since.
Jeff is from Boston, and he and his wife, Pat Cantor, introduced their son Michael and daughter Karen at early ages to WF. Their whole family has loved the community, programs, and environment.

Jeff is an avid outdoors person—hiking in the White Mountains and all over the U.S. and Europe, swimming in Whitton Pond, biking to charity causes such as Bikes Not Bombs, and other activities.

Jeff is an attorney in his own small public interest, private law firm in Boston, and active in the National Lawyers Guild. He provides legal advice to WF.

Isabel was born in Ecuador, but moved to New York City as a child with her family where she has become a “native” New Yorker. She first heard of World Fellowship in 1997, while working at the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn. At World Fellowship she discovered a community of socially aware people with whom to enjoy the pristine beauty of Whitton Pond and the White Mountains.

Isabel has been a professor in the Department of Film and Media at Hunter College since 1991, a public institution with a mandate to serve the underserved of the city of New York. She has served on curriculum development in a department committed to the socially aware study and production of media. Her most recent publications are about the politics of 9/11, the Iraq War, and civic values in the U.S.

Isabel serves on the Program Committee, helping to craft the roster of intellectual, activist-oriented, and body work presenters for the summer. She is also on the Development and Outreach Committee.

Jessie has been coming to World Fellowship for 35 years, as the child of staff members, a staff member herself, a guest and now as a board member. A resident of Somerville, MA, Jessie’s favorite way to spend time at World Fellowship is swimming at Whitton Pond in the early morning hours. Jessie finds that serving on the board is a fantastic way to maintain her connection to the spirit and community of World Fellowship year-round. Jessie’s favorite food is Concord grapes.

Liz started coming to WF for the diversity of its community. Her children loved the freedom to be themselves in a place of great natural beauty, so she, her partner and their two children have returned year after year. In 2011 the California contingent of her family tried WF for the first time and got hooked. They’re coming back in 2012 along with Liz’s father-in-law from New Jersey.

When she’s not working, Liz pursues her interests in many subjects, most recently onomastics (look it up!), genealogy and metaphysics. She has been an attorney for over thirty years, providing legal assistance to individuals, nonprofits and small business owners. In serving on the World Fellowship Board of Trustees, Liz continues her family’s long tradition of volunteerism and community service.

Norma Wassel’s first time at World Fellowship was over thirty years ago when she came to visit her friends—founders of Physicians for National Health Care—who were there to present on this topic. She was living in California at the time, and upon returning to the east coast four years later, she and her family soon became regular summer guests.

A resident and cofounder of Cambridge Cohousing in Cambridge MA, Norma has been involved in community organizing, human services, administration, trauma intervention, and human rights work, both here in the U.S. and abroad, particularly in Central America and Eastern Europe after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In addition, she has developed and taught courses in administration, planning and social development in graduate schools. Norma currently oversees a division for Massachusetts’s public defender agency and as a social worker consults to a range of political groups and organizations.

Five generations of Ellen’s extended family have been part of the World Fellowship Community; Ellen began coming to WF regularly, with her daughter Rachel, in the early 90’s. Ellen is a membership coordinator at the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, NY; she lives a few blocks from the Coop with her partner Barry and many of his stringed instruments. Her daughter, son-in-law and grandson J.J. also live in Brooklyn.

Ellen also sings in the Brooklyn Women’s Chorus and is a member of the Peoples Music Network.

Ellen comes to WFC to recharge, refresh and to hang out with “camp friends” in one of the more beautiful places on the planet. And she loves spending time with loons.