Current RFTC Board Members
The Row for the Cure® board is made up of volunteer representatives from Row for the Cure® events around the country. The RFTC board makes legal and financial decisions which further the work of Row for the Cure® at a national level. This includes participation in short monthly conference calls, appearances at local and national events, and lending support to established and aspiring Row for the Cure® events.
Row for the Cure invites you to join our Board. If you are interested in joining us, please contact webmaster@rowforthecure.org.
Beth Kohl – Executive Director and Board President
Beth brings over 30 years of experience in leadership, development, marketing and communications, media, branding and events working for non-profits, clients, agencies and properties working around the world.
Based in Wilton CT, Beth has a broad understanding of the sport, as a former collegiate and masters rower and parent of two collegiate rowers. She has worked with many non-profits in a volunteer capacity and as a survivor has a strong passion for the organization’s mission and is using her experience to help change lives through the work of Row for the Cure.
Eliza Sydney – Vice President
Eliza began rowing in high school on Mercer Lake at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and is now a member of the Asheville Rowing Club in North Carolina. She has rowed in Row For The Cure events at Head of The Hooch in honor of her dear friend Whitney (who lost her battle with breast cancer at the young age of 29) and her friends and family who are breast cancer survivors.
When Eliza is not rowing, she works full time for the SilverSneakers Fitness Program, teaches exercise classes at several gyms, is a professional harpist, enjoys volunteering with Meals on Wheels and gets out on adventures with her two dogs.
Barbara Sanchez-Salazar – Secretary
Barbara Sanchez-Salazar is a senior attorney with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, P.C., and practices in the firm’s employee benefits/deferred compensation sections. Barbara’s sports community involvement includes co-chairing the first Jacksonville Row for the Cure in 2004, continuing to help organize the event from 2005 to 2011, volunteering for the Mayor’s Council for Fitness and Well-Being from 1999 to 2013, co-founding Bike Jacksonville, serving on the Board of Jacksonville Rowing Club from 1997 to 2014, and directing/coaching the Club’s youth rowing program from its inception in 2002 till 2015.
Barbara is honored to have been a member of the 1978 Junior National Team but currently takes great pride in being a masters athlete enjoying thoughts of training with her 86 year-old father for the 2018 World Rowing Masters event in Sarasota, Florida and working with her twin daughters as they achieve their own rowing accomplishments.
Lindsey Brown
Lindsey
currently works at JB Hunt as a Carrier Sales Coordinator. She recently graduated from The Ohio State University with a major in Logistics Management. While at OSU she was on the Varsity Women’s Rowing team.
Allyson Baker
Allyson is a graduate of The Ohio State University where she found rowing as a walk-on. She went on to be part of 4 Big 10 Championship titles and a National title with the team. Since graduating in 2017 Allyson has been living in Princeton, NJ training at the US Training Center with hopes of making the Olympic team in 2024! In 2019 she represented Team USA at the World Championships in Austria. In her free time she enjoys golfing, baking and cheering on Ohio State athletics.
Sarah Marshall
Sarah Marshall found rowing as a walk-on at The Ohio State University and was a part of the Big Ten and National Championship winning crew in 2013. Currently, she is the Director of Marketing and Communications for The Quell Foundation. Before that, Marshall served as the Communications Manager and press officer for USRowing, the national governing body for the sport of rowing in the U.S., managing content and press coverage around domestic and international rowing events which included the 2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. Marshall received her degree in Strategic Communications in 2013 from OSU.
Katie Rodgers
Katie is a recent graduate of Wake Forest University, where she was a varsity rower on the Wake Forest Rowing Club. She knew absolutely nothing about rowing until she joined the team, but quickly developed a love for the sport and its traditions.
She has had a passion for supporting breast cancer research since losing her mother to breast and bone cancers when she was fourteen. Katie currently serves as the New Events Director for Row for the Cure®. When she isn’t daydreaming about being on the water, she works as an executive recruiter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Row for the Cure Ambassadors
Kathy Frederick – Founder and Past President
As a sales and customer service representative for Packaging Specialties in Portland, Oregon, Kathy worked for the company for thirty-seven years and calls it her second family. Her fifteen-year background as a political activist in the 70’s and 80’s honed her organizing and leadership skills. At the age of 42 she took up rowing and says it is like dancing on water. In 1993, she organized the first Row for the Cure and still rows regularly with her third family at Station L Rowing.
Kathy served as Row for the Cure President through 2018.
Lori Boersma
Seven years ago I was diagnosed with cancer, for the second time in less than five years. During chemotherapy treatments, I contracted pneumonia and the flu at the same time. I was put into a medically induced coma as my oxygen levels began to decrease and I developed sepsis. During a 54 day coma my lungs, kidneys, brain, and other organs failed. Doctors at both Norwalk and Yale New Haven hospital gave me a less than 1% chance of living and my family had to make some tough decisions – keep me alive not knowing the outcome or terminate all machines keeping me alive. After 54 days, I woke and spent the next five weeks at an in-patient rehabilitation facility relearning how to walk, talk, write, balance, and everything else we take for granted. A little over a year post-coma, I discovered the Saugatuck Survive-Oars. This amazing all breast cancer survivor rowing team has given me a lifelong support system, a workout regimen that continues to strengthen my organs that failed, doctor visits full of positive outcomes, and a drive to continue fighting and appreciating this second life I was given. Today that less than 1% chance is my “why”!
Susan Bradshaw
Susan is a seasoned public relations and marketing consultant with expertise in creating and implementing strategic national and regional public relations programs. She has worked for a variety of clients with a special emphasis on sports and entertainment and working with non-profits.
Row for the Cure is thrilled to bring her on board as a member of the Marketing and Communications committee and utilize her extensive skills in developing a communications strategy, media relations, message development, athlete development and video production.
Laura Johnson
Laura holds a tax license in the State of Oregon and has been working in the accounting field with her own business for over 21 years. She also volunteers with Wheat Marketing Center, Inc. and Gabriel Park Pre-School. She served a RFTC board member and Treasurer from 2011-2022 and is an 8-year breast cancer survivor!
Celia Kohl
Celia works in New York for NBCUniversal as VP of Strategy and Business Development for the TV & Streaming group. She competed as a junior rower for Maritime Rowing Club (CT) and GMS Rowing, was a member of the U.S Junior National Team in Beijing in 2007 and continued her rowing career as a four-year member of Harvard’s Varsity Women’s team. Celia has worked with non-profit organizations including the American Cancer Society and Row New York since high school and is now eager to help Row for the Cure expand in new directions.
Pete Landry
Pete, based in Charlotte, NC, works for Wells Fargo as the Director for the firm’s Insurance and Annuities businesses. He and his team deliver protection-based solutions to Wells Fargo clients, as well as their families and businesses. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Pete was in senior management for Bank of America and Merrill Lynch’s Insurance and Annuity Services business. Pete discovered rowing through Charlotte’s Row House franchise, Row House Cotswold Village in July of 2020 as he was seeking a safe and healthy way to work out during the pandemic. With several family members and friends who are breast cancer survivors, Pete is committed to doing what he has come to love in rowing and turning it into helping others with their own battles against cancer. He’s been a top fundraiser for Row for the Cure in 2020 as well as 2021 and is excited to join the organization as a Brand Ambassador.
Stacey Legler
Stacey began rowing at Edgewater High School in Orlando, FL and is now a member of the Jacksonville Rowing Club. She was first introduced to Row for the Cure® in 2011 at the Head of the Hooch regatta and has had small roles with local Row for the Cure® events such as the First Coast Head Race. To support her rowing habit, she works in the HR department at Florida State College at Jacksonville and is also a full-time doctoral student at Wilmington University.
Grace Luczak
As an Olympian, World Record Holder in the Women’s 8+, and Top 10 rower in the world by World Rowing, Grace has represented Team USA in rowing for the last decade. Grace’s grandmother is a survivor of breast cancer who is thriving in Michigan and wisely flocks to warmer climates in the winter. Rowers training in Princeton often live with host-families as they travel all over the country and world to train and compete during the year. Two of Grace’s amazing “host-moms” in Princeton also battled breast cancer and are amazing role models and matriarchs of their families. Grace studied Human Biology at Stanford and improving science and research is at the core of her heart.
Victoria Madden
Victoria grew up in Florida and is in her ‘happy place’ anytime she is on, in, or near the water. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016 and began rowing in 2018 as part of the Saugatuck SurviveOARs, a crew made up entirely of breast cancer survivors. Her first race was in 2019 at Row for the Cure – Poughkeepsie. Being involved in rowing as part of her recovery has been life changing and she would like to continue to support and encourage other survivors through the sport.
Victoria is excited to help create and build the Survivor Rowing Network.
Ryan Monaghan
Ryan is a three-time National team member, competing internationally in the pair, the four, the double and the quad. He’s contributed to the organization’s growth, serving on the Board from 2015-2019. Now in corporate finance, Ryan is committed to providing accessibility to all to the sport he loves.
Meghan Musnicki
Pink is her signature color and this 3x Olympian and 2x Olympic gold medalist in the U.S. Women’s 8+ is proud to be a Pink the Boathouse Brand Ambassador Meghan inspires wherever she goes: especially junior and collegiate athletes and, as a Row for the Cure spokesperson uses her passion about the fight against cancer to motivate others to join our cause.
Bill Rooney
Bill Rooney is a Senior Technical Staff Member in IBM’s z Systems group, where he is a software architect for the z/OS operating system.
Although not a rower, Bill became involved with Row for the Cure back in 2008 when his daughter Nicole and her friend, then both high school rowers, organized the first Row for the Cure event in Poughkeepsie.
Ginger Schultz
With a work background in publishing, graphic design, retail and volunteer management and sales, Ginger will support Row for the Cure efforts through merchandise fundraising.
Unfortunately, breast cancer has touched some of those close to her and she’s happy to know inspirational survivors. Ginger loves to just be on the water. In her free time she often enjoys being on nearby Lake Michigan in a kayak, on a SUP or a recreational row boat. She has never been on a rowing team but has participated in community rowing in Traverse City, Michigan.
Isabel Wothe
Born and raised in Jacksonville, FL, and started rowing in 2006. I competed with both the Jacksonville Rowing Club and Episcopal School of Jacksonville throughout middle school and high school. I was a 7 time Florida State Champion (in both sculling and sweep rowing) and was honored to be a two time CanAmMex sculler. For college I ventured north to Cornell University and was a 4 year member of the rowing team. Since graduating from Cornell in 2020, with a Biology and Society major and both Business and Law & Society minors, I have moved back to Jacksonville and work in healthcare management. I’m looking forward to being involved with Row for the Cure to support a great cause in a sport I love.
Past Board and Brand Ambassadors
Row for the Cure welcomes all volunteers to serve as Brand Ambassadors, helping the Board fulfill our mission. If you are interested in joining us, please contact webmaster@rowforthecure.org.
Charity Adams (New Events Director 2019) is a licensed Principal Broker with Living Room Realty, a Portland native, and noted authority on Portland living and the local real estate market. Dedicated to promoting positive communities, she also volunteers at Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, Kinship House and her son’s school. Charity took her first learn to row class in September 2017 and immediately fell in love with the sport. Having lost her grandmother and brother to cancer, and a number of friends with breast cancer, she is honored to be a part of raising money and awareness to find a cure.
Meredith Cairo – Our former Merchandising Director, she is a junior at Wake Forest University, where she rows on the women’s varsity squad for the Wake Forest Rowing Club. Meredith serves as the intern to the Merchandising Director for Rowing Cares, and works on maintaining the Team Store.
Paul Fraser – Paul began his rowing career in the UK, competing both domestically and internationally. Since moving to the US, Paul has been on the board of a number of nonprofit organizations and works day to day as CMO for a large holdings company. He currently runs the Park City Rowing Club Masters program and competes regularly at regattas throughout the US. Paul lost his mother to breast cancer and is committed to doing all he can to help further the important work performed by the Susan G. Komen organization – that he gets to do it through rowing is a bonus!! Paul, his wife, and two children currently reside in Utah.
Isabelle McCullough – Our former Development Director, she has rowed for the University of Florida for four years. In her time at UF, she served on the crew team board as Fundraising Chair and Vice President. She currently lives in Atlanta, GA and works in education management while working towards a career as an actuary.
Mike McQuaid – Mike McQuaid is president of McQuaid & Co. Strategic Communication in Seattle. The firm’s practice areas include public affairs, corporate communications, non-profit community relations, cause marketing, athletics communications and marketing, and media relations. Mike has a rowing background and a long history of support for the growth of Row for the Cure.
Lenny O’Donnell – Our former marketing advisor, he is an award-winning film and TV producer, a writer, and a nationally recognized communications, media and marketing consultant, working with corporations and nonprofits in research, higher education, tech, biotech, medicine and sports.
Cristina Patrick – Our former Social Media advisor, she started volunteering for Row for the Cure® to help raise awareness about breast cancer, spreading the word throughout social media.
Pattie Pinkerton – As Head Coach of the UCSD Crew for over 12 years and was instrumental in working with the University and the local Komen affiliate to establish the San Diego Row for the Cure. She is an internationally recognized rowing coach and accredited reporter for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and is currently the Masters Rowing Coach for the San Diego Rowing Club.
Rob Reali – Rob is a member of Hampton Roads Rowing Club in Norfolk Virginia, where he has spent over 10 years running the Head of the Lafayette, and the Hampton Roads Erg Pull. He has also run numerous Jr Camps and the club scholarship program. While trying to find time to row, Rob is also an Environmental Engineer for the US Army. Rob’s first Row for the Cure was in 2008.
Sara Rogers (Marketing Director 2015-2017, Website Director 5/2017-1/2018) is an experienced marketer and project manager. She met Kathy while serving on the Board as Marketing Director for a local women’s business organization. She is excited to bring her experience to the Row for the Cure organization and make a difference.
Laura Schwanger – Para-Olympic Ambassador.
