CCNE Staff and Board

Staff

Renae Reese, Executive Director

Renae Reese is the Executive Director of the Connecticut Center for a New Economy. Prior to joining CCNE in 2004, Renae was the Vice President of AFT Local 3837 at the University of Connecticut Health Center. With the local she led a successful campaign to organize postdoctoral fellows. She was elected to union office while working as a researcher in the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Previously she directed the Connecticut Council on Occupational Safety and Health, a labor education group, directed community programs for the Yale-China Association and taught English as a second language in Washington, D.C. and Taiwan. She taught certification courses in hazardous waste remediation and asbestos abatement.

Renae lives in Hartford with her husband and two daughters.  Email: renae@ctneweconomy.org

Rev. Scott Marks, Co-founder

Scott Marks was born in North Carolina to a Pastor mother and Deacon father. Lured by the promise of good jobs, his family relocated to New Haven where Scott completed his education. After finding religion in 1985, Scott went on to preach gospel; he continues to pastor at New Growth Outreach ministries. Long compelled to use his strong voice for those who feel they don’t have one, Pastor Marks stepped up to represent his community in city hall as Alderman of Ward 21.

As a co-founder of CCCC, CCNE, and CORD, Scott organized and trained people from all walks of life, races, genders and religions to fight to protect their homes, jobs and communities. He organized marches and rallies, made alliances with local and national leaders, and continuously advocated on behalf of communities ravaged by poverty, violence, and inequality -and for working people everywhere.

Recognizing Rev Marks’ solid leadership, UNITE HERE recruited him to serve as President of Local 226-2. The union sent him to organize in some of the country’s most difficult areas. In Las Vegas, Chicago, Washington, DC and Memphis he fought for working people to have a voice and be treated with respect.

Ricardo Henriquez

Ricardo Henriquez was born in the north of Chile and has degrees in Social Communication and Journalism, and a Master on Science of Management with a non-profit leadership concentration.

For five years he worked as a political journalist for Diario La Cuarta in Santiago, Chile, until 2001, when he decided to emigrate to the United States. Since then he has done all kind, of jobs including dishwashing and waiting tables, which helped him realize the inequalities that immigrants suffer and which inspired him to go in the non-profit sector.

Ricardo was the Manager at Atticus Bookstore until May of 2006. In June of the same year he started working for GAVA, where he acted as the executive director until February of 2008. On February 18th of the same year, Ricardo started working for CCNE.    Email: ricardoph@ctneweconomy.org

Shirley Lawrence

Prior to joining CCNE in 2000, Shirley Lawrence worked for 12 years in Yale University’s dining halls and was an active member and steward in UNITE HERE Local 35, the union of service and maintenance employees at Yale. In the union, she fought for community access to secure union jobs, and to improve the university’s commitments to the New Haven community.

A participant in Local 35’s Women’s Leadership Project, she led a new wave of women’s activism in her union. She is an active member of the NAACP.

Shirley lives in New Haven and has two children.  Email: lawrence@ctneweconomy.org

Rhona Cohen

Rhona Cohen joined the CCNE staff in July of 2007. For the previous year she was the Director of the Health Care for All Coalition, a statewide base of 50 organizations. She conducted outreach, training and policy analysis and lobbied the state legislature on many health care reform issues, including the issue of health care disparities.

A graduate of the New York City High School for the Performing Arts, she has completed doctoral work in English literature and taught writing and English at City University of New York for several years.

Rhona lives in New Britain with her husband, daughter and son. She is active in the NAACP and the Mary McCloud Bethune Club. Rhona is lead organizer for the Interfaith Fellowship for Universal Health Care.  Email: rhona@ctneweconomy.org

Rev. Victor Gomez

Rev. Victor Gomez was born in Puerto Rico. He graduated in sociology and political science from the Catholic University in Ponce, P.R. He was involved in community organizing in Puerto Rico until he came to the U.S. in 1988 to work in New York City for the state government of Puerto Rico. From 1991 to 1994 he studied at the Bible Institute in Norwalk, CT for his ordination as a minister.

Rev. Gomez has worked in various capacities with Radio Amor in New Haven since 1989. He is an organizer with the Christian Coalition for Social Change and has worked throughout Connecticut on social and economic justice and immigrant rights. He was involved in the campaign that resulted in the implementation of the Elm City ID card for immigrant residents in New Haven. He has also collaborated with the Christian Coalition for Immigrant Rights based in North Carolina.

Rev Gomez worked with CCNE in 2006 and 2007 and has returned to work with us starting in Feb 2011. He focuses on organizing with Latino evangelical congregations around SustiNet and the right to health care in New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport, and other parts of the state.

Rev. Gomez is a member of the Church of God La Nueva Jerusalem and currently serves on their Mission Board. He lives with his wife and their son and daughter in East Haven. His two adult sons are both currently serving in the U.S. military.    Email:  victorgomez1957@yahoo.com

Pat  Carta

Pat  Carta joined the CCNE staff after working at Yale University for 27 years. She was one of the leaders during the organizing of Local 34 (the clerical and technical union at Yale University), and served the Local 34 membership as the staff director for 22 years. Pat was involved in all of the Local 34 contract fights. Now retired from Local 34, she continues to be active in the union as President of the Yale Unions Retirees Association (YURA).

Pat was born in the Hill Section of New  Haven. She now resides in North Haven and is a member and Eucharistic Minister at Saint Therese Church. Pat has 4 children and 4 grandchildren. Email: carta@ctneweconomy.org

David Amdur

David Amdur grew up in the Boston area. He lived in El Salvador from 1996 to 2000, working as a volunteer with the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) and as the staff person for U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities. He was then the National Program Director of CISPES from 2000 to 2001 in New York City.

After returning to Massachusetts in 2002 he was a community organizer and Spanish-English interpreter working on immigration asylum cases in East Boston. He then worked in the Interfaith Department of Equal Exchange until moving to Connecticut in 2006 after getting married.

David was Coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee’s Connecticut office from 2006 to 2009, where he worked on anti-war/peace building and immigrant rights campaigns. He then served as a field organizer for the United Radio, Machine, and Electrical Workers of America (UE) before starting with CCNE in March 2011.

David lives in Southbury with his wife and two daughters. Email: david@ctneweconomy.org

Jaime Myers-McPhail, Administrator

Jaime Myers-McPhail grew up in New Hampshire’s White Mountain region but longed for an urban environment. Jaime studied social theory and cultural studies at Goddard College and earned a BA in Sociology from the University of Southern Maine. While living in Portland, Maine Jaime worked as an independent living coach and case manager for adults with developmental disabilities, and volunteered as an LGBTQI youth mentor with the PRYSM (Proud Rainbow Youth of Southern Maine) program.

In 2009 Jaime moved to New Haven to pursue social justice work through the Americorps Public Allies program. In 2010 Jaime joined the CCNE staff as administrator and part-time organizer.  Jaime and partner, a graduate student at Yale, are proud to call New Haven’s Newhallville section home. Email: Jaime@ctneweconomy.org

Board of Directors

Kashif Abdul-Karim
Imam, Muhammad Islamic Center of Greater Hartford
taqwanct@aol.com

Frank Alvarado, Vice Chairperson
Executive Director, Spanish American Merchants Association (SAMA)
frank_alvarado@samact.org

Peggy Buchanan, Recording Secretary
President, Greater Hartford Central Labor Council
pbuchanan@snet.net

Dan Durant
Organizer, AFT CT
ddurant@aftct.org

Paul Filson
Director, SEIU State Council
pf.ctseiu@snet.net

Jacqueline James
Founder, New Haven Center for Children and Families
jmjgem@yahoo.com

Judy Maslen, Treasurer
jmaslen@ccag.net

Renae Reese
Executive Director, CCNE
renae@ctneweconomy.org

Bilal Dabir Sekou
Associate Professor, Hillyer College University of Hartford
sekou@hartford.edu

Anita Seth
Organizer, Federation of Unions at Yale
anita.seth@yaleunions.org

Louise Simmons, Chairperson
Professor, UConn School of Social Work
louise.simmons@uconn.edu