Events

Rotary and ReUse continue their partnership with Mega Sort Parties to raise funds for local Community Grants, Youth Exchange, and International projects. Volunteers will sort and price donated items, with a portion of sales benefiting these initiatives.

Dr Kanda is an Associate Professor of Biology at Ithaca College, with research interests in animal movement behavior and ecology.  Although usually a mammalogist, she has been involved with conservation and research on the amphibian populations at Thomas/Ellis Hollow Roads since 2008.  

Dr. La Jerne Terry Cornish is the 10th president of Ithaca College, a position she assumed in March 2022. She joined the College in 2018 as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. Prior to joining Ithaca, Dr. Cornish was associate provost for undergraduate studies at Goucher College in Baltimore, Md., from 2014 to 2018.

As provost and then president at Ithaca, Cornish led the College through the COVID-19 pandemic and a strategic plan, “Ithaca Forever,” that included an academic prioritization plan to align academic programs with student interest and need, and to align the size of the faculty with the size of the student body.

Today, Cornish is laying the groundwork for a new strategic plan that will build upon Ithaca’s commitments to promoting hands-on learning from day one as part of its academic programs; to providing a welcoming and supportive campus environment for all; and to engaging in community partnerships that improve the quality of life in its home city and surrounding areas. In broad consultation with the College's constituencies, Cornish will look to refine resource stewardship and allocation, as well as pursue opportunities to diversify revenue.

During her time as Ithaca’s president, Cornish has launched programs that improved student retention and graduation rates; she created a Center for Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging to help build understanding and fuel creativity among students, faculty, and staff from all backgrounds; and she expanded career service programs into a Center for Career Exploration and Development that begins working with students during their first year on campus. 

Cornish began her career in the Baltimore City Public Schools, serving 15 years as a middle school English teacher and then principal. She joined the Goucher College faculty in 1998.

Cornish holds a doctorate in language, literacy, and culture from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; a master’s degree in education with a concentration in urban and diverse learners from Goucher College; and a bachelor’s degree in English, also from Goucher. Her research interests include new teacher induction, culturally responsive teaching, and campus responses to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

She has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority, since 1984.

In addition to her work in the public and private education sectors, she served as a commissioned lay pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, where her ministerial focus had been congregational nurture and care.

Her wife, Deborah Ptak, is the principal of Lehman Alternative Community School in the Ithaca City School District. Together, they have three children: Wayne Cornish Jr., a graduate of Goucher College; Em Ptak-Pressman, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College; and Joshua Ptak-Pressman, a graduate of Fordham University.

Jeff Smith is President of Endwell Rotary and a PDG of former District 7170.  He is President of Tier Energy Network (TEN), a non-profit formed over 10 years ago to support development of an industry cluster in clean energy technology in the Southern Tier.  He serves as Secretary of ESRAG for Eastern North America.  He supports many organizations involved in economic development, community well-being and and environmental sustainability.  He and his wife Jeanne have 4 grown children and several grandchildren across the country

Dr. Ingrid Zabel is the Climate Change Education Manager at the Paleontological Research Institution. She strives to make climate change science accessible to the public via exhibits at the Museum of the Earth and the Cayuga Nature Center, online content, teacher resources, and education programs for youth and adults. She began working on climate change through research at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, using radar to study the Greenland ice sheet. She then worked on surveillance radar at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and she now works in science education.

Peter Bardaglio is coordinator of the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative and executive director of the Ithaca 2030 District, one of 24 such districts in the U.S. and Canada. He served as a history professor, dean, and provost for 24 years combined at Goucher College and

Ithaca College before shifting his focus to the climate and sustainability movements in 2007.

Besides his scholarly writings on race and gender in U.S. history, he is co-author of Boldly Sustainable: Hope and Opportunity for Higher Education in the Age of Climate Change (2009), and he has published numerous articles on climate change and sustainability. He currently serves on the boards of New Roots Charter School in Ithaca and the Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming, and is trustee emeritus at the Paleontological Research Institution/Museum of the Earth.