2007 Service Fund Board of Directors
Sonia Ossorio, Chair
Elected President of NOW-NYC in January of 2005, Sonia became a women's rights activist in 1999. Her first protest was opening night of the Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in 1999, which had no women musicians and made no apologies for it. It was just enough of an initiation. She was on the frontline for the next action, and she started the Women & Media Committee of NOW-NYC the following year.
As president of the chapter, Sonia has led several major and successful campaigns. In 2006, she built a large-scale public education and media campaign that resulted in the repeal of the statute of limitations on rape in New York State. In 2007, NOW-NYC launched its campaign, Ending the Business of Human Trafficking in New York City. Working with a coalition of organizations, the campaign sought to stop trafficking through public education and lobbying for effective and fair legislation. In June of 2007, the first ever New York State anti-trafficking legislation was signed into law.
Sonia moved to New York in 1993, recruited by Gannett Newspapers as a business writer. Writing extensively on women entrepreneurs and women in corporate America, her work has appeared in USA Today, The Denver Post, The Journal News, and the San Jose Mercury News, among others. She is the former Director of Public Relations for Catalyst, a nonprofit working to advance women in Corporate America. Sonia has spoken widely on the subject of women in the workplace, including the keynote address at the 2000 conference of the National Association for the Empowerment of Hispanic Women. A feminist for as long as she can remember, Sonia bought a copy of the Feminine Mystique at a garage sale in the sixth grade.
Rosemary E. Coluccio, Treasurer
Rosemary joined the board of the National Organization for Women and the Service Fund of NOW-NYC in early 2006 to oversee the organization's financial restructuring. Currently the Director of Finance and Administration at the International Women's Health Coalition, she has 17 years of experience creating and implementing effective financial strategies, policies, and processes in both the private and not-for-profit sectors. Prior to joining IWHC, Rosemary served as a financial consultant providing technical assistance to several local and national non-profits. Her work experience includes serving as the Director of Finance and Administration at both the Latino Commission on AIDS and the Empire State Pride Agenda, and 11 years as an Accountant in the private sector. Rosemary earned an MS in Taxation from Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business, a BS in Accounting from the Stern School of Business and an Associate's in Liberal Arts from New York University.
Noreen Connell
Noreen, a leading women's rights advocate in New York, is former president of NOW-NYS (1984-88) and NOW-NYC (1977-79). Under her leadership, the state organization grew to 36 chapters and 20,000 members and played a key role in creating progressive child custody laws and reforming the court system. While president of the New York City Chapter, Noreen initiated a job development program that resulted in creating 40 longshore jobs for women for the first time in New York City history. During the 1980s, Noreen formed delegations of feminists who traveled to Iceland, Spain, England, and Norway to learn how other feminist movements functioned, especially in helping to elect more women to office through the creation of women's parties or policies on gender parity in candidates for parliament. Noreen also created the annual Susan B. Anthony Awards, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Unlike most other awards, the Susan B. Anthony Awards honor and spotlight grassroots feminists who have advanced women's rights - regardless of their status and wealth.
Gaby Moreno
Gaby first joined NOW at the age of 16. A passionate defender of reproductive freedom, Gaby has worked on the frontline protecting women's right to choose. She has chaired the Reproductive Rights Committee of NOW-NYC, developing numerous action campaigns that include protests, zap actions, letter writing and lobbying in Albany. In response to repeated assaults on women's reproductive rights, she worked as a group facilitator during Operation Rescue attacks on New York City abortion clinics. She also marched in the largest pro-choice demonstrations in Washington DC in 1992 and again in 2004 at the March for Women's Lives. Gaby received the Susan B. Anthony Award in 2001 for her tremendous contribution and longtime dedication to the National Organization for Women.
Judith J.K. Polson
Judi joined NOW-NYC in 2000, participating in the Women in the Workplace Committee. She joined the Board in 2003 as Director of Membership Processing, and was elected Vice-President of Development in 2006, where she brought once-dormant grant applications to fruition. She led a cadre of demonstrators to the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, and in New York City, participated in the 2004 March for Women’s Lives, NOW-NYC’s 2007 Viacom action and the 2008 Martin Luther King Day march. Raised on a family farm, Judi has lobbied state and federal representatives from her native Midwest as well as from New York. Judi has a B.A. from the University of Kansas and an Executive M.B.A. from Duke University. As an actor, she appeared as Liam Neeson’s sister in the Oscar-nominated Kinsey; most recently her appearance in The Onion’s 2008 online dating video segment reached “most-viewed” and “most-dugg” status. From 2000 through 2008, she was a Vice-President in technology with a Wall Street firm.
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