MEET OUR TEAM
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The Board of Directors of Inform Your Community taps the key talent needed for a nonprofit to thrive. We have board members in key content areas such as financial oversight, legal expertise, and e-commerce and web design. Several of our board members have significant nonprofit experience not only in the varieties of roles they represent as well as the depth and longevity of their time in these roles. Moreover, our board members’ research and scholarship represent an expansive repertoire of areas related to the four C’s at the core of Inform Your Community’s programming: civic engagement, civil rights, civility, and civics. We invite you to read more about our board members.
ANASTACIA KURYLO
Inform Your Community Founder and CEO Anastacia Kurylo, Ph.D. (she/her) received her doctorate from Rutgers University, is a former college professor who taught communication for fifteen years at colleges including New York University, Pace University, and Rutgers University, and is a recipient of a teaching award and mentor award. Anastacia is a subject matter expert in stereotypes and has produced over 25 publications including five books: Inter/Cultural Communication: Representation and Construction of Culture; The Communicated Stereotype: From Media to Everyday Talk; Negotiating Group Identity in the Research Process: Are You In or Are You Out?; Redefining Communication in the Era of Social Networking: Cultural, Social, and Political Perspectives; and, most recently, Building Your Social World: Constructing Reality through Interpersonal Communication.
Dr. Kurylo has led the board of several nonprofits including the NY Chapter of the Tri-State Diversity Council and was Founding Chair of The Quad Preparatory School, a K-12 private school for special needs students. Anastacia is former President of the New York State Communication Association and the New Jersey Communication Association organizing both conferences to record attendance. Anastacia worked at Avon for two years achieving top three in NYC sales both years. As an entrepreneur she ran The Crafty Kids for five plus years in Lower Manhattan. Her previous executive roles have included VP of Development, Director of Business Operations, and VP of People Operations.
TYLER LACARRUBBA
Tyler (Ellora) LaCarrubba (they/them) serves as Chair of the Board of Directors. They are a graduate of Fordham University with a Master’s of Science in Management. Tyler has presented at several communication conferences, is a published author of four chapters discussing topics like preferred pronouns and trigger warnings, and engages in research on LGBTQ+ topics. They are also currently on the board of the New York State Communication Association serving as Director of Web and Social Media. They are an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and curate a blog dedicated to identity-related topics.
JOHN MCTIERNAN
John McTiernan (he/him) serves as Treasurer of the Board of Directors. John has worked as an executive in technology for the last 20 years. He brings years of experience in helping define and drive corporate strategy and project management to execute those strategies. In addition to his work with Inform Your Community, he is a mentor with iMentor and a regular volunteer performing forest restoration with the Protectors of Pine Oak Wood. John graduated from Lehigh University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He holds several professional degrees including Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Scrum Master (CSM).
ROBBIE COPLEY
Robbie Copley (he/him) serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors at Inform Your Community. Robbie received his MPA from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in Environmental Science and Policy. He has worked at the forefront of social change and civic engagement from many angles. Early in his career, Robbie was involved in community organizing with a focus on environmental issues. He later consulted for architecture, interior design, and branding firms on building sustainability into their practices. This led to his work designing resilience plans with and for communities, and sustainability analyses for corporate and nonprofit clients. He currently works at the Open Society Foundations where he manages program finance and administration of the Open Society Justice Initiative.
ANTHONY ERCOLANO
Anthony (Tony) Ercolano (he/him) served as a Roman Catholic Priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn, NY, for 33 years. For many of those years, he was an associate pastor (administrator) in Jackson Heights, Bayside, and Flushing, NY. He was also the Spiritual Counselor at a parochial high school in Queens for 15 years, during which time he also served as a weekend parish assistant in Auburndale, NY. He conducted numerous youth and adult workshops here and abroad on meditation (centering prayer) and other areas of faith formation and personal growth. He also spent a good deal of time preparing couples for marriage and helping them when difficulties arose in their relationships. He completed a Certificate in the Management of Non-profit Organizations at Hofstra University and earned a Doctor of Ministry degree (D.Min.) from New York Theological Seminary.
Anthony resigned from the clerical state in 2005 and married Margaret (Brower) in 2006. Following his marriage, he worked at one of the premier hospitals in the nation as a manager and senior writer for development, marketing, and public (external) affairs; then as a senior writer for a hospital in Westchester County. In addition to his membership on the Board of Inform Your Community, he is also on the boards of the Federation of Christian Ministries, the Flushing Jewish Community Council, Global Ministries University, and his local Catholic Academy. He previously served on the Board of the Foundation for Religion and Mental Health.
JACKI KELLY
Jacki Kelly (she/her) has spent 25+ years working to ensure high quality education and life success for people and communities traditionally left behind. She is currently the Director of Development for Friends of the Children New York. Jacki previously served as the founding Executive Director of The Writing Revolution (TWR) and as Director of Development at several educational non-profits including Student Leadership Network and READ Alliance. Jacki has taught elementary school children and adult immigrants. She serves on the board of College and Community Fellowship and the Petey Greene Program, two exceptional non-profits focused on the education of individuals impacted by the criminal legal system and on dismantling the unfair systems that led to their incarceration in the first place. Jacki holds an M.A. in Elementary Inclusive Education from Teachers College Columbia University and a B.S. in Journalism from Northeastern University.
JESSICA MAYER
Jessica Mayer (she/her) has been involved in the disability field since 1988. She began her career working on a polling site accessibility project for the City of New York. After contracting with Chase Manhattan Bank in 1999 to become their consultant on disability issues, Jessica left to establish her own business. In her work with Chase, Jessica conducted staff training, employed panelists (people with disabilities and experts on disability), worked with not-for-profits, addressed hiring issues and celebrated ADA 10 and four years of National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Jessica was also the down state coordinator for the New York BLN involved in all aspects of the start-up including creating a mission and vision statement, creating stationery accessible to the visually impaired, assisting with out-reach, and putting together the kick-off event. Among other places, Jessica has conducted workshops are WL Gore & Associates, Ithaca College, the Federal Reserve Bank both of Atlanta and Boston, and the Viscardi Center. Jessica also arranged and moderated a panel for the 2016 Conference Board Diversity Conference, served as a facilitator for the ADL- A World of Difference Institute, and has worked with Epicenter Community on the Fashion Accessibility Project.
TERRENCE WILBURG
Terrence (he/him) has been in professional audio visual production management for a diverse sports, entertainment, cultural and corporate client base for many years with communities, budgets and productions large or small with the epic personal mandate to Seize the Day and of always adding palpable value. The audio visual world harnesses the power of the multimedia toolkit in creative ways best suited for content delivery, concept messaging, data architecture, live event design, communication and ultimately story telling. If a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, our charge is to make the Donuts look, taste and become their nourished healthy best.
He enjoys the myriad aspects of storytelling and how his experience (in this iteration) blends in familiarity with the concept of Informing one’s community in theory and practices at this nonprofit organization.
With a joy for perspective, attention to detail (historically for projects at Bank of America, Nike, the Harlem Commonwealth, all things “Voza Rivers” etc.) and the fact that there are No COINcidences, Terrence enjoys inviting happy mind spaces into his life like his adored partnership with the group at Inform Your Community and his current fun assignment at the media giant Condé Nast.
DIRECTORS
HENALI PATEL
Program Director
Popcorn & Chat
J. ANTHONY HOLBERT
Program Director
Much-To-Discuss
MICHELLE CHENG
Program Director
Smart Shopping
LONDY ALVAREZ
Program Director
Celebrate & Create
STACEY LACARRUBBA
Program Director
Craftivism
CARRIE GARIPPA
Director
Curriculum
QUINETTE BROWN
Director
HR
SIMRAN DEOL
Director
Partnerships
S. JEFFCOAT SOTAYO
Director
Marketing
MIKE SABIA
Director
SEO
SANAE ELMOUDDEN
Director
Grants
IRENE GORDON
Director
Training