In honor of Women’s History Month, we would like to express our gratitude for the diverse network of women who so graciously serve on Carver’s Board of Directors. Though our CEO, Novelette Peterkin, and each of our female board members are highly accomplished professionals, this month we celebrate them for being the all-around amazing people they are in both their individual careers and beyond. Their dedication to Carver’s mission and commitment to assisting their communities are remarkable in their own right. We also celebrate Carver’s immediate past board president, Diana Napier, a senior manager at The Workplace who serves as an ex officio member of our Board of Directors today.
Sandra Faioes serves as Vice-President on Carver’s Board. She is Director of School Improvement for the Norwalk Public Schools District, after serving as Principal of Norwalk’s Brookside Elementary School for four years. During her tenure there, she successfully completed a RELAY fellowship as a member of Norwalk’s first cohort and was selected to work closely with the district’s Chief of School Operations. Sandra is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and Cape Verdean Creole.
Valerie Watson is Secretary of Carver’s Board and Vice President & Manager at Patriot Bank N.A., which has been a steadfast Carver partner since 2002. She has managed the Norwalk branch for over 14 years while being actively involved in local community affairs through efforts such as offering free financial literacy seminars at Carver to educate individuals on money and credit. In addition to her role on Carver’s Board, she serves on the Boards of the Human Service Council in Norwalk, The WorkPlace, and her church.
Kimberly Gaddy, a Carver alumna, is the Director of Reporting & Analytics at Gartner. She directs and manages all aspects of enterprise business intelligence data warehousing and enterprise integration strategy for Gartner Global Consulting Strategy & Operations. Prior to Gartner, she worked for Yale University as the Director of Information Systems and Decision Support in the Yale School of Medicine/Yale Medical Group. She is Chairperson of the Finance Board at Friendship Baptist Church and serves as a national committee member for the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s Leadership Academy.
Inwha Huh works for IBM as a Partner & Practice Leader for Banking & Financial Markets, Cognitive Process Transformation, across corporate & institutional banking, retail and transaction banking. Throughout her career, she has been an active diversity forum leader, serving as Executive Sponsor for the Financial Women’s Association, among many others. Inwha is currently the Executive Sponsor of IBM’s Asian American Advisory Council and a Board member of Ascend Leadership.
Rose Lanard founded Lanard Consulting, LLC after her last corporate role as S&P Global’s Chief Diversity Officer. As an experienced leader in Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), senior executive and employee engagement, women’s leadership initiatives, and mentoring programs, she helps organizations create highly diverse and inclusive work environments. Her recognitions include Black Enterprise’s Top Corporate Executive in Diversity & Inclusion and Tri-State Diversity Council’s Most Influential Woman, among others.
E. Suzanne Small is a Director in Credit Management at TD Securities, USA, where she underwrites loans and manages them over their lifetime. During her 20-year career in investment banking, she worked for UBS as an Executive Director overseeing portfolio risk management and corporate lending and was VP & Director in structured finance at TD Securities. On top of her position on Carver’s Board, she serves as Treasurer for Rowayton Yacht Club’s Board of Directors. Sue has been an ardent Carver supporter for the last 12 years.
Novelette Peterkin is Carver’s Chief Executive Officer. Since joining Carver in 2004, she has led the transformation of Carver’s reach and impact from a vibrant community center to a citywide network of before- and after-school and summer programs delivering equitable learning opportunities to K-12 students in 19 schools. Novelette is a recipient of numerous awards such as the Women of Distinction Award (Darien YWCA) and The Elizabeth Roberts Changing the Odds for Children Award (United Way of Coastal Fairfield County). She is also a member of the National Black MBA Association and the Maritime Aquarium’s Board of Directors.