Adele's connection with Seniornet started in 2003 when she took classes at the Staten Island chapter. From 2004 to 2007 she coached and taught Seniornet classes at the McBurney Y and she has been at the JCC since 2008.
Adele has had two distinct careers. The first was as a third and fourth grade teacher for 17 years in the South Bronx and the second as a partner in an industrial marine supply firm from which she retired in 2001.
She has taught adult literacy at the Williamsburgh Public Library in Brooklyn and currently works two days a week at the Village Alliance Business Improvement District office updating and maintaining their databases.
Helen Jacobs
Helen has been involved with SeniorNet for almost two years. She has taught and coached Computing Made Easy, Word Processing, and Beyond Google.
Before retiring, Helen worked in market research for over 30 years. She was Executive Vice President of a large nationwide data collection network for 18 years and worked in the research company side of the business as a field director for many years. Before going into the marketing research field, she was an elementary school teacher.
Helen is the Vice President of the Relatives and Friends Executive Committee at the Jewish Home and Hospital and was also Co-Chair of the Public Affairs Committee for the National Council of Jewish Women this past season.
In the past, Helen served as President of the national Market Research Association and served on the board for several years.
Liz Jaffe
Liz has been volunteering with SeniorNet for the past two years after retiring from her professional work at the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Her professional life has included work as a physical therapist, special ed teacher, educational administrator, and work at not-for-profit organizations as a fundraiser and conference planner.
She currently is on the Board of Directors of UJA-Federation of NY and the Jewish Coalition for Service, and serves as National Chairman for Oztma, a volunteer leadership program for post-college youth in Israel
Joan Kushinoff
Joan has been an active member of the JCC SeniorNet staff since 2002. She has held the position of treasurer for the past three years and also works with the other teachers to create new curriculum and course material.
Besides volunteering at the JCC SeniorNet program, she also volunteers at the Grace Institute and relaxes doing pottery.
In 2001, Joan retired from Merrill Lynch, where she spent her career working as a computer analyst.
Sally Loper
Sally Loper has been volunteering at Seniornet for over two years, during which time she has taught the basic class and the Internet, as well as coaching. She also has responsibility of answering our “hotline,” involving all telephone inquiries and registering students by phone.
Sally maintains a private practice as a psychotherapist as well as doing her volunteer work. She has been in private practice, with patients from adolescence to the elderly for over 25 years and still loves her work. She works with individuals and couples. Prior to private work, she worked in several out-patient psychiatric clinics, ending as the coordinator of an out-patient psychiatric clinic. She has supervised therapists and graduate students, taught a class in human development for three years as an adjunct instructor at the Graduate School of Social Services, Fordham University, and went to The National Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP), where she received a certificate as a NYS Certified Psychoanalyst
Muriel Mandell
Muriel has a Master's Degree from the Columbia School of Journalism and 30 credits toward a doctorate in psych and the teaching of reading.
She has been employed as a reporter and columnist in the Washington bureau of the Overseas News Agency and Jewish Telegraphic Agency, as a police reporter for the Long Branch Record, as an editor for a magazine called TIPS, and in public relations for the New York State Division of Housing and Radio Station WMGM. Muriel has had a dozen children's books (mostly non-fiction) published that have been translated into a dozen languages.
Muriel has taught on every level from kindergarten to graduate school (City College and Hunter) and coordinated a Federal Right to Read program for the New York City Board of Education and WEDGE, a writing program that was validated as exemplary by the New York State Department of Education and replicated throughout New York State. In both programs she was responsible for extensive teacher training throughout the city and then the state.
For the last 11 years she has taught a variety of computer software programs to seniors through the international SeniorNet non-profit organization. She currently serves as coordinator of the The JCC in Manhattan's SeniorNet Learning Center.
Maurice Mayer
Maurice has been involved with computers since 1966. All of his professional experience was with large IBM mainframes. His emphasis from 1976 through 2005 was with network and system management. He was doing application programming from 1966 to 1973 and systems programming from 1973 on.
Maurice started working with PCs in 1985. Although they were only used as input devices in all of the corporations where he worked, he was always heavily involved with the technical support that was required for them. This was in addition to his normal mainframe duties. He was heavily involved with hardware selection, operating system selection and software product selection for the PCs. In addition, he helped develop the strategies and guidelines that were implemented to support the PC environment.
Maurice also was involved in an IBM user group, GUIDE, from 1978 to 1983. This group developed requirements for IBM that they wished to have implemented in the current or future versions of the mainframe software.
Angelica McDermott
Angelica has been volunteering with Senior Net for eleven years. She began by taking courses at Hudson Guild, and shortly afterwards became a teacher, teaching there for about seven years. While teaching at McBurney Y for Senior Net, she was introduced to the JCC program and has been teaching and coaching at JCC for three years. Angelica was recently elected to the Senior Net Advisory Board as Treasurer.
She had a twenty year career in banking as a loan officer, and later, as Manager of the
Consumer Loan Department. Angelica also worked four and one-half years for the FDIC.
Angelica has also extended her volunteering with the Retired Senior Volunteer Program. She coaches at Lenox Hill Neighborhood Center, takes part in the TCE program, where they for do taxes for seniors from February to April 15th, and is part of their ACES Program which advises clients on where they may apply for State and/or Federal public assistance. She has been assigned to Beth Israel Hospital.
Nancy Neschis
Nancy has been active with SeniorNet since 2002. She has taught both beginning and intermediate courses as well as coaching many classes. Prior to her work with SeniorNet, she volunteered at the Alzheimer's Association where she provided administrative and computer-related assistance as needed.
Her professional career included four years as an Administrative Coordinator in the Russian Resettlement Program at the Jewish Family Service/United Jewish Federation of Stamford, CT, and Director of Employee Benefits at Ziff-Davis Publishing, where she was employed full-time from 1981-93.
Jan Polish
Jan has been volunteering for SeniorNet for about four years. Before retiring, she was a computer professional, mostly implementing financial systems for major corporations. Jan also spent several years doing corporate computer training.
Currently, she is the Treasurer of OrigamiUSA, a non-profit organization promoting the art, craft and science of paperfolding.
Frank Sargent
Frank was a manufacturing engineer, an adult education teacher, a freelance journalist, and a consumer advocate, and taught stress management to the physically disabled and the terminally ill.
For the past 12 years, he has brought these elements of his background together as computer consultant, technician, teacher, and private tutor. He has taught at LaGuardia Community College, Queens College, CompUSA, SAGE, and computer clubs, and has provided technical services to Mount Sinai Hospital, NYU, and corporate clients.
Frank has been a SeniorNet volunteer since 1998 and most of his public and private work is in service to older adults.
Frank Strauss
Frank has been teaching at SeniorNet for the past five years and served as Assistant Coordinator of the program for two years.
Prior to his work with SeniorNet, he served for 25 years as the Director of Public Relations and Communications of the Council of Jewish Federations, where he was instrumental in creating the Jewish Online Network, which connected 200 Jewish Federations throughout the US and Canada by computer, and also a satellite network which provided broadcasts from worldwide sites to the Jewish Federation system.
His earlier work experience included stints with a network of regional local government officials in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area, where he developed an early video conferencing system that involved placing the very first antennas on the North Tower of the World Trade Center shortly after the buildings opened.
A graduate of Antioch College, Frank has also been the editor of a weekly newspaper and news and sports director of a radio station in California. He also served as a Councilman in his Rockland County township prior to moving to New York City.
Gordon Vaughan
Gordon has been teaching at SeniorNet for the past six years and for one of those years, served as Coordinator of the program.
He has taught a variety of beginning and intermediate courses in both PC and Mac and is a fixture at the practice sessions.
Gordon has been involved with computers for more than twenty years during his occupation as a corporate administrator, real estate broker, business consultant and hotel marketing executive. Among other positions, he administered the national sales offices for three major international hotel corporations. His experience included the design and implementation of a variety of computer-based marketing and sales programs.
He is president and owner of a business consulting company that has served the New York banking community since 1985.