Community Foundation Appoints New Officers and Trustees

The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties recently named 2017-2018 officers and two new members to its Board of Trustees.

2017-2018 Community Foundation Officers include:

Eve Van de Wal – Chair
Eve Van de Wal has served on the Board of Trustees since 2012. She is regional president of Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare delivery and health insurance. Prior to joining Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, she was a critical care and coronary care nurse. She serves on the community boards of several organizations, including Health Workforce New York, the United Way of the Valley and Greater Utica Area, Mohawk Valley EDGE, Adirondack Bank and Utica First Insurance Company.

David Manzelmann – Chair-elect
David Manzelmann is Utica market president and team lead for business and professional banking for M&T Bank. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 2015 and also serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including Mohawk Valley EDGE, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare Foundation and the M&T Bank/Partners Trust Bank Charitable Fund. He previously worked at KeyBank and NBT Bank and holds a bachelor’s degree in business economics from the College of Wooster.

L. Michael Fitzgerald – Secretary/Treasurer
Mike Fitzgerald is a partner at Fitzgerald, DePietro and Wojnas, CPA’s. He holds a master’s degree from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s degree from St. Bonaventure, both in accounting. He has served on the Board of Trustees since 2012.

The Community Foundation’s new Board members are:

James A. Engler, Jr.
President of Engler Electric, Inc., a third-generation, family-owned business that has become one of the largest non-public electrical contractors in the region, James A. Engler, Jr., has served as president of the Finger Lakes Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association for eight years and previously spent a decade as governor of the chapter. He is immediate past president of the Mohawk Valley Builders Exchange, an IBEW-NECA Pension and Health Fund trustee, past member of Utica Rotary and past trustee of the Joint Apprenticeship Training Commission. He earned degrees in telecommunications and electrical engineering technology from SUNYIT (now SUNY Poly) and Mohawk Valley Community College.

Merritt Locke
An attorney and partner at Saunders Kahler, LLP, Merritt Locke is a member of the Oneida County Bar Association and New York State Bar Association and a past member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys. She is a current board member for the Central New York Community Arts Council, the Central New York Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and New Hartford Baseball Boosters, Inc., and a past president of Family Services of the Mohawk Valley. She holds degrees from George Washington University Law School and St. Lawrence University.

Other members of The Community Foundation Board of Trustees are:

• Laura Casamento
• Ronald Cuccaro
• Burt Danovitz
• Lisa DeFrees-Lovett
• Keith Fenstemacher
• David T. Griffith
• Cathleen C. McColgin
• Gregory B. McLean
• Cheryl Minor
• Mary F. Morse
• Jawwaad Rasheed
• Rev. Robert Umidi
• Randy VanWagoner