At its May meetings, the Ithaca College Board of Trustees elected Kimberly Allen ’96 and Jerry Dietz ’75 to serve for the next four years as term trustees. Sara Haefeli (faculty), Scott Doyle ’98 (staff), and Mureen Doherty ’26 (student) were elected to serve as campus community trustees. The board also voted to name outgoing chair David H. Lissy ’87 as chair emeritus.
Kimberly Allen ’96
Allen worked for more than two decades at the Rochester-based marketing, communications, and public relations firm Dixon Schwabl, which has over 100 employees serving clients in the financial services, education, and B2B sectors. She joined the firm in 2001 and served as managing partner for communications prior to being named CEO in 2020. She recently announced she will depart Dixon Schwabl in October to pursue new opportunities in strategic communications.
Board of Trustees Elects Five New Members
Kimberly Allen
In 2006, Allen was named by the Rochester Business Journal to its Forty Under 40 list of professionals who demonstrate leadership in the workplace and in the community. She was honored in 2018 by the Women’s Council of Rochester as an ATHENA Young Professional, which recognizes emerging women leaders who demonstrate excellence, creativity, and initiative in their business or profession.
Allen earned her degree in television-radio from the Roy H. Park School of Communications in 1996. As an alumna, she has been involved with the college as an IC Career Network volunteer and served from 2015-17 on the Alumni Association Board of Director Ad Hoc Alumni Identity Committee. In December of 2022 she hosted an alumni gathering at the Dixon Schwabl offices as part of President La Jerne Terry Cornish’s Ithaca Together Inaugural Tour.
Jerry Dietz ’75
A longtime supporter of numerous local nonprofits and causes, Jerry Dietz is the founder and retired owner of CSP Management, a firm that manages apartment units in the Ithaca area. The company serves a broad spectrum of the rental population, including students, professionals, and low-income families.
Jerry Dietz
The list of organizations Dietz has held leadership roles with is extensive. It includes the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce; Tompkins Center for History and Culture; Cancer Resource Center; Temple Beth-El; Hospicare; the annual Taste of the Nation event aimed at ending childhood hunger; and the annual AIDS Ride for Life, which he helped found in 1999 to raise funds for the Southern Tier AIDS Program. To honor his late wife, Judy Schapiro Dietz ’76, in 2013 he opened the Just Be Cause Not-for-Profit Development Center, which provides low-cost rental spaces to local nonprofit businesses.
Dietz earned his degree in Business Administration from the School of Business in 1975. Ithaca College activities he has been involved with as an alumnus include the Business School Advisory Council, Athletics Advisory Council, President’s Roundtable, Friends of Ithaca College, and Reunion Class Committee. In 2011, he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ithaca College Alumni Association.
The three campus community trustees serve as full participating and voting members of the board and are expected to share the perspectives of their respective constituencies. Haefeli and Doyle will serve for four-year terms while Doherty will serve for two years.
Sara Haefeli
Sara Haefeli is an associate professor of music theory, history, and composition in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. She teaches courses on music in its historical and social contexts. Her research focuses on music history pedagogy and she is currently working on the 11th edition of “A History of Western Music,” the most widely adopted music history textbook worldwide. She is also an expert on the American experimental tradition and has published on the composers John Cage and Caroline Shaw. She has presented her research at numerous national and international conferences and festivals. Haefeli is also an accomplished cellist who has performed as a soloist and chamber musician.
Sara Haefeli
During her time at Ithaca College, Haefeli has volunteered to serve in a number of key capacities. As chair of the Academic Program Committee for six years, she mentored academic policy, program, and curricular development across the college, particularly with an eye toward issues of cross-disciplinary collaboration, inclusivity, and sustainability. As a member of the most recent Presidential Search Committee, she helped craft the leadership profile and participated in difficult discussions as the committee narrowed the field of candidates. And as a member of the Academic Program Prioritization Strategic Plan Subgroup and then co-chair of the Academic Program Prioritization Advisory Committee, she helped draft the principles that guided difficult but critically important decisions about the size of the college, work that continued with her service on the Teaching Resource Allocation Committee.
Scott Doyle ’98
As director of energy management and sustainability for the college since 2022, Scott Doyle works with students, faculty, staff, and the local Ithaca community in advancing campus sustainability and decarbonization efforts. He earned his biology degree from the School of Humanities and Sciences in 1998 and went on to get a master’s degree in community and regional planning from the University of Oregon. He returned to Ithaca and served for 15 years as an associate planner in the Tompkins County Department of Planning and Sustainability, working on land use, climate adaptation, conservation, and energy projects. He also served during that time as an adjunct instructor in IC’s Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences.
Scott Doyle
Throughout his career, Doyle has focused on advancing meaningful environmental actions in financially sustainable ways. The Office of Energy Management and Sustainability strives to integrate sustainability into every aspect of campus living, academics, and operations, and under his leadership of the office Ithaca College has been named as one of the nation’s top-10 “green colleges” and has earned a STARS gold rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Off campus, Doyle serves as a volunteer for various organizations including the Community Science Institute, Center for Community Transportation, City of Ithaca Sustainability & Climate Justice Commission, and State Theatre of Ithaca
Mureen Doherty ’26
Rising junior Mureen Doherty is majoring in television and digital media in the Roy H. Park School of Communications. Committed to serving her fellow students and advocating for positive change within the IC community, she has collaborated with diverse groups of students, faculty, and administrators to address important issues facing the campus and create a space for students of color. This has included organizing community service projects, facilitating workshops on diversity and inclusion, and representing student interests in campus governance.
Mureen Doherty
Doherty is an active stakeholder in several student organizations, serving as the treasurer for Sister 2 Sister and the social media chair for the Musicians of Color Association, and as a member of the Amani Gospel Choir. Her cocurricular activities include being a producer and a co-host of the weekly radio show “Ladies First” on WICB 91.7 FM and a member of the production staff of ICTV. Doherty’s mother, Camille, is a 1993 graduate of the college.
Honoring Service
David H. Lissy ’87, who had served on the board since 2011 and as chair since 2018, was named chair emeritus “in recognition of his exemplary leadership,” which included helming the board during two college presidencies and the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lissy and vice chair James Nolan ’77 are both stepping down this summer upon the conclusion of their current terms.
Also departing the board as their terms are concluding are Thad Fortin ’81, Bill Nelligan ’83, Baruch Whitehead, Casey Kendall, and Alexa Rahman ’24. Re-elected to three-year terms were trustees Jeff Selingo ’95, Jack Dembow ’77, Michael Conover ’81, and Gary Gross ’81.