Our Team
Board Members
Ron Ashkenas
Ron Ashkenas has been a thought-partner on organizational change, leadership, and transformation with prominent private, non-profit, and public-sector executives for over forty years and is an Emeritus Partner of Schaffer Consulting in Stamford, Connecticut. He was part of the team that worked with Jack Welch to transform GE in the 1990s. His other clients have included the World Bank and Federal Reserve Bank of NY; Merck, Pfizer, and GSK pharmaceuticals; technology companies such as Cisco and Cognizant; Stanford Hospital and the MD Anderson Cancer Center; financial services companies such as AIG, JP Morgan Chase, Thomson Reuters, and Zurich Insurance; and consumer products firms including PepsiCo, ConAgra Foods, and P&G.
Ron has written numerous articles for the Harvard Business Review and is the author of Simply Effective: How to Cut Through Complexity in Your Organization and Get Things Done (Harvard Business Press, 2009) and the co-author of four other books including The Boundaryless Organization, The GE Work-Out, and the Harvard Business Review Leader’s Handbook.
Ron was a founder of the Rapid Results Institute, a non-profit that accelerates the pace of social impact projects and serves as an advisor. He has been an executive-in-residence at the Haas Business School at Berkeley and has coached numerous startup leaders on how to turn their ideas into sustainable organizations.
Adam Batkin
Adam Batkin is a lifelong technology enthusiast. He has written software for many industries, and currently works as an Executive Director at AQR Capital Management, where he leads their Cloud Computing team. Adam has helped a number of local non-profits with technology challenges, and served on the Board of Directors of Schoke Jewish Family Service of Stamford. In his free time, Adam enjoys hiking, building Legos and designing and building his own computer keyboards.
Adam earned his bachelors and masters degrees in Computer Science from Brandeis University. He lives in Stamford, CT with his four cats, three children, two 3D printers and one wife, Jessica.
Dan Borkenstein
Dan Borkenstein is a private equity investor at Apollo Global Management. Prior to Apollo, he began his career in investment banking at PJT Partners. Dan attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics. Originally from Westchester County, New York, Dan currently resides in New York City with his wife, Ilana.
Jim Hoffman
Jim Hoffman is a media industry veteran. During his career, Jim served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at A&E from 2015 until his retirement in 2022. Before joining A&E, he spent over 25 years at NBC Universal. He served as the Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, working across Entertainment, News and Sports. Prior to joining NBC, Hoffman was an Account Executive at Skiing Magazine, and started his career in the media industry at ESPN. Currently, he volunteers his time with the U.S. Coast Guard Aux and the Tunison Foundation.
Mr. Hoffman holds a Bachelor's of Science in Education from Ithaca College. A native of New York, Hoffman resides in Bedford, New York with his wife and four daughters.
Ana Lilienfeld
Born and raised in Mexico City, Ana received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. After 15 years as a Consultant and Executive in the retail industry Ana started a second career as a Certified Medical Translator.
Working mostly at Community Health Centers, Ana provides verbal interpretation services and coordinated communications between medical staff and Spanish speaking patients. She has worked with diverse populations from various economic backgrounds but much of her work is dedicated to serving uninsured and under insurance patients.
Aware that in many clinics use Bilingual personnel as ad-hoc interpreters, Ana developed a program that teaches Medical Assistants the skills necessary to provide effective and reliable interpretation in a clinical setting. Through several presentations and forums, she has provided insights to medical providers on “Caring for the Hispanic Patient”.
Ana lives in Old Greenwich, with her husband Albert, who also volunteers at Wheel-It-Forward
Dr. Stephanie R. Paulmeno
DNP, MS, RN, NHA, CPH, CDP, CCM
Dr. Paulmeno is the founder/CEO of Global Health Systems Consultants, LLC; a public health consulting firm operating since 2009. She is a Doctorate-prepared Registered Nurse with a Bachelors and Master’s degree in Gerontology. Her Doctorate in Nursing was earned at Quinnipiac University where she was inducted into the International Nursing Honor Society, Sigma Theta Tau. She is a licensed nursing home administrator with national Board Certification in Public Health, Case Management & Dementia Practice. She received her training as a Forensic Nurse Examiner through the International Association of Forensic Nurse Examiners.
She is President of the Connecticut Nurses Association & Communities 4 Action, a Regional Prevention Council addressing alcohol, tobacco & other drugs, problem gambling & suicide across the age span. She is Chairman of the Patient is U Foundation, Inc., a foundation that supports instilling compassion into all aspects of health care. She is a Board member of the Southwestern Connecticut Area Agency on Aging; has served on the Greenwich Commission on Aging, & was twice elected to local public office. She was appointed to the CT Commission on Health Equity for its 8-year duration. She continues to serve on Boards, Councils, and Advisory Boards, as well as on Task Forces for health, education & social justice. She is a member of the American & Hispanic Nurses Associations, the Connecticut Public Health Association & the American Geriatrics Society. Dr. Paulmeno speaks publically on prevention, health, health systems, nursing, aging, addiction and health-related topics; as well as on compassion as an essential aspect of healthcare.
Rebecca Ruyack
Rebecca Ruyack is a dedicated and results-oriented professional contributing her expertise as a Securitization Professional at Deloitte within the structured finance industry. Rebecca graduated summa cum laude from Fairfield University in 2021 with a B.S. in Marketing and Information Systems. She has a great passion for Business and Data and enjoys utilizing her skills to help individuals make better business decisions through data understanding.
Bianca Shinn-Desras
Bianca Shinn-Desras currently serves on CT State League of Women Voters Board of Directors and holds advanced degrees in school health education, public health, and urban studies from Southern Connecticut State University. Ms. Bianca Shinn-Desras has extensive experience in the field of social services, public health, and education. She previously served as Investigation Social Worker with the CT State Department of Children and Families, and Minister Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Haiti to the United Nations. She is currently the Director of Family Advocacy, Middle School program at Domus Kids. Bianca is a Commissioner of Charter Oak Communities Board and Member of Fairfield County Community Foundation Advisory Task Force. Bianca is a certified health education specialist and certified health education teacher. Bianca enjoys gardening and traveling.
Elliot Sloyer
Elliot was born on the front seat of a 1964 Chrysler New Yorker as it sped through the streets of Brooklyn, NY. The exact location of his birth remains a mystery till today. After graduating from NYU he spent 25 years working on Wall Street during which time he co-founded and managed two hedge fund firms - Harbor Capital Management, LLC and WestLane Capital Management LLC. He has served on public company and private company boards and is active in local charitable organizations. After his Wall Street career he co-founded GoTo.com, an internet startup in the search space which was sold in 2018. He has also written two children’s picture books - The Safety Pin and Bat in the Bunk - both part of his Summer Camp Stories series which retell fun, zany and educational adventures from his summer camp days. As a wannabe cyclist Elliot has biked across America with his son (Florida - California) and halfway across America with his daughter (Key West - Virginia Beach). Until Covid he was a volunteer in the Child Life department at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. He has lived in Stamford CT for over 25 years with his wife Diane.
While chaperoning a month-long 8th grade trip to Israel with 30 students the group visited an organization called Yad Sarah which is run by 6,000 volunteers and is the library for durable medical equipment for all Israelis - rich and poor, young and old, Jews, Muslims and Christians. After returning and researching what is going on in this space in the USA, he and his team founded Wheel it Forward to act as a library for durable medical equipment with the goal of templating processes and procedures and sharing them with other communities across the USA.
Edward Spilka
Edward Spilka is a private investor with forty years of Wall Street experience. He retired as a Managing Director of Neuberger Berman where he worked for nearly twenty years having served on its Executive Committee.
Mr. Spilka, a native of Colorado, attended the University of Denver where he received his BA in Psychology/ Political Science and his MBA in Finance.
He resides with his wife, Virginia in Stamford, Connecticut. He has three grown children.
He has had leadership positions in a number of non-profits including as President of United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford, New Canaan and Darien and currently serves on the boards of Brooklyn Academy of Music and Wheel It Forward.
Mr. Spilka is President of Praxis Foundation.
David Stein
David Stein is General Counsel at Evolution Markets Inc., an energy brokerage firm headquartered in White Plains, NY. After graduating from Grinnell College and Columbia University Law School, David worked at several law firms in New York City and then moved to Connecticut where he has served as General Counsel for several companies. David specializes in corporate and real estate law. For many years he has also volunteered his legal services on a pro bono basis to many local non-profit organizations.
David is active in local charitable organizations. He lives in Stamford with his wife Beverly.
Katelyn Wen
Katelyn Wen, RN, BSN, MBA, is a dedicated healthcare professional with 14 years of nursing experience, specializing in home health and hospice care. Currently serving as the Director of Hospice for the Northwest, Central, and Fairfield regions at Hartford Healthcare, Katelyn is committed to providing compassionate support to patients and their families. She has a particular passion for serving underinsured, uninsured, and undocumented individuals in her community, striving to ensure they receive the care and support they need. In her free time, Katelyn enjoys spending time with her husband, Lei, and their beloved pug, Sandor. She also loves cooking and reading, finding joy and relaxation in these activities. Katelyn's blend of clinical expertise, leadership acumen, and personal passions drives her mission to make a positive impact on the lives of those she serves.
Jennie Woltz
Jennie Woltz’s career has spanned private legal private, in-house legal practice, and HR operations. She regularly counsels and advises clients in all areas of employment and labor law, including reviewing and drafting employment policies, advising on performance management and terminations, and helping to execute strategies to navigate a plethora of workplace issues. She conducts management trainings and has represented company clients in a variety of adversarial proceedings in federal and state court, in arbitration and mediation forums, and before federal agencies.
Chris Werely
Chris Werely is Vice President of Sales and Marketing at UsableNet, a technology company that helps make the digital world more accessible for people with disabilities. He is responsible for a global revenue team that works with mid-market and enterprise customers. He lives in Stamford, CT where he is an active volunteer for Stamford FC and Stamford Little League.
Chris first discovered Wheel it Forward when trying to donate a lightly used kid-sized wheelchair that his son used for recovery after surgery. It was the first kid-sized wheelchair in the lending library, and it gave Chris and his family great satisfaction to know that it would be used again many times over. Chris is helping Wheel it Forward create a national directory of DME lending organizations, as well as other technology and marketing initiatives.
Advisory Board Members
Leora Borzak
Leora Borzak spent the first eight years of her life in Detroit, Michigan until her family moved to Florida, but is still a Midwesterner at heart. She has a BA in Philosophy from Barnard College and works at Showtime Networks, where she is thrilled to be a professional pop culture guru. Leora applies her passion for marketing across a wide variety of content, including series, documentaries, and sports. Prior to Showtime, Leora held other marketing positions including an exciting stint at a Greek yogurt start-up.
Evan Bilenker
Evan Bilenker is a senior in high school and has been a volunteer at Wheel It Forward since its launch. Over time he has volunteered in the warehouse - helping assemble equipment and assisting borrowers and donors using our library. Evan updates the back end of the Wheel It Forward website. He also writes blog posts for the GotDME directory (GotDME.org) and is responsible for creating and updating a policies and procedures manual for this national resource. In his spare time he enjoys playing golf and playing guitar.
Adam Cohen
Adam Cohen is a student at Brandeis University seeking a B.S. in chemical biology. He has spent time exploring the Medical, Research and Financial fields and hopes to one day work within one of these sectors. Some of this was done through his work for a Microbiology/Immunology lab at Columbia University, for a Venture Capital fund in Jerusalem, and for Wheel It Forward.
Currently, Adam works as a General Chemistry Laboratory Teaching Assistant at Brandeis, where he also serves as a treasurer for student union. As a pre-med student, Adam’s natural interest in helping patients was brought to life in his work for Wheel It Forward.
Kristina Estock
Kristina Estock is a sophomore in high school and began her involvement with Wheel It Forward during a school project about non-profit organizations. Since then, she volunteers in different roles like designing flyers, helping people pick up and donate supplies, inventory, marketing, and assembling the new equipment. She’s excited to use her skills to help Wheel It Forward grow.
Lise LaPointe Jameson
Lise LaPointe Jameson is a licensed clinical social worker and has practiced social work for nearly 35 years, working extensively with people with major mental illness, trauma, older adults, caregivers and families. She has worked in a variety of settings including emergency rooms, inpatient and outpatient clinics and community-based facilities. Lise’s work has included advocacy, assessments, evaluations and treatment. Lise is a Founder and Executive Director of At Home in Greenwich for the last 12 years. She graduated from Boston College and Simmons School of Social Work and was trained at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston.
At Home is a nonprofit, membership organization designed to offer older adults in Greenwich a fun, vibrant social club where they enjoy independent and active lives while living in the home they love, and in the community they know, and, if needed, additional services, referrals and consultations are just a phone call away.
David
Nachman
David Nachman is a highly driven and creative individual currently pursuing his MBA at SUNY Binghamton. As a student, David also serves as the President of Green Wolverine (Binghamton), the first and largest national student organization devoted to professional opportunities within the legal cannabis sector.
Previously, David worked as a Marketing Intern at the re-established Goto.com, Inc. specializing in search engine optimization. David is presently a Business Development Analyst at the Castetter Cannabis Group, a cannabis consulting services firm based out of Binghamton, NY. (ccgresults.com)
Mackenzey Santorella
Mackenzey Santorella - Throughout her academic and work experiences, Mackenzey has developed a keen interest in market research and leveraging data to drive actionable insights. She joined Wheel It Forward in September 2021, supporting our data analysis and visualization processes. She graduated summa cum laude from Fairfield University in May 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Analytics and minors in Applied Statistics and Marketing. Currently, Mackenzey works as an associate analyst on the Retirement team at Cerulli Associates, located in Boston, MA. Mackenzey grew up in Scituate, MA but moved to Plymouth, MA a few years ago.
Zimrat Sloyer
Zimrat (Zimi) Sloyer is a Client Insights Analyst at IRI, utilizing Market Research and Data Analytics to answer business questions within the consumer packaged goods industry. Prior to IRI, Zimi worked at a data analytics company where she helped decide what food is served at sports venues, museums, hospitals, schools, and more. Zimi has a B.S. from Washington University in St. Louis, where she majored in Marketing and Psychology and minored in Business of Sports. Zimi grew up in Stamford, CT and currently lives in Chicago, IL.
Rebecca Suriel
Rebecca Suriel graduated from UMD in 2014 with a B.S. in Finance. Since then, she has worked at PwC in their Financial Services Advisory group. She has a strong background in project management and training. She focuses on Banking Operations and Technology Transformation and enjoys helping her clients find technology solutions that optimize their business processes. Rebecca grew up in Stamford, CT and currently lives with her husband in Manhattan.
Jeff White
Jeff White grew up in Central CT. His route to Wheel it Forward was brought about by his desire to help and give back. As a youth growing up in the 80’s he thought he wanted to be a chef and own his own restaurant. That dream quickly fizzled once he realized the long hours and low pay of chefs back when he went to school for Culinary Arts and Food Service Management in Providence, RI. Hoping that he could take his love of connecting people, culinary knowledge and management experience he turned to sales. It’s never been a boring day in almost 25 years.
Jeff is currently the Vice President of Sales for City Line Distributors in West Haven, CT and resides in Westchester, NY. He was fortunate to get in on the ground floor of Wheel it Forward as it developed and share his knowledge of distribution but with a twist for medical equipment. He sees so much opportunity to continue to grow Wheel it Forward that he feels like he’s spreading the gospel of medical equipment.
In his spare time he travels extensively with his partner of many years, cooks, scares his mother by riding motorcycles around a race track and looks for any thrill on two wheels.
Brian Zielinski
Brian Zielinski grew up in Buffalo, NY and graduated Cum Laude from Niagara University. Relocating to Stamford, CT in 1988, Brian has over 30 years of experience in the medical field with 25 years of experience with durable medical equipment. Having owned a medical supply store in Stamford for 11 years Brian has extensive experience in helping customers with their health care needs. He has helped thousands of people improve the quality of their lives with specialty medical devices and looks to help people in need with Wheel It Forward. Brian resides in Stamford, CT with his wife Shelley and has 4 adult boys.
Navah Zizmor
Navah Zizmor grew up in Cleveland, OH (and understands all too well the accompanying hometown sporting heartbreak). She received a B.S in kinesiology at the University of Maryland and then continued on to Columbia University and obtained her Doctorate in Physical Therapy. She is currently a practicing physical therapist at Professional Physical Therapy, specializing in orthopedics and post-operative treatment.
Navah spent her summers at Camp Ramah in Canada and will always hold a special place in her heart for Muskoka, Ontario. It is here she learned to water ski, play euchre, sing Broadway songs in Hebrew, developed an appreciation for thoughtful Biblical discussion, and of course, formed everlasting friendships.
Navah currently lives in Stamford, CT with her husband, David (whom she met at UMD), and her two children. She is a parent ambassador for Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy, volunteers with the Chevra Kadisha, and is a member of both the CAS Young Couples and Hospitality Committees.
Past Founding Board Members
Beth Ginsberg
Born and raised in South Africa, Beth lived in Mexico before moving to Stamford, Connecticut with her husband and two children. She holds an MSc in Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science from Balliol College, Oxford and has experience working as a software engineer. While recovering from a hiking accident in South Africa, Beth had an efficient and cost-effective experience renting a wheelchair and crutches from the hospital. Realising that this experience is far from universal compelled her to bring her skills to the Wheel It Forward team.
Beth lives with her husband, Edmundo, and two young children. Her interests include bioinformatics, gardening, needlework and music-making.
Fred Springer
Fred Springer is an acknowledged hands-on strategic leader steeped in significant experience in the management of national and global financial services and philanthropic organizations. Having spent 35 years as a corporate lawyer he has deployed legal and compliance strategies and processes across several large scale global financial services organizations. Over the last decade he has served in C-suite roles, as the Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer, reporting to the Board(s) of Directors for several public global organizations.
He spent 2018 and 2019 volunteering 30+ hours a week in the Perioperative, ICU and Emergency Departments of Stamford Hospital. Provide empathetic and compassionate service to patients and their families in a liaison role with healthcare providers resulting in measurable and consistent increases in patient satisfaction survey scores.
He also served as a member of both the hospital’s Ethics Committee of the Board, assisting in ethics related consultations. He had a seat on the hospital’s and its Patient Family Partnership Council; empowered to listen to patients, families, community members, and employees to incorporate their suggestions into healthcare quality improvements across the organization.
Fred is a strong and inspirational community leader, strategy developer and fundraiser on behalf of the City of Stamford and numerous volunteer based philanthropic organizations. Such roles include:
Current Member of the Board of Ethics for the City of Stamford, CT.
Chairman of the Board for Friendship Circle, Stamford.
Past Chairman of the Board and Current Member of Advisory Council at UJF, Stamford.
Community Award Recipient from the Anti-Defamation League of CT, Jewish Family Service, Stamford Public Education Foundation and UJF.
Fred is a lawyer with his MBA as well. He has lived in Stamford with his wife Eileen for 30+. They have raised two children who are now in their late twenties.