Ms. Gross has extensive experience in research, program development and evaluation at public and private agencies in Boston and New York.  She earned her MSW from Boston University, with a focus on policy, planning and non-profit management.  Throughout her career, Ms. Gross has focused on exploring the systemic causes of social, political, and economic inequities and finding ways to counteract those inequities.

 

While working in Boston, an example of her experiences include developing and managing human service delivery systems and tenant advocacy initiatives for the Boston Housing Authority.  She was also Deputy Director of the Boston Housing Partnership, a premier public/private partnership supporting community development and affordable housing in fragile inner-city neighborhoods.

 

Subsequently, in New York, Ms. Gross served as a Program Officer for the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock and developed a portfolio of grants across the U.S. focused on human rights and economic development.  She then served as the founding Executive Director of Sustainable America, a national NGO that promoted sustainable, equitable development practices and policies.

 

Ms. Gross was hired by the Long Island Community Foundation to launch the ERASE Racism Initiative in June 2001.  In 2004, ERASE Racism became an independent New York State not-for-profit corporation.  Ms. Gross has successfully led ERASE Racism, bringing together a cross section of Long Island leaders to discuss and formulate remedies to persistent regional inequities, resulting from imbedded institutional and structural racism in health, education and housing. Under Ms. Gross’ leadership, ERASE Racism has been recognized locally and nationally for its cutting edge work addressing institutional and structural racism, especially in the area of housing and community development.  Ms. Gross has received numerous awards and is a frequent presenter on the topic of structural racism.  Recognizing Ms. Gross’ leadership and expertise, one of the Ford Foundation divisions invited Ms. Gross to be one of three presenters at an international foundation staff retreat. 

Ms. Gross is a former member of the Long Island Regional Planning Council and currently serves on the Council’s Leadership Advisory Cabinet for the LI 2035 Sustainability Plan.  She also serves on the Advisory Committee of the Long Island Index of the Rauch Foundation and the Advisory Board of The Energeia Partnership, The Academy of Regional Stewardship at Molloy College.  She has received numerous awards, including the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Long Island Business News.

Ms. Cherenfant joins ERASE Racism with 16 years of accounting experience comprising positions in both for-profit and not-for-profit settings. In 1993 she received a B.B.A., in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting. While pursuing her accounting career, Ms. Cherenfant attended The City University of New York where she received her M.S. in Communication Management in 1999. Prior to joining the ERASE Racism staff Sherley was the business manager for a not-for-profit organization on Long Island where she oversaw and managed funds of over 20 million dollars.

Ms. Cherenfant immigrated to the US at the age of 11 where she resided with her parents in Nyack New York. Upon graduation in 1989 from Nyack High School she attended Hofstra University. While at Hofstra University Ms. Cherenfant was very involved in several organizations, such as President of the National Association of Black Accountants and Vice President of The African American Organizations.

Ms. Cherenfant is very passionate about community service and helping others. She is the Treasurer of Edeyo(help them) a not for profit organization that is dedicated to improving the future of children in Haiti by rebuilding dilapidated schools, supplying students with learning materials, and providing them with nutritional support.

Ms. Walker is a Project Manager at ERASE Racism with responsibility for programs under the Institute for Racial Equity, the Partnership for Racial Equity and the Annual Fundraising Benefit.

Rose brings to ERASE Racism almost 30 years work experience in the Financial Services industry and extensive background in Training and Development. She is recognized as a Certified Master Trainer/Facilitator through Langevin Learning Services and has provided leadership and training in numerous change initiatives, particularly in merger and process reengineering environments. Ms. Walker's expertise in training and coordination, coupled with her ability to motivate others and her passion for justice, provide a strong foundation upon which to expand and champion the mission and goals of ERASE Racism.

Rose has been an active member of the Westbury community since 1987. Her lifelong commitment to the well-being of children, youth and families has led her to serve in numerous capacities in the School District including Past President of the Parent Teacher Association at the local school and district-wide levels. She has participated as a parent representative in the Comer Child Development Process at Yale University, and as a mentor to children in the New York City Public Schools. Rose is also actively involved in her Church as a certified Lay Speaker, Chair of the Committee on Finance, Sunday school teacher, a leader in her Church's Youth Ministry and an active participant in various outreach ministries. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees for The New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

 

Doris Dieckhoff comes to Erase Racism as an Accounting Consultant with more than 30 years of work experience in the area of Accounting and Administration, with both for profit and not for profit organizations, private and public companies. Educational accomplishments include a Masters Degree in Business Administration as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting. For the last five and one half years she has been working at the Coalition of Voluntary Mental Health Agencies Inc. in Manhattan, an umbrella advocacy and technical training agency for the Mental Health community in New York City. At the coalition she is part of the management team, Doris is responsible for financial record keeping and reporting and serves as the human resource administrator.

Ms. Harris has over six years of experience working in the civil rights field, concentrating primarily on fair housing issues and employment discrimination law. This experience is augmented by years of volunteer community service, extensive international travel, and management and public relations experience in the for-profit sector. Prior to earning her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, Ms. Harris developed, implemented, and coordinated all aspects of a fair housing program for a non-profit organization in California. She created fair housing testing and training programs as well as community outreach materials in both English and Spanish. Additionally, she conducted multilingual direct services to victims of fair housing discrimination and assisted in the administration and conflict resolution process for rent stabilization ordinances for two cities in Northern California. Ms. Harris has also worked with local, state, and national coalitions and governments on housing and poverty issues and on state legislative initiatives to expand affordable housing in California. As a professional mediator, Ms. Harris successfully resolved numerous landlord/tenant, fair housing and neighbor disputes. Ms. Harris also taught classes on Hate Crimes as well as a Law, Culture and Difference to first year law students. During law school, Ms. Harris was selected as an extern for the Honorable Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Additionally, Ms. Harris focused on employment discrimination law for individuals with physical and psychological disabilities and she conducted legal research and authored portions of law articles on Racial Profiling. Most recently, Ms. Harris completed an employment law litigation fellowship in Washington, D.C., where she concentrated on Plaintiff-side class action race discrimination cases.

Eustace Thompson is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Foundations, Leadership, and Policy Study at Hofstra University where he serves as the Graduate Program Director of the Certification of Advanced Studies in Educational Administration program. He was formerly the Deputy Superintendent of the Uniondale Public Schools, located on Long Island , New York . He has 37 years of experience in urban and suburban public school settings and has held the positions of assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, high school principal, middle school principal, assistant principal and secondary social studies teacher. He has been active in numerous professional organizations having served as Executive Vice-President of the Long Island Council of Administrators and Supervisors and as a representative of the Instructional Television Service Committee of WLIW Channel 21. His research interests include issues of social justice in public educational system responses to Black males. He served in the positions of Adjunct Professor of Educational Administration at Baruch College and as Adjunct Professor at Five Towns College in the Department of Education. Dr. Thompson received his B.A. from the City College of New York, his M.S. from Long Island University , his M.A. and PH.D. from New York University . Dr. Thompson is a certified curriculum auditor with the International Curriculum Management Audit Center PHI Delta Kappa International and a staff development specialist in the areas of Deep Alignment and Walkthrough Supervision.