Welcome our new board members.
We are excited to announce the addition of three remarkable women to ILI’s all-volunteer board of directors—La Wanza Lett-Brewington, Dora Tseng and Jenni Greenhouse! Each brings multiple talents, diverse cultural backgrounds and a strong commitment to equity in education opportunities for all.
La Wanza is the Title IX Coordinator and Affirmative Action Officer, Greenfield and Berkshire Community Colleges.
She joined the board in November 2023, after returning to western Massachusetts from Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA) where she led the university’s Women and Gender Equity Center for nearly a decade. Before Old Dominion recruited her, La Wanza served as executive director for Safe Passage in Northampton, director of the Five College Consortium Violence Prevention Project-Everywoman’s Center (UMASS Amherst) and held leadership positions with other violence prevention programs. She was also the president, CEO and executive consultant for Plain Talk Consultants from 1990 to 2013.
La Wanza graduated from Greenfield Community College in 1992 (A.A., Business Administration), UMASS Amherst University Without Walls in 2003 (B.A., Diversity Education in Organizations) and UMASS Amherst Graduate School of Education in 2005 (M.Ed., Social Justice Education). Recognized for her innovative work in leadership development, diversity, equity, inclusion, conflict resolution, human services administration and crisis management, La Wanza is also a prolific presenter, essayist and poet.
Dora (she/her/hers) is an Access Coordinator, Disability Services at UMass Amherst.
In 2023, she celebrated her tenth year in the U.S., having arrived from Taiwan in 2013, and is now a permanent resident. Those ten years have been productive: she has earned an AA in liberal arts from Greenfield Community College and a BA in sociology and M.Ed in higher education from UMass Amherst.
Dora wants to contribute to her second home right here in western Massachusetts through membership on the ILI board. As an immigrant, she is eager to share her experiences with newcomers. She has also gained insights into how people learn through her work with disability services. And Dora has a passionate commitment to social justice. She organized the 2021 “Hear Us All Rally” in Amherst in response to the rise of hate crime against Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, and she participated as a panelist during the 2020 UMass “Perspectives on COVID-19 and Anti-Asian Bias and Xenophobia” discussion.
Jenni moved from her home country of Colombia to Northampton in 2013.
In accordance with her belief that language has the power to connect people and open doors to succeed in communities, she enrolled in ILI’s intensive English course and studied at Greenfield Community College. She went on to earn a BS in Industrial Engineering from Western New England University and an MBA in Business Administration from Boston University. She is now Senior Manager, Operations for Customer Support at Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, CT.
Jenni envisions membership on the ILI board as a great opportunity to put her leadership skills to use in making an impactful contribution to ILI’s growth and future. Her education and professional work in engineering and business administration, as well as her experience in learning English as a second language, provides many pathways for Jenni to give back to ILI and the language learners we serve.
Kudos to our new board members from the entire ILI family. We are honored to welcome you!