Guadalupe Center welcomes three new members to Board of Trustees

NAPLES, Fla. - EntSun -- Three new members joined Guadalupe Center's Board of Trustees, a governing body that advocates for Immokalee students and families.

The new members – Kelly Dee, Phyllis Ettinger and Lisa McNichol – join the other trustees in advocating for transformative education for the students of Immokalee, facilitating strategic connections that further enable the organization to take a student-focused approach and helping to set policy and direction for the nonprofit, which provides educational programs to more than 1,900 students annually. Guadalupe Center offers a nationally accredited Early Childhood Education Program, an After-school Tutoring & Summer Enrichment Program and the college-preparatory Tutor Corps Program. The organization has grown to include four educational campuses across Collier County, school-based education programs and the Guadalupe Resale Shop, a boutique in North Naples.

"Trustees at Guadalupe Center are involved in far more than setting policy, approving budgets and developing long-range plans," said Dawn Montecalvo, the organization's president and CEO. "They also are volunteers, mentors, donors and ambassadors who recognize that a high-quality education can – and will – create a cycle of prosperity that drives transformational, generational change in Immokalee."

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Dee is president of Dee & Associates, a Naples-based accounting firm focused on income tax consulting for business owners, trusts, estates and individuals. He previously worked in the auditing department of an international accounting firm before founding his own company. Dee, a licensed CPA, earned bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting from the University of Florida.

Ettinger is an active volunteer at Guadalupe Resale Shop and a retired elementary school teacher. She co-founded six licensed early-childhood centers and an educational direct mail company in Minnesota. She has served as president of the Early Childhood Directors Association and as a board member of Toys and Things, as well as Redleaf Press, and earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of Minnesota.

McNichol is an advisory board member for the School of Education at Drexel University, where she co-founded the McNichol Early Childhood Education Lab. She spent more than 20 years in consumer goods advertising and marketing before transitioning into the financial services industry as a personal financial consultant and real estate investment manager. McNichol earned a business degree from New York University.

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Guadalupe Center also announced the following executive leadership positions for 2023: Rich Monaghan (chair); Joseph Baughman (immediate past chair); William Dempsey (vice chair); Gloria Beissinger (treasurer); Tom White (secretary); and Dawn Montecalvo (president and CEO). Additional trustees include Alice Arena, Dan Capes, Bev Cherry, Liz Curtin, Susan Duke, Fred Hagemann, Marguerite Hambleton, Beverly Koren, Maria Munguia Cortes, Mark Nagan, John Paro, Debbie Toler, Eric Wallach and Linda Yost. Trustees emeriti include Phil Beuth, Tom Brand, Bob Coletti, Carl Ehmann, Ed Marchetti, Bunny Salisbury, Roger Vasey and John Vatterott.