A Year With Frog and Toad

Amelia joined VINES as the organization’s first Executive Director in February 2016. As a volunteer, Amelia began working with VINES in 2007 as a founding board member and the coordinator of the Liberty Street Community Garden. Prior to joining VINES, Amelia worked for United Way of Broome County spearheading the Healthy Lifestyles Coalition’s Eat Well. Play Hard. Binghamton! project (a pilot initiative working to improve the health of families on the North Side of Binghamton) and the City of Binghamton as the City’s Sustainable Development Planner. Amelia holds a Master’s degree in Agriculture, Food, and the Environment from Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She completed dual Bachelor degrees at Binghamton University in Environmental Studies and Philosophy. Having grown up on a farm in Otisco, NY, she enjoys working with other community members to make space in the urban neighborhoods for people to grow their own food and connect with the local environment.

Rachel is the  Founder and Art Director of Rtistry By Design, a branding and graphic design studio based in Binghamton, New York. She has been been a professional graphic designer for more than 10 years. Prior to design, my unique journey spanned multiple roles in four countries, three cities, and two states – including professional ballet, management, copywriting, event production, business consulting, and national and international public relations.

As a designer, she has had the opportunity to work with businesses of all sizes, start-ups, agencies, higher education institutions, and nonprofits for projects in branding, print design, multi-media, advertising, digital design, presentation design, marketing, creative strategy, live event production, e-learning, video, photography, art direction, and out-of-home. She also served as Marketing Director of Davis College in Johnson City, New York, before launching my own business full-time in the summer of 2016.

Locally, I serve on the board of AIGA Upstate NY as director of the Binghamton Programming Committee. I am a proud member of the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce, the Entrepreneurs Alliance and the Broome County Arts Council, a past board member of BCCOAD, and an active participant in the renaissance of my city.

When not partnering with clients to craft memorable brand experiences, she can be found playing in my garden or kitchen, savoring the beauty of the outdoors,  keeping up with her fur kids, and spending time with friends.

Lea is an award-winning activist who has successfully bridged the gap between the community and government agencies to bring about positive and lasting change in her community. Her greatest achievement includes being elected as the first–and youngest–African-American representative in the Binghamton City Council. She has 20 years of experience as a Community Organizer leading efforts on various social justice issues; quality education, health care, access to fresh foods. She has also served on community boards and created task forces whose goals are to address cultural competency and anti-racism. She has passed legislation supporting equal pay for women, the creation of a city based human rights commission, establishing a city wide climate action plan, and other equity based legislation.

She is the Coordinator of the UDiversity Educational Institute at Binghamton University. This Institute develops and provides diversity and inclusion trainings and programs for faculty, staff, and students at Binghamton University. Through her consulting firm, Webb Consulting, she is working with non-profits, education institutions, and businesses in creating culturally responsive organizations. She was recognized as one of tomorrow’s leaders by Oprah magazine and the White House Project, and was honored with the President’s Award by the Broome-Tioga Branch of the NAACP for her significant contributions to her community.
She’s also the President of the Broome County Urban League Young Professionals, alumni of Vote Run Lead and the Young Elected Officials Network.

Erin Vilardi is the Founder and Director of VoteRunLead, a national organization leveraging technology and training to accelerate the number of women in civic and political leadership. She first launched VRL as Vice President of Program and Communications at The White House Project, establishing the largest national political training program readying women for public office and civic life, training over 15,000 women. She has served as a Leadership Development Consultant for a range of clients, including the Yahoo! Business and Human Rights division and Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University, where she developed the Athena CORE10© – an innovative set of leadership competencies for 21st century women leaders based on the latest research and gender analysis. She has worked with a diverse range of clients including Fortune 100 companies, global girls’ initiatives and the U.S. Department of State, reaching women leaders in a dozen international cities. Vilardi serves on the Advisory Boards of Girl Meets World, the New American Leaders Project, and Democracy.com and is on the Leadership Teams of Vision2020 and Political Parity. She is an Executive Producer of Ann Richards’ Texas, a documentary about the late pioneering governor. She has appeared on CNN, BBC, and Fox News and her work was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine as well as numerous international and domestic articles on women and leadership.

Andy is an Internationally Certified Executive and Leadership Coach receiving his formal training at the College of Executive Coaching in St. Pismo Beach, California. He is a Certified Trainer in Crucial Conversations, DiSC, Emotional Intelligence, Developing High Performance Teams, Improving Employee Engagement and Coaching for Behavioral Change.

He does dozens of workshops and trainings each year throughout the Southern Tier with many of them being sponsored by the Corning Area Chamber of Commerce. In addition, he has done trainings for organizations in Orlando, Florida and Shanghai, China.

Andy’s clients include
• Corning Inc.
• Cargill
• CemeCon
• The Corning-Painted Post School District
• HUNT Architects and Engineers
• The Radisson
• Socha Financial Group
• Horizons Federal Credit Union
• And many, many others

He lives in Corning, NY with his family. His wife is a Biology teacher at the Corning-Painted Post High School. They have an 10 year-old son, Bobby, who just started middle school.

Andy is a proud member of Corning Rotary and the Corning Area Chamber of Commerce.