Biographical Background: Tredyffrin 2011 Democratic Candidates
Biographical Background on Tredyffrin 2011 Democratic Candidates
Board of Supervisors, At Large
Molly Duffy
An environmental law attorney, Molly has had a lifelong interest in and commitment to environmental and community issues. For the past six years she has been a member (and Chair for three years) of the Tredyffrin Township Environmental Advisory Council (EAC). Molly authored the township’s basic sustainability plan, Green Tredyffrin, and as EAC Chair led its implementation. In other environmental activism, she campaigned for the township and its residents to buy clean energy, and had a significant role in the Township being awarded solar panels for the concessions pavilion in Wilson Park in 2009.
Molly was also instrumental in founding the Township’s Sidewalks, Trails and Paths Committee (STAP) in 2005 and was elected its Vice Chair for 2011. As a member of STAP, she has spearheaded the Township’s efforts to enhance walkability to town centers, train stations and libraries. In addition she is a member of the Paoli Trails Connection working group and has worked with the Paoli Business and Professional Association to advance redevelopment of the Paoli Transportation Center.
Professionally, Molly has worked for and managed various environmental and nonprofit organizations, including the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center of Habitat for Humanity, where she provided leadership to the 80 affiliates in the region. She is currently the president of Earthsmart Consulting, and has served on various municipal boards including the Swarthmore Recycling Committee and Conshohocken Borough Planning Commission. She was formerly a Trained Mediator for Community Dispute Settlement.
Molly earned a law degree with an emphasis on environmental law in 1995, from the University of Richmond. She graduated magna cum laude from Villanova University in 1992 with a degree in Communication Arts and a Business minor.
Molly lives in Paoli with her husband Tom and her four children–Rose, Fiona, Tommy and Frank–who attend Hillside Elementary and Valley Forge Middle Schools.
Ernani “Ernie” Falcone
Ernie is a Senior Vice President at a regional brokerage firm, where he has a proven business development track record and manages investment accounts. During his 28 year career in financial services Ernie has raised money for small business ventures and developed special expertise in Water Investing, primarily on behalf of foundations and endowments, as well as high-net-worth clients. His financial and investment expertise will be a solid contribution to the Board of Supervisors.
Ernie is active in community and civic affairs. He is the President-elect of the Gundaker Foundation, a not-for-profit organization associated with the Rotarians, which distributes a substantial amount of money each year to deserving college and graduate students who have a record of community service. He is also the former President of the Paoli/Malvern/Berwyn Rotary Club and has been a member of Santa’s Brigade for the past twelve years. He has coached various youth sports teams in rugby, football and T-ball.
He graduated from Villanova University in 1980, with a degree in Political Science and is pursuing certification in Public Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, Fels School of Government.
Ernie and his wife Karen have lived in Devon for over 20 years. Two of their children, Chris and Katie, graduated from Conestoga High School, and their youngest son Jeff is a senior.
Board of Supervisors, East, District 1
Victoria “Tory” Snyder
Tory is a land use planner with an extensive history of service to Tredyffrin Township. She has served for nine years on the Tredyffrin Township Planning Commission, during which Tory played an instrumental role on many projects. She served on the Tredyffrin Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee and contributed to the writing of the township’s visionary long-term plan.
Tory also served on the Joint Tredyffrin and Willistown Townships Committee regarding the Paoli Transportation Center, contributing to development of the revised zoning for Paoli. Most recently, Tory served on and chaired the Tredyffrin Township Sidewalk Subcommittee, which evaluated policies and regulations regarding sidewalks and walkways in the township. The study committee was particularly conscientious in gathering citizen opinion and priorities, and its report is now available to the public.
Professionally, Tory was a project manager for a planning and landscape architecture firm based in Paoli. Prior to that, Tory was a management level planner for Lower Merion Township, and a community planner for the Montgomery County Planning Commission. Tory also worked for the federal government’s Government Accounting Office prior to working in planning.
Tory received a Master of City Planning degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Vermont in 1987.
She grew up in the Great Valley area of Tredyffrin and attended T/E Public Schools. Tory lives in Wayne, with her husband George Broseman, and their daughter, Carly, who attends New Eagle Elementary.
School Board Director, Region 1
Karen Cruickshank
Karen was first elected to Tredyffrin/Easttown School Board in 2007 and was unanimously elected as the School Board President for the current year. Karen has chaired the School Board Education Committee and has served as legislative liaison. She has been an exceptional School Board member, attending almost all the School Board committee meetings (Finance, Policy, Education, etc.), and is considered a skilled consensus builder by fellow board members.
She is an active community volunteer and has served in several capacities with New Eagle Elementary PTO, most notably as its Secretary and its President. She has also served on the Panhandle Civic Association as REACT Food Drive Coordinator and as President of the Woodgreen Homeowners’ Association. Karen is also a volunteer for the Upper Main Line YMCA girls’ gymnastics team.
Karen is the Director of Marketing for the Saturday Club, a philanthropic women’s organization in Wayne. She worked for six years at The University of Miami in Miami, Florida. Karen first served as a Residence Director and then as Director of Student Development, Leadership, and Orientation Services. She then spent ten years as Assistant Dean and later as Associate Dean of Students at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Karen received her undergraduate degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine in 1984 and her Masters in Higher Education Administration from the University of Vermont in 1986.
Karen lives in the Panhandle of Tredyffrin with her husband, Jim, and two children, Caroline and Nicholas, who both attend Valley Forge Middle School.
Jerry Henige
Jerry is a pragmatic, seasoned business executive, whose 37-year career was largely with Unisys/Burroughs. He has over 30 years of management experience, supervising diverse organizations in far-flung locations and managing multi-million dollar budgets. Jerry believes his project and financial management experience can be effectively applied as a member of the Tredyffrin/Easttown School Board.
Before entering the management ranks of Unisys, Jerry was a systems engineer designing software and data systems. He has a particular interest in maintaining excellence in math, science and technology education, understanding they are key to our students’ future success as scientific innovators.
Jerry has been active in Tredyffrin Township politics for a number of years as a Candidate for the Board of Supervisors in 2007 and as a Committee Person and Co-Chair of the TTDems. In that capacity, Jerry has become quite knowledgeable about the taxation, budget, and state regulatory aspects of the Township and School District.
Jerry earned a degree in Mathematics with emphasis in Computer Science from Michigan State University in 1968. Jerry and his wife Patricia have lived in Strafford since 1994.
School Board Director, Region 2
Scott Dorsey
Scott has served as the pastor, teacher and administrator of Mount Zion Baptist Church of Holmesburg for the past seven years. Prior to joining the ministry, Scott was a teacher in several capacities – as a middle school and elementary school teacher in Philadelphia and as an instructor for G.E.D. and after-school programs for West Philadelphia Alliance for Children.
Scott has been actively involved in the Tredyffrin community. He is currently the financial secretary of the Main Line Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. He was employed at Cabrini College as Assistant Director of Resident Life, and served as a youth pastor at Second Baptist Church in Wayne. Scott was elected as Vice President of the Springdell Village Home Association of Chesterbrook. He has coached for the Conestoga Generals and Paoli Wildcats and was on the Paoli Wildcats Board of Directors. Scott and his wife are involved with the CHS Track Parents’ Association.
Scott is also active in civic, educational and non-profit organizations in the Philadelphia region. He serves as the Moderator/Chair of the Board of Directors for Philadelphia Baptist Association, which is a consortium of Baptist churches with a multi-million dollar budget. He is on the Boards of Directors of the Interfaith Social Change Movement, which partners with the Philadelphia School District to help elementary and middle school students focus on business exploration, and the Delaware River City Corporation, which works to create trails along the Delaware River.
Scott was born in Philadelphia, and graduated from Cardinal Dougherty High School. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Science from Kutztown University in 1986, and received his Masters in Education from Cabrini College in 1994.
Scott has lived in Chesterbrook for 17 years with his wife, Debbie Myrick-Dorsey, daughter, Raven, who attends Conestoga High School, and son, Martin, who is in Valley Forge Middle School.
Jennifer Lightman Wessels
A Harvard Law graduate, specializing in labor law, Jenny has been an active volunteer in the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District for six years, serving as a Strategic Planning committee member and representative on the district’s Diversity Committee. Most recently, Jenny is completing a term as the President of the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) at New Eagle Elementary School, with its numerous committees and parent volunteers. During her two-year term, Jenny has demonstrated leadership, innovation, fiscal responsibility, and the willingness to make tough decisions. As PTO President, Jenny has been diligent about keeping the parent community of New Eagle informed of district issues. Accordingly, she has been actively involved at the school district’s board and committees, and is well versed in the issues currently facing our education community.
Jenny received her Juris Doctor, from Harvard, cum laude, in 1995. She served as an intern to the Boston School District, assisting in special education mediation, taught economics to children in the Junior Achievement program, and served for two years as an instructor in Harvard’s legal research and writing class. Jenny’s thesis was titled “Education Reform in Massachusetts: The Progress of Reform and Suggestions for Improvement.” She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, summa cum laude, in 1992.
After law school Jenny entered private practice and represented employers and municipalities in labor and employment law matters. Jenny represented management in contact negotiations, grievances, and arbitrations. She later became in-house labor counsel to Sony Pictures Entertainment and participated in negotiations with the Writers Guild of America as a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and served as a trustee on the Directors Guild-Producer Training Plan.
Jenny lives in Wayne with her husband David and their two children, Jacob and Adin. The Wessels have lived in Tredyffrin Township for the past 7 years. Their children currently attend Valley Forge Middle School and New Eagle Elementary School.
Magisterial District Judge, District 15-4-01
Analisa Sondergaard, Esq.
Analisa has sixteen years of litigation experience for the City of Philadelphia and the private bar. Analisa worked at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, where for seven years she was the prosecutor assigned to the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit. She worked for several law firms in Philadelphia, both before and after her time with the District Attorney’s office. Currently, she is in private practice at the law firm McDonnell & Associates in King of Prussia. She is admitted to the Bar in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and in the U.S District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania and the District Court for the District of New Jersey as well as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
She is actively involved in the community volunteering for the PTO at Valley Forge Elementary School and is involved with youth soccer (TEYSA), the Devon Strafford Little League and the Paoli Wildcats. She also is involved with the Pet Adoption and Lifecare Society “PALS” at PetSmart in Wayne.
Analisa received her Juris Doctor cum laude from Temple University School of Law in 1994 where she received awards in moot court competitions, for legal writing and research, and oral advocacy. She received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tennessee in 1991.
Analisa lives in Wayne with her husband Chris and their two children Christian and Nicholas who attend Valley Forge Middle and Valley Forge Elementary Schools. The Sondergaards have lived in Wayne for the last five years.
