NYN Media Buzz: Oct. 3, 2017

Lighthouse Guild celebrated its move to a new location and unveiled a new logo at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 28. The move reinforces Lighthouse Guild’s commitment to addressing and preventing vision loss through coordinated vision and health services. The new facility, at 250 W. 64th Street, on the Upper Westside of Manhattan, has been built around the unique needs of the patients, clients and students who rely on Lighthouse Guild services. The new logo, designed in purple and green, represents how Lighthouse Guild coordinates care through vision and health programs and services. The design captures how, for people affected by vision loss, Lighthouse Guild, “shows the way” to the programs and services that support a full and independent life.

CAREER MOVES:

Goodwill Industries of Greater New York and Northern New Jersey, Inc. announced that Dolores Swirin-Yao has joined as Executive Vice President, Mission Services, effective Sept. 18. Swirin-Yao was previously President and CEO of Bideawee, Inc. and has over 30 years of non-profit management experience, specializing in starting up, turning around and taking organizations to the next level. In her new position, she will oversee all human services programs of the Astoria-based social enterprise. For more than three decades, Swirin-Yao has held top executive positions with a strong track record of fundraising results and initiation of comprehensive, measurable programmatic initiatives. At Bideawee, the 114-year-old animal rescue charity, she oversaw a $10 million budget, a staff of 90, three properties in Manhattan and Long Island, and two veterinary hospitals. Previously, she was Executive Director of the York College Foundation and Vice President for Institutional Advancement at York College of the City University of New York, an 8,000-student public college in Jamaica, Queens. She was Chief Executive Officer for the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York, with 22,000 youth members and 7,400 adult volunteers.

The Board of the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation announced that Nancy Biberman has stepped aside as the organization’s president, a position she has held since its founding in 1992. The board also announced that Davon Russell, WHEDco’s decade-long Executive Vice President, will succeed Nancy. The transition comes as WHEDco celebrates 25 years of transformative work in the South Bronx, most recently breaking ground on Bronx Commons and the Bronx Music Hall after seven years of planning. In addition to being named President Emerita, Biberman will assume a more limited role focused on housing development and policy and serve as senior advisor to WHEDco’s Bronx Commons development through its completion in 2019.