CLICK HERE for Board of Trustees & Agendas, Minutes, Reports
POLICIES
Board of Trustees
Felicia Keeton (2027) – President
Felicia Keeton became a member of UUWestport in 2009. When her children were in RE, she helped teach classes plus orchestrated a Camp Jewel weekend and a youth group trip to Washington, DC to serve with the Youth Services Opportunity Project (YSOP). More recently, she served on the Nominating Committee.
Professionally, Felicia has over forty years of leadership experience, primarily in revenue operations and enablement. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and obtained an MBA from California State University, Northridge. Felicia currently leads a revenue enablement team at Bamboo Health and is an active volunteer with SNEC PMI, co-leading monthly project management educational programs. Felicia also serves on the board of the Bridgeport chapter of the American Association of University Women. Felicia’s husband, David, is active on the Membership Committee.
Ben Chan (2029) – Vice-President
As a Unitarian, Ben Chan is looking for spiritual growth free from dogma. He was married at All Souls NYC in 1992 and dedicated his two daughters there. He has attended UUWestport since he and his wife moved to Westport 5 years ago and is currently active on the Operations Council and the Beardsley Committee where he tutors kindergarteners. Ben’s late-career passion in urban public education has also led him to serve as the Chief Financial Officer at the Great Oaks Charter School, an underfunded public charter school in Bridgeport. Ben began his career as a strategy consultant at Price Waterhouse and then started a clothing company which he owned and ran for over 20 years.
Ben is also passionate about how traditional institutions like libraries can transform to better serve ever-changing community needs. He is currently the Treasurer for the Board of Trustees at the Westport Public Library. Ben graduated with an engineering degree from Brown University and an MBA from the Wharton School. He and his wife, Susan Baer, have two adult daughters, one of whom lives in Washington D.C. and the other in New York City.
Mark Corcoran (2027) – Treasurer
Mark was happy to discover UUWestport in 2009. He went through many levels of involvement in the Congregation: as an usher, singing in a choir, being a founding member of UGNO, volunteering with WestBridge and CIRI, and participating in United with Kenya. He has served as chair of the Endowment Committee and has sat on the Finance Committee for many years. A retired CPA, he has been active in local politics, and served on the Fairfield Plan and Zoning Commission for eight years. He lives in Fairfield with his partner Brian Villa.
Sari Bodi (2028) – Secretary
Sari Bodi visited UUWestport for the first time in 1997 and spent the following years teaching RE until her two children, Ming and Luke, entered Youth Group. (While she took the kids to RE and choir, her husband Eric golfed and played in a band.) Then one fateful day, Sari interviewed Reverend John for a leadership class she was taking at Norwalk Community College. John must have sent out an all-points bulletin to the committee heads about someone interested in leadership, because the next thing Sari knew she was on the Nominating, Social Justice, and Beardsley committees followed by co-chairing UUWestport Women (and the Holiday Boutique), heading up UUWriters, writing postcards for UUtheVote, and singing in the choir. Oh, and there was that 6-line cameo as a police officer for UUPlayers. In an alternate life, Sari served as literary associate for the Long Wharf Theatre, published a middle grade novel, writes plays for children for Scholastic’s Storyworks magazine, and when she was younger and funnier, (not to mention better looking) wrote sketch comedy for BBC Radio in London.
Julyen Norman (2028)
Julyen and his wife Cathy Paine have been members since 2015. He is a member of UUWestport’s choirs and has performed with the UU Players. His professional background includes executive positions in the non-profit arts world with the 1708 Gallery, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the Center for Contemporary Printmaking to name a few. He has been a chef/owner of a variety of independent culinary enterprises which segwayed well to UUWestport’s social outreach program focused on the issue of food insecurity in low-income communities. He helped establish seasonal farmers’ markets in several Norwalk neighborhoods.
You have seen Julyen in our kitchen making food for social hour, many UUWestport’s events and providing soup sales to raise funds for UUWestport’s Social Justice programs. As a member of UUWestport’s Immigration & Refugee Committee he helps in the resettlement of refugees arriving in Bridgeport through repairing and furnishing apartments. He served on COM (Committee on Ministries), helped run UUWestport’s first online Auction, and volunteered in the Beardsley School. His volunteer work extends beyond just UUWestport as he is very involved in nonprofits in the community as well.
Elena Rockman (2029)
Elena grew up in a UU church in Pittsburgh, PA. She has been a member of UUWestport for almost 20 years and has been attending since 2001. Her volunteering began with ushering, and she has served on the Nominating Committee, the Camp Jewell Committee, the Memorial Gardens Committee, and the Finance Committee.
Elena’s longest-serving role at UUWestport has been on the Year-Round Stewardship Committee. It has been a rewarding and fulfilling task. While she has stepped back from this role in the past year, she continues to be involved behind the scenes.
For the past year, Elena has served on the Settled Minister Search Team and is now working with a subset of that team to find a contract minister. Being on the Settled Minister Search team has been one of the most rewarding experiences she has had at UUWestport.
As a child, Elena’s son has been a member of the children’s choir, performed in several pageants/musicals, and attended Faith Formation classes for many years. She and her husband are now empty nesters, living in Monroe.
Elena cares deeply about the congregation and is very excited to serve on the Board.
Alison Smith (2029)
Alison Smith graduated with a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and spent her career in international development and relief work, starting with Oxfam-America, continuing with PACT before founding and serving as CEO of Humentum an organization focused on training, developing and convening executive administrators of over 350 International Development organizations. She has also served on several international nonprofit organization Boards.
Alison is relatively new to the UU as a member but has attended services going back as long as Frank Hall along with women’s potluck dinners for the past two years and participates in a Soul Matters/Small Group.
Alison lives in Westport with her husband, Ralph Schwarz, and golden retriever Gertrude Stein . She grew up in Westport and outside Chicago, but has lived in Boston, Berkley, New York, and Fairfield. She has adult twin sons, Cody and Zach.
