Staff and Volunteers
Staff
Editorial
Susan Corson-Finnerty
Publisher and Executive Editor
Susan Corson-Finnerty has been publisher and executive editor of FRIENDS JOURNAL and CEO of Friends Publishing Corporation since 1999. This means that Susan is responsible for overseeing all functions of the organization, including management of publications, editorial direction, finance, personnel, technology, fundraising, and facilities. She enjoys telling Friends that she was paid to read FRIENDS JOURNAL for five years (while associate editor of another religious periodical) -- an experience that convinced her to officially join the Religious Society of Friends! Her years of service among Friends include an earlier stint with the JOURNAL (first as associate editor, then editor and business manager, 1977-81); being co-director of Powell House (the retreat and conference center of New York Yearly Meeting) with her husband, Adam (1987-90); and serving as the first director of development for Princeton Friends School in its fledgling days (1993-96) when it was conducting a capital campaign to build its schoolhouse. Susan has a deep interest in Quaker outreach and clerked the subcommittee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's Outreach Committee that published The Outreach Ideabook in the 1980s. A member of Germantown (Pa.) Meeting, she has reached the "empty nest," with her three children abroad in the world. She enjoys her 8 (!) cats, butterflies, and moonlight walks.
Contact Susan Corson-Finnerty at publisher_exec_ed@friendsjournal.org
Robert Dockhorn
Senior Editor
Robert Dockhorn is senior editor of Friends Journal. In collaboration with the publisher and executive editor, he has responsibility for planning, editing, and producing the magazine. Bob is a member of Green Street Meeting in Philadelphia. Raised in Bucks County, Pa., he is a graduate of George School and Oberlin College, and he received a PhD in European History from University of Wisconsin. He spent five years in Bonn, Germany, three of them as a participant in the four-nation German Documents Project, which published the many-volume series Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945. He taught European History for two years at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. For 16 years he served as coordinator of peace and social concerns programs for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. He joined the staff of Friends Journal in 1999 as assistant editor, and in 2001 he became senior editor.
Contact Robert Dockhorn at senioreditor@friendsjournal.org
Becca Howe
Associate Editor
Becca Howe is associate editor. She participates in the production of the magazine by choosing the back page feature material in coordination with the other editors, and also handles the regular Books, News, Milestones, and Bulletin Board columns. Along with copyediting and proofreading of the entire book, she also facilitates communication with many of the production volunteers and helps to coordinate the work of the interns. Becca resides in West Philadelphia and can often be found biking throughout the city, whether to Temple University where she studies journalism or to the local farmers’ market. Becca balances her JOURNAL responsibilities with gardening, cooking, camping, and long distance bike rides.
Contact Becca Howe at departments@friendsjournal.org
Production
Alla Poldolsky
Assistant Art Director
Alla Poldolsky, assistant art director, works closely with Barbara Benton on the wide range of graphic and design tasks needed to produce the magazine. Alla has worked for FRIENDS JOURNAL since September 1995. She earned a B.A. in Fine Arts from Moore College of Art and Design, and a Masters in Fine Arts in Painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She is a working and exhibiting artist. At FRIENDS JOURNAL, her work involves graphic design, primarily with QuarkXpress and PhotoShop. Born in Kiev, Ukraine, she immigrated to the United States when she was 21 years old and is now a U.S. citizen.
Contact Alla Poldolsky at production@friendsjournal.org
Barbara Benton
Art Director
Barbara Benton has been FRIENDS JOURNAL’s art director since 1977. The overall design of the magazine, particularly the cover and feature articles, is her responsibility. She grew up as a Methodist in Ann Arbor, where she graduated from the University of Michigan, and then came to Philadelphia to seek out Quakers and later received a degree in Graphic Design from Tyler School of Art. Barbara is a member of Central Philadelphia (Pa.) Meeting. She lives with her cat in Philadelphia’s Italian Market neighborhood and walks or bicycles to work. Her love for Cajun and Zydeco music and dance has drawn her to volunteer work in New Orleans, and she has sailed as a volunteer crew member on Philadelphia’s tall ship Gazela.
Contact Barbara Benton at artdirector@friendsjournal.org
Matt Slaybaugh
Web Manager
Matt Slaybaugh, web manager, joined FRIENDS JOURNAL in June 2008. He works with the staff to upload content from the print magazine and make improvements to the overall design and functionality of the FJ website.
Matt is a semi-professional songwriter and game developer and recently moved to Decatur, Georgia after 11 years in Manhattan - and he is adjusting well.
Contact Matt Slaybaugh at webmanager@friendsjournal.org
Advertising, Circulation, Development, and Marketing
Gabriel Ehri
Associate Publisher
Gabriel Ehri is associate publisher. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Gabe grew up attending University Friends Meeting in Seattle. After earning a degree in English from Haverford College, he spent time with an Internet startup before landing with the JOURNAL in 2004. He's an avid home cook, reader, and ultimate frisbee player and enjoys Philadelphia's vibrant restaurant and music scenes. He lives in the Bella Vista section of Philadelphia with his wife, Bonnie.
Contact Gabriel Ehri at marketing@friendsjournal.org
Larry Jalowiec
Director of Advancement
Larry Jalowiec serves as director of advancement for Friends Publishing Corporation. He joined the staff in 2007 and works closely with the publisher and executive editor to secure the financial resources necessary to ensure the fiscal health of FRIENDS JOURNAL. In this capacity, his responsibilities include cultivating major gifts and oversight of the JOURNAL's planned giving campaign. A Friend since 2002, Larry says, "I was a Quaker waiting to happen for more than 20 years. It just took that long to find my way to Richland Meeting's spaghetti dinner." He currently serves as treasurer of Richland Monthly Meeting. A native of Utica, N.Y., Larry graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Larry brings to FPC 26 years of publishing experience, much of it in senior management as editor, executive editor or publisher for a variety of targeted publications. His most recent newspaper experience was with Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. where he was director of new business development for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. In his "spare time," Larry is part of the extended team of Ideas To Go, a Minneapolis-based consultancy that provides new product ideas and brand extensions to the Fortune 500. Larry's loves are his wife, Ann, and two sons, Dylan and Travis. They live in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, "in a private zoo featuring two guinea pigs, two turtles, two ‘intriguing' snakes and occasionally two mice."
Contact Larry Jalowiec at advancement@friendsjournal.org
Nagendran Gulendran (Gulen)
Advertising Manager
Nagendran Gulendran (Gulen) is advertising manager. Gulen solicits and receives display, classified and meeting directory advertisements. He was born and educated in Sri Lanka. He worked for several years in the mercantile sector of Sri Lanka, both as a marketing executive and as a shipping executive (imports and exports) for large companies. In 1976 he traveled to England where he worked in the private sector for a few years and started his own import business. He came to the United States in June 1989, and in February 1990 joined Friends Journal as circulation and promotion manager. Between July 1994 and August 2001, he functioned as marketing and advertising manager. Since September 2001, he has focused his considerable energies on his work as advertising manager. He is married with two daughters; older daughter Geetha worked as a business analyst (consultant) for American International Group, Inc., and younger daughter Gayathri works as a research specialist for University of Pennsylvania in their Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
Contact Nagendran Gulendran (Gulen) at adsales@friendsjournal.org
Nicole Hackel
Circulation Assistant
Nicole Hackel is circulation assistant and works to get subscriptions entered, updated, and fulfilled. She is a member of Central Philadelphia (Pa.) Meeting and has worked at Friends Journal in circulation since April 1996. Her special delight is to send Friends Journal where "none have gone before."
Contact Nicole Hackel at circulation@friendsjournal.org
Jane Heil
Database Manager
Jane Heil joined Friends Journal in January 2008 and manages the data of the magazine, working closely with the circulation, development, and advertising departments. A native of the Philadelphia region, she's lived in the Bay Area, Ann Arbor, New York City and now resides in Paoli, Pa. near her family. She graduated from the University of Scranton with a degree in theology and has passion for inter-faith dialogue and peace and social justice issues. Jane comes to Friends Journal with a career in book and magazine publishing having worked in merchandising, purchasing, buyer management and operations with Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor, The Other Side magazine and Ten Thousand Villages. Supplementing her part-time position at Friends Journal, Jane provides consulting services to publishers, authors, artists, retailers and wholesalers. In her free time she enjoys hiking, reading, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.
Contact Jane Heil at database@friendsjournal.org
Administration
Marianne De Lange
Office Manager
Marianne De Lange (a.k.a. Jill of all trades) is the office manager and resident Catholic on the staff. In addition to managing the JOURNAL's busy office, she is the central communications point person and handles logistics for Board and committee meetings. She is the mother of a teenage boy. She enjoys spending time with her family, crafts, computers, music, and movies. She has worked at FRIENDS JOURNAL since 1996 and enjoys both the challenges and accomplishments of being FRIENDS JOURNAL's office manager.
Contact Marianne De Lange at info@friendsjournal.org
Volunteers
Eileen Redden
Assistant Book Review Editor
Eileen Redden (assistant book review editor) is particularly interested in children's literature. She retired in 2007, after 34 years as a school counselor and teacher at Lake Forest High School in Felton, Delaware. Eileen has been a member of Camden (Del.) Friends Meeting for over 30 years and has served as treasurer and spent 25 years on the Religious Education Committee. Now she is part of a worship group at Cadbury in Lewes, Del.
She and her husband Allan have two grown children, Mark and Elizabeth. In 2005-2006, they shared their home with a German exchange student, Sven Haag, who seems to have become the most recent member of the Redden family. Eileen loves to read and travel. And she loves the beach and her many pets.
Kay Bacon
Circulation Assistant
Kay Bacon (circulation) grew up as a member of the Race Street Meeting in Philadelphia (now Central Philadelphia Meeting) and has returned to the Philadelphia area after many years of living in New York state, both in New Paltz and Old Chatham. She and her late husband, Bob, were very active members of Old Chatham (N.Y.) Meeting and New York Yearly Meeting. For many years Kay was deeply involved with Powell House, the retreat and conference center of New York Yearly Meeting, where she was one of Powell House's most dependable volunteers. She is presently a member of Gwynedd (Pa.) Meeting.
Judith Brown
Poetry Editor
Judith Brown (poetry editor) has been encouraging poets and selecting poetry for publication in Friends Journal since 1995. She is a writer herself who has recently graduated from attending University Friends Meeting in Seattle to worshipping with Agate Passage Worship Group on Bainbridge Island, Washington. She became a Friend in 1955 after working in European and U.S. workcamps with AFSC. Her travel and work abroad mean she hopes she is more than a U.S. citizen -- a global citizen.
Guli Fager
Assistant Milestones Editor
Guli Fager (assistant milestones editor) is the marriages and unions editor for FRIENDS JOURNAL. A lifelong member of Langley Hill Meeting in McLean, Va., she grew up watching Quaker relationships form—at Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Camp Catoctin, Friends General Conference, and Westtown—and is delighted to be able to document some of those relationships in the Milestones column. In 2007, Guli received a Master's in Public Health in Sexuality and Health from Columbia University. As an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, Guli received a Bachelor's of Arts in Latin American and African American Studies. She graduated from Westtown in 1998 and is a shameless promoter of that school. Guli developed and leads the popular "Healthy Sexuality as Quaker Testimony" workshop for Quaker youth, and serves the Adult Young Friends community as a member of FGC's Long Range Conference Planning Committee. Guli's interests include Quakerism, sexuality education among Quaker youth, race and politics in America, and analyzing sex and gender in popular culture.
Robert Marks
News Editor
Robert Marks (news editor) lives with his wife, Faye, and their family pet, Lucy, a Maltese dog, in Bowling Green, Ohio. He is a retired newspaper editor and journalist who formerly lived in High Point and more recently in Greensboro, both in North Carolina. At High Point (NC) Friends Meeting, he served at various times as clerk of Monthly Meeting and of Ministry and Counsel, as recording clerk of Monthly Meeting and of Ministry and Counsel, and as a teacher for three adult classes in the First-day School. He was active in North Carolina Yearly Meeting, serving as recording clerk for Yearly Meeting, as chairperson of its Social Issues and Ministries Committee and of its Nominating Committee, and as a member of the Nominating Committee for Yearly Meeting Ministry and Counsel. He and Faye, a retired school teacher, have two sons, one in Bowling Green and one in Portland, Oregon. They are also the proud grandparents of two granddaughters.
Kara Newell
Columnist
Kara Newell (columnist), former executive director of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), 1992-1999, is a member of Reedwood Friends Church in Portland, Ore. A Quaker since the age of seven, she currently lives in Portland, Ore., and has explored faith issues, writing, an interest in people and their lives, friendship, family, and the world throughout her life. In addition to her FRIENDS JOURNAL column, "Profiles," during her first year of retirement she wrote, designed, printed, bound, and distributed to her family a book about her mother, which has now -- on demand -- gone into a second edition! Kara and her husband, John Wilkin, enjoy having time for reading, travel, and their large, scattered family.
Joan Overman
Book Review Assistant
Joan Overman (book review assistant) is a long-time Friend and member of Elmira (N.Y.) Meeting. She is a graduate of Earlham College and SUNY Geneseo and holds an MLS in Library Science. Joan was a school library media specialist in Corning, N.Y., elementary and middle schools for 27 years. Her peace activism has included work with the Center for Global Citizens, the Sister Cities Association (Corning, N.Y.), the Corning Vicinity Council of Churches Peace with Justice Committee, the Finger Lakes Interfaith Committee for a Just Peace, and the Task Force for Peace with Justice in Palestine (of the North Central New York Conference of the United Methodist Church). In January 2008, Joan was awarded the first Peace and Justice Award by the Peaceful Gatherings facilitators in Corning, N.Y., honoring her 60 years of peace activism. She and her husband, Kenneth, have three adult children who live in Vermont, Boston, and near Washington, D.C.
Ruth Peterson
Circulation Assistant
Ruth Peterson (circulation) serves as co-clerk of Worship and Ministry at Abington (Pa.) Meeting. She served on Central Committee and Religious Education Committee of FGC and FWCC and values her travels among Friends in the U.S. and England. Moving to a retirement community has released time and energy for an interest in painting in watercolor. She and Charley Peterson square dance several hours weekly, and have celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary. They spend a few winter months in Arizona each year. In the summer, they gather several couples "who have been married under the care of the meeting" to discuss marriage and coping with challenges.
Patty Quinn
Editor
Patty Quinn (editorial) is a lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area and an attender at Central Philadelphia Meeting. She took the long, part-time path through college and earned her B.A. in English in Creative Non-fiction Writing. She's traveled when she could, to France, England, and Greece. She tries to keep proficient in Spanish. She speaks fluent Cat and Dog and pet-sits. She's still active at her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, where she serves on the Planning Committee at Kelly Writer's House. She's a bookworm, a lover of the sea, and a member of a big, loud, racially and ethnically diverse family.
Lisa Rand
Proofreader
Lisa Rand (proofreader) proofreads the magazine each month and helps with the annual index. She lives in Berks County, Pa., and is a member of Unami (Pa.) Meeting. Lisa was assistant editor at FRIENDS JOURNAL from 2001 to 2004, when her daughter was born. She has worked at Germantown Friends School as an assistant teacher and United Friends School in the development office. At present, she does freelance copyediting and writing, teaches yoga and pilates, and dances as much as possible. Lisa loves to visit her family in New England and savors time by the ocean.
George Rubin
News Editor
George Rubin (news editor) lives at Medford Leas in New Jersey. He is a member of New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM), attending and worshiping at Medford Monthly Meeting (PYM). A retired podiatrist with a love for writing, he was a news reporter for the Roosevelt Island newspaper, The Wire, for the ten years that he and his wife lived in New York City. His wife, Margery, was the paper photographer; she is a professional photographer. George is on the editorial staff of The Medford Leas Life, a monthly publication. And he is active with both American Friends Service Committee and Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas, and clerk of the Personnel Committee of NYYM.
Marjorie Schier
Copy Editor
Marjorie Schier (copyeditor) was born in Montana, brought up in Minnesota, and currently lives in Levittown, Pa. Now retired, she was a journalist with the Washington Post and other papers before teaching high school English for many years. She is a member of Falls Meeting in Fallsington, Pa. ("William Penn's meeting," she points out). She serves as her meeting's representative to FCNL and AFSC, and she is Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's representative on the board of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund. She is a war tax resister and is very concerned about the killing of children in the ongoing conflict with Iraq. She sponsored ten children in El Salvador and recently went there to visit them. She enjoys photographing children and cats, especially her own orange tabby, Pork Chop. She also serves as editor, cheerleader, and typist for the illustrated family books that her 80-member family publishes every five years. She believes every family should have its own family books!
Mary Julia Street
Milestones Editor
Mary Julia Street (milestones editor) lives in Lower Gwynedd, Pa., and is a member of Gwynedd Meeting. She grew up in the Deep South, attended the University of North Carolina, and taught English for several years in Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia before becoming a software engineer. Now a project manager at a software company, in her spare time Mary Julia sings Sacred Harp music and enjoys contra-dancing, movies, travel, conversation, and visiting with her son, daughter, and five grandchildren. She is an organic gardener, an avid reader, and a messy but ardent cook.
