Board of Directors

Cheryl Holland - Chair

Cheryl R. Holland, CFP® is President and Founder of Abacus Planning Group, Inc., a holistic financial advisory firm with over $1,700,000,000 in assets under management with offices in Columbia, SC, Greenville, SC and Fredericksburg, TX. Cheryl consistently appears on top advisor lists such as Barron’s Top Advisors, Barron’s 100 Top Women Advisors, Financial Times 300 and is a frequent speaker at national conferences. The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors recognized Cheryl as one of the “30 Most Influential People” in its 30-year history. Cheryl is a member of Together Women Rise’s SC, Columbia-2 chapter and has been involved in the organization since 2014. She is a dedicated volunteer in her profession and community and is currently a member of the Clemson University Foundation Board (Chair, Investment Committee), Children’s Trust of South Carolina Board of Trustees, United Way of the Midlands Board, South Carolina Special Olympics Board, and the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, Chairman’s Council. Cheryl is married to P. Douglas Quackenbush and has a daughter, Hannah. Weekends often find Cheryl reading a book, trying to count birds, or weeding her herb garden.Follow

Kathy Fitts - Treasurer

Kathy has been a member of Together Women Rise’s GA, Marietta-1 chapter since 2013. She joined the Finance Committee as an advisory member in 2016. In 2018, she joined the Board of Directors as Treasurer. Kathy has spent over 35 years as a financial executive in corporate America. In 2016, she transitioned to a consultant role. She specializes in financial and accounting projects supporting chief financial officers. As a child of a career Army Officer, Kathy was born in Germany and has lived all over the U.S. including Hawaii. These culturally diverse life experiences formed her world view very early on. Her desire to work for better outcomes for women and girls led to her involvement with Together Women Rise. She is an avid world traveler which works out well, since her two grown children have moved across the country to the west coast.Follow

Betsy Teutsch - Secretary

Betsy Teutsch, from Philadelphia, PA, learned about Together Women Rise as a Board Member of Shining Hope for Communities, a 2011 Together Women Rise Grantee. She spoke at three Delaware Valley Together Women Rise chapter dinners and came away so impressed she pitched the idea of starting a local chapter in her monthly Weavers Way Food Co-op column. To her amazement, three (now four) chapters launched. These four chapters continue to thrive, nurturing friendships and local solidarity as well as supporting global women and girls. As a writer, Betsy is a Solutions-Focused Storyteller concentrating on greener living, sustainable low-tech, humanitarian engineering, and women’s empowerment. Her book, 100 Under $100: Tools for Empowering Global Women, features many Together Women Rise initiatives that exemplify integrated approaches for women to escape extreme poverty and bring their families and communities along with them. Her second book is another compilation of effective tools, with the Postharvest Education Foundation, titled 100 Under $100: Tools for Reducing Postharvest Losses. Halving postharvest loss and waste, Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, offers female farmers (who make up over 50% of the Global South’s smallholder farmers) great opportunities to address both food insecurity and poverty. Betsy, a grandmother of four, just welcomed identical twin grandsons who live in Philadelphia. Newly retired, she has a new gig: taking care of them one day each week. She is a native of Fargo, North Dakota.Follow

Vicky Bush-Joseph

Vicky is the volunteer Midwest Regional Leader for Together Women Rise and a member of the Rise Book Club Committee. She traveled with Rise to India in 2023, to Bhutan in 2019, and to Guatemala in 2020. Vicky is a retired attorney and was in-house counsel for AT&T and Illinois Bell before starting her own law practice with two other women that specialized in adoptions and reproductive technology like surrogacy and egg donation. She also taught a class on adoption law at Loyola's Law School for many years. Vicky lives in a Chicago suburb with her husband of 40 years where they raised three children. Only their youngest son still lives and works in Chicago, while their daughter lives and works in DC and their other son, his wife, and their three small children live in Alexandria, Virginia. Vicky serves on the Advisory Council for World Bicycle Relief, which provides bicycles to girl students and home health care workers in Columbia and Zambia. She is also a member of the League of Women Voters, a volunteer for Election Protection through the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, and active with Chicago Impact Grants, a giving circle that awards grants of $100,000 each to four Chicago not-for-profit organizations. Vicky loves to read, bike, garden, cook, and eat and drink her way around the world.Follow

Susan Klein-Rothschild

Susan brings more than 40 years’ experience working in the fields of child abuse and neglect, public health, and education. She has led non-profit and governmental organizations and worked as a consultant and trainer in more than 20 states. Her life’s work has focused on improving the lives of the most vulnerable and mentoring leaders who serve those populations. Susan holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work and she serves as a commissioner on the Public Engagement Commission in Goleta, California. Susan joined a Together Women Rise chapter in 2021 when she left full-time work as Managing Director of Programs in Executive Education at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Susan felt an immediate connection with the mission and vision of Together Women Rise. With the removal of barriers, education, and support, women successfully provide a safe and healthy environment for themselves and their children! Susan continues to work on a part-time basis while also enjoying the great outdoors of the Santa Barbara area, traveling internationally, and contributing to the local community. Susan has two adult children, three grandchildren, and a husband who appreciates her zest for life. Follow

Colleen Kill

Colleen joined Together Women Rise in 2015 as a Chapter Leader in Southern California and has been an active volunteer with the organization ever since. She has served as Regional Leader in the West Region, Mentor in Southern California, and currently serves as Chair of our Regional Leaders Committee. Colleen's experience includes 28 years in the Pharma and Biotech world. She lives in Kelowna, BC.Follow

Srividya (Vidya) Prakash

Vidya is deeply committed to achieving gender equity by investing in and advising programs that support women's health, education, and livelihoods. She has been a member of the Fremont CA chapter since 2019, and has volunteered on the Grants Selection Committee since 2021 and more recently, on the Grants Partnership Committee. Vidya has over 20 years of experience in global public health, business strategy consulting, nonprofit management, renewable energy, and investing. She started her career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, where she also helped establish the Global Public Health Practice. After a career break, she worked with sPower-AES in commercial asset management for solar and wind renewable projects. As the CEO of Antara International, she set up the US 501(c)(3) organization to support their India partner in delivering grassroots maternal and child health programs in India. She currently divides her time between nonprofit consulting (focus on strengthening governance, strategy, and monitoring and learning), grantmaking for a family fund, and commercial real estate investing. Originally from Mumbai, India, Vidya studied economics and business management, and is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. She continues to have deep family and nonprofit ties in India, and has traveled across Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America for work. She has lived in California since 2000, and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her husband, son, daughter and two wonderful canine children. She is an active client service volunteer with Maitri, a Bay Area nonprofit serving victims of domestic violence, and a Leadership Circle member of Neythri, serving professional South Asian women. She also serves on the boards of the Akanksha Fund (working in education for underserved children in India) and Antara International (working in maternal and child health in India). Outside of work, Vidya loves spoiling her dogs, gardening, yoga and art, or dreaming up travel holidays.Follow

Melinda Silverstein

Melinda Silverstein is a member of Together Women Rise’s CA, Santa Cruz-2 chapter.
For over 30 years Melinda has devoted her career, with an emphasis in executive management and development, to helping people through working at non-for-profits. She received a B.A. in biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and a Masters in Public Health from San Jose State University. She has been an executive manager using program management, strategic goal setting, and targeted fundraising to transform organizations and build sustainability. She has a long track record of managing resource development, major gift solicitation, and donor stewardship. Melinda recently retired after 18 years as the Executive Director of the Cabrillo College Foundation where the organization flourished even in tough economic times and was recognized as one of the model leaders in the Community College system. One of the cornerstone innovative programs of CCF is Women’s Educational Success (WES) -- a grant program to help women students who experience unexpected emergencies stay in school and graduate. The annual WES campaigns built a loyal, broad, and diverse donor group who provide substantial funding and are committed to making a difference in women’s lives.
Melinda also worked in development in the Health Sciences of UCSC, served as the Executive Director of United Way for Santa Cruz County, and was an adjunct faculty member of the Health Sciences Department at San Jose State University.
Melinda’s husband of 37 years is a tennis teacher and they live in Santa Cruz, California. Their twin grown daughters have chosen careers to work in non-profits to make the world a better place. Melinda is an avid hiker, book club member, and traveler, and is passionate about playing her viola in orchestras, chamber groups, and recently with a bluegrass group.
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Barbara Collins - Board Emeritus/Co-Founder

Barbara Fintel Collins is co-founder of Together Women Rise, and the author of Love, Norm, a miraculous message of hope and the story of how her father made her believe she could change the world. Since the first chapter meeting in 2003, Barb has devoted her life to nurturing the Together Women Rise grassroots movement that multiplies the power of an individual to lead transformational social change. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in gerontology, Barb has devoted her career to the nonprofit sector, first opening the doors of Warm Hearth Village in Blacksburg, Virginia, then honing her experience in alumni relations and resource development at William Mitchell College of Law and St. Norbert College. Then she discovered her passion for infusing innovation into nonprofit mission impact strategies, and for shaping thriving and sustainable organizations. In 1989, a life altering trip to Tanzania lit a flame for investing in the futures of the remarkable women she met. Returning home, she realized there was no easy way to reach back across the ocean and get money into the hands of the women. That changed on January 21, 2003, at the very first chapter meeting of Together Women Rise, when in a moment of strategic serendipity, Barb’s passion and experience merged, giving oxygen to that flame. In 2014, Barb was named an Everyday Freedom Hero by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. She lives in Greenville, South Carolina, and in 2017 she was named a SHEro Phenomenal Philanthropist by SHEGreenville. Barb has two grown daughters, Nora and Jeanette, and lives in Greenville, South Carolina with her husband, Greg, a husky named Annie, and Phoenix, the well-known feisty cat.Follow