The Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame Welcomes New Chair and Trustees -- Desiree Wolfe Appointed Chair --
Desiree Wolfe
Chair - CWHF Board of Trustees
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Five of Connecticut’s outstanding female leaders have been appointed to the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame (CWHF) Board, including Desiree Wolfe as the organization’s new Chair.
The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame (CWHF) is pleased to announce the election of Desiree Wolfe of Shelton, CT as Chair of its Board of Trustees. Desiree Wolfe has been elected as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, - replacing Sandra Vigliotti Senich who served as Chairman for two years. Wolfe has been a member of the CWHF Board since 2014. She is the Director of Product Management for Webster Bank, with responsibility over the product development, direct marketing and product analytics for the Deposits, Lending, and Payments product lines within the Consumer and Small Business segments. Prior to Webster, Desiree has held product and marketing leadership roles at Fiserv, Chase, and Foote Cone & Belding.
“We are thrilled to welcome Desiree as our incoming Chair,” said Sarah Smith Lubarsky Executive Director of the CWHF. “Desiree has been deeply involved in the Hall for many years and will bring her experience and vision for the future to help us move forward. We are deeply grateful for her time and commitment to the organization.”
“CWHF is the state’s premier resource for women’s history and I am thrilled to be leading the organization,” said Wolfe. “CWHF honors women who have contributed their talents, not only to Connecticut but to our nation and the world. We strive to share these stories in the classroom and communities, so that future generations gain confidence in their dreams for the future. We want both young women and men to look at these women as role models and believe in their own unlimited potential.”
Wolfe earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and her MBA from Columbia Business School. She also serves as the Chair of the Deposits and Payments Committee of the Consumer Bankers Association and as a member of the BAI Research Executive Council. She has received the “40 Under 40” and “Champion for Celebrating Diversity” awards, both from the Fairfield County (Connecticut) Business Journal.
Joining the CWHF’s Board of Trustees are Kate Engler, Lindsay Castonguay Hany, Lilian C. Ulan and, Brittney Yancy. “Each new Board member brings new expertise, energy and excellence to our organization,” said Lubarsky. “CWHF is incredibly honored to welcome them and practice our mission together – celebrating the legacies and stories of women and girls.”
Kate Engler is Director of the Environmental Assessment division of Loureiro Engineering Associates. She leads a team of Licensed Environmental Professionals, Professional Geologists, project managers, scientists, and geologists in Loureiro’s headquarters located in Plainville, Connecticut. Engler’s expertise exists in human health and ecological risk assessment, toxicology, environmental chemistry, and analytical chemistry. Engler has performed human health risk assessments and provided associated consulting at all project phases for sites involving indoor air, groundwater, sediment, soil, LNAPL, and vapor intrusion, according to federal regulations and regulations of multiple states. She has also provided ecological risk assessment consulting at all project phases for sites involving groundwater, surface water, sediment, soil, and LNAPL contamination. In addition, Engler has provided toxicological consulting and prepared and presented risk communications for private industry employees and at public hearings, and has provided litigation support for human health and ecological risk characterizations and claims.
Lindsay Castonguay Hany is the Senior Vice President and Senior Relationship Manager for the Connecticut/Western Massachusetts market in Commercial Banking at Bank of America (BofA) Merrill Lynch. Hany joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 2008. She has also served as the Client Manager Associate, Portfolio Management Officer and Underwriter with BofA. Hany’s portfolio is comprised of about 60 companies in the manufacturing, distribution, services and retail industries. She manages over $100 million in credit exposure and over $75 million in deposits. She focuses much of her time on working with woman-owned and led companies, and volunteers with several not-for-profit organizations focused on ending hunger and homelessness, children’s education, women’s issues and the arts. Hany is also a mentor for teammates across Bank of America Merrill Lynch as a member and copresident in the firm’s Women’s Exchange, which seeks to support, empower and promote women at the company. In addition, she serves on the Boards of Directors of Riverfront Recapture, Educational Resources for Children and Scapegoat Garden.
Lilian C. Ulan is the Principal of Delivery Leadership Slalom. Ulan is an experienced leader with over 25 years of experience who thrives in high pressure, results-oriented environments. She has held senior level positions mobilizing and managing large, multi-site, application development and management programs using a distributed delivery model of on and offshore teams. Ulan’s expertise includes setting-up and operating PMOs, managing project delivery of large onshore and offshore teams, and increasing development maturity through Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and developing competency models. Besides participating for many years in the CWHF StemFems programming, Ulan is on her second term as a Board member of the Berlin Peck Memorial Library.
Brittney Yancy is an Assistant Professor of Humanities at Goodwin University where she has been a faculty member since 2015. She is the Goodwin University’s Content Coordinator for History. Professor Yancy is completing her Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut and completed her undergraduate studies at Hampton University. Her research focuses on 20th century U.S. social movements, urban radicalism, critical race theory, women’s activism, and black women’s political and intellectual history. Professor Yancy is an intersectional scholar-activist and committed to fighting for a gender-inclusive movement for racial justice. In 2018, she was appointed as the Greater Hartford Ambassador to the United State of Women. In 2019, Professor Yancy was appointed to the Board of Connecticut's State Education Resource Center and currently serves on Steering Committee for the Governor's Council on Women and Girls. Professor Yancy is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., entering 19 years of service, and a member of several community-based organizations in the Greater Hartford area.