Susan Desjardins

Board Chair

Major General (Ret.) Susan Y. Desjardins served in the United States Air Force for more than three decades. She graduated from the Air Force Academy in the Class of 1980, the first class to accept women. General Desjardins held command and leadership positions at every level during a highly decorated career that included tours of duty at Major Command Headquarters, Headquarters Air Force, the Joint Staff, US Transportation Command and US Strategic Command. A command pilot, General Desjardins accrued more than 3,800 flying hours primarily in tanker and transport aircraft. She flew missions worldwide and deployed to remote locations in support of military operations and national security. The General was the first woman Commandant of Cadets at USAFA, and the first woman to command the 437th Air Mobility Wing in Charleston, South Carolina. She served as Deputy Military Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force and as the Executive Officer to the Commander, Transportation Command and Air Mobility Command. General Desjardins retired from the Air Force in 2012 as the Director of Plans and Policy, Strategic Command, responsible for developing the nation’s strategic war plan and for global strike contingency planning.

Upon retiring, Susan was a consultant for Project Air Force/RAND Corporation and serves as a Trustee of the Falcon Foundation, which supports military prep school scholarships for young men and women desiring to attend USAFA. She served her community as President of the Board of Governors of the American Independence Museum in Exeter, NH. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Beth Israel Lahey Health – Exeter Health Resources that includes Exeter Hospital, Core Physicians, and Rockingham County VNA and Hospice. She serves on the Board of Trustees for Riverwoods, a leading continuing care and retirement community, and serves on the Board of Directors of Service Credit Union, an international financial institution serving the military and veterans. She serves on the National Board of Directors, Daedalians, an organization of current and former military aviators that advocates for air and space power.

General Desjardins earned a Bachelor of Science in International Affairs, Master of Arts in Industrial Psychology and Human Relations, Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Public Service from the University of Toledo School of Medicine and Life Sciences. Susan resides in Exeter, NH with her husband, Peter Lennon.

Rebecca A. Smith, MBA, NHA

Vice Chair

Rebecca A. (Becky) Smith retired in February 2018 after 34 years of leadership and management of Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs).  Becky provided leadership in strategic planning, resident relations and satisfaction, marketing, human resource management, staff training, budget development/fiscal management, board development and relations, facilitation of board and staff retreats, community operational assessments, and opening of new communities.

In Becky’s numerous years of experience, she served as CEO of Kendal at Hanover, Vice President of Management Services/Principal of New Life Management and Development, Inc., Executive Director of RiverMead, and Senior Vice President of Havenwood-Heritage Heights (HHH).  Becky is a former Music Educator and has led various church choirs and community choruses. Becky holds an MBA and Advanced Certificate in Health Administration from the New Hampshire College Graduate School of Business; Bachelor of Music Education from the University of New Hampshire. Becky is also a former Licensed Nursing Home Administrator in New Hampshire.

L. Michael Hickey

Board Treasurer

Mike grew up in Goffstown, NH and graduated from UNH in 1973. From 1986-2010, Mike held a range of assignments with New England Telephone, NYNEX, Bell Atlantic and Verizon in New Hampshire, New York and Washington, DC. From 1997-2004 he served as President, Verizon-New Hampshire; during which time he chaired the Governor’s Task Force on the Operating Efficiency of State Government; the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce BOD; and the Greater Manchester United Way BOD and Campaign. From 2004-2010, Mike served as Vice President-Verizon, National Security Policy in Washington, DC; during which time he chaired the US Chamber of Commerce Homeland Security Task Force and the US Communications Sector Coordinating Council. Prior to his career at Verizon (1973-1986) Mike was a land use planner/economic development director in New Hampshire’s North Country, executive director of the Mt. Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce and director of the State of NH Division of Economic Development. Following his career with Verizon (2014-2016) Mike served as interim dean, UNH-Manchester, where he led the creation of the college’s new campus and implemented a blueprint to reinvigorate the college. During his career, Mike was recognized for his civic contributions, including NH Business Magazine’s “Business Leader of the Year” Award, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce “Citizen of the Year” Award, and New Hampshire Business Review Magazine’s “Lifetime Achievement” Award. Mike and his wife Marilyn are active UNH alumni. Mike served on the UNH Alumni Association Board of Directors for 10 years, including two as president. He served on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics and the UNH Athletics Advisory Council. Mike is a founding board member of Primary Bank and former president of the Moody Point Waterfront Condominium Association where he and his wife Marilyn reside.

Deborah Karmozyn

Clerk

Deborah Karmozyn welcomes the opportunity to serve as RWD’s Resident Trustee, bringing to the position over 45 years of experience in educational administration in non-profit and accredited international schools around the world, in New Hampshire public schools, and as an active participant on boards in non-profit organizations both in the United States and abroad. Deborah served as school principal of five prestigious K-12 international schools, all non-profit and accredited and offering the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program: American School of Milan, Italy; Copenhagen International School, Denmark; Shanghai American School, Pudong Campus, Shanghai, China; American School of Doha, Qatar; and the United Nations International School, New York City. She also served on the IB Primary Years Program Development Committee (Europe), on the EARCOS (East Asia Region Council of Overseas Schools) Conference Committee in Shanghai, and as co-chair of ECIS (European Council of International Schools) accreditation committees around the world. She also taught in and was a former principal in SAU 9 and SAU 13 (Mt. Washington Valley, NH). Deborah’s leadership included experience in strategic planning, educational program and curriculum development, budget development and management, accreditation standards and implementation, hiring and evaluation of staff, marketing, leadership and board training, school consultation, hiring and evaluation of staff, and school construction of and opening a new school campus in China. Deborah returned to the Mt. Washington Valley in 2010 to be a full time caregiver for six years for her father who had Alzheimer’s Dementia. She continued to be active in the community, serving on boards including the Rotary Club of North Conway (secretary and BOD), Mt. Washington Valley Dollars for Scholars, OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) in Conway, and the Community Advisory Board for the Memorial Hospital. She is a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts of the USA and cherishes her past experiences as a scout and leader/trainer. Deborah and Michael moved to RWD in March 2020, where she serves on the UNH Committee and the Employee Appreciation Fund Committee. Deborah holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from UNH, a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from Wheelock College, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from Plymouth State College (summa cum laude).

Walter Burgin

Resident Trustee, RiverWoods Exeter

Walter has spent most of his life learning and teaching mathematics, since he first began to see its wonderful simplicity and complexity early in his college years at Dartmouth. His other academic credentials include doctoral work in mathematics at Princeton and a Masters in Education at Harvard. He had early experience with research focused on artificial intelligence working at IBM. He taught briefly in a college but most of his teaching has been in independent secondary schools: his own (Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania), Philips Exeter, and finally Sidwell Friends School and Maret School after he had retired to Washington, DC. For twenty five years he worked at being successful in the classroom while also being Headmaster at Mercersburg. Since returning to Exeter seven years ago, he has tutored at Philips Exeter. For four years he was Executive Director of the Edward E. Ford Foundation, which serves independent schools, and for 20 more years he served on its Board, fifteen of those as Chair. Other commitments have been tied to his work in independent schools or the places where he and his family have lived: for the former – the Boards of the Pennsylvania, Greater Washington, and National Associations of Independent Schools; and for the latter – the Boards of the Mercersburg Development Council, California Court Condo Association, Sheridan Kalorama Call Box Committee, and Electric Earth Concerts; and an assortment of committees at RWE.

Kirsten Corazzini, PhD, FGSA

Trustee

Kirsten is Dean and Professor, College of Health and Human Services, University of New Hampshire. Prior to her appointment in 2022, Dean Corazzini served as the Associate Dean for the PhD Program at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Her academic administration leadership positions build upon almost 20 years as a faculty member at the Duke University School of Nursing, where she retains an emeritus faculty appointment. Dean Corazzini earned her doctoral degree in Social Gerontology from the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. The focus of her research is on improving care outcomes of chronically ill older adults in residential long-term care settings, with a particular focus on person-centered care. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). She was awarded a Fulbright-Schuman Fellowship in 2015 for her cross-comparative research on professional nursing and nursing home care in the European Union. In recognition of her contributions to the field of gerontology, Dean Corazzini was appointed Fellow, Gerontological Society of America (GSA), in 2012, and currently serves as Vice Chair of the society’s Health Sciences section.

Dan Chartrand

Trustee

After serving a 10-year apprenticeship in bookselling and publishing in both St. Paul, MN and Boston and Cambridge, MA, Dan Chartrand came up to Exeter, NH in the spring of 1991 to open Water Street Bookstore, Inc. The mission of Water Street Bookstore remains “to build a vibrant and diverse community around the written word.” Together with his bookselling staff, Dan accomplishes this mission by expertly weaving together the bookstore’s patrons with the work of authors that are renowned locally, nationally and internationally.

Dan has passionately and joyously served the beautiful town of Exeter as a volunteer on non-profits and in town government. Board memberships include service with the Squamscott Community Commons and the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter. Dan just finished a six-year stint as an elected town official on Exeter’s Select Board in March of 2018.

Tom Donovan

Trustee

Tom Donovan is a New Hampshire lawyer who spent most of his career as a partner at McLane Middleton, the state’s largest law firm. His practice focused on commercial and intellectual property litigation. He was also engaged in the management of the firm. Outside of work, Tom has been actively engaged in community activities. He has served on the boards of directors of many nonprofit organizations, and has chaired the boards of Waypoint, Leadership New Hampshire, Norwin & Elizabeth Bean Foundation, Palace Theatre, and the Foundation for the Development of Democratic Rights (Hungary). As an elected member of the Manchester School Board, he chaired its finance committee. He chairs the finance council of St. Anne-St. Augustin parish.

In 2014, Tom and his wife joined the United States Peace Corps, serving for more than two years in Botswana. They were principally engaged in HIV prevention activities at rural secondary schools. Tom also taught math and coached softball and track. Upon his return from the Peace Corps, Tom spent seven years as the Director of Charitable Trusts in the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. Tom led a bureau responsible for the oversight of more than 10,000 charitable organizations. He instituted enforcement actions relating to management and governance failures within charities, reviewed merger transactions for health care organizations, and trained many boards of directors in their fiduciary responsibilities. Tom is a New Hampshire native. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard College, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Debby Miller

Trustee

Debby retired in 2023 after serving in the financial services field for over 40 years. She worked at Citizens Bank as Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs for the New England region overseeing Community Relations, Public Affairs, Marketing Sponsorships, Government Relations and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The last 10 years of her career was spent in nonprofit financial services at the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund as Executive Vice President of Philanthropy & Strategic Partnerships. At the Community Loan Fund Debby was a member of the senior management team where she developed and executed on strategies in fundraising, investors capital raising, marketing and communications and public policy. She currently serves on several boards including Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, Granite Edvance and Coastal Enterprises Inc (CEI) and is a member of committees such as risk management, governance, and compensation. Previous board experience include the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees (chair of external affairs committee), Whittier Street Health Center, Roxbury MA (board chair), Winston-Salem State University (board chair). In her volunteer experience, Debby led a successful merger of two housing organizations in Nashua and also led a successful chancellor search and leadership integration at WSSU.

Ralph Ragucci

Resident Trustee, RiverWoods Manchester

Since July 2018, I have been a part of the RiverWoods Manchester community. My educational background includes graduating from Harvard University. Over the years, I have held diverse roles in Manufacturing, Investing institutions, Banking, and State government, both in technical and managerial capacities, culminating as Chief Operating Officer and, later, Chief Information Officer. During my tenure as CIO, one of my key responsibilities was defining the I.T. direction for the Commonwealth while devising a strategic plan to achieve our objectives. Currently, I am working as an Information Technology Consultant. In addition to my professional endeavors, I am actively involved in various roles within the community, serving as the Resident Council Vice Chair and Chair of the Resident’s Finance Committee. As a New Resident Ambassador and Scholarship Committee member, I strive to welcome and assist new residents while promoting educational opportunities. Moreover, I participate as a presenter in Downsizing and Financial seminars and a speaker in Employee Onboarding and Orientation Programs. Participation in these committees allows me to share knowledge and support the growth of our community.

William L. Stafford

Resident Trustee, RiverWoods Exeter

William L. Stafford is an angel investor and consultant to early stage and midmarket companies. Most recently he has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of CRS Medical Diagnostics, Inc., an early stage medical device company and of Neurognostics, Inc., a manufacturer of fMRI systems. He has also served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, he was with Merge Technologies Inc., where he began as Director of Sales, Marketing and Service and left as Senior Vice President, OEM and International Operations. At Merge Technologies, Stafford was responsible for global OEM sales and drove revenue growth averaging 30 percent annually. Prior to his positions at Merge, he served in various sales, marketing, and administrative positions at Marquette Electronics and GE Medical Systems. Although much of his career required extensive international travel, Stafford found time to serve on the lay board of the Presbyterian church he attended as well as on committees of the Presbytery within which that church was located. This included co-moderation of a commission of that Presbytery. Subsequently he was elected to represent the Presbytery at Synod and served as Vice-Moderator and then Moderator of Synod. Stafford received his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Yale University. After spending several years in the United States Navy, Stafford left, with the rank of Lieutenant, returned to school and obtained a Masters of Business Administration Degree from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Patrick Parisi

Trustee

Patrick Parisi is a Director at BMO Family Office, an integrated wealth management provider that serves ultra-affluent individuals, families and family offices across their tax, estate, investment, philanthropic, risk and family capital needs. Patrick’s primary responsibility is to assist clients with the management of their portfolios. Patrick is directly involved in developing and implementing long-term investment policies, analyzing client portfolios, recommending appropriate portfolio allocations and advising on traditional and alternative investment managers. Prior to joining BMO Family Office in 2004, Patrick was the director of manager research at a RIA, where he designed and implemented the manager research process. He has also worked as a senior research analyst where he supported consultants and evaluated traditional and alternative investment managers. Patrick has been in the investments industry since 1995. Patrick lives with his wife and two daughters in the Seacoast of New Hampshire. In his time away from work Patrick enjoys playing hockey, hiking and spending time with the newest member of his family Lucy (chocolate Labrador retriever). Patrick is a member of Investments & Wealth Institute. He received a BS with honors in business administration from the Whittemore School of Business at the University of New Hampshire.

Justine Vogel

CEO, Trustee

Graduate of Rutgers University School of Business with a B.S. in Accounting. Justine began work at RiverWoods as part of the pre-opening team in June 1994. Her tenure at RiverWoods began as the Director of Accounting, with growth into the role of CFO in 1997, COO in 2005 and President/CEO in 2007. Ms. Vogel’s prior experience includes several years in auditing and financial analysis with Arthur Andersen & Co., Ernst & Young, and Chubb Life Insurance Company. Ms. Vogel is a certified public accountant in the state of New Jersey and serves as a Trustee of the Unitil Board of Directors. Ms. Vogel has lectured at the University of New Hampshire and is a frequent speaker at local, regional and national industry conferences on topics including strategic management, growth planning, culture development and financial oversight.

Gary Richardson

Trustee at Large, RiverWoods Exeter Resident

Gary graduated from Holderness School, Middlebury College and Boston College Law School in 1970. After brief service in the Army, he was a trial lawyer with Upton & Hatfield, LLP in Concord, N.H. Most of his professional career he handled medical malpractice claims for families and ethical issues for organizations. This took him all over the State of New Hampshire and on occasion to Maine, Massachusetts, and, on one occasion, the U. S. Supreme Court. He served in town government, for six years as Chair of the Zoning Board, six years as Chair of the Planning Board and 28 years as a Town Moderator in Hopkinton, N.H. He was also appointed by the N.H. Supreme Court for a total of ten years as Chair of New Hampshire’s Ballot Law Commission. Later in his career, he ran and was elected to the N.H. Legislature. He served as a Floor Leader and Assistant Majority Leader during his four terms in the House of Representatives. Years ago, he helped organize a teen center in Hopkinton, N.H. and served on the Board of Directors of the Concord (N.H.) YMCA. More recently he served on the By-Laws Committee revising the bylaws of the Venice (Florida) Golf and Country Club and is a member of the Nominating Committee. He is also co-chair of the Audit Committee at the Abenakee Club (Maine) and chaired an ad hoc committee appointed by the board to make major revisions to the bylaws. At RiverWoods, he has enjoyed facilitating Great Decisions discussion groups sponsored by the Foreign Policy Institute as he has done in Florida for several years.

Maria Mongan

Trustee 

Maria, born in Manchester, NH, attended local schools and graduated from Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA in 1977 with a BA in Economics. Upon graduation, she was hired by New England Telephone under the management trainee program and started her career in the Boston area. She held a range of assignments in the premier, large and medium business sectors in customer service, sales, and network operations with New England Telephone, NYNEX, Bell Atlantic and on a national basis with Verizon. She has extensive leadership experience in both the retail and wholesale business markets, overseeing both IBEW and CWA union and management personnel across the nation. She retired as Area V.P. of Wholesale services overseeing national ordering, provisioning, and maintenance escalation of all local wholesale products and national Collocation.

Maria has volunteered in Manchester on numerous non-profit boards. She served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Catholic Medical Center and on the board of GraniteOne Health System, the Norwin and Elizabeth Bean Foundation, President of the Board of Directors of the Manchester Boys and Girls Club, and board member of the Palace Theatre and Greater Manchester YMCA. Presently she is Secretary of the Manchester Development Corporation and on the External Nominating Committee of Northeast Delta Dental. Maria resides in Manchester and Rye with her husband and daughter.

Heather Whitfield

Trustee 

Heather currently serves as Senior Vice President and Commercial Portfolio Manager at Bar Harbor Bank and Trust. She has over 40 years of banking experience, with a strong focus on commercial lending, credit underwriting, asset management, loan review, and business development. Prior to Bar Harbor, Heather was a Senior Vice President and Commercial Loan Officer at M&T Bank, where she managed a sizable loan portfolio of commercial clients in Southern New Hampshire over seeing all aspects of lending and client relationship management with a particular focus on the Senior Living Industry. Until recently, she was an active member of the Families in Transition’s Board of Directors for over seven years, serving terms as Chair and Vice Chair. Heather has also held board and committee roles for various organizations, including Housing Benefits, a subsidiary of Families in Transition; The Granite YMCA; Special Olympics New Hampshire; and Heritage United Way. She is a graduate of the Greater Manchester Chamber’s Leadership Manchester program. She is also a former member of The Manchester and Derry Rotary Clubs. Heather graduated from Southern NH University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Minor in Accounting. Heather is a lifelong resident of Manchester, NH.