Barbara Adams — President & Executive Committee Chair
Barbara is an associate professor in the Department of Writing at Ithaca College, a program she helped to co-found in the 1970s. Her degrees are in English literature: a B.A. from the University of Southern California and an M.A. from Yale University. As a teacher, Barbara specializes in feature journalism, arts criticism, and food and travel writing. She developed and headed an extensive internship program to provide professional experience for IC writing students. As a writer, for more than four decades Barbara has been a theater critic, book reviewer, and arts journalist for Ithaca area publications. Her interests include theater and art, languages, gardening, and photography. She’s also a founding member of Ithaca City of Asylum and former board chair. Barbara chairs the Executive Committee for The Ithaca Voice.
Nathan Kopp — Vice President, Secretary & Nominations Committee Chair
Nate is Special Counsel with the law firm of Coughlin & Gerhart, LLP. He grew up in the Ithaca area and attended Cornell University before heading west. He attended law school at Indiana University and then practiced law in Chicago, Illinois and Salt Lake City, Utah, for many years. Nate returned to Ithaca in 2021 with his family, to rejoin the growing community and raise his kids as Ithacans. He strongly believes that a community thrives when it is educated and informed, and that local not-for-profit news publications like The Ithaca Voice are essential partners in that effort.
Brett Bossard — Interim Treasurer & Development Committee Chair
Brett Bossard is Executive Director of Alumni and Family Engagement at Ithaca College. He formerly served as Executive Director of Cinemapolis, where he successfully navigated the COVID closure and post-pandemic pivots to operations. Bossard has spent more than two decades in arts administration, with leadership positions at the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, the Hangar Theatre, and the Cayuga Museum of History and Art. He has worked extensively in fostering collaborative community development, volunteering for the NYS Council on the Arts, the NYS Alliance for Arts Education, and currently as the Chair of the Strategic Tourism Planning Board of Tompkins County. Brett earned a B.S. in Communications at Ithaca College and an M.A. in Popular Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University.
J.R. Clairborne — Nominations Committee
J.R. is the Founding Director at Tompkins County Department of Veterans Services. He is a former alderperson of Ithaca’s Second Ward. He has also worked within the news industry as an editor and reporter.
Gary J. Stewart
Gary worked at Cornell University, retiring as Associate Vice President of Community Relations (2002-2023). After retiring from Cornell, he started Campus-Community Collaborations. This Canandaigua native is a longtime journalist, including the creator of East Hill Notes in local newspapers, WHCU’s All Things Equal, and opinion page/senior editor at the Ithaca Journal (1993-2002). He was also the first managing editor of the Moscow Times that was founded shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Gary has served on local boards including Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT), Ithaca Tompkins International Airport, Hospicare, Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes, and Tompkins County Community College Foundation Board. He steadily engages with local leaders of color, diverse non-profits, faith communities, area media, and socio-economic interests. Gary received his B.S. in Mass Communications from Emerson College.
Aaron Goldweber
Aaron has been a communications professional since the mid-90s, starting as a typesetter, graphic designer, and technical writer. These early days of work cemented his passion for meaningful communications that balance message, design, and technology all of which he has continued to explore and advocate for for decades. Since 2004, he has worked in higher-education communications, holding several positions at Cornell University. Having been an avid reader of the Ithaca Voice since its founding, Aaron is honored to be a member of the board of directors. His enduring goal as a board member is to help strengthen this essential community resource and make the Voice a national model for other non-profit news organizations.
Casey Musarra
Casey is the student media adviser for The Ithacan, Ithaca College’s award-winning student-run news organization. Casey is passionate about helping the next generation of journalists move into their professional careers after spending roughly a decade working as a sports web producer/digital sports editor for philly.com, Newsday and the New York Post. Casey also serves as the adviser for Ithaca College’s chapters of the Association for Women in Sports Media and NLGJA: The Association for LGBTQ+ Journalists. Casey has a B.S. in Television-Radio from Ithaca College and an M.S. in Communications with a specialization in journalism innovation from Syracuse University. She also teaches Investigative Journalism.