Current Rowing Cares Board Members
Beth Kohl - Executive Director and Board President
Beth brings over 30 years of experience in leadership, development, marketing and communications, media, branding and events working for non-profits, clients, agencies and properties working around the world.
Based in Wilton CT, Beth has a broad understanding of the sport, as a former collegiate and masters rower and parent of two collegiate rowers. She has worked with many non-profits in a volunteer capacity and as a survivor has a strong passion for the organization’s mission and is using her experience to help change lives through the work of Rowing Cares.
Shari Lowen - Vice President
Shari was first exposed to the rowing survivor community when she participated in Row For The Cure in Portland, Oregon in 2017. Though she did not have a connection to the cancer community at that time, Shari was impressed by the positive energy and supportive nature of the regatta. In 2021 she herself was diagnosed with lung cancer. During treatment, she repeatedly inquired of her health care providers as to what level of fitness was a reasonable long-term expectation. No one would answer that question. So, on her own initiative she set a goal of doing Row For The Cure in Seattle in 2022. As she crossed the finish line, Shari knew that she wanted to become active in the survivor rowing community. Currently she is spearheading ROWsist Cancer – a program for survivors at River City Rowing Club in West Sacramento, California. She is thrilled to be part of planning the Survivor Rowing Network as a member of the Steering Committee.
Pete Landry - Treasurer
Pete, based in Charlotte, NC, works for Wells Fargo as the Director for the firm’s Insurance and Annuities businesses. He and his team deliver protection-based solutions to Wells Fargo clients, as well as their families and businesses. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Pete was in senior management for Bank of America and Merrill Lynch’s Insurance and Annuity Services business. Pete discovered rowing through Charlotte’s Row House franchise, Row House Cotswold Village in July of 2020 as he was seeking a safe and healthy way to work out during the pandemic. With several family members and friends who are breast cancer survivors, Pete is committed to doing what he has come to love in rowing and turning it into helping others with their own battles against cancer. He’s been a top fundraiser for Rowing Cares in 2020 as well as 2021 and is excited to be on the board of Rowing Cares.
Barbara Sanchez-Salazar - Secretary
Barbara Sanchez-Salazar is a senior attorney with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, P.C., and practices in the firm’s employee benefits/deferred compensation sections. Barbara’s sports community involvement includes co-chairing the first Jacksonville Rowing Cares in 2004, continuing to help organize the event from 2005 to 2011, volunteering for the Mayor’s Council for Fitness and Well-Being from 1999 to 2013, co-founding Bike Jacksonville, serving on the Board of Jacksonville Rowing Club from 1997 to 2014, and directing/coaching the Club’s youth rowing program from its inception in 2002 till 2015.
Barbara is honored to have been a member of the 1978 Junior National Team but currently takes great pride in being a masters athlete enjoying thoughts of training with her 86 year-old father for the 2018 World Rowing Masters event in Sarasota, Florida and working with her twin daughters as they achieve their own rowing accomplishments.
Allyson Baker
Allyson is a graduate of The Ohio State University where she found rowing as a walk-on. She went on to be part of 4 Big 10 Championship titles and a National title with the team. Since graduating in 2017 Allyson has been living in Princeton, NJ training at the US Training Center with hopes of making the Olympic team in 2024! In 2019 she represented Team USA at the World Championships in Austria. In her free time she enjoys golfing, baking and cheering on Ohio State athletics.
Lori Boersma
Seven years ago I was diagnosed with cancer, for the second time in less than five years. During chemotherapy treatments, I contracted pneumonia and the flu at the same time. I was put into a medically induced coma as my oxygen levels began to decrease and I developed sepsis. During a 54 day coma my lungs, kidneys, brain, and other organs failed. Doctors at both Norwalk and Yale New Haven hospital gave me a less than 1% chance of living and my family had to make some tough decisions - keep me alive not knowing the outcome or terminate all machines keeping me alive. After 54 days, I woke and spent the next five weeks at an in-patient rehabilitation facility relearning how to walk, talk, write, balance, and everything else we take for granted. A little over a year post-coma, I discovered the Saugatuck Survive-OARS. This amazing all breast cancer survivor rowing team has given me a lifelong support system, a workout regimen that continues to strengthen my organs that failed, doctor visits full of positive outcomes, and a drive to continue fighting and appreciating this second life I was given. Today that less than 1% chance is my “why"!
Lindsay Brown
Lindsey currently works at JB Hunt as a Carrier Sales Coordinator. She recently graduated from The Ohio State University with a major in Logistics Management. While at OSU she was on the Varsity Women's Rowing team.
Angie Gabel
Angie began rowing in 1998 in Austin, TX and the Austin Rowing Club after relocating to the area with her son, Jack. She started as a coxswain who wanted to row and became a competitive masters rower, competing nationally and internationally. Diagnosed in 2013 as part of a routine health screen, she had a bi-lateral mastectomy and credits her rowing family for helping her through her recovery and eventual return to the water.
Now living in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Dave, and their always growing pack of pups, Angie is thrilled to be a part of Rowing Cares and looks forward to working with individuals and rowing groups to bring support resources to those recovering from a cancer diagnosis.
Victoria Madden
Victoria grew up in Florida and is in her ‘happy place’ anytime she is on, in, or near the water. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016 and began rowing in 2018 as part of the Saugatuck SurviveOARs, a crew made up entirely of breast cancer survivors. Her first race was in 2019 at Row for the Cure – Poughkeepsie. Being involved in rowing as part of her recovery has been life changing and she would like to continue to support and encourage other survivors through the sport.
Victoria is excited to help create and build the Survivor Rowing Network.
Katie Rodgers
Katie is a recent graduate of Wake Forest University, where she was a varsity rower on the Wake Forest Rowing Club. She knew absolutely nothing about rowing until she joined the team, but quickly developed a love for the sport and its traditions.
She has had a passion for supporting breast cancer research since losing her mother to breast and bone cancers when she was fourteen. Katie currently serves as the New Events Director for Row for the Cure®. When she isn't daydreaming about being on the water, she works as an executive recruiter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Rowing Cares Brand Ambassadors
Kathy Frederick - Founder and Past President
As a sales and customer service representative for Packaging Specialties in Portland, Oregon, Kathy worked for the company for thirty-seven years and calls it her second family. Her fifteen-year background as a political activist in the 70’s and 80’s honed her organizing and leadership skills. At the age of 42 she took up rowing and says it is like dancing on water. In 1993, she organized the first Row for the Cure for Rowing Cares and still rows regularly with her third family at Station L Rowing.
Kathy served as Row for the Cure President through 2018.
Susan Bradshaw
Susan is a seasoned public relations and marketing consultant with expertise in creating and implementing strategic national and regional public relations programs. She has worked for a variety of clients with a special emphasis on sports and entertainment and working with non-profits.
Rowing Cares is thrilled to bring her on board as a member of the Marketing and Communications committee and utilize her extensive skills in developing a communications strategy, media relations, message development, athlete development and video production.
Celia Kohl
Celia works in New York for NBCUniversal as VP of Strategy and Business Development for the TV & Streaming group. She competed as a junior rower for Maritime Rowing Club (CT) and GMS Rowing, was a member of the U.S Junior National Team in Beijing in 2007 and continued her rowing career as a four-year member of Harvard’s Varsity Women’s team. Celia has worked with non-profit organizations including the American Cancer Society and Row New York since high school and is now eager to help Rowing Cares expand in new directions.
Grace Luczak
As an Olympian, World Record Holder in the Women's 8+, and Top 10 rower in the world by World Rowing, Grace has represented Team USA in rowing for the last decade. Grace's grandmother is a survivor of breast cancer who is thriving in Michigan and wisely flocks to warmer climates in the winter. Rowers training in Princeton often live with host-families as they travel all over the country and world to train and compete during the year. Two of Grace's amazing "host-moms" in Princeton also battled breast cancer and are amazing role models and matriarchs of their families. Grace studied Human Biology at Stanford and improving science and research is at the core of her heart.
Meghan Musnicki
Pink is her signature color and this 3x Olympian and 2x Olympic gold medalist in the U.S. Women's 8+ is proud to be a Pink the Boathouse Brand Ambassador Meghan inspires wherever she goes: especially junior and collegiate athletes and, as a Rowing Cares spokesperson uses her passion about the fight against cancer to motivate others to join our cause.
Bill Rooney
Bill Rooney is a Senior Technical Staff Member in IBM's z Systems group, where he is a software architect for the z/OS operating system.
Although not a rower, Bill became involved with Rowing Cares/Row for the Cure back in 2008 when his daughter Nicole and her friend, then both high school rowers, organized the first Rowing Cares/Row for the Cure event in Poughkeepsie.
Ginger Schultz
With a work background in publishing, graphic design, retail and volunteer management and sales, Ginger will support Rowing Cares efforts through merchandise fundraising.
Unfortunately, breast cancer has touched some of those close to her and she's happy to know inspirational survivors. Ginger loves to just be on the water. In her free time she often enjoys being on nearby Lake Michigan in a kayak, on a SUP or a recreational row boat. She has never been on a rowing team but has participated in community rowing in Traverse City, Michigan.
Eliza Sydney
Eliza began rowing in high school on Mercer Lake at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and is now a member of the Asheville Rowing Club in North Carolina. She has rowed in Rowing Cares events at Head of The Hooch in honor of her dear friend Whitney (who lost her battle with breast cancer at the young age of 29) and her friends and family who are breast cancer survivors.
When Eliza is not rowing, she works full time for the SilverSneakers Fitness Program, teaches exercise classes at several gyms, is a professional harpist, enjoys volunteering with Meals on Wheels and gets out on adventures with her two dogs.
Isabel Wothe
Born and raised in Jacksonville, FL, and started rowing in 2006. I competed with both the Jacksonville Rowing Club and Episcopal School of Jacksonville throughout middle school and high school. I was a 7 time Florida State Champion (in both sculling and sweep rowing) and was honored to be a two time CanAmMex sculler. For college I ventured north to Cornell University and was a 4 year member of the rowing team. Since graduating from Cornell in 2020, with a Biology and Society major and both Business and Law & Society minors, I have moved back to Jacksonville and work in healthcare management. I'm looking forward to being involved with Rowing Cares to support a great cause in a sport I love.