Staff
Lora Wondolowski, Executive Director
A passion for community empowerment and coalition-building
"I am thrilled to lead Leadership Pioneer Valley, bringing the contacts and experience I have from directing programs at all levels to bear in my own backyard. This effort is much needed to strengthen the diverse communities throughout the Valley."
- Lora Wondolowski
Lora joined Leadership Pioneer Valley as its founding director in 2011 after serving as the founding Executive Director of the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters (MLEV) for 5 1/2 years. She was involved in all aspects of building MLEV into a successful, well-respected organization including administration, fundraising, management, board development, coalition-building, and strategic planning. Her political acumen and strategy has earned the organization strong support with members of Congress, the Governor, members of the legislature and the mayor of Boston. Prior to her work with MLEV, she worked for the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and National Audubon Society in DC. While at LCVEF and Audubon, she launched and organized several successful programs and training programs. She has nearly 20 years of experience with grassroots organizing and community outreach.
Lora holds a BS from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a MS from Bard College. She was one of the founders of the Friends of the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls and was a volunteer and board member of Pride Zone Youth Center in Northampton, She currently serves on the Connecticut River Conservancy, Public Health Institute of Western MA, and United Way of Pioneer Valley boards. In 2018 she received the Women's Professional Chamber's Woman of the Year Award. She lives in Greenfield with her wife and daughters aged 12 and 9.
Amy Britt, Leaders OnBoard Program Coordinator
Amy Britt comes to Leadership Pioneer Valley with a background in communications, marketing, and event management. She worked for Tapestry, a major regional public health agency, for over 10 years, most recently as the Director of Communications where she oversaw the communications and marketing for the organization, worked with the Development Department on fundraising campaigns and events, and supported the agency’s state and federal advocacy efforts. Amy is passionate about authentic, grassroots efforts to create change for our communities and is currently working to support Root Studio, a nonprofit that serves teen girls who live in low-income communities in Turners Falls and struggle with poverty, abuse, addiction, and sexism.
Amy graduated from Smith College with a BA in Biology, and in 2012 was selected as an American Fellow in a U.S. State Department program focused on Women's Health Leadership in Brazil. She is a 2014 Leadership Pioneer Valley graduate and currently lives in Greenfield with her husband, daughter, two dogs and chickens.
rosemary manu, LEAp PROGRAM COORDINATOR
Her most recent experience as a Consultant for USAID Food for Peace provided her with monitoring and evaluation skills. She and her team were responsible for evaluating and assessing the effectiveness of combining emergency assistance and resilience-building. She also has deep experience overseas with the UN Women in Bangkok, Thailand in the Disaster Risk Reduction department. During her time there she strengthened her research and writing skills. She compiled and submitted an energy report which provided her department with research on the nexus between energy and women in Asia.
Ms. Manu is passionate about helping develop communities and individuals. She hopes to bring all the many skills she acquired into her new role as program coordinator for the LEAP program.
Amy-louise pfeffer, Development associate
Amy-Louise brings to Leadership Pioneer Valley a background in public education, agricultural
enterprise, and organizational development. For many years, she loved teaching middle school students
in New Haven, Springfield, and Greenfield, where she enjoyed collaborating on school planning and
management teams. Amy-Louise developed business acumen as the co-owner, -operator of Tuckaway
Farm, LLC and Trasimeno Mills Organic Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, a small farm producing eggs, pasture-
raised chickens and lamb, and produce, and importer of olive oil. Prior to that, she partnered in the
authentic restoration of seventeenth–century farmhouse—Agriturismo San Carlo at Molinella I—a bed-
and-breakfast in Umbria, Italy, as well as in the revitalization of a 130 tree olive grove.
In 2015, Amy-Louise became Farm and Food Systems Program Coordinator for Greenfield Community
College (GCC). Most recently, as part of graduate work in Environmental Studies, she participated in the organizational development of the Ecovation Hub, a regional clean economy initiative. Since then, she has consulted with Brattleboro’s Sustainability Outreach Network (SEON) on evaluation, strategic planning, fundraising, and board development with the Sustainable Energy Outreach Network (SEON).
Amy-Louise is dedicated to promoting the thoughtful, effective development of equitable, resilient organizations and communities here in the Pioneer Valley, across the region, the nation and the globe.
Amy-Louise holds a B.A. in English from the University of Maine at Orono, an M. S. in Education from
Bank Street College of Education, and a certificate in Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency from GCC. In
2017, Antioch University New England awarded her an M. S. in Environmental Studies. At present, Amy-
Louise sits on the board of New Century Theatre and serves as the co-chair of Kestrel Land Trust’s
Membership Development Committee.
