Board of Trustees
Co-chair, Alfa Demmellash
Born and raised in Ethiopia, Alfa Demmellash now lives in New Jersey with her husband and two little boys. She is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Rising Tide Capital, a non-profit organization that provides underserved entrepreneurs with the resources needed to grow successful businesses. Under her leadership for the past 15 years, Rising Tide Capital has run hundreds of Community Business Academies, which provide intensive business management training coupled with year-round coaching and mentorship to over 1,000 entrepreneurs annually. Corporate, foundation, and governmental funders underwrite the cost of tuition for all participants. By building successful businesses, these entrepreneurs meet their families’ basic needs, create opportunities for social mobility, and help transform their local communities into thriving economies.
Alfa is also the co-founder of Future Tide Partners, which equips cross-sector leaders to shift capital, policy, and culture to respond to a new world of work in service to a flourishing future economy.
Alfa has received a number of awards and recognition for her work with Rising Tide Capital. In 2009, she was selected and profiled as a CNN Hero, and recognized by President Barack Obama during a speech at the White House. She was recognized as one of Forbes’ Most Powerful Women Changing the World with Philanthropy in August 2012, and has been awarded honorary doctorates from St. Peter’s University and New Jersey City University.
Major media features include the Suze Orman Show, The Larry King Show, O, The Oprah Magazine, Inc.com, BusinessWeek.com, The Star-Ledger, Entrepreneur.com as well Essence Magazine.
Co-chair, Matt Stinchcomb
Matt Stinchcomb is a successful entrepreneur across sectors. Prior to working in the nonprofit sector, Matt was the longest serving employee and the Vice President of Values and Impact at Etsy.com. In that role, he oversaw the stewardship of the company’s vision, mission, and values and worked to give all employees the means and desire to maximize the benefit of their work on people and planet.
After leaving Etsy, Matt founded and led the Good Work Institute – a local organization that exists to cultivate, connect, support, and illuminate a network of people and initiatives working towards Just Transition in the Hudson Valley. Additionally, he is a co-founder of Place Corps, an educational program dedicated to cultivating a call to know, love, and serve our places.
In 2021, Matt co-founded the Partners for Climate Action in the Hudson Valley to provide human, social, and financial capital to communities in the Hudson Valley who are leading the work to repair our natural systems and tackle the climate crisis.
Matt also serves on the Board of Directors for the Schumacher Center for New Economics (Chair) and Naropa University. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and lives in Rhinebeck, NY with his wife, Benedikta, and their sons, Francis and Lewie.
Kim Bucci, Treasurer
Kim is the owner and operator of Rivertown Lodge in Hudson and the soon-to-be Camptown Hotel in Leeds. She is a 20 year NYC hospitality veteran who managed a variety of restaurants, nightclubs, and event venues before moving to the Hudson Valley. The bounty of the area inspires Kim’s creative vision and direction, using local artisans, farmers, brewers and distillers to create a sense of place. In building these multidimensional businesses, Kim works to extend healthy work opportunities and mentorship to the community. As a member of the Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood Leadership Circle, she has spearheaded fundraising initiatives surrounding accessibility to women’s health resources. Kim has been a full-time Columbia County resident for the past 8 years with her partner Wes and two daughters, Adele and Max.
Danielle Do
Danielle spent the first part of her career as a corporate lawyer, working as an associate and then partner with Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. In that role, she advised many large corporations on mergers, acquisitions, and capital markets transactions, as well as on corporate governance and securities law matters. She currently serves as the Chief Corporate & Securities Counsel at Synchrony Financial where she handles corporate governance and securities law matters. Danielle is a graduate of Harvard-Radcliffe College and Harvard Law School. She and her family split their time between New York City and Columbia County.
Alex Sierck
Alex is Hawthorne Valley parent and civil rights lawyer with several decades of experience as a public defender representing individuals in state and federal court. A graduate of Carleton College and The University of Michigan Law School, Alex has worked at The Legal Aid Society of New York City as a trial and appellate lawyer, as an appellate lawyer at the New York State Capital Defenders Office, representing individuals sentenced to death in New York State, a capital defense lawyer in California, and was the founding director of The Center for Holistic Defense at The Bronx Defenders. Currently, Alex is a fifth-year psychoanalyst-in-training at The Jungian Psychoanalytic Association in New York City. He is the former Chair of the Board of Directors of The Brooklyn Zen Center.
Ex-Officio, Martin Ping
