Board of Directors

The Board is responsible for leading the organization to accomplish strategic goals, while keeping in mind the origins of this grass-roots organization. Each Board member brings a unique perspective, serving for a 3-year term. The Executive Director reports to the Board.

Meet the Board

Ellen Gaffney
Ellen Parker Gaffney graduated from Agnes Scott College (ASC) with a B.A. in Biology-Psychology and did some graduate work at Georgia State in School Psychometry. She has been married to Chris for 31 years and they have raised four children together, ages 23-30. She is a weekly volunteer in the office of the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research and recently chaired their largest fundraiser for two consecutive years. For the past 15 years, she has served on the summer central staff at Camp Crestridge for Girls in North Carolina. Previously Gaffney served as the Managing Editor for Quilt Magazine and as a pattern designer and photo stylist for the same publication.
Gaffney describes herself as a professional volunteer, having served as a Girl Scout leader for 15 years, serving as a class officer for ASC’s Class of 1987, almost every year since graduation, and serving on the ASC Alumnae Board.  She also serves as the Service Committee chair for the Atlanta Smocking Guild, distributing over 800 gowns and blankets annually to premature and stillborn babies in local hospitals. Gaffney is co-director of Path To Shine’s Marietta affiliate and is actively involved with the Ugly Pants fundraiser. Through her involvement with PTS, she has become a weekly volunteer in the nursery at their host location, where evening ESL classes are offered.
Gaffney was involved with Wonderful Days Preschool, a tuition-free preschool for under-served children in Marietta for over twenty years,  first as the school’s director, and then as a board member.  She just completed a third term on the Camp Crestridge Alumnae Board and is currently the curator for the camp museum and archives. She is a past member of the Board of Trustees for Darlington School in Rome, GA and recently served on the Student Experience Committee for strategic planning, in addition to serving two terms as President of the Parents’ Association.

Nadeen Green
Nadeen has been an attorney since 1979 and until her retirement had been teaching Fair Housing law to the multi-family housing industry since the Fair Housing Amendments Act went into effect in 1989. Her many programs (1300+) were presented to apartment management companies and state and local apartment associations nationwide, and she was regularly asked to speak at national industry conferences for the National Apartment Association, Multi-Housing World, AIM and OpTech, as well as at the UGA and GT. She also wrote many "reader-friendly" articles on Fair Housing and was a guest blogger as “Fair Housing Lady”.  Her blog is still live at fairhousing.forent.com.
​Nadeen was Senior Counsel with Dominion Enterprises, a well-respected company which provides internet advertising services for a variety of industries throughout the U.S., for 21 years. She was President of the Sandy Springs Bar Association, currently serves on the Board for the International Fund for Economic Development (IFED), and serves on the Communications Committee for the Atlanta Ministry of International Students (AMIS). Nadeen teaches Ethics classes at G.T., Anhui University of Economics and Finance (Bengbu/Anhui Province/PRC), and at the Atlanta Art Institute. She has written three children's books, Let There Be Dragons, When Pigs Fly, and Libby and the Cape of Visitability.

V. Gourisankar ("Sankar")
Mr. Gourisankar has 30 years of experience spanning the corporate, startup and academic space. He graduated with a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech and spent the first half of his career on the research faculty at Georgia Tech building a professional services organization that served the DOD, FAA and major defense contractors such as Lockheed, Northrop, and Intergraph. Later in his career he worked at several large U.S. Corporations in operational leadership positions as Director, CTO, and Vice President. He has hands on experience leading professional services as well as product development organizations with a proven track record of improving the operating margins and profitability. In addition, he has experience in the acquisition and integration of companies that develop engineering/ technical software applications. Most recently, he founded and grew a professional services company into a 20+ person operation that serves the Aerospace & Defense sector.

Betsy Jones
From the suburbs of NY, I went to UNC for undergrad and then UGA for my Master’s degree. Georgia has been my home since 1977.
My first job out of college was for a Regional Planning Commission where I served as a human resources consultant to communities in the Metropolitan Atlanta area.  Since 1986 I’ve worked in the IT division at Federal Home Loan Bank. I am currently a Banking Officer coordinating the development and support of the applications for the Accounting and Funds Transfer departments. FHLB has always had, as part of its mission, a focus on giving back to the community in which it serves. As a result, I have had an opportunity to volunteer hundreds of hours including Habitat for Humanity, Project Open Hand, Atlanta Community Tool Bank, AID Atlanta, and the Foundation for Hospital Art.
As a member of St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, I headed the Outreach Committee for two years changing the focus of our Outreach goals from giving our treasures to giving our time and our talents. For the last 12 years I have served as the Acolyte Leader at St. Aidan’s. Without a doubt this is the most important and fulfilling ‘job I have had in my life. I enjoy spending my free time with my dog, Allie, and traveling.

Dan Kniffen
Dan Kniffen is a Partner with the law firm of Drew, Eckl & Farnham, where he has represented Employers in the courtroom for 35 years, and through creation of policies and procedures to avoid and resolve disputes in the workplace. Dan has served as a Co-Managing Partner and on the firm’s Board of Directors, and has served as Chairman of the State Bar of Georgia’s Labor and Employment Section and the National Defense Research Institute’s Workers’ Compensation and Employer Liability Section.

Dan has been inducted into the International Association of Defense Counsel and serves by appointment on the Chairman’s Advisory Council, which vets legislation and policy for Georgia’s Workers’ Compensation system. Dan has also served in various leadership and volunteer capacities with The First Tee of East Lake, StreetGrace, Kids Chance of Georgia, The Orphans Foundation in Haiti, The Vine United Methodist Church, Fifth Row Center Theater and Leadership Gwinnett. Dan lives in Brookhaven, Georgia with his wife, Patty.

Joe Thomas, Jr.