Speaker Biographies

Rhoda Barr

Director of Client Services, Volunteer Consulting Group

Ms. Barr, Director of Client Services of the Volunteer Consulting Group, is a graduate of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations of Cornell University and received her MBA from the Graduate School of Business and Public Administration at N.Y.U. She works directly with board and staff leadership of nonprofit organizations, consulting with them on the strengthening of their governing abilities.

Before joining VCG in 1986, Ms. Barr worked for fifteen years in Westchester County building public/private partnerships for economic development and job training opportunities. As Deputy Director of the Private Industry Council, she collaborated with the leadership of major corporations on identifying needs, establishing policies, and providing funding for nonprofit agencies. As Director of the Job Development Center, she placed former government employees in private sector jobs. Ms. Barr developed and directed the public/private Youth Employment Service and Summer Jobs for Youth programs.

Ms. Barr is also the founder and a trustee of the Corporate Community Jobs Project, which won national recognition as an outstanding model of business and community partnership. She has taught Labor Economics at Mercy College and Women in Management at Iona College, and for four years was the Executive Coordinator of Survival Tactics, the training program on nonprofit management sponsored by the United Way and the Council for the Arts in Westchester.

Ms. Barr has for many years made her home in Hastings-on-Hudson where she is Chair of the Planning Board and past President of the League of Women Voters. She is recognized in Who's Who in American Women, was included in the first edition of Women in Westchester, and has been honored by Westchester County for "having made an important contribution to the quality of life."