Del Mar Encore Fellows Selected to Help Lead Community Efforts

Del Mar Encore Fellows: Noreen Willhelm, Katherine Rowell, PhD, Rebecca Rogero-Victor, Genel L. Newkirk

Four highly skilled older adults have been selected as the newest fellows for The Dayton Foundation’s Del Mar Encore Fellows Initiative, which deploys retired or career-transitioning older adults to work on significant community issues. Each fellow brings new sources of talent and experience to nonprofit organizations tackling critical needs in Greater Dayton.

Since the initiative launched in 2017, Del Mar Encore Fellows have been placed with 29 organizations and have contributed more than 61,000 hours of work, providing an estimated $3.2 million in value to the Greater Dayton economy. This initiative is made possible thanks to generous grants from the DMH-Dayton Fund of The Dayton Foundation.

Serving for the next year as Del Mar Encore Fellows are the following:

Genel L. Newkirk is working with SICSA Pet Adoption and Wellness Center to formalize and create a sustainable framework for the organization’s One Welfare Program, which recognizes the interdependence of human and animal well-being. Newkirk has over 30 years of experience in project management, administrative leadership, and program coordination across corporate, senior healthcare, and higher education sectors, including 16 years of leading her own home healthcare agency. Most recently, Newkirk served as the Career Service coordinator for Wilberforce University.

Rebecca Rogero-Victor is working with the Mentoring Collaborative of Montgomery County to lead and coordinate a network of agencies, providing resource development, training and certification for partner agencies and mentors. Her background includes work as an educator, life coach, and nonprofit executive.

Katherine Rowell, PhD, is supporting the Montgomery County Two-Generation Collaborative, a program of the University of Dayton’s Fitz Center for Leadership in Community and Learn to Earn Dayton. She brings more than 40 years of academic and community experience focused on poverty, housing justice, and resilience.

Noreen Willhelm is partnering with Yellow Springs Home, Inc. to explore the use of a community land trust model to address housing affordability in Dayton. She previously led the Del Mar Encore Fellows Initiative before retiring in 2022 and has decades of nonprofit leadership experience.

These new fellows join existing Encore Fellows working on regional initiatives related to aging, workforce development, brain health, re-engagement, and educational advancement.