Board members
DENNIS STACK- Project StoryKeeper Founder
With the loss of his father before his only daughter was born and the loss of his mother to Alzheimer’s Disease when his daughter was two, Dennis realized his daughter would never know her grandparents. In fact, he knew very little about his parents, which caused him to rethink his priorities.
After 19 years starting as a financial consultant with EF Hutton and finishing as a Senior Vice President and Branch Manager for UBS/PaineWebber, he discovered that his clients did a great job with preserving their valuables but not so well at preserving their values. So, he created a ‘do-it-yourself’ Family StoryKeeper Kit as a 2001 Christmas gift for his clients. The response was overwhelming. In 2003 he left his upper 6-figure career and made preserving family heritage his life passion.
Since then he has refined and improved his unique story-collection process by training thousands of volunteers in over 800 hospices, senior centers and VA hospitals. His ‘Family StoryKeeper Course’ is considered the industry gold standard for conducting intuitive interviews and is now being taught in 3 universities.
In early 2003 he founded Project StoryKeeper in an effort to work with cultural groups and communities to provide awareness, training and tools to record their stories. Project StoryKeeper is a founding partner with the Library of Congress’ Folklife Center.
Today, Dennis is CEO of Dentom, LLC and acts as an Ambassador to promote the mission of Project StoryKeeper to families and communities.
TOM CORMIER-Outreach Liaison
Tom Cormier grew up on a New England farm with his 9 siblings. He was the first to leave home and served with the US Marines in the Viet Nam War. Returning home he married his high school sweetheart, Christine, and has been married nearly 40 years with two grown sons, Justin and Tyler.
In 1990 Tom founded LTA Media, an international direct marketing firm specializing in personal development products. ‘LTA’ stands for ‘Let’s Talk America’, a radio talk show Tom created and hosted which aired on over 600 stations in the United States and Canada during the 1990’s.
In 2000, looking to make a bigger difference, he helped restore a vintage mountain town in the Great Smoky Mountains. It was during this time that he began collecting and preserving stories of the Cherokee and Appalachian communities.
It quickly became apparent that this rich heritage was disappearing much faster than he could capture it and began looking for ways to engage communities, groups, cultures and families to become more active in preserving their heritage.
When a mutual friend and estate planner introduced Tom to Dennis it was a perfect match. After years of preparation, they combined talents and resources to create the most ambitious family values movement in recent memory, ‘The Living Legacy Project’.
Dr. Ellen Fernandez-Sacco
Dr. Fernandez-Sacco brings experience in research of cultural history and working in the education sector.
Research Interests- genealogy & oral history, museums & collections, visual culture, construction of gender & identity
Education
Ph.D., Art History, University of California, Los Angeles, 1998
School of Criticism and Theory, Dartmouth College, 1996
M.A. Art History, Hunter College, City University of New York, 1991
B.A. cum laude, Anthropology, Hunter College, City of New York, 1986
A.A. Liberal Arts, Queensborough Community College, City University of NY, 1986
Academic Employment
Visiting Scholar, Office for History of Science & Technology, University of California, Berkley 2008-present
Curator, Museo del Munillo, Moca, Puerto Rico, 2006- present
Visiting Scholar, Office for History of Science & Technology, University of California, Berkley 2004-2007
Donna Rasin-Waters, Ph.D.
Dr. Rasin-Waters brings a broad range of experience in the areas clinical psychology with a focus on the elderly and veterans.
Education
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY 1991
M.A., Clinical Psychology, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY 1986
B.A., Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mishigan 1980
A.A., Liberal Arts, Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn, Michigan 1978
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Applied Professional Experience
1992-present, Private Practice, Brooklyn, NY
-Individual and family psychotherapy with older adults, adults, children and adolescents
-Psychology and neuropsychologlogical testing and assessment
-compentency and dementia assessment of older adults including court testimony
1996-present, VA New York Harbor Health Care Systems-Brooklyn Campus
-Consultant and attending, neuropsychological testing seminars and geriatric assessment seminars for psychology interns
-Joined the staff half-time to develop neuropsychological services for the needs of a range of veterans from returning OIF/OEF to older veterans; and to coordinate mental and behavioral health psychology services in oncology, palliative care and geriatrics
-Joined the staff full-time as the Program Leader for a new Geropsychology Postdoctoral Fellowship; developed integrated mental and behavioral health care services in geriatric primary care.
