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Our Team

Meet our dedicated team, a passionate group of individuals, united by a common mission to empower the next generation of engaged citizens!

Catherine Tatge

Co-Founder and Executive Director

Catherine Tatge is a distinguished, Emmy Award-winning producer and director of film and television and the CEO/Co-Founder of Tatge/Lasseur Productions and the not-for-profits, Global Village Media and the Civic Life Project.

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Dominique Lasseur

Dominique Lasseur

Co-Founder and Managing Director

Dominique Lasseur is a film and television producer with numerous productions in the U.S. and abroad. His award-winning work has embraced performance, documentaries, biographical profiles, news and public affairs, and informational programming.

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Chelsea Schuster

MarketinG CONSULTANT

Chelsea is a cause-marketing consultant working with organizations that make bold social impact. She has more than a decade of experience managing communications, fundraising, and community engagement initiatives at leading civic organizations.

Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors are a team of talented individuals with experience in a wide variety of professional fields. They have helped to shape Civic Life Project into the program that it is today.

Jim Blumenfeld

President

James served as Chief Marketing Officer for a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ameritrade, Vice President of Marketing for Citibank’s virtual venture Citi-f/i, Director of Marketing for The Coca Cola Company in their Global Marketing Group and various marketing and new product positions with Nabisco and Ralston Purina. For the past 18 years, Jim has run his own marketing and business consulting firm called The WilMark Group based in Delray Beach Florida.

Peter Grossman

Executive Vice President

Peter has had a career in International Banking working in the Philippines, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria, and Italy.  He supervised the Latin American Region and International Private Banking at Bankers Trust Company and held similar positions at American Express Bank. Peter has a BA Cum Laude in Political Science from Bowdoin College and an MA in Public Law and Government from Columbia University.

Lee A. Davies

Lee Davies is Senior Strategic Counselor, Director of Media Strategy at Makovsky, one of the largest independent communications and public relations firms in New York, with recognized expertise in the healthcare and biomedical industries.

Davia Brown Franklyn, M.S. Ed

Davia Franklyn is currently the Senior Director of Partnerships for the Bank Street Education Center (BSEC). She started her 25-year career in education as a third-grade teacher in Brownsville, NY after graduating from Ithaca College.

Barbara Moller

Barbara Kahn Moller left a Wall Street career in equity and fixed income research in 1991 to move to Germany with her husband and two young children. Barbara is a member of the Skidmore College Board of Trustees, chair of the Francis Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery National Advisory Council, and a member of the Women’s Support Services Board of Directors.  

Emily Soell

Emily’s experience in advertising, direct marketing and creative communication spans over 40 years.  From the entry level position of junior copywriter at Rapp Collins, a subsidiary of Omnicom, she rose through the ranks to eventually be named Vice Chair/Chief Creative Officer of the agency.  In 1998 she left Rapp Collins for the same post at Draft, which is owned by Interpublic.

Our Advisors

Our group of advisors guide the direction of the organization and provides valuable support, insight, and strategic advice on Civic Life Project’s programs and initiatives.

Patricia Redd Johnson

Patricia Redd Johnson taught English, drama, history, and math, for twenty years in various New York City public schools, including IS 44 (where she taught Francisco Núñez), the Music and Art High School, and A. Philip Randolph High School at City College. She then became the first African American Director of Admissions at the Dalton School and, later, at The Hotchkiss School.

Jody Messler Davies, Ph.D.

Editor in Chief of Psychoanalytic Dialogues:  The International Journal of Relational Perspectives, from 1998-2008; Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; Founding Vice President of the International Association for Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; Founding board member of the Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational Studies; Faculty member National Institute for the Psychotherapies, Massachusetts Institute of Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis.

Shamar Mahon

A graduate from Wheaton College MA., Mahon is the youngest member ever to serve on the legislative body that governs Bloomfield, a town of 21,535 in Hartford County, Connecticut. He is currently heading up various projects, including an internship program for high school students as well as fundraising and on-the-ground efforts in support of food banks and families in need. He previously worked for Promise Zone Youth Employment for Success (YES), a program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

Pamela Vogel, Ph.D.

Pam has served as a teacher, principal, central office administrator, area education agency supervisor and superintendent, working with teachers, administrators, and boards of education in developing, implementing, and evaluating initiatives that impact student achievement. From 2010-2015, she instructed classes in curriculum and instruction in the Superintendent Licensure Program at Iowa State University. She most recently served for five years as Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent for the Region One school districts in Connecticut.

Julie Peyton

Julie started a teaching career after earning degrees at the University of Rochester and Bank Street College of Education. Since leaving the classroom, Julie has advocated the importance of education for students of all backgrounds to succeed. One of Julie’s most cherished and long-standing leadership roles as National Patron and regional ambassador for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.  Julie is Co-Founder of Under the Sun, a national hair care brand that gives back a portion of its profits to its affiliated charities.

Estrus Tucker

Estrus Tucker is an independent consultant and keynote speaker specializing in small and large group facilitation, designing and leading conversations and retreats across the country in support of personal, professional and community renewal, transformation, healing and reconciliation. For the past sixteen years, he has served as President & CEO of Liberation Community, Inc., a social justice network promoting inclusive community organizing and non-violent activism in diverse low income communities, and Past President & Moderator of the Minority Leaders & Citizens Council hosting a weekly live audience, Cable & Radio Leadership Forum that encouraged dialogue & action.

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