(December 2, 2025) 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. Rogero-Victor has served in both the nonprofit and for-profit work sectors. She has worked as an educator for both youth and adults, creating and facilitating personal development and leadership workshops and training programs. Her background also includes being a transformational life coach and traveling the country to engage audiences in what it means to live and lead from the inside out. Most recently, Rogero-Victor served as the executive director for a local watershed organization.
Katherine Rowell, PhD, is helping 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. The Collaborative is working to create lasting, positive change in families’ economic, educational and social well-being by aligning programs, policies and partnerships across sectors. Rowell brings more than 40 years of experience as a public sociologist, scholar, teacher and activist. She has taught at several institutions of higher education, including Central State University, The Ohio State University, Sinclair Community College, Wittenberg University and Wright State University. Her research and advocacy focuses on poverty, housing justice and community resilience.
Noreen Willhelm is working with Yellow Springs Home, Inc., to explore how a community land trust model could help with home affordability in Dayton. She previously led The Dayton Foundation’s Del Mar Encore Fellows Initiative before retiring in 2022. She is a former newspaper reporter and editor and spent more than 30 years working with nonprofit organizations, including serving as the executive director of Planned Parenthood of the Greater Miami Valley, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Rhythm in Shoes and The Grail in the United States. Willhelm has been a board member for the Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District, which has funded local arts organizations and initiatives since the 1990s.
These four new fellows join current fellows Arnie Biondo, serving with Miami Vally Regional Planning Commission’s Institute for Livable and Equitable Communities on the Age-Friendly Initiative; Debra Brathwaite, PhD, serving with Miami Valley Urban League; Dan Foley, serving with the Employers’ Workforce Coalition a leadership initiative of The Dayton Foundation; Brett Hart, serving with the University of Dayton’s Brain Health Collective; Jane McEwen, serving with Sinclair Community College’s Fast Forward Re-Engagement Center; and Beverly Williams Odon, PhD, serving with Learn to Earn Dayton. These fellows have been working for the past year on the Foundation’s community leadership initiatives.
For more information about the Del Mar Encore Fellows Initiative, please contact Leigh Sempeles, executive fellow, at lsempeles@daytonfoundation.org or (937) 225-9949.
About The Dayton Foundation
The Dayton Foundation has been the trusted charitable giving resource for thousands of individuals, families and organizations since 1921. Ranked among the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, the Foundation has awarded more than $1.4 billion in grants since its founding, with current assets from all funds exceeding $1.17 billion. For more information about The Dayton Foundation, visit daytonfoundation.org or follow the Foundation on Facebook, X or LinkedIn.