Executive Board
Andy Neuman
President
Andy has lived in Western Mass for 10+ years and climbed extensively throughout our local crags as well as many other areas across the US and abroad.
Dolci Mascolo
Co-Vice President
Dolci has played a significant role in the acquisition and development of Hanging Mountain. She has established the largest number of moderate climbs at Hanging Mountain to date, coordinated over 500 hours of volunteer work, and secured over $70,000 in grants for Hanging Mountain. Dolci is the liaison between the Board and the Hanging Mountain Stewardship Committee and a member of the JDEI Committee.
Sara McFadden
Co-Vice President
Sara started climbing at the various crags of Western Mass in 2013 and has been a member of the WMCC for most of that time. During the last few years she’s been van living, traveling, and climbing at many amazing places across the country. Western Mass and the wonderful climbing community here has always felt like home in her heart and seems to constantly pull her back. Sara is on the JDEI committee.
Danielle Rao
Treasurer
Danielle has been a member of the WMCC for 17 years and is the current board treasurer. She first started volunteering for the WMCC at annual events like the Winter Thaw and Rendezvous. When it came time to purchase the Farley parking lot, Danielle started the WMCC’s most popular fundraiser, the Silent Auction, now in its 16th year. This event alone has raised over $120,000 for the WMCC!
Danielle is a property manager and a small business owner. She and her husband Jon LaValley (founding member of the WMCC) love to climb locally and road trip around the country climbing and biking. When she’s not climbing, she’s usually reading in a sunny spot, gardening, or doing yoga.
Pamela Matsuda-Dunn
Secretary
Pamela moved to western Mass in 2016, immediately joining the WMCC and the local gym, where she was introduced to this area’s wealth of climbing areas by a welcoming community. She serves on WMCC’s JDEI committee, learning about the challenges facing others in the climbing community, bringing their voices into the conversation, and learning ways we can make our climbing spaces more welcoming to all, including BIPOC, non-binary, and adaptive climbers. Pamela also represented the WMCC during negotiations with FirstLight Power to ensure access to climbing for all for the foreseeable future at Rose Ledge and the part of Farley Ledges that is on FirstLight land, as well as reigniting talks to buy property for an additional parking lot at Farley. She has also been active in helping to develop Hanging Mountain in Sandisfield.
pamela@climbgneiss.org
Rob Sullivan
Rob began climbing in 1990 during his junior year at UConn, cutting his teeth on that state’s terrifying trap-rock, and later, on the magical stone of the Shawangunks. Rob moved to Southern California – just northeast of Joshua Tree – and spent four years climbing all over the American Southwest.
Rob joined the WMCC soon after moving to Western Mass in 2001. Here, he worked closely with the founding members of the WMCC to re-open Farley and bring a certain bolt-chopper to justice. Rob serves on the Joint Stewardship Committee, which manages Hanging Mountain.
Rob lives in Florence, MA with his wife Andrea, daughter Chloe and three dogs: Truman, Harper Lee, and Mollie. He teaches high school English in Enfield, CT.
Sam Copland
Sam was first introduced to climbing working as an outdoor educator in Maine nine years ago. She quickly moved from learning to belay on the ropes course to taking advantage of every opportunity she could to climb outside and learn from anyone who was willing to teach her. Sam wanted to share the joy that climbing brought her and took a Single Pitch Instructor course in 2018 and later earned her SPI certification in 2019. She took campers climbing in the summer, worked with school groups in Acadia and led a women’s only climbing clinic in Camden before relocating to the Western Mass area.
Sam became an ambassador for the Ladies Climbing Coalition, an all volunteer run organization, in December 2018. She strongly believes that the best part about climbing is the community that it can create. She sees climbing as a selfless sport because of the interdependence it requires and loves looking for opportunities to pay it forward, continue to learn and grow, and give back to the community.
sam@climbgneiss.org
Josh Seamon-Ingalls
Josh is a Valley native who grew up in the hill town of Leverett and now lives in Northampton where he spends his days teaching math, meandering around with his Golden Retrievers, and continually plotting rockwall-based journeys with his partner Laura and son Wilson. He considers CRG Hadley along with Farley and Rumney to be his homes away from home. He is WMCC’s Volunteer Coordinator and looks forward to bringing his years of program management experience to the position. He also led the group that created WMCC’s Operating Executive position.
Josh has been teaching for over 20 years and has over a decade of experience managing sport nonprofits at the local, regional, national, and international levels. He has chaired boards as well as held positions ranging from secretary to treasurer, and been an active member of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging initiatives and Judicial Committees. Outside of climbing Josh enjoys leading international trips, participating in triathlons, folding origami, and having cookouts with his friends.
josh@climbgneiss.org
Eliana Wallack
Eliana grew up outside of Boston and first began climbing at Boston Rock Gym and Hammond Pond as a teenager. They returned to Massachusetts in 2014 and quickly found community in climbing. Eliana is an AMGA climbing wall instructor and the co-president of the CRG Adaptive Climbing program. Eliana has served on the WMCC JDEI committee since 2021. Outside of climbing, Eliana works as a Salesforce administrator for Jewish Family & Children’s Service. They live in Watertown with their partner Ben, dog Otto, and turtle Newman.
Aubrey Menard
Aubrey is a Western Mass native who recently returned to the Pioneer Valley after more than a decade away from home. Returning has meant getting to dive fully into climbing and enjoying the amazing access to nature that our beautiful area has to offer. She brings to the board her years of experience fundraising for and raising the profile of progressive causes. Outside of climbing, she works internationally on transparency and countering corruption in oil, gas, and mining. She also enjoys biking, skiing, roller skating, and hiking with her partner and their pack of dogs.
Stephanie Giguere – Operating Executive
Stephanie served on the board of the WMCC from 2020- 2023. Now she is the first Operating Executive of the WMCC! As the OE, Stephanie manages grants, tracks memberships, publishes social media posts and emails, and coordinates events and trail stewardship. When she’s not protecting access to our crags, she loves sport climbing and spending time with her family.
stephanie@climbgneiss.org
Are you interested in becoming a board member?
The WMCC holds elections every fall. If you are interested in becoming a board member, make sure that you are a current WMCC member. You can nominate yourself or someone you know to run for an open seat.
Board members are responsible for attending a monthly board meeting, regularly checking and responding to emails, serving on committees, and participating in fundraising.
WMCC Justice, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
The WMCC JDEI committee was created in an effort to address how outdoor spaces have been guarded for majority populations. While the recent killing of George Floyd spurred the creation of this committee, we recognize that many ISMs are alive and well in the outdoor community. Our goal is to address this concern and create more inclusive, equitable, and welcoming outdoor spaces for those in marginalized communities.
You can reach the JDEI committee at JDEI@climbgneiss.org
JDEI Committee members:
Chair: Eliana Wallack
Sam Copland, Dolci Mascolo, Pamela Matsuda-Dunn, Sara McFadden, Aubrey Menard, Josh Seamon-Ingalls, Jordan Revis,
Hanging Mountain Stewardship Committee
Chair: Ryan Stefiuk
Matt Conroy, Nate McKenzie, Al Rubin, Ryan Stefiuk, Rob Sullivan
Access and Stewardship Committee
Chair: Rama Davis
Russell Allen, Alec Baker, Wayne Burleson, Lydia Gruner, Dan Jazwinski, Jon LaValley, Sara McFadden, Andy Neuman, Justin Raphaelson, Josh Seamon-Ingalls, Rob Sullivan, Ward Smith
Senior Advisors:
Peter Gill, Jon LaValley, Al Rubin, Ward Smith, Jeff Squire (founding president)