At its May meeting, the Ithaca College Board of Trustees elected four new members. Elliot Mayrock ’73 will serve for the next four years as a term trustee, Michael Conover ’81 for three years as an alumni trustee, Christy Agnese ’06 for three years as the staff trustee and Ciara Lucas ’17 for two years as the student trustee.
Mayrock served for many years on the management team of Fortunoff, where he was responsible for developing the successful home furnishings business of the New York-based department store chain founded by his family. He is currently the treasurer of the Mayrock Foundation, which supports a number of educational and charitable organizations throughout the world.
He has been a generous supporter of student opportunities at Ithaca College, primarily in the Department of History, from which he earned his degree. He established the Marjorie Fortunoff Mayrock Memorial Lecture Series, Harry Mayrock Memorial Award, Elliot Mayrock Writing Award and Elliot Mayrock ’73 History Scholarship. He made a significant gift toward the campaign to build the Dorothy D. and Roy H. Park Center for Business and Sustainable Enterprise, for a classroom named in honor of his parents.
Conover earned his degree in finance and has worked for the past three decades in the financial services industry. The founding partner of KPMG’s financial risk management practice in the United States, he currently serves as the firm’s global sector head, capital markets. His previous positions have included managing director at The Secura Group, vice president at Drexel Burnham Lambert and controller at First Bank & Trust Company of Ithaca. He was named one of the top 25 consultants of 2009 by Consulting magazine.
Elected in 2011 to the Alumni Association Board of Directors, Conover chairs the Fund-raising Committee. His other college activities have included participation in the IC Mentoring Network and Business-Link Professions Program. The Michael J. Conover ’81 Accounting and Finance Scholarship is awarded annually to a deserving School of Business student who is a member of the Beta Alpha Psi honor society.
After earning her undergraduate degree from the School of Music, Agnese served in several fund-raising and communications roles with the Philadelphia Orchestra and as executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Tompkins and Cortland Counties. She joined the staff of the school in 2010 as senior assistant to the dean and is currently the operations and external relations officer, overseeing concerts and special events and managing staff and budgeting, in addition to representing the school to the community, alumni and donors.
For the past two years Agnese has served as the School of Music’s representative to Staff Council, and this fall she will participate as a staff associate with the First-Year Residential Experience. She is also a member of the Tompkins County Strategic Tourism Planning Board and has been an ambassador with the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce.
A native of Media, Pennsylvania, Lucas graduated from Strath Haven High School and is majoring in journalism with a dual minor in sociology and French language. She is a Martin Luther King Scholar at the college, and along with the other first-year MLK Scholars took part in the annual Civil Rights tour last fall.
Lucas has worked with several student media organizations in the Roy H. Park School of Communications, including as a staff writer for The Ithacan and assistant producer for the ICTV shows “Newswatch 16” and “E16.” She has been recognized with a Journalism Camp Scholarship and KYW Newstudies Program scholarship as well as a Rotary Youth Leadership Award. She is a student member of the Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists and Asian American Journalists Association.
