Board of Directors

Mark Gierach, the Executive Director and Founder of the Pantry, was born and raised in the City of Mequon, and moved to Grafton just before his junior year in high school. After graduating from Grafton High, he attended MATC in Milwaukee for Police Science and began working for the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Department in 1974. He retired at the rank of Sergeant in 2004. He worked for Business Network International (BNI) from 2005 to 2015 and operated his own promotional products business. Mark started the Ozaukee Food Alliance in 2011 and became its Executive Director in 2012. He currently lives in the town of Farmington with his wife, Nancy, who also gives much time to help run the Pantry and the Community Meal Site hosted by the Pantry. During their time away from the pantry they enjoy time with their extended families and friends.

Rhonda Golownia began helping at Ozaukee Food Alliance in 2015, along with her son, when he needed community volunteer hours for Port Washington High School’s Port Pride Program. Rhonda currently volunteers time assisting at open pantry dates and helps with the coordination of fund-raising events. Rhonda became a board member in 2020 and brings her collaboration skills to OFA from her many roles at BMO Financial Group. In her current role as an Operations Specialist, AVP in the North American Deposits and Payments Operations Delivery group, Rhonda manages many projects from the infancy stage all the way through execution where collaboration is a key contributor to success.

Jae Henderson is the proud principal of Saukville Elementary School and he is honored to serve on the OFA Board of Directors. Growing up in Chicago, Jae saw first hand how food insecurity impacted individuals from all different backgrounds. Jae believes healthy food and clean water are a basic right for all people and he is excited to work towards eliminating hunger in Ozaukee County. Furthermore, Jae has always believed that a great school has the potential to have a tremendous impact on the surrounding community, and that is why he is so excited to join the OFA Board of Directors in his current role with the Port Washington-Saukville School District. In his free time, Jae enjoys fishing, golf, camping, and spending time with his family and his dog Georgia.

Chris is Branch Manager and Vice President of the Port Washington State Bank’s Saukville Branch. Chris’ banking career started after graduating from UW-Whitewater and includes the last 10 years with PWSB. Chris was born and raised in Port Washington, and continues to call it home. She has devoted many years to volunteering in the community. Most recently as President of the Saukville Chamber of Commerce, and previously on the Board of Directors for the Northern Ozaukee United Way, Treasurer for Possibility Playground and Port Fish Day. In her spare time, Chris loves to spend time with her 2 daughters, travel and play golf.

April Klinter and her husband Darren own Advantage Auto Service and Sales in Saukville and live just a few miles away with their three rescue dogs. They have two grown children, Gabrielle and Jacob, both graduates of Port Washington High School. Previously, April was the Board President for Milwaukee Empty Bowls and a member of the Executive Council at the Hunger Task Force. Through her work with those organizations she gained a good amount of knowledge around hunger insecurity. Her biggest takeaway is pretty simple: Everyone should be able to feed their family nutritious, quality, culturally-appropriate food. April shared that while there is a growing need for help in Ozaukee county a lot of people are unaware of the extent of that need. Her goal is to help create opportunities to build community with both those who can provide help and those who could use help. April is animal-lover and avid traveler and when she is not off on an adventure, she also volunteers her time with Sandi Paws Animal Rescue.

Carla LaFever joined Aurora Health Care in 2001. As the President of Aurora Medical Center Grafton, Carla sets the strategic direction of the hospital and oversees all operations. Carla has been at the Grafton location since it opened in 2010. Carla works cohesively with physician groups, community leaders and the entity to ensure that the Grafton hospital is meeting the needs of the patients in the communities they serve.

Lonnie currently lives in Port Washington and joined the Ozaukee Food Alliance in 2023 as both a
volunteer and board member. After a 20+ year career managing global teams at Rockwell Automation,
he’s turned much of his focus to giving back to his community. Lonnie and his wife, Cindy, have been
long time residents in Ozaukee County graduating two daughters from Cedarburg High School. In his
free time, he enjoys travel, visiting family and attending his beloved Golden Gopher football games.
He looks forward to partnering with local businesses throughout the county who are eager to reinvest in
the community. His ultimate goal is to provide a helping hand and safety net to those with food
insecurity in an efficient and environmentally sustainable model.

Sara Pashak, who currently serves as Past President, began volunteering with the Pantry as a way to get her then-third grade Christian Formation class at St. Joe’s in Grafton some exposure to community service. Impressed with what the Pantry was already doing, she dove in to help them do more, beginning first as a volunteer, then as Meal Site Ambassador for the bimonthly meal site, and then as a long-serving President. She is Associate Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at UWM and resides in Port Washington with her husband and her son, a Junior at PWHS.  (Her daughter, a PWHS grad, is finishing up at the U of MN.) In her free time (??) she enjoys hiking, reading novels, and drinking wine (the latter two often in combination and, whenever possible, outside in her husband’s gorgeous perennial gardens).

Emily Volkmann is a Grafton High School Alum and now works as an Occupational Therapist in Ozaukee County. She first discovered the pantry through a friend as a teen volunteer but had the pleasure of becoming reacquainted as part of her Mount Mary University Doctoral Capstone project. During that time, Emily had the opportunity to learn and assist with OFA’s many programs and feel in love with the OFA’s people and goals. She began the Social Wellness initiative, GREET, that has now transformed into Books and Bakery. Emily is excited to continue to grow with the organization and their beautiful new building.

Nick Zolecki is the Store Director at the Fox Bros Piggly Wiggly in Saukville. Nick started his career at 14 working for numerous grocery stores in Southeastern Wisconsin. He has helped with food donations with many different Food Pantries over his time working in the food retail industry. Nick has been a resident of Ozaukee County for the last 16 years and has been community-driven with his family and friends. He is looking forward to being a part of this wonderful Food Pantry to support families in our surrounding communities. Nick and his wife live in Cedarburg with their daughter and 2 cats. With his free time he loves to play golf, volleyball, and anything involving nature.