Board Members
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Chairman - Patricia Johnson of Cheyenne, Wyoming, is a retired library director and retired high school teacher. She is serving her third year as a member of the National Senior Spelling Bee Board of Directors. She is married to Wyoming State Senator Wayne Johnson; they have two children. She holds a master of arts degree in library science from the University of Michigan, a bachelor of science degree in education, and worked on her masters in business administration at the University of Wyoming. Johnson served as a base librarian and library director for the Air Force Institute of Technology, F.E. Warren Air Force Base and taught Latin and English. In addition to her volunteer work on behalf of the Bee, Johnson is co-chairman of Cheyenne Daffodil Days, and is a deacon at First Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne, Wyo. She is active in P.E.O., Chapter S, in Cheyenne and loves to read, to garden and to travel.
Vice Chairman - Dave Lerner, the Bee's head pronouncer for the last three years, is president of WyomingNetwork Inc. in Cheyenne, Wyo. His connection with the National Senior Spelling Bee began with his son Steven, who won the Wyoming State Spelling Bee in 2003 and competed in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. A couple of months after the Scripps Bee, Dave discovered the National Senior Spelling Bee, and that gave Steven an opportunity to drill him the way he had been drilled. Dave finished second in the Bee, under the watchful eye of his son, and then joined the Board of Directors. WyomingNetwork, Inc., a website design company, created the SeniorSpellingBee.com website and donated all work on design and maintenance to the Bee.
Brian Greene joined the Board of Directors in 2005. He competed in the 2005 National Senior Spelling Bee and made it to the oral rounds, finishing in the top 10. With an undergraduate degree in philosophy and a graduate degree in library and information science from the University of South Florida, he works at the State Library of Wyoming. There he heads up the team that provides the technical support of the WYLD Network, a statewide computerized information infrastructure serving the libraries of Wyoming and the state's residents. Brian and wife Cynthia have three children and five grandchildren. After 30 years of the heat and humidity of southern Indiana and Florida, he has called Cheyenne, Wyoming home since 1992. He enjoys choral singing, oral interpretation,
doing Sudoku puzzles, collecting quotes from his reading and the delivery and receipt of things punful. Currently, he is also the president of the Wyoming Library Association.
Andrea Coelho of Cheyenne, Wyoming, is a retired French and English teacher. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in French from Douglas College (Rutgers University) and a Master of Arts in Folklore from Indiana University. She has also worked as an Assistant Registrar for Indiana University and with the Wyoming Congressional Awards Council, helping young people receive Congressional Awards. She is married to Dennis Coelho, and they have one daughter. Andrea's volunteer work includes participating in both TaxAide and VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) as well as working with the Bee. Her hobbies are reading, traveling, swimming, and doing the New York Times crossword puzzles. The year 2007 marks her first year as a member of the National Senior Spelling Bee Board of Directors.
Edna V. Vajda of Cheyenne, Wyoming, is a retired Gerontologist and joined the Board of Directors in 2007. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Psychology, Guidance and Counseling, a Master’s Certificate in Gerontology from the University of Northern Colorado and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education from St. Xavier College (St. Xavier University) in Chicago, Illinois. Edna taught English at the junior high school level in Florida and North Dakota and elementary school in Florida and Illinois and currently holds a State of Wyoming Teaching Certification. She has taught psychology, statistics and gerontology classes for Chapman University, social work classes for the University of Wyoming and a gerontology class for Laramie County Community College. She has been in the field of gerontology for 33 years. She managed senior citizens programs at the local level and worked in the State of Wyoming Aging Program in a managing capacity. She represented the Wyoming Aging program as an attendee at the 1995 White House Conference on Aging. Edna recently developed a comprehensive Wyoming Caregiver Resource Guide which links caregivers to community resources. Edna serves as President of ProHome, Inc. a sub-board for Magic City Enterprises of Cheyenne, a member of the Cheyenne Kiwanis Club and a former board member for Prevent Child Abuse Wyoming and the American Society on Aging in San Francisco. She and husband Steven have three children and two grandchildren. |
