Q&A
Meet Elena Matlack & Katherine Chapman Stemberg
Katherine and Elena serve on the Perkins Board of Trustees and co-chair the Perkins Corporation.
For over a decade, Elena and Katherine have been committed volunteer leaders at Perkins. They serve on the Perkins Board of Trustees and co-chair the Perkins Corporation.
What motivates you to stay involved with Perkins?
Katherine: Perkins helps every child who needs to learn differently receive an accessible education, which leads to a meaningful life.
Elena: Perkins is a dynamic and innovative organization, always ready to tackle new and unexpected issues related to blindness, deaf-blindness, and MDVI. In the last ten years, we’ve witnessed a new form of blindness, Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI), which has quickly become the leading cause of blindness in the world. Perkins is addressing this crisis head-on and has become the center of excellence in the CVI community.
What do you hope to help Perkins achieve in your leadership role?
Katherine: We are thrilled to be leading such an enthusiastic and diverse group of donors and supporters. Our goal is to ensure Perkins continues to be a leader for decades to come.
Elena: There are over 6 million blind and MDVI children in the world today. At Perkins, we believe every child can learn. So I hope that I can help connect people to our mission in my leadership role and work with supporters to spread the word about the extraordinary work happening at Perkins.
Why should someone get more involved with Perkins?
Katherine: Every time I learn about a young person succeeding with Perkins’ help, it makes me want to do even more. We can all make a difference by giving back, from volunteering to making a donation, introducing Perkins to friends, or just sharing a post on social media.
Elena: An investment in Perkins will impact children locally, nationally, and even internationally for years to come.
