The Hands Crew

Harriet Linskey, Co-Founder & Executive Director Harriet's responsibilities include developing relationships in the Eastern Caribbean, fundraising, overseeing the CLASS program, setting up the logistics infrastructure, managing finances and working with donors, recipients, volunteers and board members. She is a trained secondary education teacher with five years of experience teaching English, Journalism, and Art History in New Zealand and Japan. At a rural secondary school in New Zealand, Harriet led the refurbishment of a dismal library and saw firsthand how the addition of new and relevant books can inspire all levels of readers. Before co-founding Hands Across the Sea, Harriet was for 18 years a marketing and sales executive. Harriet has a B. A. from Yale and a Diploma of Teaching from the Auckland College of Education, New Zealand. click to e-mail Harriet

Tom ("T.L.") Linskey, Co-Founer & Communications Director Tom Linskey uses his 30 years of writing, editing, and photography experience to design and update the Hands website and create print and video materials for Hands. T.L. also tackles hands-on projects in Caribbean schools to help promote literacy, such as building bookcases and creating "reading corners" and "literacy centers" in classrooms. Back in 1986 T.L. built his own sailboat and sailed it, with Harriet, from California to Mexico, the South Pacific, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. T.L. also raced sailboats; he was a three-time world champion crewman in the Olympic 470 class and a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic Yachting team. click to e-mail TL

Kate Wallace Rogers, Program Director A New York native, Kate Wallace Rogers draws on twenty-five years of teaching a variety of ages and subjects, which has prepared her well for working with educators and children in the Eastern Caribbean. Kate's first volunteer job was at the East Harlem Tutoring Program. "I was lucky to learn how good it feels to support struggling readers and how much positive impact one person can have, especially in a community where resources are limited." During the 2012/2013 school year, Kate volunteered for Hands, packing books in the warehouse, and then she visited St. Lucia to meet principals, teachers, librarians, students, and U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers. Kate assessed school and library needs and how well each Hands Wish List project had utilized past assistance. "I loved living and working with the St. Lucians, and I look forward to working in many more Eastern Caribbean communities," says Kate. "The opportunity to make a significnt contribution to the literacy of Caribbean children inspires me immensely." As Program Director, Kate oversees all aspects of the Hands CLASS Program. click to e-mail Kate

Amanda Dombach, Program Manager A former U.S. Peace Corps Youth Development Volunteer who devoted two years raising child literacy levels on Grenada, Amanda Dombach was instrumental in creating the 2012/2013 Hands Literacy Award-winning school library at Corinth Government School, a rural primary school. As Program Manager, Amanda will be making sure that all goes well with the 2013/2014 Hands Wish Lists shipment — that's about 40,000 books, and 100 (or so) boxes of teaching resources! And Amanda will be bringing her successful child literacy strategies to Hands, helping to put more and more Caribbean children on the road to a brighter future through literacy. click to e-mail Amanda