COLUMBIA—The Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina announced its 2014 board of trustees’ officers: Craig Waites, chair; Rick Mendoza, vice chair; Barbara Gourdine Clark, secretary; and Thomas Otis, treasurer.
Waites joined the board in 2008. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. He is currently a vice president at Colliers International of South Carolina where he specializes in the sale of retail properties. He is also a graduate of Leadership Columbia. Waites participates in numerous community and civic activities. He has served as a Junior Achievement instructor, United Way of the Midlands volunteer and as a Palmetto League baseball coach. He is an active member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. He and his wife Donna have two daughters, Annie and Rebecca.
Mendoza joined the foundation board in 2010. He earned a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, from the University of South Carolina School of Business and a juris doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he later served as an adjunct professor. Mendoza is a member of Nexsen Pruet, LLC and practices in the areas of creditors’ rights and bankruptcy law. He is a certified bankruptcy and debtor-creditor law specialist in the State of South Carolina, and currently serves as chair of the bankruptcy and debtor-creditor law specialization advisory board for the State of South Carolina. Mendoza has received the William E.S. Robinson Public Service Award of the South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association and has been selected for, The Best Lawyers in America for bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights law.
Clark joined the board in 2011. She received a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from Xavier University of Louisiana. In addition, she received a master’s in early childhood education and a degree in master’s supervision and district administration from State University College at Buffalo, N.Y. A retired educator, her interests have always been helping children and families develop a quality of life that leads to education, work ethics, and service and contributions to ones’ community. A founding member of the Office of Black Ministries, now Office of Cultural Diversity, in the Diocese of Buffalo, she served as a delegate to the papal visit in New Orleans and also attended workshops and conventions of the National Black Catholic Congress in leadership, liturgy, and music. Before joining the Sisters of Charity Foundation board, Ms. Clark served on the foundation’s grants committee as a non-member in 2012. She is currently a member of St. Patrick’s Church in Charleston, South Carolina and sings in the choir.
Otis joined the foundation board in 2007 and currently serves as executive vice president of finance for JDA Frontline in Charleston. He received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Washington and Lee University and a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Otis has served as past president of the Palmetto Chapter of the W&L Alumni Association, Salvation Army of the Midlands advisory board member and on the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina finance committee. He is married with two children and is an active member of St. Philips Episcopal Church.
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