Amanda Heidel, Grants Manager
Amanda came to Choice Words in 2020 after six years of working in advertising and marketing for Viacom Media Networks. She moved to Ithaca from the Hudson Valley in 2022 and has helped develop Choice Words’ new office in Ithaca. In addition, she helped Choice Words develop the Small and Emerging Nonprofit Grants program in 2019, which she also manages. Her background in marketing dovetails with grant writing to create an innovative framework for guiding emerging nonprofits who often need diversified funding streams to get on their feet.

Yesenia Morales, Administrator
Yesenia Morales pursued her undergraduate education at Russell Sage College in Upstate New York in Psychology. While at Russell Sage College, She became a writer for the school newsletter and published many articles covering events, social topics and kept students up to date. After finishing her studies, her professional journey has been primarily rooted in the insurance industry. Yesenia actively joins volunteer events of nonprofit organizations that focus on the environment and social well-being. Her passion for volunteerism with nonprofit organizations has flowed into the professional world, and is one of the many reasons she has joined the Choice Words team. Yesenia is critical to generating proposals, responding to bids, and is in charge of billing, amongst other organizational tasks.

Jennifer Leao, Grant Writer
Jennifer Leao has over 12 years of experience as a non-profit administrator and capacity builder. She specializes in post-award management and governmental grant proposals at all levels. Jennifer has worked in supportive housing and homeless services, legal services, and university community-based initiatives and research projects. Born and raised in the Los Angeles area, She has lived in New York, NY for over 15 years.

Stephanie Andrés, Grant Writer
Stephanie is a native of the Ithaca area and dedicated to advancing missions through community building, impactful initiatives, and innovative best practices. She brings a proven track record in nonprofit fundraising, governance, communications and community relations, having contributed as both an employee and volunteer in the scientific research, community service, and the performing and visual arts sectors.

Maureen Mooney, Grant Writer
Maureen has been grant writing for nearly ten years and has secured funding for municipalities, nonprofit organizations, businesses, museums, and universities. She specializes in writing state and federal proposals and applies her background in business and economic development to assist clients with short and long-term funding strategies, project development, research, and procurement. Maureen has obtained funding for a wide range of projects including downtown revitalization initiatives, municipal infrastructure improvements, community and workforce development programs, and open space restoration projects. She genuinely enjoys the diversity of people and projects that she has connected with through grant writing over the years, and is thrilled to be on the Choice Words team. After several years of living and working in Chicago and Philadelphia, Maureen is happily back home in Central New York with her husband and two young children.

Rebecca Morgan, Grant Writer
Rebecca Morgan has spent her career between international human rights projects and farm and food system development work. Her international work included consulting with Human Rights Watch in Kosovo and with the United Nations Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Guatemala. In food system work she led the National Immigrant and Refugee Farmer Initiative for Heifer International’s USA Country Program prior to being the executive director for the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship in New York State. Rebecca has been growing food her whole life and currently lives in Upstate New York with her husband and their four children.

Michelle Landers, Grant Writer
Michelle Landers has more than 25 years experience in grant writing and matching projects with funding possibilities, with a particular focus on education. Throughout her 20 years serving Wells College as Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, Michelle has helped to secure funding from local, regional, and national foundations and government agencies. Michelle enjoys the process of working with people at all levels of leadership to transform their project ideas into competitive grant proposals, and helping the team to identify and articulate goals, methods, measurements, and relevant data needed to build a strong case for their project’s need and impact. Michelle has lived in or around Ithaca (except for a 4 year adventure in West Virginia) since 2000 and loves calling the Finger Lakes home.

Aaron Fumarola, Grant Writer
Born and raised in the Finger Lakes town of Homer, NY, Aaron is a 2007 graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he studied political science and philosophy. In 2010 he completed a Masters of Professional Studies in Environmental Policy from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY. After working for three years as Development Coordinator for Lime Hollow Nature Center in Cortland, NY, he transitioned to Teatown Lake Reservation in Ossining, NY, where he worked for nearly two years as the organization’s sole grant writer. With a lifelong enthusiasm for the arts and humanities, he joined Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in 2015, where he was responsible for cultivating and soliciting donations from new and existing donors in support of arts and education programming. In April of 2017 he transitioned to Choice Words on a part-time basis to research and write proposals on behalf of a number of our clients.

Briana Maloney, Vice President
Briana Maloney has been grant writing for 15 years and has won more than $52M for Choice Words’ clients. She is a research and information specialist with experience in social media and web design. She previously worked as an academic librarian at Rockland Community College, Mount Saint Mary College, and at the New York State Library as a public information advocate where she sought funding for various statewide public education programs. She is on the board of the Rondout Valley Education Foundation, serving as chair of the grants committee and is a member of the Music Institute of Sullivan and Ulster Counties’ High Strung Orchestra. She currently resides in Kerhonkson, NY, with her two kids, husband, and adorable mutt.

Steve Densmore, President and Founder
Steve Densmore has spent the last 35 years working as a communications professional in the Hudson Valley. An award winning writer and journalist, Steve spent much of that time working in the trenches for several weekly newspapers and magazines, serving as a reporter, editor and publisher (sometimes all at the same time). Steve’s career path evolved substantially in 2005 when he began working as a communications consultant for several Hudson Valley nonprofit organizations. This grew to include the Dyson Foundation and the Walkway Over the Hudson nonprofit organization, where he spearheaded public relations and grant writing for several years. Steve launched Choice Words in 2010 in response to an increasing call for supportive communications services among Hudson Valley nonprofits. He has served on various boards of directors during his career including the New York Press Association, the Vassar Warner Home of Poughkeepsie, the Barrett Art Center, and the environmental advocacy organization, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. He is currently on the board of the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation. He lives in Montgomery.