Lauren Byrd '03
Lauren Byrd '03 has been working in marketing, communications, and community-building since she founded Buffalo Fashion Week just after graduating from State University of New York at Fredonia. Lauren was instrumental in the revitalization of Downtown Buffalo through her work establishing Canalside as both a destination and a brand. Her career has taken her outside of Western New York and she is now the Director of North American Partnerships for the Ambassador Theatre Group, based in New York City. She spends as much time as she can in Western New York, where her parents still reside.
Gail Y. Mitchell, esq.
Gail Mitchell served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York from 1995 to 2017, where she specialized in civil litigation. She began her legal career in 1979 as an associate with Ballard Spahr Andrews and Ingersoll in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later served as an Assistant City Solicitor for the city of Philadelphia. Prior to entering federal government service, she was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York in Buffalo, New York. She is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law in New York, N.Y., and of Brown University in Providence, R.I. Gail currently serves on the board of the Minority Bar Foundation and Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
Melissa Weiksnar
Melissa Weiksnar, daughter of Helen Weiksnar '41, is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Houston - Downtown, and Harvard Business School. After founding and managing successful tech startups, Melissa dedicated herself to math education, teaching at the Academy of Notre Dame, an all-girls high school in Massachusetts. While she continues to stay active in the fields of business and technology, Melissa now devotes herself to working as a speaker, writer, and activist on the opioid crisis and teen mental health.