Deborah Clover, Bookkeeper/Office Manager

Deborah Clover is a lifelong resident of Central New York, growing up in the Syracuse suburb of Baldwinsville. Strongly influenced by her parents’ commitment to community service, she began her own activism and organizing as a teenager, working as a peer counselor for her hometown crisis hotline and organizing a guerilla theater group of teens and adults who performed throughout the greater Syracuse area during the early 1970s. In 1973, Deb moved to Cortland, and was hired by the Cortland County Health Department as an outreach worker for their newly started Family Planning Clinic. Thus began a long professional life which has combined administration, management, and finance work on the one hand with community organizing, training and technical assistance on the other.

She came to Ithaca in 1981 when she was hired by Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services where she helped start their Rental Rehabilitation Program. Over the years, Deb has also worked with Cortland County Community Action Program, the community-built playground firm of Leathers and Associates, New York Folklore Society, Cortland and Tioga Arts Grants Programs, Cornell University, Ithaca Community Acupuncture, and served as a consultant to the New York State Council on the Arts, Neighborhood Reinvestment, School to Main, and a number of small historical and cultural organizations. A common theme throughout her varied work has been a commitment to diversity, empowerment, collaboration, and inclusion.

Deb holds an A.S. in Social Sciences from TC3 and a B.A. in Folklore from Empire State College. She is passionate about issues of social justice and cultural equity and has a deep commitment to “living my life in a way which fosters equality, diversity and respect for all people.” Among her other interests and activities, Deb is a musician, craftsperson, Reiki practitioner, aromatherapist, and ordained interfaith minister.