Our Staff

Lisa Guyon

Executive Director

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Lisa Guyon began her career in the for-profit sector in commercial real estate and the hospitality industry. In 2004, she founded Building Impact, an award-winning non-profit organization in Boston encouraging corporate citizenship in small and medium businesses. She went on to provide leadership at Housing Assistance Corporation in Hyannis.

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Before joining WE CAN, Lisa served as Director of Community Benefits and Grants Administration at Cape Cod Healthcare where she directed a system-wide community benefits program and managed relationships with community organizations and coalitions, task forces, public health providers and governmental agencies.

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Lisa currently serves on the Board for Community Development Partnership and founded and volunteers for the Cape Cod Pet Collective. She previously served on the Board of Cape Cod Young Professionals (CCYP) including serving as President of the Board of Directors in 2013 and 2014.

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Lisa has been recognized as a Social Innovator for her non-profit business ventures by the Social Innovation Forum in Cambridge, MA and was selected as a ‘40 under 40’ rising business leader by the Boston Business Journal and Cape & Plymouth Business Magazine. She is a Cape Cod native, graduating from Harwich High School and Wheaton College and currently lives in West Barnstable.

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Beth Bowman

Assistant Director

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Beth Bowman is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey and her Master in Social Services from Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Beth has spent over twenty years as a social worker working with children and families. She has held numerous leadership positions; most notably, as Assistant Commissioner for Performance Management and Accountability at the NJ Department of Children and Families prior to her move to Cape Cod in 2015.

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Beth has experience working with women in a variety of settings as they struggle through substance use or as they receive child welfare services or as they transition through other challenges in their lives. She approaches her work with empathy, respect and in a strengths-based and nonjudgmental manner.

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Beth has experienced her own transition when she moved to Cape Cod with her family, experiencing new challenges as she stepped back from her career to settle her family during a winter when the Cape received 100 inches of snow. In 2016, she began work at the Cape and Islands United Way as their first Director of Community Impact. Beth held this position for four years and managed the community engagement and grant-making processes for the organization. She lives in East Sandwich with her husband, Kevin and their son, Sawyer.

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Cara Gerardi

Program Coordinator, Participant Engagement and GROW

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Cara joined WE CAN with a wealth of knowledge in human services as well as in small business. Cara has a master’s in forensic psychology and has worked with vulnerable populations through the Barnstable County District Attorney's Office. Prior to her work there, Cara owned her own small business for five years on Cape Cod. Her business, Cara’s Canine Club, began in 2017 as a dog sitting business and over the course of five years, expanded into a full service pet business offering all types of services including walking, grooming, feeding, sitting and overnight/vacation care. In January of 2022, after completing her masters degree and obtaining a full-time position, she closed her business to work in her chosen field of forensic psychology.

Cara will coordinate the GROW program by working with the facilitators and ensuring the participants are supported throughout. She will conduct outreach after the program to keep the participants engaged with WE CAN and CDP and other small business resources locally.

 

Andreia Gurski

Bilingual Program and Site Coordinator

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Andreia Gurski coordinates appointments and assists the flow of the office to keep everything productive. She also supervises WE CAN’s reception volunteers. She is originally from Brazil, where she studied accounting. Andreia is fluent in Portuguese. Andreia enjoys boxing, cooking, and spending time with family and friends. She enjoys taking her son to soccer and basketball games. Andreia is certified in massage therapy and hairdressing. She has been providing services to the Cape Cod community for many years.

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Kimberly Hamblin

Program Manager for Workshops and Groups

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Kimberly grew up on Cape Cod and currently resides in West Barnstable. She spent eight years in California where she had a career in retail management while obtaining her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from California State University, Fullerton. After returning to the Cape, Kimberly went to school to receive her Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work from Boston University. Throughout her education, she had the opportunity to work both within the school setting and in a mental health agency.

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Tashane Lester

Office and Operations Coordinator

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Tashane is a Jamaican national who completed her Bachelor's degree in Education, specializing in literacy. Before immigrating to Cape Cod in 2016, she worked as an educator. She then began her professional career on Cape Cod working in the hospitality industry, where she spent almost seven years. Tashane enjoys spending quality time with her young boy and girl twins. She is also a lover of travelling and interacting with new people. 

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​Marina Mendoza-Burris

Program Manager

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Marina Mendoza-Burris is from Sonora, Mexico. After graduating with a B.A. degree in Psychology from the University of Sonora, she worked as a Social Worker in Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, Mexico. After moving to Boston for two years, Marina relocated to Cape Cod, where she taught Spanish language classes and currently operates an on-line retail business. Marina joined WE CAN in November 2017, to manage our Work Support and GROW programs. Marina was recently promoted to the new position of Program Manager of all one-to-one services at WE CAN. In this new role, Marina manages our legal, financial, work support, and business support one-to-one programs.

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Marina lives in Brewster with her husband, 3 children, and dog ‘Lolly’. When not working, she spends her time attending her children’s’ basketball, baseball, gymnastics, and all the other things that Cape Cod offers to families.

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Kat Pannill

Development Manager

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Kat Pannill joined WE CAN in April 2022 as the Development Manager. She spent the last ten years in Ithaca, NY where she graduated with a B.S. from Cornell University and worked in fundraising and volunteer management at the SPCA of Tompkins County. She is passionate about supporting worthy causes and is excited to join our wonderful organization and connect with the women we serve.

A true animal lover, Kat raised puppies for Guiding Eyes for the Blind for many years and now has two pets, Vin and Pemberly. When not at WE CAN, Kat can often be found hiking, reading, cross-stitching, or spending quality time with friends and family. 

Growing up, Kat and her family made annual camping trips to Nickerson State Park and she is very excited to make the beautiful Cape her home!

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Erin Sullivan

Director of Development and Marketing

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Erin Sullivan is a nonprofit professional with a wide range of experiences, giving her a comprehensive view of nonprofit operations.  She has a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and Communications from Westfield State College – now University- and a Master’s in Public Administration with a Nonprofit Management concentration from Colorado University - Denver. 

She started her journey in the nonprofit sector as a victim advocate volunteer for the Eagle County Sherriff’s Department in Colorado.  She has worked in the areas of family planning, domestic and sexual violence, United Way, a nonprofit hospital and hospice, and most recently as Vice President of Community and Donor Relations at 18 Degrees in Pittsfield, MA. 

She was a founding member of the political action committee, WHEN!, supporting women and diverse candidates to run for elected positions.  She was a member of the Pittsfield Garden Tour committee, St Stephen’s Episcopal Church co-warden, a foster parent, and volunteered and supported her children’s activities and sports teams.  

Originally from Cape Cod, Erin has returned home with her husband Chris, and German Shepherd, Mika, living in South Yarmouth with her parents. She has three adult children and two grandchildren.

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Dawn Walnut

Volunteer and Operations Manager

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Prior to working at WE CAN, Dawn Walnut held a variety of eclectic jobs. She has been an artist’s assistant, a theatrical dresser on Broadway, a downtown guide for the City of Portland, Maine, an elementary school teacher, and a volunteer coordinator at Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod. She also has considerable volunteer experience herself, and she has served on the boards of First Parish Brewster and the Brewster Ponds Coalition. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Cooper Union in New York and a degree in Education from the University of Southern Maine.

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Dawn is inspired by WE CAN’s mission of empowerment, and knowing that participants are given the tools they need to make an impact in changing their own lives, as well as to impact their communities. She loves that she has a job where she gets to work with volunteers, people who could be doing anything with their free time, but have chosen to spend it helping others.

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Dawn lives in Brewster with her husband, two children, and two cats.

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