Reader Advisory Board

Alex Bou-Rhodes

Alex Bou-Rhodes lives in Concord and works as a staff attorney at the New Hampshire Public Defender in Manchester. He graduated from Boston College with a dual degree in social work and law in 2019, moved to New Hampshire and spent two years clerking at the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Alex is passionate about national and local politics and news and is excited to have the opportunity to be a part of the Monitor’s reader advisory board.

Mike Briggs

Born in Pacific Palisades, CA, Mike grew up in a performing arts center run by his show business family. His mother and uncle were a well-known dancing team, Vilma and Buddy Ebsen. Buddy would be later known to millions as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies TV show. Mike’s aunt, Virginia Bruce, was a major star at MGM. She was married to John Gilbert, Greta Garbo’s favorite leading man, and introduced the song, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” singing it to James Stewart in Born To Dance. Mike’s first professional job was teaching tennis at the Bel-Air Country Club, followed by several years training horses, including Ronald Reagan’s.

After serving in the U.S. Army, Mike majored in English and Theater Arts at Santa Monica College and joined the Screen Actors Guild in 1987. He has appeared in films and theater productions with Mel Gibson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Richard Pryor, Dana Carvey, Danny Glover, Sharon Gless and Harvey Korman. After moving to New Hampshire in 1996, he taught tennis at COPOCO and the Racquet Club of Concord. In 2000, Barry Steelman asked Mike to help get the Red River Theater project going. Mike was one of the original incorporators, serving as Vice Chairman. Former president of Pioneer Sportsmen in Dunbarton, Mike has been a firearms instructor at the SIG SAUER Academy in Epping and the Lethal Force Institute in Concord. He is active in raising awareness and money for veteran causes including the Chaplain’s Emergency Relief Fund and Active Heroes. Mike currently owns and operates New England Tactical, which specializes in firearm safety and proficiency training.

Carisa Corrow

Carisa is a lifelong New Hampshire resident from Penacook. As a child, she fondly remembers reading the Concord Monitor with her grandfather at the kitchen table over sardines and saltines. Her favorite section back then was the "funnies." For fourteen years, she was a public teacher, two at Franklin and twelve at Merrimack Valley. She then moved to the social entrepreneurial world with a focus on improving public education at the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston. Last year she founded Educating for Good, and this year co-authored a book, 126 Falsehoods We Believe About Education. Carisa is a facilitator for Concord SURJ, a member of Leadership New Hampshire Class of 2022 and a monthly volunteer at Open Door Community Kitchen. She lives with her husband and their three children across from her childhood home.

Contact Carisa: carisacorrow@gmail.com

Jaime Corwin

Jaime Corwin is the vice president of Human Resources for Riverbend Community Mental Health, Inc., a non-profit organization based in Concord serving the behavioral health needs of the Greater Concord community. She is responsible for leading all human resource functions throughout the company which has 12 locations and over 400 employees. One particular area of passion for Jaime is around increasing education and understanding while reducing the stigma that often surrounds mental illness and substance use disorders. This passion meshes nicely with work in the human resources field, and with her company’s mission – what a match!

Jaime has a bachelor’s degree in Management from Southern New Hampshire University and is both PHR and SHRM-CP certified. Jaime speaks on HR issues locally and nationally as time allows and opportunities present, and in recent years has taken on mental health in the workplace as her main topic. Jaime lives in Contoocook with her family.

Josh Hardy

Josh has been with ConcordTV since 2012 and was named executive director of the organization in the summer of 2019. Through his work in the community, Josh was recognized as the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce's Volunteer of the Year as well as being included in this year's New Hampshire "Forty Under Forty" class. In his free time, Josh has run several half-marathons, is an avid New England sports fan and enjoys visiting local craft breweries.

Gerri King

Gerri King, Ph.D., social psychologist and organizational consultant, works with educational, healthcare, corporate, industrial, non-profit and governmental clients throughout the U.S. and abroad. Gerri, also a facilitator and keynote speaker, presents at numerous conferences and seminars throughout the year. Her expertise includes a wide range of topics such as supervisory skills, team building, resolving conflicts and effective communication, motivating workforces, managing change, creating blame-free and gossip-free work environments, why people avoid success, and the changing role of leadership. Dr. King facilitates staff and executive retreats, conflict resolution efforts, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning sessions, and mission & vision development. Gerri is a founding partner and president of the consulting and counseling firm Human Dynamics Associates, Inc. of Concord and the author of The Duh! Book of Management and Supervision: Dispelling Common Leadership Myths.

Her decades in NH have included subscribing to the Monitor, volunteer work, activism and choreographing for local theater groups. She and her husband, Ron, raised their son, Ethan, here and have been committed to the community. Gerri describes Concord as “being big enough to be interesting and small enough to be cozy.” After living in various areas of the country, the choice to be here was influenced by its proximity to the mountains, coast and Boston. She and her husband love cities but decided that they’d like to live here and go to the city for fun, rather than live in the city and come to NH for fun.

Jim Potter

Jim has served as the executive vice president/CEO of the New Hampshire Medical Society since 2015. He serves on several state health-related commissions and his local homeowners association board, as well as the treasurer for the NH Professionals Health Program and Bowler-Bartlett Foundation, charitable 501(c)3 organization of the Medical Society. He previously served in senior management and advocacy positions with the American Medical Association and national specialty organizations, including radiology, pathology and physician assistants.

Jim has been awarded the FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation and the Vice President’s Hammer Award for coordinating a consensus approach on federal quality and coverage guidelines for mammography. His advocacy work has been recognized by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) with its highest honor, The Summit Award, for advancing early detection and intervention for children with hearing loss. While at the AMA, he helped to establish multi-specialty initiatives, such as the Relative-Value Update Committee (RUC) and quality measures development under the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI). Jim received his graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Michigan. He is an avid New England Patriots fan, enjoys playing golf and hiking with his dog, Harry. Jim lives with his wife Karen and their four children in Concord.

Contact Jim: James.Potter@nhms.org

Connor Spern

Connor Spern, 25, is the Outreach Services Coordinator for Concord Coalition to End Homelessness and is a freelance graphic designer and jewelry artist. Connor has been a coordinator at The Friendly Kitchen since 2018 and later joined the Board of Trustees in October of 2019. She is the incoming chair for Concord Young Professional’s Network and has served on the Steering Committee since 2018, an ad-hoc member of the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors, and is graduating from NHTI in December of 2021. Connor was the 2019 Concord Young Professional of the Year and received a Spirit of New Hampshire Award in the same year. She lives in Concord with her husband Eli and their three pets, Mabel, Ivy and Theodore.

Lidia Yen

Lidia Yen is a 23-year-old activist who came to NH as a refugee from South Sudan and later on became a citizen. She works on racial justice issues in her community, where she now considers her home. Lidia graduated college with a bachelor's in healthcare administration and wants to build a connection between her current racial justice work and healthcare advocacy in the future.

Contact Lidia: changeforconcord@gmail.com