Rhea McVicker
Rhea served as Executive Director of Nick’s Place for 19 years. Her education, knowledge, and experience working with young men in early recovery helps Nick’s Place deliver a quality home and service to its young residents. Rhea is active in guiding the staff and board to continue our mission.
Rhea also has over 20 years of experience in direct mail fundraising and database management sales. While employed with Merkle, she served as an Account Executive for some of the country’s largest charitable organizations.
In 2014, Rhea addressed the local National Alliance on Mentally Illness (NAMI) on the topic of young adults in recovery and co-authored an article for the Addiction Professional on-line publication on the same topic. In 2010 Rhea was awarded the Bank of America local hero award for her service to the community.
Rhea is partially retired and enjoys swimming, golfing, billiards, yoga, and meditation. Rhea and Barry live in Delaware with their dog, Bruno, who is the cutest little dog you have ever seen. All three of them enjoy walks together and doggy dates with his puppy posse from the neighborhood.
Barry McVicker
Barry is the co-founder of Nick's Place. He played an integral role in securing and fixing the house that has become home to hundreds of young men.
Barry grew up on a farm in Bedford County Pennsylvania where he learned the importance of hard work and sacrifice. After having three children by the age of 31, Barry moved to Washington DC where he met his beautiful wife Rhea and her son Nick.
Barry was always patient with Nick and taught him everything he knew. For 19 years, Barry played an integral role at Nick’s Place teaching the residents during that time. He helped Rhea develop and implement our programs, guided all of our guys on their finances, and taught them the importance of hard work and responsibility. He takes pride in everything he does and wants to pass on his knowledge and experience to anyone smart enough to listen.
Barry worked for the Washington Post as a printer for 30 years. He retired shortly before Nick's Place opened and was chauffeur, job seeker, cook and mentor for many of our early residents.
To this day nothing makes him happier than to hear from and about the lives of our residents, current and past. Today, Barry enjoys playing golf and billiards in his community in Delaware, and goes everywhere with his dog, Bruno.
Steve Rudman
Steve brings more than 30 years of experience in direct marketing with a focus in fundraising for the nonprofit world. His past experience includes work with major nonprofit clients such as the American Cancer Society, the Arthritis Foundation, ALSAC/St. Jude, the National Wildlife Federation, and Feeding America.
Steve’s accolades include the Chairman’s Award for greatest contribution to the company during his time at Merkle, and the Direct Marketing Association’s Echo Award for Outstanding Direct Marketing Campaign.
Steve drives the Concord Direct team to believe there is no finish line, and continuously looks for ways to improve fundraising, increase revenue for clients, and boost fundraising results. Steve’s experience, energy, and approachable nature make him the perfect direct marketing expert to lead the Concord Direct team and keep the company moving toward the best fundraising solutions for clients.
Lauri Reishus
Lauri Reishus has served on the Nick’s Place Board since 2015, joining after she witnessed first-hand how the program and team at Nick’s Place helped to rebuild the life of a loved one.
Lauri is the president and Chief Executive Officer of the Airlines Reporting Corporation, a travel firm that provides financial and data services to airlines across the globe. She brings extensive leadership, financial planning, and governance experience to the Nick’s Place Board, and she is certified by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) as a Board Leadership Fellow.
Lauri hails from northern Wisconsin and graduated from George Mason University with a Bachelors of Arts in History. She’s an avid traveler and lives (and explores the world) with her sons Tony and Austin, extended family, and close friends. She is a proud “Nami” of two amazing grandchildren Ella Gray and Layla Kay and a very generous person who has a big heart for her family and anything or anyone she believes in.
Scott Pendelton
Scott Pendleton has been on the Board of Directors of Nick's Place for 15 years. He has over 30 years in long term recovery and is very passionate about Nick's Place. He retired from Baltimore County Bureau of Behavioral Health where he worked with county residents dealing with mental health issues and substance use disorders. Scott ran a relapse prevention group at the Baltimore County Detention Center for x years. Prior to working for Baltimore County Scott worked in the treatment field (including Nick's Place), the copier/office supply field, advertising, concert promotions, stage lighting and sound, record industry, and musician. Scott is passionate about his family (son Nick and granddaughters Harper and Emma), his dog Rufus, the Orioles, the Ravens, the Wizards, tennis, and softball. He recently became a partial owner of the Caledonian Braves Football Club in Scotland.
Marie Kosanovich
With nearly 30 years in the nonprofit industry, Marie Kosanovich brings a great amount of experience to Nick’s Place when it comes to fundraising. She is Vice President, Accounts at Lautman Maska Neill & Company in Washington DC – an industry leader in Direct Response Marketing for nonprofit organizations. In addition to overseeing and implementing fundraising strategies for a variety of national and regional nonprofits, Marie has served on the Board of Directors for The Nonprofit Alliance as well as the Direct Marketing Association of Washington (DMAW). At DMAW, she served as President of the Association in 2019, and was the recipient of the 2015 Emerging Leader award and the 2022 Board Superhero award.
Marie has a Master of Business Administration from Frostburg State University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Clarion University of Pennsylvania. She is no stranger to volunteering, having dedicated nearly 1,000 hours to both the USO of Metropolitan Washington DC and the Honor Flight Network.
While Pittsburgh, PA will always be “home”, she currently resides in Arlington, Virginia. In her spare time, she enjoys singing as a member of the Choir at St. Luke Serbian Orthodox Church in Potomac, MD.
Matthew Blaes-Johnson
Matt is an alumni of Nick's Place circa 2015, and board member since April 2023. As a person in long term recovery, and former resident of Nick's Place, he helps provide the perspective of Our Guys in his role on the board.
Matt is an IT Project Manager at the University of Maryland, College Park, and often swings by the house for dinners after work to spend time with the Nick's Place family.
Matt and his wife, Hannah, live in the Columbia area with their two cats Kermit and Binx and their dog Luna, and are very excitedly expecting their first baby in July 2024.
In his spare time, Matt can be found hiking local trails with his dog, eating great food with friends, or getting together for board game nights with members of the local recovery community.
Anne Ketter
Anne Ketter is the Lead Product Manager at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Northwestern University, a Master of Science degree in biology from the University of California, San Diego, and is also a Certified Leadership Coach.
Anne is also a Certified Leadership Coach. She enjoys working in and leading teams and bringing coaching into everyday interactions. Much of her career was spent working to improve equity and diversity in science. She managed training programs at the Society for Neuroscience to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in neuroscience. She also supported the Increasing Women in Neuroscience (iWiN) initiative, including the initial grant proposal, program management, and the first year of workshops and training sessions. At Owen Software, she worked on Pathevo, software to support students at HBCUs and in the NASA Space Grant Foundation to succeed in STEM education and careers.
Anne is the mother of 2 children, and her son was a resident of Nick’s Place. She wants to engage as a board member to support Nick's Place as it continues to help young men in their recovery.
Sydney Webb
Sydney retired from Apple Federal Credit Union in 2022 after eighteen years. While there she was Director of Call Center Operations and ended her time there as Senior Vice President of Service Delivery, responsible for their 23 branches and contact center. Sydney had a long career in overseeing customer service operations in various corporate travel agencies and financial service organizations including American Express Travel and Capital One.
Sydney grew up in Memphis, TN and was the second oldest in a family of eight children. After living many years in Texas, Sydney and her son relocated to Northern Virginia in 1988. Since retirement, Sydney enjoys visiting local museums, reading, music, traveling and planning her next trip. She volunteers in the Pediatrics Unit at Fairfax Hospital and recently became a mentor there for new volunteers. Sydney lives in Fairfax, VA with her son, daughter-in-law, and one dog and three cats.
