Erie 1 BOCES Monthly Spotlight: October 2023

Contributor:The Inclusion.Diversity.Equity.Advocay (I.D.E.A) Committee

Greetings, 

We hope that you enjoy reading this month's E1B Staff Spotlight. The purpose of this activity is to get to know our colleagues better, create meaningful connections, build relationships, create a strong sense of community and celebrate our differences! Please consider participating by clicking and completing this short E1B Spotlight (submission form). Your spotlight will not be posted until you preview it and give final approval. Please note that the information that you choose to provide will be posted internally, featured in the Monthly Inside Story Newsletter and externally on our public webpage. Please use your discretion and only share information that you feel comfortable having shared publicly. If you have any questions please contact Nicole Kerner via email at nkerner@e1b.org

Warm Regards,

The Inclusion.Diversity.Equity. Advocacy (I.D.E.A) Committee

Hello my name is Patrick Canfield and I serve as the Director of Exceptional Education.  I have been with Erie 1 for the past five years. In this capacity I have the great privilege of overseeing educational and support services for challenged students in grades K-12, providing unique programming designed to meet their special needs.  I have been a professional educator for close to 38 years and found my inspiration for this career as a teenager through an E1B special education class hosted in my High School.   I volunteered in that class as part of my service learning experience and was lucky to have found wonderful mentors in many of the great BOCES teachers with whom I volunteered. Subsequently, I fell in love with Special Education and found a calling. 

I am grateful for how things have come full circle and that I am able now to support the program that first started me on this path. Over the years I have served children and families as a classroom teacher, Principal and District Director. I have most enjoyed being part of local and state  level advocacy and change for children and young adults challenged by disabilities.

I was born in the City of Buffalo and moved as a young child ultimately growing up in the Town of Tonawanda.   My hobbies include stained glass work, geocaching, and reading. I am a dedicated family guy married for 35 yrs to my wonderful wife and have two grown married daughters and two (soon to be three) grandchildren, who are my pride and joy.

Servant leadership is my guiding principle and I think, if asked, my family, close friends and colleagues would describe me as friendly, even keeled, caring and loyal.  

Hello my name is Lessa (pronounced Leeza) Edholm. It was my godfather's last name, Dominic Lessa. Throughout my life everyone always mispronounced it so I started using the different spelling, Leeza in college and it stuck. Most of my family and close friends call me "Lee".

I am in the Human Resources division of Erie 1 BOCES (E1B). I started March 20, 2023! Almost to my 6-month mark! I've been told I am the first Recruiter E1B has ever had. Being that the Recruiter role is so new, it is constantly evolving. Primarily, I am responsible for increasing awareness of our many positions to the community, thus leading to an increase of viable employment candidates that apply to our many positions. I attend career fairs, community events to recruit, including colleges. I also work closely with the Dept. of Labor. After jobs get posted to SchoolFront, I work on some of the advertising for the position and start searching in different databases and networking for qualified candidates. The best thing about my job is meeting someone with great skills that has been searching for work, who is  a fit for our  organization's culture and climate, and seeing them get hired!

I love sharing the E1B mission, core values, and the variety of positions that we offer, as many are not aware of this information. The 2nd best thing I love about my job is the people I work with! It is an incredible group of people. I actually saw the position online and called my contact at the Dept. of Labor to see if I could apply without taking the Civil Service exam prior. I possessed all of the qualifications and then some, but the Civil Service information can be a bit confusing to the general public, so I figured it best to ask.

I was born in Orange, California and moved to Western New York when I was 2 years old, and have lived here ever since. I am a proud mom of two lovely daughters, both college students and both Volleyball players in college. I absolutely LOVE watching them play Volleyball! They did not get their athletic ability from me that's for sure! I like yoga, reading, and bike riding. My rescue dog Neka is the other love of my life, and she keeps me walking too.

I think my friends and family would describe me as someone with a big heart. I am definitely an extrovert! Recruiting is a perfect career because talking to complete strangers is very easy for me. I once was speaking with a job candidate, we spoke for over an hour. I knew everything about this person! He even told me what his birth weight was, LOL! I have a knack for getting people to open up and feel comfortable telling me odd little facts about themselves. LOL.

I love E1B!