Nicholas BellChair
Nicholas Bell’s professional background is in financial communications. He has worked with one of the leading share-holder communications firms where he started and ran the international division which he had grown to $3 million in billings. His duties included managing sales and marketing, client management, staffing, profit & loss, and tracking partnership relationships. In this line of work, he has traveled regularly to Europe and Asia. Nick has also worked in venture capital where his firm specialized in financings for early to middle stage companies. He has expertise in analyzing business plans, financial statements and other documentation to determine the viability of investment opportunities.

As a volunteer, he has served on the boards of small charities, such as The O’Gorman Garden and an after school program in an impoverished section of Nagarote, Nicaragua. As an O’Gorman Garden Trustee, he looks forward to helping the organization raise funds and strengthen its operations and programming.

Susan ManuelSecretary

Susan Manuel, Board Secretary, spent 20 years in communications on international peacekeeping for the United Nations, serving in 10 countries around the world, as well as in UN headquarters in New York. A former journalist, she works as a consultant now on international communications and joined The O’Gorman Garden Board shortly after the death of Ned O’Gorman, a distant cousin and friend, whose devotion to the children of Harlem she greatly admired.

Tariq MohammedTreasurer
Tariq is an English-educated attorney who operates Harlowtown Community Law Office, a 501(c)(3) legal services organization. It provides holistic legal services to individuals and community-based organizations, with a focus on immigrant families affected by domestic violence. Through Harlowtown, Tariq developed innovative and pioneering projects, such as establishing free public Wi-Fi in underserved areas of the Bronx and Brooklyn, securing internships for undocumented students and micro-financing for survivors of domestic violence.
Rachel Christmas Derrick

In 2014, Rachel joined the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), an affordable housing nonprofit, as its Director of Communication & Fundraising. She designs and implements UHAB’s outreach, cultivation, and stewardship strategies for ongoing and prospective individual donors, foundations, corporations, and government programs. Along with crafting grant proposals, she writes, edits, and oversees the design, production, and distribution of the organization’s varied online and hard copy communication materials. A Wesleyan University graduate, she previously served as Senior Writer at the Rockefeller Foundation and Columbia University’s Deputy Director of Development Communications for alumni relations

Karim Kamal
Karim Kamal, nephew to The O’Gorman Garden Founder Ned O’Gorman, was born in Cairo, Egypt and raised in New York City. During his youth he often visited Ned’s first school in Harlem, The Children’s Storefront, with his brother Youssif and mother Annette, Ned’s sister and Garden Board Trustee Emeritus. Karim worked with Ned and his staff at the Storefront as a teacher’s aid during high school. Karim is a graduate of the University of Chicago, BA Economics, and received his law degree from Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of law. He served as Ned and The O’Gorman Garden’s informal legal adviser for many years before joining The O’Gorman Garden’s Board as Treasurer soon after Ned’s death in March 2014. Karim is passionate about ensuring that Ned’s ideals and legacy endure well into the future.

Fred McIntosh Jr.
An attorney by vocation, Fred has dedicated much of his career to assisting families from communities that have long been underserved. Leading the Partnerships arm of PASSNYC, Fred cultivated relationships all over New York City, delivering critical free resources to hundreds of middle and high school students. Prior to joining PASSNYC, Fred served as Director of Admissions for Prep for Prep, the premier leadership development program in the country for academically gifted students of color. A proud graduate of Hunter College High School, Fred is committed to increasing access to opportunities like those afforded to him in his youth.
Sarah O'Neill
Sarah O’Neill was the head chef at the Straight Wharf Restaurant in Nantucket, Massachusetts, from 1988-1995, before stepping down to raise her two children. At City and Country School (C&C), which her children attended K-8th grade, her volunteer positions included chair of the Annual Fund; co-head of the Parents Association; co-chair of the Benefit Auction; head of the art section for the Benefit Auction; secretary to the Parents Association, and secretary for the Diversity Committee. Sarah is currently co-chair of the C&C Parent Diversity Group and a member of the C&C Diversity Advisory Committee to the Board. She runs the annual C&C Diversity Book Fair and the C&C recycled book event, both of which she initiated over ten years ago, and continues to work for the art section of the benefit auction. At Saint Ann’s School, where her younger child is a junior, Sarah was on an advisory committee for the school’s recent capital campaign, and has worked on their annual auction event for several years.