Michael Fishman
Michael Fishman has spent most of his life in West Hartford. Over the past 35 years, Michael has worked as a computer programmer and analyst for several companies, including: The Hartford, Travelers, Citigroup, First Interstate Bank, Pension Consultants and most recently, United HealthCare.
Currently Michael is sole owner of Catfish Properties, LLC, a real estate management company. After 8 years as President of A Hand Up, Inc., a non-profit which helped formerly homeless families transition from homelessness to independent living, he finally retired the company over to Journey Home. He is now on several Boards, including Journey Home and Jewish Historical Society. He currently lives in West Hartford with his wife of 29 years, Evelyn and his 3 children, Eric, Jeremy and Alex.
Dave Houpert
Dave Houpert brings a 30-year software sales and insurance technology background to Benefit Harbor Insurance Services, LLC, where he works with national account customers to help grow this start-up entity in partnership with Zurich Insurance.
Dave joined A Hand Up, Inc. in 2006, joined the AHU Board in 2012, and is an enthusiastic supporter of all our efforts to help our clients now at Journey Home!
Dave grew up on the Connecticut shore, is a proud UConn graduate, Yankee fan, yet lived and worked in Boston for six years, and somehow nailed a one-second spot onscreen at Fenway in the movie Field of Dreams! He travels for work a lot, has visited 44 of 50 states, and can’t wait to get back to Ireland and Scotland. Married to Judi for 28 years, their older son teaches high-school Latin and history in Springfield, MA, and their younger son researches neural functioning at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD, and will soon go for his Ph.D. in neuroscience.
Rebekah Lyas
Rebekah began her career in homeless services in 2010 as an Outreach and Engagement Case Manager. Since then she has managed various programs serving homeless and formerly homeless clients. She joined ImmaCare Inc. in 2017 as the Quality Assurance Manager and was promoted to the Director of Programs in February 2018. She is responsible for the oversight of ImmaCare’s Mobile Outreach, Emergency Shelter and Permanent Supportive Housing programs. She has presented at the Housing First Partners Conference, the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness 12th Annual Training Institute and the 2014 National Conference on Ending Homelessness.
She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a minor in Women’s Studies and a Master of Arts degree in Women’s Studies from Southern Connecticut State University. She and her husband, Ben, and their daughter, Ellie, currently live in Wallingford, CT.
Todd Polley
Todd Polley is a self-employed family practice wealth manager and estate planner. He grew up in Ridgefield, CT but has been living in Avon, CT with his wife and 3 children since 2003.
He earned his BA in Health Care Economics from Ithaca College in 1992 and his Masters of Health Administration in 2001. While he did work in the insurance industry for many years he found his passion in business was to get involved in young companies and startups. If you ask Todd what he does for a living he will usually tell you that he has been a ski and snowboard instructor at Ski Sundown since 2012.
Todd has been involved with Make A Wish CT for the past 18 years in various capacities but with a primary focus on fundraising and capital raising activities. The power of a wish is so meaningful for a child but it has just as great an impact on the child’s entire family.
Jim Wucherpfennig
Jim Wucherpfennig has thirty years of property casualty insurance experience. Based out of Hartford, Connecticut, Jim is currently responsible for the Property Claim business unit with Travelers. Jim previously served as the Vice President of Workers’ Compensation Claim.
Upon graduating with a B.S. in Finance from San Diego State University, Jim joined the Travelers in 1989 and has been in Hartford since 2008.