Greater Rochester Chamber and Monroe County Announce Inaugural 21 RETAIN Program Graduates
ROCHESTER, NY – Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with Monroe County, hosted the first annual RETAIN Program graduation, presented as part of its CampusROC initiative on Tuesday, August 19, 2025 at The Penthouse.
The RETAIN program, originally created by Monroe County, fosters a community environment to help recent graduates of colleges, universities, and trade schools to deepen their roots in Greater Rochester through opportunities for mentorship, networking and relationship building, and personal and professional development workshops. Through a financial incentive, the program helps to jumpstart whatever’s next for the participants and help set down roots in our region.
The 2025 RETAIN Program graduates are as follows:
- Morgan Adams, Marketing and Content Coordinator, NextCorps
- Daniel Breault, Optical Engineer, Photonect Interconnect Solutions, Inc.
- Haley Brunstad, Speech-Language Pathologist, West Irondequoit School District
- Louis Chavez, Curatorial Associate, Department of Photography, George Eastman Museum
- Jasmine Duran, Veterinary assistant, New Hope Veterinary Wellness Center
- Tristan Eldridge, Staff Accountant, Conlon and Company Certified Public Accountants, P.L.L.C.
- Elisa Everett, Visitor Services & Accounting Specialist, Visit Rochester
- Abby Hannel, Human Resources Coordinator, Encorus Group
- Julia Jones, Graphic Designer, Design Slush
- Lada Kozachok, Marketing Specialist, Wilmac Technologies
- De’Yoni Majors, Program Coordinator, Rochester Regional Health
- Bethany Mansour, Manufacturing Engineer, Simcona Electronics Corporation
- Rory McIntosh, Consultant, Actel Advisory Group
- Leila Pena, Sales and Events Manager, Del Monte Hotel Group
- Manny Pizarro, Manufacturing Engineer, Jrlon Engineered Products Division
- Nicole Rogers, Mental health counselor, University of Rochester
- Sierra Sadowski, Marketing and Communications Coordinator, Trillium Health
- Oleg Savka, Marketing Assistant, ICC Community Development Solutions
- Zachary Sobel-Pressman, Optical Engineer, Labby, Inc
- Colin Thompson, Architectural Designer, Passero Associates
- Nicole Watson, Owner, NWB Consulting
At the ceremony, President & CEO Robert Duffy, Monroe County Executive Adam Bello, and Program Manager Andrea Tuttle spoke about the importance of investing in our next generation of talent. We celebrated with our program participants, their families and friends, our mentors, and other community stakeholders. We’re excited to see what’s next for these young professionals–and are proud to have them in our community.
The second RETAIN cohort is scheduled to kick off this September, with an expanded impact of 35 program participants. For more information, please visit CampusROC.org/RETAIN.