Peter Coccia
President

After retiring from a career in finance for the State of Ohio, Peter joined our board. He has been an active member since 2012, and in February of 2015 he was the official representative of our organization and the City of Columbus for the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the destruction of Dresden at the end of World War II.  In 2025 he was named by the American Council on Germany as director of the new Columbus Warburg chapter.

Dorit Fratzscher
Vice President

Dorit hails from Meißen, a small town 15 miles outside of Dresden. She and her family moved to Columbus in 2003, and she quickly became involved with Dresden Sister City. Dorit coordinates the long-running marathon exchange program that sends marathon runners to Dresden and Columbus. She works as bilingual administrative assistant at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP.

Ryan Stalzer
Board Member and Marketing Chair

Ryan’s family has Germanic roots and family history sparked his interest in German language and culture. He works full-time as a marketing director for an imagery and data company. The biergarten scene is one of his favorite things about Germany and he enjoys sampling German beers

Karen Irvine
Board Member

Karen has studied German for many years and has a long family connection to Germany. Karen has been active with our organization since 2015 and in 2025 accepted a position on the board. Our Columbus State student exchange program is especially meaningful to her.

Paul Carringer
Board Member

Paul was a marathon ambassador to Dresden in 2012 and 2016 and is a past board member of Greater Columbus Sister Cities International. Paul owns Caring Marketing and is a marketing professor at Columbus State and Franklin University.

Valerie Kohlwey
Board Member

Valerie participated in the marathon exchange in 2022 and continued to be involved with the program, assisting on the marathon exchange committee. In 2025 she accepted a position on the board. She works as a data integration developer for Ohio State University Extension.