Working: Syracuse

Meet Annie Wilcox, a caregiver at Francis House on Syracuse's Northside. She has worked at the hospice care provider for eight years. Currently, Francis House accommodates 16 residents and is often at capacity. They are cared for by 29 professional staff, like Wilcox, and a group of around 450 volunteers that offer help with jobs including cooking, gardening, and cleaning. The staff-to-resident ratio allows for personalized care that provides a sense of home and family. However, the reality that patients are facing the end of their lives remains an ever-present subtext to the work of those at Francis House. The staff focuses on forging relationships and delivering attentive care so residents can escape the confines of just being terminally ill patients. Instead, they and those who care for them spend their days as friends who are aware of the limited time they have to know each other. Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Wilcox.

Meet Tony Marji, owner of Select Express Auto, a used-car dealership located just outside Syracuse. An automotive enthusiast, Marji managed to find a career that allowed him to spend his days surrounded by what he is most passionate about — cars. Life as a business owner keeps his schedule full, but after his heart attack a few years ago, Marji decided to focus on the important things in life — his relationships with his family and finding contentment within himself. Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Marji.

Meet The Doula Chicks, Sherri Morris and Christine Herrera. They offer everything from pre-birth assistance to postpartum consultation; as well as breastfeeding support, childbirth education, placenta encapsulation, and prenatal yoga. They started working together in 2016 after meeting each other within the Doula Connection of Central New York. The two women realized that the long hours required for the job would be better tackled together, so they teamed up. The job demands time sacrifices because of the intensity — and unpredictability — of pregnancy. Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Morris and Herrera.

Meet Luke Parkhurst of Disaster Cleanup. The 40-person company specializes in biohazard, fire, mold, and water damage jobs within a two-hour radius of Syracuse. The biohazard jobs are the most difficult of the bunch. Many of those cases involve the suicide of a family member. But even though he's scrubbed away blood and bodily fluids for 14 years, Luke believes those years of cleaning up after one of the saddest days a person can face hasn't changed him. He's married with two kids — a six- and seven-year-old — and joined Disaster Cleanup two years ago. He's held jobs in welding and factory work and can usually be found around the company warehouse wearing his blue-denim overalls. And while this particular job hasn't changed him, Parkhurst says it "makes you think about all the other jobs that people are doing that you don't want to think about." Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Parkhurst.

Meet Nick Calabria, a postal worker for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) since 2001. Calabria works for an agency that began a year before the Declaration of Independence was signed. Today, Calabria delivers letters, packages, and parcels across Syracuse in different mail trucks, including the Grumman Long Life vehicle, a specialized and iconic truck developed in the late '80s. In the past 10 years, packages have become the bulk of what is delivered. However, the additional weight of boxes makes for back-straining work. The USPS continues to face economic challenges and is considering terminating Saturday delivery and closing thousands of postal plants nationwide. But Calabria remains optimistic about the agency's future and says most employees are "lifers" who remain with the USPS until retirement. Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Calabria.

Meet Tim Hoda, a beekeeper based in Taberg, N.Y. Hoda uses his bees to create products such as bee pollen, chapstick, and beeswax candles, which he sells through his business, the Rainforest Spice Company. Despite the tropical name of his company, his bees faces less-than-sunny weather in Central New York thanks to the long, harsh winters. Last year, the season took 80 percent of his bees. In fact, a phenomenon known as "winter kill" accounts for the annual loss of about 50 percent to 60 percent of the state's bee population. Fortunately, this winter all of Hoda's hives survived. Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Hoda.

Meet Jenn Cordero, one of Syracuse's few female tattoo artists. She works for Carmelo's Ink City on Hiawatha Boulevard. Cordero is a 30-year-old artist, gamer, and proud owner of an ugly cat. In a tough, male-dominated field, Cordero employs her smart mouth and sharp eye to set herself apart and attract clients. In the decade since she first picked up a needle, Cordero has worked to elevate her craft. Cordero's small frame features pieces that illustrate her life story, but she's saving space for a few more chapters. She believes a good tattoo encompasses more than the artistry and execution of the design. The experience of getting each piece also plays a role. "I watch and I listen and I pay attention — even to the tone of the voice and stuff like that," Cordero says. "And being a female, I know how to feminize everything." Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Cordero.

Meet Darren Chavis, owner and head chef of Creole Soul Cafe. He opened the restaurant in 2015 and credits his family for developing his work ethic, saying he is just one in a long line of stubborn entrepreneurs. Chavis surrendered a lucrative career in construction to spend his days making the food of his home — New Orleans. Chavis describes New Orleans cooking and Louisiana food culture as a melting pot. A standard bowl of gumbo serves as a perfect Exhibit A: the roux is from France; the name, from West Africa; and the filé, from Choctaw tribes of North America. And when asked the question "what's the difference between Cajun and Creole?" the answer is simple — country food vs. city food. Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Chavis.

Meet Dan Meates, a zookeeper at Rosamond Gifford Zoo. When the zoo was founded in 1914, just a handful of animals called the four-acre facility their home. Now, more than 700 diverse species reside in the zoo's 43 acres. As a general curator, Meates oversees specialized zookeepers who care for the expansive variety of species. But as a master falconer, Meates' speciality in birds of prey means he spends more time in that area of the zoo. All who work at the zoo, including Meates, consider animal conservation the primary goal of their work. Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Meates.

Meet police officer Leonard Brown, who has served on the force since 2011. About 18 months ago, he joined the elite Crime Reduction Team (CRT) within the Syracuse Police Department. With headquarters located on Erie Boulevard East, the CRT is a proactive, 12-man unit that has focused on fighting some of the city's toughest issues since 2005: drugs, guns, and gang violence. He enjoys the physical nature of his work, which reminds him of what he loved about sports when he was younger. As a teenager, Brown lived for the thrill of scoring touchdowns. Now, he gets his adrenaline rush from putting on a different kind of uniform every day. Visit our website for extra content on Brown: www.workingsyracuse.com

Meet Sean Williamson, a butcher for Liehs and Steigerwald on Grant Boulevard. Williamson didn't set out to be a butcher. In fact, it took years of college as an art major and thousands of tuition dollars before he decided to pursue something with more immediate, tangible results. That desire led him to his job making sausage for a specialty butcher shop, a position he's held for almost a decade. Williamson's job description includes being the butcher, manager, and general everyman at Liehs and Steigerwald, which has served Syracuse's Northside community for more than 80 years. Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Williamson.

Meet Zheadric Barbra, Assistant Superintendent of School Reform at Syracuse City School District. Barbra is responsible for the improvement of Syracuse's 37 public schools. He credits his mother, who raised him and his four brothers by herself while working manual-labor jobs and depending on food stamps, as the source of much of his determination and his belief in education. He says she raised him and his brothers with this central philosophy: "There's no other option than what you have in front of you. You can't not do well. There's no other option." She also instilled in him the belief that education serves as the cornerstone of a good life. Barbara has applied these lessons to his own education, career, and experience with fatherhood, and he tries to pass along these beliefs to the students whose educational experience he oversees. Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Barbara.

Meet Mirvat Essi Sande, owner and sole hairstylist of Salon 515, which sits in the heart of Westcott Nation, an eclectic neighborhood known for attracting students, young professionals, artists, and activists. Inside, the salon resembles an apartment, which Sande designed to create the sense that clients were entering her home, and the conversations flow freely. Whether it's a restaurant recommendation, the president's latest tweet, or an escape destination for her or her client's next vacation, Sande enjoys and encourages conversation. Two additional businesses — Munjed's and Mom's Diner — on that three-block stretch, are also owned by relatives of Essi Sande, who moved from Jordan to the neighborhood with her 10 siblings in 1968. Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Sande.

Meet printing press operator Robert Glahn, who works for Eastwood Litho, which is based in Lyncourt on the city's Northside. Founded in 1946 by Justin F. Mohr, a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, Eastwood Litho has served the Syracuse area for more than 70 years and is now owned by grandsons of the founder. For the last three years, Glahn has been in charge of running the company's two Heidelberg printing presses. He works as a frontender and is responsible for all of the technical tweaks and artistic judgments that inform the end product. The color balance, saturation, and sharpness of the ink on the paper all fall on him. Now 53, Glahn's been doing this job since high school. He serves as the mechanic who enjoys tinkering with the machines when they break and the artist who controls every aspect of the graphic output. Visit www.workingsyracuse.com for more content on Glahn.