Sugely Melenciano, President
Alyssa Dube, Vice President
Diane Sadowy, Secretary
John Albright, Treasurer
Beth McLendon Albright, Director
Caroline Berninger
Ann Citron
Melanie Forstrom
Jennifer Guiher, Ph.D.
Leslie Gutierrez-Saldana
Sam Magarelli
Debra Markes
Eileen Sweeny
Cicily Wilson
Ben Gilman, Student Associate
Advisors
Elliot Auerbach
Susan Barnett
Rev. G. Modele Clarke
Fatima Deen
Deborah Meyer DeWan
Rik Flynn
Stephen Gilman
Paula Lockshon
Laraine Mai
Nancy Pompeo
Deborah Schneer, Esq.
Erica Wagner, Former Board President (emeritus)
Esther Taylor-Evans, Former Board Member (in memoriam)
ULSTERCORPS BOARD OF DIRECTORS – BIOS
Sugely Melenciano, President, is originally from the Dominican Republic, and was raised in Miami, Florida. she is a graduate of both Borough of Manhattan Community College with an Associates in Business Administration and of The University of Connecticut with a Bachelors in Human Services. She has worked in the education and business field as well as various non profit organizations. Over the past two years she worked for Family of Woodstock as Program Director for the Everette Hodge Community Center and served on the Board of Directors for the Center for Creative Education. She is a single mom of two boys of her own, two step sons and two foster daughters. She enjoys Yoga and playing tennis. Her passion in life is helping others in life achieve their greatest potential.
Alyssa Dube, Vice President, holds a BS in Business Administration from University of New Hampshire and an MBA from European University Brussels. Her senior group project started the first NEBASR (New England Business Association Social Responsibility) conference including Stoneyfield Yogurts, Toms of Maine, Ben & Jerry’s and many others. These days she volunteers with community needs at animal rescue shelters, children groups and disaster relief emergencies. She is the proud mother and wife to a family who loves to help volunteer regularly. We believe it is important to help others and give back to our community. Our pet cat Minnie and dog Princeton are rescues and bring joy everyday.
Diane Sadowy, Secretary, is a Farmer’s daughter who grew up on a potato farm on Eastern Long Island, NY. She achieved a Masters in Psychiatric Nursing in 1967 and worked in NYC as a staff nurse until her daughter was born in 1970. She then pursued further training in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy and worked as a therapist in private practice in NYC from 1972 to 2000. She left her practice in 2000 so she and her husband could achieve their dream of sailing around the world on their sailing vessel “Dragonfly” from June 2001 to June 2006. They returned to land to help oversee the care of her aging parents in Long Island. For 10 years there Diane volunteered at her family church organizing chicken BBQs, coordinating winter meals for a homeless shelter program, and in the administration office of a residential child care center. After her parents passed, Diane and her husband moved to Ulster County. Her husband climbed here in the 60s so he wanted to return to a place that had provided him with so much joy. She is now finding her way into the volunteer world of the local community through the Farm to Food Pantry Program and the Mohonk Preserve and in the process getting back some of the feel of being a farmer’s daughter again.
John Albright, Treasurer, is an engineer for Applied Materials at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany. He has been an engineer for the past 23 years in the semiconductor industry. John’s experience includes; writing technical procedures and troubleshooting guides, planning and budgeting engineering activities and expenses for semiconductor equipment, complex data analysis and technical support to a team of engineers. He is a lifelong resident of Ulster County and has been a regular volunteer with the Farm to Food Pantry Program and UlsterCorps Zombie Escape since 2013. He lives in Stone Ridge with his wife, two children, and their pets.
Beth McLendon Albright, Co-Founder and Director, works part-time for Family of Woodstock, Inc., serving as Program Director for Volunteer Services and Food Security. She plays a lead role in the Farm to Food Pantry Program, recruiting and coordinating teams of volunteers to assist with gleaning, processing and distributing produce donated by local farm to food pantries, feeding programs, and shelters across Ulster County and the region. She was a co-founder of Freelance Farm, a web development co-operative specializing in nonprofit and arts organizations, and has designed and developed numerous award-winning websites for service agencies and nonprofits. She holds a master’s degree in architecture from Princeton School of Architecture, and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Yale University. The daughter of a girl scout leader, she has been a committed volunteer her whole life, serving with the ASPCA as a teenager, Women’s Aid while living in Dublin, Ireland, and the Santa Fe Rape Crisis Center while living in New Mexico. Beth lives in Stone Ridge in the passive solar home she designed in 2005 with her husband, two step-children, and a menagerie of pets and wildlife.
Caroline Berninger has been an Ulster County resident since 1992, and is pastor of the Rondout Valley United Methodist Church in Stone Ridge. She finds the mission of UlsterCorps—”fostering a culture of volunteerism, collaborative work and community service”—an important county-wide expression of what small churches in the community should always try to do. Caroline is an ordained elder in the NY Annual Conference of the UMC, having received an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School and a B.A. in Classics from Amherst College. She and her husband are the parents to two children in their 20s, and laps to one Chihuahua.
Ann Citron has been a resident of Ulster County since 1983 when she had her first daughter and realized that the Hudson Valley is the most beautiful place to live and raise a family. Ann is currently the Theatre Arts Director at the Rosendale Theatre where she served as its Director for ten years. She is also one of the theatre’s founding members. She started her volunteer career as a candy striper in high school, wearing the uniform with pride. Volunteering has always been part of her life in many forms. She was a volunteer in a head start program and crisis hotline in college, was a runner for the World Hunger Project, volunteered locally for Angel Food East and Big Brother’s Big Sisters, and was the volunteer coordinator for the Rosendale Street Festival for many years. Ann has a BFA in Theatre Art, is an actor and director working all over the Hudson Valley and lives in Rosendale with her husband Patrick. They have four children between them and seven grandchildren (doing their part to create more volunteers in the world!)
Sam Magarelli is a community volunteer. He is a Founding Member of Staying In Place, a senior support network, Founding Member of the Woodstock Volunteers’ Day Committee, Member- Board of Directors of the Woodstock Memorial Society, commonly known as the ‘Artists Cemetery’ and the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce & Arts. Over the last 35 years he has been a member of the Woodstock Rescue Squad, Founding Member of the Woodstock Soccer League, Member – Board of Directors of the Woodstock Arts Board, Trustee of the Onteora Central School District, President of the Board of Education, Ulster County Legislator, Member of the Phoenicia Rotary. He is a retired teacher. He taught for 38 years, 33 of them in the Kingston School District, until his retirement in 2006. He and his wife Catherine have two children and four grandchildren. They have resided in Woodstock for almost four decades.
Debra Markes has been a dedicated community volunteer in Ulster County for over 30 years after relocating to the area with her husband, John. She is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Kingston where she served as treasurer and recording secretary during her active membership, as well as participating in many community projects and fundraisers. A portion of her League activities included co-chair of the Junior League funded and volunteer build of a Habitat for Humanity home in Kingston. Co-chair of the renovation of the Kingston Area Library Children’s room and helped with the running of the Children’s Explorium. Her involvement in the Kingston school district included PTA president, tutoring students and serving on the District-Wide Parents’ Council. She served on the board of Fare Share Soup Kitchen and coordinated and took an active role in food pickups from local restaurants and supermarkets. She currently is the hospitality food coordinator for the Woodstock Film Festival. She has a BA in communications from SUNY Albany. Debra resides in Glenford with her husband. They have three grown children and one granddaughter.
Eileen Sweeny has worked as a volunteer, board member, consultant and employee for non-profits in the fields of substance abuse treatment, affordable housing, education, environmental and child care advocacy, and healthy food access. She also worked in the private sector in labor relations and administration. In 2018, Eileen happily relocated with her husband to Ulster County where she enjoys gleaning with other Ulster Corps volunteers and soaking in all of the surrounding beauty.
Cicily Wilson is Assistant Dean for Civic Engagement & Director of Community Partnerships at Bard College. Prior to working at Bard, her career centered on nonprofit management with a focus on public relations, community development and fundraising for many organizations including the Elie Wiesel Foundation, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and Girl Scouts. She has a deep commitment to civic engagement and volunteerism. She currently serves on the board of the Friends of Forsyth Nature Center, Kingston Land Trust and has served on the board of the Junior League of Kingston.
Advisor Bios
Elliott Auerbach is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Catskill Borscht Belt Museum, the Ulster Regional Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the Executive Committee of the New York Government Finance Officers Association. From 2019-2023 he served as the New York State Deputy Comptroller and prior to that, from 2009-2019, held the office of the Ulster County Comptroller. A former village mayor and village manager, Auerbach served as USDA Executive Director of the Rural Economic Area Partnership and enjoyed a series of successes in private enterprise and corporate America. In addition, Auerbach served on the Board of Directors of the SUNY Ulster Foundation. He is a graduate of Hofstra University with a degree in Economics-Business and has pursued graduate studies at Long Island University and SUNY New Paltz.
Susan Barnett is an author and journalist who grew up in Ulster County. Currently a columnist for Ulster Publishing, Feminist.com and BookTrib.com and producer and host of WAMC’s nationally syndicated radio program, 51% The Women’s Perspective, her career in broadcast and print news has focused on helping educate the public about social issues. She is the owner of Barnett Communications, providing communication strategies and content to a variety of private, public and non-profit clients. She has worked as a teacher, teaching writing skills to college-bound students with learning disabilities both in the classroom and as a private tutor. She’s volunteered her time in her children’s schools and helped organize events to benefit education and community foundations. She lives in West Hurley with her partner and too many pets.
Rev. Dr. G. Modele Clarke, is the pastor emeritus of New Progressive Baptist Church in Kingston, NY, having served as senior pastor for 26 years. During his tenure, the church became an incubator for community groups such as the A.J. Williams-Myers’ African Roots Library and Harambee. It was also the site for a series of Community Policing forums between 2016 to 2018. Clarke was president of the Ministers’ Alliance of Ulster County for 20 years, a member of Community Foundations and a former member of Mohonk Consultations. He was a commissioner with the Ulster County Human Relations Commission and served on the Ulster County Re-Entry Task Force, the Ulster County Criminal Justice Council and the Ulster Council Workforce Development Board. He is a retired faculty member with the School of Communication and the Arts, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY. Clarke received a Masters of Divinity (M. Div.) and Doctor of Ministry (D. Min.) from Trinity Theological Seminary. He was also inducted into the National Omicron-Psi Honor Society for his distinguished theological scholarship and community service. Clarke also studied at New York Theological Seminary, where he was the recipient of the Benjamin Mays Fellowship. He graduated from the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz with a B.S. degree in English and with a MSJ from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and was a journalist for several years. Clarke is the author of two books of short stories: Up in Mahaica (2012) and Stories from the Pews (2018). Clarke lives in Port Ewen, NY with his wife Evelyn, Town of Esopus councilwoman, former Ulster County Human Rights Director and an ordained minister at New Progressive Baptist Church. She is a retired IBM software engineer.
Fatima Deen is the Wellness Empowerment Center Facilitator at People’s Place in Kingston, NY. The Wellness Empowerment Center strives to enhance the quality of an individual’s life and help them build a stronger, healthier future through wellness classes, health screenings, nutritional guidance, alternative health modalities, and financial education. She is also a reflexology practitioner offering a natural healing art based on the principle that there are reflex points on
the feet and hands which correspond to every part of the body.
Deborah Meyer DeWan is a regional environmental professional and community advocate who has worked throughout the Catskills and Hudson Valley assisting not-for-profits, government agencies and others with policy formation, environmental planning and preservation projects, as well as fundraising, communications and strategic planning. Firmly rooted in community and environmental principles, at the heart of Deborah’s work is an abiding commitment to building bridges, to meaningful public participation and inclusiveness, and reaching through controversy to bring together previously contentious groups to find common cause. Most recently, Deborah served as Ag Policy Advisor to former Senator Jen Metzger. Prior to that she was Executive Director of the Rondout Valley Growers Association, a community-based non-profit organization of over 70 local farmers. Deborah led RVGA’s Farm to Food Pantry program in collaboration with Family of Woodstock and UlsterCorps to bring locally grown produce to food insecure residents in Ulster County. As an environmental advocate, Deborah has navigated political waterways and tenaciously protected the Hudson Valley and Catskill regions most precious assets — whether saving historic buildings on Catskill’s Main Street, ensuring public access to Hudson River waterfronts, or protecting the drinking water for 9 million New Yorkers while fostering environmentally sound development in upstate watershed communities. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from SUNY Stony Brook and an M.S. in Environmental Studies from Bard College. A nature enthusiast and student of watercolor painting who draws inspiration from the natural world, Deborah resides with her family in Ulster County at the nexus of the Catskill Park and Hudson River Valley.
Rik Flynn, Co-Founder and Founding President, is a retired teacher and resident of Ulster County for nearly forty years. He served as a classroom special education instructor, was an Assistant Director of the Mid-Hudson Teacher Center and an acting director and board member for the Ulster County School To Work Partnership. He received an undergraduate degree from Marist College and Master of Science degree in Education from SUNY, New Paltz. During his tenure as a teacher at Ulster County BOCES, he was also an adjunct professor at SUNY New Paltz for a graduate level special education practicum requirement. He was president of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) Ulster County BOCES Teachers’ Organization and a member of several state and national professional education organizations. He was also a vice-president of the Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation (HVALF) and officer of the Upper Hudson Area Central Labor Council (UHCLC), AFL-CIO.
Stephen Gilman is the founder and executive director of MakerState, dedicated to providing hands-on, game-based STEAM, Social Emotional, and Executive Functioning learning experiences for elementary-age youth (STEAM: science, tech, engineering, arts, math). Stephen is a father, a veteran of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, and a former New York City and Rondout Vally High School public school teacher. He is a founding teacher and dean of Bronx Collegiate, a public high school based in Outward Bound Experiential Learning, and has established over 100 makerspaces in schools nationwide. Stephen has led K-12 teacher training programs in coding and engineering design as a principal co-investigator of the National Science Foundation Maker Partnership and cohort trainer for NYC DOE’s “CS4all”, dedicated to ensuring computer science education in all NYC K-12 schools. Stephen is a founding board member of the Urban Assembly Maker Academy and a founding board member of the volunteer network, UlsterCorps. Stephen enjoys board game design, historical fiction writing, disc golf, snowboarding, surfing, biking, and creativity of all kinds, especially if it’s with his son Ben and his partner Michele. Learn more about Stephen’s work in student-centered, project-based SEL and STEAM learning with MakerState and Student Union at www.maker-state.com.
Paula Lockshon is a social worker and has run mental health programs in the nonprofit sector for 2 decades. She is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Human Services Concentration at SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Ulster and has a Private Psychotherapy Practice in Kingston, NY. She has been a Program Director of the County’s Domestic Violence Shelter and Board member at Family of Woodstock, Inc. where she was instrumental in creating the first program for children at the DV Shelter in the 1980s. Her commitment to grassroots movements and community organizing remains foremost in her life. Paula lives in High Falls with her life partner and their tall 16 year old son.
Laraine Mai, Co-Founder, has thirty-eight years of nonprofit leadership and management experience as a founder, executive, and consultant in the fields of education, youth services, international issues, and interfaith cooperation. From 1994 to 2007 she served as President of the International Center for Integrative Studies, a research, education and consulting nonprofit organization. In 2002 she launched RiverTides, an ICIS leadership, education and consulting services program. Previously, she served as Vice-President of ICIS for Programs and Planning; was co-founder of The Door – A Center of Alternatives, a model multi-service center for adolescents. She also served as the first Executive Director of the Interfaith Center of New York. Civic involvement includes: Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley; International Advisory Council of CANHELP, Svenshogen, Sweden, Founders’ Council of The Interfaith Center of New York, the National Advisory Council of the New York Open Center. She also served with the Peace Corps in Venezuela from 1967 to 1969. Laraine lives in New Paltz, NY.
Nancy Pompeo, Co-Founder, had her first volunteer experience at age 6 collecting money for Unicef and has been a committed volunteer ever since. She has volunteered with the Salvation Army, Planned Parenthood, Safe Homes Women’s Shelter, and food pantries in the different communities where she’s lived. In 2002 she was awarded “Volunteer of the Year” for her work with the Salvation Army. She is currently president and owner of Action Resources, a consulting firm with over 20 years experience partnering with corporations to meet their professional development and learning objectives. Nancy lives in Wallkill, NY.
Deborah Schneer, Esq., has devoted her entire professional career, as an attorney and as a judge, to public service. After graduating from Tufts University, Deborah spent a year in rural Missouri as a Vista volunteer, teaching poor people how to be their own advocates. Upon graduation from NYU Law School, she worked for Prisoners Legal Services of NY in Poughkeepsie and later as an Assistant Attorney General in the New York State Department of Law. In 2005 Deborah Schneer was elected as Town Justice in the Town of Rochester, and in 2009 appointed Ulster County Court Judge. Deborah has practiced law for 25 years and has lived in Ulster County for 20 years. She resides in High Falls with her family and currently works in private practice in Rosendale.
