Foundation Board welcomes new members, renews terms

The SUNY New Paltz Foundation held its annual meeting of the Board of Directors on June 16 in New York City, welcoming four new officers and three new members, and re-electing four members to three-year terms.

New officers include Chair Michael Keegan (who replaces Patrick Doulin, who completed his term); Vice Chair Leonard Boccia ’89; Treasurer Mary Etta Schneider; and Secretary Barbara Scherr. Susan Najork ’67 ’70g (whose term begins Jan. 1, 2015), Jim F. Passikoff, and SUNY New Paltz Professor Emeritus Giancarlo Traverso were welcomed as new directors, while the terms of Arthur Anderson, Anthony Costa, Noah Dorsky, and Peter Kane ‘69 were all renewed.

“I’m honored and very excited to succeed prior chairs who have done a great job for the Foundation, and hopefully I can continue doing so as chair,” said Keegan, regional president of M&T Bank’s Albany and Hudson Valley divisions and former manager of commercial real estate lending for M&T’s Eastern New York region.

Keegan joined M&T in 1994 as a vice president. In addition to the SUNY New Paltz Foundation, he also sits on the boards of Union Graduate College, Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress, Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation, Seton Health, and the Albany Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Keegan is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and holds a Master of Business Administration from Union College. He lives in Guilderland, N.Y., with his wife, Mary, and three children.

Vice Chair Boccia, who earned his bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing from SUNY New Paltz in 1989, has worked in the financial services industry for more than 24 years. He was recently ranked No. 91 in the state of New York in a Barron’s special report recognizing the top financial advisors in the country, a list on which he has now appeared four times. Boccia has worked for Wells Fargo Advisors since 2005, currently as managing director of investments. Prior to this, he worked for Advest, Inc. as senior vice president of investments, and started his career as a financial advisor for W.J. Nolan, where he eventually was made partner. Boccia lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., with his wife and two children.

Treasurer Schneider was a leader in the banking industry for nearly three decades, most recently as head of Bank of America’s $4.5 billion corporate banking division. She played a major role on successive CEO teams for BankBoston, FleetBoston Financial and Bank of America (1987-2004), serving in critical leadership positions through each of their respective mergers. She worked with Citibank and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York early in her career, and also represented the Federal Reserve System at the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies in Mexico. Schneider is president and board chair of Historic Huguenot Street, and previously served on the boards of the Metropolitan Opera, United Way of Massachusetts Bay, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, among others. Schneider, a cum laude graduate of SUNY Oswego with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics, lives in a historic stone house in High Falls, N.Y.

Secretary Scherr graduated from Emerson College and taught speech therapy in the Marlboro Central School District. She serves on the boards of United Cerebral Palsy for New York State and New York City, as well as the Goshen affiliate of Inspire. She is a past board member of Museum of the Hudson Highlands and Temple Beth Jacob, and has worked with the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at SUNY New Paltz. Scherr was a founding member of the Hudson Valley Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and co-founded CUB’s Place for children in crisis with her late husband, Harry. Scherr was honored with an Orange County Citizens Foundation Ottaway medal for her and Harry’s 25-plus years of volunteer service. Scherr resides in Newburgh, N.Y., with her husband, Peter Olympia.

Najork earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education (1967) and a master’s degree in elementary education (1970) from SUNY New Paltz. Her father, Ronald Dutcher, is a 1938 graduate of the College. Najork previously served as owner and director of Collection Bureau Hudson Valley, a Newburgh, N.Y.-based debt collection company for which her two sons now serve as executives. Since retiring, Najork has become an active Hudson Valley philanthropist, receiving countless awards for her community involvement, including the Ruth and James Ottaway Medal from the Orange County Citizens’ Foundation and the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Outstanding Philanthropist Award. She is a past board president of the Newburgh Day Nursery and St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital Auxiliary, and has served on the boards of Calvary Presbyterian Church, Mount Saint Mary College, Hospice of Orange & Sullivan Counties, and the Community Foundation of Orange & Sullivan Counties.

Passikoff, a certified public accountant and partner with Passikoff and Scott of Poughkeepsie, has worked as an accountant in the Mid-Hudson Valley since 1969, after serving in the Army. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (for which he is a past president), and the Institute of Management Accountants. Passikoff is the past president of the Foundation for Accounting Education and the Mid-Hudson Chapter of the Institute for Management Accountants. He serves on the board of Saint Cabrini Home in West Park, N.Y., and held previous board positions for several local organizations including the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill, Dutchess Outreach, Parish Council of St. Joseph’s in New Paltz, and the Highland Rotary Club. Passikoff, a graduate of Rider University, lives with his wife, Victoria, in Highland, N.Y.

Professor Emeritus Traverso started the Italian Studies program at SUNY New Paltz in 1968, and helped establish the Urbino summer and academic year programs. He served as director of international education from 1980-82, and taught French and Italian language and literature courses until his retirement in 1998. To honor his parents, he created the Luigi and Anita Traverso Endowment for Italian Studies (2001) and the Luigi and Anita Traverso Endowed Photography Scholarship (2013). This year, in remembrance of his brother, he started the Giuseppe Traverso Citizen Naturalist Endowed Internship, which awards SUNY New Paltz student interns who participate in ecological monitoring and conservation science programs at the Mohonk Preserve.

All new board members’ terms began July 1.