Peter Borish
Peter Borish is Chairman and CEO of Computer Trading Corporation, an actively managed hedge fund which focuses on macroeconomic investing. In 1995, Mr. Borish, formed Computer Trading Corporation (CTC) to manage assets in the derivative markets using trading and risk management models he created.  He is also an investor in and a member of the Board of Quadriserv, Inc. Quadriserv is a technology driven securities lending platform, which emphasizes price transparency and process efficiency.  Previously, Mr. Borish was Senior Managing Director and then Chairman of the Board of Directors of OneChicago, LLC as well as CEO of Twinfields Capital Management.  From 1986 to 1994, he led a team of researchers, traders and systems developers at Tudor Investment Corporation, where he was a founding partner. From 1982 to 1985, Mr. Borish was employed at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York where he monitored foreign exchange futures and options.  He is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Robin Hood Foundation and Math for America.  Mr. Borish is also active in the futures industry.  He was a special advisor to Board of Directors of the Chicago Board of Trade and a board member of the Futures Industry Association for a decade. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Institute for Financial Markets (a not-for-profit, educational institute).  Mr. Borish was a member of the Presidential Task Force on Market Mechanisms (the "Brady Commission") that studied the stock market decline of October 1987.  He holds a master’s degree in Public Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School for Public Policy Studies at the University of Michigan and a B.A. in economics from the same university.

Arnold Dorin
Arnold Dorin is a VESID administrator who has worked in the field of vocational rehabilitation for more than 20 years.  He initially worked for the New York State Department of Labor from 1972-1985 in various positions of increasing responsibility. His jobs included Employment Counselor, Senior Interviewer and finally, Employment Consultant in the Testing Division of the Special Services Unit of the Department. Arnold came to VESID in 1985 and worked as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor until 1999.  He was subsequently promoted to unit supervisor and has had a variety of administrative responsibilities including supervision of the Harlem VESID office and supervision of a case service unit in the Manhattan District Office.  Mr. Dorin has been extremely active in the job placement community and has assisted employers in filling their needs for qualified applicants who happen to have a disability and trained many placement professionals.  He was promoted to Regional Marketing Coordinator in 2007 and is now responsible for disseminating information about the benefits of hiring individuals with disabilities, and increasing their employment opportunities within companies in New York City. Arnold graduated from Baruch College with a BBA in Industrial Psychology and from New York University with an MA in Counseling.

Reg Foster
Reg Foster is the Corporate Community Relations Manager for the IBM Corporation for the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut Tri-State area. Prior to joining IBM, Mr. Foster served as Vice President for Government Relations and External Relations at United Way of New York City, focusing on resource development, technology, and contracting issues and public/private partnerships. He served in New York State government as an Assistant Director of the Governor’s Office for the Aging. He also served in New York City government as a Deputy Administrator at the Human Resources Administration Office of Legislation and Policy. Mr. Foster holds a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, and a degree in English Literature and Philosophy from the University of Toronto.

Gregory Hambric
Gregory Hambric is the Human Resources/Regional Training Manager for Modell’s Sporting  Goods.  He grew up in New York and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Advertising from Iona College.  Greg is active in his community. He sits on the citywide Community Action Board (CAB) which is an advisory group to the Department of Youth and Community Develpoment in New York City. He plays in various local basketball tournaments, and is a member of the Celebrity Chefs of Weschester, an organization that raises money for various community initiatives. Greg is also an active participant in Relay for Life, a fundraising organization that raises money for cancer research. Additionally, he and his father hold yearly benefits to support the Sharing Community of Yonkers, donating turkey dinners for needy families during the holidays, and he is the Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees for his church.  Greg lives in New Jersey, with his wife Dona and their two children, Brandon and Taylor.

Peter Kleinbard
Peter Kleinbard is a Vice President of the Fund for the City of New York and the Director of the Youth Development Institute there. Previously, he served as a program officer for the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds. In 1993, he founded and directed for 13 years, the Young Adult Learning Academy, a school for youth who had dropped out of high school. He is a graduate of Yale University.

Howard Knoll
Howard Knoll has over 27 years of direct practice and senior-level-youth services management experiences.  Mr. Knoll has worked in community-based settings (21 years with Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center) and workforce development organizations (Arbor E & T) combined with national work as Director of Youth Services Region I/ US Department of Labor/Employment &Training Administration. Currently, Mr. Knoll is a Senior Director of a national child welfare operating foundation, Casey Family Programs.  Mr. Knoll holds Masters Degree in Social Work and currently is Chair of the Board, of the National Youth Employment Coalition.  Mr. Knoll is a 2004 Lewis Hines Award winner, for contributions over his career in youth services.

Rae Linefsky
Rae Linefsky is presently a consultant for not-for-profits in the human service arena. Previously, she has served as: the Executive Director of two NYC not-for-profits, the Court Employment Project and the YWCA of the City of New York; Acting Commissioner of the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA); and as a senior executive at FEGS and NYANA. She has many years of experience in diverse areas of human services, including employment and training, childcare, economic and community development, immigrants, welfare, adult literacy and youth issues, including drop-out prevention and youth development. She serves on several boards and was Chair of the National Youth Employment Coalition. In her early career she worked in newspapers and magazines. She was supervisor of Adult Basic Education for the Massachusetts Department of Education and was a Director of the first school without walls in the country.

Richard F. McKeon, Chair
Rich McKeon is a Program Director of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.  He oversees a diverse portfolio of grants which includes Education, Conservation and Health & Medical Research.  Prior to joining the Trust, Rich was a Director at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors where he helped private foundations and corporate foundations develop and implement grantmaking programs in areas including education reform, youth development, healthcare and conservation.  During this time, he advised on over $70 million in giving.  He also developed and implemented strategic plans for foundations during the start-up and transition phases.  Prior to joining Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Rich spent five years overseeing the FleetBoston Financial Foundation's (now the Bank of America Foundation) grant program in the Metro New York market. In this role, he funded hundreds of nonprofit organizations working in community and economic development, youth development, education and arts and culture. He also managed a program for Seedco, a nonprofit community development financial institution, which helps small businesses in New York City in the areas of financing, marketing and business planning. In addition, he spent ten years in management positions for The Chase Manhattan Bank (now JPMorgan Chase) and Fleet.  Rich was appointed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to Chair the New York City Youth Board of the Department of Youth and Community Development, the largest after-school funder in the U.S. In addition to serving as the Youth Board Chair, he currently serves as a board member of Youth Represent, a nonprofit which provides free legal representation to youth in New York City and as a trustee for the Berkeley Heights Education Foundation. He is an advisory board member of The Children’s Support Foundation.  He previously served on the boards of Teach for America New York and Lehman Center for the Performing Arts. He received his B.A. from Fairfield University, his M.B.A. from Fordham University and also completed the Educational Grantmakers Institute at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Milga Morales Nadal, Ph.D.
Dr. Morales Nadal is the Dean of Student Life at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, where she previously held multiple leadership positions in the School of Education. Her academic research centers around English language acquisition among Hispanics, multicultural education, and the education of Puerto Ricans in the United States. Dr. Morales Nadal has developed many curricula for the education of elementary school children and non-English speakers. Dr. Morales Nadal received her Ph.D. from Yeshiva University, writing her dissertation on “Contributing Factors to English Language Acquisition Among Hispanics in Basic Education Programs.”

Maureen O’Connor
Ms. O’Connor is the Director of Library Services for the Queens Borough Public Library where she is responsible for public services including the Library’s adult and family literacy programs, job information centers, and services to immigrants and youth. Under her direction, the library is a partner in the Workforce 1 Career Center in Jamaica maintaining a kiosk and staff in the Resource Room. She is also charged with implementing the library’s juvenile justice and GEAR UP grants as well as being the Library’s representative on the Mayor’s Out-of-School Time initiative. Prior to coming to Queens Ms. O’Connor worked for the State Education Department as a Library Development Specialist where she had statewide responsibility for public library outreach programs and was the State Library’s program officer for state and federal grants. She currently serves on the Statewide Alliance for Family Literacy and is active in the American and New York Library Associations.

Sergeant Margaret O'Gara
Sergeant Margaret O'Gara  is the Commanding Officer of the Youth Services Section of the New York City Police Department, Brooklyn, New York. Her work entails teaching youth about the dangers of gang and criminal activity, as well as youth law. The Sergeant and her team regularly raise public awareness about the Youth Services section, sharing information about community resources and programs accessible to young people.

John B. Rhea
John B. Rhea was appointed Chairman of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) on June 1, 2009 by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. NYCHA is the largest public housing authority in North America, providing decent and affordable housing for over 402,000 New Yorkers with low- and moderate-incomes within the five boroughs. The Authority’s Conventional Public Housing Program comprises 338 developments encompassing over 2,600 residential buildings and more than 178,000 apartments.  NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program, which provides vouchers for more than 95,000 households with apartments in the private rental market. The program has over 32,000 participating landlords. To enhance the quality of life for NYCHA residents, the Authority also provides a multitude of community, educational and recreational programs as well as employment and training initiatives. Chairman Rhea has over 20 years of corporate experience having served as both an advisor and senior executive at a number of the world’s leading corporations. Most recently, he was a Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division of Barclays Capital (formerly Lehman Brothers) and served as Co-Head of the Global Consumer & Retail Group.  The Chairman is a founding member and director of the Council for Urban Professionals (CUP), a non-partisan, nonprofit organization representing the social, political and economic interests of urban-based professionals and entrepreneurs.  He serves on the board of the New York Business Development Corporation – the largest originator of Small Business Loans in New York State. He has been a tireless advocate for early childhood education and arts and cultural programs for New York City’s youth as a Board member of Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, and as Board Chair of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Chairman Rhea is also a member of the Executive Leadership Council and a former David Rockefeller Fellow. An early supporter of President Barack Obama, Chairman Rhea was a member of the Obama for America National Finance Committee.

Ronald E. Richter
Ronald E. Richter was appointed Commissioner of New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) on September 6, 2011. Established in January 1996 as the first agency in New York City’s history solely devoted to serving children, ACS is responsible for child protective, foster care, adoption, child care and Head Start services. In addition, ACS was given responsibility in 2010 for secure and non-secure detention services for youth in the juvenile justice system (formerly the Department of Juvenile Justice), alternative to placement programming, and for youth designated as juvenile delinquents (JD) or persons in need of supervision (PINS).

Commissioner Richter has worked for two decades on behalf of New York City’s children involved with the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Prior to his appointment as Commissioner, he served as a Judge in the Family Court of the State of New York, to which he was appointed in January 2009. He presided over child welfare cases and led the Queens Child Protective Initiative to coordinate efforts to advance prompt permanency for children. Prior to that, he served as Family Services Coordinator for the City of New York, ensuring that gaps in services to the City’s most vulnerable populations were identified and eliminated, that the City’s human service agencies were managed efficiently and effectively, and additionally provided oversight to the Mayor’s Interagency Task Force on Child Welfare and Safety. Commissioner Richter was the ACS Deputy Commissioner for Family Court Legal Services from 2005 to 2007, where he was responsible for representing the Commissioner in all matters before the City’s five family courts.

In his first appointment with the Agency, Commissioner Richter was instrumental in helping to create systemic reforms at ACS, including the first ever ACS strategic plan for LGBTQ youth. He developed, implemented and provided oversight to the ACS Juvenile Justice Initiative which provides intensive, evidence-based services for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. As ACS Commissioner, he is committed to building upon the innovative reforms put in place over the last several years including the agency’s use of data to monitor child protection cases, enhancing the quality of child care and early education services, improving relations between ACS and the Family Court, and efforts to realign the City’s juvenile justice system.

Commissioner Richter was an attorney at The Legal Aid Society from 1991 to 2005, where he worked with ACS and its predecessor agencies representing children in juvenile delinquency, child protection and parental rights proceedings. He is a member of the Family Court Advisory Committee of the New York State Supreme Court, First Department, as well as the Council on Children of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He has presented an annual lecture on “Interviewing Children in Child Protective Cases” at Columbia University Law School, and was for several years Program Chair and Lecturer at the Practicing Law Institute.

Commissioner Richter earned his B.A. from Tufts University, his M.S. from Boston University College of Communications and his J.D. from Boston University School of Law. He lives in Long Island City, Queens, with his spouse, Franklin, and their daughter, Maya.

Thomas Pendleton
Tom Pendleton is the Director of Learning to Work Initiatives for the Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation at the NYC Department of Education. Tom joined the NYC Department of Education in 2005 to coordinate the implementation of Learning to Work programs for the Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation. These programs include the Young Adult Borough Centers, Transfer Schools with Learning to Work and Learning to Work GED programs. He also works with three technical assistance partner organizations on developing capacity building efforts for these programs. Prior to his current position, Tom served as Executive Director of the New York Citywide School to Work Alliance. Tom has worked over the past 30 years with and for NYC teens in a variety of community based organizations. He graduated from Haverford College and earned a management certificate from the Institute for Not for Profit Management at Columbia University.

Robert Purga
Robert Purga is currently a supervisor for the New York State Education Department’s Adult Education and Workforce Development team. His responsibilities include supervising program development staff and lead staff to Commissioner Mills in his role as a member of the State Workforce Investment Board and co-chair of the Emerging Worker Sub-Committee of the Board. This includes a cross-department workforce development workgroup that includes representatives from higher education including postsecondary vocational and technical education, elementary, secondary and continuing education, vocational rehabilitation, libraries, public broadcasting, and professional licensing. Robert is a member of the New York City Workforce Investment Board and its Youth Council.

Kurt Sonnenfeld, Ed.D.
Dr. Sonnenfeld is a retired career employee of the New York City Department of Youth Services, one of the agencies merged to form the Department of Youth and Community Development in 1996. Dr. Sonnenfeld received his Doctorate of Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, writing his dissertation on “Changing Perspectives on Youth Services as Seen Through the Historical Development of the New York City Youth Board.” Over the course of his 45-year career, Dr. Sonnenfeld held multiple positions at the Department of Youth Services, including Director of Training. He has also served on the Board of Directors of numerous community based organizations in NYC.

Lena O. Townsend
Ms. Townsend is the Executive Director of the Robert Bowne Foundation. In that role, her responsibilities include grant making oversight in the area of literacy-based after school and youth programming. She previously served as Director of Community Initiatives at the Institute for Literacy Studies, Lehman College, City University of New York. She has extensive experience in developing and directing professional development projects for youth practitioners, adult educators, and teachers; and in evaluation methodology and literacy practices.

Nancy Wackstein
Ms. Wackstein serves as the Executive Director of the United Neighborhood Houses of New York, the federation of the City's thirty-seven settlement houses and neighborhood centers. Previously, she was the Executive Director of the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, a 108 year-old settlement house. In the Administration of Mayor David N. Dinkins, Ms. Wackstein served as Director of the Mayor's Office on Homelessness and SRO Housing, and she was the Senior Policy Advisor for Human Services to Mayor Dinkins when he was Manhattan Borough President. Ms. Wackstein serves on the Boards of Directors of several community-based organizations.

Youth Representatives