Constantine Sidamon-Eristoff, Founding Chairman

Deborah Rivel - Deborah has a diverse 30-year background of experience in entertainment and technology at the production, management and board guidance level – including over 20 years of entrepreneurial ventures. She worked for a number of years in sales management for Westinghouse Broadcasting before becoming Director of Affiliate Relations for the NBC Radio Networks. Subsequent to that career in broadcast sales and management, she has since owned and managed her own businesses of international TV program sales, TV nature program production and management, and a mobile tech startup.

In 1991 she founded Wildsight Productions which produces pioneering international television documentaries focused on conservation and the relationship between man and wildlife. She founded Wildtones.com in 2005, which develops conservation and wildlife-related mobile products and iPhone applications.

Her work has garnered numerous awards including seven Emmys. She is currently a Board member of Gesturtek, Inc. and The Alex Foundation. Deborah enjoys being in and introducing others to nature and wildlife.  Among her many interests are birds, animal behavior and cognition, wildlife photography, hiking, travel, dance, and decorative arts.

Victoria Shaw

Willis (Wids) S. DeLaCour, Jr.- Wids was a member of the Board of the Prospect Park Audubon Center.  Wids regularly participates in our Leadership Birdathon in Central Park and is a supporter of Audubon New York, including the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary & Audubon Center.  He is a member of the Board of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities and Co-Chair of the Housing Committee for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) New York.  He is a partner in the firm DeLaCour & Ferrara Architects, which has built notably over 3000 affordable and special needs housing units within New York City and on Long Island. 

Marsilia Boyle- Marcy has recently retired as Senior Managing Director for Development and Special Projects at LeFrak. In her 33 years with the company she has played a major role in many aspects of the Newport development, the company’s master-planned community on the New Jersey Hudson River waterfront, including managing the successful city, state and federal permitting process, negotiating office and retail leases, easements and agreements with public agencies, managing environmental compliance and remediation and many of Newport’s business enterprises, and served as President of the Property Owners Association.

Prior to joining LeFrak, Marcy was Director of Real Estate for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), and Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Ports and Terminals. She is a long time and current member of the Board of the New York City Audubon Society and Audubon New York, and served as President of the Audubon New York Chapter Council. She also sings with Master Voices, an avocational choral group which performs classical masterworks, opera, and American music in concert in venues such as Carnegie Hall and in Europe. Marcy served for 26 years as a member, and for two years as chairperson of Brooklyn Community Board1. A graduate of St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, New York, Marcy also holds the degree of Master of Public Administration from the State University of New York at Albany.

Joy Cirigliano - is an ecological landscaper, environmental educator, and natural historian. She is passionate about nature, how ecosystems work, and the profound effect humanity has on nature – for good or ill. She holds certification for both Certified Nursery and Landscape Professional (CNLP), and National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Landscape Professional (NWF-CWLP).  She is an approved Pesticide trainer for NYS DEC, covering Ornamental Horticulture, Turfgrass and Native Plants, where she teaches how not to use pesticides and still manage to control pest issues. Joy believes that partnerships, networking, education and the next generation are the keys to repairing the environmental issues that the world faces. To that end, she uses her diverse skills to facilitate this. Joy mentors a small group of Farmingdale students in the field of ecological landscaping and is hoping to develop this into a more comprehensive program.  She has also created a Stewardship Superheroes program which is being implemented through Avalon Park and Preserve's Nature Initiative.

Joy runs Joy's Forever Endeavor, an ecoscaping, garden design & mentoring business, specializing in native plants and ecosystem services/repair. In tandem with running her own business, Joy held the position of horticulturalist and lead salesperson at Atlantic Nurseries, a wholesale nursery and grower in Dix Hills New York.  Additionally, she was the Butterfly House Manager, environmental educator and wildlife rehabber for Sweetbriar Nature Center, a 54-acre Nature preserve where she still spends much of her time.

Joy has held the position of president for her local chapter, Four Harbors Audubon Society, for six years.  In 2019 she was awarded the William Dutcher award for conservation excellence at the National Audubon Society's Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is currently the Board chair for the Audubon Council of New York State.

Laurie Hodgson - Laurie graduated from Denison University in 1981 with a B.A. and received her M.A. from Columbia University Teachers College in 1998.

Laurie is the founder and driving force behind the New York Education Program, a joint venture with Johns Hopkins Medicine serving young adults with autism.  The program grew out of Laurie’s experience in education and caring for her own autistic child.

For nearly 30 years, Laurie has been caring for the garden at the National Register of Historic Places 1739 Colonial Holabird House in Falls Village, Connecticut.  Laurie and her husband, David, have created bountiful cutting, vegetable and herb gardens and two perennial beds that stretch for over three acres.  Recently, new plantings have been added to act a rest stop and provide food for migratory birds.   Laurie’s gardens were featured on the 2011 Trade Secrets Tour and the 2017 Cornwall Library Books & Blooms Tour. 

Since 2011, Laurie has been volunteering with Learning to Look, an art enrichment program at Our Lady Queen of Angels, a Catholic Elementary School in East Harlem.   She is a member of the Cosmopolitan Club in New York City; is an avid golfer and thoroughly enjoys hiking, cooking, canning, photography and birding.

Thomas (Woody) Keesee- Thomas W. Keesee III, “Woody,” is a founding partner and principal of CDK Group LLC, a New York based investment firm. He has had a thirty year career in international finance including positions as a partner of Banco Pactual, a leading Brazilian investment bank, CS First Boston (now Credit Suisse) and the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York (now JP Morgan). Woody is currently a Board Member of the Dutchess Land Conservancy in Millbrook, New York and serves as Chairman of its investment committee.

Woody is a former Trustee of the Eastern New York Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and served on TNC's Brazil Advisory Group. He is also a shareholder and Board Member of Limpopo-Lipadi Game and Wilderness Reserve in Botswana which is dedicated to the conservation of habit and species in an important area of that country. Woody graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in International Relations and an MBA from the Wharton School of Finance. He is married with two adult children and lives in New York City and Millbrook, NY.

Edward Mohlenhoff, Esq.- Ed grew up in Oyster Bay Cove and East Norwich, New York, attended the public schools and graduated from Oyster Bay High School.  Ed went on to get his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Columbia University and his law degree from St. Johns Law School. In the past, Ed has served on the Board of the Oyster Bay Main Street Association and the Nassau County Chapter of the American Red Cross and was also the past Chairperson of the Tax Certiorari and Condemnation Committee of the Nassau County Bar Association.  He has served as the President and Vice President of the Advisory Board of the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center.

Presently, Ed is with the law firm of Schroder and Strom LLP, and before joining this firm he was a partner of the firm Siegel Fenchel and Peddy.  Ed was also employed as a Deputy County Attorney for the Nassau County Attorney’s Office for a few years before entering into private practice. Previous to law school, Ed worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt and Mosle LLP.

In addition to his work in the very specialized field of Tax Certiorari, Ed is presently the President of Youngs Memorial Cemetery (burial site of President Theodore Roosevelt), on the State Board of Audubon New York, Trustee of Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, Vice President of the Life Enrichment Center of Oyster Bay, on the Board of the Oyster Bay Community Foundation, and is also a member of the Board of Regents at NYU/Winthrop University Hospital.

Ed currently lives in Oyster Bay Cove, New York, on the family compound known as Bakerhollow.  The compound, was aptly named many years ago after his mother’s family, the Bakers, an old Oyster Bay Cove family that has lived at this location for the past 150 years.  The compound, now consists of four houses originally owned by Ed’s great, great grandparents: Edward and Sarah Van Wicklen Baker.  This homestead is on property that immediately adjoins the TR Sanctuary and Audubon Center.

Laura O'Donohue- Since 2004, Laura has been the Owner/Manager of Snow Hill Farm, LLC, a working farm on over 100 acres of gardens, pastures, and woods in the town of North Salem, Snow Hill Farm was established to bring fresh healthful food to the community while practicing responsible organic farming.  Snow Hill Farm’s primary crop is grass-fed all natural certified Black Angus Beef.  Additionally, the farm grows its own hay, builds healthy soils through the practice of composting, sustainably harvested firewood, and produces wood chips from forested land. Snow Hill Farm also has working apiaries which produce our own wildflower honey, seasonal fruits and vegetables, and a herd of Dorset Horn and Southdown Sheep which produce medium weight wool.  Snow Hill Farm is a proud member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (Farmers Pledge), Watershed Agricultural Council, American Tree Farm System, New York Farm Bureau and the Audubon at Home Program.  Snow Hill Farm has been awarded a Bird Habitat Certification for its organic farming practices, habitat management plan, and creation of a bird friendly property within a working farm.

Laura earned her BA degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and also serves on a number of other boards, including Stanford Educational Farm, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, The New 42nd Street, Audubon Women in Conservation and previously served on the Boards of The Paper Bag Players, Girls’ Quest (formerly Girls’ Vacation Fund) and Christ Church Day School. Her other interests include spending time with her husband, Kevin, and her four children, as well as hiking, playing tennis, attending theater, and reading.

Michael (Buzzy) O'Keeffe- Michael (Buzzy) O’Keeffe was born and raised in New York City. Soon after graduating college and serving in the United States Army, he began his efforts to build a restaurant on the waterfront, which would combine three of his avocations: building, food, and being by the water. He created the city’s first waterfront restaurant, The River Café, located on the Brooklyn side of the East River, immediately by the Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in June 1977. During his twelve year waiting period, he built and operated eight additional restaurants, each receiving acclaim and notoriety. The restaurant received the Parks Council Award in 1978, The Municipal Arts Society Award in 1979, and was selected by Gault Millau, the French culinary guide as one of the five best restaurants in New York, in 1982. This year, The River Cafe was awarded with the prestigious “Ivy Award of Distinction” from Restaurants & Institutions magazine.

The success of the River Café inspired the City to propose a similar development on the Manhattan waterfront. The Water Club, located on the East River at 30th Street, opened in 1982, and currently ranks among the top-grossing restaurants in the United States, and has, along with The River Café, received the Distinguished Restaurants of North America Award and been selected to the Restaurant Hall of Fame. Buzzy designed, built and operated, for eighteen years, the Cafe at Grand Central on the Vanderbilt Avenue Balcony of Grand Central. With the renovation of Grand Central Station, the Cafe had to close and Buzzy chose to move instead to Pershing Square at 42nd Street and Park Avenue rather than return to the terminal itself. It was yet another extreme challenge to build in this vast New York City Landmark, which is located under a roadway, over a railway, surrounded by major thoroughfares. Buzzy has spent an enormous amount of time and energy transforming this structure into a restaurant reminiscent of the grand cafes and dining halls that were an inherent part of New York City in the early 1900’s. The restaurant, Pershing Square Cafe, has already been given three stars by The New York Post, and received The Municipal Arts Society’s 1999 Preservation Award. The award was established to recognize outstanding examples of building restoration, completed during the last year in the five boroughs of New York City. There is one award each year given in the commercial design category.

In addition to creating numerous establishments over the past thirty years, he has served as a consultant for many New York City restaurants and has been invited to speak about his innovative waterfront architectural designs for the 23rd Street Development Project at the International Symposiumon Ocean Space Utilization held at Nihon University in Japan.

He is an active member of the Futures in Education Foundation, which raises money for inner-city school children. He served on the Board of Directors of the Fire Safety Foundation, the Harbor Foundation of New York and New Jersey and Fordham Preparatory School, and is a member of the Cardinal’s Committee of The Laity, the New York State Restaurant Association, the Manhattan Waterfont Alliance and the University of Limerick in Ireland.

Gail S. Port, Esq. - Gail S. Port is the head of the interdepartmental Environmental Group at Proskauer based in the New York office. She has been practicing environmental law, land use and environmental litigation for over 40 years. Her practice covers a wide range of environmental matters including counseling clients nationally and internationally on the environmental risks in mergers and acquisitions, real estate transactions and financings; environmental compliance matters; Superfund and RCRA cases; federal and state enforcement proceedings; sustainability and climate change issues; remediation; environmental litigation and administrative proceedings; land use matters; and historic preservation.

Prior to joining Proskauer, from 1984-1989, Gail was the Deputy General Counsel and the chief environmental advisor to the New York State Urban Development Corporation (now the Empire State Development Corporation), where she was involved in numerous high visibility large-scale land use and development projects and related financing transactions. Before her public service, Gail was an associate at a prominent environmental boutique law firm.

Gail has served as the Chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section and of the New York City Bar Association’s Environmental Law Committee. She has the honor of being a Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, a professional association of national preeminent environmental lawyers with distinguished careers. From June 1992 until 2012, following her initial appointment by Governor Mario Cuomo (and State Senate confirmation), Gail served as one of only five citizen members on the New York State Environmental Board. She was reappointed to the Board twice by Governor Pataki and then served at the pleasure of Governors Spitzer, Paterson and Andrew Cuomo.

Gail has been widely recognized as a leading environmental attorney in many legal directories, including Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America (in which she was also named New York City Environmental Law Lawyer of the Year in 2012) , and New York Super Lawyers (in which she has also been named several times as a Top 50 Female Attorney and one of the Top 100 lawyers in the NYC Metropolitan Area). Gail has lectured and written widely on a broad spectrum of environmental topics. She also served as an adjunct faculty member of Pace University School of Law, where she taught “Commercial Environmental Law.”

Gini Stowe- Gini has contributed enormously to the growth of Audubon New York.  She is a former Chair of the Audubon New York Board of Directors, serves on the Development and Governance Committees, has chaired both the Keesee and Women in Conservation Luncheons, and, with her good friend Margot, led numerous Leadership Birdathons. In addition, Gini has put her passion for children and education to great use as a founding teacher of Audubon New York’s For the Birds! environmental education program in underserved New York City public schools. This volunteer work is a natural outgrowth of her professional life, where she is a parent educator, family counselor, author, and founder and director of the not-for-profit Parenting Development Resource, Inc.

Gini is also proud to have served on the National Audubon Society Board and continues to be a strong advocate and supporter for Audubon’s Forestry and International Alliances Programs, particularly as they work to protect her favorite species -- the Wood Thrush.

June Summers- June has been involved in Genesee Valley Audubon Society (GVAS) since 1983 and has been its President since 2003. She has been a leading conservation force in several local initiatives.

In 2008 GVAS took over the Peregrine Falcon camera from Kodak that was on Kodak’s building. This involved finding a web master, funding, relocating the box to another building and the trauma of losing and gaining birds. Nevertheless, Rfalconcam.com is still here and waiting the hatching of the 2021 eyeas. She also participated in the New York River Otter Project from 1995 to 2001 which restored 281 North American River Otter to Central and Western New York.  

In 2018 June was instrumental in helping Audubon Great Lakes and Audubon New York select a wetland in the Rochester area (Cranberry Pond which is in the Braddock Bay Wildlife Management area) to construct a restoration project. In 2019 June lead the Marsh Bird Monitory program around Cranberry Pond to establish baseline data on the marsh birds that live there. While Covid and other circumstances delayed construction of the restoration project until 2021, June is looking forward to continued monitoring of the marsh birds at Cranberry Pond and hoping for larger numbers in 2021.  June also led groups from schools and recreation centers to Braddock Bay to introduce them to Great Lakes fresh water wetlands and their importance as habitat for animals and human. June tries to keep a handle on environment issues here in New York State and the throughout the U.S. and has joined NAS in Washington DC lobbying efforts to increase funding of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. 

June has served for several years on the NYS Audubon Chapter Council and has served as Vice Chair. She also served on the Audubon New York Board for one year as the Council’s representative.  June is the recipient of the 2018 Council’s Norman Stotz Award for Exemplary volunteer service. 

Karen Thomas - Karen K. Thomas is a lifelong nature advocate and enthusiast. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Wild Center, a natural history museum in the heart of New York State’s Adirondack Park, which melds three passions of hers: environment, education, and the Adirondacks.  The Wild Center was named a 2015 finalist for the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation's highest honor for museums in service to their communities, and is the first LEED certified museum in New York.  Its Center’s Youth Climate Summit program has educated and inspired high school and college students for seven years to become leaders in the climate movement, with participants invited to the White House and COP21, Paris.  Most recently, Karen co-chaired the Campaign for The Wild Center, successfully surpassing the $20 million goal.  

Karen is an avid personal and community gardener focusing on native plants and ecological design, and her garden is being documented on behalf of Garden Club of America for submission to the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens.  She has been a member of the Rye Garden Club for over 30 years, serving as President from 2008-2010. Karen also designed and installed the pollinator garden at the Edith Read Sanctuary in Rye, NY and gives community programs on pollination.  Additionally, Karen served on the Board of Trustees and Board of Fellows for her alma mater, Trinity College in Hartford, CT from 2003-2015.  

Karen has her BA from Trinity College and her Certificate in Sustainable Garden Design from the New York Botanical Garden. Karen divides her time between Rye and the Adirondacks, and is most often found hiking, gardening, or spending time with her family.