Board of Trustees

After joining NYSEC in April 2003, she volunteered for small tasks, and her first talk was a short piece on spirituality for a panel program the last Sunday of that year. Trained for society volunteer work at the Lay Leadership Summer School of 2004, she has since presented an address on Felix Adler's "Supreme Moral Rule" both at this Society and the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County; an end-of-the-year talk, "Goodbye 2006," on the activist legacy of the New York Society for Ethical Culture; and a talk in March, 2008, on "Unity and Diversity," concepts Dr. Adler espoused that bear periodic revisiting.

Andra is Chair of the Radio Committee and hosts many of the Society's monthly programs on WBAI. She has served as director of Sunday afternoon programs and as a member of the Adult Education Committee. She is a certified Ethical Culture Officiant.

Andra has read books onto tape at JBI, interviewed political candidates for Citizens Union, and served on the watershed protection committee of the New York State Sierra Club. She has been active for many years in community theater (acting, singing, dancing, choreographing and directing). Her professional background is in business writing, business administration, magazine editing and public relations.

Heather Grady was elected to the Board in 2007, immediately taking on important roles for the Society. She served as the Chair of the Building Centennial Committee, planning celebratory events and activities for the year 2010, the 100th year since the dedication of our landmark building. Heather is also Vice President and served as Chair of the Pledge Committee, working with Committee members on a successful pledge drive in 2009.

Heather is the Managing Director of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative (www.realizingrights.org), founded by former Irish President Mary Robinson in 2002. She is involved in programs on promoting climate justice, the right to “decent work,” corporate responsibility for human rights, and women’s leadership. She has spent almost two decades living in Asia, the Middle East and Africa managing long-term development and humanitarian programs. Prior to joining Realizing Rights she worked with Oxfam Great Britain, serving as the Global Lead on Rights and Institutional Accountability, as Regional Director for East Asia based in Thailand, and before that as Oxfam's Country Representative in Viet Nam, where she resided from 1993 to 2000.

Heather has a Master’s Degree from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts from Smith College. An Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she teaches Climate Change, Rights and Development, Heather has written extensively on international development and human rights, and co-authored one of the first books on participatory appraisal methodology published in more than a dozen languages. Her most recent publication is Fostering Equitable and Sustainable Development: The Role of the Private Sector and Trade in Times of Economic Turmoil, published by the Swedish International Development Agency. Traveling extensively in her work, she speaks Vietnamese, Chinese and some Arabic. On the Advisory Boards of Human Rights Ahead and Trickle Up, Heather lives in New York with her two daughters.

Tom Weishaar

Tom Weishaar has been a member of the society since 2000. He served a one-year term on the Society's board in 2004-5 and was elected to the board a second time in 2009. He is currently the Society's treasurer and head of its building committee.

Tom grew up in a small town in northeast Kansas, where his father came from a very large Catholic family. His mother, also from a Catholic family, grew up in Detroit. He has many cousins, one of whom has been a Catholic missionary in Belize for many years and another of whom was a Catholic Bishop in Brazil. He graduated from a two-room Catholic school in a small town in northeast Kansas, a Catholic high school in a bigger town nearby, and the University of Iowa.

Professionally Tom's career began as a Peace Corp Volunteer in India, where he worked in agricultural development. On his return he earned a masters degree in Journalism from the University of Kansas. He has since worked as a writer, editor, and manager – primarily on the topics of computers and personal finance – for large companies, small companies, and as an entrepreneur. He has written several books and is currently principal of Alert-Media, an internet and book publishing company, and of Omega-Ratio, which is developing methods for preventing chronic disease.

Prior to moving to New York in 1999, Tom and his wife, Kathleen O'Connell, lived in the Kansas City area for 25 years, where they raised two children.

Janice Buzby <coming soon>

Vincent Brancato <coming soon>

Richard Van Deusen married the former Carol Nadell in the Auditorium in January 2007 and joined the Society in 2009. He has worked with the Ethics and the Theatre, Ethical Enrichment, Internet, and Building Centennial committees and has been a platform presider.

A native of New Jersey, he managed media production for the Prudential Insurance Company for 30 years. After accepting early retirement he formed a consulting practice specializing in business process improvement, which he ran for 15 years. Dick has now returned to his first career producing and directing play readings for the Society and other New York Theatre Companies.

Along the way he co-founded a professional association that grew to over 10,000 members worldwide. He served as Treasurer of two professional associations and Executive Director for another. In his community he was chairman of the Zoning Board and served two terms on the Township Committee, including two years as Mayor. He also was a Trustee of a regional symphony orchestra and is now a member of The Holland Society of New York.

Dick has a B.A. in Political Science from Dickinson College and an M.F.A. in Theatre Directing from Boston University. His son, Derek, lives in Cincinnati

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Bob Berger has been a member since 1995, serving on the Board of Trustees from 1997 to 2004 and reelected to the Board in 2007. He serves on the Building, Finance and Pledge Committees and has served in the past on the Fund Raising and Public Relations committees. Bob also participates in Society activities: writing class, Great Books discussions, chorus and other events; and volunteers often at the main Sunday meetings to function as newcomer host or greeter. He has served in the past on the boards of two other non-profit organizations, ARC and IAHD, both dealing with handicapped and challenged children and adults.

In 2001, after forty-seven years of involvement in the commercial air conditioning business, thirty-five of which were as owner/president of Frankel-Berger Air Conditioning, Bob retired. In 2002 he “un-retired” and now works three days a week as a residential property manager. Married for close to forty-five years; he has two children and two grandchildren.

Meg Chapman joined Ethical Culture in 2000. She was elected to the board in 2007. Her interests in the society lie in promoting activism through educational programs and the engagement of families and children with ethics. She is chair of the Sunday School Committee, the Sunday Charities Committee and co-chair of the Sunday Programs Committee. She has also participated in the Ethical Action Committee and the Advocacy Forum. She is a practicing architect and brings that experience to the Board.

Meg was born in New York City, was raised in Massachusetts and returned to New York after seven years in New Haven with a BA and Master of Architecture from Yale University. She lives in New York with her husband Mo Malekshahi and daughter Clara.

Chris Everett joined NYSEC in 2007, and was elected to the Board in 2009. He has been a member of the Membership Cultivation Committee and the Ethical Enrichment Committee. He currently runs the monthly Ethics in Film series and regularly hosts the social Younger Members Dinner.

Professionally, Chris is an engineering risk analyst with twenty-one years experience supporting a variety of government agencies and private-sector clients in the areas of space systems risk assessment, nuclear-weapons-cycle safety analysis and missile defense lethality analysis. He has degrees in physics and computer science, and is currently working on a Master's degree in physics education, which will enable him to teach physics in the New York public school system.

Terry Perlin <coming soon>

Phyllis Harrison-Ross, MD a trustee of the Society since 2005, is Chair of the Social Service Board for United Social Services, Inc., a social action affiliate. She co-chairs the NYSEC Finance Committee, and serves on the Radio Committee, Endowment Committee, Awards Committee and is a Trustee and member of the Supporting Organization for the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.

Phyllis practices child and adult psychiatry, is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Sciences at New York Medical College, Emeritus Attending Psychiatrist/Chief of Psychiatry at Metropolitan Hospital Center and Founder and Managing Partner of Black Psychiatrists of Greater New York. Currently,she serves fulltime as COMMISSIONER, NYS COMMISSION OF CORRECTION AND CHAIR OF THE COMMISSION'S MEDICAL REVIEW BOARD, which oversees the operation and management of local and state correctional facilities and secure residential treatment centers operated by the Office of Children and Family Services.

She has written numerous articles, books and book chapters on community and children’s mental health, prison health. Her interest in media extends from the NYSEC radio show on WBAI.FM, “Ethics on the Air” to championing the use of Telepsychiatry to reach underserved populations.

Phyllis is a past President of Black Psychiatrists of America and, in 2004, received the American Psychiatric Association’s Solomon Carter Fuller Award. The All Healers Mental Health Alliance, an organization that Phyllis, along with the NYSEC and the Social Service Board, was instrumental in forming, received an award for Public Health Leadership at the American Public Health Association meeting in Washington, D.C. in 2007, bestowed for AHMHA's work to bring hope and healing to survivors following the disaster of the 9/11 World Trade Center tragedy and the devastation caused in the mid-south/Gulf Coast by the Katrina and Rita hurricanes, tornados and the BP oil spill

Henryka Komanska <coming soon>

Law'nence Miller has been a member of the New York Society for Ethical Culture since 2007 and is a very active member within the Society serving on several committees such as the Leader's Advisory Board, the Rental Committee, the Personnel Committee and the Archive Committee. He also assists with the work of the Caring Committee and is a regular volunteer in the Women's Homeless Shelter and at Societal functions.

Law’nence works for the American Ethical Union as the Director of Administration and

serves on several national committees for the AEU. He also is the co-owner & President of Designs…Shaun Carson, Inc. with his partner Shaun.

His professional work experience has primarily been in Business Management / Operations in various fields. He obtained his BA & BS in Psychology & Theatre from SUNY Purchase & Regents College and Graduate work in Business/Accounting at NYU. Currently he is attending the Humanist Institute – Class 18.

Nicola Antonio DeMarco has been a member of The New York Society for

Ethical Culture since 2009 and and a follower of Ethical Culture since the age of 13. He was elected to The Board of Trustees on May 1, 2011 and was also recently elected to serve as a member of the Social Service Board of NYSEC. Nicola was a guest on NYSEC's "Ethics on the Air" radio show, presented a platform on Ethiopian-Italian reconciliation last year and recently hosted a group of scholars at NYSEC discussing U.N. efforts to restore cultural artifiacts.

Nicola is a graduate of The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law having recently passed the Connecticut Bar Examination. In law school, his instructors included Barry Scheck and James Lewis. Nicola is a licensed Real Estate Sales Agent and Notary Public in New York. Along with studying law, Nicola served as a public school teacher since 1984. He also served as a teacher trainer and community health organizer with The U.S. Peace Corps in Namibia (1998-2000) and Kenya (2001). He served as well with USAID in Angola and Ethiopia to help build peaceful transitions from war to democracy.

As a law student, in 1989, Nicola joined New York City Mayor David Dinkins' Increase the Peace Corps following the lynching of Yusuf Hawkins. In 1990, again working with Mayor Dinkins' office, Nicola volunteered to help welcome Nelson Mandela to City Hall upon his release from imprisonment. In 1996, after traveling to Ethiopia to train educators, he was invited by Dr. Richard Pankhurst to join the successful campaign returning the ancient Axum Obelisk looted by Mussolini in World War II from Ethiopia.

Honorary Board Members

Dr. Charles Debrovner

Charles H. Debrovner, MD (or “Chuck”, when he is wearing his Ethical Culture hat) has been a member of our society for almost 25 years. He served as President from 1988 to 1994, and has been an active Honorary Trustee since that time. He has represented the Society on the Board of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School since 1988, and this year became an Honorary Trustee. He is on the Board of the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, which was founded by the New York Society. He completed fourteen years as President of the Humanist Institute in 2006, and is now on its executive committee. He, also serves as its representative to the International Humanist and Ethical Union. He recently completed a term on the Board of the American Humanist Association and is now Associate Director of its Appignani Bioethics Center and represents the AHA at the United Nations.

Chuck graduated from Yale University and received his M.D. degree at New York University School of Medicine. He has also served as President of their Alumni Association. He trained in obstetrics and gynecology at the NYU-Bellevue Medical Center, and recently retired from clinical practice after a 43-year career devoted primarily to gynecology and infertility.

One of Chuck's hobbies is photography, and he videos many of the Society events for our website and our archives. His wife, Pat, also a member for 25 years, is an Ethical Culture Officiant and a Humanist Celebrant, performing many wedding ceremonies. Chuck assists her as “prop man and sound engineer,” and also records the ceremonies on video, which he sometimes presents as a gift to the couple.

Michael Bogdanffy-Kriegh is an honorary trustee, having been president for six years, from 2001 to 2007. He has also served in the past as Vice President and Secretary of the board, chair of the Ethical Action Committee, Chair of the Building committee, and Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee.

Michael is also currently serving on the AEU Leadership Committee, which is charged with administering training programs for leaders-in-training and lay leaders wishing to be certified to perform ceremonial services such as weddings, memorials and namings. Michael has a blog at studiombk.wordpress.com/ that includes the text of talks he has given at the Society.

In private life, Michael has his own architectural practice and projects include 262 affordable homes in the Bronx, a Community Center for St. Jerome's Church in the Bronx, lead free safe house currently under construction in Brooklyn, New York. To move from the practical to the sublime, Michael has presented two Technical Papers on Space Station Design at industry conferences and space station designs he collaborated on with his mentor Michael Kalil are now part of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.

Michael's other involvements include past membership on the Board of the Michael Kalil Foundation for Smart Design, established in 2001 in memory of designer Michael Kalil at the Department of Architecture, Parsons School of Design; past membership of the Steering and Executive Committees of the Live/Work Coalition of New York, a group he helped organize, which sought legislation extending coverage to new generations of Loft conversions; and current membership of Community Board 1 in Brooklyn where he serves as Second Vice Chair (chair of the land use committee).

Judith D. Wallach is an honorary trustee of the Society, having served as the first woman president for seven years, from 1994 to 2001. Prior to that, she was chair of the Social Service Board, of which she was a founder of the Shelter for the Homeless and the Supervised Visitation Project. She has also served on the board of the American Ethical Union and chaired its Fund Development Committee. During her 26 years of membership in the Society, Judy has served as chair and member of numerous committees, been a Sunday speaker and served as a wedding and memorial officiant. She has also served on the Ethical Culture Fieldston School's Board of Trustees and its Executive Committee. A graduate of the Humanist Institute and, for 12 years, on its Board of Governors, she chairs the Institute's Education Committee.

Her passion for the past six years has been the effort, with a group of educators and others, to start public charter schools based on the educational philosophy of Felix Adler and incorporating the essential elements of an Ethical Culture Fieldston education. Making a free, public education with ethics as its base and using a child-centered approach and a thematically integrated curriculum has been, and continues to be, her dominating interest. Judy has also been a board member and secretary of the Partnership for the Homeless, and a member of Citizens Committee for Children of New York. For the past 10 years she has chaired Palladia, Inc., a multi-site human services agency that provides residential and outpatient treatment for substance abusers, many of whom have serious mental and physical illness. She's been on its board since 1991.

In her otherwise unoccupied time, she pursues her private practice in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Judy is a psychology affiliate of Lenox Hill Hospital and supervises doctoral candidates in their group work. She and her husband, Sylvan Wallach, have a large, blended family spread across the U.S. and in Australia.



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