A NOTE FROM DEB ON HER BACKGROUND AND QUALIFICATIONS
I am really looking forward to meeting you and hearing from you directly, what your concerns and priorities are for the future of our Town. Your input will be central to the development of our platform which we plan to share very soon. Here’s a little about me:
· I’m a resident of the Hamlet of New Baltimore (NB). I’ve lived in NYS all my life; I grew up in Brooklyn, NY as a child and I lived in Stormville, NY, (Dutchess county) as a teen; Before moving to New Baltimore I lived in Queensbury, NY (Warren County) for 40 years where I raised my two children as a single mom. I have a strong background in public service and am hoping to make a contribution to our community and serve its residents.
· I am an advocate for the environment and am currently serving as the Treasurer of the NB Conservancy.
· A New Baltimore town issue that I recently have been very involved in is advocating to the Town Council to negotiate a fair wage and benefits for our NB Highway Department. The Department has been drastically underpaid and has lost staff for several years (reduced now to two workers and one supervisor) to employers who offer a better wage and benefit.
At the last council meeting along with Janet Kash, and again in a separate meeting with Mr. Dellisanti and my colleague, Judy Felsten, I pressed the Town to recognize the very real danger of losing our remaining highway staff and not being able to recruit new staff with such a poor wage offer. Additionally, I made clear the very serious concerns of town residents/tax payers regarding the negative impacts on their livelihoods, daily life, emergency transportation needs, homes and property if the Highway Department is not restored to a full working staff. We recruited residents to attend the meeting and also express their feelings and a good number of folks did that. We will continue to take whatever actions are necessary to see that this issue is resolved.
· I have 30 years of service with New York State (NYS):
o Before fully retiring in 2022, I served 25 years with the NYS Department of Health, where my work involved healthcare information systems, emergency preparedness and response for local health departments, hospitals, nursing homes, community health centers, dialysis centers and homecare organizations;
o I served at the NYS and NY City emergency management offices during response efforts to emergencies such as hurricanes, snow and ice storms, and disease outbreaks;
o Most recently I did extensive work (24/7!) during the response to COVID.
o I served as the Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Healthcare Management at the University at Albany
· I’m a team player … my work has required me to work across the aisle to develop critical decisions with representatives of many different agencies and organizations, with differing needs, interests and opinions.
· Currently I’m consulting on a Federal Grant to prepare the NYS and New Jersey (NJ) healthcare sector to manage and respond to outbreaks of emerging high consequence infectious diseases.
· Advocate for breast cancer; I served as Board President and Race Chair for the Susan G. Komen’s, Albany affiliate for 16 years
· I’m a lector and choir member at my church
· I received my BS in Biology/Chemistry (1979), MBA in Marketing (1990) and PhD (2000) in Organizational Studies, (an inter-disciplinary program of Business Management, Public Administration and Industrial/Organizational Psychology), at the University at Albany.