Cheryl Syta is a medical oncology nurse practitioner who is passionate about lifestyle medicine and has 20 years’ experience caring for patients. She is a certified functional medicine health coach, and a certified tobacco treatment specialist. Although she specializes in helping cancer patients, she feels everyone can benefit from improving diet, movement, sleep and stress management in a journey to health.
Dr. Costello is an internal medicine physician and geriatrician based at Albany Medical Center’s Internal Medicine Group. Also, director of Albany Medical College’s Geriatric Medicine Fellowship, he specializes in the daily management and continuity of care for elderly patients, with particular focus on their functional status and cognitive ability. He also provides home care for homebound elderly people throughout the eleven counties of the greater Capital Region.
He is a board-certified internist and geriatrician. He received a bachelor’s degree from Siena College and his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Quebec and a fellowship in geriatric medicine with McGill University and the University of Montreal. He subsequently completed a research fellowship in the Department of Pharmacology at Albany Medical College.
At the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical College, Dr. Costello precepts students and has worked on projects focused on advanced care planning in Alzheimer’s disease.
Brian Meurs is the Executive Director of Umbrella of the Capital District, a role he assumed in 2023. With over 40 years of experience in trades, real estate, and property services, he combines hands-on technical knowledge with deep market insight to deliver safe, well-managed properties.
Beginning his career in 1973 as a Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning Contractor, he developed a strong foundation in building systems and maintenance. He later transitioned into residential and commercial real-estate inspection (1990 – 1995) and then into real-estate sales (1995 – 2023), bringing a unique blend of practical know-how and client-focused service.
David Poole Deputy Director of Emergency Management, Albany County Sheriff’s Office
David Poole was born and raised in Columbia County, where he graduated from Chatham High School in 1995. David furthered his education at Hudson Valley Community College where he earned his Associate Degree in Business Administration, and went on to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Education from SUNY Oneonta in 2000.
David began his career with the Sheriff’s Office in 2004, as a Correction Officer assigned to work at the Albany County Correctional Facility. In 2006 he joined the facility CERT team and in 2007 joined the Fire Brigade. David became a certified General Topics instructor in 2012 and later added specialty training qualifications in; Suicide prevention in County Jails and Police Lockups in 2013, Firearms in 2014, and Defensive Tactics in 2015. David was a RAD instructor from the inception of the County RAD team in 2012 until 2022. In 2014 David became the Coordinator of the PEER team and co-wrote and developed the “Surviving Occupational Stressors for Corrections Officers” course. This course was designed to educate officers and prevent suicide in the field of corrections. David joined the Honor guard in 2015. In 2016, David was promoted to the rank of Sergeant, where he spent most of his time working in the admissions and discharge area of the correctional facility.
In 2020, David was reassigned to the Critical Incident Emergency Management Unit as a liaison for the jail during the COVID-19 pandemic. While navigation through the pandemic, David spent his time learning and building his skills in the emergency management field. The Albany County Threat Assessment Coordination Team was created in 2022, and David serves as the Coordinator of that team. David was promoted to his current position as Deputy Director of Emergency Management in 2023.
Paul Grondahl is an award-winning journalist and author. Grondahl has been a staff writer at the Albany Times Union since 1984, where his assignments have taken him from the Arctic to Antarctica; from Northern Ireland to Africa; from New Orleans immediately after Hurricane Katrina and Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake in 2010; and across New York State, from Ground Zero on 9/11 to the Adirondack wilderness.
Grondahl received his bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington in 1981 and a Master’s degree in English literature from the University at Albany in 1984. He was honored in 2005 as a distinguished alumni in arts and letters from UAlbany.
My master’s degree from Regent University of Virginia Beach, was devoted to diving deeper into the complex issue of grief. I see myself as an empathetic healer to those that are struggling through the grieving process.
Aside from working in employee benefits for New York State, I am a trustee for both the East Greenbush Community Library and the Upper Hudson Library System. My husband and I are proud parents to 6 children between us, 6 grandchildren, and 4 lively Labrador retrievers. I write a monthly grief and loss column for the Our Towne Magazine, a supplemental publication that is sent to over 21 thousand Rensselaer County residents.
Judith Wines is the Manager for Adult and Outreach Services at Upper Hudson Library System. Her professional interests include how libraries use data and build community, and seeing her system’s libraries do great things. She previously served as the director of the RCS Community Library and the Altamont Free Library. Outside of work, you might find her out for a run, looking at birds or hiking with her family.
Michelle Kavanaugh-Anastasi is the owner/founder of Organize Senior Moves. Her first foray into this industry was in 2005 when she started a companionship service for seniors, offering help with grocery shopping and preparing meals. She soon realized that many of her clients remained unpacked for months after relocating and didn’t feel settled in their own homes. With that realization came the launch of Organize Senior Moves in 2008 and a totally different area of business where she and her team of 20+ help clients transition into new homes, many times senior living facilities. With one hug she makes new clients feel like old friends and helps ease all of their fears and worries about the next phase of their lives. When she’s not working Michelle truly enjoys being surrounded by family and friends.
Jennifer LaPorte is an accomplished development leader with over 15 years of experience driving revenue growth, strategic partnerships, and community engagement in the healthcare and nonprofit sectors. As Development Director at the American Heart Association, Jennifer leads peer-to-peer fundraising strategies, secures corporate sponsorships, and cultivates high-level volunteer relationships to advance the organization’s mission of improving cardiovascular health. She excels in building pipelines of donors and sponsors, delivering compelling proposals, and orchestrating successful events that generate both revenue and awareness.
Previously, Jennifer served as Clinical Outreach Specialist and Hospital Liaison at Landmark Health, where she developed innovative outreach strategies and strengthened partnerships with hospitals, long-term care facilities, and community organizations to enhance patient engagement. Her career also includes eight years as Director of Business Development & Admissions at Brookdale, where she managed sales processes, community outreach, and event planning to drive occupancy and revenue growth.
Jennifer holds an Associate of Science degree in Business Management, Economics, and Psychology from Empire State University and is pursuing certification in Nutrition Coaching through Precision Nutrition. Passionate about community impact, she volunteers with Shelters of Saratoga, supporting fundraising initiatives for their annual gala.
Julie Novkov is the Dean of the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, a Collins Fellow, and Professor of Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University at Albany, SUNY. Serving as Dean since 2023, she has been a faculty member at UAlbany since 2006. Her research and teaching address law, history, US political development, and subordinated identity. She views law as both a system of political and social control and as a site for reform through activists’ pressure. She is particularly interested in the way that the law defines and translates categories associated with identity, such as race and gender, and the ways that these categories transform and are transformed by legal discourse.
Dean Novkov is the author of several books and co-edited volumes, most recently coauthoring with Carol Nackenoff American by Birth: Wong Kim Ark and the Battle for Citizenship (University Press of Kansas 2022).Her Racial Union (University of Michigan Press 2008) was the co-recipient of the American Political Science Association’s 2009 Ralph Bunche Award for the best scholarly work in political science which explores the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism. This book argues that the criminal regulation of interracial intimacy played a pivotal role in shaping and reflecting the development of white supremacy in Alabama between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Civil Rights Era. Her first book, Constituting Workers, Protecting Women (University of Michigan Press 2001), addressed gender and constitutional development, rereading through the lens of gender the history of the courts’ unwillingness to accept protective legislation for workers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She and Carol Nackenoff co-edited Stating the Family (University Press of Kansas 2020) and Statebuilding from the Margins (University of Pennsylvania Press 2014), and she also co-edited Race and American Political Development (with Joseph Lowndes and Dorian Warren, Routledge Press in 2008), and Security Disarmed (with UAlbany professor Barbara Sutton and Sandra Morgen, Rutgers University Press 2008). She has also published many articles and book chapters.
Dean Novkov served as a co-editor American Political Science Review from 2020 through 2024 and is now a co-editor of the Landmark Law Cases and American Society Series at the University Press of Kansas. She chaired the Political Science Department from 2011-2017 and was President of the Western Political Science Association from 2016-2017. In the American Political Science Association, she served on the Executive Council, presided over the Law and Courts as well as the Sexuality and Politics Section, and chaired the LGBT Status Committee. She has also served extensively in the Western Political Science Association, other scholarly organizations, and on editorial boards for several journals. She enjoys sharing her expertise in the public sphere and has written for the Washington Post, The Conversation, and several other news outlets.