THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9
5:00 PM CEREMONY
Dr. Lawrence Barrett, Class of 1984
Cheryl D. Bowers, 1983-1987
The Honorable Manna Jo Greene, Class of 1976
Lisa I. Pacht, 1994-1998
Dan Reinhard, Class of 1972
ULSTER COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Alan Lomita
CHAIR
Rosendale
Deborah Briggs
VICE CHAIR
Ellenville
Victoria St. John-Gilligan
SECRETARY
Kingston
Emma Ijiogbe
STUDENT TRUSTEE
Kingston
Anna M. Brett
Kingston
Rod P. Futerfas
Kingston
William L. Spearman
Lake Katrine
Timothy J. Sweeney
Stone Ridge
William J. Ryan, Jr.
COLLEGE ATTORNEY
Kingston
Karen Clark Adin
Kingston
Peter L. Berger
Ellenville
Françoise C. Dunefsky
Port Ewen
John H. Dwyer, Sr.
Kingston
John E. Finch
Kingston
Susan M. McConekey
Kingston
George Rusk, Jr.
Marlboro
David H. Rylance
Port Ewen
Gabriel F. Sottile
Hurley
John J. Wadlin
Highland
Dr. Lawrence Barrett
Dr. Lawrence Barrett, a first-generation college student from Rosendale, attended SUNY Ulster and graduated with his Associates in Science in Communication and Media Arts in 1984. He has spent most of his life in higher education in the service of students and credits his decision to attend SUNY Ulster as the turning point of his life.
After SUNY Ulster, he went on to receive his Bachelor’s of Science in Communications from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, his Master of Science Degree in Educational Leadership from the State University of New York in New Paltz and his doctorate in Higher Education Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
In 2015, he was appointed president of Florida Gateway College in 2015, an institution serving close to 5,000 students, FGC is part of the 28-college Florida system where he turned around a six-year enrollment decline. During the first five years of his presidency, he increased enrollment by 23%, while many sister colleges were losing enrollment.
Barrett has had success increasing enrollment in most every place he has worked. From Lake City, Florida, to Bangor, Maine, to Purdue, Indiana and to upstate New York at SUNY Delhi, never losing sight of the ever-changing needs of students.
Barrett previously served as president of Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor. He has 35 years of experience in professional leadership positions at an assortment of four-year, community, and technical colleges. During his five-year tenure at Eastern Maine Community College, the school’s enrollment has grown by 32 percent and eight new programs were added. Previously, Barrett served as the vice chancellor of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management at Purdue University North Central.
Most of his innovations in enrollment management have also helped students at those institutions achieve their goals. These innovations include the introduction of intrusive advising to help retain those students, keep them on track and enable their graduation.
Higher education is not Barrett’s only passion. He cares deeply about the community he lives in engaging through his membership in the local Rotary Club, his service on the County’s food bank and his involvement with the local United Way serving as a volunteer during hurricane emergencies. He is a member of the Florida Association of Colleges Council of Presidents, treasurer and president-elect of the Lake City Chamber of Commerce, board member of the North Florida Regional Food Bank, community advisory board member of the First Federal Bank of Lake City and member of the Florida Multi Use Corridors of Regional Significance (M-CORES).
His previous civic engagement includes leadership roles with the following organizations, serving as Chairman of the Maine Higher Education Council of Presidents, a board member and chair of the Education Committee of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce, board member of Community Counseling and Health Services, and executive board member and chair of education committee of Mobilize Eastern Maine, board member of the Tri County Workforce Board and member of Bangor Breakfast Rotarian Group.
Dr. Barrett is married to his wife of 31 years, Karen, and they have two children.
Cheryl D. Bowers
Cheryl Bowers is President and CEO of Rondout Savings Bank and is the first female to lead the bank in its 150-year history. She has been an integral part of Rondout’s Executive Leadership Team since 2008 after joining the mutual bank in 2001 as a founding Business Banking Department Team member. She has a strong track record of supporting technology advancements, strengthening consumer and business relationships, and developing high performance teams built on trust, integrity and empowerment, as well as creating a culture of goal setting, coaching and mentoring that supports employee growth and strategic initiative execution.
As an accomplished financial industry leader with more than 30 years of banking experience in a multitude of areas including Executive Leadership, Commercial and Retail Banking, Branch Management and Marketing, Cheryl has a deep commitment and passion for developing female leaders and creating more diversity in the financial services industry. She is a founding member and co-chair of the New York Bankers Association Women’s Leadership Conference, where she regularly speaks, moderates, and participates as a panelist. Most recently, she was a panelist at SUNY, New Paltz Women’s Leadership Summit and a Session Speaker at the “Own It” Conference, hosted by the Darlene L. Pfeiffer Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at SUNY Ulster.
Cheryl is dedicated to civic participation and volunteerism. She serves on the board of directors of the New York Bankers Association, Advisory Board for the New York State Department of Financial Services, and the American Bankers Association Administrative Committee of Core Systems. Deeply rooted in the Hudson Valley, Cheryl contributes her time as a board member of the Vassar Brothers Medical Center; SUNY, Ulster Community College Foundation; Kingston Boys and Girls Club; Lions Club of Kingston, Dutchess County Chamber of Commerce; and is Past Board Chair of the Ulster County Regional Chamber of Commerce. Most recently, she was honored by the Dutchess Chamber Foundation and Women’s Leadership Alliance as a 2021 recipient of the prestigious ATHENA Leadership Award.
In recognition of her community commitment and professional achievements, she is a past honoree of the YWCA Tribute to Women and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award and Volunteer of the Decade award given by Gateway Community Industries. In April of 2018 she was named Businessperson of the Year and was inducted into the SUNY New Paltz Business Hall of Fame. In October of 2018 she was an honoree at the annual SUNY Ulster Community College Foundation Gala and was awarded Woman of the Year. Cheryl was the recipient of the 2019 United Way of Ulster County Raising Hope Honoree, and in 2021 she received the Lion’s Club Robert J. Uplinger Distinguished Service Award.
Cheryl is a high honors graduate from the American Bankers Association Stonier Graduate School of Banking at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA and attended Wharton Business School, where she earned her Leadership Certificate. An alumna of SUNY Ulster, she attended from 1983 to 1987 with coursework in Business Administration.
The Honorable Manna Jo Greene
Manna Jo Greene, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater’s Environmental Action Director since 2000, previously served as Recycling Coordinator/Educator for the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency for more than 10 years and a registered Critical Care Nurse for 22 years. She holds an AAS in Nursing from SUNY Ulster, a BA in biology (pre-med) from SUNY New Paltz, and completed course work toward a Master of Science in Environmental Policy at Bard College.
Since 2014, Manna has served as Ulster County Legislator from District 19, representing the Town of Rosendale and part of Marbletown. She chairs the Legislature’s Energy and Environment Committee and the Ulster County Climate Smart Committee, is the Deputy Chair of Public Works and Capital Projects, and is a member of the Trail and Rail Advisory Committee. In addition, she coordinates the Mid-Hudson Regional Sustainability Coalition's Energy Working Group, which is developing a seven-county Regional Renewable Energy Implementation Plan. Prior to joining the Legislature, Manna served on the Rosendale Town Council for eight years, was the Vice-Chair of the Ulster County Environmental Management Council, and chaired the Rosendale Environmental Commission.
A lifelong environmental professional and community activist, Manna cut her teeth as an organizer in the Civil Rights movement, as one of the founders of the Bridgeport, CT chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.), and has worked for social, environmental, and, more recently, climate justice ever since. As a teenager, Manna worked with Dr. King and other civil rights leaders of the day to lobby for the passage of the Civil Rights Bill, an event that has empowered her for life.
Manna avidly supports collaborative land use planning and problem solving. Working to promote green building and renewable energy projects and practices, she teaches communities how to integrate environmental preservation, economic prosperity (based on quality of life indicators), and social equity using effective communication. She is a trained Climate Reality Leader and a member of the Hudson Valley & Catskill Climate Reality Chapter.
She currently serves on Citizens for Local Power’s Kitchen Cabinet, working to help communities in the Mid-Hudson region transition to a locally based clean energy economy, and is a member of EPA's Community Advisory Group for remediation of Hudson River PCBs. She helped found the HV Green Building and Renewable Energy Working Group, served on the board of the Hudson Valley Materials Exchange, helped start the Hudson Valley Biodiesel Coop, and is a long-standing member of the Mid-Ulster League of Women Voters and numerous other civic organizations. She has also served on the Hudson Valley Regional Packaging Task Force, the NY State Battery Task Force, the NYS Roundtable for Consensus on Tire Management, the Hudson Valley Smart Growth Alliance, EPA's Local Government Advisory Council, and for five years hosted a local weekly environmental call-in radio show, the Recycling Hotline & Environment show on WGHQ.
Working with the Hudson Valley Sustainable Communities Network (which has since become Sustainable Hudson Valley) to promote sustainable agriculture and green building and landscaping practices, Manna helped create the Finding Common Ground process to restore a healthier working relationship between area farmers and environmentalists, which resulted in a Hudson Valley Harvest "buy local" campaign and a genuine shift in agriculture in the region. Modeling green building and landscaping practices, she built a solar-powered Sustainable Living Resource Center to host seminars and workshops and house a large collection of resources on a variety of sustainability-related projects. Manna is also a trainer for the Natural Step Framework, a sustainability methodology for businesses and institutions.
Among many awards and other forms of public recognition, Manna was nominated as "Woman of the Year" by the Ulster County YWCA in 1996. She received the prestigious "Spirit of the Universe" award in 1997 for her commitment to Earth and to her community, the Mohonk Consultations' award for Distinguished Service and Environmental Sensitivity in June 2000, and the US EPA's Environmental Quality Award in 2011.
Manna is committed to the beliefs that humans can live in harmony with each other and the Earth, and that if your cause is just and you are persistent, you will eventually triumph. Manna lives in Cottekill with her son Ivan, daughter-in-law Hartje, and grandson Emmett. Her son Solomon, a Rondout Valley Hall of Fame alumnus, lives in Washington DC.
Lisa I. Pacht
Lisa I. Pacht, a graduate of Rondout Valley CSD, took classes at SUNY Ulster from 1994-1998 while teaching at Wawarsing Christian Academy and having two children. She went on to earn her Bachelor’s of Arts degree in History from SUNY New Paltz, a Master’s of Arts degree in Curriculum and Technology from the University of Phoenix, and a second Master’s of Science degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from The College of Saint Rose.
Mrs. Pacht has more than 29 years of experience in education and is currently the Assistant Superintendent of Schools and Operations at Rondout Valley CSD. She is responsible for Curriculum & Instruction, is the COVID-19 Safety Coordinator, Vaccination Coordinator, and District Safety Officer. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the NYS Data Analysis Technical Assistance Group [DATAG], was a Future Superintendents Academy fellow in 2017-2018, and attended the Summer Institute at Harvard in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Prior to her current position at Rondout Valley, she was Director of Technology & Instructional Support Services at Sullivan County BOCES, a High School Social Studies teacher at Monticello CSD, and taught grades 3-12 at Wawarsing Christian Academy.
Mrs. Pacht has been the recipient of the 2021 Thomas King Distinguished Service Award from Rondout Valley CSD, recognized as the Sullivan County Women of the Year 2010: Honoring Professional Women in Business, and honored with the Monticello High School Yearbook dedication in 2006.
Mrs. Pacht, along with Dr. Alan P. Roberts and Mr. Rosario Agostaro, former Superintendent of Schools, were part of the initial committee that laid the foundation for the President’s Challenge Scholarship Program that Dr. Roberts launched in 2016 with the first 6 students from Rondout Valley. Mrs. Pacht continues to be actively involved in the administration of the scholarship and the student experience which includes bi-annual campus visits to SUNY Ulster.
Mrs. Pacht, and her husband Paul, are residents in Accord and have three adult children. Nicholas is a 2021 SUNY Ulster Graduate, a recipient of a scholarship from the Ulster County Community College Foundation, and is a Math teacher. Andrew participated in several SUNY Ulster band ensembles during high school, graduated from SUNY Fredonia, and is a Band teacher. David graduated from SUNY Oneonta with a degree in communications.
Dan Reinhard
Dan Reinhard, known as the voice of Kingston High School Tigers Football, is a 1970 graduate of Kingston High School and has been involved with sports reporting and broadcasting since 1968. It was at Kingston High School where his love of sports led him to becoming the Sports Editor for the school newspaper, “Dame Rumor,” where he also participated in Football, Basketball and Baseball during his sophomore year (1967-68) and was a member of the Kingston Boys’ Varsity Golf team in his junior and senior years (1969, 1970).
In September of 1969, Dan began broadcasting Kingston High School Football, joining the WKNY 1490 Radio Team as a statistician and the half-time/postgame announcer. One year later, in 1970, Dan became the WKNY sideline reporter for all home and away KHS Football games.
After graduating from Kingston High School, Dan attended SUNY Ulster and earned his Associate in Arts Degree in Liberal Arts: Humanities and Social Sciences in 1972. While attending SUNY Ulster, Dan was a member of the golf team. He then transferred to Emerson College (Boston, MA) where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Industrial Communications.
Since the Fall of 1976, Dan has been the Radio Kingston WKNY 1490 play-by-play announcer for all the Kingston High School Tigers Football games. Between Dan and fellow Kingston Athletics Hall of Famer the late Vince DeLuca (1946), it is probably safe to conclude that no one has seen more Kingston High School Football games than these two. Dan’s play-by-play career coincided with Kingston’s first DCSL Football Championship in 1976 and continued with titles in 1977, 1978, 1980, and 1981. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, he became the WKNY 1490 play-by-play announcer for the Kingston High School Boys’ Basketball team and, for both the SUNY Ulster and John A. Coleman Basketball programs as well. Showing his versatility as a broadcaster, Dan also covered the Kingston High School Baseball games for several years during the 1990’s.
Since October 1976, Dan has been the host of the popular Radio Kingston WKNY 1490 sports talk show known as “Sport Talk”, which broadcasts every Monday Evening from 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. and includes guests of local and national interest.
Throughout the years, Dan has been able to interview many from the national spotlight, including NY Yankees Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer, Bill White, Bucky Dent, Lou Pinella, and Bob Lemon. Fellow announcers Mel Allen, Dick Vitale, and Dick Enberg, to name a few, have made guest appearances on the show as well.
Dan was inducted into the Kingston High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018. In 2019, he was named the Daily Freeman’s Sportsperson of the Year celebrating his 50th year broadcasting and September 27, 2019, was designated as Dan Reinhard Appreciation Day through a City of Kingston Proclamation to commemorate his 50th anniversary of being on the air!
Currently, along with his Sport Talk Show on Monday nights and KHS Football announcing, Dan is also the Radio Kingston 1490 WKNY Sports Anchor in the mornings on the Warren Lawrence Morning Show.
He was employed locally by IBM for 36 years and before his retirement in 2018, he served as a Global Procurement Manager, where he negotiated power supply contracts with global suppliers in the United States, Germany, Italy and Taiwan. He has served as a volunteer with the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History in Kingston. Dan has been married to his wife Ellen for 34 years and has a step-son, Brian.
Dan’s love and passion for sports has greatly benefitted the entire Ulster County sports community, including SUNY Ulster, throughout his broadcasting and professional career.
ALUMNI HALL OF FAME DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI
2020 Distinguished Alumni
ULSTER COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION, INC.
Our Mission is to raise funds to collaborate with SUNY Ulster to promote academic excellence,accessibility to higher education, and economic vitality in Ulster County.
Our Vision is to promote and manage philanthropic giving for student success through developing scholarships and student support funding, assisting in capital and technological advancements for the college, forging partnerships with businesses and local school districts; and by fostering strong community awareness and engagement.
To date, we have awarded over $6,000,000 dollars in scholarships to more than 7,700 SUNY Ulster students. In 2021-2022 , we will award over $600,000 in scholarships to students, all thanks to the commitment of our community and our generous donors.
PRESIDENT’S CHALLENGE SCHOLARSHIP
Thanks to the generosity of sponsors from our local community and beyond, the President’s Challenge Scholarship assists first-generation Ulster County high school students with overcoming financial barriers associated with attending college. Students are identified in eighth grade by their sponsoring school district and receive mentoring and college readiness support through the completion of high school. Upon graduation, students are able to attend SUNY Ulster tuition-free for two years!
LIFE IN LEGACY SOCIETY
HONORARY & MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIPS
The Life in Legacy Society honors donors to SUNY Ulster who have created endowed and honorary & memorial scholarship funds. Scholarship awards give the vital support needed for students to further their education at SUNY Ulster and beyond. Endowed scholarships provide this life-changing assistance to our students, forever. You may join the society by forming a scholarship fund or Endowment in Growth and experience the impact of your legacy during your lifetime.
Your donations support SUNY Ulster students and the Foundation’s mission:
Student Scholarships | Business & Entrepreneurial Studies | Professional & Continuing Education
STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics | Criminal Justice, Human Services & Police Academy
Nursing | Biological Sciences & Veterinary Technology | English, Foreign Language & Philosophy
Art, Design, Fashion, Music, Theater & Communication | Social Sciences, History, & Education
The FOUNDATION looks forward to staying connected with you on social media.
www.sunyulster.edu/foundation • Video Presentations: www.sunyulster.edu/foundationvideo
www.facebook.com/sunyulsterfoundation • Suny Ulster Alumni
www.linkedin.com/edu/suny-ulster-176005
