ESYO’s volunteer Board of Directors is committed to carrying out ESYO’s mission:
Empire State Youth Orchestras is dedicated to educating, challenging, and inspiring young musicians to pursue excellence by providing high-level performance opportunities while actively engaging with New York’s Capital Region community
and beyond. adopted 1/24/12
2012-2013 Members
Susan Storey Bardack, Chair
Robert A. Carreau, Vice Chair
Christopher White, Secretary
Judy Cahee, Treasurer
Liz Bishop |
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Michelle McLoughlin |
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Monica R. Skanes |
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Nell Burrows |
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John Spinelli |
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Michael Cowles
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Meris Ruzow |
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Patti Vitale
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Edward S. Marschilok |
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Michelle Woodley
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Board Members’ Biographies
Susan Storey Bardack – Ms. Bardack has been a member of ESYO’s board since 2006 and recently served as Vice President and chair of the Marketing Committee. She succeeds Sarah Delaney Vero who is currently on leave from ESYO’s Board. An ESYO alumna, Ms. Bardack is CEO of Buzz Media Solutions and a founding member of iZoca.com. She has fifteen years in the communications field; previously she worked for Scanlan Communications and CBS 6 Albany.
Liz Bishop has been a part of the local television news world for more than three decades, having begun her career at WRGB-TV while she was attending the University at Albany. Starting as a sports reporter, she was the first woman reporter allowed into the New York Yankees locker room after a Supreme Court ruling that opened those doors. Switching to news in the 1980s, Ms. Bishop’s wide-ranging assignments have taken her around the country and the world as she reported on presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial races and inaugurations, as well as international stories, including the plight of Kosovo refugees in 1999. Her excellence in reporting has been recognized through many awards including the prestigious Edward R. Murrow award, a New York Emmy, and New York State Associated Press Broadcast awards. Locally, she has received many honors including 100 Women of Excellence and the Women’s Press Club Media Person of the Year award. Ms. Bishop has been a member of ESYO’s Board of Directors since 1989. During her tenure on the board, she accompanied the Youth Orchestra on three of its European tours and is widely-known for her emcee duties at the annual Melodies of Christmas.
Nell Burrows is the Executive Director of both the Upper Union Street and Scotia Business Improvement Districts. She is also the President of the Freedom Park Foundation. She is retired from the U.S.Treasury Department, was Deputy Treasurer of the Village of Scotia, and worked in tourism for the Schenectady Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Burrows has been a loaned executive for the United Way, and served twenty-eight years as a Park Commissioner in Scotia. She joined the ESYO Board in 1999 after being awed by the Youth Orchestra’s performance at a concert she was auditing for the Albany-Schenectady League of Arts. She serves on the board as chair of its Development Committee.
Judy Cahee - Named Senior Tax Manager at BST Advisors, LLC in 2008, Ms. Cahee is a Certified Public Accountant with over 15 years of experience in a wide range of tax matters. She received her Master in Taxation degree from the State University of New York at Albany and is a member of the AICPA and NYS Society of CPAs. Ms. Cahee was recently named as a member of the 2012 class of The Business Review’s Forty under Forty. She has served as Treasurer of ESYO since joining its Board of Directors in 2009.
Robert Carreau has nearly 25 years of experience in the philanthropic sector as a CEO, grant-maker, fundraiser, and strategic consultant. Affiliated with The Schenectady Foundation since 1992, Mr. Carreau is currently the foundation’s Executive Director. He is a Trustee of The Carlilian Foundation and Chair of that foundation’s Grant Committee. He served for ten years as CEO of The United Way of Schenectady County and was a frequent presenter at state, regional, and national conferences. Through his consulting firm, Outcomes Work, LLC, Mr. Carreau advises corporations and foundations in strategic grant-making and resource investment. He has held volunteer leadership roles in many organizations throughout the Capital Region. Mr. Carreau joined ESYO’s board in 2011.
Michael Cowles is a Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch and joined ESYO’s board in 2001. Currently, Mr. Cowles serves on the Board’s Finance Committee.
Dr. Edward S. Marschilok is an educator, administrator, and musician with over thirty-five years of experience. In the fall of 2010 he retired as Supervisor of the Curriculum and Instruction Team at the New York State Education Department. For many years at NYSED he served as an Associate in Music Education. He has also held positions at the Hudson Falls and Cooperstown Central School Districts. Dr. Marschilok is the Administrative Director for the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Orchestral Studies, which is cosponsored by NYSED, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York State School Music Association, and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. He has been an ESYO Board member since 1996.
Michelle McLoughlin – Michelle Fenton McLoughlin is an active freelance bassoonist and teaches bassoon at Skidmore College, while also maintaining a private bassoon studio. Ms. McLoughlin is currently the choral director at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk High School. She has developed and directed several local summer theater programs, including one at St. Pius X School in Loudonville and was a member of the Theater Arts School Faculty at the former New York State Theatre Institute. She was among the 2003 Women’s History Month honorees recognized by then Governor Pataki and The New York State Division of Women for “pioneering the future” in music and theater education. She has been a member of ESYO’s Board of Directors since 2005.
Meris Ruzow has been a member of ESYO’s Board of Directors since 1998 and served for seven years as President. She is currently Co-Chair of the Artistic Committee and also serves on the Development Committee. She came to ESYO as a parent of two trumpet players and just finds it impossible to leave! A retired music teacher and synagogue music director, Ms. Ruzow is a national music conference workshop presenter. She splits her time between New York City, where she helps care for her granddaughter, and her home in Clifton Park.
Monica R. Skanes, Esq. is an associate attorney with Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna LLP, the Capital Region’s largest law firm. She is a classically trained singer who performs locally with colleagues from her law firm. Her prior experience includes working as a judicial intern in the chambers of the Honorable Thomas J. McAvoy, Senior District Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York; as a law clerk at NYSUT’s Office of General Counsel, and as a fundraising event assistant at the Boys and Girls Club of Northenr Westchester. Ms. Skanes graduated summa cum laude from Albany Law School and magna cum laude from Ithaca College as a member of the Honors Program. She is currently an Albany resident. She joined ESYO’s board in the fall of 2012.
Dr. John Spinelli is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at Union College, where he has been a faculty member for more than 20 years. His research interests include computer network protocols and ad hoc wireless networks. He received his Ph.D. and S.M. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his B.E. in Electrical Engineering from The Cooper Union. During his daughter Terry’s eight years in various ESYO ensembles, Dr. Spinelli was a frequent parent volunteer and also chaperoned at the annual Frost Valley rehearsal retreat and on the Youth Orchestra’s 2008 European tour. Dr. Spinelli enjoys singing and is a tenor in several area choruses. He joined ESYO’s board in 2011.
Patti Vitale is the Head of School for the Brown School in Schenectady. A member of the faculty since 2001, she has taught the school’s Pre‐K program and second grade. Prior to her tenure at Brown, Ms.Vitale taught second, fifth, and sixth grades, in both public and parochial schools. She has attended many“Readers and Writers Workshop” conferences, as well as a workshop entitled “Literacy for All.” Throughthe Hawn Foundation, Ms. Vitale has worked as a mentor and teacher trainer of the Mindful Education program, bringing the “MindUp” program to other schools. The program was piloted at Brown School. Ms. Vitale holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marymount Manhattan College. She is a resident of Niskayuna. Ms. Vitale joined the board in 2010.
Christopher White is the Assistant Director of Communications for the New York State Department of Labor. Prior to joining the NYS DOL, Mr. White was an Assistant Project Manager at Burst Marketing, where his responsibilities ranged from website construction and content writing to leading the company’s video department. He has held leadership positions at television stations in Bangor, Maine, Westchester County, and at CBS 6 (Albany), where he oversaw the station’s website. Mr. White also runs his own photography business, The Chris White Studio, teaches private stringed instrument music lessons, and is a partner in the recently launched Savoy Catering, based in Schenectady. An alumnus of ESYO’s Repertory and Youth Orchestras where he was principal double bass, Mr. White is a magna cum laude graduate of the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College, where he also minored in music. He joined the board in 2011 and serves as Board Secretary and Chair of the Marketing Committee.
Michelle Woodley, an ESYO alumna, has been a Board member since 2007, focusing her efforts on increasing diversity awareness within the organization. She is the Co-Chair for Playathon, one of ESYO’s biggest fund raisers. Ms. Woodley is currently a Compensation and Benefits Analyst for GE Energy Manufacturing. She is a member of the GE ELFUN Society and a founding member of the GE Schenectady Speakers Club, part of Toastmasters International. She is a former co- president of the GE African American Forum in Schenectady and was the Schenectady site reporter for the GE Women’s Network. A faithful volunteer to the GE Community and the Capital Region, Ms. Woodley’s activities have included serving as Project Manager and mentor of winners of the GE 7th Grade Essay Contest and members of the Enterprise Intern Program, teaching classes at her local church, and serving meals for various organizations. In 2003, she was the recipient of the ELFUN-AAF Volunteer of the Year Award and in June 2011, she was recognized at the 8th annual YMCA Black and Latino Achievers Banquet as an adult achiever.
