The Board of Trustees

WILLIAM C. THOMPSON, JR., B.A., was reappointed by Governor Kathy Hochul as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York on June 15, 2023.  His term ends June 2029.

Mr. Thompson is a dedicated advocate for innovation, diversity and progress in the public and private sectors.  He champions transformational policy for positive change, demanding accountability, transparency and integrity. Mr. Thompson’s legacy includes driving positive, innovative change in New York City education and economic development, protecting the City’s financial integrity and fighting to protect the interests of millions.

Currently, Mr. Thompson is a Partner at Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co., a full service investment firm, serving as Chief Administrative Officer since April 2010.  Siebert Brandford Shank has managed over $1 trillion of municipal bonds in more than 4,000 transactions for the funding of education, housing, health services, transportation, utilities, capital facilities, economic development, redevelopment and general infrastructure projects.   The firm has ranked as the #1 M/WBE (Minority and Women-Owned Business) firm in public finance from 1998 to 2015 and was the first M/WBE firm to be ranked in the top 10 for public finance senior managed transactions.

Mr. Thompson was elected to two consecutive, four-year terms as Comptroller of the City of New York in 2002. As the NYC Comptroller, he led a team of 720 employees, managed a $66 million annual operating budget, $36.5 million capital budget, and the 5^th largest billion-dollar pension fund in the United States, which was rated among the top 20 in the world.  Mr. Thompson safeguarded multi-billion dollar portfolios and protected the assets and interests of millions of New Yorkers during one of the most challenging economic periods in history.

Prior to being elected New York City Comptroller, Mr. Thompson was appointed to the New York City Board of Education where he served five terms as President of the nation’s largest school system with more than 130,000 employees and an annual budget of nearly $12 billion.  As President, Mr. Thompson led policy development and implementation for a public school system with 1.1 million public school children.  In particular, Mr. Thompson worked closely with CUNY officials to expand the University’s College Now program, which enables public high school students to take college courses. College Now, which enrolled 449 students from a few Brooklyn high schools when it started in fall 1984, currently serves more than 20,000 students and partners with 400 high schools.

In January 2015, Governor Cuomo named Mr. Thompson as Chairman of the New York State Housing Finance Agency and Chairman of the State of New York Mortgage Agency.  In 2011, Governor Cuomo selected Mr. Thompson to Chair his M/WBE Task Force.  In February 2010, Governor David Paterson named Mr. Thompson to serve as Chairman of the Board of The Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority, a position he held until 2012.

A lifelong New York City resident and a product of its public schools, Mr. Thompson graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in Political Science. He is a Trustee Emeritus of Tufts University.

Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Thompson resides in Harlem with his wife and three children.

Mr. Thompson serves as Chair of the Board’s Executive Committee and Subcommittee on Investment.

SANDRA WILKIN, B.S., B.S., was reappointed by Governor Kathy Hochul as Vice Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York on June 15, 2023.  Her term ends June 2030.  She is the first female graduate of both a CUNY community college – Kingsborough – and a senior college – Hunter – to serve as Vice Chairwoman.

Ms. Wilkin is chief executive officer of Bradford Construction, the construction management firm she founded in 1989, based on a mission to optimize services and operations on complex, large-scale building projects. Over the past three decades, she has grown the company into one of New York’s premier women-owned business enterprises (WBE). To support the infrastructure and sustainability needs of emerging minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MWBE), she has developed critically important mentoring programs.

Ms. Wilkin co-founded the Women Builders Council – an organization that advances the role of women in the building industry – with a campaign “to break the concrete ceiling.” She is also a member of the NYS and NYC MWBE Advisory Councils and NYC School Construction Authority Diversity Board. In 2013, she helped spearhead the passage of NYC Local Law 1, landmark legislation that increases MWBE participation goals in government contracting.

Ms. Wilkin was the first woman to serve on the executive board of the New York Building Congress’ Foundation and the first woman to serve on the executive board of the Regional Alliance for Small Contractors. Her contributions have been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including the Kingsborough Community College Wall of Fame, the Hunter College Hall of Fame and Exemplary Service Citations on behalf of the State of New York Executive Chamber and the City of New York for eradicating barriers for MWBEs and in recognition of distinguished leadership. She also shares a unique distinction with Golda Meir of being the only women to receive the Lubavitch Youth Organization’s Woman of Valor Award for her “commitment and dedication to helping people of all ages, regardless of race, religion, color or creed, find meaning and direction in life.”

A New York City native, Ms. Wilkin is a graduate of Kingsborough Community College who went on to earn a B.S. in Business and Public Administration at New York University (NYU) and a B.S. in Nursing from Hunter College, and she is a graduate of the Construction Management Certificate Program from New York University.

Ms. Wilkin serves as Vice Chair of the Board’s Advancement & External Affairs Committee, Vice Chair of the Facilities, Planning & Management Committee, Vice Chair of the Executive Committee, Vice Chair of the Audit Committee and Chair of the Subcommittee on Diversity, Inclusion and MWBE.  She also serves as a member of the Finance and Administration Committee, and the Subcommittee on Technology and Planning.

She chaired the search committees for a new dean of the William E. Macaulay Honors College and new presidents of Queensborough Community College and Kingsborough Community College, and she served as a committee member for several other presidential searches.

MICHAEL ARVANITES, B.A., a native Staten Islander, serves as Staten Island’s Trustee to the City University of New York; having been unanimously approved by the State Senate and appointed by Mayor Bill DeBlasio, effective July 1, 2017, for a term that ends in 2024.

The Board of Trustees provides oversight for half a million students faculty and staff at 25 campuses. He is the Head Surveyor for the New York City Board of Elections responsible for the accessibility, pandemic protocol and safety compliance for early voting and poll sites.  Michael has served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Assemblyman Eric Vitaliano, Councilman Michael McMahon and State Senator Diane Savino as well as Liaison to Speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn. Michael has also worked on many campaigns.

When working for private industry he provided safety, training and advocacy to the transportation and construction industries serving as VP of Operations for the Black Car Fund representing 25,000 drivers and 2,500 safety professionals as the CEO of the Safety Professional Association.

Michael, an Eagle Scout, started volunteering very early in life, for On Your Mark INC, and the Eden II School for the Disabled; where his brother Steven is a participant and lives with Autism.  Advocacy for those with disabilities drove Michael into politics, advocating for group homes at civic meetings beginning at the age of seven years old.  Michael also started volunteering for Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church’s annual Greek Festival that year too.  Michael also serves as the Red Cross’ Ambassador to Staten Island and serves as a team leader for the Annual Bread of Life Food Drive.

He is a board member for Eden II School for the Disabled and formerly served on the Board of Directors for United Activities Unlimited, Community Health Action of Staten Island and the Seaman’s Society for Children as well as on the Foundation Board for Community Resources. Michael Arvanites lives in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Staten Island.

Mr. Arvanites, serves as Vice Chair of the Board’s Student Life Committee, and is a member of the Audit Committee and the Committee on Facilities Planning and Management.

HENRY T. BERGER, B.S., J.D., was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio as a Trustee of The City University of New York on June 20, 2017.  Trustee Berger was reappointed on July 01, 2021 for a term to expire on June 30, 2028.

Mr. Berger has been Special Counsel and Advisor to Mayor de Blasio since February, 2014. Previously, as an attorney in private practice, he worked on legal issues related to election law, such as campaign finance compliance and ballot access regulations, and labor relations and civil litigation.

From 1995 to 2000 Mr. Berger was a partner with Fisher, Fisher & Berger, working on commercial litigation, election law and labor relations for clients including health care professional unions, university professors’ associations and major state, county and city political candidates.

In 1977, Mr. Berger served as a Member of the New York City Council, representing the Fourth District of Manhattan. He served on the Transportation, Parks and Economic Development committees.

Mr. Berger received a B.S. from Lehigh University in chemistry in 1967 and his J.D. from the New York University School of Law in 1972.

Mr. Berger serves as Chair of the Board’s Finance Committee, Vice Chair of the Education Policy Committee, Vice Chair of the Governance Committee, Chair of the Subcommittee Technology, Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Research and Innovation, Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Investment and a is member of the Executive Committee.

UNA S. T-CLARKE, B.S., M.S., C.D., was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio as a member of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York in June 2015.  She was reappointed by the Mayor in 2018 to a term that ends June 2025.

Trustee Clarke was elected to the New York City Council, as its first foreign-born, as well as the first Caribbean-born woman member. She represented Brooklyn’s 40th Council District for 10 years starting in 1991, sponsoring more than 300 pieces of legislation on issues including child welfare, education, health and mental health, economic development, public safety and transportation. She was an active member of the Council’s Black and Hispanic Caucus. An educator by profession, she directed millions of dollars in funding to upgrade schools in her district, rebuild parks and playgrounds, increase quality childcare programs. Trustee Clarke led many campaigns to reform immigration laws that encouraged citizenship and voter registration. She considers her greatest accomplishment as a member of the City Council the rebuilding of Kings County Hospital.

Trustee Clarke served as a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1992. In 1996 she was one of six New Yorkers appointed to the National Platform Committee of the Democratic Party. Trustee Clarke was appointed in 2001 by Governor George Pataki as Director of the Empire State Development Corporation for the Borough of Brooklyn. She is a member of the Diocesan Council for the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. She was named to the board of trustees for Nazareth Regional High School after her successful efforts to save the school from closure. She was appointed a Trustee of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum by NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Trustee Clarke has received numerous honors and awards for outstanding service. She was the first foreign-born recipient of Columbia University’s prestigious Charles H. Revson Fellowship in 1984, the first time the fellowship was ever presented to someone over age 35. She was the first Caribbean-born woman to receive the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2001. In 1999 she received the Commander of the Order of Distinction (C.D.) from the Government of Jamaica for distinguished service to Jamaicans and Caribbean nationals in North America.

Trustee Clarke holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Long Island University, a Master of Education degree from New York University, and has completed additional post-graduate studies at Teachers College and the School of Business at Columbia University. She received the Honorary Doctor of Letters in November 2005 from the University of Technology in Jamaica.

Mrs. Clarke serves as Chair of the Board’s Student Life Committee, Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Diversity, Inclusion and MWBE and is member of the Executive Committee.

LORRAINE CORTÉS-VÁZQUEZ, B.A., M.P.A., was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams as Commissioner to the Department for the Aging in March 2022. As Commissioner, Cortés-Vázquez continues to work to advance the NYC Aging mission to eliminate ageism, ensure the dignity and quality of life of older adults and support caregivers as she did with the previous administration under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Before being appointed to Commissioner, Lorraine served as Senior Advisor to de Blasio in the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Prior to serving in the Mayor’s Office, Cortés-Vázquez was Senior Vice President of Corporate Relations and Government Affairs at EmblemHealth, where she was responsible for EmblemHealth’s relationships with key government, community and industry stakeholders, better positioning EmblemHealth for new growth opportunities. Cortés-Vázquez was also the Executive Vice President for Multicultural Markets and Engagement at the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) where she developed a comprehensive 5-year strategic plan. At AARP, she ensured that the interests of multicultural age 50-plus audiences were integrated into everything AARP does, with the goal of increasing multicultural presence among AARP membership and increasing AARP’s involvement in those communities.

Before joining AARP, Cortés-Vázquez was New York State’s 65th Secretary of State, and the first Hispanic appointee to serve in that role. She also served as Vice President of Government and Public Affairs at Cablevision Systems Corporation, a leading media, entertainment, and telecommunications company. She brought to this position a distinguished career in the nonprofit, government and corporate sectors that extends more than 30 years. Her work in the nonprofit sector has gained her national recognition and numerous awards.

From 1998 to 2004, Cortés-Vázquez served as President of the Hispanic Federation, a nonprofit network of Latino health and human service agencies with a footprint throughout the East Coast. She has extensive experience creating community partnerships to leverage civic participation and increasing the visibility of educational initiatives. In the early 1990s, she served as Executive Director of ASPIRA of New York, the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit Latino youth leadership development and education advocacy agency.

Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez obtained her undergraduate degree from Hunter College and earned a master’s degree from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She is a Toll Fellow and has earned certificates from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Columbia University’s School Professional Studies.

She is dedicated to her family, particularly her nieces, nephews, and grandsons.

Ms. Cortés-Vázquez serves as Chair of the Board’s Advancement and External Affairs Committee.  She is also a member of the Finance and Administration Committee, the Governance Committee and the Executive Committee.

Throughout her career, DR. BARBARALEE DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL has served as a leading voice on many of the defining urban issues of our time, including the preservation of the historic built environment of our country. She serves as a model for civic and cultural engagement, having demonstrated unparalleled commitment to the arts, architecture, design and public policy through roles that have brought her from the writer’s desk to The White House, where she was a White House Assistant, and helped create the White House Fellows, the Presidential Scholars Program, and the first and only White House Festival of the Arts in 1965. While at the White House, she also produced the first Gala Dinner at the National Gallery of Art for the Society of American Historians, using as centerpieces for the event models from the U.S. Patent Office.

Appointed by Mayor John V. Lindsay as the first Director of New York City’s newly-created Cultural Affairs Department in 1966, she was instrumental, the following year, in bringing the first public art exhibit (an installation of sculptures by Tony Smith) to Bryant Park, the first public performance to Central Park by the Metropolitan Opera, the first city-wide Poetry Festival, and the first week-long festival of films about New York at the Regency Theatre. One of her important contributions was to codify the inclusion of cultural institutions in the New York City annual budget process; under her leadership, the 15 cultural institutions housed in City-owned buildings or on City-owned property that had been receiving their City support from the Bureau of the Budget, were added to the agency’s budget.

In addition to her extensive work involving the visual, performing and literary arts, Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel has dedicated herself to the preservation and enhancement of New York City’s cultural life, serving as the longest-term Commissioner of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, spanning four mayoral administrations from 1972 to 1987. She then served as the Chair of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Foundation from 1987 to 1995, where she created and underwrote the placement of Historic District street signs, descriptive markers, and maps in each of New York City’s then-84 (now 157) Historic Districts, programs which have since become models for similar initiatives throughout the United States. She also organized commemorative celebrations for the 15th, 25th, 30th, 35th, 40th, 45th, 50th, 55th Anniversaries of the Passage of the NYC Landmarks Law, and is currently at work on the upcoming 60th Anniversary, as Chair and Founder of the NYC Landmarks60 Alliance. Since 1995, she has served as Chair of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center, where, inspired by the London Blue Plaques, she created the Cultural Medallions program, to commemorate notable New Yorkers.

In addition to her extensive preservation work and advocacy, Diamonstein-Spielvogel has continued her involvement with national and local cultural affairs. She was appointed by President Reagan to the Board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (1987-1999), where she was elected Chair of the Subcommittee of the USHMM that commissioned Art for the Public Spaces. In addition to her service with the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, she served as a member of the New York City Art Commission of New York City (1991-94, now the Public Design Commission), and as a member of the New York City Commission of Cultural Affairs for more than a decade (1975-1986), where she created the Mayor’s Award of Honor for Arts and Culture.

In 1996, she was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which advises on all matters of public design affecting the appearance of Washington, D.C., in particular, the architecture of public buildings, parks, and memorials. In 2002, she was the first woman to be elected as Vice Chair of the CFA in its 112-year history. In 2007, she was appointed to the New York State Council on the Arts, where, from 2012 to 2016 she served as Vice Chair, and in 2016, was appointed as Chair and CEO by the Governor. She served in that capacity until 2018.

From 2009 to 2018, as President Obama’s appointee, she served on the American Battle Monuments Commission (the agency which oversees the design, construction, and maintenance of U.S.military memorials throughout the world and in the U.S.A.), where she chaired the ABMC New Memorials Committee, and represented the U.S.A. at Armistice commemorations and memorial dedications in the Netherlands, France, Italy, Belgium, and England. On July 28, 2013, during the 60^th anniversary commemorations of the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean War, a U.S. monument was dedicated in the United Nations Cemetery in Busan, South Korea. It was the first non-World War I or World War II monument constructed by ABMC outside the U.S. Diamonstein-Spielvogel represented ABMC and led the U.S. delegation at the Busan anniversary events, where she was the keynote speaker and laid a wreath in honor of the memory of American, Korean and U.N. Troops. The event was attended by leaders and veterans of 21 participating nations. In 2018, she was appointed to the newly-formed American Battle Monuments Foundation. Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel was appointed to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts by President Biden in March, 2022.

Diamonstein-Spielvogel earned her doctorate with high honors from New York University, and has shared her experience and scholarship through teaching at the University of Virginia, Duke University, Hunter College, New School for Social Research, and Parsons School of Design, as well as through the authorship of twenty-four books about art, architecture, photography, crafts, design, and public policy. Her publications include her groundbreaking work as the J. Clawson Mills Fellow of the Architectural League, with the book and exhibition, Collaboration: Artists and Architects, which helped resuscitate the long moribund relationship of collaboration between artists and architects. A Centennial Project of the Architectural League, the program commissioned eleven collaborations between renowned architects and artists, both for the book, and for a significant museum exhibition, which traveled nation-wide. Her 1978 publication Buildings Reborn: New Uses, Old Places, introduced the concept of adaptive re-use (now integral to historic preservation) to the nation. And her book Handmade in America: Conversations with fourteen Craftmasters (1983), was a carefully vetted series of interviews with craftsmasters; discussions that defined crafts as art forms, rather than as simply products of technical expertise. As part of this project, she was the curator of an exhibition at the Renwick, and initiated the 1993 exhibition in the Clinton White House, the “White House Collection of American Crafts,” which traveled to 10 other museums through 1999.

Her reach extends into other media as well, where she was interviewer/producer for seven multi- year television series about the arts, architecture, design, crafts, and public policy for the Arts & Entertainment Network, and numerous programs for other national networks, such as CBS, NBC, WNET, Metromedia, WNYC Television, and major stations in Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami. Many of her television interviews, accompanied by photographs, were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery, in three separate exhibitions during the 1980s, and 372 of her interviews and programs are available on YouTube, digitized by the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Video Archives at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. The Diamonstein-Spielvogel Video Archives also include forty-four videos of Historic Landmarks Preservation Center Cultural Medallion dedications, seven videos of the Landmarks of New York Discussion Series, as well as twenty videos of artist interview/lecture programs at the National Gallery of Art, a series created by Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel. Seventy-two of her Oral History Interviews are also part of the Columbia University Oral History Project, and document conversations with many of the leading art world figures from 1972 to 1979.

She was the curator of eight international museum exhibitions, each based on one of her books, The Landmarks of New York. First published in 1987, with six editions, it was the first comprehensive listing, photographs, and descriptions of New York City’s landmarks, with information and photographs about each individual building. An exhibition based on the book, Landmarks of New York, circulated to 82 countries on five continents, in an unprecedented tour sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Its fifth edition (2011, SUNY Press) was accompanied by a multi-city traveling museum tour, with extensive outreach programs, throughout NY State including Buffalo, where it opened the National Trust for Historic Preservation annual conference, and Syracuse, Ithaca, Binghamton, Albany, Southampton, Rye, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and The Bronx; it was permanently installed at the historic Conrad R. Duberstein Courthouse, in downtown Brooklyn.

In November 2018, she published Notable New Yorkers: The HLPC Cultural Medallions Program, which documents the history of her creation of two street signage programs, Historic District Maps/Markers and Historic District street name signs, both developed so that visitors and residents could readily identify the historic districts in which they lived and worked. It documents, as well, her creation of the Cultural Medallions Program, developed to highlight and record the diverse histories of some of the most notable residents of NYC (now 132 medallions throughout the five boroughs).

She is also the author of dozens of magazine and newspaper articles and columns, which cover a wide variety of topics: travel, diversity, gender issues, and race relations, and in some instances were the basis for more in-depth and lengthier publications. Her writings appear in The New York Times, The Saturday Review, ARTNews, Partisan Review, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and many other national outlets.

Throughout her career, Diamonstein-Spielvogel has been involved in board service for national and local institutions and organizations. Her commitments include the Fresh Air Fund; the Friends of The High Line (Founding Director); the Brooklyn Academy of Music; the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts; the Clarion Music Society; New York State Historic Archives Partnership Trust; the Drawing Committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Acquisitions Committee of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum; the Board of the Museum of Modern Art (twice as an ex officio member); the New-York Historical Society; Municipal Art Society; New 42nd Street Theatre; New-York Historical Society; the Film Anthology Archives; Big Apple Circus; the Central Park Conservancy; American Friends of the Georgian Group; and the New York Landmarks Conservancy (a Founding Director; she created the Living Landmarks Award, which honors New Yorkers for their outstanding contributions to NYC, and is the focus of the Conservancy’s principal fund-raising efforts). She is on a number of national boards, such as PEN America (where in 1990 she established the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay); the American Council on the Arts; Museum of African Art in Washington,

D.C. (Founding Member of the first Museum of African Art, initially in the Frederick Douglass townhouse); the NYC Bicentennial Commission (Chair and Keynote Speaker); the Corcoran Gallery of Art; the White House Endowment Fund; and the Trust for the National Mall (Founding Director). She was elected to the Board of the Diplomacy Center Foundation in 2021. In June 2023, she was appointed by Governor Hochul to the CUNY Board of Trustees.

For her lifelong commitment and service to the public good, in 1994 Diamonstein-Spielvogel was the first woman to be honored with the Pratt Institute Founder’s Award, and in 1995 was awarded the annual Visionary in the Arts’ Award from the Museum of Contemporary Crafts/The Museum of Arts and Design in New York. In 1998, she was the recipient of the Ralph Menapace Award of the Upper East Side Historic District. She also received the first Miami Beach Art Deco Preservation Award (1978); was the first woman to be elected, in 2001, as an honorary member of PEN-Slovakia; and in 2003, received the Gen. Milan R. Stefanik Award for contributing to the advancement of public knowledge about the Slovak nation and people. In 2004, The Slovak Republic’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs decorated her for “her remarkable personal contribution to the development of a civil society in Slovakia.” In 2005, she was elected an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects, and was awarded the Humanitarian Award of the Jewish Women’s Foundation in New York. In 2008, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Partners for Livable Places in Washington, D.C. That year, together with Murakami and Julian Schnabel, she was named a “Legend” by Pratt Institute.

In 2010, she received a lifetime achievement award by the Citizens Committee of New York, and was the recipient of the Weeksville Society’s Humanitarian Award. In October 2010, she initiated the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Visiting Filmmaker Series at Duke University, to address significant contemporary topics of social, political, economic, and cultural urgency from a global perspective. In 2015, also at Duke University, she initiated the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Artist-in- Residence Program, to provide an annual on-campus residency; and in 2016, she created a three- year pilot of the Sanford Innovator-in-Residence Program at Duke University.

She was named a ”Landmarks Lion,” a lifetime achievement award from the NYC Historic Districts Council, the citywide advocate for New York City’s historic districts, in 2011. In 2012, the Jay Heritage Center in Westchester, NY, awarded her the first John Jay bronze medal for lifetime contribution to the arts, architecture, and public policy, presented by Congresswoman Nita Lowey. And in June 2012, she was honored, along with Arianna Huffington, by the Women’s Forum of NY, a 600-member organization comprised of some of the most significant women in NYC, who are elected to membership from diverse fields; they awarded her their 2nd Annual Lifetime Achievement Award.

In addition to her earned doctorate, she is the recipient of four honorary doctorates from The Maryland Institute of Art (1990) , Longwood University, Virginia (1996), Pratt Institute, Brooklyn (2011), and Purchase College, SuNY (2017). She gave an address at each commencement, including the Pratt commencement, which took place before a 6,000-person audience at Radio City Music Hall, NYC.

In 2013, she became the Founder/Chair of NYC Landmarks50 Alliance, a voluntary consortium of over 180 member organizations, collaborating to commemorate the 50th anniversary (April 19, 2015) of the passage of the NYC landmarks law. She continues as Chair for the NYC Landmarks60 Alliance, to commemorate the 60th Anniversary in 2025.

In September 2013, she was elected a New York State Democratic National Committee Member. In May 2015, she was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, and in June 2015, she was named to the Advisory Committee of the National Eisenhower Memorial; designed by architect Frank Gehry, the Memorial is adjacent to the National Mall, Washington, D.C.

In November 2015, Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel was honored by the Historic Districts Council as one of the Pride of Landmark Lions, as part of the 50th Anniversary celebration of the New York City landmarks law. And in December 2015, she received the St. Nicholas Society Medal of Merit. The Society, founded in 1835 to preserve and promote the history and customs of NYC’s colonial-era Dutch forebears, is one of the oldest fraternal organizations in the United States. She was also honored in December 2015 by the New York Preservation Archive Project as the recipient of their inaugural Preservation Award. She served as Co-Chair of the King and Country Gala Benefit for the Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 3, 2016; on April 28, 2016, she received the NY Landmark Conservancy’s Lucy G. Moses Preservation Leadership Award, given to outstanding individuals in the field of historic preservation. On September 14, 2016, she received the Annual Preservation Award from the American Friends of the Georgian Group, and on November 19, 2016, was honored at the ArtsWestchester Gala “Celebrating Women.”

She and her late husband, Ambassador Carl Spielvogel, were honored by The Acting Company with The Joan Warburg Humanitarian Award on November 12, 2018, and by the Clarion Society, on March 5, 2019, for their leadership in the arts. On October 22, 2019, she received the Ellen Stewart Centennial Medal, together with Philip Glass, given by the LaMama Theatre. The

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum honored her and her husband on April 17, 2021, dedicating the Sol Lewitt Room within the museum in their honor, and on May 24, 2022, she was honored by St. Bartholomew’s Conservancy at their Organ Concert, for her activist leadership in historic preservation. In January 2023, she was the recipient of the Dr. Jan Papanek Medal, one of the highest honors accorded by the government of the Slovak Republic, given to individuals who have contributed significantly to promoting values of freedom, democracy, and human rights, and as an appreciation of her long-term support of Slovakia and its active role within the United Nations.

In 2021, as Chair of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation, among its other programs, she worked with the Council on Foreign Relations to establish the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy. The Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy is a multi-year global project, created to examine the state of democratic institutions around the world. In 2021, she also established a series of fellowships at the New York Public Library, intended to support scholars from underserved communities; and a joint conservation and curatorial fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In June, 2021, she initiated the establishment of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Institute for NY History, Politics and Community Activism, a new programming and archival division of the New-York Historical Society; she served as Chair of the Advisory Board for the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Institute. She established Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellowships for the study of Climate Change at the Pratt Institute, and at the Columbia Climate School. In addition, in 2022, she initiated and supported a new chorale initiative at Juilliard Music School, and in 2023, a contemporary music initiative with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

A Founding Director of the High Line, she has continued her long-term support for the elevated park with a gift for the Moynihan Connector, a 1,200-foot elevated pathway that leads from the High Line to the Moynihan Train Hall; she also provides support for the High Line’s educational programming for teens and young adults. In December 2021 and December 2022, she produced two public annual concerts of classical and modern music at Temple Emanu-El, the first featuring Isabel Leonard and Anthony Roth Costanzo, with the Clarion Choir and Clarion Orchestra, and the second featuring Anthony Roth Costanzo, Angel Blue, The Knights Orchestra and Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

Her late husband, Ambassador Carl Spielvogel, was a leading international business executive, who had over 45 years of experience in the world of international trade, doing business in 55 countries. Deeply committed to public service, he served on numerous boards, and was the U.S. Ambassador to The Slovak Republic.

KEVIN D. KIM, B.A., M.A., J.D., was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams to serve as the Commissioner for the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), a dynamic City agency focused on equity of opportunity leading to economic self-sufficiency and mobility for New York City’s diverse communities. Among the initiatives SBS successfully launched in his first year as Commissioner include: 1) largest public-private partnership loan fund in NYC directed to small businesses ($75M); 2) Cannabis NYC to outreach and educate New Yorkers on the opportunities connected to this newly-legalized market; 3) Small Business Forward – recommending more than 100 reforms to violations that overly-burdened small businesses, saving small businesses millions of dollars annually; and 4) Small Business Advisory Commission to give actual small business owners a seat at the table when important policy decisions are being made.

Commissioner Kim is an attorney, entrepreneur, and public servant. As a son of immigrant small business owners, and a former co-founder/operator of several small businesses, he understands first-hand the various challenges small businesses face.

In public service, Commissioner Kim served as the first Asian American commissioner of the New York State Liquor Authority. For more than a decade, he has been a recognized community leader serving on the boards of various non-profit organizations, including the CUNY Board of Trustees, President (Biden)’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, and American Red Cross (Queens). He is also a certified community mediator through his participation in the Black Korean Mediation Project.

Commissioner Kim is a proud product of the NYC public school system, having attended K-12 in Queens (graduating from Townsend Harris High School at Queens College). He received his B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University and his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review.

Mr. Kim serves as Chair of the Board’s Audit Committee and is a member of the Executive Committee, the Subcommittee on Diversity, Inclusion and MWBE and the Subcommittee on Investment.

MAYRA LINARES-GARCIA, B.A., was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo as a member of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York on June 15, 2016 and reappointed in June 2021 for a term to expire June 30, 2027.

Mayra Linares-Garcia is a skilled public affairs and communications strategist with more than 15 years of experience across all levels of government.

As the Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications for Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages, she is proud to be a leading voice that bridges communities and their leaders with one of the world’s most recognizable brands. Mayra is responsible for enhancing relationships and generating results among local organizations, business owners and elected officials – all to help the public better understand Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages’ commitment to the community.

Mayra is a current Trustee of The City University of New York’s (CUNY) Board, where she is committed to making CUNY a college system accessible to all New Yorkers. Along with her colleagues in early 2019, she assisted in appointing the first Latin-American CUNY Chancellor.

In 2011, Mayra was appointed by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo as the Director of Latino Affairs where she advocated for issues that impacted Latinos from access to education, affordable housing and health and employment. In this role, she helped established the New York State Office of Trade and Tourism in Puerto Rico.

Mayra was also the Founder and CEO-president of the MayLin Group. Inc., a public affairs & community relations firm that specialized in corporate and community partnerships. She also served as a Democratic District Leader for the 72nd Assembly District from 2001 until 2011.

Mayra graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a B.A. in Political Science and Community Leadership. She is a Latina of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent originally from Washington Heights and currently lives in the Marble Hill neighborhood of the Bronx with her husband and three children, her greatest inspiration.

Ms. Linares-Garcia is a member of the Board’s Student Life Committee, the Facilities Planning and Management Committee and the Advancement and External Affairs Committee.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Mujica was Chief of Staff to the Temporary President and Majority Leader of the Senate and concurrently served as the Secretary to the Senate Finance Committee. For two decades, Mr. Mujica advised various elected and other government officials in New York on State budget, fiscal and policy issues.

Mr. Mujica received his B.A. degree in Sociology from Brooklyn College at the City University of New York. He received his Master’s degree in Government Administration (M.G.A.) from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from Albany Law School.

Mr. Mujica is Vice Chair of the Board’s Subcommittee on Technology Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Investment.

BRIAN D. OBERGFELL, B.S., J.D., is an attorney with extensive background in banking, real estate and commercial finance and a Brooklyn resident, who was nominated by Governor Cuomo and unanimously confirmed by the New York Senate as a member of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York in June 2012 and reappointed in June 2021 for a term to expire June 30, 2025.

Mr. Obergfell is a senior partner in Emmet, Marvin & Martin LLP, the New York City law firm where he has worked since 1985. He is admitted to practice in New York State and, since 2010, in England and Wales. He graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in Communications in 1979 and from New York Law School with a J.D. in 1985.

Mr. Obergfell has been a permanent trustee of the Heisman Trophy Trust since 2001, is a trustee of the Leake & Watts Children’s House since 2009, and served on the New York State Banking Board from 2007 through 2011. Mr. Obergfell was recently appointed to the new State Charter Advisory Board of the New York State Department of Financial Services in March 2012.

Mr. Obergfell serves as Chair of the Board’s Committee on Facilities Planning and Management, a member of the Board’s Executive Committee, the Subcommittee on Technology Planning, and the Subcommittee on Diversity, Inclusion and MWBE.

JILL O’DONNELL-TORMEY, B.S., Ph.D., was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo in June 2015 as a member of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York and reappointed in June 2021 for a term to expire June 30, 2025.

Dr. O’Donnell-Tormey currently is the Chief Executive Officer (since 1993) and Director of Scientific Affairs (since 1987) of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a non-profit organization founded in 1953, which is a global leader in supporting and coordinating research aimed at harnessing the immune system’s power to conquer all cancers.

Prior to joining CRI, she served as a research associate in the Department of Medicine at Cornell University Medical College, and as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of cellular physiology and immunology at The Rockefeller University.

Dr. O’Donnell-Tormey serves on the Boards of CT Atlantic AG—a Swiss biotechnology company; Richmond University Medical Center; and, the Staten Island Foundation. In 1998, she was named on of Irish America magazine’s “Top 100: Irish Americans, and in 2002, she received the Fairleigh Dickinson University Pinnacle Award–the highest honor bestowed on its alumni. In 2013, Dr. O’Donnell-Tormey received the Cancer Research Institute’s Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology, which the Institute awards to formerly-funded postdoctoral fellows who make significant contributions to immunology research.

Dr. O’Donnell-Tormey holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry, summa cum laude, from Farleigh Dickinson University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in cell biology from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center.

Dr. O’Donnell-Tormey serves as Chair of the Board’s Education Policy Committee, and is a member of the Executive Committee, the Governance Committee, Chair of the Subcommittee on Research and Innovation and Chair of the Subcommittee on Enrollment.

DR. HERMINIA PALACIO, M.D., M.P.H., B.A., was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio as a member of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York on June 10, 2021 to a term that ends June 2028.

Dr. Palacio is a distinguished leader with expertise forged across government, nonprofits, private philanthropy, academia, and clinical medicine. As Founder and President of NexusBridge Strategies, Dr. Palacio deploys her unique cross-sector perspective to bridging temporary leadership gaps for organizations in transition, tailoring strategies to meet organizational needs, and applying an equity lens to advance organizational culture change and support resilient and sound management solutions.

Dr. Palacio is the former President and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, a leading research and policy organization focused on advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States and globally.

Prior to joining Guttmacher, Dr. Palacio was the NYC Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services. In that role, she coordinated transformation efforts across the city’s public health and health care system, and she oversaw 11 city agencies and mayoral offices that, with a total budget of $24 billion, protect the health and well-being of all New Yorkers.

Dr. Palacio served for 10 years as Executive Director of Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services in Texas. The agency serves more than four million residents, including specific services within the city of Houston. During her tenure she was charged with role of Medical Branch Director for the Hurricane Katrina mega-shelter operation in 2005. She oversaw the public health and health care delivery emergency response operations for 27,000 evacuees from the New Orleans area. Her work during Hurricane Katrina earned her the 2007 Excellence in Health Administration Award from the American Public Health Association.

In addition, Dr. Palacio has served as Director of Advancing Change Leadership at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), where she was responsible for developing and implementing new health leadership programs. She also practiced clinical medicine for almost two decades, including nearly 15 years at San Francisco General Hospital during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Dr. Palacio received her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, a master of public health degree from the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health and a BA in biology from Barnard College at Columbia University.

In 2023 Dr. Palacio was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, among the highest honors attainable for professionals in the medical sciences, healthcare sector and public health.

Dr. Palacio is a member of the Education Policy Committee, a member of the Subcommittee on Enrollment, the Subcommittee on Research and Innovation, and the Subcommittee on Diversity, Inclusion and MWBE.

KEN SUNSHINE, B.S., was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo as a member of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York on June 15, 2016 and reappointed in June 2021 for a term to expire June 30, 2026.

Mr. Sunshine founded Ken Sunshine Consultants (later to become Sunshine Sachs) in 1991, and over the past three decades the firm has represented clients ranging from leading corporations, nonprofits, and unions to some of the most prominent names in entertainment. Sunshine Sachs has 150 employees with offices in NY, LA and DC., and specializes in corporate image programs, crisis communications, reputation and issues management, consumer and lifestyle marketing, media relations, event promotion, and communications skills training.

Mr. Sunshine has consulted on media and public relations for almost 40 years, and has been a longtime activist in the civil rights movement. Before starting his own firm, he worked in the entertainment business where he headed the public relations department of ASCAP.

Mr. Sunshine’s career in politics began in the early ‘70’s, and he has advised on communications strategies, messaging, and celebrity involvement in local and national campaigns since then. He served as Chief of Staff to the Mayor of New York in 1989-90.

Mr. Sunshine currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Community Service Society, the Mayor’s Fund to Advance NYC and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. Sunshine has received awards from the National Action Network, the Amsterdam News and the Bella Abzug Institute among others for his work in human and civil rights.

Mr. Sunshine graduated from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Mr. Sunshine serves as Chair of the Board’s Governance Committee, Vice Chair of the Finance Committee, a member of the Executive Committee and the Advancement and External Affairs Committee.

ANGELO VIVOLO, B.S., was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo as a member of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York on June 07, 2021 to a term that ends June 2027.

Mr. Vivolo is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, and lifelong advocate for educational opportunity was nominated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and confirmed by the New York State Senate as trustee of the City University of New York, the nation’s largest public urban university.

As president of the Francesco and Mary Giambelli Foundation, Mr. Vivolo leads a philanthropic organization that has worked tirelessly to secure $15 million in scholarships for underprivileged students attending elementary, secondary, and collegiate institutions.

His civil rights advocacy benefits diverse community organizations, including the Bowery Mission, Bronx Little Sisters of the Poor, City Tech (CUNY), Mommas House Inc., Share Our Strength, UNICEF, CUNY Calandra Institute (Queens College), City Harvest, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Food Bank, Metropolitan Opera, Hispanic Brotherhood Food Bank, the National Columbus Education Foundation, the National Association of Italian American Women, Culinary Institute of America and the Inner-City Scholarship Fund.

Mr. Vivolo is an active supporter of The Partnership for Inner-City Education, a non-profit that helps to improve underachieving schools in Harlem and the South Bronx. He is also an active supporter of the Futures in Education Program, which raises funds for schools in Brooklyn and Queens. Mr. Vivolo is especially proud of his work with The Child Center of New York, a charity that provides counseling, tutoring, and other support for children and families.

In 2020, Gov. Cuomo praised Mr. Vivolo’s advocacy and lifelong commitment to equality and justice for all peoples. “Angelo is a true champion for civil rights, and he is a tireless fighter against discrimination,” the Governor said.

Mr. Vivolo supports scholarships for underprivileged students at the Culinary Institute of America, where he delivered the 2017 commencement address. He is University Trustee of John Cabot University in Rome.

Gov. Cuomo appointed Mr. Vivolo co-chair of the Frances Xavier Cabrini Memorial Commission in 2019. Mr. Vivolo is Chairman of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, President of National Columbus Education Foundation, and President of the Columbus Heritage Coalition.

Mr. Vivolo is a graduate of Long Island University. He attended the City University of New York, where he pursued graduate studies at Hunter College and Brooklyn College.

He started his professional career as a high school teacher serving public schools in Far Rockaway and South Ozone Park, Queens, and in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, rising to the dean of a special intervention program for high-risk, academically underprepared teenage boys.

After nearly a decade of teaching, Mr. Vivolo joined his family’s restaurant business and embarked upon a forty-year career in the hospitality industry as an acclaimed restaurateur and owner of five widely respected Manhattan restaurants. During this time, he served as a goodwill ambassador to New York’s culinary industry, conducting seminars at public schools and supporting the hospitality, culinary and hotel management program at CUNY’s New York City College of Technology.

Mr. Vivolo directed hospitality services for His Holiness Pope Benedict in 2009 and His Holiness Pope Francis in 2015 during their visits to New York.

Mr. Vivolo is the recipient of the Ufficiale dell’ Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, conferred by President Sergio Mattarella of Italy, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Mr. Vivolo is a member of the Board’s Audit Committee, Education Policy Committee, Audit and Finance Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Enrollment Subcommittee.

JOHN VERZANI, B.A., M.S., Ph.D., is the Chair of the University Faculty Senate and ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees. His two-year term commenced in May, 2022.

Professor Verzani is a Professor of Mathematics at the College of Staten Island. He earned a B.A. in Physics from Whitman College; a Masters of Science in Mathematics from the University of Colorado, Boulder; and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Mathematics.

Professor Verzani joined CUNY in 1996. In his time at CUNY he has been a three-term department chair, a long-time campus governance leader, and a long-time member of the University Faculty Senate.

Professor Verzani also serves as Vice Chair of the non-profit South Mountain Conservancy.

SALIMATOU DOUMBOUYA, A.A., is the 37th chairperson of the University Student Senate and student trustee of the City University of New York. Doumbouya is a first-generation college student, who was born and raised in West Africa, Guinea. Doumbouya is fluent in the languages of French, English and her native languages. Doumbouya was drawn to CUNY because of its rich diversity and comprehensive service to New Yorkers of all backgrounds.

Doumbouya is dedicated to ensuring that students have an active role in university governance and is committed to improving the quality of public higher education through advocacy efforts at the university, city, and state levels.

Doumbouya, as an international student, first graduated with an associate degree in liberal arts from the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), where she began her leadership journey as a student volunteer in the student government.

In 2019, Doumbouya became an inducted member and executive board member of the National Society of leadership and success. She was also a mentor for two years, teaching her how to interact with people and serve them one-on-one. Later, Salimatou becomes a senator in the BMCC Student Government and is currently serving as the City Tech Student Government Association president.

Upon graduating from BMCC, Doumbouya enrolled at New York City College of Technology (City Tech) and is currently an upper senior studying architecture. At City Tech, she became a senator at large for the School of Technology and Design and then vice president for external affairs (VPEA). As VPEA, she connected City Tech students with other CUNY campuses, including the University Student Senate, and collaborated and advocated for more funding for public higher education.

In 2018 Doumbouya founded Building a Brighter African Diaspora (BBAD), an organization that provides training in research, entrepreneurship, and project management to students who aim to realize projects in African countries and reunite people of African descent through afro-centered workshops. She has been leading BBAD ever since.