HWS COMMUNITY |
New Trustees Board of Trustees Elects 5 New Members At its winter 2021 meeting, the Board of Trustees unanimously elected its newest members to serve four-year terms beginning in July. “I am thrilled to welcome these accomplished and passionate members of the Hobart and William Smith community onto the Board,” says Board Chair Craig R. Stine ’81, P’17. “They each bring a significant amount of experience and insight, and their perspectives will be tremendously helpful as we work together to further the Colleges.”
From top to bottom: Hon. Jeremy A. Cooney ’04, Josephine Grayson P’18, Dr. Paula Miltenberger P’23, Mehrnaz “Naz” Vahid-Ahdieh ’85, P’17, and Stephen Wong ’89.
HON. JEREMY A. COONEY ’04 New York State Senator Cooney was adopted by Anne Cooney ’63, P’04 from an Indian orphanage and recently made history as the first Asian elected to state office from Upstate New York. Cooney serves as the State Senator for the 56th District of New York, representing the City of Rochester. Previously, he served as senior director for downstate community relations for Empire State Development under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, the first chief of staff to Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, personal aide to U.S. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, and as a vice president for the YMCA of Greater Rochester. A third-generation HWS alum, Cooney earned a B.A. in public policy studies,
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minoring in economics and philosophy, and graduating cum laude with honors. He went on to receive his J.D. from Albany Law School. He is married to urologic surgeon Dr. Diane Lu, M.D. JOSEPHINE GRAYSON P’18 Landscape architect and philanthropist Grayson spent a decade in the financial markets before becoming a landscape architect and environmentalist. Driven by creativity, social good and beautiful spaces, Grayson now pursues her interests in art and her family’s philanthropic organizations, The Peter and Josephine Grayson Foundation and the Fund for Individual Potential. She holds a B.S. in environmental planning and design from Rutgers
University as well as a B.S. in business from the College of New Rochelle; she has also completed extended study programs at Parsons School of Design, Universita Bocconi in Milan, and the School of Visual Arts in New York. She is a former member of the HWS Parents Executive Committee and served as a judge for the 2020 Pitch Contest. Lifetime members of the Cook Parents Circle, Grayson and her husband Peter P’18 have two children, Eric and Bradley ’18. DR. PAULA MILTENBERGER P’23 Psychologist and mental health expert Miltenberger is a licensed psychologist and founder of Women’s Mental Wellness, a private practice that provides comprehensive mental health care for women. Outside of her private practice, Miltenberger is a consulting psychologist for Medical City Dallas’ Women’s Hospital, where she works with women experiencing high-risk pregnancies as well as candidates for fetal surgery. A published author on issues related to loss and perinatal depression, Miltenberger earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Texas at Southwestern Medical
