Who We Are

The Washington Park Conservancy is fortunate to have the support of an active committee of advisors with a wide range of experience.  We thank them for their continuing service!

J. WINTHROP ALDRICH
Stepping down in 2019, Wint Aldrich has served on the  board most recently since 2013, and has been involved with the Conservancy, including previous board service, for many years. He and his wife Tracie live on State Street at the Park’s edge. From 1974 until 2010 Wint held appointive positions on the executive staffs of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and  the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, at the latter serving as Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation. At present he holds appointive posts on the NYS Board for Historic Preservation and the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council, and is an incorporator and board member of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Hyde Park Foundation, a support group for the National Park Service sites in that town.

DENNIS ANDERSON
Trained as a curator and art historian, former board member Dennis Anderson retired as Director of Curatorial and Tour Services for the New York State Department of General Services, where he was responsible for the care and management of the Empire State Plaza Art Collection.

WILLIAM BRANDOW
Bill Brandow is an associate and project manager with John G. Waite Associates, Architects,  with a particular expertise in and passion for historic preservation. He earned a master’s degree in architectural conservation from the University of York in England. Bill is a past president of the Washington Park Conservancy board of directors, and was previously Vice Chair of the city’s Historic Resources Commission.  Bill has also served on the boards of Historic Albany Foundation, the Society of Architectural Historians, the Lark Street BID.  He lives with his wife in the Washington Park neighborhood.

JEFFREY GORDON
Former board member Jeffrey Gordon is Vice President for Communications at Albany Medical Center.  He lives in the Center Square neighborhood.

CHELLE JENKINS
Chelle Jenkins was a member of the board from 2011-2021. She currently serves on the September Splendor planning committee and provides the graphic design work for theCconservancy. She is an associate at the architectural firm John G. Waite Associates, Architects PLLC, contributing research, writing, design, and illustration to the firm’s work in historic preservation. She is currently president of the Friends of the Library Board at Brigham Young University and works with her church’s local women’s organization.

MARCIA KEES
Marcia Kees has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University at Albany SUNY since 2011, teaching planning law, park and historic preservation planning, and planning studio courses. She serves as a member of the Community Advisory Board for the Masters in Regional Planning Program at UAlbany. Marcia completed thirty-five years of public service employment, retiring from the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. She is past president of the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association and the Capital District Planners Association and has served as a board member or advisor for several non-profit organizations. She and her husband own and operate Mister Sew-N-Sew Custom Canvas in Halfmoon, NY.

CHRISTINE MILES KELLIHER
Christine Miles was a member of the WPC Board from 2014-2023.  She chaired the Governance Committee and is still active with several board committees and initiatives. Professionally, she has worked in leadership positions at a number of museums, most recently the Albany Institute of History & Art where she served as director for 25 years.  She has held positions at Museum of the City of New York, The Whitney, South Street Seaport Museum, and Fraunces Tavern Museum.  She has served on numerous boards including Historic Albany Foundation where she chairs the development committee. She has lived on the park since 1998 and appreciates all it has to offer every day.

ERIK KULLESEID
Erik Kulleseid served on the board of the Washington Park Conservancy from 2014-2019 and was President from 2016-2019.  Erik is the Commissioner of the Office of New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Previously he was Senior Vice President at the Open Space Institute, overseeing park improvement projects, including the development of the exhibits in the newly opened Thacher Park Center. He formerly served as Deputy Commissioner for Open Space Protection at the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and New York State Program Director at the Trust for Public Land’s offices in New York City.  In 2021, he relocated from Albany’s Center Square neighborhood to New York City, where he lives with his husband and two daughters.

ANDREA LAZARSKI
Andrea Lazarski is the Restoration Coordinator for the New York State Capitol. She conducts building materials research, investigates historic finishes, documents the historic furnishings, floor coverings and draperies for restoration and rehabilitation projects. Prior to moving to Albany, she was the Director of the Landmark Commissions in Kansas City, Missouri and in Ithaca, New York. Andrea’s volunteer activities have included past president of Historic Albany Foundation, the Historic Resources Commission, Phoenix Project of Eastern New York, the Board of Directors of the Washington Park Conservancy, the Society of Architectural Historians, the Association for Preservation Technology-NY and the Downtown Albany Business Improvement District.

WILLIAM LEMMON
Bill Lemmon first joined the WPC board of directors in 2002.  He has worked closely with the  city forester on WPC’s yearly tree planting in the park. Since retiring from the NYS Office of Mental Health he has been the owner of Painter’s Edge LLC, a house painting business. He and his wife have lived on State Street across from the park since 1977.

JOHN McLENNAN
John McLennan has been an active member of the Washington Park area for over 20 years. He lives in the boundaries of the Washington Park Neighborhood Association, and has served on the board of that association as secretary. John was a Board Director of the Washington Park Conservancy from June 2009-December 2015, serving as Secretary from June 2009 until June 2014. He was a leading force behind the volunteer cleanup days that were very well attended and productive. John is employed as a cartographer with the New York State Assembly, and is frequently seen making his rounds in the Park with his beagle, Truman.

MARCIA MOSS
Marcia Moss joined the board of the Washington Park Conservancy in 2015 and served as Vice President from 2018-2023.  She has 35 years of museum and non-profit experience, in a variety of senior development, marketing, and management  and positions at organizations including the Albany Institute of History & Art, SUNY Press, the Hyde Collection, the Saratoga Automobile Museum and the New York Folklore Society.  She has served on the boards of Historic Albany Foundation, Unity House of Troy and Albany Academy for Girls. In addition to her Conservancy activities, Marcia currently volunteers at the Albany Institute.  After down-sizing from seven acres to urban living, proximity to Washington Park was a major factor in her family’s choice of the Hudson Park neighborhood, where they lived for 22 years.  She and her husband Robert live on State Street overlooking Washington Park.

WILLIAM O. PETTIT III
A former Conservancy board member, Bill Pettit is an upstate New York landscape artist who lives in Albany’s Washington Park neighborhood.

THOMAS PFEIFFER
Tom Pfeiffer served six years on the Conservancy board from 2018-2024 after his retirement as forester for the City of Albany, and remains an active volunteer and advocate for the Park.  While employed by the City, he served the board ex-officio for more than 20 years. As forester, Tom conducted routine work with park landscape vegetation, prepared and executed tree and shrub plantings throughout the grounds, in concert with the Conservancy. In 2001, he conducted a complete inventory of the park trees, and he has advocated for diversity of plantings in the spirit of historic landscape design.  Raised in Albany, Tom is intimately familiar with Washington Park grounds, currently living in the Town of Colonie. He is a member of the American Conifer Society, Pine Hollow Arboretum, and the ‘Albany Goes Green’ committee for conservation education with Albany schools.

SUE PEZZOLLA
Sue is a retired Horticulture Educator who spent more than a decade teaching back yard gardeners and training and co-ordinating the Master Gardeners at Cornell Cooperative Extension Albany County.

JOHN PIPKIN
John Pipkin is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, retired from the Department of Geography and Planning, University at Albany.  His interests  include urbanism, urban design, planning history and nineteenth century landscapes.  He has been on the Board of Washington Park Conservancy since 2010 and also serves as a trustee of Albany Rural Cemetery. John is an enthusiastic birder who has occasionally led bird-walks in the park, in addition to his more frequent historical ones.

EVE RYAN
Conservancy volunteer and former board member Eve Ryan is also an enthusiastic gardener, and lived for many years on Willett Street in Albany, facing Washington Park before moving to Slingerlands, where she currently resides with her husband and Henry, their dog.

SAMANTHA SHIPHERD
Sam Shipherd has been a member of the Washington Park Conservancy since moving to Albany in 2001.  Sam joined the Conservancy’s board of directors in 2014 and served as co-chair of the Program Committee. She and her husband JP have two children and a dog, who can often be seen playing in the park. Sam appreciates all that Albany has to offer, but especially its green spaces.

HERB STARR

Herb Starr was one of the founding board members of the Washington Park Conservancy.  He is the principal of Starr and Company, a real estate and business consulting firm in Troy.