Three Parks Board Candidates 2026�2027

Daniele Gerard, President - is a lifelong New Yorker. Currently a lead counsel at Children's Rights, where she works on cases involving immigrant children and mental health services for children on Medicaid, Daniele worked for NYC Council President Carol Bellamy, attended Columbia Law School, practiced at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, and worked at Food & Water Watch. A Three Parks member since 2004, she's been president, a five-time campaign center veteran, and a critic of fracking/Indian Point, the "grand bargain," charter schools, and all things Republican.

Lorraine Zamora, First Vice President - upon retiring as a professional fundraiser, Lorraine joined Three Parks in 2011 to help with the Obama/Biden campaign storefront. A year later, she joined the board and has served in several capacities: corresponding secretary, newsletter editor, and events coordinator. She was elected president in 2019, at which time she had to learn how to lead club and board meetings on Zoom. She is grateful to have had the opportunity to serve as board president for five years and looks forward to remaining involved as VP. She is convinced that Three Parks is what keeps her sane during these brutal political times.

Lynn Max, Second Vice President - Member of the Leadership Team for the 2024 Presidential Campaign Center. Enthusiastically campaigned for Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani in 2025. Co-managed 2022 and 2024 Postcard Projects for House and Senate Campaigns. Campaigned for our endorsed candidates in the 2021 City Elections. A leader in the Presidential and Senate Campaigns of 2020. Co-managed Presidential Campaign Centers in 2004, 2008, and 2012 and a leader in the 2016 Campaign Center. A lead organizer in the 2018 Take Back Congress campaign. Membership Director 2007-2012, served on the Steering Committee for Three Parks' successful Rezoning Campaign as well as on its Health Care, Social Security and anti-fracking committees. Currently serves as Second Vice President.

Ellen Flax, Treasurer -- is a director of corporate and foundation relations for a local university, serves as the rabbi of several eldercare facilities, and is delighted to continue serving as Three Parks’ Treasurer. She has been an active participant in numerous Three Parks campaigns for President, Congress, and for state and city officials.

Michael Stearns, Recording Secretary - has belonged to Three Parks Independent Democrats since about 1990, soon after he moved back to the neighborhood where he grew up. TPID has had many achievements and continues to be a major voice on local, state and national issues and elections. Michael has been proud to support TPID in the following ways: tabling during the last three presidential campaigns, leafleting at the 96th Street subway station, working at the 2016 and 2024 storefronts, petitioning for club-endorsed candidates, consistently with his wife Roschel supporting the annual TPID fundraising benefit, writing postcards for the midterm election backing Rev. Raphael Warnock for U.S. Senate and the Feb. 13 special congressional election for Tom Suozzi, and serving on the NY Democratic County Committee. He also was a poll worker at both West Side High School and the Marseilles from 2016 to 2021. Michael looks forward to continuing to serve as the club board's recording secretary. He graduated from Pace University and the Columbia Journalism School, and has been a reporter, editor and publisher for daily, weekly and monthly newspapers and magazines since 1970.

Chuck Wall, Corresponding Secretary -- enjoyed a long career as an editor and publisher for major New York book publishing firms. After retiring in 2016, he campaigned with Three Parks at the Clinton/Kaine storefront. In 2018 he joined the Board and since then has helped organize and coordinate numerous phone banks, postcard campaigns, sidewalk tables, and canvassing trips for Democratic candidates in every election cycle from the 2018 midterms through the most recent 2025 off-year elections. In 2019 he became editor of the TPID newsletter, and he now creates and produces its monthly electronic issues as well as numerous e-blasts announcing Club events. In 2024 he was the co-manager of the Harris/Walz campaign storefront. He looks forward to working hard for Democratic candidates and supporting progressive issues in 2026 and beyond.

Josh Pepper Membership Director -- is an attorney in private practice representing plaintiffs in civil-rights cases. Before moving to private practice, he spent many years in law practice for the state, including stints as an Assistant Attorney General and Deputy Commissioner and General Counsel to the NYS Office of Mental Health. Josh is also a longtime club member and was president in 2007.

Wendy Diller Programs Director -- is a long-time resident of the Upper West Side and proud member of the board of Three Parks Dems, who views the club as a vital and effective force for carrying out civic responsibilities, educating the community about important political issues, and fostering Democratic values that we all care about. Professionally, she is a journalist and strategic communications consultant focused on the intersection of medicine, the life sciences and business. She has been actively involved in Three Parks' election activities at both the national and state levels. In 2026, she is focused on working to ensure that Democrats take back control of Congress and build the local infrastructure they need to win in 2028, and on pressuring our New York lawmakers to protect our city and state from Trump’s harmful actions. She is the mother of three grown children, who all live in the metro area - and she would like them to find New York a welcoming place to raise families and build lives.

Corinne Constantine has lived on the Upper West Side since 1976. Now retired, she held professional administrative positions at all the major research institutions of higher education in NYC. Following her participation in the Clinton/Kaine Campaign Center as captain of the bus trips to Pennsylvania, she joined the board and focused on the 2018 midterm election and "taking back Congress." She has also coordinated the annual Fundraiser and the Winter Holiday Party. In 2020 she coordinated all phone banking for the Biden/Harris ticket and for the Georgia run-off election. She also participated almost every day in the tabling on Broadway. In 2024 she managed the finances and record-keeping for the Harris-Walz campaign center on Broadway, and she also coordinated weekly phone banks and arranged three bus trips for volunteers to Pennsylvania and the Hudson Valley.

Liza Cooper - Liza works full time at Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone leading programs that improve the pediatric healthcare experience and overseeing more than 70 volunteers. Most importantly, she is a mother...a Love & Dating Coach, writer, photographer, entrepreneur, and President of NEW Friends of Metro Theater, which formed in 2021 to turn the lights on at 2626 Broadway (The Uptown Cinema Center will open there in 2-3 years!). A lifelong Democrat raised by liberal New Yorkers, she is delighted to be a member of the Three Parks Board and contribute to ensuring safety, vibrancy, and compassionate, effective leadership across our neighborhood, city and nation.

Mimi S. Daitz -- Mimi grew up on the east side of Manhattan, the daughter of two pioneer physicians (whose father was active politically, working towards greater equity in medical care). Mimi and her husband moved to the Upper West Side in 1967. As a faculty member of the Music Dept. of the City College/CUNY, Mimi organized a bus to Washington, DC to lobby Congresspersons against the war in Vietnam. She obtained a doctorate at NYU, had a son, and among the many courses she taught at City was its Chorus. On her own, she chaired a group of volunteers working to elect Bernie, and later volunteered to elect Elizabeth Warren. Having joined TPID, she led a busload of its members to the suburbs of Philadelphia to help elect Obama. She has participated in Three Parks' tabling and marches and looks forward to serving on its Board.

Timothy Eckersley -- came to New York City from London in the '70s and fell in love with the place on sight. For 40 years I have been lucky to live and raise a family on the UWS. As an immigrant, I look at politics here with a mix of admiration and skepticism, and now consternation. For me, TPID is a shining example of the importance of local organization. Retired as an architect with a specialty in the design of new churches, I first volunteered with TPID for the 2016 presidential campaign and joined the board in 2022. I am a County Committee member and have canvassed, petitioned, posted hall cards, and postcarded - in other words, doing the hard work of democracy. I will be honored to serve for another term.

Barbara Futter -- grew up on the Upper West Side. Her parents were members of the Liberal Party, and as a little girl she and her sister put political flyers under the doors of neighbors. She is a semi-retired attorney who moved to Nashville in 1990 for a three-year job as an assistant public defender. The three years became 33 years as social justice mentors inspired her to get involved in many issues, including opposition to the death penalty, homeless advocacy, and strengthening public healthcare. She was the director of a nonprofit community living program for college students and people coming out of prison, was a legal aid lawyer in a rural area, and worked for a progressive lobbyist. She moved back to the Upper West Side in December 2023 and became a TPID member in summer 2024. She joined TPID with table campaigning at the storefront, canvassing, phone calling, registering voters, and very recently joined a protest march. She is honored to be considered for the TPID board, and if chosen, will work hard to serve the club.

Shoshana Levenson - Currently a social worker at Henry Street Settlement, she works with young adults as they enter the workforce and advocates for their needs including SNAP benefits, housing, and providing mental health support. Shoshana had worked as an early childhood teacher and foster care group home counselor. She is passionate about caring for and uplifting the next generation of New Yorkers and looks forward to continuing this work as a Youth Mental Health Collaborative fellow. Shoshana became involved with Three Parks in 2023 leading up to the presidential election, joining the club to phone bank for the Harris/Walz presidential campaign and has been an active member ever since. She is excited for many more years with Three Parks!

Mary Ann Marks -- has been a resident of the Upper West Side for over 40 years, a club member for 22 years, and a board member for 21 years. In addition to actively participating in the Three Parks '04, '08, '12, '16, and '24 storefront campaign centers, Mary Ann has worked on campaigns for rezoning, health care, anti-fracking, and closing Indian Point. She campaigned for Cynthia Doty for City Council and for Hilary Clinton for President, and in 2024 she campaigned at the club's sidewalk tables for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Mary Ann coordinates the mailings of the club's print-version monthly newsletters.

Steve Max -- has staffed or co-managed all of the Club's Presidential Campaign Centers since John Kerry ran in 2004. He has participated in our Take Back Congress campaigns, postcard drives and Broadway tables. He was an enthusiastic worker first for Brad Lander for Mayor and then for Zohran Mamdani. Calling himself the world's oldest tech person, Steve is the Club's Web Master, serves on the Sound Crew and does maintenance on the data base, registration and dues payment forms. Steve retired after fifty years as Associate Director of the Midwest Academy, a school for progressive organizers. He requests your support for another term on the Board.

Miriam Rabban -- seeks your support for continuing to serve as a Three Parks Independent Democrats (TPID) Board member and for working to sustain its progressive activities. Miriam is part of the Trump Resistance Committee of TPID and is focusing on protecting immigrants. In addition to working with the Board on countering the dangers posed by the Trump administration, she continues to be interested in voting rights, affordable housing and campaigning for progressive candidates. She has connected members of TPID to campaigns in the 19th Congressional district upstate for Democrats Antonio Delgado and Josh Riley. In addition, she helps with such TPID activities as tabling and petitioning.

Debra Rand -- has lived on the Upper West Side since 1990 with her husband Michael. She joined TPID in 2020 and has been an active participant in postcard campaigns for NY candidates as well as others around the country, sidewalk tabling for the Harris/Walz ticket, and petitioning last year. She retired in 2023 as Associate Dean for Libraries at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and has since become more active in political and social justice causes at both TPID and her synagogue. She has served on the boards of several professional organizations. She will be honored to serve on the Three Parks Board and work to support club activities with the rest of the highly dedicated Board members and Officers.

Lois Safian - is retired from her longtime career as a producer of corporate events. She is a proud mother of three, and a grandmother of six. In 2012 she became an active volunteer with Three Parks at our Obama/Biden Campaign Center, and in 2016 was an integral part of our Clinton/Kaine Campaign Center. Lois has continued working with Three Parks by tabling, petition signing, postcard writing, heading buses to Pennsylvania, etc. She has been a board member since 2017, managing our Holiday Parties, our Annual Benefit Events, and is honored to be part of the Three Parks family.

Roger Schneier -- is a life-long New Yorker who has lived on the West Side since 1974. His first participation in the progressive movement was in high school when during the lunch counter sit-ins he and a few friends organized and ran CORE picket lines at several Woolworth stores in the Bronx. While in college at NYU University Heights he was one of the organizers of the campus branch of the Student Peace Union. College was followed by two years in the Peace Corps in West Cameroon, several years of assorted jobs, and then Fordham Law, during which he did a summer internship at the ACLU. For the next 50 years he served as an administrative law judge in the NYS Dept of State. He had his first exposure to West Side activism with the successful movement to stop Westway. Since then he's worked with Three Parks and Columbia County Dems on various congressional and presidential campaigns. In 2024 he and his wife, Faye, volunteered at the club's Harris/Walz campaign storefront full-time, six days a week. This past year he participated in the club's various activities, including the local election campaign and various protest events. He has been honored to serve on the Three Parks board to help in the effort to protect our democracy and improve the lives of New Yorkers, and would be grateful to be able to serve another term.

Irene Shrier -- has been a West Sider since the late 1960s. Irene is a retired NYC high school math teacher who also taught GED in an alternative high school program for women living in shelters. Irene has been member of Three Parks since 2004 and was active in the club's storefront campaigns for John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. In 2020 she campaigned for the Biden/Harris ticket and organized phone banks for Max Rose's congressional campaign. In 2022 she organized campaign trips for Max Rose's congressional campaign. In 2024 she was actively involved in the 2024 storefront activities for the Harris/Waltz ticket, including leading campaign bus trips to Pennsylvania. She is also a member of the Democratic County Committee. Irene believes we need to stay strong and remain actively engaged in local politics for the upcoming years.

Billie Smith -- Born in Kentucky, Billie has lived on the Upper West Side for over 35 years and has been involved with Three Parks for over 10 years, continuously attending club meetings and helping out, whenever asked, at GOTV tables on Broadway. Billie is always there to support the club wherever and whenever she can. She enjoys the opportunity to meet and get to know political dignitaries and club members alike, and firmly believe in the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. She would be honored to be a member of the Three Parks Board of Directors.