Area business people ‘On the Move’
Claudia Cooley, a Rhinebeck resident and active member of the local business community, recently joined CO’s Board of Directors at the CO Owners’ meeting on Jan. 21.
CO is a cooperatively owned and managed coworking and event center in Rhinebeck. At its inception in November 2018, CO started with a three-person Board of Directors, comprised of co-founders and owners Johnny LeHane, Hélène Lesterlin and Deana Burke, who funded and launched CO with the active participation of 12 additional owners. Pati Jones, co-founder and owner, joined the board in 2019. When Deana Burke recently stepped down as a board member, CO owner Cooley was elected to take her place.
Cooley was an early supporter and investor in CO, and has been deeply involved from its opening in getting CO off the ground. She is a marketing consultant focused on the promotion of Rhinebeck and the Hudson Valley and local businesses including Haldora Clothing and Home. She formerly served as executive director of the Rhinebeck Chamber of Commerce from 2015-18. She also served as Town of Clinton Councilwoman from 2013-16, and prior to that sold advertising for a variety of Rhinebeck- and Hudson Valley-centered publications.
Cooley originally moved to the Hudson Valley from New York City in 1995 after marrying Andrew Cooley, a co-owner of Central Press in Millbrook. While raising their two children, she held a variety of part-time marketing positions in the area. Before that, she worked in the entertainment industry as a personal manager at Campbell Martin Associates, where the clientele were primarily comedians and writers. She also served as a personal assistant to Bill Murray in the 1990s.
••• Richard “Rick” Loewenstein has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer of The Chazen Companies, an employeeowned multidisciplinary consulting firm with offices in Pough- keepsie.
He succeeds Mark Kastner, President, as the leader of the firm.
Loewenstein had served as Chazen’s Chief Operating Officer since September 2018 following a career as Senior Vice President and Director of Engineering Services with CHA Consulting in Albany.
Loewenstein has over 30 years of experience in the consulting industry in a variety of leadership roles. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Forest Engineering from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
and a Bachelor and Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Syracuse University.
••• Dorothy M. Urschel has been selected as Columbia Memorial Health’s new Chief Operating Officer.
Urschel is a health care executive who has held senior clini- cal and ad- ministrative leadership posts in numerous health care organizations, most recently at St. Peter’s Health Partners as Vice President of Operations and Chief Nursing Officer at Albany Memorial Hospital, and Vice President of Cardiac and Vascular Services.
A clinician, administrator and academic, Urschel is a doctorially prepared acute care and family nurse practitioner. She also holds a master’s degree in business administration. She replaces Karen Tassey, who retired after serving as CMH’s COO for the past seven years.
In addition to her clinical and administrative posts at St. Peter’s, Urschel has held leadership positions at Westchester Medical Center, Kaleida Health and Roswell Park Cancer Institute, among others.
••• Columbia County Sheriff David Bartlett announces that Deputy Sheriff Samantha Plass graduated from the Drug, Abuse, Resistance, Education. instructor program at the yearly graduation at the Montour Falls Fire Academy on Jan. 24.
••• Jack A. Higbee, a senior vice president, financial advisor and certified financial planner in Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management office in Kingston, has been named to the firm’s Century Club, an group composed of the firm’s top financial advisors.
Higbee, who has been with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management since 2009, is a native of West Hurley. He holds a bachelor’s degree from The College of the Holy College. Higbee and his wife currently live in Hudson.
••• Bob Taylor, Carol LeFevre and Jim Ottaway, Jr., all long-serving officers of the Wallkill Valley Land Trust Board of Directors, have been elected as “Emeritus Directors” – which means that while they do not have an official vote during board meetings, they can remain active in the work the board and the organization.
Taylor, 89, of New Paltz, joined the Board of WVLT in 1996, when he was also
an active member of the Elting Library board of trustees. He served as President of WVLT for 16 years, from 1997 to 2013 when he stepped down from an officer role but stayed active on the Board. Taylor was on the Board for 23 years.
LeFevre, 84, of Gardiner, joined the WVLT Board in 2000 after her brother-inlaw Jay LeFevre retired in that year as first President of WVLT and one of the founders. She served as Secretary of the Board for nine years: from March 2010 until September 2019.
Ottaway, 81, of New Paltz, joined the Board as its first treasurer when the WVLT was founded in 1987, and served as Treasurer until retiring from that position in 2019.
Mikael Cohn is a new addition at Kingstonbased personal injury law firm Basch & Keegan, practicing personal injury law at the firm.
Born and raised in New Paltz, Cohn served as Assistant District Attorney in Ulster County for several years before accepting a position as Ulster County conflict defender.
THE MOVE” NEWS: “On the Move” recognizes the professional achievements of local people. Submissions may be emailed with attached JPEG photos to news@ freemanonline.com or mailed with quality photo prints to On the Move, Daily Freeman, 79 Hurley Ave., Kingston, N.Y. 12401. Please be brief, include where the subject will be based, his or her place of residence (city, town or village) and a contact person’s name and telephone number.