Abbott House 2021 Annual Report - Other - Page 31
LEADERSHIP
Board of Directors
Executive Team
Walter G. Montgomery, Ph.D., Chair
Scott D. Richter, Vice Chair
Miguel John Constable
Diane Q. Curtin
Ronald W. Filante, Ph.D.
Richard Fortunato, CPA
Laurence R. Golding
Douglas J. McClintock
Len Mitchell, Ph.D.
Gregory T. Mooney
Marianne Oros
Julie Peskoe
Dolores Ramirez-Pasini
Sarah Schmidt
Mary Smith
Brad A. Smith, Esq.
Adrian Venuto
James L. Kaufman, LCSW-R
President and CEO
Emeritus Board Members
Ann E. Grow, PhD
James R. Painter
Karen F. Schatzel
In Loving Memory:
Joseph M. Pastore Jr., Ph.D.
Gerald Eisner
William L. Ellis, Jr.
Lawrence W. Thomas, Esq.
Dedicated Board Members
Gerard P. Finn, CPA
Senior Vice President and CFO
Justine Christakos, LMSW
Senior Vice President of Programs
Suraiya Sheikh, BS, MCSE, MCSA
Chief Information Officer
UPCOMING EVENTS
John McGrath, BA, MLIR
Director of Human Resources
The story of Abbott House would not be complete without mentioning our important
connection to May
Dr. Martin
Luther King,
Jr. Dave Wade Memorial Golf Outing
23, 2022
.......
Antoinette Grant, MA, Ed. S
Vice President of Programs,
Foster Care & Preventive
Edith and Grace
Abbott were
sisters with
reputations
October
2022
....... legendary
Loving Arms
Gala in the social justice and social
service movements of the early 20th century. In 1963 a child-welfare agency bearing their name was
opened in Westchester, New York on the bucolic grounds of what was once a 42-room Tudor Estate
in Irvington-on-Hudson.
Jeff Shapiro, Ed. M.
Vice President of Residential &
Group Home Services
Kamilah Dowling, DNP
Medical Director
Tiffany Bell, MSW
Director of Quality Improvement &
Program Development
Kristina Papa
Director of Development &
Communications
Visit www.abbotthouse.net for more details and updates.
From the start, Abbott House has been in or near the vanguard of the theory and practice of social
service, adapting its practice for children and adults with complex needs, as an understanding
of optimal human development has progressed. From humble beginnings in the mid-50s, taking
available space for children in the then “Irvington House,” another organization on the forefront,
developing new antibiotic treatments for children with rheumatic fever.
Two days before Christmas in 1963, Abbott House formally became the sole occupant of the building
and grounds and proceeded to expand and evolve its practice of caring for children with complex
needs, from trauma-ridden environments, in group home settings - consistent with the gold standard
thinking of the day.
On October 29, 1965, Abbott House held its first annual dinner, with the invocation spoken
by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Entitled, “The Dignity of Family Life,” King sounded themes of
community, identity, and family particularly appropriate to the times and the abiding beliefs of
Edith and Grace Abbott. “Who is my neighbor?” he challenged. “A great man (has) the capacity
to project the “I” into “thou.”
Dr. King’s words found common ground with the Abbott sisters, and common ground with the history
of Abbott House yet to be written.
More than half a century later, with the memory of Dr. King’s words never far from our thoughts, we
are proud to say that we have touched the lives of more than 106,000 individuals.
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Abbott House Annual Report 2020
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