The Rev. Dr. David McIntosh

A native of Florida, The Rev. Dr. McIntosh received his medical education and specialty training at the University of Miami, School of Medicine, and is board certified in both pediatrics and adult internal medicine.  After his studies, he became a member of the faculty at UM’s medical school and directed their combined residency program until he moved to Kent to join the medical staff at New Milford Hospital.  His responsibilities at this facility included serving as Chairman of the Department of Medicine. 

In 2007, he began divinity studies in New York City to prepare for ordination to the Episcopal priesthood.  On completion, he was pleased to return to the Litchfield Hills where he currently divides his time practicing medicine and pediatrics in Kent, CT, and Pawling, NY, while also serving as Assistant at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington, CT.  David has been a resident of Kent, CT, since 2000.

In community service, he enjoys his volunteer work with Duke University’s Alumni Admissions Team where he interviews prospective students from this area and has an opportunity to share in the goals and dreams of talented and motivated young women and men. 

The Rev. Dr. McIntosh’s combined vocations will be of tremendous benefit to the Foundation for Community Health’s work to improve the health and well being of our community.

Alice Yoakum

Alice Blum Yoakum’s professional background and personal involvement in the community is a valuable asset that will assist the Foundation to carry out its mission to increase access to quality, affordable and timely healthcare for the residents living in the northwest hills of Connecticut and in the greater Harlem Valley in New York.   

Ms. Yoakum has lived in Lakeville, CT, with her husband, journalist and author, Robert H. Yoakum, since 1962.  In addition to raising her family and working in this area, she has a long history of community service that began when she joined the Salisbury Planning and Zoning Commission in 1975 and continues today with her membership in organizations such as the Salisbury Board of Finance, SPARC (Sickness Prevention Achieved Through Regional Collaboration), the Madeline Wildes Trust and the Advisory Board for the Housatonic Youth Service Bureau.  Her role as a founding member of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation (BTCF) contributed to the successful support of many programs that have helped the residents of BTCF’s service area. 

A graduate of Radcliffe College and the University of Connecticut School Of Law, Ms. Yoakum practiced law in northwest Connecticut primarily in the areas of probate, real estate and estate planning with occasional work in contracts, zoning law, taxation and non-profit organizations. 

It is very fitting that she has joined the board of the Foundation for Community Health (FCH) as she was the Connecticut attorney of record in the legal proceedings that resulted in establishing the FCH and she served on the committee that selected the first board of trustees in 2003. 

Peter Gleason

A graduate of Harvard College and Columbia University Graduate School of Business, Mr. Gleason spent most of his professional career with J. P. Morgan as a Managing Director and as a member of the investment committee overseeing the firm’s portfolio of private equity investments. During this period, he was also president of the Morgan Community Development Corporation extending credit in order to finance community development initiatives sponsored by non-profit organizations in New York City.

He has served as a Trustee of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City and on numerous Boards of publicly traded companies. He is currently on the Board of the Northeast Dutchess Fund sponsored by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.

A frequent guest in Dutchess County, Mr. Gleason became a resident in 1999 when he built his present house in Millerton. Since then he has become an interested and active member in the community.

Heidi Kearns

Ms. Kearns worked her way through college as office manager at International Commercial Supply in Litchfield, Connecticut and graduated from Northwestern Connecticut Community College in 1989. She spent the following years raising her family while working as the Boards and Commissions Clerk for the Town of Goshen.  During that time, she also established a property maintenance and management company.  Before coming to the FCH, Ms. Kearns was a real estate agent and managed the office of a local real estate company.  Having been raised in the area and worked locally, she has a strong sense of community spirit.

Gertrude O’Sullivan

Ms. O’Sullivan has worked in the fields of public relations, publicity, general business administration and film and video production for all of her professional life.  She began as the Administrator of Advertising for Pepsi Cola International, where her responsibilities included serving as comptroller for all of the company’s marketing departments.  Since moving to Litchfield County in 1979, she has brought this experience to the non-profit world, helping health and human service agencies conduct projects, promote their services and produce educational and promotional videos. She takes particular pride in the fact that the results of three of her needs assessment projects focusing on seniors were used as catalysts in establishing a senior center in one community and a community center in another.  As a video producer, Ms. O’Sullivan is a Northeast Regional Emmy nominee and a recipient of a Telly and an Aurora Award (in the field of education) for the film Exposed: The Continuing Story of AIDS.  She has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including the Special Olympics, CT AIDS Bike Tour, American Cancer Society, Northwest Transit, and the Area Agency on Aging.

Nancy L. Heaton

Ms. Heaton has served as Executive Director of the Foundation for Community Health (FCH) since February, 2004.  Previously, she served as Executive Director of the Northwestern Connecticut AIDS Project, an HIV/AIDS service organization serving Litchfield County.  In 1991-1992 she worked with the Southeast Asian Family Empowerment Project in Chelsea, Massachusetts, as a community prevention specialist.  There, she developed outreach and parent education programs for Vietnamese and Cambodian families in the greater Boston area.  From 1987-1990 Ms. Heaton served as project coordinator at the Health Education and Training Center in San Jose, where she developed and implemented the first AIDS/HIV education and prevention project for the Latino community of Santa Clara County.  She also coordinated a training project for Home Health Aides and Certified Nursing Assistants.  In early 1987 she served as a health educator at the San Jose Day Nursery in San Jose while completing a graduate student internship.  From 1982-1985 Ms. Heaton worked for the International Alliance for Children, an organization based in both Connecticut and the Philippines, serving as the director of field operations in Manila.  In that capacity, she managed a home for abandoned, orphaned and neglected children with a variety of physical and emotional problems.  Ms. Heaton served as chair of the Litchfield County HIV Care Consortium and as a member of the statewide HIV Care Consortium.  She is currently a member of the American Public Health Association.  Ms. Heaton received certification in non-profit management from the University of Connecticut in 1998 and an AIDS Educator Certificate from the Connecticut Department of Public Health in1993.  She received a Masters of Public Health in Community Health Education from San Jose State University in 1988 and a BA in Government and Law from Lafayette College in 1982.

Nancy Murphy

Nancy Turletes Murphy was born and raised in Millbrook, New York. She graduated from Boston College in 1970 with a BS in Nursing and then received her Master of Science Degree in Psychiatric Nursing from the University of California in San Francisco in 1971. After several years of study, work and service in Massachusetts and upstate New York, she returned to Dutchess County in 1980 where she and her husband, Dr. Michael Murphy, a veterinarian in Pleasant Valley, raised their four children. She has a broad background in health care and has held positions as a pediatric nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital and at the Sharon Clinic; as a nursing instructor and lecturer at both the University of Massachusetts and SUNY Binghamton; and as manager of a licensed home care agency in New York State. Nancy also taught prepared childbirth classes to expectant parents at Sharon Hospital in Connecticut and in other sites in Poughkeepsie, New York for fifteen years. For the last twenty years, she has served in management and leadership positions in managed health care organizations in the Hudson Valley with expertise in case management, home health care, utilization management and most recently quality performance. Nancy is currently also serving as a Board Member of the Millbrook Arts Group. With her knowledge and background, she brings a sensitivity and high level of expertise and understanding to her work in her community as well as her contribution to the board of the Foundation for Community Health.

Kathryn E. Palmer-House

Ms. Kathryn E. Palmer-House is a published and award winning resident of Dover Plains, NY and a longtime community activist. Besides serving as a Dover Town Councilwoman, she also serves as the Chaplain of the J.H. Ketcham Hose Company, is a member of the Dover Lions Club, and a Lector at St. Charles Borromeo Church. She is a recipient of the Dr. Betsy Crane Award from the Family Development Association of New York State, and in 1999, she was awarded the title of Dover Outstanding Citizen of the Year.

As the Senior Instructor and Research Associate in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University’s Empowering Families Project with the College of Human Ecology at Ithaca, New York, her professional career includes authoring a series of handbooks and manuals about strengthening skills for family workers and leaders. Published by Family Development Press, they are entitled; Empowerment Skills for Family Workers Instructor’s Manual; Empowerment Skills for Leaders: A Leader Handbook and Empowerment Skills for Leaders: Instructor’s Manual.

Ms. Palmer-House received her Ed. D. in Adult Learning and Leadership from the Teachers College at Columbia University and her M.A. in Community and Counseling Psychology from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Richard Taber

Mr. Taber has served as pastor of the Congregational Church of Salisbury since 1981. Prior to that he served as Assistant Pastor in Wilton, Ct. Before his ordination in 1979 he taught Social Work at Southern Connecticut State University and worked as a mental health unit coordinator at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. As convener of the Northwest Clergy Association in 1982 he founded the Northwest Connecticut CROP Walk and served as its coordinator until 1995. He assisted in founding the Housatonic Youth Service Bureau and the Northwest Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, and served as a member and chairman of the Northwest Center for Family Service and Mental Health. Mr. Taber graduated from Yale University with a Masters of Divinity degree in 1979, a Masters of Social Work degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1965 and an AB in 1963 from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jeffrey J. May

After completing over 20 years in international finance, most recently as a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers International in London, England, Mr. May relocated to the tri-state region where he had previously maintained a vacation home. He continues to consult internationally for Fitch Inc. and Montpelier Asset Management while he pursues a career in education. He attended Williams College where he received a BA in Political Science and NYU Stern School of Business where he received a MS in Accounting. Mr. May lives in Lakeville with his wife and three children and is active in area school and sports activities. 

Barbara S. Maltby

Ms. Maltby is a consultant in Medical Ethics. Previously she was Project Coordinator in the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill-Cornell Medical College, focusing on projects to improve end-of-life care. She served on the Ethics Committee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital: Cornell, and currently is on the ethics committees of Sharon Hospital and VNA Northwest. In 1998 she co-founded The Good Death Initiative, a national, educational outreach initiative to improve care of the dying. She has been a Senior Fellow at The MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago and a Visiting Scholar at The Hastings Center. Previously, Ms. Maltby spent 20 years in the movie business. Her credits include: Ordinary People, A River Runs Through it, King of the Hill and The American President. She received an MA in Medical Ethics from Loyola University of Chicago and a BA from Smith College. She has been a resident of Lakeville for 34 years.

Leslie Farhangi

Leslie Farhangi, a resident of Millerton, New York since 1989, has a history of community involvement that includes being instrumental in forming the rural Coleman Station Historic District and getting it listed on the National Register of Historic Places. She has served on many community oriented boards such as Hudsonia, Ltd., an environmental group based at Bard College, the Northeast Community Center, and the Town of Northeast Planning Board. Initially, she and her husband, John Tuke, and their three sons, were weekend residents only. They became full time residents of their community in 1991 and since then, both she and her husband have been very active in local community work and service. She is currently managing their farm and operates a small boarding stable. Leslie has an LL.M. degree from Cambridge University, a JD from Stanford University, and her professional experience as a lawyer with Davis Polk & Wardwell and then as Assistant General Counsel to The News Corporation, along with her dedication and concern about the area that she and her family live in, have made her a driving force and an asset in her community.

Joan Dunlop

Ms. Dunlop is past President and now a member of the Board of Directors of the International Women’s Health Coalition. She is also a Board member of CARE in Atlanta and on the U.S. board for the Open Society Institute. She has made the United States her home since 1960 and was born and educated in England. Her work has taken her into New York City government under Mayor John Lindsay, non-profit organizations and the foundation world, including the Fund for the City of New York, The Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. In the 1970’s, Ms. Dunlop was an Associate to John D. Rockefeller 3rd, and in the early 1980’s, she was Executive Assistant to Dr. Vartan Gregorian, President of the New York Public Library. She has served on the Commonwealth Commission on Women’s Health as well as the Program Advisory Committee and the Women’s Health Initiative at the National Institute of Health. In 1995, Ms. Dunlop was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Hamilton College. She lives in Lakeville, and has been a board member of Berkshire Taconic since 2000.

Sia Arnason, MSW

Sia was born in Indonesia of Dutch parents and came to the United States in 1962 where she has remained ever since. She received her Master’s degree in Social Work from Fordham University and has dedicated her entire professional career to working in the field of gerontology. She worked first as a Social Work Coordinator at the Community Service Society in New York City, later at the New York City Department for the Aging as Assistant to the Commissioner, and from 1980 through January 2003 at the Brookdale Center on Aging of Hunter College, CUNY, where she was the Co-Director of the Institute on Law and Rights of Older Adults, an interdisciplinary advocacy program. For several years after she retired, Sia was a consultant to the Vera Institute of Justice where she helped develop a guardianship assistance program. Sia and her husband Jon have made Millerton, New York their home since her retirement in 2003.

Sia has written extensively on law and aging and the role social workers play in planning for incapacity in old age, long term care insurance, and the role of family caregivers. Sia’s areas of special interest are guardianship and ethical issues in aging. She co-edited the Legal Rights of the Elderly, published by the Practising Law Institute; co-authored an entry in the Encyclopedia of Financial Gerontology, entitled: Financial Elder Abuse; and recently co-authored A Guide to Guardianship for Lay Guardians Appointed Under Article 81 of the Mental Hygiene Law, published by the Vera Institute of Justice and available from the Office of Guardianship and Fiduciary Services, New York State Office of Court Administration.

Sia also serves on the Boards of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and the Northeast Duchess Fund.

Eileen M. Mulligan

Ms. Mulligan is the Administrator and Chief Operating Officer at Noble Horizons in Salisbury, CT and has been in this position since 1974. Noble Horizons is a not-for-profit retirement village owned and operated by Church Homes, Inc. of Hartford and offers four levels of living options for older adults ranging from independent to full nursing service. She is also Vice President of Church Homes, Inc. Prior to this she worked as Director of Public Relations at Saint Joseph’s Manor in Trumbull, CT from 1968-1974. Ms. Mulligan has been a member of the board of the Salisbury Visiting Nurse Association since 1999, most recently as its President. She also serves on the Community advisory Board of the Salisbury Bank and Trust Company, on the Salisbury Housing Committee and the Faith House Council, and was Chairman of the latter two from 1990-2000 and since 1976 has been a member of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. She received a Bachelor of Science in Health Service Administration with High Honors from Quinnipiac College in Hamden, CT in 1974.

John (Bill) W. Gallup

Dr. Gallup retired in 1992 from 30 years of private practice of pediatrics in Sharon. He was on the active medical staff at Sharon Hospital from 1962-1992 and served a term as Chief of the Medical Staff in the 1970s and again in the 1980s. Dr. Gallup served in the past on the board of the Northwest Center for Family Service and Mental Health and also on the board of the Salisbury Visiting Nurse Association. He also served a term as president of the Taconic Learning Center.  Dr. Gallup, pediatric board certified in 1963, was a fellow in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital from 1960-1962. He served as a pediatrician in the U.S. army in Japan from 1957-1960 after a year of pediatric residency at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and a year’s rotating internship at the Montreal General Hospital. He graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1955 and Cornell University in 1951.

John P. Charde

Dr. Charde is currently a healthcare consultant for healthcare companies and public health agencies. He has lived in this community since 1970 and has worked in a variety of professional medical roles in the tri-state area. In 1983, Dr. Charde co-founded a not-for-profit managed health care plan in Poughkeepsie, NY. Since then he has been in management and leadership roles in managed care in both the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. Dr. Charde has focused primarily on quality management, improving clinical care in organizations, and the improvement of care for chronic diseases. He has extensive experience and has worked locally, nationally and internationally on health care policy, financing, public health and clinical issues. From 1970-1982, he practiced pediatrics at the Sharon Clinic in Sharon and Millbrook, NY and was an active member of the Sharon Hospital staff. He became board certified in pediatrics in 1972 after completing his pediatrics internship and residency at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester in 1970. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1967 and from Georgetown University in 1963 with an AB in philosophy.

Miriam Tannen

Ms. Tannen is a retired nurse practitioner living in New York.  From 1999-2009 she served as site manager for Planned Parenthood of the Mid-Hudson Valley.  From 1994-1999 she worked at Sharon Ob/Gyn in Sharon, CT, and Eastern Dutchess Maternity Clinic in Wassaic, NY.  Ms. Tannen also worked as a registered nurse in the maternity department of Sharon Hospital from 1979-1993.  During this time, she designed and instituted numerous programs at Sharon Hospital, including sibling, grandparent and parenting classes.  She has written numerous educational brochures advising patients about parenting and health options, and she lectured at several local schools and organizations about puberty, sexuality and menopause.  Ms. Tannen serves as a member of the Dutchess County Healthy Families Advisory Board.  She received a Nurse Practitioner certificate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993, a BS in Women’s Health from Empire State College, and an Associate Degree in Applied Science from Dutchess Community College in 1976.