Board of Directors

John Cody, Board President

John worked for the New York State Department of Labor for most of his career, including overseeing the office which administered state-wide employee benefits for the agency. John has always been actively involved in his local community — Hudson, NY — serving as President of the Hudson Common Council, Board member of the Friends of Olana, Chair of the Hudson Vision Plan Taskforce of the Waterfront Committee and consultant to many other civic and environmental organizations. He was awarded the first-ever Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award in 1985.

Susan Troy, Board Vice President

Susan has been working in politics for most of her adult life, either directly or on the edges, as an operative, a lobbyist, a communications point person, a strategist, and a GOTV architect, which in plain English, means that she knocked on too many doors to count, and made too many Election Day phone calls to count. She has also worked in the political space of the Charter School world, and developed and managed low income housing, Senior Housing, Workforce Housing, and emergency housing.

Charles J. Murphy, Treasurer

Charlie is a retired journalist/communications specialist and public school teacher who served the School Life News team as an Instructor from 2021 to 2023 before joining the Board of Directors.  During his communications career, Charlie worked in county government as Public Information Specialist and Public Relations Specialist, also serving as Research Assistant for a college president. He was also a freelance writer/editor for 25 years. As an educator, he taught at the middle school and high school levels in both public and private schools. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in History and a Master’s Degree in Public Communications. He also has his New York State Teaching Certification in Secondary Social Studies.

Anne MacPherson, Marketing

Anne Macpherson has spent over 50 years honing her marketing and PR skills. Early in her career she founded York Company in New York City. Her firm won numerous awards. Her client list read like a who's who in the menswear industry. Other clients included General Mills fashion divisions, Playboy magazine, YSL fragrances and Balenciaga. She was an outside contractor for Combe Inc. There she created the Odor Eaters International Rotten Sneaker Contest which received media coverage across the country. Ms. Macpherson also launched Just For Men hair color. After retirement she created the largest Pan-Celtic festival in the northeast. Celebration of Celts drew over 25,000 people each year. She is a Master Gardener, loves animals and making holiday decor.

ellen henderson, Community Relations

Ellen is a great-grandmother, long-time Hudson resident, public school aide and co-founder of the local advocacy group, Parents in Partnership. She has strong experience with community parent outreach.

JANET KEALY

Janet is an attorney practicing law in upstate New York, earning her JD from Albany Law School of Union University. Law is a second career for Janet, who began law school when her son was in the fourth grade (at HCSD), with many evenings spent reading torts while her son read Harry Potter. Previously, Janet was an award-winning film and video production professional in New York, with a BFA in filmmaking from New York City’s School of Visual Arts. She has worked as a development professional for The Friends of Olana (n/k/a The Olana Partnership) and The Culinary Institute of America, and has served on the boards of Albany Law School, Historic Hudson and Friends of the Hudson Area Library.

Peter Meyer, Founder, Secretary, Ex Officio

Peter is a former News Editor of Life magazine and the author of numerous nonfiction books, including the critically acclaimed The Yale Murder and Death of Innocence. Over the course of his five-decade journalism career Peter, who holds a masters degree in history from the University of Chicago, has touched down in cities around the globe, from Bennington to Baghdad, and has written hundreds of stories, on subjects as varied as anti-terrorist training for American ambassadors to the history of the 1040 income tax form. His work has appeared in such publications as Harper's, Vanity Fair, National Geographic, New York, Life, Time and People magazines, picking up journalism awards from the University of Missouri and Robert Kennedy Foundation along the way. Since 1991 Peter has focused his attention on education reform in the United States, an interest joined while writing a profile of education theorist E.D. Hirsch for Life, has been an editor at Education Next, the nation's premier education policy journal, was a founding program manager for the CUNY Institute for Education Policy in New York City and has written on education for Education Week, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute, and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. In Hudson NY, where he lives, he and his wife, Janet Kealy, have sired a son through HCSD, from first grade to graduation. Peter also helped found a local charter school, served on the HCSD Board of Education (before he created School Life Media and after Superintendent Suttmeier invited SLM to join HCSD’s literacy improvement efforts), and helped start and run an organization, with Ellen Henderson, a fellow board member, an organization called Parents in Partnership, which worked to help keep students in school – also before SLM was created.

Emerita

Michael Saltz
Kathryn “Kitty” Mackey
Gary Sheffer
Karen Smith
Janet Marsh Ebel