Celebrity Salons
Join the Conversation
as the Westchester Community College Foundation Celebrity Salon Series celebrates its 25th Anniversary season with leading professionals from the world of media, publishing, architecture, history, and politics.
Salon noun
a gathering of people by a
generous host, to connect
and inspire guests with
conversation, food,
and drink.
View or Download the Invitation here
The Westchester Community College Foundation was established to meet College and student needs that are not met by public funds. In its 50-year history, the Foundation has awarded almost $25 million in scholarships to over 18,500 students. 100% of funds raised from the Series will benefit Westchester Community College Foundation’s Scholarship and Program Fund.
Registration
To register online, click here or complete the reply card and mail to the address below:
Celebrity Salon
Hartford Hall
75 Grasslands Road
Valhalla, NY 10595
Phone: 914-606–6558
Fax: 914-606-6515
See photo galleries from recent events
Lisa Freil
Maureen Sherry
Katonah Museum of Art
Anna Quindlen
Womens Self Defense
Kate Coyne
Arlene Alda
William Helmreich
Out of My Head
Justin Hefter
Sam Sifton
Kenneth Weinstein
Bill Sherman & Chris Jackson
Peter Blauner
Series Details
Events take place in private homes throughout Westchester County. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Lisa Friel
THURSDAY • APRIL 4 • 7:00 PM
HOST: Amy Koch-Oman and David Oman’s colorful and art-filled home is perched above picturesque Bronxville. A long flight of stairs must be climbed to enter this home.
Lisa Friel, special counsel for investigations at the NFL, once led the sex crime prosecution unit in the Manhattan DA’s office. She will discuss how domestic violence, child abuse and sexual misconduct became a private-sector issue and how the handling of these matters has evolved, especially in today’s #metoo era.
Lisa M. Friel – Special Counsel for Investigations at the National Football League
Lisa joined the NFL in April 2015 as Special Counsel for Investigations, following her role as Vice President of the Sexual Misconduct Consulting & Investigations division for T&M Protection Resources and a distinguished 28-year career as a Manhattan prosecutor. She oversees investigations related to alleged violations of the League’s Personal Conduct Policy. As such, she works closely with NFL Security, Management Council and the Special Counsel for Conduct, as well as the owners' Conduct Committee. In addition, she assists in the development and delivery of educational sessions regarding domestic violence, sexual assault and other conduct-related areas to both internal and external audiences and in this role, works closely with NFL Social Responsibility, Player Engagement and Football Operations departments. Prior to coming to the League full-time, Ms. Friel served seven months as Special Advisor to Commissioner Goodell on these issues.
At T&M Protection Resources, Ms. Friel and her team developed policies and procedures, provided training workshops and conducted sensitive investigations into issues of sexual misconduct (both sexual assault and sexual harassment), domestic/dating violence, harassment, hazing and bullying for primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, athletic teams and leagues, non-profit organizations, corporations and private individuals.
Ms. Friel began her professional career at the New York County District Attorney’s Office. Hired by District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau in 1983, Ms. Friel specialized in sexual assault cases for the majority of her career at the District Attorney’s Office. She was the Chief of the Sex Crimes Unit for nearly a decade and it’s Deputy Chief for 11 years. Since her first days as a prosecutor in 1983 and continuing in her tenure at T&M Protection Resources and now the NFL, Ms. Friel has directed thousands of investigations into allegations of sexual assault and harassment, domestic/dating violence and other misconduct and has trained hundreds of law enforcement personnel and lawyers throughout the world. Lawmakers in Albany and Washington repeatedly called upon her expertise to toughen laws against sexual predators, combat human trafficking, create DNA databanks and establish laws and protocols to eliminate the backlog of untested rape kits on the shelves of police departments’ evidence rooms around the country. She has served on a number of city, state and national taskforces, including most recently, ones examining how sexual assault is handled in the U.S. military justice system and on the campuses of the nation’s private K-12 schools.
An instructor, educator, lecturer, and former Division 1 varsity basketball and tennis player and basketball coach, Ms. Friel has connected with diverse audiences ranging from seasoned detectives to school children, doctors to volunteer sexual assault advocates, CEOs to line employees, as well as athletes and athletic personnel at all levels. She has headlined legal, sports and education conferences, has provided training to all types of audiences and has participated in numerous interviews and films addressing sexual assault, harassment, stalking and domestic violence. Ms. Friel earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Dartmouth College, graduating cum laude. At the University of Virginia Law School, she finished in the top seven percent of her class and was awarded the Order of the Coif upon receiving her Juris Doctor. She is also the mother of three adult children.
Maureen Sherry
MONDAY • APRIL 8 • 7:00 PM
HOST: Marianne and David Chao’s 1920s-era Edgemont home was once owned by Meredith Wood, the late president of the Book of the Month Club.
After years on Wall Street, Maureen Sherry—once the youngest managing director at Bear Stearns—wrote Opening Belle, a novel based on her experience. Sherry, who has shared her perspective on CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” “Fox at Five,” CNN and in The NewYork Times, Fortune and Money, will let us know why she is bullish about women in finance.
Katonah Museum of Art
FRIDAY • MAY 3 • 6:30 PM
HOST: Yvonne Pollack’s Marcel Breuer–designed home will serve as the perfect coda to viewing the Edward Larrabee Barnes–architected KMA.
Join Executive Director Michael Gitlitz and curator Michele Wijegoonaratna for a private tour of “LandEscape: New Visions ofthe Landscape from the Early 20th and 21st Centuries,” at the Katonah Museum of Art. Works by American modernists including; Marsden Hartley, John Marin and Marguerite Zorach featured at the ground-breaking 1913 Armory Show will be contrasted with pieces by contemporary artists including Judy Pfaff and Lois Dodd.
Anna Quindlen
SUNDAY • MAY 5 • 11:30 AM
HOST: It seems fitting that Joanne Landau and Fred Schwalb’s Croton on Hudson home, once J.J. Newberry’s hunting lodge, where his family gathered every summer, would be where Anna Quindlen will tell us about becoming a grandmother.
Anna Quindlen, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and New York Times best-selling novelist has just published her tenth novel, Nanaville. Her singular voice has never been sharper or warmer. With the sensitivities and wordcraft she brought to motherhood in Living Out Loud and to growing older in Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, Quindlen now illuminates the special joy of grandparenting. Quindlen will tell New York Times writer Sarah Lyall about the new joys —and challenges —that come along with being Nana. Sarah will also ask Anna to talk about the state of the world, writing, and what constitutes a meaningful life.
Women’s Self Defense with Tommy Calandrucci
WEDNESDAY • MAY 8 • 12:00 PM
HOST: Marianne and David Chao’s large and light-filled gym in their Edgemont home will give participants room to learn some crucial moves.
Tommy Calandrucci is a boxing and self-defense instructor with a second-degree black belt in Kyokushin karate and extensive training in Krav Maga. Calandrucci offers a class on the importance of self-awareness in everyday situations as well as how to stave off an attacker. Bring your daughters (13 and up), granddaughters or nieces! Please wearathletic shoes and attire.
Kate Coyne
SATURDAY • MAY 11 • 4:00 PM
HOST: Charles Lewis Tiffany once lived in Dawn Fitzpatrick and John Esposito’s home in Irvington, which boasts a 180-degree view of the Hudson River.
Kate Coyne is the executive editor of People, where she oversees television, film and music coverage, as well as the annual Sexiest Man Alive blockbuster issue. Coyne—who worked at The New York Post’s “Page Six” and is the author of I’m Your Biggest Fan, an unfiltered look at life alongside the rich and famous—will share some of her countless surprising (often awkward) interactions.
Arlene Alda
TUESDAY • MAY 14 • 7:00 PM
HOST: Edythe Gladstein is delighted to honor the Bronx in her gracious 1916 Scarsdale Tudor home.
Musician, photographer and writer Arlene Alda began her career as a professional clarinetist. When her children were young, she became an award-winning photographer; now, she is the author of 19 books. Just Kids from the Bronx is a collection of stories featuring recollections of Bronx-born artists, athletes, scientists and entrepreneurs including Al Pacino, Mary Higgins Clark, Carl Reiner, Colin Powell, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bobby Bonilla.
To learn more about Arlene, visit Arlene’s website
William Helmreich
WEDNESDAY • MAY 15 • 6:30 PM
HOST: Kate and Seymour Weingarten’s NYC apartment building was featured in the iconic movie Ghostbusters and has breathtaking views of Central Park.
William Helmreich has traversed every block of New York City to write the award-winning book The New York Nobody Knows. For his subsequent 2018 walking guide, The Manhattan Nobody Knows, he re-traced most of his many steps—walking more than 9,000 miles to date. Helmreich has shared the magic of what he learned along the way with “Oprah,” “NBC Nightline,” CNN, The New Yorker and The New York Times.
Out of My Head – Movie screening and discussion
WEDNESDAY • MAY 22 • 6:30 PM
HOST: Wendy and Howard Berk’s media room in their well-appointed Scarsdale colonial will be a great place to catch this flick.
Share the journey of a mother and daughter as they discover the truth about living with chronic migraine. Writer/director Susanna Styron’s credits include Sidney Lumet’s TV series “100 Centre Street” and the web series “All Downhill From Here,” starring Brooke Adams. Styron’s partner on Out of My Head, Jacki Ochs, is a documentary producer/director who executive-produced Keith Beauchamp’s Emmy-nominated “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till.” Dr. Richard B. Lipton, the co-director of the Montefiore Headache Center, will join the filmmakers to answer questions about this complex and often misunderstood disorder afflicting nearly a billion people worldwide.
Justin Hefter
THURSDAY • MAY 23 • 7:00 PM
HOST: Diane and Marc Greenwald’s warm yet elegant Scarsdale Tudor, built in the late 1920s, provides the perfect setting to hear Justin Hefter’s astounding and life-affirming story.
In March 2015, Justin Hefter, along with three strangers, helped interfaith activist Mohammed Al Samawi escape from war-torn Yemen. Samawi’s book about the rescue, The Fox Hunt: A Refugee’s Memoir of Coming to America, is being made into a movie by La La Land producer Marc Platt . At the time, Hefter was the CEO of Bandura, a company he created to encourage intercultural cooperation. Most recently, Hefter helped launch the African Middle Eastern Leadership Project as he continues to seek to advance human rights around the world.
Click here to read the Chicago Tribune article about Justin
Sam Sifton
WEDNESDAY • MAY 29 • 7:00 PM
HOST: Suzanne and Andy Yearley’s meticulously updated 1929 Scarsdale colonial has a sumptuous double kitchen where Suzanne teaches her consistently sold-out “What’s for Dinner” classes.
Sam Sifton is food editor for The New York Times, founding editor of the NYT Cooking food app, and a columnist for its magazine. He has also served as the paper’s national editor, restaurant critic and culture editor. His upcoming book, See you on Sunday! A Cookbook for Family and Friends, emphasizes the joys of breaking bread with those who matter most.
Click here to read the Westchester Magazine article about your host’s home
Kenneth R. Weinstein
SUNDAY • JUNE 2 • 4:00 PM
HOST: Join Denise and Camillo Santomero III in their stunning Georgian Mott Schmidt Bedford home and gardens fully restored to their 1926 design.
Kenneth Weinstein is president and CEO of the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank dedicated to U.S. leadership and national security. A political theorist by training, Weinstein is the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the oversight board for the Voice of America, and serves on the U.S. Trade Representative’s policy advisory board. Weinstein will share his take on what he calls Trump’s “disruptive” style of governing.
Bill Sherman & Matt Vogel
MONDAY • JUNE 10 • 7:00 PM
HOST: As you step inside their English-style pub, Carla and Brian Eccleston’s 1911 Pelham Manor home will transport you across the pond.
Bill Sherman is the music director for “Sesame Street” and an Emmy, Tony and Grammy award-winning composer, producer, arranger and orchestrator. He is currently working on the film adaptation of In theHeights with Lin Manuel Miranda (2020). Emmy award-winning actor and director Matt Vogel is the puppeteer for Kermit, the Count, and Big Bird. He has been a “Sesame Street” muppet performer since 1996 and a core Disney muppet performer since 2008.
Bill Sherman:
- https://www.popmusicmisery.com
- https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Bill_Sherman
- https://freestylelovesupreme.com/
- Check out this video of Bill on the Today Show from March 3
Matt Vogel:
Peter Blauner
THURSDAY • JUNE 13 • 7:00 PM
HOST: Greg and Kathiryn Werlinich’s contemporary Rye Brook living room provides a safe place to talk about scary crime novels.
Peter Blauner is the author of eight novels, including New York Times bestseller The Intruder and 2018 L.A. Times bestseller Sunrise Highway. His short fiction has been anthologized in Best American Mystery Stories and on NPR’s “Selected Shorts.” Blauner was also staff writer and co-executive producer for several television shows, including “Law & Order: SVU” and “Blue Bloods.” He will discuss his approach to writing for TV versus writing novels.
The 2019 Celebrity Salon series is supported by:
Please contact Sue Mackey in the Foundation office at 914-606-6558 if you would like your name added to the mailing list or if you have questions.
Additional Support
