On March 19, 2025, the NYG&B’s Board of Trustees held its annual meeting to nominate and select its Officers.
The Board of Trustees unanimously elected Adrienne P. Auerbach to succeed William C. Hallett as Chair. Dr. Hallett has been a member of the NYG&B Board of Trustees since 2014, serving as its Chair from March 2021 to March 2025 and previously as its Treasurer. He is the President and CEO of Guardian Consulting Services, Inc., and his company currently provides consultant pharmacist services to facilities and programs throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, including long-term care facilities, assisted living facilities, group homes, dialysis centers and health clinics.
The new Chair, Adrienne P. Auerbach, has been a Trustee since 2019, previously serving as its Vice Chair from March 2024 to March 2025. Ms. Auerbach has also chaired the NYG&B’s Development Committee from 2018 to present. She has been a member of the Junior League of Summit, N.J., where she worked on state public affairs; Design Chair of the Mansion in May Designer Showhouse in N.J.; and served in various positions, including Trustee, at Far Hills Country Day School. More recently, she has served as Volunteer Chair and on the Authors Committee for the Morristown (NJ) Festival of Books; as Recording Secretary of the Garden Club of Somerset Hills; and on the Green Team for her town. She believes deeply in the NYG&B’s efforts to preserve, digitize, and protect access to important records that will help us all to tell our New York stories.
“We are honored to have Ms. Auerbach as the next Chair of the NYG&B and equally delighted that Dr. Hallett will remain a member of the NYG&B Board of Trustees, and we thank him for his excellent stewardship of the NYG&B during his tenure as Chair,” said D. Joshua Taylor, NYG&B President and CEO.
The following Officers were also unanimously elected by the Board of Trustees: Anne Sibert Buiter (elected as Vice Chair), Sharon W. Vaino (re-elected as Secretary), and Lorraine D. Bell (re-elected as Treasurer).
“Chair Auerbach and our other Officers bring a vast body of knowledge and expertise to the family history field, and their vision and commitment to the NYG&B will be invaluable in advancing our organization’s mission,” said Mr. Taylor.
We also welcomed two new members of the Board of Trustees, David W. Dangremond and Laura Dean Ramsay, in March 2025.
David W. Dangremond is a distinguished art historian and musician. A graduate of Amherst College and holder of graduate degrees from the Winterthur Program of the University of Delaware and from Yale University, Mr. Dangremond is a retired professor of art history at Trinity College. He has served as an officer, director, or trustee of several museums and other organizations serving the arts, including the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the Connecticut Historical Society, the Hill-Stead Museum, and the H.F. Dupont Winterthur Museum. He has served as a consultant to other organizations, notably Mount Vernon and the Preservation Society of Newport. An accomplished musician, he has performed on the organ and harpsichord in several states. Mr. Dangremond has a strong interest in genealogy and is active in several genealogical societies, including the Society of the Cincinnati and the Society of Colonial Wars.
Laura Dean Ramsay is a distinguished genealogist and researcher. A graduate of Birmingham-Southern College, she has for many years been active in historical and genealogical organizations in Alabama. In addition, she recently completed a multiyear stint as national Registrar for The Colonial Dames of America, where she oversaw Registrars in the organization’s state societies and bore ultimate responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of prospective members’ lineage papers. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Ms. Ramsay is a member of many genealogical societies and serves or has served as an officer of a number of them, including The National Society of Americans of Royal Descent, the Order of the Crown in America, the Order of Descendants of Colonial Governors, and the Order of the First Families of Virginia.
In other transitions, Board of Trustees members Bruce Addison and Kathleen Hill Tesluk have stepped down. “We thank Mr. Addison for his 11 years of service on the NYG&B Board of Trustees and Ms. Tesluk for her 12 years of service, including as Vice Chair from March 2016 through March 2024. Their many years of dedication to the NYG&B have been instrumental to our growth and success, and we sincerely appreciate their contributions and support,” said Mr. Taylor