Board of Trustees

Alexis Kashar, President

Alexis is civil rights and special education attorney. She is a graduate of the University of Texas Law School. Alexis joined the Board of Trustees in 2008 and is currently the President of the Board. She is also the Chair of the Civil Rights committee for the National Association for the Deaf. Alexis is active in her community in various civic and education organizations.

Alexis lives in Scarsdale with her husband and their 3 children.

Linda Bove, Vice President

Linda is a professional actor/ASL consultant for Theatre/TV/films and certified deaf interpreter. A founding member of the Deaf West Theatre, she lives in Phoenix, AZ with her husband, Ed Waterstreet, Founder and first Artistic Director of DWT( retired).

She has been an active board member of NYSD since 1991. Her passion is about rights for deaf children in education and for traveling/exploring the world.

Stephen F. (Steve) Weiner, Vice President

Dr. Steve Weiner retired from Gallaudet University in the summer of 2018 where he served as Provost. Steve, who is deaf, is the son of deaf parents. He attended Fanwood from 1964 to 1968. He became a NYSD Trustee in 2008. Besides being in higher education for most of his professional career, Dr. Weiner has been involved in the deaf and disability rights movement since the 1970s, promoting equal access for everyone. Steve and his wife, Dr. Tammy Weiner, a professor of Psychology, have two grown children who have flown the coop. They live in the “one traffic light,” town of Davidsonville, Maryland and although Steve has lived in different parts of the country, Brooklyn will always be his home.

Duane Halliburton, Treasurer

Duane Haliburton is a provisional financial marketing director in Maryland where he is responsible for guiding clients to achieve short-term and long- term objectives for investments, insurance, business, and estate planning. His business philosophy is to transform and sustain underprivileged communities to live a better life through financial literacy and social empowerment. He is CFO of Bingham Halliburton, LLC., a commercial and residential property management firm.

Mr. Halliburton holds an B.S. from Gallaudet University, Master of Science in Telecommunications and Computers from George Washington University and an Executive J.D. from Purdue University. His background in the technology sector spans over 20 years of innovation development and integration of network management systems for government agencies.

Tom L. Humphries, Ph.D, Secretary

Dr. Humphries is an American academic, author, and lecturer on Deaf culture and communication. Humphries is a Professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Humphries earned his Ph.D. in Cross Cultural Communication and Language Learning at Union Graduate School in 1977. Humphries is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the San Diego branch of the University of California. In addition to teaching at UCSD, he has been developing an experimental curriculum for teaching deaf children by applying bilingual teaching practices.
Humphries’ published writings encompass 43 works in 78 publications in 7 languages and 5,474 library holdings. His works are created with his wife and co-author, Carol Padden.

Reed Gershwind

Reed Gershwind has worked in higher education both as faculty and in administration. He currently serves as the Director of Budget and Finance for the Provost's Office at Gallaudet University.

Reed received his Bachelor's degree from CSUN and his Masters in Business Administration from RIT. He also holds a CMA license as a Management Accountant. When he has time away from the office, Reed volunteers with international deaf sports.

Arnold L. Mintz

Retired as President and Chief Operating Officer and Board Member of Asset Alliance and subsidiaries and has held senior management positions in operations, administration, marketing and sales.

Mr. Mintz is also Global Head of the Company’s investment placement business Hedge Harbor Inc. He serves on the Board of Directors of Federal Enforcement Homeland Security Foundation. Arnold joined NYSD’s Board of Trustees in 2003.

Denise Kavin, Ed.D.

Denise Kavin has been with the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), a college of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York for nearly twenty years. She presently serves as Assistant Dean for Outreach, Placement and Special Projects and co-principal investigator with DeafTEC: Technological Education Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students, a National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education National Center of Excellence. At NTID, she provides oversight for the Pre-College Outreach department, Co-op and Career Center, Project Fast Forward, and the Regional STEM Outreach Center (NRSC), a partnership with the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, serving the 12-state Southeastern region and nationally.

In addition, Denise is an instructional faculty member with NTID’s Department of Liberal Studies. Previous positions that Denise has held at NTID include Special Assistant to the NTID President for Strategic Decisions 2020 and Study Abroad Programming; Associate Director, Postsecondary Education Programs Network- Northeast; Senior Project Associate, Postsecondary Education Network-International; and Employment Advisor, Center on Employment. She also served for nearly ten years as Coordinator of Deaf/ hard of hearing services at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois.

Denise Kavin holds an Ed.D. in Leadership and Educational Policy Studies from Northern Illinois University, a M.S. in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University, a M.S. in Secondary education of the Deaf, from NTID/RIT, and a B.A. in Communication Arts and Psychology from Gallaudet University. She also holds certification from the Training Program on Administration of Programs serving Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Late Deafened Adults at San Diego State University.

Dr. Raja Kushalnagar

Dr. Kushalnagar is a teacher, researcher and advocate for more inclusion of deaf and hard of hearing people in daily life through advances in accessible technology, human rights and legal policy. He is the Director of the Information Technology Program at Gallaudet University. He has a J.D. from Thurgood Marshall School of Law, an LL.M. in Intellectual property and Information Law from the University of Houston Law School, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science, focused on accessible computing, from the University of Houston.

He has published over 30 papers and directed several grants related to accessible computing, human rights, disability law and intellectual property law. His findings in how people with sensory differences perceive and use devices and programs has led to design guidelines to make products more inclusive. For instance, deaf learners prefer few lines of speech-to-text (captions) in video lectures, while hearing learners prefer many lines of speech-to-text (transcript) next to the video lecture. He also advocates for updates in accessibility and intellectual property law to keep up with accessible computing advances, e.g., who owns captions obtained from automatic speech recognition.

Senator Suzi Oppenheimer

Senator Suzi Oppenheimer retired from the NYS Senate in 2013 after serving for 28 years, part of the time as Chair of the Senate Committee on Education. Prior to that she was Mayor of Mamaroneck for 8 years. Today Suzi serves on many philanthropic Boards committed to education policy, the environment and women/family issues.
She graduated with a BS from Connecticut College and an MBA from Columbia University. Suzi and her husband Martin have 4 children and 8 grandchildren. 16 members of their family are deaf. Suzi has been a NYSD trustee since 2013.

Sherri Turpin

Sherri a technology veteran, Turpin brings her leadership background and over 25+ years of experience in the telecommunications industry, specializing in Business Strategy & Development, Sales, Marketing, Operations and Customer Experience. Most recently, Turpin served as Channel Chief for EarthLink. Other former positions include Executive in Residence for Kinderhook Industries and for over a decade with XO Communications in varying management roles.

Turpin has been awarded various honors for her leadership and innovation.