Meet Our Board Members

Jennifer Ratner, M.D. is a pediatrician practicing part-time in Manhattan. She also is an avid art-lover and gives art tours throughout Manhattan. For the past few years, she has spent much of her time as a community advocate, giving voice to the needs of the East River’s forgotten, but beautiful Esplanade. Jennifer has lived near, jogged through, biked down, and relaxed on the Esplanade for the past 40 years. She is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Timothy O’Connor, Ph.D., was appointed executive vice president of The Rockefeller University in February 2016. In this role, he oversees most university operations, including research support, technology transfer, facilities, and information technology, as well as finance, investments, human resources, and legal affairs. Working in partnership with the other executive officers, he provides administrative leadership to the university and represents the president both internally and externally. He originally joined the university in 2013 as chief of staff and vice president.

Dr. O’Connor’s career has focused on both biomedical research and academic administration. Most recently, he served as associate provost for science and technology at Yale University; prior to that, he was associate research professor and vice chair in the Department of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He currently serves on the boards of the New York Structural Biology Center, the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, New York BIO and Accelerator Corporation, a biotechnology investment and management company.

Conrad Axelrod is an experienced investment management attorney and a partner at King & Spalding, where his practice includes representation of impact investment funds and other pro bono / ESG initiatives. He is a strong supporter of The Rockefeller University community and a Business Council member of the American Australian Association. The East River Esplanade has been a focal point for Conrad’s outdoor and cultural pursuits since moving to New York City in 2013. His work with Friends of the East River Esplanade provides an opportunity to enhance local community values and promote civic engagement, with the goal of making the East River Esplanade a vibrant centerpiece of East Harlem and the Upper East Side.

Sarah Woodside Gallagher is a veteran of the entertainment industry having worked in commercials, documentaries, television series and feature films. She was also the founder of the research firm Sherlock (sold to FindSVP) and crafts-oriented Deep River (sold to the Horchow Collection and co-founded Upper Green Side, the environmental non-profit organization active on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Nominated for several awards for her work in television, she attended the Fox Lane School and Smith College.

Tori Gilbert has been teaching Science and Foreign Languages for over 26 years, most of those at Saint David’s School. She founded East River CREW in 1999 with a small group of concerned citizens so that everyone could enjoy access onto the water at E. 96th street, healthy rowing and learning about the estuary in our backyard with the snappy traditional 25 foot Whitehall Gig her students built in 1997. Since then, she has become more involved in East River esplanade concerns and joined the board of the Friends of the East River Esplanade to continue her mission to connect the public to its role in preserving the health of its environment.

Michael Rawlings is the Senior Vice President of Facilities, Construction and Support Services at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS). HSS is the world’s leading academic medical center specialized in orthopedics, rheumatology, and related disciplines.

Mr. Rawlings brings over 20 years of experience in healthcare and university research leadership and facilities management to HSS. Most recently, he was Chief Operating Officer at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. In that role, he was responsible for managing facility and support services, ancillary services, and behavioral health administration. Mr. Rawlings has led disaster management and emergency relief efforts after 9/11, Hurricane Sandy and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jayne is a Senior Operating Executive specializing in M & A with a Human Resources focus at Cerberus Operations & Advisory Company, LLC, an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, LP. She and her husband have lived within a block of the Esplanade for over 35 years and been involved in both their building and block associations. As an avid runner and sailor, she is passionate about the revitalization and reinvention of the East Side waterfront.

She was previously a Vice President of Human Resources at Bloomingdale’s and a Principal in a small consulting firm, East End Consulting Partners. She holds a degree in Journalism and Economics from Hofstra University.

Founder of COFFEED

Andrea Bland has 24 years of healthcare experience. She got her first job as a medical secretary, while obtaining a Criminal Justice degree in Government, Law, Policy and Society from John Jay, then went on to spearheading a grass roots outreach initiative for underserved communities at the Mount Sinai Health system. In 2016, Andrea joined the New York – Presbyterian (NYP) family as an outreach liaison for the Center for Liver Disease in Transplantation.

Having a passion for activism and advocacy, her dedication was quickly recognized, and Andrea was promoted to outreach liaison for all organ transplantation which included Liver, Pancreas, Lung, Heart and Kidney. This role expansion provided her with opportunities to work with the Washington Heights, The Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens communities to promote NYP organ donation and transplant as well as promoting living donor for the Liver and Kidney programs. Andrea’s most recent NYP role has been on the highly recognized Cardiothoracic team which includes Heart Failure and Cardiovascular Disease across all NYP regions. Currently, Andrea is the manager for Government and Community Affairs for Weill Cornell and NYP Queens, which she believes is her best role to date.

Julianne Bertagna is the President of Treadwell Farm Historic District Association, the first Upper East Side landmarked district. For the past 15 years she has been a community activist helping to protect, preserve and beautify landmarked districts. She is also passionate about enhancing the quality of life in NYC, including improving public recreational spaces. She is an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys playing tennis, running, hiking and biking. She was previously a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank. She is a graduate of Colgate University.

As a lifelong resident of East Harlem, Diane Collier has been a tireless advocate in improving the quality of life for her community since being appointed to Manhattan Community board 11 Eleven - East Harlem in 2007. From 2009-2015, Diane was voted in as Board Vice Chair, and served as Chair of Economic Development. Diane took an active and assertive role in neighborhood economic empowerment – in particular holding East Harlem developers accountable to their local hiring, MWBE and training commitments. In 2015, Diane was elected to Board Chair of CB11 leading the board through high profile projects including removal of the monument to Dr. J. Marion Sims, whose fame as the father of modern gynecology came at the expense of enslaved black women on whom he operated without anesthesia or informed consent. Since 2017, Diane continues her quality of life advocacy as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Uptown Grand Central whose primary mission is to revitalize the East 125th corridor through grassroots advocacy and collaboration with other neighboring organizations. Diane is pleased to bring her knowledge and resources to help EsplanadeFriends achieve their East Side and East Harlem waterfront goals.