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NYPIRG 30th Anniversary
Saturday, November 8, 2003 • Bridgewaters, South Street Seaport, New York
Honoring:
Donald K Ross
Peter Bluhm
Mark Dunlea
Dave Fields
Jay Hershenson
Mark Litwak
Donald K. Ross has spent 35 years working on public policy issues. After graduating from Fordham College, he spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching in a rural village in Nigeria. He then attended NYU Law School and in 1970 went to work for Ralph Nader in Washington, DC. Donald spent three years traveling throughout the country organizing Public Interest Research Groups. In 1973, he moved to New York as NYPIRG’s founding director. During his tenure, NYPIRG became the first student PIRG to launch a canvass, create non-student affiliates, and establish a large scale nonprofit fuel buying service. Ross played a lead role in the May 6, 1979 March on Washington following the Three Mile Island meltdown and as coordinator for the September 23rd NO NUKES Rally at Battery Park City. After leaving NYPIRG, he spent 14 years as the Director of the Rockefeller Family Fund, and helped conceive, launch and fund several public interest organizations, including the Environmental Support Center, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and the Environmental Grantmakers Association. Currently, he is a partner in the lobbying law firm of Malkin & Ross; the CEO of M&R Strategic Services, a government affairs firm headquartered in Washington, DC; and a philanthropic advisor to several foundations and individual donors. His pro bono activities include service on the boards of directors for the League of Conservation Voters, the National Environmental Trust and Greenpeace USA. He lives in New York City with his wife Helen and his daughters Margaret and Katherine.
As a student at Albany Law School, Peter Bluhm was integral in facilitating NYPIRG’s incorporation. Today, Peter is a lawyer and public administrator who has worked for Vermont state government for more than two decades. He had served as the assistant attorney general for the Vermont Department of Mental Health, general counsel to the Vermont State Board of Education, and deputy secretary of the Vermont Agency of Administration. Currently, Peter is director of regulatory policy at the Vermont Public Service Board. He serves as a hearing officer and directs the board's legislative program. Peter is also a staff member of both the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service and the Federal-State Joint Board on Separations. He heads the federal legislation staff subgroup of the telecommunications committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Peter plays viola in an amateur string quartet.
Mark Dunlea was instrumental to NYPIRG’s inception as a student at RPI and Albany Law School. He served on the initial executive committee for the first four years. Mark continues to be a community organizer and long-term peace and economic justice advocate. He served as executive director of Hunger Action Network from 1985 to 2000. He is a former head organizer for ACORN; researcher for the Environmental Planning Lobby; and national field director of the Campaign for Safe Energy. Mark is also co-founder of national PIRG; the New York State Green Party; Capital District Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild; Social Justice Center/Peace Offerings, and the Green Education and Legal Fund Inc. He is a former Town Board member in Poestenkill, where he lives with his wife and son in a passive solar house they built as part of Common Farms. He is a co-founder of the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center and hosts a public affairs radio show on WRPI.
As a Queens College student, Dave Fields chaired the first NYPIRG State Board of Directors meeting where the original NYPIRG bylaws were drafted. Dave has served as special counsel to the Chancellor of CUNY to four Chancellors over the past twenty-two years. While serving as special counsel, Dave also served as associate dean of the CUNY School of Law, assisting four Law School deans. Prior to his appointment he was special assistant to three successive Queens College presidents and was staff chief for the President's Advisory Commission for the establishment of the CUNY Law School at Queens College. Dave also served as executive director and general counsel of the QC Student Union. Dave has served in numerous public service and public interest roles, including higher education specialist to the Governor's Temporary Commission on the Future of Post Secondary Education in NY; staff coordinator for the governance committee of the Governor's Task Force on Higher Education; and staff coordinator for the NYC Council President's Task Force on Adult Education.
While attending Queens College, Jay Hershenson promoted the formation of a statewide organization out of the early PIRG chapters in New York. Today, Jay is secretary of the Board of Trustees and vice chancellor for university relations of CUNY. His public service has included appointment by former President Jimmy Carter to the National Advisory Committee on Education; appointment by former Governor Hugh L. Carey as one of five Commissioners on the Temporary State Commission on the Future of Post Secondary Education and the Task Force on State Aid to Education; and appointments by Senator Kenneth P. LaValle and former Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink to the State Consumer Advisory Committee and as Chair of the NY State Standardized Testing Advisory Board. Jay received the 2003 Presidential Medal for his work on behalf of Medgar Evers College. Jay is also the creator of the Emmy nominated television series, “Study with the Best,” and with Bob Isaacson has developed CUNY-TV into an award-winning station.
As student government president of
Queens College, Mark Litwak was critical to instituting
the CUNY funding structure that NYPIRG employs to this day. After attending
law school and working for NYPIRG, Mark went on to become an entertainment
attorney. With offices in Beverly Hills, California, his practice focuses
on protecting and being an advocate for independent filmmakers, including
work in the areas of copyright, trademark, contract, multimedia law, intellectual
property, and book publishing. Mark has authored six books including:
Dealmaking in the Film and Television Industry (winner of the 1995 Krazna-Kranz
Moving Image Book Award) and his latest, Risky Business, Financing and
Distributing Independent Film. He has been on the faculty at U.C.L.A.
for 15 years; instructed lawyers at presentations organized by the American,
California and Texas bar associations; lectured at Harvard, the American
Film Institute, Columbia University, N.Y.U. and U.S.C.; and presented
seminars in England, Australia, South Africa and Canada. Mark also wrote,
co-produced and directed the feature length award-winning documentary,
Ralph Nader: Up Close.