Board of Trustees
Brett West
Chair, Board of Trustees
Brett is the great grandson of James E. West, the founder and first Chief Scout Executive of The Boy Scouts of America. Brett is the son of James E. West, the founder of TV Data, Inc. a company that provides television listings to newspapers and Internet companies in North America. In 1988, Brett (at the age of 23) co-founded Press Quote International, located in Glens Falls, NY. Press Quote invented technology to provide fully customized financial market listings to the newspaper industry. In 1990, Brett sold the business to the Tribune Company in Chicago and stayed on for 3 years to lead the effort. By 1992, the stock listing business became the "preferred" supplier of stock listings in the industry including such newspaper giants as The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, NY Newsday, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and The Chicago Tribune. West then left Tribune to consult for the Associated Press in 1992. West was charged with the task of rebuilding AP Stock to reclaim their quickly losing market share. In this effort, West brought to AP the now very popular AP Grand Central Stocks, AP Fax, and AP MacStocks. These three advancements turned the market well to the favor of AP. In 1995 West founded CinemaSource (now known as West World Media) which is the nations largest supplier of movie information to the Internet and other media. Customers of West World Media include 100's of media companies including giants like Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, and newspaper giants including Gannett, The New York Times and The Washington Post. West holds US Patent #5,550,575 which was awarded Aug. 27, 1996 titled "Viewer Discretion Television Program Control System", known generically as the "V-Chip". West also founded and remains a shareholder in engage121.com which is a business providing tools for corporate marketing departments. West holds a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Lawrence University. He and his wife, Pamela, live in Ridgefield, CT with there three children Tucker, Tatum and Gracie. Tucker was a member of Team USA as a luge athlete in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Chair, Board of Trustees
Brett is the great grandson of James E. West, the founder and first Chief Scout Executive of The Boy Scouts of America. Brett is the son of James E. West, the founder of TV Data, Inc. a company that provides television listings to newspapers and Internet companies in North America. In 1988, Brett (at the age of 23) co-founded Press Quote International, located in Glens Falls, NY. Press Quote invented technology to provide fully customized financial market listings to the newspaper industry. In 1990, Brett sold the business to the Tribune Company in Chicago and stayed on for 3 years to lead the effort. By 1992, the stock listing business became the "preferred" supplier of stock listings in the industry including such newspaper giants as The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, NY Newsday, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and The Chicago Tribune. West then left Tribune to consult for the Associated Press in 1992. West was charged with the task of rebuilding AP Stock to reclaim their quickly losing market share. In this effort, West brought to AP the now very popular AP Grand Central Stocks, AP Fax, and AP MacStocks. These three advancements turned the market well to the favor of AP. In 1995 West founded CinemaSource (now known as West World Media) which is the nations largest supplier of movie information to the Internet and other media. Customers of West World Media include 100's of media companies including giants like Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, and newspaper giants including Gannett, The New York Times and The Washington Post. West holds US Patent #5,550,575 which was awarded Aug. 27, 1996 titled "Viewer Discretion Television Program Control System", known generically as the "V-Chip". West also founded and remains a shareholder in engage121.com which is a business providing tools for corporate marketing departments. West holds a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Lawrence University. He and his wife, Pamela, live in Ridgefield, CT with there three children Tucker, Tatum and Gracie. Tucker was a member of Team USA as a luge athlete in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Don Simkin
Trustee
Dr. Don Simkin is a graduate of Syracuse University with a major in English and of NYU College of Dentistry. After managing his own private practice in Livingston Manor for over three decades, he is recently retired from forty years of active practice after associating with Great Expressions Dental Centers in Liberty, New York. He is a lifetime member of the American Dental Association as well as a member of both the Academy of General Dentistry and the International Academy of Dento-Facial Esthetics. Dr. Simkin had served as the director of Dentistry at Catskill Regional Medical Center for over a decade and has assisted as a Dental Consultant for the United States Luge Association. His many community endeavors include Board Member and three times past-President of the Livingston Manor Rotary Club, past President of the Sullivan County Health Advisory Council, founding member and past-President of the Livingston Manor Community Center and has served on the Board of Directors of the Sullivan County Red Cross and United Way. Dr. Simkin is an avid traveler and Olympic enthusiast. He has attended all Olympic Games since 1980 and was honored as a community hero, carrying the Olympic flame in the 1996 Olympic Torch Relay. Don lives in Youngsville, NY.
Naj Wikoff
Trustee
Naj Wikoff is a founding member of the Institute of Arts & Health at Lesley University as well as an Adjunct Professor, President Emeritus of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare (Arts in Health Alliance); Founder of Creative Healing Connections, past Director of the Healing and the Arts Project at the C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth Medical School, a member of the steering committee for the National Initiative for Arts in Health in the Military, a member of the Community Advisory Committee for Homeward Bound Adirondacks, and has twice served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the East Siberian Academy of Culture, Ulan Ude, Russia. Wikoff has developed and led healing, resiliency and reintegration retreats for active duty and veterans women in the military, men in the military, military spouses, military families, and retreats for Canadian and US first responders. As a founding member of the steering committee for the National Initiative for Arts in Health in the Military, Wikoff has helped organize two national summits, Arts & Healing for Warriors/Arts, Health & Well-being across the Military Continuum, held at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, recruited presenters, and led panels; served on the organizing committee for the National Roundtable on Arts in Health in the Military held at the Kennedy Center; and served as an editor of the white paper Arts, Health & Well-being across the Military Continuum. For the past 6 years Wikoff, as the arts coordinator of Connecting Youth and Community, has developed arts initiatives for reducing the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs by teens. As a member of Arts & Health at Lesley University, Wyckoff has lead workshops on arts and health in Israel, and lead and arts and healing session for Israeli and Palestinian first responders to war and terror. Wikoff has given grand rounds presentations to hospital medical and administrative staff on four continents, established arts programming in medical schools and medical centers, trained artists on how to work in clinical and community settings, organized arts collections, developed arts and health strategic and funding plans for medical systems, medical hospitals and community/cultural institutions, taught arts administration and helped develop partnerships between government, healthcare, education and the arts. Naj Wikoff is the author of the Americans for the Arts monographs The Arts in Times of Trauma and Arts in Medicine: Linking Culture to Care, and the Medscape article Taking Care Starts in Medical School, amongst many others. He has lectured widely on issues ranging from arts & spirituality and ethics to marketing, fundraising and creative leadership, and serves as a consultant for arts and healthcare strategic planning, development, artist training and administration. Wikoff is an Ambassador, Distinguished Fellow and Janice Palmer Award winner of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare, a sculptor, storyteller, and celebration artist, a frequent lecturer at Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, and been inducted into the Lake Placid Hall of Fame.