Margaretville Hospital, a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth), is dedicated to providing the most advanced healthcare in a safe, compassionate environment to the communities and patients it serves. The Board of Directors is the governing body for both Margaretville Hospital and Mountainside Residential Care Center. The Board of Directors has overall responsibility for clinical quality and safety, charitable activities and community-service mission and purposes, as set forth in the articles of incorporation and bylaws.
Emilie Adams, Chair
Emilie Adams came to the Catskills looking for some nature for her children. Having lived in NYC for a long time her and her husband wanted their kids to experience the outdoors in a way that the city couldn’t offer. They started to look for homes in the Catskills and eventually chose to join the community in New Kingston.
Emilie has an extensive background in art and fashion. Her art education began as an assistant in a busy Soho gallery. Over the years she worked her way up the ladder learning each role that made that gallery successful, ultimately becoming a gallery director and running a very successful art business. In her 20-plus-year career Emilie has traveled and lived all over the world. While she has always enjoyed being surrounded by art and fashion, her soul also craved being additive to her community in a more hands-on way.
Coming from a native American background where great medical care is no guarantee, Emilie understands the importance of equitable access to quality healthcare providers. Emilie trained and became a birth doula and a certified lactation counselor. In these roles she helps families navigate their options in birth and advocate for their own care. She also helps educate families on feeding their newest family members. Her biggest joy is being able to witness not only the birth of babies, but of whole families where the families walk away feeling empowered and supported as they enter a new chapter of their lives.
Emilie comes to the board of the Margaretville hospital feeling honored to have been invited to the role. Her hope is to help the local community advocate for and access the kind of quality care they deserve and to support the staff of our hospital to have all the resources they need to be able to provide it.
In her free time Emilie enjoys spending time with her family, painting, gardening, baking, tending to her chickens and ducks and sharing a laugh and a coffee with her friends.
John Riedl, Secretary
Mike Cioffi
Steve Finch
James G. Howie
James G. Howie, AIA, LEED AP, has been a board member since 2014 and serves on Margaretville Hospital’s Quality Council and Facilities Committee. He is a registered architect in New York.
Howie has been a professor at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture since 1986 and served on the New York City Department of Buildings’ World Trade Center Task Force in 2002-2003. He was director of the New York Society of Architects from 1994-2009. In addition, Howie is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the New York Council of Architects, where he was a past president.
A resident of New Kingston, Howie started his career as chief of quality control at the New York State Urban Development Corp. before becoming principal architect in the Office of P.I. Nwamu. He was founder and partner in Howie, Freireich & Gardner, Architects, PC; associate principal of Perkins Eastman Architects, PC; and director of operations at Solow Real Estate. From 2009 to 2015, he was project manager at Composite Technologies, LLC.
Howie earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture at the University of Detroit.
Connie Jeffers
Connie Jeffers of Margaretville loves the Great Western Catskills, having lived high in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains for much of her life.
She considers Margaretville Hospital and Mountainside Residential Care Center vital community resources.
A board member since 2020, the retired elementary school teacher and principal taught in and led schools in San Bernardino, Calif., for more than 30 years andsubstitute-taughthere in Margaretville and in neighboring districts for four years. She was twice honored with an Outstanding Teacher Award by Johns Hopkins University.
A passionate woman who moved to Margaretville in 2008 with her husband, Tom, to escape wildfires, earthquakes and traffic jams, Jeffers dived right into local community support. Besides serving on the Margaretville Hospital and Mountainside board, she is president of the Fairview Public Library and a member of the Catskill Women’s Network, Margaretville Zoning Board of Appeals and Middletown Historical Society.
Jeffers earned a Master of Arts degree in educational administration from California State University, San Bernardino, after earning a Bachelor of Science in language arts from California State Polytechnic College (now California State Polytechnic University), Pomona, about 30 miles west of San Bernardino.
She and Tom own a shinybrown-over-gray1930 Model A Ford with an orange pinstripe and spoked wheel rims.
Fred Margulies
Fred Margulies, a board member since 2007, spent time in the region since 1997 before becoming a Margaretville resident in 2004. He serves as secretary for the board and on the Quality Review Committee and Nominating Committee.
Margulies has been a media professional for over 35 years. He has worked on documentaries and was a feature film story editor and a broadcast television producer for WNET, PBS and ABC.
In 1978, Margulies was recruited to build, staff and manage the in-house media department at American Express, where he produced more than 75 videos and slide presentations. In 1983, he formed Toucan Productions, a film and video company specializing in marketing, sales, employee communications, training, investor relations and corporate identity. The company has produced more than 400 films, videos, trade-show presentations and videoconferences for Fortune 500 companies and others. He also has taught video and film at the New School.
Margulies earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Hofstra University and a master’s degree in film and television from Brooklyn College.
Colleen Martin
Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN
Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, of the hamlet of Denver, is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing who cares deeply about promoting individual and community health.
Besides serving on the Margaretville Hospital and Mountainside Residential Care Center board of directors since 2020, she locally hosts “HealthCetera in the Catskills” on community radio station WIOX and co-chairs the Catskills Addiction Coalition.
She also holds leadership and advisory positions with health organizations across the country, focusing on improving health communication and health policy education.
Among her other positions, Mason is the Senior Policy Service Professor for the George Washington University School of Nursing’s Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement in Washington and professor emerita at Hunter College in New York City.
She is additionally the program director of the International Council of Nurses’ Global Nursing Leadership Institute in Geneva; a past president of the American Academy of Nursing; the lead editor of the text Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care, now in its eighth edition; a policy blogger for the American Medical Association’s online JAMA Health Forum, and a former editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Nursing.
She earned her PhD in nursing from New York University. This followed earning a Master of Science in nursing from St. Louis University and a Bachelor of Science in nursing from West Virginia University. She holds honorary doctorates from Long Island University and West Virginia University.
A self-described “foodie” who loves to cook and can, she lives with her husband, James Ware, a jazz musician and composer, and their dog, Ricky, adopted from the Heart of the Catskills Humane Society in Delhi. Daily walks with Ricky in the beautiful Catskill Mountains are among her favorite things to do.
Diane Munro
Diane Munro is a proud graduate of Margaretville Central School and Skidmore College. After pursuing graduate degrees in counseling and school administration, she worked as a teacher, counselor, and school administrator; retiring in 2016 after 40 years, with the last 11 years as a school superintendent in Western NY and Orange County.
Diane and her husband Bill returned to his family homestead in Roxbury where they enjoy the rich outdoor recreation opportunities for which the Catskills are famous. Whenever possible those pursuits include their six grandchildren spending most winter day at Belleayre Mountain skiing.
Diane is a self-described professional volunteer who currently serves as the President of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council of Delaware County (ADAC), a member of the Catskill Water Discovery Center and the Second Vice Chair of the Olympic Regional Development Authority Board (ORDA) that provides oversight of all New York states Olympic facilities and the three state owned ski centers. She currently serves as a member of both the Roxbury and Delaware County Planning Boards. She has done consulting in the Roxbury Schools, with SUNY Delhi and the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce.
Diane was born in the original Margaretville Hospital and remembers serving in the first group of Candy-Stripers when the current Margaretville Memorial Hospital opened. She is concerned about the future of quality rural health care, and hopeful that efforts on the Hospital Board will strengthen preventive and wellness focused services.
Dave Rama
Dave Rama has operated The Cattle Exchange of Delhi for over 35 years. The Cattle Exchange has assisted Dairy Producers and Breeders across the U.S., marketing dairy cattle with great success via public auctions. Their mission statement is simple: provide the highest quality service at the most affordable price to their clients to yield them the highest net return on their assets! The Cattle Exchange is involved in dairy herd sales, dairy consignment sales, farm real estate, and private treaty cattle sales of herds, heifers, calves, etc. Dave enjoys this career with his wife Merry.
Arnie Schwartz
Arnie Schwartz, a resident of Denver, N.Y., had a 47-year career in education and worked in radio before retiring. He joined the Wellness Committee in 2014 and has served the community in a variety of roles that include the Community Service Board of Delaware County, The Community Pantry in Arkville, WIOX Radio, the Open Eye Theater and the Roxbury Arts Group Board of Directors.
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in industrial arts at Trenton State College in New Jersey, Schwartz earned a master’s degree in school counseling from Newark State College and later embarked on post-graduate studies at Montclair State University. He started his teaching career at Edison (NJ) High School, spent six years as a shop teacher and school counselor in Japan, and later was a school counselor in Montclair, N.J.; Chatham, N.J.; and Andes, NY. He also was a teaching assistant at Jacob’s Ladder Neurological Development Center in Atlanta.