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2024 Capital Region Annual Awards

Please join us for an evening of cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and music with fellow civil libertarians. No matter what happens on Election Day, this year has proven that the NYCLU and ACLU's work to defend civil liberties in New York and across the country is more vital now than ever.

Honorees

 

Carol S. Knox Award
Saratoga Black Lives Matter
Ned Pattison Award
Gabriella Romero
Peter Henner Award
Tracy Frisch


Music By Kyle Esposito
Catering By 2Shea
Cash Bar


Sponsors:

Friends ($200)
  • Prisoners’ Legal Services of NY
  • In Our Own Voices
  • Citizen Action
  • Pride Center of the Capital Region
Honorary Committee ($100)

Sarah W. Birn; Dominick Calsolaro; John Cirrin; Lauren Conway; Felmon Davis; Maud & David Easter; Tom Ellis: Joanne Esposito; M. Sherry Gold; David Hochfelder; Valerie Jones; Mike Keenan; Frank W. Lang; Connie LaPorta; Al Lawrence; Mable Leon; Katherine Levitan; Martha & Leo Levy; Mary Lynch & Rudy Stegemoeller; Chel Miller; Mark Mishler; Joanna Palladino; Leslie Phelan; Steve Pierce & Branda Miller; Ken Ritzenberg; William Shapiro; Anita Thayer; Congressman Paul Tonko; Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood; Paul Wing; Mark D. Witecki


About The Carol S. Knox Award

The Capital Region Chapter has established this award to honor the memory of our friend Carol S. Knox. A long-time social activist and staunch civil libertarian, Carol had a deep commitment to constitutional liberties. She grew up in a family of civil libertarians in North Carolina. Carol and her husband, Lee Wasserman, met as volunteer attorneys at the NYCLU. For decades, Carol, along with Lee, was a friend and generous supporter of our chapter.

She spent several years in the Attorney General’s Office under Robert Abrams, working in the Legislative Bureau, the Environmental Protection Bureau, and the Litigation Bureau. Earlier, Carol was an associate at Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna.

Carol was a remarkable woman, loved and respected by all who knew her for her sunny warmth, unfailing good humor and kindness, her wisdom, intelligence, strength, uncommon persistence and integrity. The Carol S. Knox Award is given each year to recipients whose work reflects Carol’s spirit and commitment to civil liberties.

Past Recipients:

  • 2023 Jamella Andeson
  • 2022 Albany High School Girl’s Track Team
  • 2021 Noreen McKee
  • 2019 Willie White
  • 2018 Aliya Saeed
  • 2017 Joe Paparone
  • 2016 Jonathan Gradess
  • 2015 Kathy Manley, Esq.
  • 2014 Ira McKinley & Bhawain Suchak
  • 2013 Blue Carreker
  • 2012 Media Alliance, Steve Pierce
  • 2011 Prisoner Justice Network – Naomi Jaffe, Shoshana Brown, Victorio Reyes
  • 2010 Mark Mishler, Esq. and Stephen Downs, Esq.
  • 2009 Carl Strock
  • 2008 Dr. Alan Chartock
  • 2007 May Saffar and Catherine Callan
  • 2006 Alice P. Green, Ph.D.
  • 2005 William Schurtman, Esq.
  • 2004 Scott Christianson, Ph.D.
  • 2002 Kathryn M. Kase
  • 2001 Lois Uttley

About The Ned Pattison Award

The Ned Pattison Award celebrates the life and values of Edward W. “Ned” Pattison, whose work as a public servant and private citizen showed his concern for the poor and the powerless. Ned Pattison is remembered as a man who stuck to his principles—even when doing so jeopardized his personal ambitions. His life sets an example for those in public service whom we seek to salute with the Ned Pattison Award.

As the Representative of the 29th Congressional District (Saratoga, Rensselaer, Warren, and Washington counties) from 1974 to 1978, Mr. Pattison was a consistent voice in opposition to the Vietnam War, and in support of civil rights, civil liberties, and the environment. After leaving Washington, D.C., he returned to the Pattison law firm in Troy and taught at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Throughout his career, he provided pro bono legal services to the poor and was actively involved in numerous community organizations including Unity House of Troy and the Rensselaer County Association for Retarded Children.

Past Recipients:

  • 2023 Albany Community Police Review Board
  • 2022 Michele Ostrelich
  • 2021 The Hon. Richard Conti
  • 2019 NYS Assembly Member Lentol
  • 2018 NYS Assembly Member Nick Perry
  • 2017 Barbara Bartoletti
  • 2016 NYS Senator John DeFrancisco
  • 2015 Assembly Member Pat Fahy
  • 2014 Laurence T. Spring, Superintendent, Schenectady City School District
  • 2013 Albany Police Chief Steven Krokoff & Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple
  • 2012 Congressman Paul Tonko
  • 2011 NYS Senator Thomas K. Duane & NYS Assemblyman Daniel J. O’Donnell
  • 2010 Dominick Calsolaro
  • 2009 Robert Freeman, Esq.
  • 2008 The Hon. Barbara Smith
  • 2007 Michael Whiteman, Esq.
  • 2006 P. David Soares. Esq.
  • 2005 Vera “Mike” Michelson
  • 2004 Congressman Bernie Sanders
  • 2002 Hon. Jeffrion L. Aubry
  • 2001 Hon. Neil D. Breslin
  • 2000 Hon. H. Carl McCall
  • 1999 Barbara Bartoletti
  • 1998 Hon. Richard N. Gottfried
  • 1997 Peter B. Edelman
  • 1995 Karen S. Burstein

About The Peter Henner Award

Peter Henner was a decades-long friend of the NYCLU Capital Region Chapter who served on our board and legal committee. He never forgot that the highest purpose of the law is to protect human rights, civil rights, and the environment from the greedy and the powerful.

A newspaper reporter once quoted Peter as saying, “I’ve always been tilting at windmills,” but that might suggest that his efforts were in vain, which was decidedly not the case. Peter’s strategic mind, ferocious energy and rugged persistence made a lasting difference in the many legal challenges he undertook, such as opposing Albany County redistricting that would have short-changed minority communities, representing Save the

Pine Bush when the reserve was threatened by landfill expansion, and undertaking the case against fracking in Otsego County.

Peter’s book, Human Rights and the Alien Tort Statute: Law, History and Analysis, is recognized as a standard work in the field. He was a committed environmental advocate, runner, hiker and chess player at a very high level.

Past Recipients:

  • 2023 Bruce C. Roter, Ph.D.
  • 2022 Heather Goodall, Organizer
  • 2021 Ruth Foster
  • 2019 Michael Hickey
  • 2018 Bill Bastuk
  • 2017 Blair Horner

NYCLU Capital Region Council Members
  • Chel Miller, President
  • Kathy Manley, Vice President
  • Mark Witecki, Treasurer
  • Mo Whitcomb, Secretary

Eirik Bjorkman; Dominick Calsolaro; John Cirrin; Tom Ellis; David Hochfelder; Darryl Johnson; Valerie Jones; C. Mark Lawton; Joanna Palladino; Don Rittner ; Merton Simpson; Jasmine Vanterpool; Matthew Waite

NYCLU Capital Region Advisory Council
  • Amanda Avery
  • Sarah Birn, Esq.
  • Stephen Gottlieb
  • Richard F. Hamm, Ph.D.
  • Terence Kindlon, Esq.
  • Linda Mussmann
  • Anne Pope
  • Fardin Sanai
  • William S. Shapiro, Esq
  • Barbara Weiner

Learn more about the NYCLU Capital Region Office

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