School Board Candidates

My sons, Jake & Savi, are proud alums of Hastings High School, each having gone through the system from K-12.  Graduates of Georgetown University & Boston College respectively,  Jake also has an EdD from Columbia University and works as an organizational consultant, with a focus on leadership and Savi is a middle school Assistant Principal at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, and has an EdD from Vanderbilt University.

My husband, Steve Tuber, is a clinical psychologist and a professor at/director of the City College Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program.  

Our family is devoted to the world of education and learning!

In addition, Jake and his wife, Jessie MacLeod, live in Hastings with their 2 daughters, Charlotte who is in kindergarten at Hillside and Isabel who attends Little Leaf Preschool.  Savi and his wife, Jackie Heinz, are expecting a daughter any day now!

For 35+ years, I worked at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education/CUNY School of Medicine, a 7 year BS/MD program, serving first as the Director of Counseling, and then as the Associate Dean for Student Affairs – which among other things included oversight of admissions, student life, wellness & counseling, and a variety of other administrative responsibilities.

Prior to that, I consulted to Headstart in Newark, NJ working with teachers and parents, and with adolescents and families at the Community Counseling Center in Mamaroneck.

As a clinical psychologist, I have also been in private practice for 40 years and volunteer as a supervisor at the CCNY Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program.

During the time that my children were in school, I was very active in the PTSA, eventually serving for many years as a co-President.  I volunteered on the BLT (Building Leadership Team) at Hillside, FMS and HHS.  I have previously served as a member of the HOH Safety Council and the Parks and Recreation Commission.  

I was first elected to serve on the school board when my youngest son was a senior in high school and continued as a member of the board for 13 years. After COVID, I took a break from 2021-24. Upon retiring from Sophie Davis/CUNY School of Medicine, I decided to run again, and I have been on the board for the past 3 years. During all of those years, I served on a variety of Board of Ed committees, search committees and was Vice President of the BOE several times.

And last, but surely not least, along with my husband Steve, and through the Recreation Department, we created the Hastings Rec Basketball Program which we ran for 21 years. 

When I ran for the board last time, I knew that what mattered to me was serving our community.  And I know what a privilege it is to serve on the Board of Education.  I am invested in our schools being a place where every student feels that they belong and can learn, so that when they leave here, whether on to college or any other route they choose, they are prepared to enter the world.

My husband, Michael Khorsandi, and I have lived in Hastings for over 12 years. We moved here in 2013 when our daughter was three years old and I was seven months pregnant with our son, who was born that December. Both of our children have grown up in the Hastings school system. Our daughter attended Rivertowns Preschool before starting at Hillside Elementary and is now a sophomore at Hastings High School. Our son attended Little Leaf and Rivertowns Preschool before starting at Hillside and is currently a sixth grader at Farragut Middle School. We also share our home with our two rescue dogs, Finn, who came to us from Tennessee, and Kira, who came to us from Sochi, Russia.

I am an attorney with over 20 years of experience in complex litigation, family law, and elder and special needs law. I began my legal career clerking for the Honorable Russell A. Anderson of the Minnesota Supreme Court, and then worked in the litigation department at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, focusing on securities class action litigation. In 2003, I joined Phillips Nizer LLP, where I have built a practice focused primarily on matrimonial and elder/special needs law and serve as the Chair of the Firm's Guardianship Practice. My work often involves advocating for individuals and families navigating complex systems, including those seeking appropriate services and protections for vulnerable family members. I have been recognized as a New York Metro Super Lawyer in Elder Law for 2023, 2024, and 2025, and have published articles, taught continuing legal education classes, advised on proposed legisation and court reforms, and provided commentary for local and national media outlets on the issue of adult guardianships and conservatorships. As an experienced litigator, I have honed my skills in legislative and policy drafting, identifying relevant issues, gathering and analyzing evidence, oral and written advocacy, mediation, negotiation, and conflict resolution, both in and out of court, and advising clients through complex and high conflict litigation. I have also provided pro bono representation in matters including special education advocacy, international family law disputes, and domestic violence-related litigation.

Community service and civic engagement have been life-long values, from spending summers volunteering at my local hospital and serving on various organization and community boards focused on supporting youth during high school to providing pro bono representation as an attorney. I continued my community service shortly after moving to Hastings, when I began volunteering with Family-to-Family and the Hastings Food Pantry. In 2015, I started coordinating community-wide donation efforts to help ensure the Pantry remained consistently stocked. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand increased and supply chains were disrupted, I expanded this effort by sourcing and coordinating deliveries of food and essential supplies, including fresh produce, to meet the community’s needs. I continued this work until 2023, when management of the Pantry transitioned to the Hastings Youth Council. I was also a founding member of what started as the Hastings-on-Hudson Diversity and Inclusion Group, which later became Hastings RISE. In that role, I participated in community advocacy efforts, including engagement around the selection of a new Superintendent and organizing responses to bias-related incidents in the community. In addition to my activities in Hastings, I am active professionally in statewide efforts related to elder and special needs law. I am a former member of the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association’s Elder Law and Special Needs Section, former Co-Chair of both the Elder Abuse Committee and the Guardianship Committee, and currently serve on the New York State Office of Court Administration’s Guardianship Advisory Committee.