About NYMB
Standing from left: Susan Vierczhalek, Boriana Parvez, Katie Kelter
Seated from left: Roseanne Motti, Julie Bouchet-Horwitz
Our Mission
The New York Milk Bank is dedicated to improving the health and survival of infants in need by providing them with safely pasteurized donor human milk when their mothers’ own milk is unavailable or insufficient. We are dedicated to ensuring the safety and quality of donor milk and to reducing health disparities in the use and distribution of donor milk.
Our Vision
Our vision is that all women are supported in their breastfeeding and lactation goals and that all babies have access to safely pasteurized and affordable donor milk in situations where their mothers can't or won't breastfeed. We support families and their babies throughout the life cycle by educating and supporting families on the benefits of human milk.
Our History
The New York Milk Bank opened in 2016 after two years of hard work by five dedicated women who worked behind the scenes fundraising and gathering support. We opened at Andrus on Hudson a Senior Care Facility in Hastings and quickly outgrew our space. In 2018 we moved to a larger facility in Valhalla where we can triple our production of donor milk. Now that donor milk is a covered benefit through Medicaid for inpatients, we are working hard to ensure coverage for outpatients on a case-by-case basis.
Our Staff
Linda Harelick
Executive Director
Linda lives with her husband in White Plains, NY and enjoys travels to California to visit their two grown sons. When not working or traveling, she enjoys training for triathlons and road racing. She loves spending time in the outdoors, especially hiking the Hudson Valley trails and visiting our national parks.
Roseanne Motti
Director of Community Relations
Roseanne is a founding member and former treasurer of NYMB. She came off the board in May of 2016 to run the daily operations of NYMB. She currently works with milk donors, milk depots, and oversees our volunteer and intern onboarding and community relationships. When not working at NYMB, Roseanne enjoys hiking, baking, reading, writing, and spending time with her four grandchildren.
Genna Steinschneider
Director of Operations
Genna works with our recipient families and our hospital accounts getting donor milk to our state's littlest patients. Outside of NYMB, she loves the outside, cooking, and live music.
Susan Ciocci
Sr. Donor Coordinator
Susan lives with her husband and 3 children in Connecticut. She enjoys being active outdoors (running, biking), photography, yoga, and live music. And chocolate.
Blair Kaplan
Accounts and Insurance Specialist
Blair lives in Upstate New York with her husband, six-year-old daughter, and their two dogs. She works remotely for NYMB and in her free time, she likes to go for runs or bike rides with her family.
Nikkia Green
Communications Coordinator
Wilca Capellan
Sr. Lab Supervisor
Becca DeAngelis
Executive Assistant
They spend their free time reading, eating, rigging, and teaching aerial arts.
Lizbeth Guijosa
Sr. Lab Technician
Candice Rock
Donor Coordinator
Joselin Guijosa
Order Fulfillment
Meet Our Board
Julie Bouchet-Horwitz, FNP-BC, IBCLC
Chair
Julie Bouchet-Horwitz is the founder, former Executive Director, and the current Tissue Bank Director of The New York Milk Bank. She is a board-certified nurse practitioner and lactation consultant. She is the owner and sole proprietor of Hudson Valley Breastfeeding, a practice devoted exclusively to lactation. Julie has written articles on breastfeeding for Mothering Magazine, and the peer-review journals of Clinical Lactation, and ICAN: Infant Children and Adolescent Nutrition. She is past-president of the Westchester Putnam Rockland Lactation Consortium, the tri-county professional lactation organization. Her interest in milk banking began with the adoption of her youngest daughter who received donor milk as a supplement. Julie is also a clinical instructor with Columbia University School of Nursing and a mentor to lactation consultant candidates.
Teresa Marziano
Vice Chair
Teresa is a partner with Americas Capital Advisors Corp., a real estate investment and development company focused on Westchester ‘s residential markets. She is also an investment sales specialist with Houlihan Lawrence Commercial Group of Rye Brook, NY. Prior to her direct real estate investment and advisory roles, she was an investment analyst and portfolio manager with Alliance Bernstein LP (AB), leading global investment decisions across several basic resource industries and in real estate. Her real estate investment roles included developing and managing AB’s Global Real Estate equity securities investment product. Ms. Marziano has held management positions in Corporate Finance and Treasury in the US and abroad. She holds a Finance MBA from Columbia University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Simon Bolivar (Caracas, Venezuela).
Tim Reilly
Vice Chair
Tim is a senior talent leader and HR professional who began his career in Chicago as the Talent Acquisition Manager at Empire Today. He continued to work at other great organizations such as MedSpeed and currently at Members Cooperative Credit Union. He brings a deep expertise and understanding in talent engagement, management, performance, culture change, HR transformation, and strategic HR initiatives. Tim lives in Richfield, Minnesota with his wife, 3 kids, and their 6lb Maltese, Ginger. He graduated from Cornell University (Go Big Red!) and is currently pursuing his MBA at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. Tim was born and raised in Ithaca, NY and is thrilled to be a part of an organization that helps the lives of so many infants and families in the great state of New York.
Scott Eisenberg
Secretary
Scott Eisenberg is an experienced attorney working in the New York area, currently serving as the Chief Legal Officer for DirectBooks LLC, a communications platform focusing on optimizing the primary corporate bond issuance process. Prior to joining DirectBooks in January 2021, Scott spent five years as the General Counsel of Symphony Communications, a web-based secure messaging platform, and five years at inter-dealer broker ICAP. He began his career at the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, after which he started his own company before moving to ICAP. Having two young children of his own, Scott is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to an organization that recognizes the critical importance of proper infant nutrition.
Karen Anne Smith
Treasurer
Karen Anne Smith started her career in banking with the Federal Home Loan Bank in San Francisco. After a break to pursue her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and achieve the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst, Karen moved to Financial Technology, first as a consultant and Product Manager for Fintech startups, to being the CEO of her own company. Karen then moved on to leadership roles in small to mid-sized financial institutions, most recently as the CFO at Jovia Financial Credit Union in Westbury, NY. Karen has served on multiple non-profit boards, primarily focusing on the empowerment of women and children.
Susan Vierczhalek, MD., FAAP, FABM, IBCLC
Medical Director
Susan is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine and is the medical director of the Bellevue newborn nursery, and of the Bellevue Breastfeeding Program and co-director of the high-risk newborn follow-up program. She serves as the American Academy of Pediatrics New York Chapter 3 Breastfeeding Coordinator, Vice-chair of the New York City Breastfeeding Leadership Council.
Nicole Elz
Director
Nicole is a Chief Operations Officer at Virtual Assist USA. She is a highly systematic and detail-oriented executive with the initiative to lead a team, specializing in operations, expansion, and initiatives. Nicole's passion is assisting business owners in achieving success by equipping them with the skill sets and enduring operation processes necessary to maintain a flourishing, dynamic business. Nicole's educational background has provided for a highly diverse and well-rounded education with a strong emphasis on science and mathematics. Nicole is very appreciative of the opportunity to contribute to an organization that assists infants and their families. Nicole anticipates bringing continued awareness and education regarding the life-saving properties of human milk. Nicole resides with her husband, two daughters, and two Boston terriers on Long Island.
Thomas Gaipa
Director
Thomas is Director of Operations at the PepsiCo Global Beverage R&D Center in Valhalla, NY, responsible for operations, maintenance and construction for the site. Thomas started with PepsiCo in 1988 at the Somers corporate HQ as a Facilities Manager, including supporting the PepsiCo Customer Service Center and corporate data center in Winston-Salem NC. Thomas graduated with a BS in Resource Development from the University of Rhode Island . He lives in Connecticut with his wife Wendy, and has three children and three grandchildren.
Linda Harelick MBA, DrPH
Director
Linda’s interest in social impact stems from her early work as a registered dietitian seeing first-hand how environmental, cultural, and societal factors influence one's ability to reach their full potential. With an ambition to transition to management, she pursued an MBA from Columbia Business School. This led to a career at Kraft Foods overseeing strategic planning and marketing for Maxwell House Coffee and Post Cereal and ultimately leading Global Consumer Services. With a desire to return to the work of health promotion, she received a doctorate in public health from New York Medical College, and became Director of Operations and Communications at ChildObesity180 at Tufts University. Here she combined her management expertise with public health knowledge to accelerate the transformation of a start-up nonprofit to a leading organization in childhood obesity prevention. Continuing her focus on improving health outcomes of children and families, she moved to Harlem Children’s Zone, where she was charged with replicating the successful Healthy Harlem program in other communities throughout the country. As executive director of The New York Milk Bank, Linda is excited for the opportunity to lead the organization and continue the important mission of providing safely pasteurized donor human milk to infants.
Katharine Kelter, MD, MPH, FAAP, IBCLC
Director
Katie is a general pediatrician and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. She attended the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and completed her residency training in pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx. Since 2007 she has worked at the Comprehensive Family Care Center of Montefiore Medical Group, a community based health center in the Bronx. After receiving her IBCLC certification in 2011, she started a breastfeeding program where she provides in depth consultations to mothers and infants with breastfeeding difficulties, runs a breastfeeding group clinic, and provides breastfeeding education and support to faculty, residents and staff.
Michael Kelter
Director
Michael is a Senior Managing Director at First Manhattan, an asset management firm founded in 1964. Prior to joining First Manhattan, Michael spent six years in Goldman Sachs’ Global Investment Research division. Previously, Michael held operating roles within the consumer product industry, primarily at Reckitt Benckiser. Michael has an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Richmond. He lives in New York with his wife and three children.
©Matt Greenslade/photo-nyc.com
Thomas McCarthy
Director
Tom is a CEO of a NY State certified SDVOB and MBE IT services company and a New Jersey-based mechanical engineering company. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, he held leadership roles in the manufacturing, telecom, and technology sectors with specializations in large-scale innovative change, formidable technology projects. His most notable success is bringing Wi-Fi and cellular coverage to the New York subway underground system. Tom is a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology’s Executive master’s in technology management program and a veteran of the United States Air Force. After living in 7 countries and 19 states, Tom has settled down for the time being in New Jersey with his fiancé and daughter.
Boriana Parvez, MD, FAAP, FRCPC, IBCLC
Director
Boriana is a Neonatologist at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, WMC, in the Regional Perinatal Center (RPC), one of the 17 designated by NYSDOH RPCs. She cares for some of the smallest and sickest preterm and full term infants in the state. She trained in Bulgaria, Canada and the U.S. and has practiced as Neonatologist for over 20 years in Canada and the U.S. She has a long standing interest in preterm infants’ nutrition and prevention of hospital acquired infection. She has been funded to develop a NICU based preterm donor milk program at her hospital. She is the Director of Development with The New York Milk Bank.
Kara Venus
Director
Kara Venus is a small business owner and author who lives in New England. She owns Stella’s Way Marketing, a full service small business consulting firm born from her 13 years of corporate marketing experience. She specializes in helping small businesses launch and scale.
She also published her first children’s book, dedicated to her one year old daughter and two rescue dogs, named Harper and her Dogs.
She volunteers with Literacy Volunteers and the CT Humane society. Her recent experience becoming a new mom inspired her to join to board for The New York Milk Bank.
Susan Walker
Director
Susan is the owner of Walker Bookstore, which provides new and used textbooks to k-12 schools across the country. She and her husband built the company up from a side business out of their garage to a thriving business that is now the sole income for their family. Before that, Susan worked mostly with disadvantaged youth who were in the judicial system, among the urban poor, or in foster care in wilderness therapy, camping, and group home settings. One of her passions is education and the health and wellness of children, which is what led her to the New York Milk Bank. She lives in Chandler, Arizona with her husband and 4 children, along with 3 dogs, 25 chickens, 2 turkeys, and 3 horses.
Susan Vierczhalek, MD, FAAP, IBCLC
Chair
Medical Director, The New York Milk Bank, Inc.
Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Samantha Alessi, MSN, RNC-NIC, CLC, AACNS-N
Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital
NYU Langone Health
Julie Bouchet-Horwitz, MSN, FNP-BC, IBCLC
Tissue Bank Director, The New York Milk Bank, Inc.
Hudson Valley Family Health
Katie Golden Kelter, MD, IBCLC
Attending Pediatrician
Montefiore Medical Group, Comprehensive Family Care Center
Karen Hylton-McGuire, PhD, RNC-NIC, IBCLC
Lactation Educator
NYU Winthrop Hospital
Courtney Juliano, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Newborn Medicine
Sarah Milburn, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Newborn Medicine
Boriana Parvez, MD, FAAP, FRCPC, IBCLC
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Associate Director of the Neonatal Perinatal Fellowship Program
New York Medical College
Christine Scheinman, RNC-NIC, IBCLC
NICU Lactation Consultant
New York-Presbyterian Hospital
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