Highlands Current Inc., which publishes The Highlands Current and its website at highlandscurrent.org, is run by a volunteer board of directors and an advisory board.
Damon Banks has been a bassist, composer, teaching artist and producer for more than 30 years. A native of the Bronx, he has worked with George Benson, Peter Gabriel, The Neville Brothers, Bobby Womack, Chico Hamilton, Terry Riley, Andre de Shields and Angelique Kidjo, among many others. He released his debut album, Travelguides, in 2014. Damon lives in Beacon with his wife, violinist Gwen Laster.
Christine Bockelmann (co-chair) was an assistant business editor at The New York Times and worked at Newsday and The Chicago Sun-Times after starting in journalism as editor of a local newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. She joined The Current board in 2014. She is the co-author of The New York Times Century of Business, published in 1999, with her husband, Floyd Norris, a retired business columnist at The Times. They bought their home in Garrison in 2006.
Yaslyn Daniels is a digital marketing executive who lives in Cold Spring and is a former resident of Garrison and Beacon. She served on the Cold Spring Planning Board from 2021 to 2023 and for five years on the board of the nonprofit Art in General. Daniels holds a degree in journalism and new media from New York University and an MBA from Howard University.
David Duffy is a crime-fiction writer and business ghostwriter. He has published two novels, Last to Fold and In for a Ruble, and written on a range of business, finance and technology subjects. He was previously a financial public relations consultant and executive. He and his wife, also a writer, have lived in Philipstown since 2000.
William L. Felder originates and structures corporate debt financings. A West Point graduate, he has an MBA and a law degree from Emory University and founded and directs Tarjoman Relief, a nonprofit focused on the evacuation and legal immigration to the U.S. of Afghan interpreters. He lives in Garrison.
Kyle Good was senior vice president for global communications at Scholastic Corp. for 15 years after serving as director of communications for the Children’s Defense Fund. From 1979-1998, she was a producer/director at CBS News and NBC News. After 27 years as a weekender, Kyle has resided full-time in Garrison since 2017.
Nicholas Groombridge (treasurer) is a partner at Groombridge, Wu, Baughman & Stone LLP, where he focuses on intellectual property litigation matters. He is also on the board of Riverkeeper and spends some of his down time racing cars. He and his family live in Philipstown.
Todd R. Haskell (co-chair) was senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Hearst Magazines. Previously, he served as chief revenue officer for digital at Hearst Magazines, as well as the group vice president and head of digital sales at The New York Times. Todd and his wife, Angela, have lived in Beacon since 2016.
Robert K. Lanier is the public affairs officer at the Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point. He retired from the U.S. Coast Guard after 21 years of service, the majority as a public affairs specialist. He is a lifelong Beacon resident, a Marist College alumnus, a member of the Beacon Elks Club, has served on the City of Beacon Ethics Committee and Zoning Board of Appeals, is a public speaker and has been a baseball umpire for more than 30 years.
Mel Laytner (secretary) was a foreign correspondent for NBC News and United Press International and is the author of the memoir What They Didn’t Burn: Uncovering My Father’s Holocaust Secrets. He and his wife, Anat, live in Nelsonville.
Joseph T. Plummer (vice chair) and his wife, Kathy, have lived in Nelsonville for 25 years. His 40-plus years in advertising led to “encore careers” in global work for a Japanese wellness company and for a research and consulting company in Pittsburgh. He serves on numerous nonprofit and corporate boards.
Frances S. Reilly is the principal of Reilly Emerging Media. She was most recently publisher of City Limits, the oldest nonprofit investigative news agency in New York City, and formerly a media executive at Time Inc. Ventures and Scholastic. Reilly, who holds an MFA in creative writing, began her career at The Atlantic and Mother Jones. She lives in Beacon.
Scott Tillitt is a connector — of dots and people. At times — often at the same time — throughout his 30-year career he has been a strategist, publicist, marketer, social entrepreneur, nonprofit leader and writer. He moved to Beacon from Brooklyn in 2006 and in 2009 founded Beahive, a pioneering network of local members work clubs. He was also a co-founder of Re>Think Local and served on the board of BeaconArts.
Jia Jia Ye is an executive known for scaling tech-enabled health care companies including One Medical, Oscar and Springtide Child Development. She has a passion for building human-centered businesses and community and loves living in Cold Spring.
Advisory Board
Allen Alter
Ralph Arditi*
Susan Brune*
Christopher Buck*
Stacey Farley*
Irvine Flinn*
Bevis Longstreth*
Friedrike Merck
Judith Mogul
Frederick Osborn III*
John C. Plummer
Michelle Rivas*
Eben Shapiro
Zanne Stewart
*former directors
