Greater Ossining TV - Advisory Board

Advisory Board

Greater Ossining Television Advisory Board is made up of local business, community and political leaders who live in, work, or represent the Town and Village of Ossining. The role of the Advisory Board is to act as a springboard for ideas and recommendations for keeping our public access station alive, as it faces extreme financial difficulties in the near future. Click here to meet the members of the GO-TV Advisory Board.

Meet the GO-TV Advisory Board

Dr. Gorden Anderson	Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Ossining.
Sandy Galef	New York State Assemblywoman representing Ossining.
Estelle Dashman	Long-time Ossining resident and wife of the late Frank Dashman, GO-TV founder.
Lisa LaRocca	Television Reporter with News 12 Westchester and Ossining resident.
Richard Wishnie	Westchester County Legislator, representing Ossining.
Steve Worthy	A member of the Cedar Lane Parks Committee and Ossining resident.

Click on names in violet to see member biographies.

Dr. Gorden Anderson is pastor of the First Baptist Church of Ossining.

Assemblywoman Sandy Galef has been committed to public service both as a volunteer and as an elected official almost her entire life. She has consistently been a leader bringing innovation, change and energy to everything she has undertaken. This commitment started in school in Westchester County where she has lived since 1944 as a resident of Mamaroneck, White Plains, Eastchester and Ossining. Assemblywoman Galef was born (Sandra Risk) in LaCrosse, Wisconsin in May 1940. After moving to Westchester, she attended schools in Mamaroneck and White Plains. She graduated from White Plains High School with honors and was class secretary. She then attended Purdue University and was again elected class secretary and president of her sorority. After graduating from Purdue, she received a Masters Degree in Education at the University of Virginia while teaching in Charlottesville. She next worked in the Scarsdale school system as a teacher and subsequently left to raise her two children. During this period she was fully involved in organizing and serving numerous community agencies and needs. Her volunteer leadership activities have included: president, League of Women Voters of Briarcliff-Ossining; trustee, Ossining Public Library; president and 16-year board member, United Way of Northern Westchester; board of directors, Visiting Nurse Service of Westchester; president, National Council of Jewish Women, Westchester - Evening Section; board of directors, Phelps Hospital Robin’s Nest Day Care Center; board of directors, Westchester Municipal Planning Federation; board member and committee chair, Phelps Memorial Hospital Center, and board member, Bethel Nursing Home. Assemblywoman Galef has also played a very active role in the Westchester Health and Human Services Forum; Transportation and Housing Committees, Westchester 2000; advisory committee, North Tarrytown Open Door; Ossining Upward Bound Substance Abuse Council; Westchester Tricentennial Committee; Public Affairs Chair, Junior League of Westchester-on-Hudson; Ossining Chamber of Commerce; chair, Ossining Youth Employment Service; board member, Day Care Council of Westchester as well as trustee member of the Education and Learning Coalition of Westchester and Putnam Counties. She presently serves as a board member of the Westchester County Medical Center Children’s Hospital Foundation and on the State Task Force for Tobacco Free Women and Girls. She is also the host of two television shows – “Dear Sandy” and “Speak-out with Sandy Galef”. In 1992 Assemblywoman Galef was elected to the New York State Assembly. Her district covers the Towns of Cortlandt, Ossining, Kent, Philpstown, Putnam Valley and the City of Peekskill. She is presently Chairing the Assembly Library and Education Technology committee and serving as a member of the Aging Committee; the Consumer Affairs and Protection Committee; the Corporation, Authorities and Commissions Committee; the Election Law Committee; the Governmental Operations Committee; and the Health Committee. She is Chairwoman of the Legislative Subcommittee on Rural Health Care and she continues as a member of the Legislative Commission on Solid Waste, the Assembly Majority Steering Committee and Task Force on Public Authority Oversight, and the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council. In 2001, she was appointed as Vice Chair of the New York State Legislative Women’s Caucus. She has been a leading advocate for legislative reform in Albany as well as being deeply involved in matters pertaining to education, taxes, energy, consumer issues, health and senior citizens, among other areas. Prior to becoming a member of the New York State Assembly, the Assemblywoman had been a Westchester County Legislator for thirteen years and had served as minority leader of the Board of Legislators for eight years. She also served as president of the New York State Association of Counties and chairperson of the Welfare and Medicaid Steering Committee. On the national level, Assemblywoman Galef served as chairperson of the Labor and Employee Benefits Steering Committee for the National Association of Counties. Assemblywoman Galef has been honored by many community organizations including the American Cancer Society, New York State Association of Counties, New York State Federation of Police, Westchester County which awarded her a Distinguished Service Award, B'nai B'rith, the United Way which gave her the Harold J. Marshall Award for Leadership and Sensitivity, and Westchester ARCs, which gave her the Year 2002 Public Official Partnership award in June 2002. Galef is listed in Who's Who of American Women. Assemblywoman Galef resides in Ossining and is the widow of Steven Galef. They have two children, Graig, Financial Planner at Strategies for Success, and Gwen, an assistant district attorney in Westchester.

Estelle Dashman is a long-time Ossining resident and wife of the late Frank Dashman, GO-TV founder.

Lisa LaRocca grew up in Westchester and is proud to call it her home. Every morning Lisa informs, enlightens and entertains viewers on Daytime Edition alongside Matt Sampson and Meteorologist Dave Curren. Before joining News 12 Westchester, Lisa worked behind-the-scenes for a number of nationally syndicated programs. She then took her wonderful sense of humor and thirst for news and went in front of the camera as a reporter, at WPDE, an ABC affiliate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They say you can never go back home, but Lisa did just that! Three years later, Lisa joined our sister station News 12 Long Island as a reporter. Then she moved back home to Westchester to become a reporter and anchor for News 12 Westchester. Since then, Lisa has reported on major breaking events, provided health reports on the latest medical procedures and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Lisa has also received numerous awards from various Westchester organizations for her work in the community.

Richard G. Wishnie was elected to the Westchester County Board of Legislators in 1993 and re-elected in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, and again in 2003. Legislator Wishnie represents the Town of Ossining and the Villages of Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, Croton-on-Hudson and a portion of the Town of Cortlandt. Presently, he serves as Vice-chair of the Board. He previously held the position of Chair of the Board’s powerful Committee on Budget and Appropriations for 8 years. He chairs the Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice and is a senior member of the Committee of Budget and Appropriations, a member of the Committee on Public Works, the Committee on Intergovernmental Relations, the Rules Committee and the Committee on Labor. Wishnie also serves on the Westchester County Criminal Justice Advisory Board and was Chairman of the Westchester County Emergency Medical Services Task Force. As County Legislator, Wishnie has shown himself to be a tireless advocate for the public good. He has spearheaded passage of county budgets that have included County property tax cuts multiple years in a row and increase in services, with 2001 being the largest property tax cut in county history. He has also obtained additional funding for police officers, for the enhancement of the Fire Training Center, helped create the Department of Emergency Services, and for restoration of funding for daycare programs and community health centers. He instituted a number of reforms that make Westchester’s budget more "user-friendly" and open to public scrutiny. An ardent supporter of educational opportunities, Wishnie initiated the opening of a satellite campus of Westchester Community College in Ossining that specializes in health care and state of the art biotechnology curriculums and has he has supported college satellites in Peekskill, Yonkers, and Mount Vernon. Wishnie has emerged as one of the Board’s strongest advocates of tough but fair public safety measures. His fight to help survivors of sexual abuse resulted in approval of state and county funding for the SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) program that provides rape victims with expert services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days per year. His proposal to designate Westchester County as its own planning region for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) was approved by the New York State Legislature. He was at the forefront of efforts to clean up the Kill Brook in Ossining, ending years of environmental neglect and abuse. His series of public meetings on odor and smoke from the Ossining Sanitary Sewer Treatment Plant uncovered health-related concerns forcing the County to remedy the situation. Wishnie has negotiated an arrangement to save all Ossining Sewer District taxpayers approximately $250,000 for the construction of a gas line for the Ossining Sanitary Sewer Treatment Plant. At the Legislator’s urging, the burning of sludge at the Ossining plant has permanently ceased. Wishnie was the author of the countywide Electrical Licensing Law, and the Project Labor Agreement law, saving millions of dollars in construction costs for taxpayers. Wishnie has an extensive record of public service in Westchester County. Prior to becoming a County Legislator, he served the Town of Ossining as Councilman from 1976-1979 and as Supervisor from 1979-1983. He has served as Chairman of the Ossining Open Door Health Centers, Westchester Health Source, the Ossining Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and the Ossining Red Cross Disaster Team. He has also served as an Officer and Director of the Ossining Chamber of Commerce, President of the Ossining Jaycees, Director of the United Way of Northern Westchester, a member of the Briarcliff Manor Volunteer Fire Department, and a Town of Ossining Auxiliary Police Officer. He is the former Director of Operations of the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board (1983-88), and served by appointment of the Governor to a Temporary State Study. Wishnie resides in Briarcliff Manor with his wife Marilyn, the principal of Hillside School in Hastings-on-Hudson. They have two daughters, Beth and Jennifer.

Steve Worthy is a member of the Cedar Lane Parks Committee and Ossining resident.

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