Our Board of Trustees

Richard is a native of New Paltz and, after time away for college and earlier career opportunities, moved back to New Paltz in 1999 with his husband Anthony Ortiz to build their family and deepen their roots in the Hudson Valley. In addition to his service on Board of Trustees, Richard is a member of the Board of Directors of the Child Welfare League of America.

Richard continues his 30+ year career in nonprofits promoting and supporting a greater understanding of equity, inclusion, social justice and community building in his present position as Executive Director of the Hudson Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center. He is the founding Executive Director of the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York and Philadelphia’s William Way LGBT Community Center.

Richard has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Strategic Design and Management from Parsons School of Design, which is in New York City. He and his husband are the parents of one child, John Paul, who, like Richard, attended and graduated from the New Paltz Central School District.

In his service to the Library, Richard follows the example of his grandmother, Carole Heyl, who was an Elting board member when Richard was a child, and who continues to support the Library.

June Wheeler has been the Dance teacher at Monticello High School since 2022, having taught high school English and college freshman writing courses for several years after earning her MAT at SUNY-New Paltz in 2012. She is a cum laude graduate of Barnard College, and her first career was as a dancer with the Mark Morris Dance Group, touring the world from their base in Brussels, Belgium and then from Brooklyn, NY. Highlights included performing in the Kennedy Center Honors broadcast for Mikhail Baryshnikov and appearing in a dance film, "Falling Down Stairs," with the cellist Yo-Yo Ma; she continued to make guest appearances with MMDG through 2018. June moved to New Paltz with her husband Bill Wheeler Murray in 2003 to raise their family–twins Emi and Kira, born that year, and Henry, born in 2006–and, partly inspired by the volunteer service of her husband (a New Paltz firefighter) and others in her family, she was pleased to join the Elting Board in 2018.

Hilary Cloos has been a farrier in the Hudson Valley since 1997.  She and her husband Jeff Feinsod moved to New Paltz in 2014 and love living at the foot of the Shawangunks.  Serving on the Board of Trustees has been an amazing learning experience for her, and Hilary hopes to keep giving back to the Elting Memorial Library and the greater New Paltz community.  When she's not at Board meetings or under a horse, Hilary is an avid cyclist and tennis player.

Stephen Bergstein is a civil rights lawyer who lives and practices in New Paltz, where he settled in 1993. He joined the Board of Trustees in 2018 and is serving his third three-year term. He chairs the Policy Committee, is the Board Secretary, and serves on the Executive Committee. One of his cases reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a landmark gay/transgender rights ruling in 2020. His love of books and free speech landed him on the Board of Trustees, and his enthusiasm for the annual Library Fair is the reason he owns hundreds of books. In his spare time, he works through his book collection, rides his bike along the trails in Ulster County, plays with his standard poodle, and performs at open mics in the Hudson Valley.

Christine Wesserling is a lifelong resident of New Paltz, born and raised, returning as an adult  in 2019 to work as the Business Operations Manager in the Office of the VP for Technology and Human Resources at Vassar College. After being an avid volunteer at the annual Library Fair and working in the book shed collecting donated books, she was asked to join the board and serve as Treasurer. Christine chairs the finance committee, and serves on the facilities committee, and the capital campaign committee. She is ecstatic to support the mission of the Library by providing a space where everyone is welcome to pursue lifelong learning. Outside of work and volunteering, she enjoys playing golf, pickleball, baking, and listening to NPR.