Who is Jen White?
MOTHER AND WIFE
I am a mother of four, two children of my own two from and my husband’s first marriage. They range in age from nine to twenty two, three boys and a girl so I cover the gamut in parenting experience. Rich and I are proud to say they are all spectacular kids.
STUDENT AND ACTOR
I attended Middlebury College in Vermont, moved to New York and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and started my work life as an actress in New York, doing some modeling and small parts in soaps and commercials.
Tired of the endless stream of rejection, I talked my way into a job as a casting director. I started my own company and went on to win a Clio award for a project I cast involving an amputee who could play great basketball.
From there, and while still casting, I became involved with a Vietnam documentary project on HBO that got me some recognition. As I got a name for myself as a do-er, CBS News hired me for its news division.
NEWS PRODUCER AND CORRESPONDENT
I have been a prime time producer for talents like Charles Kuralt, Connie Chung, Dan Rather and General Norman Schwarzkopf on news magazines like the acclaimed West 57th, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung and 48 Hours. I also produced several critically lauded historical documentaries for CBS Reports that took me around the world with Kuralt and Schwarzkopf.
After my years as a producer, I moved to Ohio, to earn my chops as a correspondent on a syndicated health show. There I met my husband and returned to CBS as a prime time correspondent for “Coast to Coast” and a wife. I had a brief stint as the anchor of the CBS Overnight News and I have done segments for the Evening News and 48 Hours.
I left the job I loved at CBS News when my eldest was born, thirteen years ago. Since leaving CBS, I have devoted myself to raising my awesome boys but have occasionally taken work for CBS This Morning, ABC News, CNN, and the Associated Press and have had a few paid writing projects but have mostly worked hard for Nyack.
VOLUNTEER
I began my volunteer work by turning an abandoned garden at Upper Nyack Elementary into a learning garden. I took the skills learned from that project and turned them toward the Nyack waterfront.
I joined the Nyack Park Commission under the leadership of Jerry Donnellan and Bert Hughes and together the three of us started the Nyack Park Conservancy, an organization that has raised over $100,000 for Village projects including paying for the Park Summer Kids program, building the dog run in South Nyack, paying for unique maintenance in Memorial Park and most importantly, spearheading and paying for a large portion of the waterfront master plan redesign, supported by Scenic Hudson.
The Park Conservancy has been quiet during the recession, unwilling to ask residents to donate when it was unlikely that any projects could begin and people were strapped but in recent months, we have applied for grants to cover many elements of the park master plan design, the federal government seems more amenable to funding opportunities and the Conservancy will be having a spring fund raiser at a glorious donated home in Upper Nyack.
This fall and spring will see three Park Conservancy joint projects come to fruition….new basketball courts, a dock meant for human powered vessels and a companion garden to the butterfly garden for children and mentally disabled adults. It was out of these projects that I started to see how things get done in municipalities and I realized that there was a lot more that could happen here.
TRUSTEE
I have been an incredibly busy Trustee. I really love the day to day interaction with people and problems and the thinking that must go into solutions. It’s an extension of what I did for work and what I’ve done as a volunteer. In my role as Trustee, I have been personally responsible for the following successes:
I insisted upon and subsequently oversaw the hiring of a Village Administrator, something the Mayor vehemently and publicly opposed. Eventually, the Mayor acquiesced and agreed to the creation of the position when he thought the job would go to his friend.
Our administrator has changed our Village for the better beginning by promptly saving the taxpayers over $400,000. It was the Administrators budget that resulted in the lowest tax increase in years. The Administrator has also implemented systems in Village Hall such as the use of vouchers, consistent check book balancing, practices that have save the village thousands in exorbitant bank fees.
One of my areas of interest is fundraising and grants. I made two trips to Washington, I have close relationships with our federal officials and I believe that these relationships are key to Nyack’s success in the future. If you look at the list of grant monies that Washington gives every year, the amounts are astronomical and, yet, in the past, Nyack was never a recipient.
I have gotten us on a short list for a $300,000 grant for the Nyack Center; one that would have come to fruition had Washington not put a hold on all grant spending. That money would have eliminated taxpayer support of the Nyack Center AND provided the Center with an additional grant to expand its important programming. These are the kind of innovations we have to be seeking in our current financial environment.
I began my Trustee term by founding a monthly meeting of downtown businesses who want to seek solutions rather than complain about problems. Out of this meeting came the “good neighbor” policy that encouraged bars and restaurants to help each other reduce nighttime noise. The police believe this approach was a key step in alleviating the nighttime chaos that was plaguing us.
If elected Mayor I can promise to work even harder on behalf of the village. If you like the way things are: I am not your candidate. But if you want a Mayor who brings resources, build relationships with Albany and Washington and unite our community, vote for me. This is who I am.
