It has been a privilege to serve as President of the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale for the past year, and I greatly look forward to the year to come. Together we have engaged in the civic life of our community by studying the budget processes, village public works, and school bond. We have gotten to know the candidates for school board. And we have come together to make our voices heard on these matters, and to vote!

This summer we celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (and the 375th Anniversary of the founding of Scarsdale). At the LWVS Annual Meeting and Luncheon, we delved deeply into the Declaration with Professor Martin Flaherty, learned about the elements of the document, how it positioned our nascent nation on the world stage, and how it is relevant today. If you missed it, you can view Professor Flaherty’s presentation (and all of our recorded events) on our YouTube channel. It is well worth the watch.

In the fall, we look forward to the midterm elections. League volunteers will be working tirelessly to populate Vote411.org with unedited information from all of the candidates for county, state and local offices. Stay tuned for up-to-date voting information and when the Vote411.org site goes live for the November elections.

Thank you for your support, your membership, and your civic engagement. If you, or someone you know, would like to get more involved with the League, either on the Board, or with a particular program, or area of study please let me know. We have a couple of open positions for the upcoming year.

We will be opening our membership drive for 2026-27 at the end of the summer. Until then, have a great summer. Stay cool, and maybe take the opportunity to enjoy the final summer of the iconic Scarsdale Pool.

All my best,

Beth Cukier

LWVS Annual Meeting and Luncheon

On Friday May 8, LWVS hosted our Annual Meeting and Spring Luncheon at Scarsdale Golf Club. At the meeting, we successfully voted in our Proposed Annual Budget for 2026-27, our Proposed Local Program for 2026-27, and our Proposed Slate of Officers, Board Members and off-Board Nominating Committee Members for 2026-27. 

Our luncheon speaker was Professor Martin Flaherty, who teaches at Princeton University, Fordham Law School, and Barnard College, who spoke on The American Experiment at 250: Constitutional Democracy in a Time of Global Conflict and Democratic Pressure: What the Founders’ Vision Means for Citizens Today. Professor Flaherty gave a thoughtful and entertaining seminar on the lesser-known (and the familiar) sections of the Declaration of Independence, what their historical import had been, and how they are relevant today. He engaged the audience in a robust discussion during Q&A.

Scarsdale High School students Samantha Goldban and Anushiri Rana were selected to attend the 2026 Students Inside Albany program, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of New York State Education Foundation, Inc. and the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale.

The annual Students Inside Albany program took place from Sunday May 17th - Wednesday May 20th, and brought approximately 60 students from across the state to Albany to get a first-hand education about their state government. The program's main objectives are to enhance students' understanding of their role in representative government and equip them with essential tools to fulfill that responsibility.

Follow these links to read about their experiences:

• Samantha Goldban
• Anushri Rana

LWVW Annual Meeting/Convention (2026)

Thursday, June 4, 2026

5:00 - 8:00 pm at Scarsdale Woman's Club

Featured Speaker: Jeanne Sheehan Zaino, Ph.D.

Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Iona University

Topic: America at 250

Reckoning with the Past, Imagining the Future

Meet other local league members within Westchester County, hear what LWVW has accomplished this past year, learn what is on the horizon for 2026-27, vote on the LWVW budget for next year, LWVW bylaws amendments, the LWVW local program, elect and install incoming officers and directors, and enjoy the speaker and buffet supper.

Follow this link for more information.

LWVW's 2026 Directory of Officials

Now Available for Purchase!

This year’s Directory of Officials for Westchester County is available as an interactive, searchable user-friendly flipbook to open in your preferred browser with functioning hyperlinks and color graphics for visual appeal. It contains updated email and phone contact information for elected and appointed officials along with their party affiliations and term end dates, as well as municipality URLs and social media handles, links for streaming of public governmental meetings, organizational charts, legislative district and municipality maps, and legislative district tables by municipality and by local league coverage, and more.

The directory will be maintained and updated in real time throughout the year. Should you have any changes or corrections to make to the contents of the directory, please notify LWVWDirectoryofOfficials@gmail.com.

Thank you

As I look back upon this, my inaugural year as President of our local League, I am often dumbstruck with gratitude for the many women (and men) who have come before me to create this organization that has spanned over a century of voter education, advocacy and civic engagement in our community, with gratitude for our many elected officials and volunteers who make this Village our Village, and with supreme gratitude to the dedicated and talented women who make up the Board of the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale. I am in their debt, and while words will never suffice, I would like to briefly acknowledge each of their contributions over the past year.

Thank you to Diane Baylor for preserving our history as Webmaster and Recording Secretary, and for bringing her knowledge of that history to everything we do. Thank you to Attiya Malik for joining Diane to co-chair the Village Election portfolio this year.

Thanks to Dana Matsushita for being the bridge between the League Board, our membership, and the community as Editor of the Bulletin and Corresponding Secretary. Thank you to Diane Baylor, Heedan Chung, Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez and all who disseminated information about League events across social media.

Thank you to Debbie Bhatt for her diligent work as the Village Budget Chair. Thank you to Eva Romas Wilson for joining Debbie to monitor the pool renovation project, and to educate the community on its developments.

Thanks to Diksha Mudbhary, Liz Sipprelle and Anne Lyons for their excellent work on the Fall Membership Drive and for hosting an amazing Membership event last September. Thank you to Shilpa Spencer for her work as Membership Statistician and Trish Chen for her membership support as Treasurer.

Thank you to Abbi Ruane for her tireless work as Advocacy Chair in helping to inform our members and refine our advocacy priorities this year.

Thank you to Anne Lyons for planning the Annual Luncheon, Winter Social and her work on the Fundraising drive. Thank you to Diksha Mudbhary for her work as Program Chair for these events. Thank you to Trish Chen and Diane Baylor for backend support of each of these.

Thanks to Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez for her work as Youth Portfolio Chair; organizing and running Global Citizenship Day at SHS, and both Civic Jeopardy and the Mock Election at SMS. Thank you to Nan Meade for recruiting and overseeing the delegates to Students Inside Albany.

Thank you to Kathy Gray for her work as Voter Service Chair; populating Vote411.org, publicizing accurate voting information for all local elections, coordinating volunteers for voter registration drives on local campuses and organizing the Scarsdale BOE candidate forum last month.

Thank you to Shilpa Spencer for her excellent work as School Board Election Portfolio Chair, analyzing and presenting on the changes to the governing Resolution and then reviewing the SBNC election process.

Thank you to Dalya Khan for her expert analysis of both the school budget and bond offerings this year as School Budget Portfolio Chair.

Thank you to Kitt Rosenthal, Anne Lyons, Dana Matsushita, Diane Baylor and all of the veteran Board members for bringing their years of experience and accumulated wisdom to guide all of the League’s work this year.

Thank you to Liz Sipprelle, Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez, Attiya Malik, and Eva Romas Wilson for bringing their energy, enthusiasm and curiosity to invigorate the League’s work this year.

I am appreciative of all the efforts of our League volunteers and look forward to seeing what we can do together in the future.

All my best,

Beth Cukier

Thank You For Your Support

FRIENDS:

• Nancy & Howard Adler, Deborah Bhatt, Beth Cukier, Heedan Chung & Richard Goh, Beatrice Sevcik Gibney & Tony Gibney, Barbara Jaffe, Dana Matsushita & David Siegel, Anu Ramachandran, Suzanne Seiden, Karen Sheffler, Irena Turner, and Eva Romas Wilson

SUFFRAGISTS:

• Lauri & David Carey, Jennifer & Bud Gruenberg, Anne & A. Richard Janiak, Leslye & Gary Katz, Dalya Khan, Nancy & David Michael, Deb Morel & Michael Shuster, Amy Paulin, Eugenie Rosenthal, and Abbi & Alex Ruane

LIFE MEMBERS:

• Harriet Sobol and Evelyn Stock

NEW MEMBERS:

• Kathleen Dunlop, Alexandra Finger, Tim Foley, Samantha Goldban, Nathan Goldfarb, Emily Hira, Jessica Kaplan & Mark Fowler, Bonnie Matjes, Cathy McDonald, Stephanie & Jonathan Peled, Liz Sipprelle, Aditi Vakil, Meena Wojcik, Sophie Xie, and Emaan Zaidi

Finally, thank you to all the members who donated to the LWVS this year. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

• Deborah & Kevin Bhatt, Leona Kern, Harriet Marmon, BK Munguia and Jonathan Mark, Kitt Rosenthal, Lila & Abbott Stillman, and Evelyn Stock

Village of Scarsdale

As of May 31, 2026

Board of Trustees

Justin Arest, Mayor

2nd term ends April 2027

Dara Gruenberg, Deputy Mayor

2nd term ends April 2027

Tim Foley

  1st term ends April 2028

David Goldschmidt

1st term ends April 2027

Jason Kofman

1st term ends April 2027

Ron Schulhof

 1st term ends April 2028

Scott Silberfein

1st term ends April 2028

Board of Education

Suzie Hahn, President

  2nd term ends June 2028

Colleen Brown, Vice President

  2nd term ends June 2028

Leah Dembitzer

1st term ends June 2027

James C. Dugan

  2nd term ends June 2027

Robert Klein

  2nd term ends June 2026

Laura Ying Liu

1st term ends June 2028

Amber Yusuf

  2nd term ends June 2026

League of Women Voters of Scarsdale

2025-26

Officers

President: Beth Cukier

LWVSpresident@gmail.com

First Vice President: Deborah Bhatt

Second Vice President: Diksha Mudbhary

Corresponding Secretary: Dana Matsushita

LWVScommunications@gmail.com

Recording Secretary: Diane Baylor

LWVSrecsecretary@gmail.com

Treasurer: Trish Chen

LWVStreasury@gmail.com

2025-26 Elected Board Members

Kathy Gray

Dalya Khan

Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez

Nan Eileen Mead

Abigail Ruane

Shilpa Spencer

Eva Romas Wilson

2025-26 Appointed Board Members

Anne Lyons

Kitt Rosenthal

Liz Sipprelle

Committee Chairs

Advocacy: Abigail Ruane

Audit: Erika Rublin (Off-Board)

Book Group: Dalya Khan

Budget: TBD (Off-Board) 

Bylaws, Policies, and Procedures: Diane Baylor

Communications:

• Bulletin Editor: Dana Matsushita 
• Eblast: Dana Matsushita  
• Publicity: Dana Matsushita 
• Social Media: TBD
• Website: Diane Baylor 

Development/Finance Drive: Erika Rublin (Off-Board)

Environment/Sustainability: Attiya Malik

Local Budgets:

• School Budget: Dalya Khan
• Village Budget: Deborah Bhatt

Local Election Systems:

• School Election: Shilpa Spencer
• Village Election: Diane Baylor and Attiya Malik

LWVW Liaison: Diane Baylor and Kitt Rosenthal

Membership: Diksha Mudbhary and Liz Sipprelle

• Membership Statistician: Shilpa Spencer

Nominating Committee: Lauren Grossberg (Off-Board) 

Planning and Zoning: Eva Romas Wilson

Program/Education: Diksha Mudbhary 

Voter Service: Kathy Gray and Attiya Malik

• Candidate Forum(s)
• Naturalization Court
• Voter Registration Drive(s)

Youth Engagement:

• Civics Jeopardy: Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez
• Mock Election: Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez
• Students Inside Albany: Nan Eileen Mead

Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport – Get Involved!

The League of Women Voters

Creating A More Perfect Democracy 

For Over 100 Years

The League of Women Voters of Scarsdale (LWVS) is a volunteer nonpartisan political organization which promotes political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government. The League is nonpartisan in that it does not support or oppose any candidate for public office; it is political in that it takes positions on selected governmental issues after serious member study and consensus.