Recent retirements and reassignments have changed the makeup of the NYSUT labor relations/field services staff assigned to UUP.

The following people comprise the union’s labor relations team:

Director of Staff Susan Bloom Jones was promoted in January following the retirement of Martin Coffey. Jones has worked for NYSUT for nearly 33 years and served as a labor relations specialist (LRS) at UUP since July 1998.

Associate Director of Staff John Marino stepped into the job in July after 11 years as UUP’s elected statewide vice president for professionals. He brings to the job a vast knowledge of the UUP contract, as well as hands-on experience with negotiations and grievance procedures.

Following the retirement of LRS and former UUP member Jack Procita, and the reassignment to K-12 of LRS Heather Sponenberg, UUP welcomes three new LRSs.

Patrick Domaratz is assigned to the UUP chapters at Brockport, Geneseo and Morrisville; Lynda Larson is assigned to Farmingdale, Old Westbury and Stony Brook HSC; and Peter Ludden is assigned to ESF, Oswego, Upstate Medical and Utica/Rome.

They join Maureen Seidel (Albany, System Administration, Cobleskill and Empire State College), Lisa Willis (Brooklyn HSC and Stony Brook), Kathy Falcetta (Canton, Plattsburgh and Potsdam), Bill Capowski (Maritime, New Paltz, Optometry and Purchase), Tara Singer-Blumberg (Buffalo Center and Fredonia), Ed Giblin (Alfred, Buffalo HSC and Buffalo State), and Darryl Wood, a former UUP member and Binghamton Chapter president, (Binghamton, Cortland, Delhi and Oneonta).

— Karen L. Mattison