Board

Mayo Bartlett is the Principal Attorney at the Law Offices of Mayo Bartlett, PLLC and he was a partner at the law firm of Young & Bartlett, LLP, a litigation law firm which focused on Plaintiff’s Personal Injury, Criminal Defense, and Civil Rights matters. He worked for the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office for more than ten years, and served as a litigator in the Superior Court Trial Division prior to his appointment as the Chief of the Bias Crimes Unit. Mr. Bartlett has provided hate crime training for the law enforcement community and he works with community organizations and schools to ensure that hate crimes are properly identified, reported, and investigated.

Mr. Bartlett is a co-founder of SAFE PASSAGE, a youth law forum that brings issues of law and policy to the classroom, and he speaks regularly on the topics of human rights and non-violent conflict resolution. Mr. Bartlett served on the Advisory Board of the Westchester Holocaust Education Center, assisting the Center in the development of an alternative educational sentencing program for young people who are believed to have been involved in non-violent hate crimes in Westchester, New York and adjoining counties.

Mr. Bartlett has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Pace Law School, where he taught Moot Court and lectured on Ethics. He was an active member of the New York State Hate Crimes Coalition, an organization that played a pivotal role in the passage of the Hate Crime Act of 2000, the first comprehensive hate crime legislation in New York State. Mr. Bartlett is a former Vice President and Director of the Westchester County Bar Association, where he served as Co-chair of both the Criminal Justice Section and the Membership Committee, is a member of the Judiciary Committee, and a former delegate to the New York State Bar Association. He served as a Director of the Westchester County Black Bar Association, and is the former Chair of the Westchester County Human Rights Commission. He is a convener of We Are Westchester, a coalition of not-for- profit organizations that focuses on social justice.

Mr.Bartlett is a former Director of the Legal Aid Society of Westchester County, a past Trustee of the Music Conservatory of Westchester, a past Director of (Congregations Linked in Urban Strategy to Effect Renewal), a Director of the New York State Civil Liberties Union, and he is a member of the African American Men of Westchester, and Co-Chair of the Organization’s Domestic Violence Committee.

Mr. Bartlett is a member of the White Plains - Greenburgh NAACP, and a Director of the Urban League of Westchester and he has served on the Advisory Board of the Westchester Children’s Association. Mayo serves as Co-Chair of the Westchester County Police Reform and Reimagining Task Force, and he works with the Westchester County Human Rights Commission addressing acts of hate and discrimination. Mayo is Chair of the Defense Counsel Committee for Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah’s Transition Team, and he serves as a policy consultant for police departments.

Mr. Bartlett is a Board member of Hudson Link, and he is a member of the Board of Visitors for the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Mayo was selected as a Super Lawyer, and as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers by the National Trial Lawyers. He was also recognized as a member of the Westchester Power 50 by City and State.

For nearly a decade, Mr. Bartlett regularly appeared on the television news forum “Richard French Live” on WRNN as a member of the legal panel, discussing current issues concerning the law and society. Mr. Bartlett is the author of A Day at the Museum, and he frequently spends time working to strengthen communities.

Michael Zweig joined Hudson Link in 2007 after meeting a Hudson Link alumnus and hearing his story of transformation and redemption.

“My hope is that as the number of Hudson Link graduates re-entering society as productive citizens increases, we will begin to look at our prisons differently – as a place for transformation, not only for punishment, and as a place where vital human resources are developed and redeemed.”

Mr. Zweig is a partner at Loeb & Loeb, LLP, a national law firm with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. He has a diverse national litigation practice with an emphasis on complex litigation, business torts, entertainment, employment and advertising/media matters.

Mr. Zweig has litigated and arbitrated cases throughout the United States, frequently through trial, and has represented numerous clients in high profile, high-stakes litigation involving false advertising and deceptive trade practices (including Attorney General investigations), shareholder, partnership and accounting disputes, contract, right of publicity, defamation and a wide variety of employment-related litigation.

He is the recipient of Loeb &Loeb’s Third Annual Award for Community Service and Professional Achievement and is active in a variety of not-for profit and professional organizations.

Mr. Zweig’s interests include playing tennis, basketball, kayaking and hiking. He resides in Westchester with his wife, Michelle Gersen, also an attorney.

After Lisa Wells and her husband Peter attended the 2013 graduation ceremony at Sing Sing, they were hooked on the organization and its mission. She joined the Board a few months later.

“Hudson Link offers an opportunity, but it’s the students themselves who grasp that opportunity and use it to change their own lives and the lives of others,” she says. “That’s what is so inspiring about this organization – those who benefit from the programs we offer are the ones who work the hardest to achieve our shared goals.”

Ms. Wells is a native of Virginia but has spent most of her adult life in and around New York City. She is now retired after a 34-year legal career, most of it with JPMorgan Chase & Co. She holds a law degree from the University of Virginia, an MA in French Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a BA from Sweet Briar College. Before attending law school, Ms. Wells taught at the middle school, high school, and college levels. She chairs the Board’s Academic Program Committee and also serves on the Alumni Services Committee. She has taught in Hudson Link’s pre-college preparatory program at Sing Sing and serves as a coach for incarcerated speakers in Hudson Link’s Beyond the Block speakers series.

Dr. Anne Reissner is a founding member and past president of the Board of Directors for Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison. She has been a part of Hudson Link from its early beginnings in 1998, when state and federal funding for college education in prisons stopped and incarcerated men at Sing Sing Correctional Facility reached out to religious and academic volunteers for help. Dr. Reissner believes in the power of education and was instrumental in shaping the vision and mission of Hudson Link.

“Hudson Link has shown that education for persons incarcerated is transformative,” she says. “Hudson Link has helped to transform the lives of individuals, families, and even the criminal justice system in New York.”

As Director Emeritus, Dr. Reissner hopes that Hudson Link will continue to flourish as a not-for-profit working with a dedicated staff, a committed Board, and many supporters. “These are all necessary to accomplish the important mission of transformative higher education for those incarcerated, as well as providing continuous life-sustaining support for them upon their release back to society.”

Dr. Reissner began her professional career as an elementary school teacher. After completing a Master Degree in the Administration of Religious Education, she served as a Director of Religious Education in various Roman Catholic parish settings in New Jersey. In the early 1980’s, she enrolled in graduate studies at Andover Newton Theological School and earned the Master of Divinity degree and the Doctor of Ministry degree. She then joined the faculty of St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee, WI where she served as Director of Supervised Ministry for seven years. She then assumed the position of Academic Dean at the Maryknoll School of Theology in Ossining, NY. Although this graduate theology program closed in 1995, she remained at Maryknoll serving as the Director of Study at the Center for Mission Research and Study at Maryknoll until retiring in 2004.

Throughout her career, Dr. Reissner has served on local and national boards including a term as president of the Association of Theological Field Education, membership on the Association of Theological Schools Committee on Globalization, a term as president of the American Society of Missiology.

Since moving to Tucson in June 2007, Dr. Reissner has become involved in outreach to the homeless and in education concerning the plight of immigrants crossing the Sonoran desert in search of a better life. She is currently serving on the Board of Directors for BorderLinks, and Poverello House, a day shelter for the homeless.

The accounting firm of the future does much more than traditional accounting. It’s Jason’s mission to help Citrin Cooperman grow and become a full service professional services firm, delivering traditional accounting services as well as advisory and consulting services that provide additional value to the firm’s clients. As such, Jason is responsible for the identification, acquisition/ combination, and integration of other consulting and advisory firms into Citrin Cooperman.

Jason is also a leader in the firm’s Business Process Outsourcing practice where is he tasked with organic and external growth, operational efficiency, and providing great client service.

Jason sits on the Board of Directors of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison. He holds multiple positions on the board including Treasurer, board chair for development and marketing, and member of the strategy committee, and in doing so has lead multiple projects to help grow the organization’s capabilities while maintain financial discipline.

Previously, Jason was the Global Sector Leader for Aerospace at Mazars, leading a group of more than 50 professionals in more than 20 countries worldwide. He led the discussion on the sector group’s vision and coordinated the team globally, ensuring excellence with a focused strategy. The group’s attest, tax, accounting and advisory clients included companies throughout the aerospace ecosystem including the supply chain (manufacturers, suppliers, OEMs and MROs), airport ecosystem (infrastructure, concessionaires and security), operators (airlines, charters, air taxis and other), and financiers (lessors and insurers).

David Rubin is an experienced real estate attorney with a depth and breadth of experience in real estate law co-extensive with the types of transactions that one confronts in a major real estate practice.

His practice includes internal contract negotiations, representation of purchasers and sellers of commercial buildings, warehouse and office structures, shopping centers, and ground leases. He has negotiated the purchase of properties out of bankruptcy and negotiated extensive office, manufacturing, retail and restaurant leases, along with extensive ground leases.

Mr. Rubin has, in the course of his practice, represented parties in a substantial real estate litigation involving lease and audit disputes, trespass and brokerage fees.

Mr. Rubin has been recognized by City Bar Justice Center’s 2010 Jeremy G. Epstein Award for Pro Bono Service, for work on City Bar’s Foreclosure Project.

Jason Slivka
Board Member

“Hudson Link provides an opportunity for currently and formerly incarcerated people to access the most important tool to participate in the advancement of society, an education.”