Our Staff
Millie Jasper
Executive Director
Steven Goldberg
Director of Education
Jeanne Claire Cotnoir
Coordinator of Student Programming
Board of Directors
Chairperson
Michael Gyory
Vice Chair
Daniel P. Weinreb
Treasurer
Andrew R. Benerofe
Secretary
Barbara Berger Tartell
Board Members
Elie Abemayor
David A. Alpert
Yonat Assayag
Leah Eisenberg
Paul Elliot
Frances Ginsberg
Rachel Greenspan
Ziporah Janowski
Dan Joseph
Joseph Kaidanow
Harris Markhoff, Esq.
Karin Meyers, M.A.
Mitchell Wm. Ostrove
Debby Ziering
Honorary Board Member
Gary Joseph
Advisory Board
Grace Bennett
Richard A. Berman
Hon. Noam Bramson
Melissa Cates, Esq.
Sonja Muller Cooper
Michele Rees Finn
Marcia Gordon, Ph.D.
Barbara Lewis Kaplan
Naomi Koller
Haina Just-Michael
Lee Laster
Rika Levin
Audrey Reich
Susan Rothschild
Tamar Sadeh
Kathy Zaltas
Executive Director
Millie Jasper
Chairperson Emeritus
Joseph Kaidanow
Hon. Valerie M. O’Keeffe
David A. Alpert
Richard Laster*
Eugene M. Grant *
Michael Margulies*
Irwin Weiner *
*Deceased
Millie Jasper
Millie can be reached at mjasper@hhrecny.org or at 914.696.0738
Executive Director
Millie is the Executive Director of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC). She is elected to the Board of Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO). She is a past president of Temple Israel of Northern Westchester in Croton-on-Hudson where she oversaw infrastructure changes both in administration and programming. She also served as the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) Community Vice-Chair and was a member of the Board of Westchester Jewish Council (WJC). She was co-chair for the AJC Thanksgiving Diversity Breakfast.
Additionally, she has been a volunteer for over thirty years in a variety of capacities. Among her accomplishments are leading members of the local interfaith community to the "Save Darfur" rally in Washington, D.C. and chairing the committee that delivered over $54,000 of needed supplies to victims of Katrina. Millie served on the Executive Board at Temple Beth Abraham. Millie was a member of the Board of Trustees at Soundview Preparatory School.
Previously Millie worked in the administrative offices at the JCC of Mid-Westchester, at the real estate department at Lifetime Television Network and was the Public Relations Project Coordinator at Soundview Preparatory School.
She earned her B.A. at the University of Rochester and lives with her husband, Richard in Westchester County where they raised their two children.
Steve Goldberg
Director of Education
Steven A. Goldberg is the Director of Education of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) in White Plains. After teaching global history and geography at Edgemont HS for sixteen years, he taught and served as social studies department chairman for the City School District of New Rochelle for 30 years. He also was an adjunct professor at Manhatanville College where he taught a course on Holocaust films.
A past president of both the New York State Council for the Social Studies and the National Council for the Social Studies, he has also served as a consultant to the New York State Department of Education Among his responsibilities for the HHREC is the planning and implementation of professional development activities for teachers, including organizing and leading biennial educational trips to Germany and Poland. He also coordinated the writing of an extensive on-line curriculum on teaching the Holocaust and other genocides. He has made presentations and conducted workshops and seminars on a wide range of curricular and pedagogical topics, including teaching the Holocaust, the history of antisemitism, and the symbols and language of hate.
Steve has authored several books, such as Brief Review in Global History and Geography (on-going since 1999) and the Goethe Institut’s Focus on Germany and Let’s Explore Modern Germany (2013) and has translated two books on the lives of immigrant children from German into English
Among his many honors, he received the Shapers of Destiny Award (1999) from the HHREC, the Melvin Miller Outstanding Social Studies Leader Award from the National Social Studies Supervisors’ Association (2014), and the Lifetime Achievement Award (2017) from the New York State Council for the Social Studies.
Steve received his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Rochester and a master’s degree from Yale University. He was a Fulbright Fellow to the Netherlands. He participated in two summer teacher academies of Centropa in Warsaw and Krakow, and in Prague, Vienna and Berlin.
He lives in Hastings-on-Hudson and has two sons and two grandchildren.
Steve can be reached at sgoldberg@hhrecny.org or at 914.696.0738.
Jeanne Claire Cotnoir
Coordinator of Student Programming
Jeanne Claire Cotnoir taught social studies for 40 years in numerous parochial and public schools, completing her career at Briarcliff High School. She also has been an adjunct instructor at Iona University (world history). She is a recipient of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants in Middle Eastern studies and Transatlantic Slave Trade and in 2017 was honored by Westchester Black Scholars as Teacher of the Year. She participated in 2019 in the Rwandan Genocide Study Tour run by Carl Wilkins.
Jeanne Claire joined the Educators’ Program Committee in 2018, and has worked on both the Middle School and High School Human Rights Leadership Institutes and the Living History project. Among her community volunteerism, she is on the Board of Directors of ENU (Empower, Network, Uplift) Builds in Ossining.
Jeanne Claire earned her BA and MA in History and Social Studies Education at the Iona University and lives with her husband, Glenn Haun in Ossining.
Jeanne Claire can be reached at jcotnoir@hhrecny.org or at 914.696.0738.
Deborah Boxer Minchin
Coordinator of Student Programming
Deborah Boxer Minchin taught social studies and coordinated the Westchester Individual Senior Experience (WISE) program at New Rochelle High School for 28 years and has been an adjunct instructor at both Iona University (political science) and Manhattanville College (teacher education). At NRHS, she served as faculty advisor for the Junior Statesman of America (JSA), Mock Trial, and the National Honor Society She is a recipient of the New York State Council for the Social Studies Distinguished Educator award and was a finalist for the NYS Teacher of the Year.
Debbie is a board member of the New Rochelle High School Scholarship Committee, a National History Day Contest judge, and on the advisory committee for the Scarsdale Adult School. She received National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants in Spanish influence on America and Punishment and Rehabilitation. She participated in the HHREC Educators’ trip to Germany and Poland in 2012 and then joined the Educators’ Program Committee. She has worked on both the Middle School and High School Human Rights Leadership Institutes, the Living History project, and the White Rose and the Genocide Awareness contests.
Debbie earned a BA in History at Vassar College and an MBA at Columbia University. After raising her three children in New Rochelle, she now resides in New Fairfield, Connecticut.
Debbie can be reached at dminchin@hhrecny.org or at 914.696.0738.