Board of Trustees

The Head of the Retirement System is the Board of Trustees. The Board, subject to the limitations of the BERS Rules and Regulations and of law, establishes the policies for the administration and transaction of the business of the system and for the control of funds. The Board of Trustees consists of twenty-three (23) Panel for Educational Policy members, the Chancellor, the Comptroller, and two (2) employee-members elected by the membership. The term of each employee-member is four years beginning the first of January following a regular election. Each employee-member has an alternate, who will serve the duration of the term of office of the elected employee-member in the event of the death, disability, disqualification or withdrawal of the employee-member. Further, in the event of an employee-member’s absence from a meeting of the Board or any committee or subcommittee thereof, the respective alternate employee-member possesses all the powers and responsibilities of said employee-member for the duration of the meeting and is counted for quorum purposes. The current board members are:

  • Adriana Alecia
  • Phoebe-Sade Arnold
  • Shirley Aubin
  • Schools Chancellor David C. Banks1
  • Aaron Bogad
  • Lilly Chan
  • Marjorie Dienstag
  • Amy Fair
  • Gregory Faulkner
  • Anita Garcia
  • Anthony Giordano
  • Dr. Angela Green
  • Naveed Hasan
  • Alice Ho
  • Rima Izquierdo
  • NYC Comptroller, Brad Lander2
  • Jessamyn Lee
  • John Maderich, Employee Member3
  • Donald Nesbit, Employee Member4
  • Sharon Odwin
  • Alan Ong
  • Maisha Sapp
  • Thomas Sheppard
  • Venus Sze-Tsang
  • Manny Tavarez

1Karine Apollon, Seritta Scott and Russell Bateman Buckley, Designees of Chancellor David C. Banks
2Alison Hirsh, Designee of NYC Comptroller, Brad Lander; John Dorsa, Alternate Designee of Brad Lander
3Frank Sirabella, Interim Alternate Employee Member
4Shaun Francois, Alternate Employee Member