Board of Directors

Donald H. Layton (Chair)
Former Chairman and CEO
E*Trade Financial
Former Vice  Chairman 
JPMorgan Chase

Arnold S. Cohen
President & CEO
The Partnership for the Homeless 

Jeremy Feigelson
Partner
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP 

Robert Freedman
President and CEO
GVA Williams Real Estate

Jennifer Prosek
Partner
Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek

Carol Greene Vincent
Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

David J. Woll
Partner
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Senior Staff

Arnold S. Cohen, President and CEO

Arnold has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Partnership for the Homeless since June 1999. He joined the Partnership after serving five years as Executive Director of a neighborhood legal services program here in the City. Prior to that, he was Director of Litigation at another legal services program and affiliated as an attorney with the Legal Aid Society (Trial Bureau, Appeals Bureau and Special Litigation Unit). He is active on many nonprofit boards, and has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham University since 1987, where he teaches appellate advocacy. Arnold holds a BA in Anthropology from New York University and a JD from Brooklyn Law School.

Scott Cotenoff, Senior Vice President, Programs and New Initiatives

Scott joined the Partnership in October 2008 and has over 20 years’ experience in the nonprofit and public sectors. His prior experience includes management roles at the HIV Advocacy Project (part of Queens Legal Services), the Children’s Hope Foundation, and the NYC Department of Health’s Child Health Initiative. Scott holds a BS in Political Science from Duke University, a JD from Boston University School of Law and a Masters of Public Health from Hunter College. He has taught at the New School University, with a focus on nonprofit management, organizational development and advocacy.

Jerry Arko, Vice President, Human Resources

Jerry has been with the Partnership for the Homeless since 1993. He has held similar positions in the for-profit sector, with an engineering consulting firm and a film distribution and production company. He has served on the Board of the Human Resources Association of New York and the local chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management. Jerry has a BA from Queens College, City University of New York.

Kris Dasgupta, Vice President, Development

Kris Dasgupta joined the Partnership for the Homeless from the American India Foundation. At AIF Kris was responsible for the organization's Finance, Fundraising, Communications and Administration functions. Kris joined AIF from A Better Chance, where she was the Vice President of Advancement and Communications. Prior to A Better Chance, she was Senior Vice President in charge of Global Fundraising and Communications at Helen Keller International. Kris came to the non-profit sector after a 22-year career in capital markets. She is the first South Asian woman to run the Foreign Exchange (FX) sales desks at three major financial institutions. She was Managing Director of FX for the Americas at Société Générale Bank. Prior to that, she was a Managing Director at Chase Manhattan Bank, where she ran the US FX Sales desk and took the bank to rank Number One in Foreign Exchange. She started her career as a Management Trainee at Citibank’s FX sales desk in New York. Kris holds an M.A. in English from Presidency College, Kolkata, and an LL.B from Calcutta University, Kolkata. She also received her M.B.A. from Tulane University in New Orleans. 

Daniel Castellanos, Director, Positive Step

Daniel initiated his career in public health as a community activist. In 1996, he founded and chaired the Colombian Lesbian and Gay Association, providing a voice to Colombian immigrants living in NYC. As founder, board president, and former director of Queens Pride House, an LGBT community center in Queens County, Daniel strongly advocated for developing and implementing community health through committed partnering with community leaders, public health officials, and academia. In ten years of professional work in HIV/AIDS, Daniel participated in a broad range of programmatic activities and research projects. He developed Proyecto P.A.P.I., Gay Men Health Crisis’ first HIV prevention program fully devoted to address the needs of Latino gay and bisexual men. Daniel has a DrPH in Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. He received a pre-doctoral fellowship from the Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies at Columbia University. His doctoral research focused on homelessness among young gay men in NYC. 

Carla Brown-NDiaye, Director, Family Resource Center 

Carla has over twenty years of program and administrative management experience for national and international programs, including strategic planning; program design and implementation; program operations and administration; financial management and oversight; and human resources management. Before joining the Partnership in 2011, she spent a decade as the Catholic Relief Services Country Director for Benin and Togo in West Africa. Carla holds a BA from Boston College, as well as Master’s degrees in International Affairs and Public Health from Columbia University.

Katherine Winter, Deputy Director, Education Rights Project

Throughout her career Katherine has been involved with non-profits focused on the education of underserved populations, including arts learning, vocational training, teaching and advocacy. She came to New York from Seattle where she was a part of the innovative Educational Advocacy Program at Treehouse, which protects the rights of youth in foster care. She served as both Program Coordinator and in direct service as an Education Advocate, working on such issues as enrollment, Special Education, discipline and access to higher education. Most recently, Katherine has worked as Grant Manager at Community Impact at Columbia University, a program that aides young adults in workforce development and in continuing their education. She earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Kansas and has an MA from the University of Colorado in Education Foundations, Policy and Practice.

Laudrey Lamadieu, Deputy Director, Family Services

Laudrey has over 20 years experience in the field of Social Work. She started her career with New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services and went on to work for Piux 12 Foster Care and the Bronx Perinatal Consortium. More recently, Laudrey served as Director of Community Health at Safe Space, where she oversaw maternal child health programs, HIV services, facilitated enrollment and earn benefits, and financial literacy. Laudrey has been an Adjunct Professor at Monroe College and has an MSW from NYU.

Zenobia Smalls, Senior Workforce Program Coordinator

Zenobia has over 30 years of experience in Community Service Outreach and Case Management for the underserved. She spent the majority of her career at New York Hospital/Cornell University working with women to improve child and maternal health and reduce infant mortality. She also has experience in the field of mental Health which has served her exceptionally well in working with seniors.  She is very committed to working with seniors, and believes that they are the trailblazers of yesterday and have unique gifts to pass on to a younger generation. Zenobia has a degree from Malcolm King College.