Meet the Honorees

Ziporah Janowski has dedicated her career to leadership, service, creativity, and lifelong learning. A longtime member of the Board of Teatown Lake Reservation and a Teatown neighbor, she is a passionate advocate for conservation, environmental education, and community engagement. She walks Teatown’s trails almost daily and treasures the beauty, peace, and connection to nature that Teatown provides.

Ziporah’s professional journey spans law, business, wellness, nonprofit leadership, and the arts. After earning degrees from New York University and St. John’s University School of Law, she began her career practicing corporate litigation at Willkie Farr & Gallagher. She later joined Marsh & McLennan Companies, where she served as Chief Legal Ethics Officer and Associate General Counsel of Mercer, leading legal teams in the United States and abroad and managing a multi-billion-dollar professional liability litigation docket.

Following her legal career, Ziporah focused on health, wellness, and creative pursuits. She helped grow a wellness-focused summer camp business that developed transformative programs for children and adults nationwide, became a certified healthy chef, and authored a cookbook. In her next chapter, she returned to her lifelong love of art, creating realistic portraits, landscapes, and still lifes in oil, pastel, and graphite. Her work has been exhibited in juried and community shows throughout the Hudson Valley.

Ziporah’s commitment to service extends across many organizations. She serves on the Board and Speakers Bureau of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center, speaking to students and community groups. She has also advised U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on childhood obesity initiatives and held leadership roles with the Financial Women’s Association of New York, the InterOrganization Network, and Temple Israel of Northern Westchester.

Above all, Ziporah is most proud of her family. She and her husband, David, are the proud parents of Sam and Hannah and grandparents of Miriam and Eliana, who inspire her every day. She looks forward to the day her granddaughters are old enough to explore and experience the magic of Teatown summer camp.

Daniel Riesel–Senior Counsel, Sive, Paget & Riesel, P.C.

“I grew up in Croton and spent a fair amount of my youth on the waters and in the woods surrounding the Village—some of those woods that are now managed by Teatown. Over the years the ability of young people to appreciate their natural surroundings has been greatly diminished by, albeit necessary, expansion of housing and infrastructure. Teatown fills that loss for both young and old, and that is one of the reasons why I feel honored to serve as Teatown’s General Counsel. My preparation for that role has been over 60 years of practicing law, a part of which I served as an Assistant U.S, Attorney for the Southern District of New York and Chief of its Environmental Protection Unit, Although my litigation practice has involved quite a few complex matters, the one closest to home was preventing the County from continuing to use Croton Point as a massive garbage dump and restoring that park to its intended use—the public appreciation of our naturel environment. The same use that Teatown now so ably serves

All of my experience seems to teach that dedicated individuals such as those of Teatown, as well as, good lawyering have and can advance that use.”