Raoul Bhavnani

Raoul is a life-long New Yorker with three generations of roots in Brooklyn back to his great-grandparents. Raised in Manhattan, he moved to Brooklyn more than 20 years ago and has called Brooklyn Heights home since 2014. Raoul graduated from Princeton University and since then has been working primarily in the for-profit arena, for firms like Morgan Stanley and FTI Consulting, both in the US and abroad. His career has focused on high-stakes communications work. He is currently Chief Communications Officer of Betterment, the leading digital investment advisory firm in the US, headquartered in New York City. Beyond his day jobs, Raoul has also been involved in a range of non-profit, political and advocacy work, including sitting on the board of The Alliance for the Arts (NYC) and Scenic Hudson (Poughkeepsie, NY), and co-founding The India Center Foundation, an arts organization focused on the American diaspora. Raoul began his involvement with the BHA as a member and then got involved in the BQE task force when the first DoT plan was tabled. Raoul is also a parishoner of Grace Church and lives with his wife, two children and a ruby Cavalier named Cooper.

Lorraine Bonaventura

Lorraine is the principal of Lorraine Bonaventura Architect, an award-winning architecture, interior design and preservation practice established in 2004. Before starting her own practice, she was the lead designer for many years at Kohn, Pederson, Fox Architects, focusing on institutional, commercial and hospitality projects. In addition to her current practice, she also teaches architecture and design in the city’s public schools through the American Institute Of Architects’ NYC Center for Arts Foundation’s “Learning By Design” program and other nonprofits. Lorraine is a member of the AIA and a registered architect in New York State. Besides her work with the BHA, Lorraine serves on BRIC’s Contemporary Arts Advisory Council, the board of The Heights Casino and on the Community Advisory Committee of the Brooklyn Public Library. She is also a past president of Grace Chorale of Brooklyn, and served as chair of the AIA NYC Design Awards Committee. She studied architecture and design at the Vienna Institute of Technology and received her BA in Architecture from the School of Design at North Caroline State University.

Jake Brooks

Jake, his wife, Michelle, and their two children have lived in Brooklyn Heights since 2010. Jake is a Professor of Law at Fordham University, where he teaches courses on tax law and property law. He has also taught at Georgetown, Harvard, Columbia, and Brooklyn Law School. Prior to becoming a professor, Jake was a tax attorney at Ropes & Gray LLP in Boston, Mass. Jake and Michelle’s children attended PS 8, where Jake and Michelle were active members and supporters of the PTA. Jake serves as the president of his co-op board and also serves on the board of the New England Society in the City of Brooklyn. He is a past board member of Atlas: DIY, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that provided legal services to undocumented immigrant youth. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Spencer Compton

Spencer Compton is a third generation New Yorker who has lived in Brooklyn Heights with his wife and children since 1999. A graduate of NYU and Brooklyn Law School, Spencer worked for a decade in the independent film business and then practiced for a decade in large New York law firms, specializing in commercial leasing and real estate finance. He is currently a Senior Vice-President and Senior Counsel at Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company.  Spencer recently served as the Chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Real Property Law Section. He has served as a president and a treasurer on co-op boards in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. He regularly publishes articles relating to real estate law and is a frequent CLE lecturer. In his free time, Spencer writes novels and often can be found working in the Fermob lounge chairs in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Cathy Garrard

Cathy Garrard has lived in Brooklyn Heights as a renter since 1993, when she moved to the neighborhood immediately after graduating from college. A journalist with three decades of experience, primarily in the magazine industry, she currently works as a content creation and certainty consultant, writing and editing for companies such as Dotdash Meredith, Linkwell Health, GoodRx, BioNews, AAA, and Reader’s Digest. She also teaches fact-checking and media literacy classes at NYU’s School for Professional Studies. She is an active and enthusiastic volunteer with the Promenade Gardens Conservancy, the partnership between the BHA and the New York City Parks Department that is dedicated to maintaining the plantings at our neighborhood’s beloved Promenade.

Carolyn Kramer

Carolyn Kramer is a longtime Brooklynite who grew up in Cobble Hill and moved to Brooklyn Heights in 2012. Carolyn currently lives in Brooklyn Heights with her husband, two children and their dog. Carolyn is a corporate lawyer who served as director and in-house counsel for the investment banking department of Credit Suisse focusing on mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Carolyn worked as a corporate associate at Cahill, Gordon & Reindel. Carolyn holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the Fordham University School of Law. Carolyn also served on the Advisory Board of Grace Church School.

Jennifer LaRusso-Leung

Jennifer has lived in Brooklyn Heights since 2010 and been an active member of the BHA through the Playground Committee since 2015 where she runs annual family events. She cares deeply for the neighborhood and feels passionate about bringing people together through community programming. Jennifer works as a coach for a disability non-profit and as an MBA admissions consultant. She holds an undergraduate degree from Holy Cross and a masters from Teachers College, Columbia. She is also currently pursuing a degree in mental health counseling from Teachers College. She lives in the neighborhood with her husband and children and is a proud parent of both PS 8 and Plymouth Church School, where she is an active volunteer.

Christopher Lawrence

Chris has been a member of the BHA since 2020 when he moved to Brooklyn Heights with his family. A native of Switzerland, he is passionate about his community as well as enabling education for others. He sits on the Advisory Board of Malaika, a foundation that provides education (K-12) and food to girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and he is also a Wealth Advisor at J.P. Morgan. A Swiss qualified attorney by way of background, he holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Master in Business Law from the University of Geneva. Most nights you can find Chris and his family walking in Brooklyn Heights. Chris loves history and the arts, cooking for his friends and family, as well as playing tennis or cycling.

John MacIntosh

John and his family have been connected with Brooklyn Heights since 1991. A desire to live in the Heights brought them back in 2007 after ten years abroad. John looks for ways to use his finance and business experience to have a positive, social impact. He is the Managing Partner of SeaChange Capital Partners, a nonprofit “merchant bank” that makes grants, loans, and provides consulting to help other nonprofits—from arts and culture to social services—address complex challenges. Prior to SeaChange, John worked in private equity, management consulting and software development. John has a BSE from Princeton University and did a mid-life Masters in Philosophy and Public Policy at the London School of Economics. He serves on the Board of Directors of the John Jay College Foundation and the Putney School, is an equity investment advisor to MicroVest Capital Management, and is an observer on a number of nonprofit boards in conjunction with his role at SeaChange. He is also proud to have played goal-keeper in more than 150 games for Heights FC. John and his wife Anna feel blessed to have been able to raise four children in the neighborhood.

Betsy Mallow

Betsy Mallow is regularly found sitting across the table in Brooklyn Heights from her husband, Jeremy Robbins, and their two sons, getting beaten in cards or chess. This continues a tradition of family chess across Brooklyn tables, as her father used to play with his family when his dad was the Principal of Thomas Jefferson High School. Betsy currently serves as the Executive Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer for NY State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), the State’s affordable housing agency. She also Chairs the Board of a non-profit, the Violence Intervention Program, which works with mostly LatinX survivors of domestic violence. An alumna of Brown University and Harvard Business School, she has dedicated her professional life to building, growing, and transforming organizations in the private, public, and non profit sectors.

Cindy McLaughlin

Cindy, her husband Andrew, and their two boys have lived in Brooklyn Heights since 2018. Cindy is CEO of Envelope, a real estate acquisitions analysis company that uses zoning-based spatial software to search for, visualize, and run scenarios on real estate development potential. Prior to Envelope, Cindy held CEO and President roles in a range of technology companies. Cindy has an MBA from MIT/Sloan, a BA from Mount Holyoke College, and spent 2 years in Congo as a Water/Sanitation volunteer for the US Peace Corps. She also serves on the Tech and Innovation Committee at the Urban Land Institute, on the Board of Trustees at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and on the multi-stakeholder Coalition for the BQE Transformation.

Jane Platt

Jane and her husband Radey Johnson and their two daughters have lived in Brooklyn Heights since 2010. A graduate of Bennington College, she received her Ph.D. in psychology from Yale. Following graduation she joined the faculty at Harvard and eventually moved on to New York University School of Medicine where she taught, did research and also ran a private practice as a licensed psychologist. Now retired, she has volunteered with the BHA since 2012, and joined the Membership Committee in 2017 and the Board of Governors in 2018 where she will continue to work on membership issues. Jane also volunteers at the Brooklyn Women’s Exchange and is on the board of The Alex House Project, a Brooklyn-based non-profit that offers parenting classes as well as educational and vocational support to young single mothers.

April Somboun

April and her husband, Jason have lived in Brooklyn Heights since 2013. April is the Education Research and Innovation Manager a the International Rescue Committee’s Airbel Impact Lab, where she is supporting the implementation of projects across the portfolio of education Global Research and Innovation Priorities (GRIP) to reach last-mile children, parents, and caregivers, providing them with quality and sustainable education solutions. She has worked for organizations such as Scholastic, the American Heart Association, and the Council for Economic Education. Throughout her career, she has created multi-million dollar partnerships and marketing campaigns that benefited children and their families with a focus on economic mobility, financial literacy, and health. She holds a Master’s of Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor’s from the University of Washington. April serves on the board of two nonprofits: the Brooklyn Book Bodega and the Laotian American National Alliance. She is also a member of the Poplar Street Community Garden and the Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Community Advisory Council. She and her husband have two children who attend PS 8 and NEST+M.

Jordan Tamagni

Jordan Tamagni lives in Brooklyn Heights with her husband, Michael Schlein, and their two sons, who represent the 6th generation of their family to spend some part of their lives in Brooklyn. A communications consultant currently advising non-profit organizations and other public sector clients, she served most recently at UNICEF as Chief of Editorial and Senior Communications Advisor. Among other previous roles, she was Chief of Staff at the NYC Department of Education’s Fund for Public Schools and senior Presidential Speechwriter at the White House. An alumna of Brooklyn Law School, she is passionate about Brooklyn Heights and New York City generally.

Laura Trevelyan

Laura Trevelyan has lived in Brooklyn Heights since moving here from the UK in 2004, and she and her husband James Goldston raised their three sons in the neighborhood. Laura is a journalist and advocate, who was a correspondent and anchor for BBC News. She’s an Honorary Associate Fellow at the PJ Patterson Institute for Africa Caribbean Advocacy at The University of the West Indies and a Trustee of the Trevelyan Grenada Reparations Fund.

Laura left BBC News in March 2023 after a thirty year career, following her family’s historic trip to Grenada in February 2023 where she led the Trevelyans’ public apology to the Grenadian people for the role of their ancestors in enslaving Africans on the island.

Laura anchored the BBC’s Emmy award winning newscast World News America on PBS for more than ten years, covering national and international stories from the studio in Washington DC, and anchoring on location in the US and from around the world. Laura has reported for the BBC from across the globe – and was at the Trump HQ reporting live throughout election night 2016, and on the steps of the US Capitol on January 6 2021. She is the author of two books, A Very British Family: The Trevelyans and Their World and The Winchester: The Gun That Built an American Dynasty. Laura has a first class degree in politics from Bristol University and a postgraduate diploma in journalism from the University of Wales College, Cardiff. She’s a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Laura also serves on the boards of the Brooklyn Kindergarten Society, CitySquash, and the Royal Oak Foundation.

Koren Volk

Koren joined the Board of Governors in 2018, and served as President from 2022 to 2024. She and her husband moved to Brooklyn Heights in 1995. Now retired, she is the Project Manager of the Promenade Garden Conservancy, joining the group in the garden on Tuesday mornings and assisting in the Conservancy’s annual fundraising efforts. She also volunteers as an adult education tutor for Imani House of Park Slope. She has recently served as president of her Montague Terrace coop. In her free time, Koren retreats to her painting studio in Sunset Park. Before retiring, Koren worked as a research analyst for Deutsche Bank, Barclays Bank and CIBC. She holds degrees from the University of Regina and the University of Western Ontario.