Public Employee Press

New staff and promotions to improve services

In its continuing effort to strengthen services for members, DC 37 has recently hired new staff and promoted others.

Born in Union City, NJ, to Cuban immi­grants, new Organizing Director Mario Dartayet-Rodriguez formerly led organizing for UNITE-HERE, the union of hotel, food service, laundry and warehouse workers. His grandparents, an airline janitor and a garment worker, and both parents were union members.

"I saw the impact unions had on my family. Because of union jobs, they were able to provide a decent life for us," he said. "At this point, the public sector is in a serious crisis and organizing is more important than it's ever been." Dartayet-Rodriguez enjoys biking and photography.

Kenneth Mulligan, recently promoted to assistant division director, will be responsible for clerical-administrative workers in the uniformed agencies. Born in Brooklyn, Mulligan comes from a union family. "One of my chief motivators was my father, Mose, a shop steward for the janitors' union at the Board of Education. He told us stories about civil rights and the labor movement."

Mulligan started as an Eligibility Specialist in 1985. Brownsville Center Shop Steward Ann Mules "inspired me," said Mulligan, who quickly became a shop steward, grievance rep, Local 1549's workplace violence coordinator and a DC 37 rep. Mulligan and his wife, Tresilla, live in Brooklyn.

Barbara Terrelonge, promoted to director of DC 37's Quality of Work Life program, has served the union as a grievance rep in the Clerical Division, a DC 37 rep in the Professional Division and an assistant director in the Research and Negotiations Dept.

A Hunter College graduate, she has worked as a 911 Police Communications Technician and a Sr. PCT/Dispatcher and served as a Local 1549 chapter chair.

One of her goals is to help people under­stand that the QWL program does much more than organize employee recognition ceremonies. Terrelonge and husband, Warren, are raising six children.

Moira Dolan was promoted to Senior Assistant Director in the Research and Nego­tiations Dept. Her new duties include staff training and mentoring, helping other negotiators, and handling bargaining for additional units.

Dolan was an organizer for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, earned a degree in labor relations from Cornell University and started at DC 37 in 1990. She and her husband, David, are the parents of two teenage daughters, Rachel, 16, and Isabel, 13.

Cynthia Perkins, a new council rep in the Schools Division, started as a Computer Specialist in the Health Dept. and became 2nd vice president of Electronic Data Processing Personnel Local 2627. She chaired the local's Women's Committee and is active on the DC 37 Black History Committee.
"Listening to members strengthens my ability to serve them," she said.

New council rep Dana Tilghman is working with Psychologists Local 1189, Consumer Affairs Local 1759 and Emergency Medical Service Officers Local 3621 in the Professional Division.

"The best thing about my work is giving voice to the voiceless," said Tilghman, who graduated from college with a major in psychology and became a school substance abuse counselor in 1984. He served as a Local 372 shop steward and executive board member and as a grievance rep in the Schools Division. As his children grew up, he enjoyed coaching youth basketball and baseball teams.

Deena Mikhail, born in Kuwait and educated at Rutgers University and Tulane Law School, "found that labor and employment discrimination classes were the most interesting part of the curriculum." She came to the DC 37 Legal Dept. after clerking for a judge in New Jersey Superior Court.

"The gratitude the members express really keeps me going," she said. "At the end of the day you feel like you did something important for other people." Her outside interests include running, physical fitness, and spinning classes.