Eleanor has been a resident in the Village of Rhinebeck for 25 years and is completing her first term on the Village Board. She is present in the community as a renter, birder, bocce player, book club member, Rhinebeck at Home member and hiker. After successfully operating a family dairy farm with her brother for 20 years, she became a recognized high school mathematics teacher.

Eleanor served on the Main Committee and two Subcommittees that developed the award-winning Village of Rhinebeck Comprehensive Plan. In her first term on the Board, she established herself as an independent Trustee, prioritizing principles over politics. Eleanor has been active on many fronts such as championing renter protections, reporting errors in vendor contracts, uncovering a substantial billing error, serving as liaison to the newly formed Parks Committee, and promoting Town and Village cooperation. She has advocated for good practices such as publishing policies and procedures, and for clearly written criteria to assure that employees are treated equitably.

Eleanor is running for re-election to help maintain what we love about our Village … its history, charm, and sense of community. Some of her priorities include developing a Master Plan for each of our parks, improving the Lions Mini Park playground, controlling the highly invasive tree of heaven, supporting the work of the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee, improving pedestrian and bike safety, and improving the traffic flow and parking in the Village Center.

Finally, Eleanor has canvassed in every election since moving to the Hudson Valley. She knocked on over 1000 doors last fall to help elect Kara Gerry and Dan Aymar-Blair. Clearly, she is a dedicated Democrat, as well as a dedicated public servant.

Rhinebeck Villagers care deeply about the environment and the arts. So do I! I support our wonderful community as a committed volunteer on the Village’s Climate Smart Task Force (CSTF), as a member of the Rhinebeck Rotary Club, and at the Rhinebeck Farmers’ Market. As a seasoned trustee and board president of multiple arts and community organizations, I have a deep understanding of what it takes to be an effective trustee on the Rhinebeck Village Board.

For the past several years I’ve been a member of the CSTF and helped develop the Climate Action Plan. I also serve as the CSTF representative on the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee, advocating for environmental strategies to be embedded throughout the Plan. Vanessa Bertozzi, the trustee currently in charge of environmental initiatives will be stepping down from the Village Board. I am running to be the environmental trustee and to build on Vanessa’s successes.

I am a trustee of Starr Library and of Northern Dutchess Daycare, the only not-for-profit organization offering affordable daycare to Rhinebeck. As board President of Ancram-based Forge Project (a Native-led non-profit whose mandate is to cultivate Indigenous leadership in arts and culture), I have been exploring ways to embed Indigenous values across all areas of the board’s work. As Village trustee, it would be my goal to embed climate resiliency strategies across all areas of Village governance.

Professionally, while living in Toronto, I raised three children (who currently live in Toronto, Vancouver, and Chicago) and I taught Contemporary Art and Art History at OCAD University. In New York, I worked in the field of German and Austrian Expressionism. My husband John and I live with my elderly mother “Halmi” and our dog, Molly.

Jennifer Neufeld grew up in Rhinebeck Village, where she first learned what community really means- showing up for one another, making decisions that matter, and living with the consequences of how a place is governed. She and her husband, Jamyang, chose to raise their family here so their children could grow up with that same sense of connection and belonging.

Jennifer spent much of her career working in complex, high-pressure environments where coordination and trust were hard to come by. In the 1990s, she built a strategic communications firm in Russia that grew from 15 people to more than 1,800 across 86 cities and 11 time zones. Later, working with USAID in Nepal, she coordinated communications among international organizations and the UN during the drafting of a new constitution in a post-conflict country. In each role, her work focused on aligning people with very different perspectives around shared goals before conflict took over.

Today, Jennifer applies that same approach in her family’s Rhinebeck-based business, which is built around ethical sourcing, fair-trade partnerships, and environmentally responsible production. As the company works toward B Corp certification, sustainability is treated not as marketing, but as operations- measured, integrated, and communicated transparently.

Jennifer is running for Village Board because Rhinebeck has already done much of the hard planning work. The challenge now is implementation: making sure good plans guide real decisions in consistent, connected ways. She believes local government works best when communication is clear, process is fair, and residents feel heard.

Jennifer brings an independent voice, a deep love for Rhinebeck, and a practical, resident-focused approach to governance, grounded in the belief that strong communities are built through thoughtful leadership, collaboration, and follow-through.