By Forum Staff
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on Thursday announced the 2025 class of community board appointees.
The Community Board 9 (Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Kew Gardens, Ozone Park) appointees are:
Faiuze Ali, Kirpal Billing, Zoila Bofill, Maricela Cano, John Carter, Andrea Crawford, Ruben Cruz II, Joan DeCamp, Warlito Deleon, Hillary Dvorkin, Stephen Forte, Vanessa Fuentes, Albert Gamarra, Daniel Grieve, Sylvia Hack, Kevin O’Leary, Fahovi Norman, Daniel Pollack, Ijaaz Rahim, Cristal Rivera, Philip Ross, Matthew Singh, Raghbir Singh, J. Richard Smith, Esta-Joy Sydell, Andrew Taranto, Harpreet Toor, Alyssa Velez, Keith Villanueva and Seth Welins.
The Community Board 10 (Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Howard Beach, South Richmond Hill) appointees are: Natalie Bissoon, Elizabeth Braton, John Calcagnile, Marie Cherenfant, Rosemary Ciulla-Frisone, Anthony Gellineau, Roger Gendron, Ashley Khan, Katherine Lopez, Ruben Martinez, Stacy Mohammed, Angela Nocerino, Pasquale Nostromo, Silvestro Pace, Sylvia Patterson, Kevin Roan, Manuel A. Rosa, George Russo, Sudesh Shew, Gemma Singh, Varinder Singh, Pedro Tejada, Isabel VanPutten and Darryl Wesby.
Of Richards’ 361 total appointees across Queens’ 14 community boards, 119 are new members who are not currently serving on a board already — breaking last year’s record of 117 new members.
The 361 appointees were chosen out of this year’s pool of 916 applicants. In the five community board appointment cycles that Richards has presided over, 2025 is the third year his office has received at least 900 applications.
Prior to the Richards administration, 43 percent of board members identified as female. But of the 119 new community board members this year, more than 51 percent identify as female. When combining all five of Richards’ community board application cycles, 52 percent of his new appointees have identified as female.
People of color were also strongly represented amongst the 119 new members. People who identify as Hispanic/Latinx — a demographic that has historically been severely underrepresented across the city’s community boards — made up 29.4 percent of that group. Meanwhile, those who identify as East Asian, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander or South Asian made up 23.5 percent of new members, while African Americans made up 22.7 percent of that group.
Broken down by age, over half of new members — 55.5 percent — appointed this year are under the age of 40 and nearly 20 percent are under the age of 30. The youngest new appointee is 17 years old, reflecting continued growth in interest among young people in community board membership.
There are 59 community boards citywide, and each hold monthly full membership meetings. The boards also hold hearings and issue recommendations about the City budget, municipal service delivery and numerous other matters that impact their communities.
All Queens community board members are appointed by the borough president, pursuant to the City Charter, with at least half of the appointments nominated by the City Council members representing their respective districts. Each board has up to 50 unsalaried members, with each member serving a two-year term. All community board members who wish to continue serving on a board are required to reapply at the conclusion of their two-year term and are subject to review and reconsideration.
