The Board of Directors of the Saltonstall Foundation is comprised of dedicated individuals committed to maintaining and advancing the mission of the Foundation. Each one brings a passion for the arts, and many are artists and writers from the immediate Ithaca area.

Alex Chertok

Alex Chertok

Writer, Poet

Alex Chertok is a poet and essayist living just outside of Ithaca with his wife and son. He was named Ithaca Festival Poet in 2014, and has received a fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He has a BA in English from the University of Virginia and an MFA in poetry from Cornell, where he was also a Lecturer. He now teaches through the Cornell Prison Education Program and runs a writing tutoring company.

Lindsey Glover

Lindsey Glover

Artist, Educator

Lindsey Glover, a 2019 Saltonstall residency fellow, is a multi-media artist working across photography, printmaking, video, and installation. Her multi-media works are reconfigurations and reflections of the natural environment. Lindsey’s works on paper and projection installations have appeared in Philadelphia, Providence, R.I., Portland, Ore., Jackson Hole, Wyo., and internationally in Germany.

Lindsey has been awarded an Experimental Projects Residency at the Institute of Electronics at Alfred University and a Ucross Foundation residency. She has been the recipient of the Margaret Bourke-White Photography Portfolio Proice, a juried award for a photographic portfolio, and the John Hartell Graduate Award, given for excellence in studio practice, both awarded through Cornell University.

Lindsey teaches art through the School of Continuing Education at Cornell University and as an eCornell course facilitator in photography. She has also taught in the Visual Art program at Wells College.

Lindsey received a BFA from Alfred University, New York State College of Ceramics, and an MFA from Cornell University, School of Architecture, Art, and Planning.

Nancy Rose Gossett

Nancy Rose Gossett

Artist, Gallery Director

Nancy Rose Gossett is a visual artist whose figurative painting focuses on themes of physical mobility, social inequality, and the destruction of the environment.  After receiving her BA in French Literature with honors from UC Berkeley, Nancy relocated to New York — and to visual art —  becoming a full-time artist both freelance and by commission.  Over the past twenty years she has left a trail of art in LA, Paris, Ithaca, NYC, and finally, Oneonta, NY, where she now lives with her husband and two children. 

In addition to painting, Nancy works as the gallery director at the Community Arts Network of Oneonta, a non-profit dedicated to promoting the arts and supporting the artists, musicians, and writers in her city.

Katherine Howe

Katherine Howe

Writer

Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian and novelist. Her best known novels are The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (2009), and Conversion, which received the 2015 Massachusetts Book Award in young adult literature. In 2021 she co-authored Vanderbilt: the Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, which reached #1 on the New York Times list.

Her newest projects are another collaboration with Anderson Cooper entitled Astor: the Rise and Fall of an American Fortune, released in September 2023, a novel called A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself, in November 2023, and The Penguin Book of Pirates, in February 2024.

She holds a BA in art history and philosophy from Columbia and an MA in American and New England studies from Boston University, and she has taught American history, visual culture, and writing at BU and Cornell. She lives in New England with her family, where she is at work on her next novel. She also puts hot sauce on everything. (Photo credit: Nina Subin)

Stephen Kuusisto

Stephen Kuusisto

Poet, Writer

Stephen Kuusisto, a 2013 Saltonstall residency alum, directs The Burton Blatt Institute’s Research Programs in disability at Syracuse University where he holds a University Professorship.

He is the author of the memoirs Planet of the Blind (a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”) and Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening and of the poetry collections Only Bread, Only Light, and Letters to Borges. His newest memoir, Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey is new from Simon & Schuster.

A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a Fulbright Scholar, he has taught at the University of Iowa, Hobart & William Smith Colleges, and The Ohio State University. Kuusisto has served as an advisor to the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington DC and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including The Oprah Winfrey Show; All Things Considered; and Animal Planet. His essays have been widely published, and his daily blog “Planet of the Blind” is read globally by people interested in disability and contemporary culture.

Rita Melen

Rita Melen

Retired Psychotherapist, Arts Supporter

Rita Melen has lived in the greater Ithaca area for most of her life and appreciates the natural beauty and cultural richness of the area. A graduate of Cornell, she pursued comparative literature studies at Yale where she met her husband. They moved back to Ithaca; she earned her MSW degree at Syracuse University; and they raised two beautiful daughters. Rita is currently happily retired from a 25-year career as psychotherapist at Family & Children’s Services of Ithaca.

While not a creative artist herself, Rita is a lifelong lover of the arts of all genres. Her relationship with the Saltonstall Foundation began many years ago. When biking in the countryside, she passed by the property, saw the sign and inquired what it was. Many summers have been spent biking out for the residency open houses. Rita has watched the exciting evolution of the Saltonstall Foundation and is honored to now serve on the Board.

Mike Moyer

Mike Moyer

Fundraising Professional

Mike Moyer is the Associate Vice President for Principal Gifts for Alumni Affairs and Development at Cornell University. While leading fundraising for Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Mike served on Saltonstall’s board for two years before his tenure was cut short in 2015 by a relocation to Virginia for a fundraising job at Virginia Tech.

His last official board act in 2015, while a moving truck was sitting at his house, was to introduce us to architect Caroline O’Donnell. Caroline designed our gorgeous accessible addition and partial renovation of the studio building which was completed in time for our 2021 residency season.

Luckily for us, Mike was lured back to Cornell in January 2021. He loves art, loves Saltonstall, and we are thrilled that he has rejoined the board.

Jesse Saldana

Jesse Saldana

Fundraising Professional, Poet

Jesse Saldana is the Sr. Director of Product at GiveGab, an online fundraising platform that works with nonprofits and higher ed institutions around the country. He lives in Ithaca with his wife and their two cats and two dogs.

Though he doesn’t write much these days, Jesse has a BA in English from the University of Virginia and an MFA from the University of Washington in Poetry.

Alice Saltonstall

Alice Saltonstall

Musician, Artist

Alice, Connie’s younger sister, is a local jazz/improvisational singer who earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Syracuse University. She has collaborated with various local musicians, most recently with Jayne Demakos who produced the CD “Beauty Crowds Me” for Hospice.

Alice is the mother of four children. She loves the Saltonstall Colony and would like her sister’s legacy to grow and continue to support the artists and writers of New York State.