About Us

Meet the Board

The Overlook is led by a team of experienced journalists, media professionals, and community leaders committed to strengthening local news in the Catskills and Hudson Valley.

Peter Cherukuri

Peter Cherukuri is a media executive and entrepreneur who has spent his career helping build and grow influential news organizations. He has held senior leadership roles at POLITICO, The Huffington Post, and The Economist Group, where he led major growth initiatives and helped scale new media platforms.

He is the founder of two media ventures: upNEXT, a leadership media platform focused on industry, technology, and public policy, and LeaderBoard, a media and intelligence platform focused on governance and leadership in major institutions. Earlier in his career, he served as president of 1776, a global startup incubator supporting entrepreneurs working in highly regulated industries, and has advised emerging media companies including Semafor and Punchbowl News.

Cherukuri has a longstanding connection to Upstate New York through Colgate University in Hamilton, where he earned his undergraduate degree. He currently serves on several media and civic boards, including NPR affiliate WAMU and the National Press Foundation.

Susanne Craig

Susanne Craig is an investigative reporter for The New York Times and the co-author of the best-selling book “Lucky Loser, How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.”

Her reporting over the past decade has centered on the finances of some of America’s most powerful figures. She and her colleagues spent years reporting in-depth articles that revealed the size of the fortune President Trump inherited from his father and exposed a history of business failures hidden within twenty years of his tax returns. This work earned her a Pulitzer Prize and other awards.

Craig lives near Windham and joined The Overlook board to help guide and grow the coverage of news in the region. 

Lauren Johnston

Lauren Johnston is a newsroom leader and content strategist with two decades of experience leading digital transformation and growth initiatives at top media companies. She is currently Chief Product Transformation Officer at Atlas Obscura, where she works across editorial, product, and audience teams on the evolution of the community travel platform. Previously, she held senior leadership roles at Yahoo News and The New York Daily News and was a longtime adjunct journalism professor at St. John’s University. Lauren lives in Woodstock and Brooklyn and is an avid traveler, distance runner, yogi, dog lover, and reader.

Jacqueline Kellachan – Secretary and Co-Founder

In 2010, Jacqueline Kellachan purchased The Golden Notebook, a beloved independent bookstore in Woodstock, ensuring its survival as a vibrant cultural hub. With a background in public health—including roles at the NYC and NYS Departments of Health and The Rockefeller Foundation—she has spent her career advocating for literacy, equity, and community-based initiatives. The Golden Notebook has partnered with nearly every school district in Ulster County to promote youth reading programs. Kellachan has degrees from Princeton University, Georgetown University, and Columbia University and has served on the boards of the Ulster Literacy Association and the Woodstock Day School.

Mark Land

Mark Land’s 40-year career includes leadership roles across journalism, corporate
America, and higher education. A newspaper journalist by training, Land’s two decades
as a journalist run the gamut from leading community newsrooms—including at The
Saratogian in upstate New York—to reporting and editing roles at some of the country’s
largest newspapers.

For the past 15 years, he has served as a higher education communications leader. He
currently works as vice president for communications and marketing at Union College in
Schenectady, NY. He and his wife, Karen, live in Charlton, NY, with their two dogs and
11 chickens.

Josh King

Josh King has owned a home in Windham, New York for 15 years, where he serves on the Board of Directors of the Windham Foundation, which provides grants for historical preservation, the arts, education, recreation, and initiatives that make Windham an extraordinary place to live, work, and visit. An avid Catskills skier and hiker, Josh serves as Head of Corporate Affairs at Citadel, where he leads the firm’s marketing and communications functions. He served previously in similar roles at the New York Stock Exchange, First Data, Willis Group, and The Hartford. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College.

Scott Widmeyer – President and Co-Founder

Scott Widmeyer has had a distinguished career in journalism and communications, advising leaders from U.S. presidents to CEOs and union heads. He founded Widmeyer Communications (now part of Finn Partners) and has held key roles in political and media strategy. A longtime Ulster County resident, Scott currently chairs the Country Roads Angel Foundation and co-chairs the Stubblefield Institute for Civil Political Communications. In addition, he is on the boards of The Leadership Academy, The Catskill Mountain Foundation, St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, the School of Media & Public Affairs National Council at The George Washington University, and the Visiting Committee of the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts and Media where he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in 2023.  Scott’s commitment to community journalism stems from a lifetime of media experience, dating back to his early days as a newspaper reporter.

Donna Price – Treasurer 

Donna is an experienced healthcare executive who currently serves as treasurer for multiple non-profits. She holds a master’s from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and has resided in the Town of Olive for the past 25 years.

Meet the Staff

Noah Eckstein – Founding Editor-in-Chief

A bilingual journalist and editor, Noah has written for The New York Times, Vogue, Semafor, Variety, The Guardian, Fast Company, and other international, national, and regional outlets. He studied at Columbia University and holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from City, University of London, and a master’s degree in U.S. History and Politics from University College London. Noah’s research on misinformation and politics, conducted in partnership with YouGov, reflects his deep interest in the intersection of media and democracy. Noah has reported from places like Peru’s Sacred Valley, South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, and across the Hudson Valley covering stories that bridge politics, art, and culture. Honored to be The Overlook’s Founding Editor-in-Chief, he is dedicated to building trust and engagement through rigorous local reporting, investigations, and daring features.

Jim Rich – Reporter

Jim Rich has worked in journalism for more than 25 years. He was twice editor-in-chief of the NY Daily News, overseeing an investigation into New York City’s abuse of nuisance abatement laws, in conjunction with Pro Publica, that was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism. He lives in West Shokan with his wife and son.

Mia Quick – Editorial Assistant

Mia Quick is a born-and-raised Catskills native and began her professional career working at The Overlook. She has writing and photography featured in The Legislative Gazette, where she focused on policy and environmental reporting in Albany’s Capitol building. Before graduating from SUNY New Paltz with a degree in journalism, she studied multimedia communications at The College of Saint Rose until its closure.

Mercedes Dykes – Intern

Mercedes Dykes studies Journalism at West Virginia University.

Photographers

Michael Sofronski

Michael Sofronski is a photojournalist and portrait photographer whose career began at The Village Voice, where he discovered his passion for telling stories through images. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Post, New York Magazine, and other major publications, as well as through international photo agencies. Beyond his editorial work, Michael has documented humanitarian projects for UNICEF, Americares, and Doctors Without Borders in India and South America. He lives in Woodstock with his wife and their rescue dog Mazie, continuing to find inspiration in everyday life.

Roy Gumpel

Roy Gumpel (b. 1956) is an American photographer from Port Chester, N.Y., who has been making images since buying his first camera in 1972. After photographing local football games and shooting for the town Pennysaver, he abandoned an early plan to become a doctor and committed fully to photography. Encouraged by a personal reply from a National Geographic editor, Gumpel studied at the School of Visual Arts with curator Larry Siegel and Sid Kaplan, Robert Frank’s longtime printer, and was also influenced by his uncle, watercolorist Hugh Gumpel. In the late 1970s, mentorship from photographers Todd Weinstein and Bob Day led him to fashion photographer Mel Dixon, a former Richard Avedon assistant who hired Gumpel and helped shape his studio work. His enduring inspirations include Robert Frank and Josef Sudek. In 1995, he photographed Route 66 for National Geographic Explorer and has since documented jazz legends including Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Betty Carter, and Ron Carter. He lives in Woodstock, N.Y., where he is a longtime volunteer firefighter and EMT and continues to photograph daily, often on assignment for The Overlook.

Advisory Board Members

The Overlook is supported by an advisory board with deep expertise in journalism, media, and public affairs, including:

Peggy Barmore

An independent journalist focused on education and rural reporting, Peggy has written for The Hechinger Report, U.S. News & World Report, The Seattle Times, and The Charleston Gazette-Mail. She has an extensive background in public relations and communications, having spent more than two decades working in the education labor movement in New York before returning to journalism. She holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Alexis Gelber

An award-winning newspaper and magazine editor, Alexis served as a top editor at Newsweek for decades, overseeing coverage of politics, social issues, and international news. She has also worked at The Daily Beast and is an adjunct professor at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She edited Newsweek’s acclaimed presidential election projects in 2004 and 2008 and has been deeply involved in research on women in politics and social media.

Lisa A. Phillips

A journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, Lisa is the author of “Unrequited: Women and Romantic Obsession” and “Public Radio: Behind the Voices”. She was the founding Hudson Valley Bureau Chief for WAMC Northeast Public Radio and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Psychology Today, Longreads, and Salon.

Amy Scheibe

A novelist, editor, ghostwriter, and producer, Amy is the Creative Director of the Maude Adams Theater Hub, a program of the Catskill Mountain Foundation. She is also the Chairperson of the Hunter Foundation and is active in literary and cultural projects across the region.

William van Roden

William van Roden is a designer and art director with an extensive career spanning magazine design, branding, and identity systems. He has worked with The New York Times, Metropolis, Real Simple, Interior Design, and Martha Stewart Omnimedia, designing everything from books to major newspaper layouts. At The New York Times, he oversaw branding audits and designed elements of the print edition, including Page 2 and 3 and award-winning podcast branding. He runs his own studio based in Kingston, serving both local and international clients.