SBNC Nominates Brown, Hahn and Liu for Scarsdale Scarsdale Board

Suzi Hahn has been nominated to serve a second term on the Scarsdale School Board.The 2025 School Board Nominating Committee (“SBNC” or the “Committee”) has selected Suzie Hahn, Colleen Brown, and Laura Ying Liu for the 2025 non-partisan slate for election to the Scarsdale Board of Education. The Committee chose Suzie, Colleen, and Laura from a pool of dedicated candidates after a thorough vetting process. If elected during the school board election on May 20, 2025, Laura will assume her role as a first-term school board member and Colleen and Suzie, who currently serve as members of the Board of Education, will return for their second term effective July 1, 2025.

The Candidates

The SBNC enthusiastically endorses Suzie, Colleen, and Laura for election to the School Board. These three qualified candidates will bring different perspectives and draw on complementary backgrounds and experiences to serve our community. What they have in common is a deep commitment to maintaining the excellence of the Scarsdale schools and serving different constituents. Upon notification of being slated, all three candidates expressed gratitude to the SBNC members and co-chairs for their diligence and hard work during this slating process and, voiced that if elected in May, each looks forward to serving our incredible community and working collaboratively with the other Board of Education members and Scarsdale School District Administration to support our students and move our schools forward.

Suzie Hahn

As a Scarsdale resident for over 14 years, it is evident from her long and continuous list of accomplishments since her oldest child started Kindergarten that Suzie does not shy away from opportunities to contribute to our District. As her two children have grown, so has Suzie’s engagement with the community. Suzie has worn a plethora of hats in various volunteering efforts over her PTA/PTC tenure including annual activities, like book fairs and evening events, all the way up to the highly demanding daily roles of Webmaster, After School Clubs Chair and President of the QR PTA. If your family has joined the PTA at your child’s school, if you utilize the online PTA school directories, if you ever visit a PTA website for one of the Scarsdale schools or if you receive eblasts from your child’s school, you have benefited from the diligent work of Suzie Hahn who introduced Membership Toolkit to our District back in 2018 as PTC Directory Chair. Suzie has been a champion for this unifying technology platform that aggregated these various parts of the PTA efforts into a centralized system. She served as PT Council Treasurer for two years, overseeing all aspects of training and guiding all the Scarsdale unit PTAs in matters of its fiduciary responsibilities.

These endeavours all led to Suzie’s most recent volunteer commitment, her May 2022 election to the Scarsdale Board of Education. She has diligently served our community over her first three-year term, spending numerous hours each week getting up to speed on any issues that will be addressed during School Board meetings and is always being thoughtful in the points she raises and the questions she poses. She took on officer roles within that term, serving first as Vice President and currently President of the BOE. From watching Suzie on the Board of Education, both as a member and as an officer, it is apparent how she makes sure everyone is heard, discusses issues respectfully, and works toward decisions that are best for the community. Over and over again, Suzie has demonstrated her fervent commitment to the wellbeing of the children of our district throughout her time in Scarsdale and will continue to be an effective member of our Board of Education.

Suzie has served on many boards and committees at the local level including the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale as School Portfolio Chair, and board trustee at the Hoff-Barthelson Music School, as well as at the District level including the 2018 bond for Building/Facilities and Code of Conduct review. At the regional level Suzie serves on the Westchester-Putnam School Board Association Board of Directors where she currently serves as treasurer. All of this uniquely positions her with first-hand knowledge and experience that would be instrumental in the effective operations of the Scarsdale Board of Education. Suzie’s professional experience as a managing director at D.E. Shaw further bolsters her credentials as a returning Board of Education member, providing her financial acumen for the critical board tasks of budget evaluation and debt service on behalf of the community and engagement in collective bargaining agreements. It is clear from her track record that Suzie is willing to step up and take on more tasks for the community with a continued interest in her commitment to continuing with a second term as a Scarsdale Board of Education Trustee.

Colleen Brown

In her 10 years residing in Scarsdale with her husband and their two children, Colleen Brown has volunteered extensively in the community, holding many leadership roles culminating in her most recent service of her first three-year term as Scarsdale Board of Education Trustee. She is an active and concerned citizen devoted to the community, bringing much experience as a current board member as well as being respected by those she has worked to establish relationships with throughout the years. At the PTA level, she was very involved in the schools in pivotal roles like the Co-Chair of the “Learning From our Differences Program”, QRS PTA Executive Council Member, PTC Executive Member and last but not least, President of the QRS PTA. She has worked extensively with the many stakeholders in the community including parents, teachers, PTA leaders in other schools, QRS administration, District administration and the School Board. In all of these roles Colleen was a steadfast and a strong leader. She succeeds in her roles by being an excellent listener, a great collaborator, a creative problem solver who is able to bring out the best in all of those around her. She is uniformly lauded as a valuable board member with in-depth knowledge of the school system, District Administration and BOE while also demonstrating that she is eager to learn more, especially around areas she is unfamiliar with, by engaging in meaningful discussions and information-seeking to best reflect the community interests.

Prior to moving to Scarsdale, Colleen worked for 10 years at the Leman Manhattan Preparatory School which is currently a private K-12 school in lower Manhattan. When Colleen started at the school in 2006, it was a brand-new school built from scratch serving the K-5 student population. She initially was hired as the Director of Wellness, Nutrition and Food Service to develop the wellness curriculum as the school took a holistic approach to child education and was a classroom teacher in this area for four years. She was also a classroom teacher for Science grades 5-8. After a number of years Colleen moved into administrative roles and was the 6th Grade Dean, the Interim Assistant Head of the Middle School and lastly the Assistant Head of the Upper School. The school served a diverse population from many different areas and countries and had to create a strong support system particularly for the students who boarded at the school. Colleen oversaw the implementation of the international baccalaureate diploma program as the high school transitioned away from the standard high school diploma to a diploma recognized in many countries.

Colleen throughout her professional and personal life has been passionate about education, the welfare of children and contributing to the community that she is a part of. She would continue to bring to the School Board her dedication and professionalism, enthusiastically embracing the challenges ahead of her and contributing the important perspective to board activities as a parent and as a former educator / school administrator.

Laura Ying Liu

Laura has been a resident of Scarsdale for 15 years where she and her husband chose to raise their three children. Being raised in China herself, she carefully considered what community to establish roots in, determining that Scarsdale was the right home for their young family. Over the years, Laura’s volunteerism has covered a broad range of roles, undaunted by language or cultural barriers. She has tirelessly contributed to PTA work, often in leadership positions, from the elementary to the high school level. Laura put her finance background to good use and closely followed the school budget process for years, eventually serving as PTC Budget Study Co-Chair in the 2021-2022 school year. She is familiar with the many components and issues impacting the school budget, from personnel and programs to facilities and financial levers such as reserves, as well as the transparent and inclusive budget development process in which community needs and feedback are integrated. In addition, her service on the Library Board, first as Finance Officer and later as President, gave her experience overseeing the Library’s annual operating budget, capital improvement projects, collective bargaining contracts, and other municipal finance issues. These are all skills highly relevant for a Scarsdale Board of Education Trustee.

Laura has always sought opportunities to expand her knowledge and experience throughout her educational, professional and volunteer endeavors. Moving to New York to matriculate in a masters program in chemistry followed by an MBA, she then launched herself into the corporate world at Time Inc. serving in both business and financial roles. Her passion for fully understanding complex issues and implementing solutions is clear in everything she is involved in, from Scouting of America to the Scarsdale Chinese Association to various PTA/PTC committees to the Scarsdale Library Board, with her focus always on both serving the community while challenging herself to grow. Laura has always put tremendous effort into helping to build a strong Scarsdale community where families from all cultures and backgrounds can feel a strong sense of inclusion and belonging. Laura has spearheaded many diversity initiatives over the years, ranging from school events that enrich student experiences to parent-facing events that bring diverse groups together. She understands that all families, including immigrant families, have unique perspectives, needs, and strengths.

Laura’s educational and professional background have shaped her fact-based, analytical approach to problem-solving which, along with her thoughtful and deliberate style when addressing complex issues, make her an ideal Board of Education member for Scarsdale. She is described as a hard worker, good listener, well organized, collaborative, open-minded and thoughtful by those that have worked with her in various capacities, both large and small. These attributes, paired with the deep and broad knowledge she has of our community based on her years of volunteering and her professional background in finance, position her to be a welcome addition to the School Board.

The Committee

The SBNC is a non-partisan committee comprised of 24 voting members (with representatives from each of the five elementary districts) who serve for a three year term, and is chaired by a non-voting member. Over the course of Sunday meetings from January through March, this year’s committee conducted extensive candidate outreach to encourage interested community members to apply, listened to applicant presentations, questioned them, conducted detailed due diligence on all applicants, and considered potential candidates’ qualifications and characteristics. Pursuant to the SBNC Resolution, committee deliberations concerning candidates are confidential and the SBNC selects candidates “solely on their qualifications to serve the community” and not on their campaigning abilities or positions on specific issues. All discussions, deliberations, and references shared in Committee are kept confidential. Informed and engaged residents willing to serve on the SBNC and the School Board, along with voter participation, help to ensure the highest quality school board leadership.

The SBNC congratulates Suzie, Colleen and Laura on their nomination and thanks all applicants who went through the nominating process. “We are grateful to the Committee members for their dedication, hard work, and thoughtful consideration, to the applicants for their demonstrated commitment to our community which was further evidenced by their courageous willingness to participate in our rigorous selection process, and to the broader Scarsdale community for its support of the SBNC's efforts to help shape the excellence of the Scarsdale schools and ensure student success and wellbeing,” noted the Co-Chairs of the SBNC for 2024-25 comprised of Lisa Gans, Jennifer Zola and Anne Bates.

Voters in the School District are encouraged to vote on Tuesday, May 20, 2025 in the Scarsdale Middle School Gym. In addition to voting for three School Board seats, District voters will also be voting on a proposed School District Budget for the 2025-26 school year.
For more information on the SBNC, please visit our website at http://scarsdalesbnc.org or contact the SBNC Chair.

Please Participate

Scarsdale is fortunate to maintain a nonpartisan election process for the Board of Education that selects candidates based solely on their qualifications to serve, not on their campaigning abilities or positions on specific issues. Informed and engaged residents willing to serve on the SBNC and the School Board, along with voter participation, help to ensure the highest quality school board leadership. Please consider serving or suggesting other school district residents to fill future vacancies. You can do so at any time by emailing [email protected]
In addition, please consider a donation to the SBNC. The SBNC elections and process are financed by your contributions alone. Donations are solely used for running the SBNC elections and not towards any candidate. Any amount would be appreciated. Please visit https://scarsdalesbnc.org/please-donate/