Mary E. Sullivan, Statewide President
ALBANY— Shortly after Mary E. Sullivan began working at the Herkimer County Department of Social Services, CSEA union representatives came around and asked her if she would be interested in running for office.
Sullivan responded, jokingly, ‘How about president?’
A month later, Sullivan was the Herkimer County Unit President. A month after she began serving in union office, she was negotiating her unit’s contract with the county. In fact, she was sitting across the negotiating table from her high school guidance counselor.
More than 35 years later, Sullivan now leads our union. Through the years, she served in leadership posts on every level of CSEA. From unit president, she became Herkimer County Local President. She later served as treasurer and 1st vice president of our Central Region.
Sullivan was elected as our union’s Statewide Treasurer by our union’s Board of Directors to replace the treasurer who had retired. She was overwhelmingly re-elected to that position twice. In 1994, Sullivan was elected our union’s Executive Vice President, a position she served in until becoming our Statewide President on Nov. 1, 2019.
In February, she was the first woman — and first local government division member — to be elected by the membership to a full term as Statewide President.
Her perspective as a union woman in local government has driven her activism.
Shortly after becoming unit president, Sullivan quickly got involved with our union, including getting involved in our union’s Central Region, which was then known as a conference, and meeting many of our union sisters and brothers.
“I learned from my peers because there were no [union]education programs at the time,” she said.
Sullivan found her local government service to be valuable experience in her leadership roles.
“One of the things that local government members bring to the table is that we are closer to the action; we deal with our employer every single day,” Sullivan said. “On the state side, you may deal with state agency directors or other staff people, but not always [elected officials]. In local government, you’re going to see your employer at the gas station or grocery store. That may make it easier for us to directly affect things in our community.”
As CSEA’s President, Sullivan aims to enhance our union’s communications, education and opportunities to be involved in our union. She also wants to make our union more inclusive, including urging women to get more involved, noting that women, as well as local government members, comprise the majority of our members.
“I think most women are more willing to build coalitions and work in concert with those coalitions to get the job done,” Sullivan said. “Women are becoming more willing to support one another and more women are stepping forward. We have to encourage women to be more engaged — they’re the majority of this organization just like local government members. There just needs to be a balance in the thought process in the decisions we make.”
In recent weeks, Sullivan has also faced leading our union amid the coronavirus outbreak. “It’s been an interesting [several]weeks trying to manage CSEA, between taking care of our members, but staff as well,” she said.
— Janice Gavin
Denise Berkley, Executive Vice President
ALBANY — Denise Berkley laughed when asked about being introduced as our union’s new executive vice president, figuring by now, most CSEA members know who she is.
“I’ve been around for a while,” she said with a chuckle, illuminated by her ever-present smile.
More than 40 years, in case you’re keeping track.
Berkley began her union career a few years after starting work in 1973 at the Brooklyn Developmental Center. In 1979, she became a union steward, and in 1981, she was elected local president.
She initially got involved in our union because she didn’t like the way she and her co-workers were being treated.
“I didn’t like the way management was treating our members, so I decided to run for president of the union so I could better protect them,” she said.
What followed was decades of union activism that continue to this day, with Berkley moving up through the ranks, serving in roles too numerous to mention at every level of our union. In 2008, she was elected our statewide secretary, a role that she served in for three terms and one that she really enjoyed.
“I loved being the statewide secretary,” Berkley said. “I got the chance to interact with so many members, and I enjoyed helping them and making the jobs of our leaders and activists a little easier.”
A self-proclaimed “people person,” Berkley also enjoyed traveling throughout the state to conduct trainings for union secretaries.
“I believe very much in giving the leadership all the knowledge they need to do their jobs better,” she said.
Berkley said that she’s still adjusting to switching her leadership role in our union, but it’s a good adjustment.
“I’m learning what this new role is, but I’m loving it,” she said, only weeks into the job.
For now, Berkley wants to focus her work on leadership education, based on her two guiding principles. First, she looks upon her union work as a ministry, in her role as a servant leader. Second, she wants to give our union leaders as much information and knowledge as possible to be better leaders.
“If we can make [our union leaders]stronger leaders by giving them more information and the tools they need, we can make a big difference in our union,” Berkley said.
— Mark M. Kotzin
Richard Bebo, Statewide Secretary
ALBANY — For Richard Bebo, what started out as a favor for a friend has turned into a passion for service that has brought him to the highest ranks of our union leadership.
Bebo, a program aide at the New York State Department of Transportation’s Office of Construction in Albany, said he began his union advocacy in 2006 after his former Local president retired. His friend, who was the former local vice president, moved up to Local president and asked Bebo to serve as vice president.
Bebo admitted that he really didn’t know what he was getting himself into, but in short order, he was bitten — hard — by the union bug.
While attending our union’s Annual Delegates Meeting that year, he was overwhelmed with what he witnessed, leading him to want more.
“The camaraderie of seeing all those people together, the passion of hearing all the speakers, the entire week was amazing,” Bebo said. “Getting all the information I got, and to realize the purpose of what our union was, it was inspiring.”
What it inspired him to do was become more involved. He soon joined CSEA’s third Leadership Education And Development (LEAD) Program class, wanting to “make myself a better activist, a better leader.”
Following that, he ran for local president in 2013, a position he served in for two terms. In 2014, he was appointed 3rd vice president of our union’s Capital Region, successfully running two years later for Capital Region executive vice president.
Now, Bebo has stepped into his most challenging union role to date, elected as our statewide secretary.
“The reason I ran is I wanted to be able to do what we were successfully doing in the region and in my local at the statewide level,” he said. “The education, the trainings, the communications, and being a resource for the members.”
“What motivates me is serving our members,” Bebo said. “When I walked away from that first ADM, I realized this is something I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be a statewide officer because I knew I wanted to serve at that level. I’ve always loved being a resource to the members of my local and my region, and I look forward to being a resource to the members across the state.”
Bebo said he is driven by some important principles.
“I have values that have stuck with me throughout my career in the union,” he said. “Be accountable, be open, listen with respect and stand together. That leads to a stronger union.”
Bebo said he wants to not only be a catalyst for positive change, but also wants to inspire others to be as enthusiastic about our union as he is.
“I don’t want members to just be in our union, I want our members to be excited to be in our union,” he said.
— Mark M. Kotzin
Nicole Meeks, Treasurer
ALBANY — For Nicole Meeks, growing up in a “big union family” was enough to make her realize the value of unions.
“My father had been in the sheet metal trades for 40 years, and that union kept him protected and employed for that whole time,” she said. “Seeing how my father was gainfully employed thanks to his union led me to get more involved in our union.”
Meeks, an accountant 2 in the City of Syracuse’s Department of Aviation for the past 20 years, got her CSEA start volunteering for a union committee. A few years later, she joined the union’s negotiating team.
“I wanted to help other people who might have issues or concerns in their jobs,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that we still received the benefits that our brothers and sisters had fought for.”
Falling back on her four-year degree in accounting, Meeks naturally gravitated to one of the most unsung roles within our union, that of the treasurer. “I always said it takes a special kind of person to be a union treasurer,” she said.
She became treasurer of her CSEA unit, later moving up to vice president, and then president of her city unit, all the while serving on numerous union committees.
But it was always that background in numbers that kept her coming back to that treasurer role, serving first as local and then Central Region treasurer.
“Having that accounting and auditing background, it really helps with the treasurer positions I have held,” she said. “It has helped me help other units and locals to do that budget work they have to do.”
Meeks said she was proud she was able to use her skills to train our members to get their local union finances in order.
As statewide treasurer, Meeks hopes to bring all her knowledge and expertise to help an even wider audience of CSEA leaders throughout the state.
“I’m looking forward to meeting new members and traveling around the state and doing training for our treasurers,” she said. “A lot of them are probably overwhelmed and I want to be able to ease their minds, to let them know that I’m here as a resource to help them.”
Her goal is to help our union’s leaders continue to be good stewards of their union money.
“I want to assist the treasurers and the presidents in making good decisions for our members when it comes to union finances,” Meeks said. “I want to do everything I can to help those people.”
— Mark M. Kotzin
