Meet Westchester’s Future Up and Comers

You Heard About Them Here…First

The next decade’s headliners

Who among us will be the newsmakers and luminaries in 2020? We don’t have a crystal ball, but we have a pretty good feeling about these seven Westchester residents. While they aren’t household names (yet), their notable accomplishments already make them stand out among their peers. We’re expecting even more from them over the next decade.

Jabarie Hinds
When the head coach of Mount Vernon High School’s renowned basketball program says sophomore Jabarie Hinds is “one of the best basketball players I have ever coached,” you pay attention.

Point guard Hinds, 17, has played varsity basketball since eighth grade, won a state championship in 2007, and will be team captain next year, says head coach Bob Cimmino. “He understands the game like a chess master understands the chess board,” Cimmino says. “And he takes great pride in his defensive capabilities—unusual today, because the glory is in offense.”

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His talents aren’t going unnoticed. “Hinds is regarded as one of the best players of his age in the country,” says Journal News reporter Kevin Devaney, Jr. ESPN’s basketball recruiting website calls Hinds a top-75 prospect nationwide for the class of 2011. There are rumblings that he could go professional, but it’s too early to tell.

“I hope it takes me as far as I can go,” says the six-foot Hinds, “but I’d like to study business in case my path doesn’t take me to the NBA.”

Alex Twining
While “going green” is almost cliché today, Bronxville’s Alex Twining, a developer and former architect, has been building “green” for decades. Yes, decades. The CEO of Manhattan-based Twining Properties, founded in 2002, has incorporated environmentally friendly practices into his development plans since 1978. His specialty: mixed-use buildings (apartments, offices, and retail space) at transit stops between Boston and Washington, D.C.

In Westchester, Twining, 55, has developed properties at locations near Metro-North stations in Mamaroneck, Bronxville, New Rochelle, White Plains, and Harrison over the past decade. In New Rochelle, the 1,000-unit Avalon on the Sound, which Twining worked on, is a luxury high-rise complex with on-site retail shopping that’s within a block of the Metro-North station, office buildings, stores, and restaurants. At such a complex, it is much easier to shop, dine, and commute without needing a car.

“We proved the economic feasibility of developing at transit nodes before people were talking about ‘green,’” Twining, says. “By their nature, they use a lot less energy and require fewer car trips, which lowers your carbon footprint.”

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Today, Twining is seeking another Westchester-based project.

 

 

Sean Hagan
It’s only a matter of time before you’ll be reading about Sean Hagan in the sports pages of your newspaper.

Baseball scouts have been eying the six-foot, six-inch, 18-year-old Hagan, Mamaroneck High School’s award-winning left-handed pitcher, who hurls the ball at nearly 90 miles per hour, has a high-school pitching record of 16 wins and two losses, and hit .406 last year with 42 RBIs and six home runs. But at press time, he’d received no offers.

“Sometime in the next four years, he’ll get drafted,” says Mamaroneck’s head baseball coach Mike Chiapparelli. “He’ll get a chance to compete in the minors, maybe make the Major Leagues.”

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Being drafted doesn’t guarantee a Major League start, but it’s an exciting possibility. “I’m definitely expecting to start a professional baseball experience,” Hagan says. “How far I make it, I have no expectations. I just have see where things lead.”

Tova Snyder
Tova Snyder’s participation in local window-painting contests as a grade-schooler hinted at her forthcoming career as a muralist.

“I always painted even larger than I was allowed,”recalls the 49-year-old public artist, who divides her time between Rye, Italy, and Germany. She designed the Harrison Metro-North station’s stained-glass windows and an upcoming series of murals for Port Chester’s waterfront.

“Tova’s use of color is sort of magical—the works almost glow,” says Sandra Bloodworth, director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Arts for Transit program, herself an artist. “Her delightful work brings a great deal of energy into the public environment.”

Snyder also oversees the production of murals in schools, homeless shelters, community centers, after-school programs, and psychiatric clinics countywide. “A lot of times, people think they can’t do something,” she says, “but when they get thrown into a project, they do much more than they thought they could.”

The Yale and Temple University Tyler School of Art grad, who won the Westchester Arts Council’s Arts Westchester Award, the organization’s most prestigious honor, in 2005, sells her paintings through her website, tovasnyder.com.

Dr. Andrew Ashikari
Surgical oncologist Andrew Ashikari, MD, at the Ashikari Comprehensive Breast Center in the Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry, counts among his patients not just Westchester residents, but women from across the country. Why would someone travel so far to meet with him? Unlike most breast surgeons, who remove the nipple when performing a mastectomy, Dr. Ashikari, 43, is among the few nationwide who perform a nipple-sparing mastectomy with minimal scarring.

The procedure—used for early-stage breast-cancer patients and women who have at least a 25 percent chance of developing breast cancer—was developed by Dr. Ashikari’s father and colleague, Roy Ashikari, MD, who once served as Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s acting chief of breast service. His technique—entering the breast from underneath (where the scars are hidden), rather than the middle of the breast—is very uncommon. Most doctors remove the nipple because sparing it requires leaving a small amount of breast tissue beneath the nipple, which, theoretically, could become cancerous. “But it hasn’t been proven to have a better outcome,” says Dr. Ashikari, a Chappaqua resident. Since 1999, none of his prophylactic patients who’ve had nipple-sparing mastectomies have developed cancer, he reports.

Dr. Ashikari’s procedure appeals to his patients, but so does his warm demeanor. “He’s a gifted surgeon and a great person,” says Suzanne Citere, 44, of Lighthouse Point, Florida, who flew north in 2007 to be Dr. Ashikari’s patient after learning of him at FacingOurRisk.org, a website for women at high risk for breast cancer. “As busy as he is, he makes time for patients. He’ll still speak with me if I have questions.”

Citere is apparently one of many, many fans. “Dr. Ashikari is a very well-respected surgeon,” says Steven Narod, MD, Canada research chair in breast cancer at the University of Toronto, who has authored many studies about prophylactic mastectomies for high-risk women. “I think much of his national recognition comes from the women themselves, many of whom are vocal, well-informed, proactive about their health and participate in Internet-based discussion groups.”

Constance McCardle
She dresses country music stars in Nashville and mothers of bar mitzvah boys in Scarsdale. Constance McCardle’s one-of-a-kind fashions feature bold designs, intricate lace patterns, and sleek cuts that never fail, it seems, to turn heads.

“Modern vintage is my look,” says the 54-year-old designer, who’s been creating custom gowns for the past 30 years. “I like the look of the 1930s and 1940s, but don’t want things to look dowdy or dated.”

As a child, McCardle designed dresses for her dolls. Hobby became career when she moved to New York in 1980 to attend the Traphagen School for Fashion. A decade ago, she focused on designing under her own name from her Ossining studio, where she has four part-time seamstresses who work in her home studio with her.

Her offbeat creations are worn to the Grammys, Emmys, and Oscars, and are purchased by moms of brides and grooms, says Monica Brache of Elephant’s Trunk in Mount Kisco, which sells McCardle’s gowns. “She has a following,” Brache says. “Customers come back wanting a Constance McCardle.” If you want one of her creations, you can see the selection at Elephant’s Trunk, or get one designed specifically for you by contacting McCardle through her website (constancemccardle.com). Be warned: gowns cost between $2,500 and $6,000.

Last year, country-music-loving McCardle began working with Nashville singers, including Taylor Swift and Emmylou Harris. “You’re going to see her clothes on celebrities,” Brache says. “They’re pieces of art.”

 

 

Noam Bramson
Think back to your career aspirations when you were a fifth grader. Firefighter? Astronaut? Noam Bramson decided—after participating in his school’s Model Congress—that he wanted to go into politics. He never wavered from that path.

“I was taught by my parents that we should have goals larger than our own self-interest,” says the lifelong New Rochelle resident.

After attending Harvard, where he received an undergraduate degree in three years, delivered his graduating class’s commencement address, and earned a master’s in public policy, Bramson took a job with Congresswoman Nita Lowey. At 25, he decided to run for office and won a seat on New Rochelle’s City Council, where he served until he was appointed mayor at age 36. (He was elected the following year, 2007.) It’s widely believed that Bramson, 39, was the city’s youngest council member and mayor. (Records were not kept before 1899.)

During his 14 years as an elected official, Bramson has helped revitalize New Rochelle’s central business district, and he’s working to develop his city’s waterfront and to protect the environment. He’s been orchestrating plans to develop his city’s Echo Bay waterfront, which is included in the nine miles of Long Island Sound shoreline, with a waterfront promenade and public access to the shore. He has also emphasized the importance of environmental sustainability through the use of energy savings, water- and air-quality initiatives and habitat restoration projects.

“I have always been impressed by his civic-mindedness, intelligence, and drive,” says Congresswoman Lowey. “He has a bright future in public service.”

Our Westchester Home Builders Awards take place on April 4!

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