As Special Assistant to Commissioner of New York State’s Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Celebration from 2008-2010 and later as Director of the OurHudson project, Liz managed a coalition of non-profit organizations, government agencies, and citizen activists focused on the future of the Hudson Valley.

OurHudson convened whistle-stop tours aboard historic barges (Pennsylvania Railroad Barge #399 and Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge #79) stopping at Hudson River Valley cities and towns. Community workshops were held to ask hard questions about work, infrastructure, environmental vulnerability and opportunity and more, and a Task Force of experts was assembled to write recommendations. Later, a traveling exhibition was launched and the public was invited to tour the barge exhibition to see how citizens of the Hudson Valley envisioned restoring economic vitality to their riverfront towns, while improving the health of the river and protecting our valley’s world-renowned scenic beauty.

OurHudson also organized river-long flotillas, developed a prototype for town docks in the Hudson River, and launched a weekend of open houses at museums and historic sites in the Hudson Valley.