The Academy for Continuing Education (ACE) enters its 25th anniversary year with a first-day speaker roster that includes industry icons and journalists as part of the three-day 2020 Spring Symposium. Among the guest speakers slated for the opening session on Wednesday, February 26, are Linda O’Flanagan, managing editor, Real Estate Weekly, author and New York Times writer Julie Satow (The Plaza and Faith Consolo, A Life of Real Estate…And Secrets), data guru Jonathan Miller, president and CEO, Miller Samuels Real Estate Appraisers and Consultants, best-selling author Steven Gaines (Sky’s the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan), Compass power broker Leonard Steinberg, and Reuveni Real Estate CEO Shlomi Reuveni. The afternoon portion will include a media panel with Lois Weiss, The New York Post, Katherine Clarke, The Wall Street Journal, and Erin Hudson, The Real Deal.
“This is a milestone anniversary and we are celebrating with an awesome group of speakers, starting day one,” said Esther Muller, Academy for Continuing Education co-founder. “Our students will be exposed to invaluable information from pillars of the real estate community, as well as many of the ‘rock-star’ writers who report it!”
Other guest speakers slated for the first day include Sotheby’s International Senior Vice President and Attorney Marissa Ghesquiere and real estate attorney Jerry Feeney.
The continuing education studies will take place over three consecutive Wednesdays, on February 26, March 4, and March 11, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the Grand Ballroom at the Three West Club, 3 West 51st Street. For more information, visit realestateacademy.com.
108 Leonard, a revival landmark building in Tribeca, recently partnered with the New York Academy of Art to host a live drawing party for brokers and agents in a seventh-floor unit.
Roughly 50 real estate professionals attended the evening event, which included a drawing lesson by instructor Tabitha Whitley — also the academy’s president of the alumni association — and a male and female model sitting for long poses.
108 Leonard also has an artist-in-residency program and a partnership with the Academy of Art that gives residents access to the school’s events and exhibitions.
Agents at drawing event 
Model Artur Brisita 
Claudia Mitlowski, Douglas Elliman agent 
Gregory Thornbury, vice president of the New York Academy of Art 
Syra Gish, Corcoran agent 
Tabitha Whitley, instructor, president of the Alumni Association, New York Academy of Art 
Arturo Brisita 
Nadya Siriysk, Douglas Elliman agent 
Lorelei Black
The Hudson Gateway Association of REALTORS (HGAR) has welcomed Gail Fattizzi, executive director of Westchester Real Estate Inc. in Somers, as its 2020 president. Fattizzi, along with the HGAR executive officers and directors were officially installed in their new positions at Le Chateau in South Salem on January 16. Almost 300 people throughout the lower Hudson Valley attended.
Fattizzi began her career in real estate in 1987 at a local brokerage. Later she joined another firm as director for the Westchester Affiliates, then became executive director for Westchester Real Estate, Inc., a consortium of independently owned brokerages in the Hudson Gateway market. In addition, she serves as Regional Manager for ERA Insite Realty Services, helping to manage the firm’s five offices.
Fattizzi will also serve as the program chair of the Hudson Gateway Realtor Foundation for 2020.
In addition to the new HGAR president, the 2019 HGAR Executive Officers installed include: Crystal Hawkins Syska of Keller Williams New York Realty in White Plains, president-elect for 2021; Anthony Domathoti of Exit Realty Premium in the Bronx as treasurer; Irene Guanill of Meet the Sellers in the Bronx as secretary and Ron Garafalo of John J. Lease Realtors Inc. in Middletown as immediate past president.
Cynthia and Joe Lippolis, HGAR members 
Phylis Lerner and Bonnie Koff, members of HGAR Realtor Foundation 
Ron Garafalo, Immediate Past HGAR President; Gail Fattizzi, HGAR 2020 President; Jennifer Stevenson, NYSAR 2020 President and Richard Haggerty, HGAR CEO 
Roseanne Paggiotta, Sarah Hughes and Nancy Hertz, HGAR members 
“Since the beginning of this program, we’ve matched dozens of clients and people in the community with their new canine and feline family members,” said Sarah Saltzberg, co-founding principal of Bohemia Realty Group. “These events perfectly align with our mission to find the best homes for everyone – four-legged friends included.”
