Our Staff

EDITOR / OWNER

Thorunn Kristjansdottir is the principal, editor, publisher and designer of Main Street Magazine. She founded the magazine in January of 2013, because she found a niche: there wasn’t any magazine specifically for this area. Yes, there were numerous magazines that covered the area, but they also covered everything from Poughkeepsie to Vermont. Thorunn thought that there was a need for a magazine for just this area, featuring stories about the people, businesses, and curiosities that are to be found in this corner of the world. Having done this before (she was the co-creator, editor and publisher of another similar magazine), she went to work to create Main Street Magazine for Millerton and it’s surrounding area in late 2012. A magazine that is high-end in every aspect, from the content, writing and articles to the photographs and advertisements, from the layout to the printing. She strives for perfection at each step of the way.

Thorunn’s background lies in design, branding, marketing, and the magazine publication world. She has a BFA in Graphic Design and a BA in History, both with Cum Laude honors, from SUNY New Paltz. She is currently working on her Masters Degree in Integrative Marketing Communications at Marist College. Thorunn is also the principal of Thorunn Designs, LLC., a graphic design and marketing firm, as well as two seasonal Icelandic horse magazines —Tolt News and The Icelandic StudBook.

Thorunn can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

ADVERTISING

Ashley Kristjansson is the director of advertising for Main Street Magazine, amongst other things. Her background lies in the sales and customer service sector, with over 10 years of experience.

Ashley’s face is the face of the magazine in many ways, whereas she’s the friendly face that greets everyone who visit our office, and because she’s the one who is constantly out on the road meeting with our readers and advertisers. She’s got her finger on the pulse of the tri-corner area and welcomes your greetings and inquiries.

Ashley can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lazlo Gyorsok is the magazine’s in-house photography contributor and Photoshop guru – he even had a Photoshop technique named after him!

Lazlo was born and raised in Hungary, but sailed west in 1972. He settled in the Big Apple first and then in Cornwall Bridge, CT, where he still resides. Lazlo got his first camera (kind of a Russian version of Kodak box) at the age of ten and has been taking pictures ever since. In 2000 he graduated to digital and hasn’t looked back. He currently uses Sigma SD14, Nikon D700 and Fuji X-E1 cameras. Lazlo is a member of the Housatonic Camera Club and is also their webmaster. He loves to take pictures at Civil War reenactments, but his main interest are portraits. He likes the candid shots because they reveal much more of people than posed pictures do. Lazlo’s images have received numerous national (New England Camera Club Council, Photographic Society of America) and international awards.

Lazlo’s images now grace the covers of the magazine, as well as some may accompany articles. We’re truly excited to have Lazlo’s vision grace our pages. To see more of Lazlo’s work visit his website at www.pictures-by-lazlo.com.

Lazlo can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Olivia Valentine Markonic  is one of the magazine’s in-house and contributing photographers. She relocated back to her hometown of Millerton, NY eleven years ago. Photography became a huge part of her life when she became a mother. She was constantly taking pictures of her three girls and soon started taking photos of her friends’ children and their friends’ children. She recalls racing to the local camera shop with the film in the camera rewinding, eager to see what she had managed to freeze in time. Although she has switched to digital, she misses film. When she picked up her photos and went through them, she would instantly buy frames to put the photos in she deemed worthy. That isn’t the case so much with digital. Now we just look at photos on our computer screens!

Truth be told, Olivia isn’t skilled in Photoshop – basically what you see in her photos (besides maybe a little color enhancement) is what she saw looking through her viewfinder. However, Photoshop is something that she does hope to learn some day.

Olivia encourages everyone to slow down in this hectic life we are all living in and really look around and take in all the beauty that surrounds us.

Olivia can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

WRITERS

Anna Martucci is a contributing writer for the magazine. She writes artist profiles and promotes artists and galleries. She also writes personal essays and articles having to do with the outdoors, education and environmentalism. Her mission is to use the arts as a vehicle for environmental sustainability. Anna was born and raised in New York State but spent 17 years in Portland, Oregon. Most of her career was as a Montessori educator until recently when she transitioned to a career in the arts.

Anna can be reached at anna@mainstreetmag.com.

Betsy Maury is a contributing writer for the magazine. She writes about books and authors with a connection to the tri-state area. She was an acquiring editor at Random House and wrote guidebooks for Fodor’s Travel Publications while living in Europe for 15 years. During her time in Slovenia, she was involved with PEN International editing translated works of Slovenian poetry and advocating for writers coming out of post-war Yugoslavia. She has lived in Lakeville since 2011 but got to know the area with her parents and five brothers and sisters as a child when Terni’s in Millerton was a regular stop for penny candy. Since living in the area with her husband and son, she has been involved in a middle school writing project with students at Salisbury Central School and serves on the board of the Scoville Memorial Library in Salisbury. She studied History and Latin at Smith College.

Betsy can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Christine S. Bates is a contributing writer for the magazine. Her focus is in the business, finance and real estate related fields, not to say that she won’t cover some of the fun and quirky, too!

Christine grew up in Upstate New York. She had a business career in banking and consulting stretching from Brazil to Korea, Miami and New York. After raising a family in Greenwich Village she moved to the village of Millerton five years ago with her husband, Peter Greenough.

Christine is a graduate of Oberlin College, University of Michigan and Columbia Business School where she received her MBA. She is a Director of the North East Community Center in Millerton and formerly reported on Millbrook for The Millerton News.

Christine can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Dominique DeVito is a contributing writer for the magazine. Her areas of interest are as vast as her knowledge of wine!

Dominique DeVito is an owner of the Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, NY. She was in magazine and book publishing in NYC, and has continued to write and edit. She had a regular column in the Register Star, and is delighted to be a regular contributor to Main Street Magazine. Dominique and her family are enchanted with Columbia County and all that the area has to offer, and her home and winery tasting room are full of books!

Dominique can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com

Ian Strever is an outdoor enthusiast who moved to Falls Village five years ago to become the Assistant Principal at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. He has explored the local area on foot, on bike, on ski, and on snowshoe, and has written about it for The Lakeville Journal and on his blog, outdoorsct.wordpress.com. He graduated with a BA in English from Albright College, and MA in English with a Writing Focus from Western Connecticut University, and a MA in Educational Leadership from the University of Bridgeport. He has taught English at the high school and college levels, and his prose and poetry have appeared in a number of publications for nationwide audiences.

Ian can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Jesse DeGroodt is a contributing writer for the magazine. Over the years, he has written for the Chatham Courier, Hudson Register-Star, The Independent, the Berkshire Eagle, the Capital District Business Review, HomeStyle magazine, and the Chatham Press. Jesse is currently working on a book he describes as historical fiction. He’s a graduate of Utica College of Syracuse University, nowadays known as Utica University (UU!), where he picked up a B.A. in political science. That he would later serve 16 years as Chatham town supervisor he considers purely a coincidence. His first ambition in life was to play third base for the New York Mets. When that failed, he turned his attention toward becoming a professional golfer. These days, he says, he “sits in the corner writing about stuff and messing around with the granddogs.”

Jesse can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Jessie Sheehan is a cookbook author, food writer, recipe developer, and baker. She is the author of The Vintage Baker (one of the Washington Post’s best cookbooks of 2018) and the co-author of Icebox Cakes(both published by Chronicle Books). She has developed recipes for many cookbooks, besides her own, and has contributed recipes/and or written for Better Homes & Garden, Rachael Ray Everyday, the Washington Post, Yankee Magazine (October 2020) Epicurious, Food52, Fine Cooking, TASTE, Chowhound, Yummly, Spruce Eats and Little Sous, among others. She blogs at jessiesheehanbakes.com and can be found on Instagram at @jessiesheehanbakes. She likes layer cakes with lots of frosting and cookies that are thick and chewy. Oh, and she has a soft spot for chocolate pudding. She lives in Red Hook, Brooklyn, with her husband and two boys, not far from her beloved Baked, the bakery where she got her start.

Jessie can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

John Torsiello is a contributing writer for the magazine. He is an independent writer/editor living in Connecticut and part-time in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

John writes extensively about homes and gardens, architecture, and business topics, as well as dining and entertainment. His work has appeared in Connecticut Cottages and Gardens, Passport Magazine, Lawn and Landscape Magazine, LCT Magazine, The Litchfield County Times, Mount Pleasant (S.C.) Magazine, Charleston (S.C.) Magazine, Connecticut Business Magazine, Hartford Magazine, the Westchester County Times, the Waterbury Republican, the Housatonic Times, Fairfield County Life, a number of others, and now in MainStreet Magazine.

John has also written extensively about all aspects of the golf industry for a number of national and regional publications. He is Editor for Golfing Magazine New England, Associate Editor for Golfing Magazine New Jersey-Eastern Pa., and a regular contributor to Golf Course Industry, PGA Industry Insider, Golf Range Magazine, and Cybergolf.com. He is a former Editor of The Best of Northeast Golf Magazine, and has written for Golf Digest, Golfweek, Golf Product News and Executive Golfer magazines. John is also a member of The A Position team of golf and travel writers and has his own website, www.torsmangolf.com.

John has done in-house/website writing/promotional work for several golf management companies in the New Jersey/New York/Florida areas, including Empire Golf/Club Max, Appliedgolf, and The Proponent Group.

John has won over two dozen awards for his writing from national, regional and state organizations, including two First Place Awards from the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association for a pieces that appeared in Golf Course Industry and Golf Business Magazine, as well as recently being selected the Connecticut Media Person of the Year by the Connecticut American Legion Baseball Committee.

John is an avid golfer and tennis player, and he and his wife enjoy reading and walking. More information about John is available at www.torsmangolf.com.

John can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Joseph Montebello is a freelance writer living in Litchfield County. He is a longtime contributor to Litchfield Magazineand has written for The Litchfield County Times,Berkshire Style, Bedford Magazine, Rural Intelligence, and AARP Magazine. He writes on many different subjects including design and architecture. He has also written many profiles on people in the arts, including Dani Shapiro, Frank Delaney, Roxanna Robinson,  Agnes Gund, Ann Leary, Laurie Simmons, Marsha Mason, Peter Gallagher, and Christine Baranski.

He is the former Vice-President & Creative Director at HarperCollins Publishers, where he also had an imprint called HarperStyle. There he published books by Annie Leibovitz,  Carolyne Roehm, Fleur Cowles, and Vicente Wolf, among others.

Locally he is involved in the Western Connecticut Leadership Program and conducts conversations with artists and writers at local libraries and galleries.

Joseph is a contributing writer for Main Street Magazine where he writes stories of varying subject-matters.

Lindsey Clark is a contributing writer for Main Street Magazine. She has written about local history, businesses and events in the community, as well as her navigation of college and future career paths. Lindsey has also contributed Friendly Faces and online editorial for the magazine, and enjoys her time working in the Main Street office during the summer months. In 2020, Lindsey graduated Valedictorian of her class at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. Now a sophomore at Marist College, Lindsey is majoring in English with a concentration in Writing.

Lindsey can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Mary B. O’Neill, Ph.D., is a senior contributing writer for Main Street Magazine and podcast co-host for Main Street Moxie podcast with Main Street Media founder Thorunn Kristjansdottir. She incorporates her curiosity, humor, and her philosopher’s mind into the subject at hand. Mary is a serial reinventor of her professional life and a perennial gig worker and intrapreneur, bringing entrepreneurial energy and creativity to any organization. She teaches at Western Connecticut State University and Northwestern Connecticut Community College. In addition, Mary has recently directed communications at Great Mountain Forest in Falls Village, CT, and designed and built the Career Experience Program at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, CT. Previous to those roles, she created employee engagement training curriculum for corporate clients, coordinated programs at Scoville Memorial Library in Salisbury, CT,  facilitated philosophy minicourses for residents and the local community at Noble Horizons Retirement Community in Salisbury, CT, and has volunteered for local nonprofits. When Mary’s not juggling multiple jobs, she enjoys vegetable gardening, riding her flashy electric bike, hiking, traveling, and watching films in Marvel Cinematic Universe. She also relishes time with her husband and three adulting children.

Mary can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Pom Shillingford is a contributing writer for the magazine. Her area of interest lies with all things horticultural.

Pom grew up in Hampshire, England surrounded by beautiful gardens. Despite subsequently living in both London and Manhattan, she has always managed to find a space to call her garden. Having moved full time to Salisbury CT with her young family in 2012, she has spent the last ten years attempting to transform the three-acre wilderness that came with their equally dilapidated 1830’s house into a modern day Sissinghurst, with a seasonal specialty flower business on the side. She now blends her previous life as a magazine editor and journalist with her present-day life as a cut-flower grower by writing for Main Street Magazine.

Pom can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Regina Molaro is a freelance editor whose work has been featured in more than 20 publications, including Bespoke Magazine (St. Regis NYC); In Season (Mandarin Oriental, New York); City Guide New York, Modern Luxury Hawaii, Adweek, and beyond. In addition to writing for several lifestyle magazines in New York and New Jersey, she has written copy for websites and catalogues. Prior to enjoying a freelance career, Regina covered the art, fashion, beauty, home decor, food, and brands categories at several business publications, including Accent, Global Cosmetic Industry, Soap & Cosmetics, and License. Through a commission, she wrote a textbook chapter on fashion licensing for Pearson Education.

Regina earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Advertising Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York NY. She also completed a study abroad illustration program at Polimoda University in Florence, Italy. Some of her volunteer work includes writing for non-profit organizations, including Beauty Foundation for Cancer Care and Clean Ocean Action, NJ. She also volunteers the Book Buddies children’s literacy program in Pine Plains.

Regina is a contributing writer for Main Street Magazine and she writes about … well, literally everything!

Regina can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Brandon Kralik was a contributing writer for the magazine and wrote the Artist Profile. We were fortunate to have Brandon with us from 2014 through the summer of 2015. When he joined us he had just returned to the States after 14 years in Scandinavia. He was raised in Colorado where he lived on a cattle ranch, later studying Art and Communications at Western State Colorado University, as well as at CUNY in Manhattan, before setting out on a life of creative adventure that has led him around the world. After living in Alaska and Hawaii, among other postcard destinations, he moved to Norway to study with figurative painter Odd Nerdrum. There he began his evolution from an Artist to a Contemporary Classical Painter.

In addition to exhibiting his paintings internationally Brandon also writes an art blog for the Huffington Post and contributes to Combustus.

In the summer of 2015, Sweden beckoned Brandon and so he made the decision to leave his Cornwall, CT home and all of us here in the Tri-corner area and return to his adopted country. We are very happy to report that Brandon is doing well, is happy and is working on art. Takk svo mikid og bestu kvedjur

Carol Ascher is a contributing writer for the magazine. Carol’s focus and writing contributions range from matters of faith to historic pieces and people profiles.

After decades of writing fiction, memoir and nonfiction, Carol Ascher is discovering the pleasures of journalism. Her novel A Call from Spooner Street (her sixth book), came out in fall 2015, freeing her to pay attention to unsung people and places in Dutchess and Litchfield counties, as well as to such national and international issues as gun legislation and refugees. “I’m delighted to get outside my own imagination,” she says, “and it’s wonderful to begin and end a project within a couple of weeks.” You can find out more at carolascher.net

Carol can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

CB Wismar is a contributing writer for the magazine. His focus is very multifaceted, but the common theme is his focus on people.

CB Wismar has fashioned a career out of being a storyteller. From his early days as a writer and producer of television shows and short films in Hollywood, where he managed to get three EMMY nominations and was twice a finalist in the Short Subjects competition for an “Oscar,” to his years of creating corporate videos for Fortune 500 companies and producing large form events and concerts, his goal has always been to create experiences. “I’m sure I’ve borrowed the definition of ‘experiences’ from someone along the way,” admits Wismar, “but I never think a story, a speech, an event or a film is worth doing if it doesn’t change the way people think and behave. You do that by telling a story.” He has written two feature film scripts, a book and countless speeches for corporate and philanthropic executives. In “re-firement” as opposed to “retirement,” he divides his time between creating strategic marketing packages for several clients, free-lance writing and getting in the way of his wife, artist Kathy Wismar, in her Kent, CT studio.

CB can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Claire Copley is a contributing writer. Her focus is on our environment here in the Northeast corner of Dutchess County. She recently moved to the area with her husband after living in New York City for 35 years and raising a family there.

Claire has a background in the visual arts and education. She grew up in Los Angeles and still holds tight to her California roots. She holds an M.A. from Columbia in Arts Administration and an M.Ed from Bank Street College. Claire had an Art Gallery in Los Angeles, worked as the School Librarian at the Little Red Schoolhouse in Manhattan, and more recently completed a certificate in Landscape Design at the New York Botanical Garden.

Claire likes to focus on landscape and our interaction with it, both actively and philosophically. She is an avid gardener, beekeeper and student of the environment.

Claire can be reached at at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Griffin Cooper is a contributing writer for the magazine as well as our resident travelling utility man. Whether it’s tracking down story leads or delivering magazines each month, Griffin has immersed himself in our area and enjoys being a part of the fabric of the community. A recent graduate of Suny New Paltz where he earned his degree in English, Griffin describes his dreams of writing as having taken him from coast to another. You can check out Griffin’s work in print or on our website and we look forward to what his future holds both here at Main Street and beyond.

KK Kozik is an artist and writer living and working in Sharon, CT and Brooklyn, NY. Her paintings have ben exhibited widely in the United States and abroad and have been reviewed in publications such as The New York Times, Artforum, The New Yorker and Art in America, among others. Images of her commission for the New York MTA, stained glass windows at the Rockaway Beach Park/116th Street subway station, were recently reproduced in The Underground Museum, published by Monacelli Press.

She has been a contributing music writer at The Brooklyn Rail since 2001. She was also Senior editor and contributing music and art writer at Cover, an East Village alternative press and contributing editor at Artnexus (Bogota). Her writing has been published in Latin American Art, Journal of Contemporary Art, The Exhbitionist, New Observations, and Vytvarne Umeni (Prague), among others.www.k2kozik.com

KK can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Lisa LaMonica is an author, illustrator and fine artist in upstate New York who has received awards for her artwork. She was nominated for Artist of the Year in 2002, 2018 by the Columbia County Council on the Arts. Lisa teaches art privately, at her local community college, the Hudson Youth Department and the Hudson Senior Center. She has attended the Hudson Childrens Book Festival, the largest of its kind in the Northeast, every year since its inception. Books include Haunted Catskills/The History Press and Images of America:Hudson/Arcadia Publishing; a recipient of a grant from Furthermore, a program of the JM Kaplan Fund. Lisa has written for Chronogram Magazine, Haunted History Trail NYS, and PBS/WMHT. lisalamonica.com. Lisa is a contributing writer to Main Street Magazine where she focuses on history, the arts, and more.

Lisa can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Melissa Batchelor Warnke is a contributing writer for the magazine who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA, where she writes for the likes of the LA Times as well as for us. Melissa focuses on pieces that explore human experiences, stories and ideas as well as travel pieces from around the world.

Melissa grew up in Lakeville, CT. She has worked in the Google Creative Lab in New York City, as a human rights grantmaker across Africa and as an anti-genocide community organizer in Washington D.C. Melissa returned to the States in the summer of 2015 from living and working in Rwanda, working on a research project as part of the Fulbright Scholarship that she received in the summer of 2014.

Melissa graduated with a Masters Degree in Journalism from Berkley in California in 2017. She is also a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she studied Political and Social Thought & African-American and African Studies. In her free time, she writes poems. More of her writing is available at www.melissabatchelorwarnke.com.

Melissa can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Paige Darrah is a contributing writer, and a freelance travel and culture writer who recently moved from from Dallas to Hudson to New York City.

In addition to Main Street Magazine she contributes to outlets including Delta Sky, EasyJet Traveller, Wine Enthusiast, NewYork.com, n by Norwegian, and Afar magazine.

Paige graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2008, where she studied Financial Economics and French. She has worked for NGOs in Namibia and Ghana; she did graduate work in French and Francophone Studies at Middlebury College but quit because they make you read far too many texts from the middle ages.

More of her writing is available at paigedarrah.com. Paige can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.

Sarah Ellen Rindsberg is a contributing writer to the magazine who seeks out novelty in and around the tristate area. Her oeuvre covers a wide array of subjects ranging from filmmakers to international business.

Sarah, a self-proclaimed francophile, enjoys traveling to Europe and beyond. An arduous hike at Machu Picchu was her most recent adventure. Stateside, she takes in as many cultural events as humanly possible including author talks at the White Hart, theater at the Mount and exhibits at Mass MoCA. Sarah also ventures to the surrounding metropolises of New York and Boston to partake of additional artistic experiences which greatly inform her writing.

Sarah’s formal education began at Webutuck High School where she discovered an affinity for the French language and continued at Mount Holyoke College and the NYU Stern School of Business.

Sarah can be reached at info@mainstreetmag.com.