Directors

Fran Altshuler

Fran Altshuler is the former Director of Volunteer and Student Interns at Parsons Child & Family Center following a 20 year career in human resources management.  She is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Woman's Club of Albany (WCA) and has had several BOD positions since joining the club in 2007, including past President.  Past BOD experience includes The Women's Employment Resource Center (WERC) and President of the Capital Region Human Resources Association (CRHRA). Her passion for preserving Albany's historical gems started when she became intricately involved in the recent restoration of the west bay of the Woman's Club. Currently as Co-Chair of the Capital Campaign she is actively involved with launching the restoration of the front porch, "The Best View on Madison Avenue", including the addition of an accessibility ramp.  Although her 4 children and 3 grandchildren are "far flung" across the US, she resides in Guilderland with her husband Steve and furry kids.

Michelle Bruck

Michelle Bruck, a homeowner in Center Square since 2006, is a committed preservationist and is passionate about Albany history, architecture and maintaining the city’s built environment. As she describes it, the restoration of her 1889 row house is “ongoing.”

 Michelle serves on the Center Square Association, Inc., board of directors, as Director of Communications. In that capacity, she developed and maintains the association’s website and manages all public relations outreach and social media communications. In addition, she has designed the graphics for the annual Hidden City House and Garden Tour, an important fundraiser for Historic Albany, for the past five years and has conceived and produced videos for the event. 

Schuyler Bull

Schuyler Bull is vice president of marketing at Pioneer, a local financial services firm. He also owns the Fort Orange General Store, a specialty retail shop in downtown Albany that has hosted a number of HAF lectures on nearby 48 Hudson, which was coincidentally built by his 6th great-grandfather.

Schuyler is a two-time graduate of the College of Saint Rose where he currently serves as a member of the Community of Excellence Committee, recognizing outstanding leadership in the community while raising funds for student scholarships. He previously worked at Discover Albany and the Downtown Albany Business Improvement District. He and Jeremy Boyce purchased their home on Manning Boulevard in 2018.

James Gaughan

James Gaughan has over 30 years of extensive experience in the New York public education sector, serving for 10 years as NYS’s Title I Coordinator and Chief for School Improvement at the State Education Department. Since 1984, Jim has resided in Altamont with his spouse, Keith Lee. For 32 years, they lived in one of the Village’s historic homes built in 1885. Jim served as Altamont’s Mayor for 12 years during which he implemented several initiatives that highlight Altamont’s rich history and culture, crafted to enhance the Village’s economic development and uniqueness in Albany County. He also spearheaded the installation of a walking tour of Altamont’s historic buildings.

Christopher Hacker

Christopher Hacker is the owner of Albany Artisans, a local contracting company specialising in restoration. Chris Hacker and his team at Albany Artisans have had a profound impact on Albany’s historic neighborhoods, having been the craftsman behind the restoration of many vacant buildings. In 1997, Chris purchased his family’s generational home at 748 Madison Avenue and carefully reconstructed the porch from the original drawings, earning the first of many recognitions for his work. Chris is a Commissioner on the Historic Resources Commission. As a side project, he is also the project manager for the Sword Surrender Site at the Saratoga Battlefield at where Burgoyne surrendered to the Americans in 1777.

David Hinchen

David Hinchen is a full-time artist who has spent the last 30 years creating drawings and paintings of historic homes and landmark buildings in Metro New York, the Hudson Valley, Greater Boston and throughout New England. He has been a participating artist at BUILT, HAF’s annual art auction since 2000, winning numerous awards. David and Duane Barker purchased their home on Manning Boulevard in 2002 and spent every weekend for seven years slowly restoring each room. converting it back to a single family residence. In 2016, David and his father purchased two brownstones with eight apartments on Eagle Street. He is managing the building and currently working on renovating one apartment per year.

Shawn Morris

Shawn Morris is a long-time advocate for city living in Albany. She served as the 7th Ward Councilmember for 12 years and Common Council President for four years. As an elected official, she worked to establish and promote neighborhood associations and other community groups working to improve the quality of life in city neighborhoods. Shawn authored local ordinances establishing the Vacant Building Registry, neighborhood commercial design standards and commissions to review the park system and the city charter. Shawn currently serves on the board of the Delaware Area Neighborhood Association and is recently retired as the Director of Public Information for the Office of the New York State Attorney General.

Matt Scheidt

Matthew K. Scheidt AIA, is an architect with 25 years of experience overseeing the restoration of locally and nationally significant historic buildings. Mr. Scheidt is an associate and project manager for John G. Waite Associates, Architects in Albany, New York, and has been with the firm since 2008. Notable projects Mr. Scheidt has managed for JGWA include Thomas Jefferson’s Rotunda at the University of Virginia which recently received and AIA Honor Award, Cincinnati Union Terminal, Ralph Adams Cram’s Parish of All Saints, Ashmont in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and McKim, Mead & White’s Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, New York. Previously, Mr. Scheidt was a project architect at Preservation Architecture Services Team in Cincinnati, Ohio for ten years, and is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. Mr. Scheidt also attended Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Portsmouth in England. Mr. Scheidt serves as the Vice President of the Turpin Bannister Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, as well as volunteering for several local community arts groups.