Liz Whitmer Gereghty has called the Hudson Valley home for 20 years. It’s where she raised her family and ran her own small business. And it’s where she has served on the Katonah-Lewisboro School Board since 2019.
Liz grew up in Michigan and attended Michigan State University where she was a dual major in economics & international relations. While there she interned for the AFL-CIO as well as going to Washington DC to intern in then First Lady Hillary Clinton’s press office and for US Senator Carl Levin. After graduation Liz went back to DC where she worked for a PR firm before taking a short term consulting job with the DNC to work on the Illinois Coordinated Campaign in Chicago helping to elect Sen Dick Durbin to the US Senate. In 1997, Liz went back to school to get her MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. It was at Duke that Liz met her husband and after graduation they moved to New York City. In 2003, she and her growing family moved to the Lower Hudson Valley.
As one who believes in the importance of community and the responsibility to help others whenever possible, Liz got involved with the Community Center of Northern Westchester, where she served two terms on the Board of Directors and continues to volunteer. Liz opened a Best of Westchester award winning gift store in Katonah where she had the privilege of creating jobs and contributing to the community. She understands both how critical small businesses are to communities and how difficult it can be to make them work here. When she made the difficult decision to close, she donated her time, equipment, and fixtures to a new venture launching next store, The Community Shop whose profits go to purchase food for those who are struggling.
In 2019, Liz was first elected to the Katonah-Lewisboro board of education. The last four years serving as a Trustee, Liz got an up-close look at how our divisions get in the way of getting things done. When policy disagreements turn into something a little more heated, Liz does something you don’t see very much anymore: she sits down with people and finds common ground. It’s one reason she’s able to get so much done. While on the school board, Liz worked to oversee a budget over $100 million and helped steer our children through the COVID-19 pandemic. She chaired the Finance and Facilities Committees and led the effort to improve the district’s school buildings for the first time in decades – investing in classrooms better suited to teach the citizens of tomorrow.
Liz believes Washington needs leaders who focus on the work and solve problems, not exploit them for political gain. Because while politicians have been at each other’s throats, the cost of living in the Hudson Valley has continued to rise. While extremist Republicans have been busy banning books and robbing women of their reproductive rights, local schools have been forced to shift funding from books to bulletproof glass. While they are fearmongering about crime, they refuse to discuss common sense gun control. And while the GOP has used its majority in the House to deny science, the climate crisis has only become more dire.
Liz is running for Congress because she believes we need a leader who is ready to do the hard work to make the Hudson Valley more affordable for families, help our small businesses thrive, and always fight for a woman’s right to choose. We need a leader who understands what’s at stake for the people of New York’s 17th congressional district, and our country. A leader with the courage to sit down with people who disagree with her and the strength to stand up to extremists.
