Stephen Zinone, RPR
President

After graduating in 1983 from Rochester School of Machine Shorthand, Stephen worked as a Freelance reporter in the Rochester area until April of 1989. At which time he began working as a Grand Jury Reporter for the Monroe County District Attorney's Office. In December of 1997, Stephen then worked in Federal Court for the Western District of New York until January of 2001. At that time he was hired as an Official Court Reporter by the 8th Judicial District and was assigned to a multi bench court in Albion, New York. In January of 2004, Stephen transferred to the 7th Judicial District in Rochester, and then in April of 05 he transferred back to Albion to the "BEST ASSIGNMENT IN THE STATE WORKING FOR THE BEST JUDGE IN THE STATE."

Stephen is also a member of the National Court Reporters Association, United States Court Reporters Association and the Stenocat Users Group, where he served as their treasurer from 1998 to 2004. Having worked in the freelance arena, as well as in the City, Family, Grand Jury, County, Supreme, Surrogate and Federal Courts, his work experiences have given him a unique perspective on the field of court reporting.

Stephen was appointed to the Board of NYSCRA in December of 2004, as an at large director. He presently serves on the mentoring committee, as well as the membership and certified realtime committees. One of his goals at this point in his court reporting career, is to share his experience and knowledge with new reporters, so that they may enjoy and accomplish the success that this outstanding profession has to offer.

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Lori L. Strong
Vice President

Lori Strong is a Senior Court Reporter who is presently working in Supreme Court in Buffalo, New York since 1998. She worked as a court reporter in Erie County Family Court from 1993 to 1998. Prior to that she freelanced with Buyers & Kaczor Reporting Services in Buffalo, New York doing depositions, court work and closed-captioning for WIVB-TV in Buffalo and WWOR in New York. She was also a teacher at the Stenographic Institute of W.N.Y. for several years.

Lori is presently a RPR, CSR and CRR. She recently served as a faculty member at the 2002 Court Reporter Seminars in Rochester and Albany sharing her experience in realtime.

She is highly motivated and is looking forward to serving as a Board Chair for our association.

Lori currently lives in Orchard Park, New York with her husband, Todd, and two children, Anthony and Kelcy.

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Amy L. Mohart
Secretary/Treasurer

After graduating HS Amy attended Alfred State College and graduated with an AS in Court Reporting in 1987. Her first job was in Poughkeepsie, NY with Schmieder & Miester Court Reporting, where she worked with 12 other reporters in the firm. It was a great start to a wonderful career. She will always be grateful to the owners, Karen and Patricia, as well as many of the reporters there. They were a great inspiration and very patient and helpful teachers for a starting reporter.

She moved back to WNY in late 1988, where she worked as a freelancer with two other reporters in Chautauqua County. They handled depositions and DWI trials (jury and non-jury). She then started working with John Villafranca & Associates as a freelance reporter and covered depositions in Erie and Chautauqua Counties.

She married Michael in 1994, and moved to Orchard Park, NY, where she worked for DePaolo Crosby Court Reporting for 2 1/2 years. It was there that she was exposed to a great deal more of the court reporting field outside of depositions. She covered parole boards for NYS. She had to travel to the prisons, and with the Commissioners assigned for that day, reviewed many inmates' cases. Many times they saw 60 to 80 inmates in one day. They were usually very long and exhausting days, but great experience! In addition, she was granted clearance for Federal Grand Jury, and “let me just say, those cases were INTERESTING!!!” She also filled in for an Erie County Grand Jury Court Reporter several times, which was great experience and, of course, speed building (ha! ha!) Yes, some of the attorneys were fast. She also had the opportunity to cover many technical and medical depositions, which stretched my knowledge base and abilities as a reporter.

In late 1996, She and her husband bought their first house in Dunkirk, New York, and she decided to set out her shingle. She worked freelance d/b/a Mohart Court Reporting for 9 years and covered all of Chautauqua County. She was given the privilege of handling many depositions, town and village jury trials, preliminary hearings, 50-H hearings, Section 75 hearings, and Chautauqua County Grand Jury for the last 5 of the 9 years, and enjoyed every bit of the experience!!

After 18 years as a freelance reporter, she decided to take the State Court Reporter test (J-24) in 2005. She passed the test, and in January of 2006, she was offered a job as the court reporter for Chautauqua County Family Court where she remains today. “I am very glad to be working for New York State as a court reporter, and I am looking forward to the next 20 years!!!”

She and Michael have been married for 14 years and have one son, Aidan, who is 5 years old. They currently live in Dunkirk, New York, which is in Chautauqua County.

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Michelle M. Houston, CRI, CPE
Chair of the Board

After leaving the field of freelance reporting in 1989, I became licensed by the New York State Department of Education to teach court reporting.  I then taught at Grumman Data Systems Institute in Woodbury, New York, on a part-time basis.  The following year, I assumed a full-time teaching position at the Long island Business Institute in Commack, New York.  Today, I am the Program Coordinator for the Court Reporting Program at Long Island Business Institute.  With a student body of almost 300 court reporting students, our goal is to produce court reporters that are accurate realtime writers, proficient in the use of a CAT system for transcript production, and who will truly be assets to the field.  During the early 90's, I was the liaison to Hofstra University providing CARTwriters for their hearing-impaired students.  I have also served on the Curriculum Development Committee for Tech Prep, which is sponsored by BOCES.  I am responsible for coordinating mock trials with Touro Law School law students and enlisting our second-year students to act in the capacity of "official reporters" at these mock trials.  For the last seven years, I have been a member of the Long Island Business Institute's Court Reporting Advisory Board.  I am credentialed by the NCRA as a Certified Reporting Instructor (CRI) and a Certified Program Evaluator (CPE).  As a CPE, I visit court reporting schools across the country that are approved by the NCRA and verify that their programs meet the guidelines established by the NCRA.

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Jean H. Beskin
Immediate Past President

For the past 20 years Jean H. Beskin has been a practicing Court Reporter beginning with the first four years as a Freelance Court Reporter and Per-Diem Suffolk County Grand Jury Reporter. Following that for 14 years Jean was a Hearing Reporter with the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board and the Senior Hearing Reporter of the Hempstead Office supervising 24 Hearing Reporters for the last two years of the 14, and is presently an Official Court Reporter at Nassau County District Court since November of 1998.

In 1997 Jean was elected to the Board of Directors of NYSCRA and was selected as a member of the Legislative Committee. Jean has had extensive experience involving the state tape recording experiments both at the Workers’ Compensation Board, as well as the past experiment at the state court level. In November 1999 Jean was elected to the position of Secretary-Treasurer of NYSCRA.

Jean resides in Bay Shore, Long Island, New York, with her husband Ken. Jean also has a daughter Karen, who at the present time is residing in Bayside, Queens, New York with her husband Christian.

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