Our Teaching Partners

Our greatest treasure at Friends of Hudson Youth is the committed Youth Department staff, and the inspired group of teaching partners who bring the programs we fund to life!

Here are just a few from a much larger and ever-changing constellation of passionate and dynamic youth educators:

Tyrone Hedgepeth

Tyrone is the longest serving staff member at the Hudson Youth Department. A gifted coach, he guides the Winter Basketball League and many other sports programs both After School and at Oakdale Camp. He’s a popular pinch hitter in the kitchen where he’s been known to prepare some crowd pleasing meals. Tyrone is also Assistant Basketball Coach for the school district’s varsity team and directs Got Game Sports, Hudson’s local AAU chapter.

Vanessa Baehr

Vanessa is an Environmental Educator who has led classes at Oakdale Camp since long before Friends of Hudson Youth existed, but we instantly fell in love with her energy, enthusiasm, and earth science geekiness and she was the first paid instructor in one of our programs. She is endlessly creative in her approach and finely attuned to the challenges of introducing the natural world to a diverse urban population. She has also been a leader in the revitalization of Oakdale Park, and her overlapping roles in the community include guiding a Citizen Scientist project to improve the lake’s water quality.

Anneice Cousin

As a musician, performance artist and teacher, Anneice is committed to helping others reach their full potential as individuals and artists. She founded Beautiful Racket in 2020 in response to a lack of creative programming in our area, particularly for marginalized youth. Along with a team of other creative artists, they offer joyful and uplifting classes in song writing and performance, music and video production, and related arts programming at the Hudson Youth Department year round.

Photo by J.D. Urban

Arone Dyer

Arone is Lead Mechanic and always smiling magic maker at the Bike Co-op. She managed bike repair shops in NYC for many years and now gives generously of her time and expertise to the Earn-A-Bike Program which has made proud bike owners out of over 50 kids in Hudson. She also helps scores of kids get their bikes back on the road with patient repair guidance and an inventory of spare parts. And she lovingly teaches many young campers at Oakdale to ride a bike for the first time. In addition, Arone is a skilled musician and voice over artist.

Photo by Peter Galigani

Byonté Jones and Zyan Brown

Our Waterfront directors have each worked 6 seasons at Oakdale Lake and have been powerful role models and mentors for the junior guards and campers. Both are Hudson High graduates who have completed their undergraduate studies and are now in graduate school, Byonté in Pediatric Medicine and Zyan in Marine Biology. Supporting the Lifeguard Program has been one of our biggest initiatives, and we’re proud that we’ve been able to keep the lake open despite the challenges of Covid and a national shortage of lifeguards. We never could have done without these two young leaders!

Photo by Peter Galigani

Amy Chen

The fiercely talented Amy is a dancer, acrobat, aerialist, social justice advocate, fire breather, and intellectual property lawyer. Fortunately for us, she’s also a teaching artist and Columbia County Site Director for Bindlestiff Cirkus After School, one of the Youth Department’s longest running creative partnerships. She brings years of training and performance in dance and an extensive background in Social Circus to her classes. She is particularly interested in the ways circus arts can empower youth to become leaders in their communities for positive change.