As State Director Beth R. Finkel leads the day-to-day operations of AARP New York, the most visible and successful organization in the state advocating for New York’s 50 plus population. During her tenure as State Director, AARP’s powerful lobbying efforts on behalf of their 2.6 million members have led to historic NYS reforms including passage of the Care Act, Assisted Living protections, Anti Predatory Lending, Paid Family Leave and Affordable Housing in NYC legislation and numerous bills on Kincare.
Prior to her appointment as State Director, Beth was the Senior Manager of Community Outreach for AARP New York where she was responsible for all community programs and activities that serve the organization’s membership and engage its vast network of over 5,000 active volunteers across the state. In her role, Beth specialized in programming and advocacy for older New Yorkers around hunger, caregiving, grandparents raising grandchildren, multicultural outreach, livable communities, financial security, and long-term care. During her tenure at AARP New York, she led and developed the statewide Kincare Coalition and New York’s Older Adults Hunger Stakeholders Coalition. She convened the first Older Adults Hunger Summit to find solutions to barriers to food insecurity. She also co- created the NYS Medicare Savings Program Taskforce, a consortium of government, public policy makers and advocates that works to break down obstacles to enrollment of low-income Medicare beneficiaries to this group of benefits. She also served on the Governor’s Hunger Taskforce. Beth represents AARP New York as she serves on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Office of Community Living Advisory Committee, the Governor’s SMART Commission and serves on Senator Kristen Gillibrand’s Working Group for the Aging.
Beth has published numerous white papers and research reports including: Hunger Among NY State Older Adults, The State of the 50+ in NY State, Kinship Care in New York: Keeping Families Together, High Anxiety Gen X and Boomer Financial Stress and Crisis in Caregiving.
A native New Yorker, Beth holds a Masters of Social Work from Yeshiva University in Community Organizing and a Bachelor of Science from American University in Business Administration. She and her husband live in Manhattan.