The Walden Board of Trustees, after reviewing applications and interviewing candidates over the past four months, has appointed a new full-time village manager: Kathryn Luciani, the Town of Woodbury’s former supervisor. The board was expected to officially appoint Luciani to the position during its Aug. 18 meeting.

Luciani grew up in Rockland County before moving to Orange County in 2000 and to Woodbury in 2010. She graduated from Clarkstown High School South in 1997, then briefly attended Rockland Community College. Early in her career, she taught preschool and worked several other jobs. She also worked as an office manager at American Pool Management from 2006 to 2016, resigning to stay home and raise her children.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Luciani founded a community group called We Are Woodbury. Over the following years, she and other members have proposed ideas to improve the town’s downtown area, hosted holiday events to bring residents together, and spotlighted local businesses on social media.

“During COVID, HGTV hosted a hometown makeover contest. People in the community were saying, ‘We should put Woodbury in there — we don’t really have a downtown area.’ So a bunch of us got together, and they were like, ‘Why don’t you coordinate it?’ And I was like, ‘Great,’” Luciani said Aug. 14. “We had a week to put together a documentary. We went through the historical society, and I got a director to film it.”

“We lost the contest — Cornwall won. And then I said, ‘Well, can’t we get grants to fix our downtown area?’ So I started a community group called We Are Woodbury during COVID,” she continued. “We did a Christmas tree lighting to get everybody out of their homes, and we did a lighted car parade for New Year’s. We also helped businesses that were struggling — we would make little films and talk about businesses on Facebook Live. For any new business that came in, we went down and welcomed them with balloons.”

Some time after the group’s formation, We Are Woodbury restored an abandoned cemetery in the town, cleaning gravestones and clearing plant debris. The town supervisor at the time, however, barred members from the cemetery despite previously granting them permission. Confused, Luciani began attending board meetings to seek answers, which led her to run for local office. While serving on the town board, she also ran for the state Assembly; through that campaign, she became acquainted with many local and state officials.

“One of my favorite projects was cleaning an abandoned cemetery in Woodbury; the town said it wasn’t theirs. The stones were from the 1600s and 1700s, so we went in and started cleaning them. I asked the town supervisor, ‘Can we go in?’ And he said, ‘Sure, no problem,’” Luciani said Aug. 15. “Then all of a sudden, the town supervisor kicked us out and told us we couldn’t go in there. I couldn’t understand it, so I started attending town board meetings and questioning why they weren’t allowing community members to take care of the cemetery, and they wouldn’t give us an answer. That’s when I decided to run for office, because I couldn’t understand why you would go after people who are trying to better their community.”

During her time on the town board, Luciani said she was involved in nearly every facet of town operations, working to improve quality of life for residents and staff. Among her accomplishments:

• She familiarized herself with town staff and addressed office issues that previous supervisors had neglected, and pushed to handle projects in-house to save the town money.

• She responded to major emergencies in Woodbury and surrounding municipalities, collaborating with first responders and officials to ensure public safety, and purchased a local church’s gymnasium to serve as a disaster shelter.

• She secured millions of dollars in grant funding for town projects, including $175,000 for the senior center, $495,000 for the Woodbury Animal Shelter and $2.9 million for the Earl Reservoir Dam.

• She supported senior citizens, particularly those who struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic, hosting ice cream socials and tea parties to provide companionship.

• She worked closely with the town’s first responders, recruiting volunteer firefighters and organizing ride-alongs with police officers.

“When I was town supervisor, I was a very hands-on supervisor. I feel that a politician should be a community servant — they’re supposed to make their community better and listen to people. And I’m a worker bee, which is why I founded We Are Woodbury and did all this stuff,” Luciani said Aug. 14. “When we had issues with our animal shelter, I was at the shelter cleaning and taking cages out. I had callouts sometimes for cats, and I didn’t want to call our ACO, so I would go and pick up the cats.”

Luciani applied for Walden’s village manager position in June after learning of the opening. Though she is new to Walden and less familiar with the village than other parts of Montgomery, she said she believes her hands-on approach makes her a good fit for the role. She said she looks forward to meeting residents and addressing their needs.

“I’m really excited to meet the residents of Walden. I’m going to be at events and get people to know who I am and see my face. They’re going to learn that they can come to me about things that might be coming up,” Luciani said Aug. 14. “My hopes are that the people of Walden can feel comfortable coming to me for anything. They can come to me with issues, and I’ll bring them to the board.”