This Mother’s Day, we are proud to celebrate two women whose careers and lives reflect the very best of service, sacrifice, and community. Julia Watt-Rosenfeld and Patricia Lincourt have each spent decades working to improve the lives of others — and we are honored to recognize them at this year’s Mother’s Day Celebration.
Julia Watt-Rosenfeld
Campaign Manager, Spring Street Climate Fund | Adjunct Asst. Professor, NYU Wagner | Trustee, Elizabeth and Barets O. Benjamin Foundation
For 20 years, Julia Watt-Rosenfeld has been a tireless force for justice in New York City. From fighting to preserve affordable housing and improve neighborhood schools to preventing the displacement of working-class communities of color, Julia has channeled her passion into real, lasting change — block by block and bill by bill.
For a decade, she served as Director of Community Organizing and Advocacy at Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation in East New York, Brooklyn, where she trained and supervised organizers, led the agency’s racial equity work, and drove voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. A sought-after speaker at conferences nationwide, she has long championed integrating advocacy and organizing into social service organizations.
Today, Julia brings that same energy to the Spring Street Climate Fund as Campaign Manager and to the next generation of public servants as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She is also a Trustee of the Elizabeth and Barets O. Benjamin Foundation, where she honors the legacy of her father, our late Board Chair George Rosenfeld, by supporting causes — including Odyssey House — that strengthen communities across the region.
Julia holds a BA in Political Science and Women’s Studies from Williams College and an MSW from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.
Patricia Lincourt
Deputy Commissioner of Programs, NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports
With more than 35 years of clinical and administrative experience, Patricia Lincourt has devoted her career to serving people at some of the most difficult moments of their lives. As Deputy Commissioner of Programs at the NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), she oversees the divisions of Prevention, Harm Reduction, Treatment and Recovery, and Criminal Justice — a scope of work that touches countless New Yorkers every day.
Patricia’s career has spanned addiction, mental health, and child welfare settings, always guided by a commitment to evidence-based practice, integrated services, and improved outcomes. She has served as both a program director and clinical director for outpatient substance use disorder services, and has provided training in person-centered care, motivational interviewing, and quality improvement.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from SUNY Buffalo and a master’s degree in social work from SUNY Albany.
We are deeply grateful to Julia and Patricia for the lives they have touched and the communities they have strengthened. Please join us in celebrating these two remarkable women at our Mother’s Day Celebration on May 7.
