Daniel Woodham
My goal is a more just world, and I love being with people from other countries, so I feel very lucky to be able to do both in my own community.
I’m also fortunate to help Kingston be a place that embraces diversity. And, finally, I am excited about immigrant friends helping to make Kingston a more vibrant, inclusive community.
In December 2021, Daniel Woodham became UIDN’s first employee. Working part-time he manages the helpline and caseload. An Ulster County native, Daniel was born in Kingston Hospital. He attended Tillson Elementary School, Bailey Middle, and Kingston High School. He then lived elsewhere — mostly Oregon and North Carolina — while also spending time in Belgium, Germany, South Asia, and many Central and South American countries.
Daniel returned to the Hudson Valley in 2016, moving to Kingston with his wife Andrea and son Miles. He is fluent in Spanish, English, and French.
Daniel’s earlier work included providing crisis intervention and mental health services to youth and adults and teaching English as a New Language (ENL) to Montagnard immigrants from Vietnam. Since 2010 Daniel has been a full-time organic vegetable farmer. He continues to farm part time as an outdoor counterbalance to working with UIDN.
“I feel honored to work with UIDN,” Daniel says. “The volunteers demonstrate an incredible commitment to solidarity and helping ‘our community of friends.’ The Kingston community has a markedly different face than when I was growing up here. I’m fortunate to now help Kingston be a place that embraces a diversity of people.”
Maria Espinal
UIDN’s mission “to provide a network of safety and support to immigrants, regardless of status” resonates with me. My father came to the U.S. in 1962 trading life on a farm for work in a factory and Brooklyn apartment living.
He found housing and work because he was put in touch with a newly arrived friend of a friend who showed him the way. This man, who was a stranger to my dad, showed him kindness and gave him support.
It was that spirit of lending a helping hand to create networks of support that made it possible for my family to succeed and has sparked in me a commitment to service.
I grew up around immigrant families from all over the globe. That diversity has enriched my life in countless ways, and I will work hard to make it possible for that diversity to continue at the core of the “American Story.”
Maria has volunteered with UIDN since May 2023, helping with the food pantry, delivering furniture, picking up calls from the helpline, giving rides, and then becoming co-lead of the transportation team. In May 2024 Maria became UIDN’s second, part-time, case manager.
Maria is a proud retired member of Millwright Local 740 a labor union where for 17 years she devoted herself to promoting the values of collective bargaining and workplace inclusion.
Prior to becoming a skilled trades person, Maria worked at a socially responsible investment firm helping people align their money with their values. Born in the Dominican Republic, she grew up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and now lives with her wife, Rebecca, in the Hudson Valley.
Stephanie Kristal
I am inspired by the enormous courage of those in our community and all over the world who have had to leave their country of origins, making arduous journeys to create better lives for themselves and their families.
I celebrate the richness and diversity that people of different cultures and backgrounds bring to our communities. I am honored to be a part of this diverse community and to be a part of a family of people who hold a vision of a fair and just world.
Stephanie Kristal has been working with UIDN since 2018. She first volunteered with the transportation team, driving people to ICE check-ins and legal consultations. Stephanie later joined the board and the administrative team and served as co-president from December 2020-November 2021. She helped develop and run UIDN’s case management program until February 2022.
Stephanie co-led UIDN’s fundraising committee for several years, and we were fortunate in 2022 to have her continue this work as our development director and second part time staff member.
She has been a social justice advocate most of her life, volunteering with the Women’s Human Rights Commission at Amnesty International; South Africa Now, a group fighting against apartheid; and the Black Mesa Trust, a Hopi grassroots organization addressing water pollution and the destruction of sacred land and sites.
Stephanie has a private practice in counseling and hypnotherapy. In 1992, she established mindfulness-based yoga and meditation classes for those living with HIV/AIDs in Ulster County.
Community Groups
The Ulster Immigrant Defense Network is made up of affiliated organizations including community groups and faith communities. If you are part of an organization interested in becoming a UIDN affiliate, please contact Father Frank Alagna, fjalagna@gmail.com. Current affiliates are shown below.
SURJ Ulster County
Showing up for Racial Justice is a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves white people to act with passion and accountability as part of a multiracial majority for justice.
Faith Communities
Read the Statement of Conscience and Faith issued by UIDN’s early religious affiliates.
Christ the King Episcopal Church, Stone Ridge
Church of the Messiah, Rhinebeck
Congregation Emmanuel of the Hudson Valley
Holy Cross/Santa Cruz Episcopal Church, Kingston
Iglesia Evangelica Amigos, Kingston
Islamic Association of Ulster County
New Paltz Jewish Congregation
New Progressive Baptist Church, Kingston
Old Dutch Reformed Church, Kingston
Pointe of Praise Church, Kingston
St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, Woodstock
St. James United Methodist Church, Kingston
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingston
St. John’s Memorial Episcopal Church, Ellenville
Second Iglesia La Mision Asamblea de Dios, Kingston
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills, Kingston
Vida Real Congregation, Kingston
Woodstock Jewish Congregation
Worldwide Ministries All I Can in Christ Inc., Kingston
UIDN is an all-volunteer groups that depends on the support — financial and otherwise — of our community. We offer tremendous thanks to our hundreds of volunteers and to our friends in these allied organizations.
For the Many, formerly Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson, is building a grassroots movement of everyday people. The goal? Health care, housing, racial and immigration justice, economics, and environmentalism that works for all of us and puts the power back in our hands to create lasting change. Contact: info@forthemany.org or 845-481-0703. Offices in Kingston (Ulster County), Poughkeepsie (Dutchess), Middletown and Newburgh (Orange).
Kelly Storrs’s work is inspired by place. Lowland Studio is in a floodplain — everything comes to rest there: sycamore seed, birch bark, deer bones, coyote teeth, fossils, styrofoam balls–not to mention the abundant growth and slow decay of a Catskill season. In the fall of 2022, Kelly raised more than $1,000 for UIDN with an online raffle.
Neighbors Link works to strengthen the whole community through the healthy integration of immigrants. The group provides English language education, immigration legal services, a Worker Center, support services, parent education, early childhood and school-age programs, and more. Headquartered in Mount Kisco, Westchester County, Neighbors Link offers services throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley. Phone: 914-666-3410.
Rural & Migrant Ministry works to create a just, rural New York State by nurturing leadership; standing with the disenfranchised, especially farmworkers and rural workers; and changing unjust systems. RMM works around the state with offices in Sullivan County (845-392-7279) and Dutchess County (845-485-8627).
Thrift 2 Fight mobilizes secondhand fashion to fund and amplify grassroots social justice initiatives fighting for racial and disability justice and queer liberation. Starting as a series of pop-up, volunteer-run, thrift sales on lawns and porches, we’re now a storefront in Tivoli. As of June 2022, Thrift 2 Fight has donated $50,000 to UIDN and other groups. Thrift 2 Fight is open Thursday through Monday, 48 Broadway, Tivoli. Contact: 845-757-1019, hello@thrift2fight.com, and on Instagram.
Ulster Rapid Response gathers and when possible responds to reports of ICE activity in Ulster County. Please only report what you have personally witnessed and include actions observed, number of agents, time and date, address, description of weapons, vehicles, clothing, and any badges or IDs viewed. Ulster4immigrantshotline@gmail.com or 845-293-3423.
Worker Justice Center of New York pursues fairness for those denied human rights, focusing on low wage workers including immigrants and agricultural workers. WJCNY uses a range of avenues, including the legal system, to empower communities and change institutions. Phone: 845-331-6615 or 800-724-7020.
La Voz, a free Spanish-language online and print magazine, has been published since 2004. La Voz has been honored by the New York Community Media Alliance and others and has some 25,000 readers in the mid-Hudson Valley. Phone: 845-758-6822, ext. 3759, email: escribalavoz@yahoo.com
The board, staff, and volunteers of Ulster Immigrant Defense Network honor our founder and long-time board president, a mentor and dear friend known to all as simply Father Frank.
September 8, 1945 ~ November 29, 2025.
May the work continue. May the welcome widen. And may we never forget that the measure of our humanity is found not in how we treat the powerful, but in how we honor the stranger in our midst. Father Frank, September 2025
His ministry was inseparable from his grassroots action, and through that union he touched countless lives. Father Frank’s spirit will continue to guide and inspire us to lead with empathy, compassion, and commitment to a higher good. – Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger
Father Frank lived a of profound life of service, advocating for our most vulnerable community members and putting equity and inclusivity at the forefront here in Kingston. – NY State Senator Michelle Hinchey
I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Father Frank Alagna, rector emeritus of Holy Cross/Santa Cruz Episcopal Church, Ulster Immigrant Defense Network founder, and a powerful advocate for our community’s most vulnerable. — Congressman Pat Ryan
Frank had a nose for justice and the will to get there. He was here at the beginning and persevered until the end. — Nic Abramson, former UIDN board member
In 2017, a friend asked me to go with her to a Kingston church to hear a priest talk about helping immigrants. Trump was separating families. This impassioned priest, Father Frank, spoke so eloquently that I immediately signed up to work with this inspiring and selfless man. — Geri Brodsky, former UIDN board member
In the spring of 2017 Father Frank, greatly disturbed by the treatment immigrants were receiving — documented and undocumented — called a meeting. From that meeting the Ulster Immigrant Defense Network was born.
During this entire time — right up until his death — Father Frank was an indefatigable voice and presence, speaking out for UIDN and those who depended on it to all who would listen. He is an inspiration whose light and influence will never die. — Judy Damron, former senior warden, Holy Cross/Santa Cruz Episcopal Church
Sometimes I am too tired after a day’s work to make that extra call to a family in need; then I remember that a vibrant, caring community takes many hands. I think to myself, “What would Father Frank have done?” and I make the call. — Deborah Franklin-Feingold, English-as-a-New-Language teacher, Kingston City School District, and UIDN volunteer
Father Frank exhorted us in no uncertain terms that we must put ourselves out to protect and uplift our undervalued neighbors.
Yet even within his fiercest demands that we work for justice, he managed to make those around him feel loved and lightened. He had that talent. It was a privilege to know him. — Patty Grossman, UIDN board officer
Father Frank showed with his actions how to help our neighbors. He inspired me to rally courage in unknown circumstances. He changed my life. — Margot Jepson, UIDN volunteer and Holy Cross/Santa Cruz Episcopal Church parishioner
I was a bit intimated when I first met Father Frank dressed in his vestments. That intimidation melted when I immediately felt his warm and loving heart. Throughout the years Father Frank and I worked together I was impressed by the depth of his conviction and his willingness to stand up for the most vulnerable in our community and speak out against injustice.
His love, grace, and humor touched all that knew him. I feel honored and blessed to have worked by his side and am inspired by his great and beautiful spirit. — Stephanie Kristal, UIDN development manager
Father Frank led with power, deep insight, and love. We won’t let him down! — Marjorie Leopold, UIDN board member
He had this profound and wonderful mix of humor and idealism. His speeches were brilliant. He seemed uncontainable by convention. — Susan Manuel, UIDN volunteer
I can remember the first time I saw Father Frank. I’d come to begin volunteering at UIDN and while I scurried around I looked up, and there he was: quizzical, calm, and welcoming inside UIDN’s chaos.
He’s so elegant, I thought. How could he be involved in this activism stuff? It’s my great good fortune to have been wrong to ask that question. May Father Frank stay watching the details of what we do, keeping those details connected to the big reason why we do it. — Duff Morton, UIDN volunteer
From the first time I heard Father Frank speak, in February 2017, I’ve been struck over and over again by his absolute moral clarity, fused with extraordinary eloquence and unfailing courage.
I don’t know that anyone else could have built the wide and resilient network that grew up around him, led by his vision. — Jo Salas, volunteer and former board member
Of all his glowing characteristics, perhaps most the impressive for me was how Father Frank regularly decided to help someone in desperation even if it meant having them come and live with him in order to be received from the border.
I now refer to Father Frank as being on par with Oscar Romero and other liberation theologians of the past. I’m energized by the incredible volunteers that continue to grow UIDN with the same passion with which Father Frank lived his life. — Daniel Woodham, UIDN case manager
I remember when UIDN first formed and Father Frank announced he was putting a shower in the church in case anyone needed sanctuary. He had a passion for people’s safety.
He always showed up to represent UIDN at our Amnesty International Mid-Hudson Human Rights Film & Panel and spoke at our events to raise awareness about supporting our immigrant neighbors. — Diana Zuckerman, Coordinator, Amnesty International Mid-Hudson, and UIDN volunteer