Thursday, October 1, 2026
Kevin McGilloway has spent decades quietly supporting Sea Cliff through a steady accumulation of service, leadership, and an unwavering belief in community.
McGilloway, a longtime Sea Cliff resident and former village trustee, has served in a wide range of volunteer and official roles, from land use boards and civic committees to education and public health organizations. For that body of work, the Sea Cliff/Glen Head Herald has named McGilloway its 2025 Person of the Year.
He emphasized that what he does is not atypical in the village; there are many people at work behind the various events and good works that take place throughout the village.
“There are so many people in Sea Cliff that volunteer,” McGilloway said. “Every single aspect of Sea Cliff life has a bunch of volunteers.”
Born in 1949, McGilloway built a successful professional career before devoting increasing amounts of his time to volunteer service. He grew up in Jamaica, Queens, where he also attended Queens College on a fellowship, studied computers, earned a master’s degree at New York University, and later returned to school at night to earn an MBA. His career in information technology eventually led him to senior leadership roles, including chief information officer positions at Equitable Insurance and Lehman Brothers.
“When I got my master’s in computer science, it was literally the first year NYU had a computer science department,” he said. “Before that it was considered engineering.”
Over the last forty years, he and his wife, Jane, lived in Sea Cliff, where they raised four daughters. He said they found the North Shore area while they were searching for a midway point between Manhattan, where Jane taught, and Smithtown, where McGilloway worked.
The couple, who met as teenagers in college in 1968, eventually settled in Glen Head before moving to Sea Cliff after their first two children were born. Jane ended up teaching for several years at Sea Cliff Elementary School, and was also involved in the school community, serving as PTA president at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
Volunteer service, McGilloway said, grew naturally out of family life and casual conversations rather than a grand plan.
Before his long tenure in village government, McGilloway spent nearly a decade volunteering with the Henry Viscardi School in Albertson, New York, now known as the National Center for Disability Services. He served on its board for almost a decade, twice as chairman. The school serves children with severe physical disabilities and also operates adult retraining programs.
“It was what I would call a working board,” McGilloway said. “Aside from trying to help raise some funds, we met and got involved in the strategy and execution reality of getting into the classroom level.”
That pattern of engagement carried over into his service in Sea Cliff. McGilloway was first invited to serve on village committees and later joined the Sea Cliff Zoning Board of Appeals, where he spent eight years, including several as chairman. He then ran for village trustee, winning the position four times starting in 2014 and serving eight years.
Mayor Elena Villafane said she has known McGilloway and his family for roughly three decades, dating back to when their children were in kindergarten. She worked closely with him when they served together on the village board.
“I’ve watched him and his work and all that he has done over all these years just with really an amazing respect,” Villafane said. “I have a real admiration for Kevin, because he has always been a person who brings his best to the table at all times and has a wealth of information because of his work experience.”
Villafane said McGilloway’s approach to governance stood out. That ability, she said, benefited the entire village.
“He always looks at everything from the perspective of all the almost 5,000 residents in Sea Cliff,” Villafane said. “'Is this something that’s going to have a negative impact on a section of the community or a particular group? How can we ameliorate that impact?'”
After stepping down as trustee in 2022, McGilloway did not step away from civic life. He remains active on volunteer committees, including efforts related to the village-owned Pump House property and the Civic Progress Committee, which seeks to identify residents interested in volunteering.
He has also devoted roughly eight years to the North Shore Coalition Against Substance Abuse, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing youth substance abuse through education and awareness, serving for several years as co-president alongside Alison Camardella. Camardella said McGilloway became involved toward the end of 2017 and quickly became an indispensable partner.
“I could not have asked for a better partner than Kevin McGilloway in everything that we created through CASA,” Camardella said. “There is nothing that CASA accomplished that was not equally due to Kevin’s effort and commitment.”
Camardella, who also sits on the board of the Pump House project with him, said McGilloway’s greatest strength was his ability to keep organizations focused.
“He is very action driven,” she said. “He keeps any board that he is on honest and focused on the mission at hand. Kevin McGilloway is always the one in the room bringing it back to the plan the mission the next action the next right step.”
Beyond formal accomplishments, those who know McGilloway emphasize his character.
Villafane described him as incisive, funny, and deeply kind.
“He has an amazing sense of humor,” she said. “He is an amazing storyteller. He can tell a story and hold a crowd in the palm of his hand.”
Camardella echoed that sentiment, describing McGilloway as an unexpected but deeply valued friend.
“I consider him one of my dearest friends today,” she said. “He has a really clear set of values that I admire. He is an incredible family man who is dedicated to his beautiful wife Jane and his four daughters.”
For McGilloway, the motivation has always been simple.
“My wife and myself we like being involved and trying to give back anyway we can,” he said. “The overall benefit is fantastic because not only do you try to help your environment and the people and organizations in your environment, but you make a wonderful set of friends that you keep forever.”
As Sea Cliff continues to change, McGilloway said he is always encouraged to see as others step forward and pick up the torch of public service.
“Sea Cliff is unique in that it truly is a village of volunteers,” he said. “It’s always important to get fresh people and fresh ideas, because it keeps everything moving and vibrant.”
