Our Staff


  • Donna Polat

    Part-time Office Administrator

    My name is Donna Polat and I am pleased to be the the Fellowship's part-time office administrator.


    As an IT professional with over 20 years of experience creating websites, managing databases and analyzing data, it is fulfilling to utilize my technical skills in such a warm and caring community like UUFP.


    I am a mother, grandmother, and crafter.  I returned to New York in 2016 after residing in North Carolina for 9 years. While in North Carolina, I worked for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I enjoyed my work there, but a strong desire to be closer to my family and return to my roots brought me back to New York.


    As the part-time office administrator, I am always willing to help and support in many areas, including producing the weekly blast, the Order of Service , the monthly newsletter, managing our membership database and managing our website.  I am also the person to ask about using space at the Fellowship. My office is the second door on the left of the upper lobby.  


    The office telephone number is 845-471-6580, and the email is office@uupok.org. 


    The Fellowship office is open for in-person appointments on Fridays, from 9:00am - 2:00 pm.

Marnie McKnight-Favell

Religious Education (RE) Coordinator

Marnie is excited to serve as the RE Coordinator for the Poughkeepsie Fellowship. She has a lifelong connection to personal spiritual exploration, and has a background as a healer and as a yoga teacher for nearly 20 years. She is looking forward to making connections with families here!

A lifelong student of yoga, Marnie shares this awareness and curiosity with yoga students of all ages from 0-100. Marnie works with preschool aged children each week in making playful connections between our bodies, breath, and feelings.

Marnie lives in the city of Poughkeepsie with her husband, Charlie, their 15 year old Violet, and their three cats. Marnie enjoys gluten free baking, cooking, spending time with her family at the community garden, and exploring trails together. Having just learned how to knit, Marnie is currently creating a sloppy and awesome scarf.

Gabrielle Farrell
Consultant for Family Programming

Some great news… Welcome to the Family Programming Consultant!

The Lifespan Faith Development (LFD) Consultant Search Committee welcomes Gabrielle Farrell for a six-month consultancy (primarily online) with UUFP to offer expertise, support and guidance in re-establishing a sustainable faith development program to preschool and elementary-school children.  Part of this consultancy, funded by a grant from the NY State Convention of Universalists, includes helping us search and hire a permanent religious educator within that time frame.  

Gabrielle currently lives with her husband in Wiscasset, Maine and Rockville, Maryland as the weather dictates.  She grew up in a variety of places but her longest stay-in-one-place childhood home was in nearby Cornwall-on-Hudson where her parents worked at West Point.  

As a retired Master Credentialed, Lifespan Religious Educator, over the course of 30 years she has served three congregations First Unitarian Church of St. Louis, All Souls Washington DC and River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation where she worked with the Rev. Alexa Fraser there as an intern.  

She has also served on the Skinner House Books Editorial and LREDA Boards, plus the LREDA Endowment Committee. She is currently the Chair of the LREDA Committee on Mentoring.  She writes curriculum for the UUA (both as a Tapestry of Faith & Renaissance program author) – these experiences will all serve her well in advising and supporting us to re-establish a spirit-filled faith development ministry for children and their families.  

Besides Facetiming every day with her preschool grandchildren, renovating their home in Maine, she continues to be dedicated to AO(Anti-Oppression)/AR(Anti-Racism)/MC (Multicultural)/MR (Multiracial) work transforming congregations and communities and individuals through religious education ministry.

Look for invitations to meet her (on Zoom)!  She’s excited to meet us.  

In Faith,
The Lifespan Faith Development Search Committee