October 23, 2025
The Saranac Lake Central School has announced the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards. This year’s recipients are Suzanne Dugan and Richard Meyer. There will be a dinner to honor them on Nov. 8 at the Hotel Saranac. The dinner will also feature a silent auction to benefit the community schools initiative.
Suzanne Dugan was born in Saranac Lake to Kathy and Bill Dugan. She is the youngest of five siblings and attended Saranac Lake public schools from kindergarten through 12th grade. Graduating in 1982, Dugan went on to attend Siena College, from which she graduated magna cum laude. She earned her J.D. cum laude from Albany Law School of Union University in 1989.
Dugan began her career as a judicial clerk with the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court. She joined the firm of Cohen Milstein in 2011 after more than 20 years of service in government, including as special counsel for ethics for the Office of the New York State Comptroller where she created and oversaw a vigorous and dynamic ethics program for 2,500 employees and provided advice and counsel to the state comptroller, acting as the sole trustee of the third largest public pension plan in the country. She also previously served as counsel and acting executive director of the New York State Ethics Commission.
Dugan currently serves as special counsel to Cohen Milstein, where she leads the firm’s ethics and fiduciary counseling practice, which she helped found. She serves as fiduciary counsel for public pension plans from coast to coast, including some of the largest institutional investors in the country, and provides guidance on fiduciary responsibility, ethical duties, strategic governance and compliance issues. She consults with governmental entities and other clients on design and implementation of comprehensive ethics programs and provides fiduciary and ethics training to boards of trustees of pension plans and government entities. She assists in conducting investigations and structuring recommendations, providing an additional layer of oversight and accountability. Dugan also serves as an outside ethics officer to municipalities across the country, evaluating and investigating complaints of unethical conduct, providing objective and independent guidance, and working to ensure a culture of ethical leadership.
Dugan is the president of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys. She is also a member of the Board of the Clifton-Park-Halfmoon Public Library for which she has dedicated over a decade of service.