Uncrowned Community Builders

Ernestine R. Green was born in Queens, New York. She is the daughter of Eugene and Bertha Riddick and is proud to be from a family of seven girls. She came to Buffalo in 1955 to attend Buffalo State Teachers College and graduated in 1959. She returned to Long Island but was unable to work as a teacher in the public school system because it did not welcome minority teachers at that time. Instead she did social work for the Nassau County Department of Welfare. She returned to Buffalo in 1960 and married Justice Samuel Green.

Ms. Green was the First Woman to be appointed to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority by the former Governor Hugh Carey in 1980. She was reappointed by former Governor Mario Cuomo in 1987. While at the NFTA, Ms. Green initiated and chaired the Minority Task Force which helps local minority businesses to work with the NFTA to secure contracts. In addition, she initiated and chaired the Art Selection Committee of the NFTA. A million and one-half dollars of public art represented by all members of the community was placed in the seven Metro stations.

Her affiliations have included: Commissioner and Vice Chair, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority; Trustee, Statler Foundation; Board of Directors and Chair - Strategic Board Placement Committee, Leadership Buffalo; Board of Trustees, Medaille College; Founder, Chair - Renaissance Women; Co-chair, Ebony and Ivory Ball Fund Raiser; Member, The Women's Group - Professional Women Coming Together to Network and Address Concerns of Women on all Issues; Member, Leadership Buffalo Class of '92; Buffalo Urban League; Buffalo Chapter NAACP; and Board of Trustees, Buffalo State College Foundation.

Former community affiliations include: Founder, Black Educators Association; Founder and Board Member, St Philips Boys and Young Men's Choir; First Woman to be Appointed to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority; Founder and Chair of Women for Gorski; Chair, Educational Committee of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and others.

Ms. Green and her husband have one daughter, Beth, who is a practicing attorney in Forest Hills, New York.