Riverhead’s Anti-Bias Task Force chair stepping down, eyeing broader youth outreach efforts, as he mulls future run for elective office

Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force Chairperson Mark McLaughlin is stepping down from the post. 

McLaughlin advised task force members and town officials of his decision in an email sent late Sunday evening. 

“As my term has expired, I am writing to formally accept that my service on the Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force has come to a close,” McLaughlin wrote. 

McLaughlin was appointed to the task force as its vice-chairperson on Sept. 6, 2023, for a two-year term expiring in September 2025, in a remaking of the ABTF by the Town Board, which said it acted to increase diversity among its members.  A longtime member, Noreen LeCann was reappointed as chairperson, but resigned from the task force the following week. McLaughlin then became the ABTF chairperson.  

McLaughlin and other holdover members of the task force, whose terms expired in September 2024 and September 2025, have not yet been reappointed, according to an examination of Town Board resolutions posted on the town website.

McLaughlin said in the email, a copy of which he sent to RiverheadLOCAL Sunday night, that the task force’s work was “necessary because biased actions did occur, particularly within the Riverhead School District environment, and they required attention, accountability, and action.”

He listed the projects the task force worked on “in response,” including, he said, forming “a partnership with the Riverhead School District, which led to Circle of Healing discussions and Sensitivity Training,” and work on “hate crime awareness” with the Riverhead Charter School, the Suffolk County Hate Crimes Unit, Stony Brook Medicine and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, and the Butterfly Effect Project, “and many community activations aimed at education and healing.”

In an interview Wednesday afternoon, McLaughlin said a lot of his work with the task force was about “creating awareness,” work he called “activations.” 

He said he knew he had to “slow down some of those activations, because some of them were outside of our mission statement.”  Activations, McLaughlin explained, are activities that create awareness. “I strongly felt that in order for people to report bias, they’ve got to know who to report it to,” he said.

“I understood that it was outside of our mission statement, because our mission statement is basically just supposed to address bias when it’s brought to our attention,” McLaughlin said. 

“So I definitely felt like, okay, maybe it’s time for me to step down and do things on a broader scale with other organizations,” he said, adding he’s enjoyed working with the members of the ABTF. “We have some fantastic people there. But, he said, “I do have dreams and aspirations.” McLaughlin said he’s ready to go on to the next chapter.  “There’s more that I want to do and I look forward to the future.”

The things he’d like to do include increasing outreach programs, such as the Black History Month film event, he said, and the “We Huddle to Help” football event to raise funds and collect donations for local food pantries, which he plans to expand from an annual event to one that takes place several times a year. McLaughlin said he has some support systems that are getting behind the effort. He’s got ideas for new initiatives, too, such as a Voices of Honor Youth Summit, which would bring “guest speakers and special programming to our youth in our community, even from interview etiquette, networking and different opportunities in areas that they may not have access to,” he said.

“I really like what we accomplished with the committee, and I’m all about growth, and I’m looking forward to that,” McLaughlin said.

Asked if his future might include running for office, McLaughlin answered without hesitation. “That is something that I would like to see happen,” he said. “I would like to see my name on the ballot. I would like to see the name Mark MK McLaughlin on the ballot. I look forward to that,” he said. “Right now, I’m the Chief of Staff for Assembly Member Giglio, and right now my duty is to serve her office.”