EXTRAordinary PEOPLE

Sarah Esposito, PA-C, is a certified Physician Associate at Integrated Dermatology of NJ, located in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Sarah received her Bachelor's degree in biological sciences from the University of Delaware. She then graduated with a Master's degree in Physician Assistant Studies from Seton Hall University, where she was awarded membership in the prestigious Alpha Eta Honors Society, the National Honors Society for Allied Health Practitioners. Prior to joining Integrated Dermatology of NJ, Sarah worked in emergency medicine for over three years. She has trained extensively in dermatology since joining the specialty in 2014. In addition to medical dermatology, Sarah is skilled in the surgical removal of skin lesions and cancers.

Dee Gwiazdowski has been in the design field for thirty-two years, nineteen of which have been with Ethan Allen as a Design Consultant. This is a second career for Dee. She is both passionate and dedicated to creating spaces that are well designed, functional and reflect her client's lifestyle and needs. Each of her projects takes into consideration the rooms' architecture and furnishings that her client wishes to incorporate into the design. Dee is a Diamond Spirit and Gold Spirit award winner.

Marj Billker Graves joined the Army Nurse Corps during her final year of nursing school in 1967. She served as a head nurse on male orthopedic wards at Darnall Army Hospital, Fort Hood, Texas, and at Ireland Army Hospital, Fort Knox, Kentucky. As a Captain, Marj volunteered for Vietnam where she continued to serve as a head orthopedic nurse with the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh. During her tour of duty, she was selected as the nurse for a two-person medical team to accompany both the Bob Hope Christmas Tour in 1971 and the Sammy Davis, Jr. USO Show in 1972. After a return assignment in the United States at Madigan General Hospital, Tacoma, Washington, she resigned her commission to marry her husband, Bob, also a Vietnam Veteran. She was selected as Kentucky's Vietnam Veteran for USA Today's 2012 Veterans Day issue, has been featured in numerous articles in The Courier-Journal, was inducted into the Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame, is a recipient of the Daughters of the American Revolution Distinguished Citizen Medal, and in 2023 was the first female veteran to serve as Grand Marshal of Louisville's Veterans Day Parade. She is a retired Occupational Health Manager from UPS.

Simply put…Ian is camp, and camp is Ian. He began his career as a camper, counselor, Division Leader, and administrator at a traditional day camp in New Jersey. Ian has only missed 2 summers at camp since he was 3 years old! He takes pride in his hands on approach to camping. His personal leadership and spirit are reflected in Black Bear Lake's rich traditions, extraordinary staff, and quality program. Ian is an active member of the American Camp Association and regularly attends and participates in industry events and conferences to find ways to further improve the camp experience. Ian graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in Economics and a focus on Business Management and Entrepreneurship. He lives in Monmouth County with his wife Dara, whom he met at summer camp!

Mayor Brad Cohen was elected to the office in November 2016. The Mayor began his public career in 2010 when he was elected to the East Brunswick Board of Education. Working with a dedicated group of Board members, he helped navigate the schools through difficult economic times in the wake of the Recession and the draconian cuts in State Aid. He was named Board President in 2014 and helped select the new Superintendent of Schools. Balancing fiscal responsibilities with massive needs in information technology, strategic planning, and infrastructure, the future Mayor chose to use his skills to improve the quality of life for all the residents of East Brunswick.

Larry I. Brandspiegel joined the East Brunswick Jewish Center in August 2018 as Cantor and Director of Education before being ordained as a rabbi. Affectionately known as Rabbi/Cantor Larry, the spiritual leader now serves as the President of Jewish Educators Assembly and spiritual advisor of the Northern New Jersey Region of the Federation of Jewish Men's clubs. With over 30 years experience, he continues his work as cantor while infusing the evolving congregation with renewed energy.

Kate Lancaster is in her ninth year working as a middle school teacher at Jamesburg Public Schools. She is also a certified Reading Specialist and was recognized as an Exemplary Educator for the 2023-2024 school year for her strong knowledge and skills, inspiring presence, and positive impact on students, colleagues and the school community as a whole. Kate's own experience, as well as her work in the public school system, connected her with the Minding your Mind nonprofit and she is now heavily involved volunteering for their organization through the annual A Celebration of Life gala in Spring Lake, NJ. Her efforts have assisted in fundraising close to $300,000 over the past three events. She is passionate about ending the stigma associated with mental health issues and takes pride in her commitment to making a difference in her community.

Aparna Parthasarathy is a high school senior passionate about remedying structural inequalities, closing educational gaps and representing Generation Z's values to shape legislation with elected officials. Aparna is a literary advocate and author of Tales of the Invisible, a book that addresses the intersectionality of feminism and the importance of representation. Aparna served as a board member of She's the First and was nominated as a liaison to the local women's commission and is a youth advisor for the town's center for domestic violence and educates peers on dating violence and women's empowerment. Aparna is on the executive board of Model UN, educating younger students on foreign affairs and international relations and is a state advocacy lead for Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) and contributes to increasing awareness on human rights crises and ending genocide. She is also the founder of PoliText, an organization that focuses on civil education among young adults and the importance of political knowledge and has been awarded the Presidential Volunteer Service Gold Award.

Marc Korpus, having had a fascination with maps since youth, took up the creation of of them as an occupation at age 42. He found that mapmaking is now one facet of the discipline of "geographic information systems" (GIS), which marries cartography with databases and statistics and is performed on a computer rather than a drafting board. Until his recent retirement, Marc was a GIS analyst for a nationwide engineering firm, helping engineers and scientists in such endeavors as planning freight railways in New Jersey, monitoring the fish species in New York Bay and routing power from Quebec to New York City.

Rosa Lowinger is a Cuban-born American writer and art conservator. The author of Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub (Harcourt, 2005) and Promising Paradise: Cuban Allure American Seduction (Wolfsonian Museum, 2016), she is the founder and current vice-president of RLA Conservation, LLC, the U.S.'s largest woman-owned materials conservation practice, based in Miami and Los Angeles. A fellow of the American Institute for Conservation, the Association for Preservation Technology, and the American Academy in Rome, Rosa writes regularly for popular and academic media about conservation, the arts, and Cuba. She holds an M.A. in art history and conservation from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and divides her time between Los Angeles and Miami. Her debut memoir will be out in October, in time for National Hispanic Heritage Month. DWELL TIME: A Memoir of Art, Exile and Repair entwines the details of conserving historic buildings and works of art with the story of her family's double exile as Jews from Eastern Europe in the 1920s and then Cuba in early 1961 (Row House Publishing; October 10, 2023).

Neil O. Lawner's interest in photography began when he served in the Air Force on Guam from 1966-1968. During that time, Japanese cameras such as Nikon and Pentax were being manufactured and were available at the Base Exchange. He soon became part of the Kodachrome generation and learned the basics of operating a SLR (single lens reflex) camera.Some of his work was noticed by a gallery owner in New Brunswick who provided artwork to some of the big pharmaceutical corporations in NJ. The gallery sold many of his black and white images to these companies over the years, and this orthodontist soon would make a switch in careers to fulltime photographer. Fifteen years ago, when he moved to New York City, he began to capture colorful images of people, culminating in his first self-published book Coney Island, Merriment, Mermaids and Memories in 2019, followed by a second book, Masked in Manhattan, images of people going about their daily lives in the city during the pandemic. Neil joined Soho Photo Gallery on White Street in Tribeca and exhibits there on a regular basis.

SHIRLEY RUSSAK WACHTEL is an author, college professor, and host of the podcast, EXTRAordinary People. In December, just before the launch of her successful novel, A Castle in Brooklyn (Little A), she appeared on the podcast, Too Jewish Radio. We hope you enjoy her intriguing interview with Rabbi Samuel Cohon. For more information, go to shirleywachtel.com

Steve Cohen has over 50 years of involvement in rugby. He has been the catalyst in developing player safety, refereeing, and promoting the game at the grassroots level. USA Rugby Eagle, Steve Hiatt, has said that “No conversation could take place regarding administrators and contributions to American Rugby without Steve's name being mentioned.” Among his many contributions was pioneering rugby safety by publishing the “Safer Rugby Program” to promote and encourage safe rugby practices. Steve's work in the USA Rugby Collegiate Committee led to the creation of the Division 2 playoffs. He formed the National Small College Rugby Organization to serve Division 3 which put small colleges on the map and gave them a platform to grow and succeed as well, inspiring coaches and players. NSCRO was rebranded as National Collegiate Rugby in 2020 and now serves more than 700 men's and women's college teams. In addition, Steve refereed for nearly 40 years and was a charter member of the USARFU Referees& Laws Committee. Steve supported the growth of women's rugby as head referee for the first five Women's National Championships, writing articles for Rugby Magazine and providing training for women referees.

Corey Caplan is the co-founder of Dolomite, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX for short). Prior to co-founding Dolomite, Corey graduated from Lehigh University with a degree in Computer Science and Business. Corey is passionate about the democratization of financial assets and self-sovereignty that cryptocurrencies and digital assets can offer the world. He has been working in the industry full-time since 2017, contributing to open-source repositories, building Dolomite, and pushing the boundaries beyond what's possible with digital assets.

AnnMarie Karczmit has a passion for volunteering. A general manager at NJBIZ, a business to business newspaper, she is a wife and mother of a 21- year- old son. She started volunteering when she was 13 years old working in a nursing home and never really stopped. AnnMarie has volunteered as a docent at a small museum, den leader/committee chair for the Boy Scouts of America, and various roles at her church, to name a few. In the past few years she took her love of volunteering and paired it with her desire to help empowering teenage girls and created a group called Girls Gifts. Girls Gifts is open to middle and high school girls and uses cooking, crafting, mentorship, and faith as a way to begin an open dialogue about what is important to them. She also runs a similar program for women called Coffee, Cake and Conversation.

DR. AMY ROTHENBERG has practiced naturopathic medicine since 1986. The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, 2017 Physician of the Year, she spearheaded the successful licensure of naturopathic doctors in Massachusetts. She was the longtime medical editor for the Institute of Natural Medicine and has written and lectured widely about the benefits of preventive, natural and whole-person medicine.. When diagnosed with cancer in 2014, Dr. Rothenberg sought care at a renowned teaching hospital and also added naturopathic doctors who specialize in integrative oncology to create her medical dream team. Her book, You Finished Treatment, Now What? A Field Guide for Cancer Survivors is a roadmap for lifestyle and natural medicine to address health challenges that persist after care, and to reduce risk of recurrence.

Amy Solomon was working in the television industry for 10 years before changing careers and decided to make life a little “sweeter.” Together with her mother, she started Just One Bite, a cookie company specializing in bite size gourmet cookies and pies. Her cookies and pookies (pie+cookie = pookie) are handmade, using the finest ingredients and are just the right size so that you can pop them in your mouth. Their goal is to make someone's day a little brighter through their delicious baked treats. They are based in the northern New Jersey area and ship nationwide.

Dan Mulcahey is a radio host and voiceover artist who brings more than a decade of communications experience from corporate marketing and communications to the microphone. Since 2012, he has been a weekend and fill-in host on Magic 98.3, New Jersey's largest music station and one of 62 stations owned by national radio station operator Beasley Media Group. He can also be heard on Spotify as the voice behind many national and regional brands coast-to-coast. Dan began his audio career in college as general manager and host on Rutgers University's heritage radio station, 88.7 WRSU-FM.

WARREN KASDAN is a retired lawyer with a passion for travel. After 50 years of frequent voyages, he has now visited all seven continents, 111 present or former countries and 45 states. Within days after graduating from Princeton University, he set off on a two-month, 14,000 mile automobile trip around the United States. Within hours after completing the Bar Exam following graduation from Boston University Law School, he set off on a six-week trip to Europe, including a week in the Soviet Union. Early trips took him to India, Nepal, Israel, China, Argentina, Brazil, Thailand. Later, he visited Turkey, Kenya, Tanzania, Philippines, Egypt, South Africa, Australia, Bolivia, Peru. After retiring, he saw Vietnam, Cambodia, Central America, Ukraine, Ecuador, Tunisia, Chile, the Central Asian Republics, Indonesia, Cuba, Myanmar, the Caucasus, U.A.E., Oman and Mongolia. He has special fondness for exploring ancient ruins and observing remarkable geography. However, he particularly enjoys his first, serendipitous walk around a foreign city.

CINDY RABINOWITZ is the Director of Cranford Senior Housing in New Jersey. During the past two years, she has tirelessly worked to protect the welfare of the elderly and infirm during the Covid crisis. Cindy has an extensive history caring for the senior population beginning with running the largest kosher Meals on Wheels program in Brooklyn through JASA, the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged. She later created the NJ supportive services program at Cranford Senior Housing, and then developed the NJ State supportive services program at Cranford Senior Housing.

Nicole Marshall holds a bachelor's degree from Fordham University and dual master's degrees in Nurse-Midwifery and Women's Health from Columbia University. Nicole's interest in women's health combined with her passion for social justice and women's rights drew her to a career in midwifery. She currently works as a staff midwife in a high volume urban hospital serving a resource poor community in Paterson, New Jersey. Since beginning her career in 2006, Nicole has worked in many settings including as a research clinician at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, as a health educator in Uganda, and as a midwife in a small midwife-owned private practice in New York City. Nicole provides holistic women's health care and is passionate about reproductive justice.

Ron Stallworth is a 32- year, highly decorated law enforcement veteran, who worked undercover narcotics, vice, criminal intelligence, and organized crime beats in four states. As the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, Ron overcame fierce racial hostility to achieve a long and distinguished career in law enforcement. Ron is the subject of the Academy-Award-winning BlackKklansman, directed by Spike Lee and derived from Ron's book by the same title. Ron is a noted speaker about his experiences and the importance of overcoming racism in today's society.

Melissa Gelfman's passion for the performing arts started at age 10. She began singing, dancing and acting throughout her grammar and high school years, did summer stock and regional theater eventually graduating from the University of Alabama with a BA in Performing Arts and English. After a few years, Melissa decided to put her dramatic career on the backburner while raising her family, and later worked as a Business Manager at Rutgers University. In 2011 Melissa was diagnosed with Parkinson's. As the stress of her job began to affect her Parkinson's, she retired from Rutgers in 2015. She then had time to resume her singing. At age 64, Melissa auditioned for her dream school, Juilliard, and was accepted. She was adamant that the PD not interfere with the bucket list of things she wanted to do in her life. She has decided to figure out a way to complete that list while living with PD. Melissa started taking speech therapy to help rejuvenate her singing voice while taking boxing classes (non-contact) to keep her mobility and flexibility. In addition, she has been singing in a non professional chorus to help her reacclimate to performing.

SHARON BENJAMIN is a writer, an author, and an exercise enthusiast. She has been participating in some degree of exercise most of her life. She now presents a Facebook Live Aerobics session, Monday - Friday, 6:00 AM, Facebook page, "Randall Sharon Benjamin." Sharon overcame an addiction more than 20-years past. She credits her consistent exercise and healthy eating habits for maintaining her recovery.

Karen Kaplan Klein began her career in illustration as soon as she could held a pencil and has not let go since! Karen has illustrated several books and has shown her dioramas and “clayaramas" in numerous galleries throughout the United States since the 1970's and has taught art to children and adults for over 49 years. She also does workshops involving magic, dreams, and the mysteries integrated into art.

Nikki Nash is a podcast host, Hay House author, motivational speaker, and creator of the Genius Profit Society, a training and development company on a mission to equip entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to share and profit from their message. She supports a community of women entrepreneurs in getting clients and customers. Her book, Market Your Genius, is now available for pre-order and will be released on August 24..

Ace Marrero, a New Jersey born actor/producer, holds a BFA from Stephens College for Women (yes, you read that right). Recent credits include Action/Sci-Fi thriller, INTERPRETERS, HBO's reboot of PERRY MASON, a national Facebook commercial as well as RIDE ALONG 2, SLEEPY HOLLOW, SCORPION, CRIMINAL MINDS, THE LAST HEIST & ROADSIDE, to name a few. As a producer Ace has developed and sold films internationally through his company SWIM WITH THE FISH PRODUCTIONS. One of his most recent projects, SHAME OF THRONES: THE MUSICAL, an original stage show parodying the hit show GAME OF THRONES, had a multi-city run, including an extended viewing bat the Jerry Orbach Theatre, in NYC. Ace toured with the production and originated the the role of KHAL DROGO. Ace and his wife, Erin Stegeman, live in Los Angeles with their two children, Adolfo, Alma, and their dog, Wolfy.

Passionate about herbs, Gert Coleman loves, grows, eats, and reads avidly about them. Retired Associate Professor of English at Middlesex County College in New Jersey, she lives on 106 acres in Middlefield, New York where she and her husband are fixing up another old house, training a new puppy, and planting herbs, flowers, trees, and at-risk native plants. She edits the IHA Herb of the Year™ books (Cilantro & Coriander; Hops: Brewing and Beyond; Agastache: Anise Hyssop, Hummingbird Mints and More; Rubus; currently working on Parsley), and frequently writes about the legends, lore, and poetry of herbs. Three times president of the Staten Island Herb Society, she helped to maintain the Colonial Herb Garden at Conference House Park for over 30 years and has started herb gardens at various locations. As a naturalist, she developed and taught parent-tot nature programs at the Staten Island Zoo and local parks, introducing children and adults to local plants, animals, and geology. In addition, she completed a medicinal herbal apprenticeship with internationally acclaimed herbalist Rosemary Gladstar. Gert is a board member of the International Herb Association and co-chair of the IHA Horticultural Committee; member of the Herb Society of America, North East Herb Association, American Botanical Council, and United Plant Savers. She frequently lectures on various aspects of herbs and teaches workshops on nature writing. Gert is also a GCNJ speaker (Garden Clubs of New Jersey).

Julia Gaona has been an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in Irvington, New Jersey for the past sixteen years. A first-generation immigrant, born and raised in Moscow, Russia, she came here as a student and earned her second Master's Degree in TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) from Arizona State University on a full-tuition scholarship. In addition, she teaches writing classes to ESL students at Kean university as an adjunct faculty member, and is studying in a post-Masters Graduate program at Kean. She and her husband are raising ten-year-old twins, and she is also the mother of a son who resides in Philadelphia with his fiancée. During the Covid crisis, she has been balancing these demanding roles, and like so many other teachers, Julia is one of our unsung heroes.

Bernard Rothenberg is a proud military veteran who was raised in Brooklyn, New York. After starting as a young teen working in supermarkets, he later served in World War II and was in Leipzig, Germany at the time of liberation, April 19, 1945. He served his country for 21 months. Upon returning to the States and meeting his future wife, Evelyn, he married and the couple went on to raise two children. After 41 years of marriage and his wife's passing, Bernie retired and became actively involved with Jewish War Veterans in Brooklyn, fundraising and educating students. He currently resides in New Jersey where he continues to speak in schools about his military experience and the lessons he has learned while serving this country. Even during the Covid crisis, this inspiring veteran has given talks to students via Zoom-- impressive for an almost 95- year- old!We are sad to report that weeks after this interview was recorded, Bernie passed away on December 23, 2020. A brave veteran, beloved family man, he was truly an EXTRAordinary person. This is his last interview.

B. V. Marshall's plays have earned recognition from HBO New Writers Workshop., New York's Theatre for a New City, Chicago's public radio station WBEZ and in play festivals from Alaska to Australia. Recently Plainfield Audiences have seen his plays Five Husbands and Incident at Willow Creek. His awards include five Playwriting fellowships from NJ Council on the Arts, Fellowships from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, VCCA, NEH, and the Robert Chesley/ Victor Bumbalo foundation. Recently he received the Bauer-Boucher Award and the Stanley Drama Award for Incident at Willow Creek.

Eva (Safier) Wiener was one of the youngest passengers on the ship, St. Louis, on its famous Atlantic crossing of 1939. Eva's parents, seeking escape from Nazi persecution in Germany, obtained passage to Cuba but were denied entry. Eva and her parents were fortunate to be admitted to England, where they survived the war. This headline-making trip was the subject of the book and movie (released in 1977) “Voyage of the Damned”.

Amy is a heart-centered creative, a leader, a business owner, a culture changer, and an idea generator.Together with her best friend of 16+ years, she co-founded Rowan Tree, a coworking and cogrowth community space for women, open to ALL. Here she has created an environment that is warm, inspiring, and inclusive. She leads with empathy, love, and grace and she harnesses the power of women supporting women to create a space like no other in the Northern Virginia region.

Hailed for the natural ease of his conducting and the compelling insight of his musicianship, James Gaffigan continues to attract international attention and is one of the most outstanding American conductors working today.James Gaffigan is currently the Chief Conductor of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, recently extended for the third time. Since becoming Chief Conductor of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester James has made a very significant impact on the orchestra's profile, both nationally and internationally, with a number of highly successful tours and recordings.James is in high demand working with leading orchestras and opera houses throughout Europe, the United States and Asia.In North America he has worked with New York Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis, Baltimore and Toronto, among others. Born in New York, James was named first prize winner of the 2004 Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition. In 2009, he completed a three-year tenure as Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, in a position specially created for him by Michael Tilson Thomas. Prior to that appointment James was Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, where he worked for Music Director Franz Welser Möst.

Charlie Wachtel is a Producer and Writer who earned the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for BLACKkKLANSMAN (2018). He is also the recipient of the BAFTA , the British version of the Academy Awards. Charlie is currently working on several writing projects with co-writer David Rabinowitz.

Juliette Tolode is an Assistant Nurse Manager at Calvary Hospital/The Dawn Greene Hospice. She has achieved the "American Dream" journeying alone from Benin, Africa to establish a full life with friends and family as an American Citizen.

Michele Schwartz is a 38 year old elementary school teacher, mother of two boys, ages 5 and 2 years old, and is married to her husband of 10 years. In December of 2018, Michele was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. While going through aggressive treatments, she was determined to be involved in her children's lives. Michele is currently out of active treatment but is looking for ways to shed light on various topics having to do with parenting young children while battling cancer.

Santi Buscemi is the son of Italian immigrants from Sicily. Former chairperson of the English Department at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey where he still teaches, Santi has authored several college textbooks and translated the literary novels by Luigi Capuana.