Select Page

Meet our Staff

We Live What We Do!

SPAN’s staff members don’t just work here—about 70% of our employees first received support for their children through SPAN workshops, trainings, conferences, and other events before coming to work with us. Many started as SPAN Resource Parent (SRP) volunteers before becoming part- or full-time employees. So when families call on SPAN for help, they can know they are working with people who not only care, but who have “been there” and have the desire to help others as they were once helped themselves.

Meet Our Board Members

OFFICERS


 

John Morel, CPCU, ARM

Board President

Senior Vice President, Life Sciences Casualty Placement
Marsh USA, Inc.

John Pennett

Board Vice President

Partner
EisnerAmper LLP

Dara Baldwin

Board Treasurer

Director of Public Policy, Center for Disability Rights

Nancy Romanyshyn

Board Secretary

Senior Director of Total Rewards Strategy and Solutions, Syndio

BOARD MEMBERS


 

Kaleena Katea Berryman

Director of Programs and Advancement Newark Youth Career Pathways, Newark Alliance

Nekia Lewis

Parent

Libby Stone-Sterling

Director, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation,
Maine Department of Labor

Carolyn-Hayer

Carolyn Hayer

Executive Director

Carolyn Hayer has been working in the field of advocacy for over thirty years. As the parent of an adult with autism who has successfully navigated the challenges of transition to adulthood, she brings both her personal and professional experience to her work.  Carolyn also serves as Director of the Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR). As the CPIR Director, Carolyn and her team work to provide information and products to build capacity of close to 100 Parent Centers across the country who assist and serve families of youth with disabilities. In her various roles at SPAN, Carolyn conducts presentations at the local, state and national levels on topics related to health and education advocacy, family-professional partnerships, and family and youth leadership development. She previously served as Co-Director of multiple projects supporting parent centers to address issues from reaching and supporting underserved families to non-profit management to building capacity to reach, serve, and grow leadership skills of diverse youth and young adults with disabilities.

Carolyn also volunteers at all levels- from local leadership to national advocacy.  She has served in leadership roles with the PTA, multiple education foundations, her local school board, NJ State Special Education Advisory Council, Disability Rights NJ Board of Directors, Arc of NJ Governmental Affairs Committee, and as a Governor appointee to the NJ Council on Developmental Disabilities and the NJ State Rehabilitation Council.  Carolyn is a recipient of the Phi Delta Kappa, Delta Nu Chapter Community Service Recognition Award, the Arc of Bergen & Passaic Professional of the Year Award and the Hackensack Education Foundation Distinguished Citizen Award. 

Management Team

Peg Kinsell

Peg Kinsell

Director of SPAN Public Policy

Peg Kinsell is the Policy Director at SPAN Parent Advocacy Network working on both state and federal issues. She also provides technical assistance for NEPACT the regional and CPIR the national parent technical assistance centers on juvenile justice as well as military connected students. As a USAF veteran and former military spouse Ms. Kinsell has a special expertise working with military families. She is the director of the Military Family Support 360 Project at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst which supports military connected children and youth with disabilities and/or special healthcare needs throughout New Jersey.

Ms. Kinsell is a member of the NJ Council on Developmental Disabilities and in that role chairs the subcommittee on children and youth. Additionally, she sits on multiple, national regional and state committees and task forces.

Jeanne McMahon

Jeanne McMahon

Senior Program Director, State Projects

Jeanne McMahon joined SPAN in 2016 and is a member of SPAN’s Management Team.  Jeanne leads the organizations development and advancement efforts. Jeanne also directs SPAN’s Health Projects Team where she is responsible for the management and oversight of diversely funded projects in special child health services, maternal child health, adolescent health, education, human services, social, economic and reproductive justice and advocacy. Jeanne co-leads the NJ Community of Care Consortium and serves as the Vice-Chair of the NJ Statewide Network for Cultural Competence. Jeanne also represents SPAN on state-level task forces, committees, and workgroups. Prior to joining SPAN, Jeanne served as the Deputy Director of the Early Intervention Service Coordination (EISC) at Public Health Solutions (PHS), where she oversaw Early Intervention Service Coordination across the five boroughs of New York City. Prior to joining PHS, Jeanne served as the National Program Director at the What to Expect Foundation, where she directed the national expansion of a prenatal health literacy program. Earlier in her career, Jeanne spend 15 years directing programs at Hudson Perinatal Consortium in New Jersey as well as at NARAL/NY in New York City and New York State. Jeanne holds a Bachelors of Arts from City University of New York at Hunter College and a Master of Public Health from University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Roy Maynard

Roy Maynard

Director of Finance

Roy Maynard has 30 years’ experience as an Auditor, Financial Consultant Analysis, Tax Professional and Accountant. He specialize in assisting companies save thousands of dollars on their accounting systems, either by introducing a new cost efficient accounting system or by reducing their accounting overhead cost, which in turn enables management to concentrate more of their resources on their income generating activities. He started working in the Financial and Accounting field during his first and second year of college, at which time he was hired by a CPA firm to do audits and bookkeeping, The hands on experience he received, while attending college and still in his early years proved to be very valuable, it allowed him to better understand the theory of accounting, while doing the practical. He was approved and qualified, by the state of New York, and NASBA, in 2011 to sit for the CPA Exam.  Roy currently oversees the accounting and financial matters for the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network for the past 24 years and 6 months.

Support Team

Jeannine Brinkley 

Data Manager 

Evann Hardy

Intake Coordinator

Ivor Knight

Fiscal Manager

Maria Rodriguez

Administrative Assistant

Joyce Sykes

Resource Manager

Family Resource Specialists

Lauren Agoratus

Family Voices NJ Coordinator/Regional Family-to-Family (F2F) Coordinator

Heroina Beras

Bilingual Spanish
Warmline Statewide

Mita Bhattacharya

Multilingual Family Resource Specialist, Family WRAP: Atlantic,  Burlington, Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean Counties (Trilingual Hindi and Bengali); Early Childhood Inclusion Coordinator (South/Central), NJ Inclusive Child Care Project

Wendy Broadbent

Family Resource Specialist-Bergen County

Warmline Statewide

Brenda L. Figueroa

Director, Family to Family Health Information Center/Parent to Parent of NJ (Bilingual-Spanish);Parent Group Specialist – Hudson & Passaic Counties

Phoebe Glassner-Meade

Parent to Parent Match Specialist Northwest: Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Warren

Garima Jain

Trilingual English, Gujarati, and Hindi

Family Resource Specialist Integrated Care for Kids – Monmouth County

Donna Milanowycz

Family Resource Specialist-Ocean County

Warmline Statewide;

Family Engagement & Resource Specialist, NJ Inclusive Child Care Project

Patricia Paraskevacos

Project Director, Family WRAP

Family Resource Specialist Statewide

Passaic County focus 

Warmline Statewide

Courtney Richardson

Family Resource Specialist Statewide

Kim Rivers

Family Resource Specialist

Warmline Statewide

Luz Sautner

Bilingual Spanish

Family Resource Specialist

Warmline Statewide

Ellie Santiago

Parent Group Specialist

Erin Seigh

Transition Coordinator

Tara Szymanek

Family Resource Specialist

Cape May, Cumberland, Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, and Warren Counties

Henry Tejada

Bilingual Spanish

Family Resource Specialist

Warmline Statewide

Paulina Vargas

Family Resource Specialist

Bilingual Spanish
Family Wrap: Counties –
Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Union, Camden and Salem Counties; Bilingual Early Childhood Training & TA Specialist, NJ Inclusive Child Care Project

Cathy Waldron Balto

Family Resource Specialist – Monmouth

Warmline Statewide

Ellen Woodcock

Parent Group Specialist

 

Karen Blumenthal

Family Resource Specialist

Autism Medical Home-Hackensack University Medical Center

Health & Family Support

Monique Dujue

Parents as Champions, Central and Southern Region Coordinator

Kasey Dudley

Project Director, Parents as Champions for Healthy Schools

Brenda L. Figueroa

Director, Family to Family Health Information Center/Parent to Parent of NJ (Bilingual-Spanish);Parent Group Specialist – Hudson & Passaic Counties

Nicole Pratt

Family and Professional Development Director, 
Leaders Empowered as Advocates with Dignity (LEAD) Project Director

 

Early Childhood & Education

Including Special Education and Bilingual Education

Pam Aasen

Project Director, 
Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI)

Myriam Alizo

Resource & Product Coordinator

Stefanie Babits

Project Coordinator & Parent Group Specialist, START EPSD

Josie Badger

Director, National RAISE Center

Beth Cosentino

Parent Group Specialist, START EPSD

Nicole Pratt

Director of Family and Professional Development, SPAN Parent Advocacy Network

Maria Docherty

Director of Individual Assistance

Monique Dujue

Parents as Champions, Central and Southern Region Coordinator

Tammi Kaminski

Educator; Parent Training & Information Center

Allyson Mathews

Project Coordinator, NJ Inclusive Child Care Project

Jeannette Mejias

Director, Special Education Volunteer Advocates (SEVA)

Bilingual Trainer

Dawn Monaco

Project Director, REAL Transition Partners

Yvonne Robles

Bilingual Early Childhood Training & TA Specialist, NJ Inclusive Child Care Project

Erin Seigh

Transition Coordinator, Building Bridges to Success, Transition from School to Adult Life

Deepa Srinivasavaradan

Director of Early Childhood Initiatives; Project Director, NJ Inclusive Child Care Project

Michele Tyler

NE-PACT/Region A Parent TA Center Co-Director, SPAN

Amanda Villamar

Early Childhood Training & TA Specialist (North/Central), NJ Inclusive Child Care Project

Cindy Weber

Early Childhood Training & TA Specialist (South/Central), NJ Inclusive Child Care Project

Communications

Tom Franklin

Strategic Communications Director

Melanie McLaurin

Website Content Manager

Advocacy and Empowerment

Debra Jennings

Intersectionality | Race and Disability | Family Engagement and Empowerment

Dr. Lanisha D. Makle-Ridley

Project Director/ Coordinator

Diversity, Equity, Cultural Competence and Linguistic ResponsivenessNJCDD DECCLR Project

Diana MTK Autin

Senior Director for Organizational Capacity-Building Programs; Senior Advisor to the Executive Director; Co-Director, FV Leadership in Family Professional Partnerships (LFPP); Co-Director, NE-PACT/Region A Parent TA Center