Raised in Lakeview, Long Island, Fred Brewington is a respected lawyer and community advocate with a distinguished legal career. After working at a number of prestigious firms and law offices, including a clerkship at the office of the Legal Counsel of the United States Senate, Fred Brewington began a private practice on Long Island. With his expertise in civil rights litigation, Fred has successfully challenged the 'at large' voting system in the Town of Hempstead and worked on preventing future unconstitutional and discriminatory purging of voters from the voting roll.

Through litigation, writing and lecturing, Fred continues to challenge other discriminatory practices throughout Long Island. Fred is an Adjunct Professor at Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Touro College, has served as President of the Alumni Association of SUNY, Albany and remains a member of the Board. Providing services pro bono, Mr. Brewington has been an advisor to many community groups and organizations. He has also served as a Trustee and as Chairman of the Administrative Board of the Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist; is a certified lay speaker for the Long Island East District of the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and currently is an instructor for Local Lay Speakers. He is a volunteer football coach in the Malverne School District. Fred Brewington graduated from State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany with a Bachelor of Arts degree and from Northeastern University School of Law. A tireless advocate, Fred is the recipient of many honors and awards for his community and public service.

 

Valerie M. Cartright is an Associate at the Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington practicing primarily in the areas of civil rights litigation and criminal law.  Since her admission to the Bar, Ms. Cartright has worked at several law firms, gaining additional experience in construction law, civil law, and family law. Ms. Cartright received a Juris Doctorate from Touro College Jacob D. Fuschberg Law Center where she served a term as President of the Black Law Students Association and earned numerous awards including the National Association of Women Lawyers Outstanding Achievement Award, the CALI Academic Excellence Awards for Contracts I and Racism and American Law, and Touro Law Center Awards for Special Service, Exceptional Contributions to the Growth of the Law Center, and Exceptional Service to the Public and the Community. Ms. Cartright  was named the 2008 Public Service Attorney of the Year by Touro College D. Fuchsberg Law Center.

While a law student at Touro Law Center, Ms. Cartright worked as a research assistant at ERASE Racism, a Long Island not-for-profit organization promoting policies and programs to address institutional and structural racism and increase racial equity in public school education, housing and health. She assisted on the Housing Discrimination and Employment Discrimination project by conducting the research on all of the New York and Federal Discrimination laws and assessing how they applied to private, state and federal agencies. In an attempt to develop a forum for accountability, she drafted questionnaires and surveys to send to New York Agencies concerning the discrimination and affirmative action programs at their agencies.  Ms. Cartright gained additional legal experience as a legal assistant at law offices on Long Island, as a judicial clerk at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and as a legal intern at a law firm in Paris, France. 

Ms. Cartright is admitted to practice before the Courts of the States of New York, New Jersey and Florida; the United States District Court for the Eastern and Southern Districts and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Ms. Cartright presently serves as an Adjunct Instructor at St. Joseph’s College in the Human Services Management and Leadership Masters Program. In addition, Ms. Cartright is currently the Chair of the Civil Rights Committee of the Nassau County Bar Association; Former Chair of the Young Lawyers Section of the New York State Bar Association; and a general member of the National Bar Association and Amistad Long Island Black Bar Association. Ms. Cartright presently sits on the Board of Directors of Project Hope -The New Direction and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Rho Omega Zeta Chapter.

 

Arthur A. Gianelli is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the NuHealth System (also called the Nassau Health Care Corporation), a $545 million academic medical center, safety net provider, and integrated health delivery system consisting of the Nassau University Medical Center, the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility, four family health centers, and one school-based clinic.  He has served in this position since June 1, 2006.  Previously, Mr. Gianelli served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the NuHealth System.  He was appointed to this position on March 8, 2006. 

For the prior ten years, Mr. Gianelli served in senior executive positions for two Long Island municipalities.  He was Deputy County Executive for Budget and Finance for Nassau County and Director of Operations for the Town of North Hempstead. 

Mr. Gianelli earned a Bachelors Degree in History from St. John’s University, a Master of Arts Degree in Political Science from Brown University, a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Dowling College, and a Masters Degree in Public Health from Columbia University.

Professor Howard A. Glickstein started his legal career as an Associate with the New York law firm of Proskauer, Rose, Goetz & Mendelsohn, specializing in labor law. He served as a Staff Attorney with the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Appeals and Research Section, where he helped draft the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was General Counsel, and later Staff Director, of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  

Professor Glickstein also has served as Director of the Notre Dame Center for Civil Rights; Adjunct Professor, Notre Dame Law School; and Professor and Director of the Equal Employment Litigation Clinic at Howard University School of Law.

He was Dean of the University of Bridgeport  School of Law from 1980 to 1985, during which time the school obtained full accreditation from the American Bar Association (ABA) and membership in the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). He has been Dean and Professor of Law at Touro from 1986 to 2004, and obtained full ABA accreditation for the school in 1989 and membership in the AALS in 1994.

 

Professor Glickstein is an active member in a number of bar associations, and a member of the Board of Directors of numerous organizations concerned with civil rights. He is Chair of the Town of Huntington Board of Ethics and Financial Disclosure; a member of the New York State Bar Association Special Committee on Public Trust and Confidence in the Legal System and a member of the New York State Chief Judge's Commission on Fiduciary Appointments. Professor Glickstein is a former Chair of the ABA Affirmative Action Committee and a past president of the Society of American Law Teachers and a former Commissioner on the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission.

Ms. Gross has extensive experience in research, program development and evaluation at public and private agencies in Boston and New York.  She earned her MSW from Boston University, with a focus on policy, planning and non-profit management.  Throughout her career, Ms. Gross has focused on exploring the systemic causes of social, political, and economic inequities and finding ways to counteract those inequities.

 

While working in Boston, an example of her experiences include developing and managing human service delivery systems and tenant advocacy initiatives for the Boston Housing Authority.  She was also Deputy Director of the Boston Housing Partnership, a premier public/private partnership supporting community development and affordable housing in fragile inner-city neighborhoods.

 

Subsequently, in New York, Ms. Gross served as a Program Officer for the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock and developed a portfolio of grants across the U.S. focused on human rights and economic development.  She then served as the founding Executive Director of Sustainable America, a national NGO that promoted sustainable, equitable development practices and policies.

 

Ms. Gross was hired by the Long Island Community Foundation to launch the ERASE Racism Initiative in June 2001.  In 2004, ERASE Racism became an independent New York State not-for-profit corporation.  Ms. Gross has successfully led ERASE Racism, bringing together a cross section of Long Island leaders to discuss and formulate remedies to persistent regional inequities, resulting from imbedded institutional and structural racism in health, education and housing. Under Ms. Gross’ leadership, ERASE Racism has been recognized locally and nationally for its cutting edge work addressing institutional and structural racism, especially in the area of housing and community development.  Ms. Gross has received numerous awards and is a frequent presenter on the topic of structural racism.  Recognizing Ms. Gross’ leadership and expertise, one of the Ford Foundation divisions invited Ms. Gross to be one of three presenters at an international foundation staff retreat. 

Ms. Gross is a former member of the Long Island Regional Planning Council and currently serves on the Council’s Leadership Advisory Cabinet for the LI 2035 Sustainability Plan.  She also serves on the Advisory Committee of the Long Island Index of the Rauch Foundation and the Advisory Board of The Energeia Partnership, The Academy of Regional Stewardship at Molloy College.  She has received numerous awards, including the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Long Island Business News.

S. Elizabeth A. Hill, CSJ, JD has been President of St. Joseph’s College since 1997.

A magna cum laude alumna of St. Joseph’s, S. Elizabeth is a native of Brooklyn. She received her M.A. in History from Columbia University and studied theology and scripture in Rome under the auspices of Gregorian University. S. Elizabeth also received her J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law where she was a Thomas More Scholarship student and president of the Criminal Law Institute.  After receiving her J.D., S. Elizabeth spent time as a staff attorney in the Catholic Migration Office in Brooklyn. Prior to being named President, S. Elizabeth served as Executive Assistant to St. Joseph’s previous President, S. George Aquin O’Connor from 1980-1997. 

Since her inauguration, S. Elizabeth has been responsible for the building of a state-of-the-art Business and Technology Center on the Suffolk campus as well as launching a comprehensive, capital Master Plan for the Brooklyn campus. Under her leadership, enrollment on both campuses has continuously increased and a number of new programs including an Executive M.B.A. have been introduced. During her tenure as President, S. Elizabeth secured the largest grant in the College’s history and the first of its kind from the federal government. 

S. Elizabeth is on the Steering Committee of LIRACHE (Long Island Regional Advisory Council on Higher Education) and sits on the College of Advisors for ERASE Racism. She is Vice Chair of the Long Island Association and on the Board of Directors of the Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting, the Independence Community Foundation, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Fort Greene Strategic Neighborhood Partnership (SNAP), the Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project and the Brookhaven Board of Ethics. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of The Mary Louis Academy and Xaverian High School.

S. Elizabeth has been honored by The Brooklyn Council, Boy Scouts of America at their Women of Achievement Awards Luncheon and by the 88th Police Precinct Community and Youth Council’s 23rd Annual Dinner Dance for SJC’s tradition of community outreach and efforts to improve the quality of life in Brooklyn. She is also the recipient of the Genesis Excellence in Education Award, was named a “Woman Sustaining the American Spirit” by State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and a “Woman of Distinction” by State Senator Caesar Trunzo. S. Elizabeth was “Woman of the Year” for the Patchogue/Medford Youth Community Services organization in 2001 and she received the Town of Brookhaven’s Office of Women’s Services award for Outstanding Service to the Community in Education. In 2004, the Long Island Association recognized S. Elizabeth as an “Education Advocate” for her leadership in workforce development. In 2005, she was the recipient of the 12th Annual Spirit of Long Island Education Award by Promote Long Island, New York. The following year, she received the 2006 Public Service Award from the Suffolk County Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, Inc. and the 2006 Distinguished Service Award from The Advancement for Commerce, Industry & Technology in recognition of her leadership and lifelong dedication to the field of education. In 2007, Temple Beth El in Patchogue named S. Elizabeth “Person of the Year” for her contributions to the community and the Child Care Council of Suffolk, Inc. honored her for her commitment and dedication to early education and the children and families of Suffolk County. She is a three-time recipient of Long Island Business News’ Top 50 Women award for her consistent record as one of the region’s most important and influential women, making her a Hall of Fame Honoree, and has also been named on that publication’s “Who’s Who in Education” list in 2003. 

Additional honors include membership in Sigma Iota Chi (St. Joseph’s College honor society), Kappa Gamma Pi (national honor society) and Delta Epsilon Sigma (national honor society).

Bill Jennings is the former President and Chief Operating Officer of Haven Bancorp and CFS Bank. Bill had a twenty-five plus year career in the financial services industry including a recent role as the founding Chief Operating Officer of a hedge fund advisory firm and its’ related funds.

 

The bulk of his career was spent as a Managing Director of Salomon Brothers, Inc. a global financial services firm. His role began there as a member of the Financial Division responsible for tax and various regulatory matters. Later he became the head of the Financial Division in charge of all financial, regulatory, management reporting and tax functions for the company. He then became a member of the Chairman’s Staff and took responsibility for the company’s Organization and Staff Development and Human Resource Divisions.

 

Finally, as Chief of Staff to the Chairman he oversaw the firm’s compensation and promotion processes and its’ diversity efforts. In that role he participated in the development of a robust process which included direct financial support and recruitment of students from several of the historically black colleges and universities, including among others, Morehouse, Spellman, Howard and Hampton. These efforts resulted in a dramatic increase in minority hiring and retention for the company. He oversaw the creation and implementation of a specialized diversity training program with specific emphasis on senior management. This was followed by the implementation of succession planning and compensation plans that contained a direct linkage to enhanced diversity within the firm.

 

Bill holds a BBA degree from the University of Notre Dame and a JD degree from Villanova Law School. He has lectured at Harvard Business School, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and Morehouse College. Bill is the former Chair of the Board of the Waldorf School of Garden City and was an eleven year member of the Board of Directors of the Covenant House, serving as a member of its’ Executive Committee and Chair of its’ Audit Committee.

Christina Vargas Law is the Director of Diversity and Affirmative Action at Stony Brook University and for the last 11 years, has held progressively responsible positions in the Office of Diversity and Affirmative Action and Human Resources. The Office is responsible for Equal Employment Opportunity policies and practices, Affirmative Action compliance, discrimination complaint resolution, and diversity related strategies and educational programs for Stony Brook's faculty, staff and students in its academic and administrative areas, Health Sciences Center, University Hospital and Long Island State Veteran's Home. Throughout her career, she has displayed a passion for social justice, multiculturalism and diversity and has worked to bring various communities together in partnership with Stony Brook.

In her role, she has responsibility for the University's Affirmative Action Program; coordinating specialized employment outreach activities; and developing and delivering educational, training and orientation programs, workshops and conferences on topics including Diversity Awareness, EEO Law and Discrimination, Cultural Competence and Sexual Harassment Prevention. She serves on many internal diversity committees as well as advisory boards for the President, the Dean of Students, the Social Justice Center; the Equal Opportunity Program; the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center; the Liberty Partnership Program and Hispanic Heritage Month. In 2004, she was appointed as a member of the Suffolk County Hispanic Task Force, serves on the Board of Directors for the Stony Brook Alumni Association, and is a member of the American Association of Affirmative Action. She frequently serves as a facilitator and presenter at local and national conferences and has recently served on the planning committees for "La Vision" Hispanic/Latino youth conference hosted by the National Association for Puerto Rican and Hispanic Social Workers and "Brown vs. Board of Education: The Unfinished Agenda", hosted by ERASE Racism.

Deborah Post is Professor of Law at Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg School of Law. She graduated cum laude from Hofstra University with a major in Anthropology and took a job first as an editorial assistant and then as a teaching assistant to Margaret Mead, the noted anthropologist, before attending Harvard Law School. She began her legal career working in the corporate section of a law firm in Houston, Texas. She left practice for a position at the University of Houston Law School and moved to New York to Touro Law Center in 1987. In the academic year 1994-95 she was a visiting professor at Syracuse Law School. In 2000 she was Distinguished Visiting Professor at DePaul Law School. Professor Post has written extensively in what she considers her three areas of expertise: business associations, legal education and critical race theory. Professor Post seeks to apply an anthropologist's sensibilities and methodologies to the study of law.

Among her most recent efforts are a book on legal education, Cultivating Intelligence: Power, Law and the Politics of Teaching written with a colleague, Louise Harmon and published by New York University Press and a casebook for contracts called Contracting Law with co-authors Amy Kastely and Sharon Hom.

Other articles include: "Continuity and Change: Partnership Formation Under the Common Law," Villanova Law Review (1987); "Reflections on Identity, Diversity, and Morality," Berkeley Women's Law Journal (1990-91); "Race, Riots and the Rule of Law," Denver Law Review (1993); "Profit, Progress and Moral Imperatives," Touro Law Review (1993); "Critical Thoughts About Race, Exclusion, Oppression and Tenure," Pace Law Review (1994); Power and Morality of Grading: A Case Study and a Few Critical Thoughts on Grade Normalization, University of Missouri at Kansas City Law Review (1997).

Marge Rogatz has been President and full-time unpaid CEO of Community Advocates, Inc. (CA) since 1986.  A nonprofit organization founded in 1972, CA has concentrated on addressing homelessness and the lack of affordable housing. CA identifies gaps, inequities and injustices and mobilizes coordinated efforts to initiate and/or strengthen needed resources, programs and services.

Ms. Rogatz helped found the Nassau-Suffolk Coalition for the Homeless in 1988 and served as an officer and on its executive board for 16 years.  Since 1995, she has played a vital role in helping to bring some $70 million in HUD Homeless Assistance grants and other funding to nonprofit housing and service providers in Nassau County.  She is a founding board member and officer of ERASE Racism; was a founder and an officer of Sustainable Long Island for 10 years; a founder of the LI Campaign for Affordable Rental Housing; and serves on the board of the Long Island Community Foundation.  She serves on the Nassau County Task Force on Homelessness and the Nassau County Panel on Next Generation Housing.  In 2007, the Nassau County Executive appointed her Chair of the Nassau County 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness.   In January 2008, she was appointed to the Board of Directors of the State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA) and, in that capacity, she participates in key New York State housing finance and development decisions.

Previously, Ms. Rogatz carried out consulting assignments in fields related to community development and human services for NYC Mayor John Lindsay, Nassau County Executive Eugene Nickerson and Suffolk County Executive John Klein.  She also consulted for NYC Head Start and for community hospitals and organizations in East Harlem and the South Bronx.  During the civil rights movement, Ms. Rogatz served as Special Assistant to James Farmer, National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

 

Suzy Dalton Sonenberg served as Executive Director of the Long Island Community Foundation from March 1988 to December 2009. Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms. Sonenberg was Program Officer at the New York Foundation, a mid-sized private foundation that makes grants in New York City to its most disadvantaged neighborhoods. After receiving a master's degree in Social Work from Adelphi University in 1976, Ms. Sonenberg spent eight years as a nonprofit administrator in Manhattan before joining the funding community in 1984. She has taught social policy on both the graduate and undergraduate levels at the Adelphi University School of Social Work, and in 2009 was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University.

Ms. Sonenberg is the founder of LITAC Nonprofit Solutions, a founder of the Long Island Fund for Women & Girls, and a founding board member of Sustainable Long Island. She currently serves on the board of the Community Training and Assistance Center based in Boston. Together with Elaine Gross, she is also a co-founder of ERASE Racism.

Scott is Managing Director for Changing Our World, Inc. a full service fundraising consulting firm based in New York City. Scott's responsibilities include managing and directing capital campaigns and fundraising initiatives, conducting feasibility studies and development audits, and creating development. Scott gained extensive experience in fundraising, development and alumni relations while serving as the Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations for the Waldorf School of Garden City. During his tenure, annual fund revenue tripled and the school launched a successful multi-million dollar Capital Campaign under his leadership. At St. John's University, where Scott began his fundraising career, he excelled as a Development Officer with responsibility for all major gift prospects for the university's athletic department.

 

Prior to his career in fundraising, Scott enjoyed a diverse and varied professional background. Scott coached both college baseball and football at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and football at St. John's University in Queens, NY. He also served as an officer of the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division, Foreign Missions Branch. At both Trinity University and the U.S. Secret Service, Scott also found opportunities to fight for equality and racial equity. While a student at Trinity University, he was a founding member of the Black Student Union and worked with the Admissions Office to encourage the university to be more proactive in recruiting qualified minority students. During his tenure with the Secret Service, Scott worked on numerous committees to ensure that the Secret Service "Zero Tolerance" policy and fair promotional practices were enforced.

 

In addition to serving on the ERASE Racism Board of Directors, Scott is a former Advisory Board member of the Long Island Community Foundation, a division of the New York Community Trust, is a member of the Board of Trustees at the Waldorf School of Garden City, is on the Advisory Committee for Camp Glen Brook in New Hampshire and volunteers as a football coach at Malverne High School on Long Island.

 

Born in New York City and a resident of Freeport, NY Scott is a graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He holds a BA in Communication and a Minor in Sociology. He is also a graduate of the Waldorf School of Garden City.