Kalpana Bhandarkar, Co-Chair
Raised in Suffolk County and residing in Nassau County, Kalpana Bhandarkar brings to the Board nearly 20 years of experience in health care and civic engagement. Kalpana has dedicated her professional career to improving access to quality health care for marginalized populations. She has worked at NYC Health + Hospitals, Maimonides Medical Center, Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, The Children's Defense Fund, and Manatt Health. Kalpana also has a long history of participating in voter registration, voter outreach and canvassing related to local, state and presidential elections.
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Frederick K. Brewington, Esq.
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.
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Dia Bryant, Ed.L.D.
Dr. Bryant is a prominent figure in the education sector, committed to tackling social justice issues at the intersection of education practice and policy. Launching her career twenty years ago as a New York City Teaching Fellow, she has left an indelible mark New York's education landscape, serving as an educator, school founder, teacher trainer, Special Assistant to the First Deputy Chancellor, and executive director of The Education Trust–New York.
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Lauren Furst
Lauren is a retired Certified Financial Planner. She has served on numerous boards including the Long Island Center for Independent Living, Sustainable Long Island, Meadville Lombard Theological School and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock (UUCSR). She has been involved in social justice work at both UUCSR and the 1st Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches (1stUUPB), which includes LGBTQ+, reproductive, immigration, electoral and racial justice.
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Professor Howard A. Glickstein, Esq.
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.
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Laura N. Harding, Esq., President
Laura Harding, Esq., is President of ERASE Racism, the regional civil rights organization based on Long Island that exposes and addresses the devastating impact of historical and ongoing structural racism, particularly in housing and public school education. It does so through research, policy advocacy, legal action, and educating and mobilizing the public – driving policy change at local, regional and statewide levels and through national coalitions. It has been recognized locally and nationally for its cutting-edge work.
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Lorna R. Lewis, Ed.D., Assistant Secretary
Dr. Lorna Lewis has been a pioneer over her nearly 40-year career as an educator. In June 2018 she became the first woman of color to preside over the New York State Council of School Superintendents (NYCOSS), which represents more than 800 top education leaders statewide. She currently serves as the superintendent of Malverne UFSD, after having served as the superintendent of Plainview-Old Bethpage CSD and East Williston UFSD.
An outspoken voice for inclusion and equity in public education, Dr. Lewis is a founding member of NYCOSS' Commission on Diversity and Inclusivity, and also chairs their curriculum committee. As Secretary of ERASE Racism's Board of Directors, she is an invaluable resource for the Education Equity Initiative.
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Edward Pichardo, Esq., Co-Chair
Edward Pichardo is Of Counsel to the Law Office of Edward Pichardo PLLC. He is an experienced labor attorney and government affairs and public contracting specialist with extensive experience as a union-side labor specialist.
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Roberta Schroder, Ph.D.
Dr. Schroder received her Ph.D. in Economics from SUNY, Stony Brook. She has worked in the areas of economics and financial education, medical economics, and housing at corporate, non-profit, and academic institutions. Most of her career has been in higher education including more than 25 years at Nassau Community College. At NCC, she served as Chair of the Department of Economics & Finance, Director of the Nassau Center for Economic Education, and acting Vice-President for Academic Affairs.
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Marge Rogatz, Secretary
Marge Rogatz has been the unpaid President and CEO of Community Advocates, Inc. (CA) since 1986. A nonprofit organization founded in 1972, CA's focus has been on addressing homelessness, the lack of affordable housing and other inequities connected to historic, endemic racism on Long Island. By identifying gaps and injustices and mobilizing coordinated regional efforts, CA helped address unmet needs, combat discriminatory policies and practices and strengthen and expand essential public and voluntary resources and services.
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Martin Schwartz, Treasurer
Low-keyed and reserved, Martin “Marty” Schwartz’s manner veils his business acumen and strong management skills. His 25-year career at United Parcel Service (UPS) prepared him to take the challenge to transform a small foundation focusing on foster care into a change-agent of systems that affect at-risk youth.
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Jim Smith
Jim Smith is an active supporter of racial equity and justice. Motivated by a visit to the site of Michael Brown's shooting in Ferguson, MO, Jim helped to lead the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock's (UUCSR) Defy the Hate Task Force and continues to serve on its Racial Justice subcommittee. Smith also is a member of the Healing Justice committee at the UU Fellowship of Boca Raton in Florida and an advocate at both congregations for the Unitarian Universalist Association's proposed 8th Principle which calls on congregants to dismantle racism in themselves and their churches. In 2017, his advocacy helped ERASE Racism's win a $100,000 UUCSR Large Grant, which made possible ERASE Racism's high profile How Do We Build A Just Long Island? initiative. He is a member of ERASE Racism's Education Equity Working Group and a frequent volunteer at ERASE Racism's workshops and activities. Earlier he led UUCSR programs related to affordable housing, immigrants' rights, bullying, corporate responsibility and domestic violence.
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Paul J. Tonna
Paul Tonna is the CEO of Professional Evaluation Medical Group, a preventive health care company headquartered in Hicksville, New York. He served from 1994 to 2005 as a Suffolk County Legislator and for three years, 2000, 2001, and 2002, his fellow legislators chose him to lead the Suffolk County Legislature as its Presiding Officer.
During Legislator Tonna's 12 years of elected office, he had been a strong advocate for the poor, homeless and marginalized on Long Island, affordable housing, labor organizations and the environment. He sponsored, co-sponsored, and passed numerous laws and/or initiatives including: ground breaking non-smoking legislation; innovative programs focused on eliminating child poverty and homelessness; legislation designed to elevate the standard of living for all Suffolk County residents and innovative Greenways Funds to protect open space, farmlands and parklands.
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Wilma Holmes Tootle, LHD
A native of Autaugaville, Alabama. She received her Bachelor's degree from Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama; Master's Degree from Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York; and Professional Diploma in Educational Administration from C.W. Post College, Greenvale, New York. In 1988, she was conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Monrovia College in Monrovia Liberia.
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Christina Vargas
Christina Vargas is the Chief Diversity Officer and Title IX Coordinator at Suffolk County Community College. Throughout her career, she has displayed a passion for social justice, multiculturalism, equity, inclusion and diversity and has worked to bring various communities together in partnership. Her professional expertise includes strategic planning; training and organizational development; federal and state compliance; policy development; recruitment and selection; equity, inclusion, cultural competence; diversity programs; supervision and management; staff development; budgeting; and investigations. She is an adjunct lecturer for the Master's Program in Higher Education Administration at Stony Brook University and teaches a course on Diversity and Social Justice. In 2018, she was the recipient of the program's Faculty Excellence Award. In 2020, Ms. Vargas was selected as a Fellow of the SUNY Hispanic Leadership Institute. Her many contributions have earned Ms. Vargas multiple awards and recognition including the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service.
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Craig J. Wolfson, Esq., Assistant Treasurer
Craig J. Wolfson, Esq. is the owner of Wolfson & Klein-Wolfson, PLLC, an employment law; estate planning; and residential real estate law firm located in Syosset, New York. Mr. Wolfson was the Director of Human Resources for AHRC Nassau, a 3500 employee non-profit located in Brookville, New York that supports individuals with developmental disabilities. Prior to that, for the past 20 years, Craig was the Partner in charge of Human Resources at the law firm of Rosicki, Rosicki & Associates, P.C. located in Plainview, New York. Craig received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1992, and received a Juris Doctorate Degree from Widener University School of Law in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1996. He earned a Certificate in Strategic Human Resources Management from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 2008.
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