Our Team
Staff Members
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Cristhian Barcelos
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Russell Ben Ali
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Jorge Chavez
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Deborah Graham
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Mary O’Connor
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Rosa Marisol Ramirez
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Board of Trustees
Sally E. Rice, President
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Kathleen Mollica, Vice President
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Sally Rice is the President of the Board of Trustees of Literacy Volunteers of America, Essex & Passaic Counties, Inc. She has been a leader in literacy for almost four decades, first as Supervising Librarian and Coordinator of Adult Services for the East Orange Public Library and now as a retiree since 2006. Sally became active in literacy as the library’s representative to the Essex Literacy Consortium in the 1980’s. Through this work, she was invited to become a member of the Board of Directors of LVA Essex County. She continued her board service when the Essex and Newark LVA organizations merged in late 1993. Sally served as President from 1995-2006 and again from 2009 to date. She served as Board Secretary from 2007-2008. Other volunteer leadership positions include her work as a founding member and the first President of the Government Documents Association of New Jersey. Sally served on the Bernie L. Edmonson Community Education Center Advisory Council in East Orange and on several committees for the New Jersey Library Association. Sally earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the American University in Washington, D.C. and a Master’s of Library Science from Rutgers University. She is also an active board member for her local public library Friends organization.
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Kathy Mollica is the Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Literacy Volunteers of America, Essex & Passaic Counties. She is also an active tutor and a trainer of tutors for LVA, an organization to which she has belonged and contributed to for more than 20 years Kathy is a career librarian. She retired as the director of the Passaic Public Library and once worked as the library's assistant director. In her retirement, she works part-time as a reference librarian for the Hawthorne Public Library, where she also heads the literacy program for LVA. Kathy is president of the Zonta Club of Passaic/Clifton, an organization that is active in community affairs. She earned a master's degree in library science from Pratt Institute in New York City.
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Jordan Fried, Treasury
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Jean E. Cason, Secretary
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Marleen Grabowsky
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Nitty Joseph
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After graduating with a BA in Education from William Paterson University, the Paterson School district became my home as a first grade teacher. An opportunity then opened up as a reading specialist for a Distar program which was introduced as a phonetic approach to teaching reading and had a high measure of success with ESL students. My educational contributions came to a close when I was powerfully persuaded to leave teaching to enter the business world. My husband and I were starting a manufacturing business and neither of us had a formal education in business or possessed any business acumen. I had to learn a whole new set of skills from bookkeeping, accounting, sales, advertising, marketing along with secretarial and receptionist skills. So 40 years later and 4 businesses launched we became successful entrepreneurs with a lot of hard work and dedication.
Now in Retirement opportunities to travel have been a priority. I have travelled all over the globe and my passport is running out of pages along with a bucket list that doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller. I love to knit and have a very creative side……and also belong to the Book Arts Roundtable as a book artist. Retirement has also given me a chance to take all my lifetime acquired skills and bring them together as an LVA board member with an educational and business perspective. But it didn’t begin on the board. I found the best part of my week is being an LVA tutor in Wayne Public library to a large conversation group. I’ve come full circle and love being back in the classroom. The greatest reward is the sense of empowerment my students walk away with after a few classes of sharing and learning what brings us all together…..the English language. |
Nitty Joseph is currently a Transitions of Care Pharmacist at Hackensack University Medical Center. She graduated from Rutgers University in 2012 with a Doctorate in Pharmacy. She enjoys fitness activities, reading, cooking and being involved in the community through activities such as volunteering as an ESL teacher and as a Sunday school teacher and youth group advisor for her parish. She joins the board of LVA this year hoping to learn, serve and have a positive impact on society.
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Christine Malloy
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Harsh Parikh
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Christine Malloy brings a love of teaching, fundraising and event planning to the LVA and is thrilled for the opportunity to contribute to her community. A former pastry sous chef at New York City's Gramercy Tavern (where she traded cooking lessons for Spanish lessons), Christine currently spends her time volunteering with Girl Scouts of America, several political organizations and her local school district. When she's not busy with her two daughters, you can find Christine running the trail by her house, teaching people how to make the world's best brownies, or reading a book. Christine is very excited about joining the LVA board and hopes to contribute immediately in a meaningful way.
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Harsh Parikh is Vice President at PGIM, the Global Investment Management Business of Prudential Financial, Inc. Prior to PGIM, he was Vice President, Portfolio Manager and Strategist at BNY Mellon Investment Management. He also worked for GMAC RFC and Countrywide Capital Markets in portfolio management and fixed income research respectively. Harsh earned his advanced business degrees from the University of Southern California and the prestigious EDHEC Business School in France. Harsh did his undergraduate studies in Computer Engineering at Gujarat University, India.
Harsh brings his expertise to the Literacy Volunteers of America board as a result of his passion to give back to the community in which he lives and works. He enjoys providing investment advice and business development plans to help grow organizations. Harsh, passionate about education, says he thoroughly enjoys teaching languages as well. |
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Nancy Tinney
Reference Librarian and Branch Manager, East Orange Public Library
Nancy Tinney brings years of library and public relations experience to the Board of Trustees of Literacy Volunteers of America, Essex & Passaic Counties. At the East Orange Public Library, where she is known as an exceptional reference librarian and branch manager, Nancy delivers comprehensive reference and technological services to patrons, all while supervising 12 full- and part-time library assistants. She also represents the library at community outreach events and serves on its marketing committee - - experiences that help her fortify LVA’s relations with the libraries we so depend on. She has a background in business, as well as in information services, and earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a master’s degree in library and information science from Pratt Institute.
Trainers
Thomas Conlon
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Mary Kao
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For over a decade, Thomas Conlon has been a member of Literacy Volunteers of America Essex & Passaic Counties. Thanks to Tom’s strong commitment and dedication, he was the catalyst in starting a partnership with the Passaic Public Library where he is also an instructor. His vision and hard work opened the door for many students and instructors. Tom is also a tutor trainer.
Tom brings decades of community engagement to LVA. Beginning with multiple positions at the Society of African Missions, Tom has served as pastor, personnel recruitment coordinator, education coordinator and even chief operating officer. In many trips abroad, Tom has worked with a wide variety of people from various cultural and language backgrounds. Closer to home, Tom’s previous positions have been in the non profit sector helping ex offenders in their search for employment and educational opportunities. Tom was also employed as a GED instructor at La Casa Don Pedro in Newark. |
Mary Kao has been a tutor with Literacy Volunteers of America since 2001. She became a tutor trainer in 2007 and since then has trained hundreds of tutors. In 2014 she was awarded "Educator of the Year" at the LVA Annual Awards Ceremony. Literacy has been extremely important to Mary, in large part, due to her mother's struggles. She saw her mother fight to overcome many of life's obstacles because she was denied an education in her homeland of China. Her mother immigrated to India, where Mary was born and raised. Mary's mother worked as a seamstress, embroiderer and a cook but was excluded from other jobs because she could not read or write in English or the Chinese and Indian dialects she spoke. Among the things she passed on to Mary was a deep respect for literacy and education. Mary is an origami artist and teacher who was taught this ancient form of paper folding at age three from her father. Over the years, Mary has led dozens of tutor training workshops and taught multiple students for LVA. Mary graduated with a BA in interior design from Washington State University. She worked in retail as a designer and managed her own business as well.
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Mary O’Connor
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Nina Peyser
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Mary O’Connor is a trainer, a tutor of multiple students and one of the lead tutor support workshop presenters at LVA Essex and Passaic Counties. In a 43-year career in education, she worked as an English teacher in the New York City school system, a religious studies teacher at several New Jersey Catholic high schools, an assistant principal and principal at Marylawn of the Oranges Academy in South Orange. She retired in 2008. She became an LVA tutor in 2010 and was certified as a trainer three years later. Mary earned a bachelor’s degree at St. John’s University and a master’s at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology at Seton Hall University.
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Consultant and administrator, Nina Peskoe Peyser, has dedicated her long spanning career to health care and educational enterprises. After earning her MBA at Baruch College/Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in health care administration and also becoming a Certified Clinical Research Professional, Ms. Peyser utilized her talents in a multitude of organizations ranging from Passaic County Community College to establishing her own consulting business for leading organizations such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. At PCCC, she now holds a position as a learning specialist teaching workplace readiness skills and providing literacy and ESL support to low-income students in allied health training programs. Nina Peskoe Peyser Consulting specializes in clinical research, grant and research administration, health care and literacy education. She holds a position with Literacy Volunteers of America as a Master Trainer.
Ms. Peyer’s passion for working with non- profits has benefitted many organizations such as the Atlantic Health System, NJ where she was the Executive Director for the Office of Grants and Research. As Executive Director of the Research Foundation of the City University of New York’s 19 colleges, Ms. Peyser provided stewardship and sponsored program administration for $200 million in grant funds annually, and employing over 5,000 individuals assigned to research projects and educational programs. As a champion for health care, she was Executive Director of the Department of Grants Management and Research Support, while simultaneously acting as Executive Director of the Chemical Dependency Institute. In these positions, she conceived and implemented programs to facilitate research, education, clinical services and advocacy in substance abuse and AIDS. |
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Darnelle Richardson
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Carolyn Van Doren
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Darnelle Richardson has been a leader in adult education for almost 30 years. She has been a Master Trainer with Literacy Volunteers of New Jersey since 2005 and has recently joined LVA Essex & Passaic Counties’ roster of tutor trainers.
Darnelle ‘s studies in education and business led to her current position at the Jersey City Public Library Literacy Program where she wears many hats. Darnelle is Program Coordinator, Tutor Trainer and Instructor. She leads a team of staff and volunteers to achieve the best possible outcomes for the diverse population of students her organization serves. Along with working with basic literacy and ESL students in improving their speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension of English, Darnelle also finds time to teach Public Speaking classes. Darnelle has been a member of Toastmasters International, Jersey City since 2005. She received the Distinguished Toastmaster award in 2013, the organization’s highest educational/leadership honor. |
A retired human resources manager who has recruited and hired more than 100 technical employees for IT and engineering jobs, Carolyn Van Doren is both an LVA literacy tutor and a trainer of basic literacy and ESOL tutors. She joined the organization as a volunteer in 2008. Carolyn is the former vice-president of the Girl Scouts of Essex County and also served as a national delegate, a board member and the chairperson of several committees for the organization. In her management career, Carolyn specialized in finding positions for displaced workers, negotiating with labor unions, arbitration, and employee grievance procedures and policies. She is a contributing writer for the Minority Interchange Newsletter. Carolyn received a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a master’s degree in Industrial Relations from Rutgers University and a master’s degree in Counselling from Upsala College.
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