Growing up along the Hackensack River, Captain Bill Sheehan has witnessed decades of devastation and has dedicated his career to cleaning up the Hackensack River and its watershed. His journey to restore the Hackensack River and its watershed, which includes the Meadowlands—an essential east coast estuary—includes his startup of Hackensack Riverkeeper, Inc.. Captain Bill has served as the organizations Riverkeeper and Executive Director since 1997. Hackensack Riverkeeper, is one of the original founding members of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an international coalition of over 300 clean water advocates working for waterways across the globe. In the past, Bill has served on their Waterkeeper Council—one of the Alliance’s governing boards—as their Northeast Regional Representative.

Prior to joining forces with the Waterkeeper Alliance, Bill was a founding member of the Hackensack Estuary and River Tenders (HEART) organization. He is a lifetime member of the Hudson River Fishermen’s Association and in past years has served on their board as their Environmental Director. Captain Bill is a member and the current vice-chairman of the Bergen County Trust Fund Public Advisory Committee where he advises Bergen County Freeholders on funding recommendations for Open Space, Farmland, and Historic preservations. He is also the current chairman of the Meadowlands Conservation Trust, the agency charged with acquiring, holding and managing conservation properties in the Meadowlands and throughout the Hackensack River watershed. Captain Bill Sheehan and Hackensack Riverkeeper have been recognized for their work on numerous occasions by the media, government, and the environmental and business communities.

Captain Bill earned his US Coast Guard Master’s License in 1995. It is from the helm of a boat that Bill does his best work: advocating for, educating about, and patrolling the Hackensack River. When he is not conducting Eco-Cruises, chairing meetings, or otherwise advocating for protection, preservation and restoration of the Hackensack River Watershed, Captain Bill enjoys rock and roll music, watching movies with his partner Mary Ellen, and (of course) casting a line into his favorite river.

Brandon Holsten is a Project Manager for the EPA Region 2 Superfund Program, based out of the Edison, NJ office. Brandon manages the cleanup at the Pierson’s Creek Superfund site, the Universal Oil Products Superfund site, and is one of the project managers for the Lower Hackensack River Superfund site and the Berry’s Creek Study Area portion of the Ventron/Velsicol site. Brandon received a B.S. in Biology from Furman University where he focused on ecology and political science. Before Brandon joined the EPA in early 2024, he worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in North Dakota and then joined the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection where he worked on several Superfund, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and Formerly Used Defense Sites.

Dana is a passionate environmental communicator who brings a strong mix of diverse stakeholder engagement experience, coupled with values-based communication strategy. She specializes in branding, marketing, and digital media strategy, and strives to enhance the mission and values of Princeton Hydro as Director of Marketing and Communications. She believes that the role of communications has been evolved beyond simply a transmission of information, now, communicators must also be nodes that connect people together through storytelling and by building diverse networks.

She earned her Master of Environmental Management from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies where she focused on strategies for climate change and wildlife conservation communication. Dana held a variety of digital media positions for institutes and NGOs including Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, Yale environment 360, and National Audubon Society. Before graduate school, she devoted her career making positive environmental shifts in New Jersey communities through her 5-year nonprofit community organizer and educator role. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Farleigh Dickinson University, where she focused on synthesizing waste vegetable oil from local restaurants into biodiesel.

Dana is an active volunteer for a variety of organizations, including Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) New Jersey Post, which recently presented her with an award for her efforts.

Christopher C. Obropta, Ph.D., P.E. is the Extension Specialist in Water Resources with Rutgers Cooperative Extension, and he is a Professor with the Department of Environmental Sciences at the School of Environmental & Biological Sciences, Rutgers University.  He has a doctorate in Civil Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, an M.S. in Civil Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology.  Prior to joining Rutgers, Dr. Obropta was an environmental consultant for 12 years at Omni Environmental Corporation.

Dr. Obropta has a background in watershed management, water quality modeling, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, and coastal engineering.  His specific experience includes watershed restoration, onsite wastewater treatment system design and management, wasteload allocations and TMDL studies, stormwater management, wetland design, effluent dilution analyses, longshore sediment transport, computer-aided design, and geographic information systems (GIS).  He teaches Bioresource Engineering Design I & II, where he directs student design teams to develop solutions to complex real-life engineering problems.  With his extensive and impressive background Dr. Obropta leads his highly specialized team of professional staff who are determined to create innovative solutions to water quality issues in New Jersey.

Drew Curtis is Community Engagement Coordinator for EPA

Region 2. He serves as Community Involvement Coordinator for the Lower Hackensack River Superfund site, and multiple other Superfund sites throughout New Jersey, including the Diamond Alkali Superfund site, the Riverside Industrial Park Superfund site, and Ringwood Mines Superfund site. In this role, Drew is responsible for ensuring community voices are heard and their thoughts are incorporated into site clean-ups. Drew came to EPA in 2023, after 13 years working for Ironbound Community Corporation in Newark, where he worked on addressing environmental and housing challenges, including serving on the Passaic River Community Advisory Group. He holds B.A. in history from Rutgers University and a M.S. in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from the New School University.

Hillary Goldberg brings her expertise to the Teaneck Town Council, representing a legacy of community commitment spanning three generations. A proud graduate of Teaneck High School’s Class of 2002, she combines deep roots with fresh perspectives in public service.

Hillary brings exceptional academic credentials to her public service, holding master’s degrees in Public Administration, Accounting, and Business Administration. As owner of HG Calculated Solutions, a financial consulting firm, she combines professional expertise with community service.

Her comprehensive understanding of municipal finance and public policy provides valuable insight into town operations and planning. Her professional background enables her to approach municipal challenges with fiscal responsibility and innovative solutions.

As a Teaneck Council member, Hillary acts as liaison to the Parks, Playgrounds, and Recreation Advisory Board, Municipal Open Space Trust, and Environmental Commission. She also serves on the Zoning Subcommittee and Budget Subcommittee. Her initiatives focus on enhancing quality of life through improved recreational facilities, environmental sustainability, and transparent governance. Hillary’s approach combines careful attention to community needs while planning for Teaneck’s future generations.

Jennifer LaPoma is a Project Manager for the EPA Region 2 Superfund Program, based out of NYC office.  Jennifer manages the cleanup process for multiple Superfund sites. She graduated with a Master of Science in geoscience from Montclair State University. Jennifer started her career in Region 2 in 2009 working primarily on whether sites are eligible for the National Priorities List. In 2011, she became a project manager and has since worked on several sediment Superfund sites including the Lower Hackensack, Diamond Alkali – Lower Passaic River, and the Hudson River. She is a NJ native – born in Belleville and grew up in Morris County, where she still lives with her family.

John Tully is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in private land development and 9 years in municipal government. Currently employed by Raritan Township, John serves as the Engineering Supervisor, Stormwater Utility Supervisor, and IT Supervisor. He is also the Township Stormwater Program Coordinator, holding a certification from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). John’s extensive background and diverse skill set make him a key asset in managing and enhancing the township’s infrastructure and environmental initiatives.

Josh Smeraldi is a Project Manager for the EPA Region 2 Superfund Program, based out of the Edison, NJ office. Josh manages the cleanup of the Riverside Industrial Park Superfund site and is one of the project managers for the Lower Hackensack River Superfund site and the Berry’s Creek Study Area portion of the Ventron/Velsicol site. Josh received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of California, Irvine where he investigated the fate and transport of nanoscale particles in wastewater treatment processes. He worked at DC Water in Washington D.C. investigating methods to improve wastewater treatment efficiency. Josh started working for the EPA in 2014 at its headquarters in Washington DC where he assisted EPA regions with the cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminated sites and evaluated/approved destruction technologies for PCBs. Josh then transferred to the EPA Region 2 Superfund program to be a project manager in 2019.

Juliacks is a writer, artist, and director of films, performances, plays, graphic novels and visual art. She works on stories that take on many different shapes and visual-narrative languages, ranging from tapestries, performances, comics, films, installations, plays, paintings, ceramics, aluminum sculptures and social / public art. Through artistic, historical and interactive research, she develops narrative universes to address social issues. Her graphic novel, “Architecture of an Atom” can be found in libraries and your local bookseller. Her comics/art/writing can be found in Jaywalk Magazine, Lumpen Comics, Other Futures Anthology, and The Washington Square Review.

Receiving numerous fellowships and grants from the New Jersey Council of the Arts, the US Citizen Diplomacy Fund, and the Fulbright Foundation among others, her public artworks have been shown internationally at sites such as the Huygens Institute for Dutch History in Amsterdam and Newark Penn Station. She was commissioned by the Northern New Jersey Foundation and the NJEPA to create a public art installation, “Flood Theater” in 2023. Her films and performances have been shown at museums such as MOMA PS1, the Moderna museum in Stockholm, Musee d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Geneve, Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, and at festivals such as Other Futures in Amsterdam, and the Toronto Comics Arts Festival in Canada.

Juliacks has lectured and conducted workshops at art schools and universities, including MassArt, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Oklahoma, University of Colorado, School of Visual Arts (NYC), Maryland Institute College of Art, George Mason University, Center for Cartoon Studies, and the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and has presented her artistic research at 15 international conferences.

More information can be found at juliacks.com & www.transversal-scepters.com

Larissa Belcic is a landscape architectural designer and artist, and is a Co-Founding Director of Nocturnal Medicine, a non-profit studio for cultural transformation and climate consciousness. Her work is interdisciplinary, bringing together landscape architecture, experience design, sound, performance, and participatory social practice, and is oriented towards addressing and healing enviromental-cultural wounds.

Larissa grew up on stolen Lenape land in New Jersey, between the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers. From childhood, she has been a student of the area’s polluted grounds, wandering the urban-suburban-industrial edges of New York City. Born into Italian-American and immigrant Istrian communities, Larissa’s background is formed by the tapestries of the NYC region and the Mediterranean.

Larissa holds a Masters in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University, and has practiced in both research-oriented practices (OFICINAA, TerreformONE) and traditional practice (MBC Landscape Architecture) alike, and has a burgeoning landscape design & social practice studio, Land of the Living. In addition to University of Pennsylvania, She has taught design studios at Rhode Island School and Columbia University, and lectured widely on her work.

As Nocturnal Medicine, she has created sanctuaries for ecological grief, climate-aware seasonal rites, chapels for extinction, and raves for public healing. Nocturnal Medicine has designed immersive social experiences across diverse platforms, including in nightclubs (Nowadays, Gospel), landscapes (The Bentway, Opus 40), cultural centers (Lincoln Center, Performance Space NY), and universities across the country (Yale, UVA, MIT, Syracuse). Their work has been celebrated in The New York Times and Canada’s Global News, amongst other media sources,as bringing a cutting-edge, soul-centered approach to addressing the psycho-emotional impacts of ecological crisis.

Juanli Carrión is a creative practitioner whose work is internationally recognized for his research, design and education of community engaged practices addressing social and environmental justice. As a maker and strategist, Juanli creates places, cooks meals, maps pollution, or facilitates workshops as tools to help communities grow. In 2017 Carrion co-founded OSS Project, a non-profit that builds gardens in public housing as platforms to empower underrepresented groups, promoting economic and environmental resiliency. In 2023 he was awarded Van Alen Institute’s Common Build Award for Whit Your Voice, a community engagement tool designed to inform and hear the Gowanus residents about the ongoing rezoning. Carrion has exhibited and worked with institutions such as the National Academy of Sciences and The Art Institute of Chicago in the US, Peru’s Museum of Contemporary Art, India’s National Gallery of Modern Art or Servia’s MOCA. With more than a decade teaching at public and private universities, including NYU and SUNY, over the past eight years Carrión dedicated his passion for pedagogy to The New School where he is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Design & Community Development, and where he has developed initiatives like the Creative Community Development Graduate Minor or courses like Resilient, Mutual Development. He also lectured, led workshops, and participated at Conferences at Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, SVA, Pratt Institute, AIA New York, Fordham, or Getty Foundation.

Nancy Adams moved to Maplewood in 1989 with a husband and 3 young children and quickly got into local community involvement. First in the schools and The League of Women Voters of Maplewood and South Orange where she also served as President and then as a District Leader with the Maplewood Democratic Committee. Ms. Adams became a local activist quite by accident in just trying to get the Township to pay attention to the condition of Springfield Avenue and was then appointed to the Township’s Economic Development Commission. She then co-founded the College Hill Neighborhood Association and worked with the Hilton Neighborhood Association to establish The Springfield Avenue Partnership and served on its Board in the formative years while setting up the town’s first Special Improvement District that is still active today.

Ms. Adams is an over 25-year professional in downtown revitalization and redevelopment certified by the National Main Street Center in Downtown Management. She is a Board member of Downtown New Jersey, a professional and advocacy organization known statewide in the industry. Locally, Ms. Adams has served on the Maplewood Planning Board since 2010 regularly pushing applicants for better projects and improved design advocating for what’s best for the Township.

Ms. Adams was elected to the Township Committee in 2015 and was reelected in 2018 and 2021. She served as Deputy Mayor in 2016 and 2017. Ms. Adams’ work as a member of the governing body has often focused on environmental initiatives including restrictions on gas-powered leaf blowers, single-use plastics and plastic bags; and ensuring the replenishment of Township trees and attention to greener practices in parks. She has served as Chair of the Engineering, Public Works & Planning, Recreation & Human Services and Code Committees. She continued service on those committees along with the Planning Board as the Township Committee representative. Ms. Adams has served on the Committee for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development as well as liaison on the Environmental Advisory Committee, Historic Preservation Commission, Open Space Trust Fund, Maplewood Memorial Park Conservancy and the Maplewood Village Alliance.

In 2017, Ms. Adams began annual formal recognition of Women’s History Month bringing South Orange in to jointly host events honoring women and the importance of recognizing the accomplishments, sacrifices and work of women. SOMA Celebrates Women is now celebrated every March with events centered on women’s contributions and recognition of local women who have served the South Orange and Maplewood community, past and present. Ms. Adams believes in common-sense and pragmatic governing looking carefully at all sides of issues before deciding on her position on issues from public safety to the municipal budget. She is proud to serve the community she loves and in which she has raised 5 children. She lives in the College Hill Neighborhood (named in her living room) with her husband Sal and dog George.

Nicole Miller, Principal of MnM Consulting, serves as the Vice Chair of NJPEEC, and is a communications professional with nearly two decades of experience creating targeted publicity and marketing campaigns for a range of clients in private industry and the non-profit sector. MnM Consulting specializes in media development, digital and print publishing, brand strategy, content creation, and clean energy/sustainability education for business and general audiences. MnM Consulting works with several small business, government and non-profit clients on brand development, project management, event coordination and product deployment. An appointee of the Governor serving on the Clean Buildings Working Group, Nicole Miller is a resident of Newark, NJ, a member of the Newark Environmental Commission advising the Mayor and City Council on sustainability issues, Chair of the Newark Green Team, Co-Chair of NewarkDIG (Doing Infrastructure Green) dedicated to resilient and sustainable municipal stormwater management and Co-Chair of the Jersey Water Works Steering Committee, a statewide coalition focused on improving NJ’s aging water infrastructure.

Composer Paul Pinto creates, performs and produces experimental music and theatrical works, primarily focused innovative and engaging new form of opera-theater that fuse the musicality of American speech, poetry, classical music, extended vocal techniques and electronic sound art. He is a founding member of the acclaimed collectives Varispeed and thingNY, and his music has been performed across the U.S. and internationally with and by ensembles, performers and presenters around the world, including Joan La Barbara, Pauline Oliveros, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ne(x)tworks, the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, loadbang, wildUP!, The Industry in LA, The Royal Scottish Academy Chamber Chorus, the Carnegie Mellon Concert Chorus, New Thread Saxophone Quartet, Iktus Percussion, BRIC Arts, The Whitney Biennial, The Kitchen, Roulette, Experiments in Opera, the Panoply Performance Laboratory and Performa.

His recent work as a composer, collaborator, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist has been praised in the New York Times,Wall Street Journal,Los Angeles Times, NewMusicBox, and Time Out New York. His opera Thomas Paine in Violence was hailed as “expressive, impressive and engaging” by the Times, and “thrilling and rare, and must be experienced” by Schmopera. With his performance collective, Varispeed, Paul created a new site-specific arrangement of Robert Ashley’s seminal opera for television, Perfect Lives, which made TONY’s “Best of 2011” List and was praised by the Times as one of the “standout operas of recent decades.”

For years, Paul has been an advocate of underrepresented experimentalists in the classical music concert halls, particularly Julius Eastman and Robert Ashley, and has worked to diversify modern opera and experimental music theatre both in casting, and in form and style. Paul has chosen to work equally with traditional instruments and vocalists, lo-fi electronics, unconventional sound-makers and amateur musicians, creating one-minute opera, concert length chamber music, and durational performance art. At the helm of thingNY, Paul has premiered hundreds of works from emerging and established composers including Pauline Oliveros, Vinko Globokar, Art Jarvinen, Gelsey Bell, John King, Kyle Gann, Rick Burkhardt, and Gerard Grisey. With thingNY, he co-created and performed the operas ADDDDDDDDD (2008), TIME: A Complete Explanation in Three Parts (2011), Jeff Young and Paul Pinto, Patriots, Run for Public Office on a Platform of Swift and Righteous Immigration Reform, Lots of Jobs, and a Healthy Environment(2013), and This Takes Place Close By (2015). Of their latest work, the new music journal I Care If You Listen writes “rarely, if ever, [have I] seen an encyclopedic array of experimental effects so intimately linked with their expressive potential.”

As a vocalist, Paul has performed in the U.S. and Asia in untraditional chamber music works and experimental and improvisatory creations, including the five-octave lead role in Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King, in John Sanborn and Dorian Wallace’s video opera, Temptation of St. Anthony, and originating the Broadway role of Balaga in Dave Malloy and Rachel Chavkin’s hit musical, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.

Scenes from his ballet, Miseke are available on DVD and CD through the educational UK label, Learning and Teaching Scotland. In addition to thingNY’s comic book opera release ADDDDDDDDD and their latest album minis/Trajectories, Paul has self-released four albums: The Gentlemen (2009), a suite for vocals and electronics, Every Note on the Piano (2010), NUDES: live at the Mary Benson Gallery (2010), and For Stefanos Tsigrimanis (2011) an elegy for turntables, voice, guitar and electronics. His scores have been published by Deep Listening Publications.

Paul is a recipient of several awards and grants from the New York Department of Cultural Affairs, New Music USA, Chamber Music America, The Puffin Foundation, and a three-year residency at the HERE Arts Center, where he developed Thomas Paine in Violence. He was born and raised in Queens, a child of immigrants, studied at Carnegie Mellon with Nancy Galbraith, Leonardo Balada and with Robert Page, and then at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with John Maxwell Geddes, before moving back to New York. He now lives in Jersey City with his wife, Amanda, and their dog, Lady.

Ms. Prabha Kumar is a Managing Director in Black & Veatch Corporation and is the national practice leader for Water, Sewer, and Stormwater Utility Consulting services. She has 27 years of utility consulting experience and specializes in assisting municipalities with stormwater utility development, implementation, and post-implementation support.

She has significant expertise in stormwater utility policies, ordinances, rate structures, credits programs, billing systems, and stakeholder engagement. She has assisted several large and small municipalities with stormwater utility services nationwide and regionally including the cities of Newark, NJ; Hoboken, NJ; Wilmington, DE; and Philadelphia, PA.

Ms. Kumar is the lead author for the chapter on “Stormwater Feasibility Study” in the “User Fee Funded Stormwater Program” guidance manual published by the Water Environment Federation (WEF). She  is an active contributing member of the NJ Stormwater Utility Adhoc committee, a member of the Stormwater Funding and Finance Committee within WEF, and a member of the Legal and Regulatory Affairs committee of NACWA.

Randall Solomon is the Director of The Sustainability Institute at The College of New Jersey and the Executive Director of Sustainable Jersey. He has over 25 years of experience working in government, academia, and the non-profit sector. He is one of the principals that founded and directs the Sustainable Jersey Certification program. Prior to his current position he was the founder and Executive Director of the New Jersey Sustainable State Institute at Rutgers where he worked to expand the capacity of public decision making to address sustainability. Mr. Solomon’s experience includes positions as a policy advisor on sustainable development for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities integrating land use and energy policy, director of the States Campaign for the Resource Renewal Institute in San Francisco, and policy director for the non-profit New Jersey Future. Other jobs include a stint as a national Park Ranger and serving in the inaugural class of AmeriCorps volunteers. He has participated on advisory boards for federal and state government, civic organizations, and has advised major corporations. He writes and speaks frequently on sustainable development, energy, land use policy, using indicators in public decision making, and governance issues. Randy holds a B.S. in Biology from Stockton University and a M.S. in Public Policy from Rutgers University.

Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP has more than 30 years of experience in community economic development, creative placemaking, and leadership development. He has a track record of building diverse alliances and teams to address critical issues facing communities.

Leo coordinates Hackensack River Nation, an alliance of more than 40 leaders representing municipalities, nonprofit organizations and businesses who seek to protect the Hackensack River Watershed ecosystem and connect more people to the Hackensack River. He also developed the Hackensack Environmental Justice Alliance, a resident-led group of more than 230 people seeking to address flooding and other environmental problems facing the city. Through the Foundation’s Green Infrastructure for Environmental Justice initiative, Leo led the creation of a rain garden, public information activities, and a public art project. He is developing a green infrastructure plan to reduce flooding, reduce water pollution, and address heat island effects in Hackensack.

In 2024, the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation received an Environmental Achievement Award from the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions.

Leo is coordinating the Hackensack River Nation Summit. Please feel free to contact him at leo@nnjcf.org or 201-568-5608, x2

Danielle De Laurentis has been directing programs and funds at The Northern New Jersey Community Foundation (NNJCF) for over a decade. She is involved in all aspects of the organization, working to improve community life in the Northern NJ region by galvanizing and connecting people around important issues, such as mental health, pediatric obesity, gentrification, civil rights, downtown revitalization, and environmental protection. She also leads ArtsBergen, NNJCF’s regional arts initiative to strengthen the arts community and connect communities to the arts.

Danielle is a graduate of Rutgers Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy’s Master Practitioner in Creative Placemaking intensive year-long program. She continues to champion creative placemaking, leading the public and community-based art work of the Foundation to integrate art and culture into municipal planning, address critic issues, and honor lesser-heard voices in communities. Under her direction, NNJCF has become a leading organization producing public art in Bergen County. She has overseen large-scale installations such as The Black Women’s Mural, celebrating the role of Black suffragists in the passing of the 19th Amendment, Flood Theater, a co-created site-specific installation to raise awareness of the devastation of severe area flooding, and The Demarest Place Mural revitalizing an underused alleyway while branding civic pride. She is passionate about both the participatory art process and creating interactive public art that instills belonging and encourages play and connection.

Danielle earned a dual BA in Communications and Art History from Fairfield University and completed a post-graduate program in communications design at the Fashion Institute of Technology.