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Board of Directors
and Advisors
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Catherine Lazen, Founder and Board Member
The success of Arts Unbound represents the fulfillment of a longtime dream for the organization's founder. Read all about it here!
Mary Jo Codey, Former First Lady, State of New Jersey
and Honorary Board Chair
Mary Jo Codey is not only the former First Lady of New
Jersey. but is a staunch advocate for people with mental
illness and breast cancer. Read more about
her here!
Harold Garwin, Board Chair
Harold is the President and
Executive Director of the Community Health Law Project, a
nonprofit advocacy and legal services organization dedicated to
serving the needs of low-income people with disabilities and the
elderly in New Jersey. Harold holds a law degree from Rutgers
law school. Prior to joining the Community Health Law Project,
Harold served as Deputy Commissioner of the New Jersey State
Department of the Public Advocate, counsel to the New Jersey
State Director of Mental Health Services; counsel to the New
Jersey State Mental Health Planning Committee, and as a legal
services attorney in Union County.
Jim Ferruggiaro, Secretary
Jim holds a Masters in Social
Work from Rutgers University. He retired from NJ State Division
of Developmental Disabilities on July 1, 2003 as Assistant
Director after 30 years of service. He is currently working as
Program Director for United Cerebral Palsy of New Jersey, which
multifaceted programs for individuals living with cerebral
palsy.Robert O’Brien, PhD
Dr. O’Brien is a professor of pharmacology at Rutgers University
and very active with social programs that serve seniors and
people with disabilities. He is also a photographer/artist.
Michelle Ballan, PhD, Nominations
Chair
Dr. Ballan is a professor at Columbia University and works
in the areas of policy, quality assurance practices, and rights
of adults with disabilities.
Anthony Cardone, Treasurer
Mr. Cardone returned from Wall Street after a
thirty-year career on the trading floor of the New York Stock
Exchange, including five years as a self-employed member of the
Exchange.
A Certified Public Accountant and Licensed Public School
Accountant, Anthony is currently a staff accountant at Suplee,
Clooney and Company in
Westfield
and has extensive experience in accounting and auditing of
authorities and non-profit organizations.
Hanie Warshaw, Volunteer Coordinator
Hanie is a former teacher and art lover. She has joined the
board as the Volunteer Coordinator for the agency and also
participates on the agency’s marketing committee.
Allen Shefts
(Best known as "I'm not Jerry!"), is
the owner of Jerry's Artist Outlet in West Orange, New Jersey.
Originally from Brooklyn New York, Allen received his
undergraduate degree in psychology from Brooklyn College and his
master’s degree from CCNY. Prior to his illustrious career in
the retail artist supply industry, Allen created and directed
one of Brooklyn's first sheltered workshops for challenged
adults.
Lorie Safin
Lorie's daughter, Colleen Creedon, is one of the
artists featured in the Arts Unbound online store and gallery.
Lorie has volunteered her time and energy to support the needs
of people with disabilities, donating time and receiving
training at various organizations including NAMI, the Mental
Health Association of Essex County and the National Council of
Jewish Women. She is also the founder of TLC (Tools for living
with Cancer) a program of symposiums for breast cancer
survivors. She has been employed at the West Orange Tennis Club
as the front desk manager for 30 years.
Dorothy White
Dorothy is in employee of Hands, Inc., the regional
development corporation responsible for the creation of the
Valley Arts system. Dorothy has experience as a community
developer and is a resident of the city of Orange. She
manages the ValleyArts consortium, and has joined our board to
help engage the local community to the Arts Unbound mission and
purpose, and to encourage participation in our series of
community and arts-related events and exhibitions.
In memory of...
Mark Lefkowitz, Treasurer & Chair, Finance Committee
We will miss you, Mark.
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Advisory Board
and
Marketing Committee
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Our sincere thanks to all of the individuals below for their guidance and support.
Leonard
Bornstein (Essex County) - Chair,
AU Board of Governors
Lenny is director of
Lenny Bornstein Entertainment (Millburn, NJ) and has served in
many positions in the education field and in non profit
management over the years. He is a lover of the arts and
has offered to advise and guide Arts Unbound as it seeks support
from art donors and promotes its product and vision to the arts
community. Lenny is the chairman of the newly-established
Arts Unbound Board of Governors. The mission of the Board
is to raise funds from the private sector to enable the
organization to reach its strategic goals. Lenny has
hosted special events for Arts Unbound and continues to seek
ways in which our organization can extend its reach and find new
audiences.
Russell Klein (Bergen County)
Russell Klein was the founder and president of Legacy
Unlimited, Inc. with its primary concentration in the fashion
industry. He has spent the last two decades creating and
implementing marketing strategies and new brand launches to
achieve established goals and objectives for the client. He has
successfully promoted events featuring products in the food,
clothing and entertainment arenas. Russell is guiding Arts
Unbound on creating successful strategies for promotion of its
art products to the general public.
Joe Ruggiero (Union County)
Joe is the director of
Ruggiero AV
Services, which provides personal computer technical support
and web-based assistance in all areas of technology. He is
also a technology instructor in a local Union County school
district. Joe is responsible for maintaining as well as
enhancing the Arts Unbound website and for developing the
organization’s capabilities in creating contact lists,
databases, the agency calendar, and web-based store and helping
maintain an up to date online presence.
Martine Kieffer (Essex County)
Martine was employed in the retail industry for many years, most
notably as the manager of the IKEA in Elizabeth, NJ. She has
extensive experience designing floor and window displays and
promoting retail businesses. Martine is working with Arts
Unbound staff to better market its gallery and online store and
to develop successful strategies for promoting the retail
business to the public. She is also a spiritual counselor
and is currently completing her MSW at Rutgers University.
Robert Greco (Essex County)
Robert is the Executive Director of Universal Institute in
Livingston and South Jersey, which offers a wide range of services to adults
with head and spinal chord injuries. He is also a fine artist,
former gallery owner, and is the coordinator of the Arts Unbound
annual fundraiser.
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Lead Staff
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Gail Levinson, Executive
Director
Gail has worked in the State of New
Jersey for over 25 years on policy, training and planning
initiatives for adults and children with special needs. She
is a lover of the arts and is excited to take the helm at
Arts Unbound to extend its reach geographically and to
further its mission of providing quality arts education and
vocational training in the visual arts to students with
disabilities.
Stefanie Garwin - Teacher and Senior Program
Coordinator
Stefanie Garwin is the
coordinator and lead art teacher for the Arts Unbound Senior Division,
Generations. She directs the senior program, which provides arts education
classes to senior citizens with disabilities in Morris, Union and Essex
Counties, through grants from the Grotta and Wallerstein Foundations as well as
the United Way of Essex and West Hudson. She is also a gifted jewelry designer
and crafts maker.
Stefanie
originally joined Arts Unbound as a client artist in a
one-on-one mentoring program. She lives with a physical
disability, having suffered from a brain tumor as a teenager.
Now she uses a wheel-chair and copes with several physical
challenges that impede her mobility. In a rehabilitation program
after her brain surgery, Stefanie was taught jewelry making.
Now, she has created a successful jewelry business selling her
hand strung beaded jewelry. She uses top quality display
equipment and utilizes a professional catalogue. Stefanie
donates a portion of her proceeds to a brain injury
organization. She is completing her studies in Therapeutic
Recreation and incorporates these skills into the arts education
classes.
Kathleen Heron, Teacher and Program Coordinator
Kathleen Heron is an award-winning collage/assemblage artist
working in the Valley Arts District of Orange, NJ. She has returned to her first
love of teaching art to persons with emotional and developmental disabilities -
her first stint was as a teen Red Cross volunteer at the psychiatric facility,
Essex County Hospital Center, in the Art Therapy Department. She later worked
with patients in the psychiatric hospital, bringing art materials to work with
the clients, as an alternative to TV. Kathleen has attended Pratt Institute,
Parsons School of Design, The School of Visual Arts and the New School, all in
NYC. "I give my mom a lot of credit for my love of this work. She was an RN at
Kessler Institute and she would bring me there as a child to meet and talk with
the patients. She always encouraged me to pursue my love of art."
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Part-Time Art Teachers
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Susan Lisbin
Susan Lisbin has taught both adults and children. She
is a certified art teacher and has a Masters in Art.
Susan has been an art teacher in the
Millburn
School District for
the last ten years, before that she worked for Bergen County
Special Services as an art teacher. Ms. Lisbin’s
work is abstract and she does both
painting and sculpture. She has had solo shows and has exhibited
her work in New Jersey and New York.
In 2005, she received a fellowship to attend the
Vermont Studio
Center.
Her work can be seen on line at
http://www.susanlisbin.com.
Stephen McKenzie
Stephen McKenzie is an artist, printmaker, educator and
administrator. Originally from the Midwest, he arrived in the
East by way of Rome, after a year
of study through
Temple
University,
Tyler School of Art Abroad program. His MFA degree were
completed at Rutgers
University,
Mason
Gross
School
of the Arts in
New Brunswick,
New Jersey.
During that time his major focus was on drawing and printmaking
taking courses with Judith Brodsky and Leon Golub, each
influential within their field at that time.
Since graduation in 1984 he has
continued to work in printmaking and drawing using a variety of
media. Professionally, he has been an adjunct instructor,
worked as an assistant master printer at the Center for
Innovative Printmaking at Rutgers
University under the supervision of Judith Brodsky,
participated as a Printer for several Monothons held at the
Center for Contemporary Printmaking
in Norwalk,
CT and
gained administrative experience as an Administrative Director
at the Printmaking Council of New Jersey. Presently he is in the
position of Manager for The Newark Museum Arts Workshop, where
he oversees the adult studio programs in the arts as well as the
Joseph A. Konrad Artist-in-Residence program.
 Traveling has informed his
background as an artist, where in addition to having traveled to
portions of Europe, he has also visited western parts of
Canada
and the USA
such as: The University of Saskatchewan and The Banff Centre for
the Arts in Canada and The Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado and
most recently
Berlin, Germany.
Each location featured printmaking facilities and provided
scholarships permitting him time to develop new work, perfect
his printing skills and meet artists such as Jim Dine.
His work in printmaking combines knowledge
of the medium with imagery that evokes possible figures from
past cultures,alien species or invented beings. The monumental
stone works on Easter Island and transformer toys are some influences in
the conceptual exploration of his latest series of woodblock
prints entitled Sentient
Beings.
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