GreenFaith's Board of Directors

GreenFaith Board of Directors

Executive Committee

Steven Blumenthal, CPA, Chair, is Director of Tax at ERE LLC, an accounting and financial services firm based in Manhattan.  He serves on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Meadowlands Regional Chamber of Commerce, as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bergen County Work Force Investment Board and as Treasurer and past President of the Executive Exchange, Inc.

Gary Matthews, Ph.D, CPA/PFS, Treasurer, is a Personal Financial Specialist and an investment advisory representative of First Affirmative Financial Network specializing in socially and environmentally conscious (SRI) investment strategies.  He received a Doctorate in Social Ethics from Union Theological Seminary.

Dana Hiscock, Esq., Secretary, is a Partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, a New York law firm where he specializes in estate planning and tax-exempt organizations matters.  He chaired the Board of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies from 2002-2005 and is a founder of the Environmental and Social Justice Committee at Church of the Epiphany, Allendale.

Deborah Prinz is Executive Director of the Achieve Foundation of South Orange & Maplewood.  She is the chairperson of the New Jersey Jewish Film Festival, a member of the New Jersey Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, and a trustee of Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston.

Board Members

Benjamin Alter is Vice President of GZA GeoEnvironmental, an environmental services firm.  He is an Adjunct Professor at the Hunter College School of Health Sciences and has published articles on hazardous waste investigations and remediations in a range of professional journals.

Mark Brescia is a Project Director at Green Market Solutions, where he oversees their Home Performance with Energy Star® program to help Maryland residents improve the energy efficiency of their homes, with federal and utility incentives. His previous project increased the use of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs while educating students and communities on climate change as part of The New Jersey Clean Energy Program. A graduate of Brandeis University, Mark is a lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church of Upper Montclair and was a leader for youth mission trips to the Adirondack Mountains, NY and Salvador, Brazil.

Dr. Ved P. Chaudhary is a retired Assistant Commissioner of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection. He is currently President of Educators’ Society for the Heritage of India; National Secretary of “The 80/20 Initiative,” a pan-Asian American organization for equality & justice; and Board member of Hindu American Seva Charities to engage Hindu organizations in service projects. He speaks regularly about Hinduism at interfaith events as a Board member of the Monmouth Center for World Religions and Ethical Thought.  He is a former Trustee of Rutgers University, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ NJ Committee, and a Member of the Governor’s Ethnic Advisory Council.

Kathleen Deignan, CND, PhD, is a sister of the Congregation of Notre Dame and Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College where she founded and directs the Iona Spirituality Institute. She has written extensively on classical and contemporary Christian spirituality, particularly the wisdom legacy of Thomas Merton. Her books include Christ Spirit: The Eschatology of Shaker Christianity; When the Trees Say Nothing: Thomas Merton’s Writings on Nature; and Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours. She is artist-in-residence at Schola Ministries, which has published 12 recordings of her original sacred songs and psalms.

Dominic Fonseca has focused on managing and marketing a variety of programs targeting youth, families and seniors, in both corporate and not for profit environments. He has a strong commitment to community development, social justice and philanthropy. Currently, he serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors of Jersey City Child Development Centers (Head Start) and is an active member of local not for profit organizations including Hudson Perinatal Consortium and Hispanic Affairs and Resource Center of Monmouth County.

The Rev. Derek Gatling is an African Methodist Episcopal Pastor and serves as the Environmental Representative for the First District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.  A Master’s of Divinity student at Palmer Theological Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, Rev. Gatling has served AME churches throughout central and southern New Jersey.

Douglas Murphy is the founder and owner of Murphy International Development Corporation, a global leader in international renewable energy development.  Douglas has diverse professional experience in renewable energy production, project development, hazardous waste remediation and processing, project start-up, and management for clients including Fortune 500 companies, the US State Department, and a range of industrial and government clientele.  He has played a leading role in establishing a range of financing tools, carbon credit mechanisms and legislation on renewable portfolio standards (RPS) in locations including US states, Japan, Africa, and Caribbean island nations.  

Pastor Theresa Nance is the founder of The Theresa Nance Ministries, Inc., an outreach ministry, is senior pastor of The Church by the Side of the Road, in Passaic, NJ.  A former award-winning columnist at Passaic County’s Herald News, she served as that paper’s first African American columnist.  She writes for The Positive Community and The Christian Observer, leading black church periodicals in the New York area.  She was the first woman Chief Chaplain at the Passaic County Jail, in Paterson, NJ. An adjunct professor at Passaic County Community College, mother and grandmother, Pastor Nance has been a social activist for more than 30 years.

Fred Profeta was Mayor of Maplewood Township from 2004-2008 and now serves as the Deputy Mayor for the Environment.  He was Chair of the New Jersey Mayors’ Committee for a Green Future from 2006-2011, co-founding the Sustainable Jersey municipal certification program.  Profeta speaks widely around New Jersey and beyond to promote Sustainable Jersey and presented at the 2009 Local Government Climate Change Leadership Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2010, Profeta received the New Jersey Governor’s Environmental Leadership Excellence award. He is also a New York lawyer, and has been the senior partner of Profeta & Eisenstein since 1987.

Dr. Mark Robson is Dean of Agricultural and Urban Programs at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.  An active Roman Catholic, he is an internationally recognized leader in agricultural studies and collaborates with government and NGO-sponsored sustainable agriculture projects throughout Asia.  He has won numerous federal grants, and published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. 

Robert Schucker is President of R&S Landscaping, a regional pioneer in sustainable landscaping practices.  A widely-respected environmental leader, R&S provides residential clients with a range of high-quality, environmentally sensitive landscaping solutions including strategies that require less water and fewer chemical herbicides, make use of native species, and create roof gardens. 

Bonnie Myotai Treace, Sensei, is the founder and head priest of Hermitage Heart, a Zen Buddhist-influenced spiritual community based at Gristmill Hermitage in Garrison, New York.  In 2007 she founded "The Water Mala," a Buddhist right action project on water awareness and meditation, now established on all five continents. Serving for almost two decades as vice-abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery, the largest Zen monastery in the East, she has led over 500 retreats and conferences, and is known for her work in women's spirituality, poetry, and the nexus of mind and environment. Sensei was the establishing teacher and first abbess of the Zen Center of New York City, has advanced degrees in literature, and worked as a hydromechanics analyst with the Potomac Research Institute.

The Rev. Lynne B. Weber is Rector of The Church of the Atonement, an Episcopal parish in Tenafly, NJ.  Under her leadership, Atonement has integrated environmental concerns into many areas of its congregational life, and convenes meetings for other Bergen County congregations on religious-environmental leadership.  She is Diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious Officer of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, where she chairs the Ecumenical and Interreligious Commission.  She is a Board member of the North Jersey Christian-Muslim Project and of the Interfaith Brotherhood-Sisterhood Committee of Bergen County.