01/10/25 Rev. Kay Dubuisson pastor of St. Mark’s, the United Methodist Church, and Jennifer Nelson, who is also involved in the Freedom School at St. Mark’s Church.  Rev. Kay holds a bachelor’s degree in Adult Education, and a Master of Divinity Degree and is passionate about community outreach, education, and pastoral care for both children and families. Ms. Nelson has over 20 years of leadership in problem solving and relationship building, with a focus on suitable access to services at the community level.

They will describe the Freedom School, which is a national program designed to inspire children and enhance their educational opportunities. At a time when dialogue at the state and national levels has slipped into animosity and even hatred, here is an example of how strength and respect at the community level can help rebuild the spirit of cooperation which has long been strong in the US. Just in the state of New Jersey there are a number of organizations with a goal of fostering science, like that at Rutgers, and rebuilding the community in places like Trenton, Newark, South Orange/Maplewood, Morristown, and Summit. Parental response to the impact of the Freedom School has been very positive. 

01/24/25 Robert N. Davison, MA, LPC the chief executive officer of the North Jersey-based Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris, Inc, an MHA affiliate. Davison manages the overall operations of a comprehensive community mental health facility that serves the needs of more than 1,800 individuals each day.

In addition to his professional service, he maintains his interest in community issues in a variety of other ways. He was a founding board member of the Newark-based Partnership for Children of Essex County Inc., a child-welfare agency and was a founding member and past president of Advance Housing Inc., a community-based organization whose mission is to provide independent, normalized living arrangements for individuals with mental illnesses. A former three-term councilman in Caldwell, he also served as a legislative aide to Assemblyman John F. McKeon. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of The Bridge, Inc., a non-profit family service agency based in West Caldwell. A 1984 graduate of Seton Hall University, he received his master’s degree in counseling from Montclair State University in 1990.

Mr. Davison will be joined by Arielle Scarpelli LCSW, in a presentation to the Club about the efforts of the Mental Health Association  to reduce the incidence of suicide.

02/14/25 Elaine Bromka, actress and a long-time Montclair resident. Her extensive career includes Film, TV, Broadway, and off-Broadway. The list includes the role of Beatrice, in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and Just Like That, The Blacklist, Maniac, Girls, The Sopranos, Sex & the City, E.R., Dharma & Greg, all of the Law and Order episodes, Providence, Playing for Time, with Vanessa Redgrave, and Catch a Rainbow, for which she won an Emmy, and Days of our Lives.  Her Off-Broadway solo show TEA FOR THREE, portrayed three of our First Ladies, including Lady Bird, Pat Nixon, and Betty Ford, and toured nationwide. she has been guest artist at over 170 colleges, high schools, and IDs, virtual and live workshops.

She was amply prepared for this extensive career at Smith College, where she was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa key. Her preference is to open up with our group with a Q&A, on the general topic of “Thoughts along the Way” rather than a lengthy prepared presentation.

Websites:  https://www.elainebromka.com/ and https://www.teaforthree.com/

02/28/25 Lillie Edwards. Our own member Lillie Edwards is Professor Emerita  of Drew University Dept. of History and African American Studies, and received two awards for excellent and distinguished teaching. She received a PhD in history from the University of Chicago and is a member of the Oberlin College Board of Trustees. She continues to serve in a broad range of religious and educational groups, including the United Methodist Church, Montclair Race Amity, and the NJ Amistad Commissions, the Montclair History Center, and other organizations.

Her lecture: Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges was presented at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC; the America Jewish Committee, and numerous other faith communities, colleges and universities. It begins in 1933, when Nazi Germany expelled more than a thousand professors who were Jewish, liberals, or Social Democrats. When they fled Germany and Austria, for the US, they confronted anti-Semitism and quotas that limited their access to US white colleges and universities.  The presentation illuminates the experiences of 51 of these refugee scholars and families, and welcomes they received by Black Colleges, and other institutions like the Rockefeller Foundation, the Society of Friends, National Council of Churches, but also racial segregation, violence and anti-Semitism in the US and Europe.  It reveals the ways human lives and experiences can connect in unexpected and wonderful ways across continents, beliefs, nationality, race and class.

03/14/25 John Zinn, an independent historian with special interest in the history of baseball. He is the chairman of the board of the New Jersey Historical Society. John is the author of five books including three about the Brooklyn Dodgers as well as numerous essays and articles. He also writes a blog on baseball history entitled A Manly Pastime. John holds BA and MBA degrees from Rutgers University and is a Vietnam veteran. 

He singles out a particular game for his topic: “An October afternoon at Ebbets Field: The story of how an accidental manager and some fringe players turned the fourth game of the 1947 World Series into one of the greatest games of all time.” John has presented to us at least three times and invariably provides us with some new insight or historic context. And the baseball season begins only four days after his presentation.

03/28/25 Paris McLean, Assistant Head of School, at Montclair Kimberly Academy. He works with students to make certain their experience is not only academically challenging but satisfying in other ways as well. He is a graduate of Princeton Day School in NJ, with a BA from LaSalle University, and a master’s degree from Columbia Teachers College, Klingenstein Center. Prior to his association with MKA, he was with Princeton Day School, as a 2nd Grade Teacher and varsity basketball coach, and then on to Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart, where he was the Head of Lower School and the Assistant Head of School. His leadership is recognized widely, at the Canadian Accredited Independent Schools, and as a presenter at other state, national, and international conferences.

His presentation will discuss a week-long visit by Paris and about 10 other MKA staff and faculty members to the activities of Bryan Stevenson, at the facilities he created in Montgomery, Alabama, in connection with his Equal Justice Initiative. Mr. Stevenson, a Harvard Law School graduate, felt that court injustice occurred often enough that it should be challenged. His efforts have led to several convictions being overturned, and an impressive number of releases from death row. Mr. Stevenson gave a TEDtalk about 10 years ago, and the curator, who had seen 1,500 of them, found his presentation among the top five in terms of impact. It lasts about 20 minutes, but It is well worth viewing before we hear from Paris McLean. Here is the link: https://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice

04/11/25 David Folkenflik, Media Correspondent for NPR News. His interest in journalism began early at Cornell, from which he graduated with a BA in history, and as editor-in-chief of the Cornell Daily Sun. His career started at the Durham Herald-Sun, in No. Carolina, followed by a decade at the Baltimore Sun, where he covered higher education, national politics, and the media, then to NPR in 2004. HIs views are broadcast on their newsmagazines, including All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Here and Now, and are featured on their website and mobile platforms. His reports cast light on the stories of our age, the figures who shape journalism, and the tectonic shifts affecting the news industry. Examined are the relationships between the press, politicians, and the general public, and well as the fight over the flow of information currently. Major stories include battles between newspaper officials and the owners, the first interview with executive editor Dean Baquet, and other conflicts in this environment.

There has been additional writing, as the author of Murdoch’s World, a book favorably reviewed by numerous organizations, and is the editor of Page One: Inside the NY Times and the /future off Journalism. Other publications include writings in the Washington Post, Politico Magazine, Newsweek, the National Post of Canada, and the Australian Financial Review. Business Insider dubbed him one of the most influential people in American media.

A string of awards includes the Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism from the National Press Club (five times), the inaugural 2002 Mongerson Award for Investigative Reporting, top honors from the National Headliners and in 2018, the Society of Professional Journalists recognized him with its Ethics in Journalism Award. Penn State and Cornell have used him as a lecturer, along with country-wide universities, and civic organizations, in addition to TV and radio programs in the US and internationally.

His timely topic is “The assault on independent knowledge” and few people are as centrally located as he is to have thoroughly informed views.

05/02/25 Spring Luncheon

05/09/25 George Kendall, a graduate of Antioch Law School gravitated toward criminal and appellate law from the outset of his career. He initially practiced with a small criminal law boutique in Washington, DC., then from 1983 to 2003, devoted his practice to representing indigent condemned prisoners, with the ACLU Capital Representation Project in Atlanta, and then in New York with the NAACP LDF. For the past 22 years his focus has been on capital, innocence, habeas and prison cases, and for the past 16 years as Director of Public Service Initiative at Squire Patton Boggs.

Litigation successes include prevailing in Banks v. Dretke, a Texas case freeing Louisiana prison journalist Wilbert Rideau in 2005, freeing and exonerating wrongly convicted Norfolk client Joseph, Dick, Jr. in 2009, reversing life sentences for Richard Cooper in Florida in 2014, and freeing and winning compensation for wrongly convicted Louisiana prisoners, known as the Angola 3, in 2013 and 2016. Two of them had endured more than 40 years in solitary confinement. Mr. Kendall and his team are deeply involved with 2-3 cases before the Supreme Court every term.

He also has taught courses on the administration of capital punishment at Yale, Florida State, St. Johns, and currently on an externship at Columbia. 

Awards and honors for his work have been numerous, including the 2012 John Paul Stevens Guiding Hands of Counsel Award, presented by a unit of the American Bar Association, and service on the boards of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, DC. 

07/11/25 Summer Luncheon

09/12/25 Vivien Li, nationally recognized waterfront and climate activist will speak about “Climate and Environmental Action in These Times” on Friday, September 12.  Li, whose environmental activism began while at Ridgewood (NJ) High School, is a long-time Sierra Club leader. She served two terms on the Club’s Board of Directors, was a former New Jersey Chapter Chair, and is a current member of the Club’s Investment Advisory Committee. Earlier this year, University of California Berkeley’s Bancroft Library released Li’s oral history detailing her environmental planning efforts in Newark, her volunteer efforts in New Jersey focused on the Hackensack Meadowlands, and her work to create a more climate resilient waterfront along Boston Harbor.

09/26/25 Heather Garside, Curator of History at the Paterson Museum, a position she has held since December 2019.

This is a significant time to hear from her, as it is the 100th Anniversary of the Museum. In 1972, the experiment of the town of Paterson began as the brainchild of visionaries including Alexander Hamilton and developed to demonstrate America’s ability to create its own industries and achieve economic independence. The presentation will answer why Paterson. It will also review the struggles endured in the early years as well as highlight some of the major industries and successes.

Heather Garside is responsible for all exhibitions and collections management. Previously, she was the Director/Curator of the Passaic County Historical Society, where she oversaw all activities at the Lambert Castle Museum. She received a BA in History at Union College, NY, and her MA in Medieval Archaeology at the University of York, in England.

10/08/25 Ric Cohn, a retired professional photographer and bird watcher will share a photographic record of the colorful birds of Cuba from a recent trip by the Montclair Bird Club. The journey includes places visited, guides, and Cuban people along the way.  It is also worth noting that many of the birds in the presentation are found nowhere else in the world and the photographs are amazing.

From ScienceDirect: The island of Cuba and surrounding cays are a major repository of biodiversity in the Caribbean archipelago. Although Cuba is widely recognized for its high biodiversity and endemism, much of the country’s conservation experiences have been overlooked by the global conservation scientific community.

10/24/25 Christine Eibs Singer, will talk about the current state of energy access and the solutions that exist to end energy poverty in Africa, sharing stories of leading organizations that give us hope that we will see universal access to modern energy in our lifetime.

Christine Eibs Singer is a global advocate of accelerated energy access through decentralized renewable energy. Currently, more than 750 million people globally do not have access to electricity and a shocking 2.1 billion people still cook with firewood and charcoal. Yet solutions exist that are affordable, available and appropriate to their needs.

Christine has more than 30 years of experience in moving public and private finance to address these needs. Most recently, she led the re-launch of The SHINE Collab, elevating the nexus of energy access-gender justice and climate justice in Africa and accelerating funding for energy access in remote, rural and marginalized communities. Christine’s engagements have included initiatives with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, Sustainable Energy for All and the Kenyan Ministry of Energy. Christine co-founded E+Co in 1995, a Rockefeller Foundation spin-out and one of the first blended capital investors in energy enterprises in the Global South that led multiple innovations in the financing of energy enterprises in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Christine serves on the boards and advisory committees of ground-breaking organizations working both at global policy levels and on the ground delivery of life-changing energy solutions. Ms. Singer’s recognitions include the 2007 Woman of Inspiration Award from Fairleigh Dickinson University and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from New Jersey City University. Ms. Singer is affiliated with Catalyst Energy Advisors, a leading global boutique consulting firm, serves as a Trustee of Park United Methodist Church in Bloomfield and volunteers at Toni’s Closet.

11/14/25 Kirk Prichard, assists the Beyond Barriers team and is the Vice President of Programs at Concern Worldwide US. Kirk’s presentation will consist of a brief overview of current humanitarian emergencies in the world (Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and other locations) and how best to respond to them in an efficient and effective manner. This is an especially pertinent topic given the recent funding cuts to overseas assistance.

As the Vice President of Programs for Concern US, Kirk manages the team responsible for all US funded programs and policy, a portfolio totaling more than $50 million USD in 16 countries, reaching over 8 million people.

Kirk also oversees Concern’s involvement in a growing collection of programs designed to improve humanitarian coordination and response, namely the National NGO Program on Humanitarian Leadership and the Building a Better Response program. Kirk has personally facilitated over 40 workshops, training more than 1,000 humanitarian professionals in practically every humanitarian setting.

He brings to this role more than a decade of experience, including humanitarian deployments with Concern in Afghanistan from 2008-2009; the 2011 Horn of Africa food security crisis; Typhoon Haiyan (2013) in the Philippines; the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal; the Syria Crisis (Lebanon); the 2016 Burundi emergency; and the 2017 Somalia food security crisis. During his tenure with Concern, he has worked in and with 21 countries on everything from monitoring and evaluation to capacity building to project design.

A proud native of New Jersey, Kirk received his master’s degree in international Humanitarian Assistance from the University of Groningen in The Netherlands.

12/12/25 Holiday Luncheon