Dear Dunworkin Members,
If you know of any members that may be ill or having other difficulties, please notify Eileen Reilly-Diaz at ereillydiaz@msn.com.
Updated April 25, 2026
The club meets on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month at the Upper Montclair Presbyterian Church located at 53 Norwood Avenue, Upper Montclair. There is informal Socializing beginning at 10:30 followed by a presentation from an invited speaker at 11:00. The topics vary from meeting to meeting. Attendees pay for lunch prior to the presentation. Lunch and additional informal socializing begin at noon.
UPCOMING SPEAKERS
09/11/26 William Skeet Jiggetts is the first speaker for our Fall session on September 11th. He will discuss collecting art of the African Diaspora: Exploring the differences and similaritiesin Black art globally across cultures. Mr. Jiggetts has been collecting art for over 30 years, starting with an original work by Lucien Crump. He had been mentored by collector Ron Ollie, and started early trips to the Philadelphia Museum when he was 9 years old. He has been associated with the Montclair Museum as head of the African American Cultural Committee, and is a member of the museum’s Black Arts Council. He regularly gives presentations in six African American Art museums in Philadelphia. As a measure of his diverse interests, Mr. Jiggets also heads a Montclair-based tax and financial planning organization called Family Financial.
09/25/26 Radwa Ali, director of the Montclair Public Library, will discuss her plans to renovate the main branch downtown and expand the library at Bellevue Avenue uptown. Ms. Ali became director in 2024, having served as library director in Bogata and Roxbury earlier. The project was recently approved for up to $36.6 million in state funds through the Cultural Arts Facilities Expansion program of the NJ Economic Development Authority. “Libraries are where a community shows what it values,” Ms. Ali said. “We have critical infrastructure needs that can’t wait, and this funding lets us address those (needs) while also thinking boldly about what comes next for Montclair’s libraries.” Since her arrival Ms. Ali has greatly expanded programs and outreach to the community. “The library is still the American dream. It’s still that place that can make anyone, no matter their background, into something amazing.”
10/9/26 Tracie Boyle is our speaker, an Accredited Investigative Genetic Genealogist (AIGG) and Case Manager at the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center in New Jersey. She began working with DNA in 2012 while researching her paternal grandfather’s family and quickly fell down the rabbit hole. In 2018, she expanded into investigative work and has since helped solve numerous family mysteries while providing crucial leads for law enforcement agencies across the country. She is the co-founder of Coast to Coast Genetic Genealogy Services and a member of several organizations, including the Association of Professional Genealogists (Forensic SIG), National Genealogical Society, and the International Association of Crime Analysts. Her topic: Identifying the Unknown: How Investigative Genetic Genealogy Is Solving Cold Cases Investigative genetic genealogy is changing the way cold cases are solved by turning distant connections into powerful investigative leads. The presentation on October 9 will explore how unidentified individuals are identified and long standing cases are advanced using a combination of DNA analysis and traditional genealogy. Through real case examples, the session will highlight how IGG is used to generate leads, narrow the field of possibilities, and help restore identities. It also provides an inside look at how this work is conducted at the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center and the role IGG plays in modern investigations.
10/23/26 Buddy Evans iso ur speaker on October 23, the President and CEO of the YMCA of Montclair, a position he has held since March 2018. A seasoned YMCA leader with more than three decades of executive experience, Buddy is recognized for driving organizational growth, financial stewardship, strategic innovation, and community impact.
Since joining the YMCA of Montclair, Buddy has transformed the organization into one of New Jersey’s leading YMCA associations. Under his leadership, the YMCA has expanded membership, strengthened philanthropy, launched new early childhood education programs, refinanced long-term debt to improve financial stability, and developed a comprehensive strategic plan that positioned the YMCA as a true “charity of choice” within the community.
Before coming to Montclair, Buddy served as Executive Vice President of the YMCA of South Florida, and held senior leadership positions with the YMCA of Central Florida and the YMCA of Metro Atlanta. Known as a servant leader, Buddy has built a reputation for developing high-performing teams, cultivating community partnerships, and delivering sustainable financial and mission-driven results. He serves on the Board of Directors for the New Jersey YMCA State Alliance, is an active Rotarian, and a retired member of the United States Coast Guard Reserve.
Buddy earned a Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Economics from the University of Rhode Island and a Master of Science in Sport and Recreation Management from the United States Sports Academy. Originally from Philadelphia, Buddy and his wife, Eileen, have two adult children and three English Bulldogs. An avid Philadelphia sports fan and outdoor enthusiast, Buddy believes deeply in the YMCA’s ability to strengthen communities. As he put it, “The YMCA has always been part of my family’s life. It’s where our children learned to swim, played their first basketball games, made lifelong friends, and where our family built lasting memories together.”
Schedule for 2026.
Luncheons are identified; all other dates are for speakers
| JANUARY | 2nd Friday 1/9 4th Friday 1/23 |
| FEBRUARY | 2nd Friday 2/13 4th Friday 2/27 |
| MARCH | 2nd Friday 3/13 4th Friday 3/27 |
| APRIL | 2nd Friday 4/10 4th Friday 4/24 |
| MAY Spring Luncheon | 1st Friday 5/1 |
| JULY Summer Luncheon | 2nd Friday 7/10 |
| SEPTEMBER | 2nd Friday 9/11 4th Friday 9/25 |
| OCTOBER | 2nd Friday 10/9 4th Friday 10/23 |
| NOVEMBER | 2nd Friday 11/13 |
| DECEMBER Holiday Luncheon | 2nd Friday 12/11 |
PREVIOUS 2026 SPEAKERS AND EVENTS
01/09/26 Harvey Susswein will speak to the Club on January 9, 2025 on the Electoral College. A member of the board of the League of Women Voters, Harvey served on Montclair’s Zoning Board for a dozen years and was a candidate for mayor in 2012. Retired from a career in systems integration, he was involved in projects that ranged from improving the NFL scheduling system to accounting systems for the City of New York. With degrees from Princeton University and the Wharton School of Business, Harvey is a former Naval officer and a Vietnam veteran.
01/23/26 Anthony DePalma, formerly a reporter for The New York Times and the author of several books on Cuba, the environment and the health crises that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks, will speak to the Club on January 23 about his latest book, On This Ground: hardship and Hope at the Toughest Prep School in America. It’s the story of how a school in Newark became one of America’s most successful inner-city educational programs through the dedication of its staff and the remarkable resilience of its students.
At The N.Y. Times, he manned the newspaper’s bureau in Newark during the 1980s, and later was an education reporter before becoming a foreign correspondent. He did not attend St. Benedict’s Prep, the school featured in his new book, but he did graduate from an all-boys Catholic high school that has since shut its doors. He first wrote about St. Benedict’s for The Times in 1981. He hiked the 55-mile length of the Appalachian Trail in New Jersey with St. Benedict’s students in 1982, and did it again in 2024, when they seemed to be so much faster and stronger than he remembered.
2/13/26 Harvey Araton will speak to the Club on February 13 about his recently published young adult book The Goal of the Game. A heartfelt coming-of-age tale for kids from 7-12, it deals with the inherent pleasures and pressures of youth sports, grappling with grief and ultimately discovering what really matters in sports and life. An underlying narrative is the increasing presence and control of for-profit businesses in the youth sports industry. Harvey has written for four daily newspapers in the New York City area, including the New York Post, the Daily News, the Staten Island Advance and New York Times, where he served as a Sports of the Times columnist for 15 years.
In his professional career he covered sports and some non-sports, including 10 Olympics, many Wimbledons, the U.S. Open, the French Open and the Davis Cup. He has also written about many N.B.A. finals, World Series, Super Bowls and men’s and women’s Final Four tournaments in college basketball
Harvey was nominated by The Times for a Pulitzer Prize in 1994; was named 1998 Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and won first place in 1994 for Best News Story from the Associated Press Sports Editors among many other awards and honors. He is a native of Montclair, where he lives with his wife and two hoops-loving sons.
02/27/26 Suzanne Trauth, Novelist, playwright and acting teacher, will speak to the Club on February 27 in a talk entitled “Chapter Two,” which will discuss, among other observations, creative pathways in retirement. A mainstay of the theater department at Montclair State, Suzanne co-produced and directed productions at the Ensemble Studio Theater, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, the Whole Theatre, and 12 Miles West. She also served as Assistant Artistic Director and teacher at the Sonia Moore Studio in New York City and performed for the American Stanislavski Theater.
In addition to her six mystery novels in the Dodie O’Dell series, she has written eight plays, two award winning screenplays, a short play and a variety of essays and articles that have appeared in Theatre Insight and Notable Women in American Theater. As part of a global initiative, she directed The Crucible for the Theater-on-Podol in Ukraine. Her most recent books are What Remains of Love and The First to Die.
03/13/26 Dr. Todd Caissie, The interim director of the Montclair Art Museum, Dr. Todd Caissie, will be the speaker for March 13. Dr. Caissie was appointed Deputy Director of MAM this summer.
Most recently the Director of the New Brunswick Internment Camp Museum in Canada, Dr Caissie is a member of the board of the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, and has served as a grant panelist for both the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. As a scholar and an enrolled member of Osage Nation, Dr. Caissie had previously served as an advisor on the Interwoven Power reinstallation of Native art.
Before entering the cultural sector, Cassie spent over a decade as an Executive Search Consultant in Tokyo and New York, serving as County Head for the Japan office of a Fortune 500 company.
Join us in welcoming Dr Caissie to the Dunwork Club.
03/27/26 Teresa A. Rodriguez, the Dunworkin Club’s speaker for our meeting on Friday, March 27, will share her insights and advice with club members on how to be alert to financial frauds and investment trickery.
As senior counsel in the SEC’s Enforcement Division for more than 20 years, Rodriguez has led numerous investigations into a wide range of illegal activities. collaborating with the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office, Dept. of Homeland Security, and other government agencies.
In addition to her work with the SEC, Rodriguez is an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School, Newark and co-chair of the New York SEC Hispanic Organization.
04/10/26 Larry Chiger: With over 25 years in the real estate and home building business, Larry Chiger will reflect on the changes he has seen in the industry and in the markets, and provide suggestions to those of us thinking about downsizing, relocating or otherwise “moving house.” These transitions can be especially hard for those of us who are change-averse, but Larry will help prepare us for what lies ahead. Having recently gone through the process himself, Larry will speak first-hand about preparing for the transition, finding a new location and gaining satisfaction from the experience. Some of you will know Larry from his years living in South Orange, Glen Ridge, and West Orange, and will smile as he recounts his current experience living in a multi-generational house in Millburn.
04/24/26 Kiran Gaudioso, CEO of the United Way of Northern New Jersey, will speak at our March 13 meeting about the special challenges faced by ALICE families, Asset Limited, Income Constrained,Employed families that earn above the poverty level ($32,150) but less than the basic cost of living in our region.
Prior to joining United Way, Ms Gaudioso had extensive experience providing expanded after-school learning and mentoring programs for public school students in New Jersey and New York. She also worked as a policy advisor for former Governor Florio and was instrumental in establishing AmeriCorps in New Jersey.
Ms Gaudioso graduated from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and received a masters degree in political science from The Eagleton Institute at Rutgers.
SPRING 2026 LUNCHEON
The 2026 Spring Luncheon was enjoyed by many members and guests
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LINK TO 2025 SPEAKERS AND EVENTS IS BELOW
LINK TO 2022-4 SPEAKERS AND EVENTS IS BELOW