EXTRAordinary PEOPLE

WARREN KASDAN is a retired lawyer with a passion for travel.  After 50 years of frequent voyages, he has now visited all seven continents, 111 present or former countries and 45 states.  Within days after graduating from Princeton University, he set off on a two-month, 14,000 mile automobile trip around the United States.  Within hours after completing the Bar Exam following graduat...

CINDY RABINOWITZ is the Director of Cranford Senior Housing in New Jersey.  During the past two years, she has tirelessly worked to protect the welfare of the elderly and infirm during the Covid crisis.  Cindy has an extensive history caring for the senior population beginning with running the largest kosher Meals on Wheels program in Brooklyn through JASA, the Jewish Association for Ser...

Nicole Marshall holds a bachelor's degree from Fordham University and dual master's degrees in Nurse-Midwifery and Women's Health from Columbia University.  Nicole's interest in women's health combined with her passion for social justice and women's rights drew her to a career in midwifery. She currently works as a staff midwife in a high volume urban hospital serving a resource poor com...

Ron Stallworth is a 32- year, highly decorated law enforcement veteran, who worked undercover narcotics, vice, criminal intelligence, and organized crime beats in four states. As the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, Ron overcame fierce racial hostility to achieve a long and distinguished career in law enforcement.  Ron is the subject of the Acade...

Melissa Gelfman’s  passion for the performing arts started at age 10. She began singing, dancing and acting throughout her grammar and high school years, did summer stock and regional theater eventually graduating from the University of Alabama with a BA in Performing Arts and English. After a few years, Melissa decided to put her dramatic career on the backburner while raising her famil...

SHARON BENJAMIN  is a writer, an author, and an exercise enthusiast. She has been participating in some degree of exercise most of her life. She now presents a Facebook Live Aerobics session, Monday - Friday, 6:00 AM, Facebook page, "Randall Sharon Benjamin." Sharon overcame an addiction more than 20-years past. She credits her consistent exercise and healthy eating habits for...

Karen Kaplan Klein began her career in illustration as soon as she could held a pencil and has not let go since!  Karen has illustrated several books and has shown her dioramas and “clayaramas" in numerous galleries throughout the United States since the 1970’s and has taught art to children and adults for over 49 years.  She also does workshops involving magic, dreams, and the...

Nikki Nash is a podcast host, Hay House author, motivational speaker, and creator of the Genius Profit Society, a training and development company on a mission to equip entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to share and profit from their message.  She supports a community of women entrepreneurs in getting clients and customers.  Her book,  Market Your Genius...

Ace Marrero, a New Jersey born actor/producer, holds a BFA from Stephens College for Women (yes, you read that right).   Recent credits include Action/Sci-Fi thriller, INTERPRETERS, HBO’s reboot of PERRY MASON, a national Facebook commercial as well as RIDE ALONG 2, SLEEPY HOLLOW, SCORPION, CRIMINAL MINDS, THE LAST HEIST & ROADSIDE,  to name a few.  As a prod...

Passionate about herbs, Gert Coleman loves, grows, eats, and reads avidly about them. Retired Associate Professor of English at Middlesex County College in New Jersey, she lives on 106 acres in Middlefield, New York where she and her husband are fixing up another old house, training a new puppy, and planting herbs, flowers, trees, and at-risk native plants. She edits the IHA Herb of the Year™ book...

Julia Gaona has been an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in Irvington, New Jersey for the past sixteen years. A first-generation immigrant, born and raised in Moscow, Russia, she came here as a student and earned her second Master's Degree in TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) from Arizona State University on a full-tuition scholarship. In addition, she teaches writin...

Bernard Rothenberg is a proud military veteran who was raised in Brooklyn, New York.  After starting as a young teen working in supermarkets, he later served in World War II and was in Leipzig, Germany at the time of liberation, April 19, 1945. He served his country for 21 months. Upon returning to the States and meeting his future wife, Evelyn, he married and the couple went o...

B. V. Marshall’s plays have earned recognition from HBO New Writers Workshop., New York’s Theatre for a New City, Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ and in play festivals from Alaska to Australia. Recently Plainfield Audiences have seen his plays  Five Husbands and Incident at Willow Creek.  His awards include five Playwriting fellowships from NJ Council on the...

Eva (Safier) Wiener was one of the youngest passengers on the ship, St. Louis, on its famous Atlantic crossing of 1939.   Eva’s parents, seeking escape from Nazi persecution in Germany, obtained passage to Cuba but were denied entry.  Eva and her parents were fortunate to be admitted to England, where they survived the war.  This headline-making trip was the subject o...

Amy is a heart-centered creative, a leader, a business owner, a culture changer, and an idea generator. Together with her best friend of 16+ years, she co-founded Rowan Tree, a coworking and cogrowth community space for women, open to ALL. Here she has created an environment that is warm, inspiring, and inclusive. She leads with empathy, love, and grace and she harnesses the power of wom...

Hailed for the natural ease of his conducting and the compelling insight of his musicianship, James Gaffigan continues to attract international attention and is one of the most outstanding American conductors working today. James Gaffigan is currently the Chief Conductor of the  Luzerner Sinfonieorchester  and Principal Guest Conductor of the  Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestr...

Charlie Wachtel is a Producer and Writer who earned the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for BLACKkKLANSMAN (2018). He is also the recipient of the BAFTA , the British version of the Academy Awards. Charlie is currently working on several writing projects with co-writer David Rabinowitz.

Juliette Tolode is an Assistant Nurse Manager at Calvary Hospital/The Dawn Greene Hospice. She has achieved the "American Dream" journeying alone from Benin, Africa to establish a full life with friends and family as an American Citizen.

Michele Schwartz is a 38 year old elementary school teacher, mother of two boys, ages 5 and 2 years old, and is married to her husband of 10 years. In December of 2018, Michele was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. While going through aggressive treatments, she was determined to be involved in her children’s lives. Michele is currently out of active treatment but is looking for ways...

Santi Buscemi is the son of Italian immigrants from Sicily. Former chairperson of the English Department at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey where he still teaches, Santi has authored several college textbooks and translated the literary novels by Luigi Capuana.