Leadership

LeadershipGreg Panos2022-01-12T14:48:24-05:00

Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees

Brian Groetsch

President

Wendy Collins

1st Vice President

Mary McKenney

2nd Vice President

Norris Clark

3rd Vice President

Janet Coupland

Secretary

Lee Bellarmino

Treasurer

Trustees

Robert Gorgone

Trustee
Jacob Pashelinksy

Trustee
Steve Steger

Trustee
Ioanna Iliopulos

Trustee
Barbara Dreyfus

Trustee
Wanda Evelyn

Trustee
Bernie Haas

Trustee
Chris Clemans

Trustee
Jake Cuomo

Trustee

Staff Leadership

Jody Alessandrine

Director & CEO

Melissa Payne

Chief Operating Officer

Charles Kealy

Chief Financial Officer

Eliza Lotozo

Chief Outreach Officer

Mary Stewart

Chief Outreach Strategist

Robert Gorgone

Trustee

A longtime homeowner and resident of Cape May, Bob is a state-certified member of the Cape May Planning Board and past member of the Cinnaminson, NJ Planning Board. Before his retirement, Bob was the Director of Business Operations/CFO of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, responsible for $3.5 billion in federal funds. He also served as the Director of Energy and Sustainability for the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation at The Navy Yard, running a private utility, including steam, water, storm water, sewer and electrical utilities as well as infrastructure. Bob also has extensive experience in strategic planning, economic development, and workforce development and training. In addition to municipal planning boards, Bob has over 30 years-experience in serving on various other boards, including nine years on the Haddonfield, NJ Board of Education. His degree is in engineering.

Jacob Pashelinksy

Trustee

Jake Pashelinsky is a Managing Director in JPMorgan’s Global Energy & Environmental Derivatives Trading group, starting at the firm in New York after graduating from Stanford in 2008. He developed his appreciation for Victorian architecture as a draftsman in high school for his father who has spent half a century working as an architect on historic homes in San Francisco. Jake and his family are grateful for the opportunity to continue this passion locally, recently becoming caretakers for several historic homes in Cape May including the J. Stratton Ware House. On the non- profit side. Jake and his wife are active sponsors of educational development in rural Rwanda through the Children in the Wilderness program which focuses on inspiring the next generation of decision makers to build communities around environmental stewardship. They look forward very much to deepening their ties to the community through the extraordinary spirit of Cape May MAC, without which Cape May would be unrecognizable for so many who are fortunate to experience the island today.

Steve Steger

Trustee

A 4th-generation leader of Steger Beach Services and business manager of Cape May Contractors, Steve Steger joined the Board in 2017. He currently serves on the Marketing Strategies Team.

Ioanna Iliopulos

Trustee

Joining the Board in January 2017, Ioanna Iliopulos is a consultant to the Nuclear Threat Initiative in Washington, DC. She and husband Tom built and offered MAC the 2013 Designer Show House (on Washington Street across from the Physick Estate). She is an active member of the Succession Planning and Volunteer Teams.

Barbara Dreyfus

Trustee

Barbara Dreyfuss was a founding trustee of the Harriet Tubman Museum, researching and writing much of its content. She developed Cape May MAC’s Underground Railroad trolley tour and worked to get both it and the Stephen Smith House accepted into the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom. Barbara is a member of the Center for Community Arts (CCA) and contributed to many of its annual Carroll Gallery exhibits. She has written extensively for Cape May Magazine and is co-editor of the Cape May Sentinel online newsmagazine. Her corporate experience includes 20 years in the Washington, D.C. area as a Sr. VP of Prudential Securities. After time working on Wall St., Barbara authored Hedge Hogs (Random House, 2013), an investigation into the largest hedge fund collapse. Her writing has appeared in The American Prospect, The Nation, The Washington Monthly, The Veteran and CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Wanda Evelyn

Trustee

Wanda is a retired Instructor for Recruits at the USCG Training Center here in Cape May. Wanda’s ties to the Cape May Community are deep. Traced through Ancestry.com, Wanda’s maternal 5th great-grand father was Edward Turner 1761-1836 who lived in Cape May county. Wanda sold the first Beach Tag in Cape May in 1977 to then Mayor Mickey Blomkvest. She currently serves on the History Committee for the Center for Community Arts (CCA) which proudly displays an exhibit in the Carroll Gallery every year from January through March. She previously served on the Board of Directors for CCA from 2008-2010. Since its inception, she has been an Administrator for the Facebook page Cool Cape May which now boasts over 46,600 members.

Bernie Haas

Trustee

Bernie Haas is the proprietor of Cape Publishing (Cape May Magazine, capemay.com) who served on the Board from 2008 – 2016 (including a 3-year stint as 3rd Vice President). He has served on the Membership Committee and the Marketing StrategiesTeam.

Chris Clemans

Trustee

Chris Clemans is the Broker Owner of Chris Clemans Sotheby’s International Realty and past State President of the New Jersey Realtors. Chris has served on the Board most years since 1995 and she and her husband, Dave, were recipients of the 2013 MAC Honor Award. Chris also serves as a Trustee for Atlantic Cape Community College.

Jake Cuomo

Trustee

Jake Cuomo is the Vice President of Human Resources for Cape Resorts Group. He retired from the Coast Guard in 2020 and his last assignment was as the Personnel & Administrative officer for the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May. Jake also serves on the Cape May County Coast Guard Community Foundation board of directors. He currently serves on the Cape May MAC Membership Committee, as well as the Development, Training and Volunteer teams.

Brian Groetsch

President

Brian Groetsch is Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Surfside in Cape May. He is Past President of the Cape May County Association of REALTORS, was recognized in 2012 as REALTOR of the Year and also currently serves on the Borough of West Cape May Elementary School’s Board of Education. Brian has served on the Cape May MAC Board of Trustees since 2015, with various roles on the Executive Committee since 2017. He has also been active on Nominating Committee along with the Marketing Strategies and Strategic Planning teams.

Wendy Collins

1st Vice President

Wendy is co-owner of the Mission Inn since 2016. She has opened her inn for Taste Your Way Inn and Christmas Candlelight House tours. Wendy has served as a Cape May MAC Trustee since 2020. She is an active member of the Info Technology, Marketing Strategies, Museum Education, Video and Website teams.

Mary McKenney

2nd Vice President

Mary is a retired corporate banking and technology executive who now owns and operates vacation rental houses in the Florida Keys, Dubai, Dominican Republic and Mexico. She currently chairs the Audit Committee and the Strategic Planning Team and serves on the Development, Festival, Lessons of History and Investment teams and the 2022 Nominating Committee. Since joining the Board in 2010, she has served as Treasurer in 2011-13 and as President January 2014-16, 1st Vice President in 2021 and 2nd Vice President in 2020. She donated her property at 25 Ocean Street as the 2014-15 Designer Show House.

Norris Clark

3rd Vice President

Norris was nominated to return to the Cape May MAC Board, on which he previously sat from 1989 to 1995, 2001 to 2005. Norris is the Managing Partner of Princeton Strategic Communications (PSC), part of the Princeton Public Affairs Group, a leading strategic communications and public affairs firm in New Jersey. Prior to PSC, Norris directed the state Board of Education’s Family and Community Relations Office. As the owner of Bayshore Communications, he directed marketing for Cape Resorts and the Morey Organization winning the Governors Tourism Award, the Brass Ring Award from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, as well as the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International Award. Norris was elected to, and served, a four-year term as Deputy Mayor of Lower Township, Cape May County, and led in the restoration of the historic Fishing Creek School. Since 2013, he has organized the annual TEDxCapeMay, which has attracted over 1800 attendees for presentations that have been viewed online by over three million people worldwide. Norris earned his master’s degree in religion and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and organized the Cape May Institute for Continuing Education. He first came to Cape May in 1963 as part of a volunteer cleanup of the Christian Admiral led by his maternal grandfather, Rev. Dr. Carl McIntire.

Janet Coupland

Secretary

Janet joined the Board in 2021 and serves as Board Secretary.

Janet has been an active volunteer and member of Cape May MAC since 2006. She has written and conducted tours and was the Curator of the MAC 50th Anniversary Exhibit. She is the Project Manager for MAC’s Historic Archive Initiative, the Chair of the Membership Committee, a member of MAC’s DEAI and Restoration and Collections Teams, and involved in new hire training in the Tour Department.

Janet won the MAC Honor Award in 2020, and the New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson Award for Volunteer Leadership in 2021. Her home has been featured in a number of MAC historic Homes and Candlelight Tours. She is also actively involved in historic preservation activities in Cape May.

Janet retired after 30 years in the Insurance industry, most recently as Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Office with responsibilities for technology, marketing communications, human resources and training.

Lee Bellarmino

Treasurer

Recently retired as President & CEO of NJM Bank in Central Jersey and Senior Vice President of NJM Insurance Group, Lee Bellarmino has served on the Board since 2016 (serving as Treasurer in 2017). He currently chairs the Succession Planning Team and serves on the Audit Committee and the Development, Lessons of History and Strategic Planning Teams.

Jody Alessandrine

Director & CEO

Joseph J. Alessandrine, Jr., MPA (“Jody”) became Cape May MAC’s Director & CEO in February 2020, succeeding Dr. B. Michael Zuckerman, who had held the post for 37 years. Jody previously held Executive Director positions for two Special Improvement Districts (State College, PA and Toms River, NJ) and was the inaugural Director of the former Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Center Foundation.

He is also a former municipal administrator and served as a thrice-elected city councilman in Ocean City, New Jersey (1998-2008). Jody also has experience in public education, as well as tourism and casino marketing.

Jody was appointed by two governors to serve on the Board of Trustees on the New Jersey Historic Trust and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Values Into Action New Jersey.

Jody earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with a certificate in Public Finance from The Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania. He was also the recipient of the Dr. Stephen B. Sweeney Fellowship at Penn. His Bachelor’s Degree is in Communications from Villanova University. Ironically, Jody and Cape May MAC’s CFO Charles Kealy are both graduates of Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, PA.

Jody and his wife Cheryl were married in Cape May and had been Cape May MAC members for the better part of 25 years before he assumed the role of its CEO. They are residents of the Town Bank section of Lower Township. Jody calls serving as Cape May MAC’s CEO a highlight of his extensive professional career.

Melissa Payne

Chief Operating Officer

Melissa Payne joined Cape May MAC in August of 2011 after retiring from Macy’s Inc. She held several senior executive positions from 1987 through May of 2011, and of her twenty-four years with Macy’s, seventeen were as a Vice President Store Manager. During her career with Macy’s, she managed the district volunteer and grant programs for the My Macy’s and Partners in Time programs.

She served on the Board of Directors for the Salvation Army and worked closely with Habitat for Humanity in the greater Charleston area building homes with her volunteer teams. Through the Macy’s District Grant program, Melissa was able to funnel much needed funds into the community totally $15,000 annually. She championed a Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program in partnership with the Salvation Army, providing books to children and families in need, and worked closely with local school districts to provide prom attire for underprivileged teens.

Melissa earned her Associates Degree in Business Management from Longwood University, and her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Grand Canyon University. She is currently working on a Master’s Degree in Environmental Psychology.

Melissa grew up in the Northern Virginia area and throughout her career with Macy’s lived and worked in seven different states. She currently resides in the Ocean City, N.J area and is an active member with the Association for Applied Sport Psychology and the American Psychological Association.

Charles Kealy

Chief Financial Officer

Charles Kealy is a product of the Philadelphia Parochial School system. St. Louis Elementary, Monsignor Bonner High School and, for good measure, a BS from Saint Joseph’s College in Accounting. Now, Charles is a Certified Public Accountant and the Chief Financial Officer at Cape May MAC.

Charles’ family started coming in the late fifties as summer visitors and bought a house on Hughes St. in the early Sixties. Charles spent every summer until the eighties then and settled in West Cape May after getting married in 1985. His wife, Margaret Oleksiak, was also a summer visitor whose family bought a second home in Cape May. Charles has a son Charlie, who lives in New York City working as a data analyst and about to get his MBA from Pace University in July, 2020.

Charles is a member and Treasurer for the Cape May Kiwanis. What he enjoys most about working for Cape May MAC is feeling like he is doing something to maintain the character of Victorian Cape May.

Eliza Lotozo

Chief Outreach Officer

Eliza Lotozo was born and raised in West Cape May, NJ and attended Lower Cape May Regional High School. After earning a B.S.B.A in Accounting from the University of South Carolina in 2012, she returned to Cape May, NJ to live and work in the community that she loves.

Eliza became acquainted with Cape May MAC leadership while working as an Associate Producer with the newly formed Exit Zero Jazz Festival in 2014. In the fall of 2014, she joined Cape May MAC staff as a part-time Marketing Coordinator. By 2016, Eliza had moved into a full-time position with Cape May MAC and now holds the position of Chief Outreach Officer.

Starting in 2018 Eliza, working with other staff & Board leadership, embarked on a re-branding initiative for Cape May MAC (then The Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities). The initiative culminated in the spring of 2020 with the launch of a new name, new website, and new brand.

In the fall of 2019, Eliza began the MBA program at Stockton University in Galloway, NJ, where she is currently enrolled.

Eliza serves on the Boards of both the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May. She was a member of the first graduating class of the Cape May County Leadership program.

Mary Stewart

Chief Outreach Strategist

Mary Stewart began volunteering for Cape May MAC when she moved to Cape May in 1986 and joined the staff in 1987 as an assistant in the Communications Division. She had an undergraduate degree in art and a career in graphic arts which she put to work designing Cape May MAC’s publications (including their “This Week in Cape May” publication). From there, she moved to Special Events and eventually into grant-writing, marketing, Membership and development. She was a part of the team that launched the Music Festival in 1990 and arranged to bring visiting musicians into schools, which was the origin of Cape May MAC’s educational outreach program. In 2003, she earned a Master of Administrative Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Now that she semi-retired, she serves as the Chief Outreach Strategist and assists with outreach to a variety of audiences including Members, volunteers, the educational community and the business community. She’s served on the boards of the City and County Chambers of Commerce.