MCWRET Board of Trustees

Sathya is from Princeton, NJ and has lived in Monmouth County since 2018. She was born and raised in an interfaith community, Sarva Dharma Service Center, which focuses on service to humanity and religious pluralism. She grew up by the mantra, “Love All Serve All.”
Sathya received her BA in Religious Studies and Philosophy and went on to get her MS in Bioethics, all while working within the medical field. After living in Upstate NY, Boston, and NYC, she now works as a Clinical Trial Manager in Monmouth County and participates in LBGTQ+ activism within her organization. She likes to cook and sing and loves the sun and warm weather.

2021

Kristine Larson Binaco has been interested in religion and anthropology since her teen years, and is captivated by questions about how our human diversity interplays with our super-conscious unity. Kristine enjoys learning about cultural differences and the human diaspora, and how we each interpret what is sacred. She worked in auto dealerships and in various capacities within the local banking industry; she’s currently a homemaker, wife, mom to grown sons, part-time caregiver to relatives in need, amateur poet, and ‘mature’ college student. Kristine is an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Meetinghouse, and has served as Secretary for the Monmouth Center for many years, in addition to two other positions there.

John Calvin Chatlos is a child and adolescent and addiction psychiatrist by profession and a Humanist by choice as a member of Ethical Culture and Unitarian Universalism. He is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Rutgers University where he is director of an outpatient addiction and mental health treatment program. His father was a Protestant minister and he grew up near Gettysburg in a small town where Catholic Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton based her religious order. He has developed the “Human Faith Project” designed to empower the worth and dignity (wisdom/compassion/courage) of all religious / spiritual and ethical traditions to work toward Unity of purpose in expressing our spiritual core as part of Gaia awareness.

Lynn Dash has been a Unitarian Universalist for over 30 years. A past congregational President, she continues to volunteer in the congregation, focusing on Climate Justice and its intersection with all human needs and most vulnerable communities. She is a founding member of the Monmouth Community Climate Coalition, a climate “champion” on the MCWRET Board, and a volunteer group co-leader for Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL). She is a founding member of the Core of Fire Interfaith Dance Ministry, sings in the UUCMC choir, and enjoys growing vegetables in her organic garden.

Mary Carol Day

Mary Carol Day has had a life-long interest in human development and in how people understand each other and the world. She grew up as a Southern Baptist, but is now an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, where she has served on the Board of Governance and has led several congregational committees. She values learning from the world’s various religious traditions and exploring the ways in which mystics of different religions convey the wisdom of the perennial philosophy.

Mary Carol earned an Ed.D. in Human Development from Harvard University, specializing in cognitive development, and is a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. As an Assistant Professor at the University of Houston, she conducted research on developmental changes in attention and reasoning. At AT&T Bell Labs as a Technical Manger in Human Factors and User Interface Design, she applied her knowledge of human capabilities and limitations to the design and evaluation of products and services to ensure they met users’ needs. At AT&T Corporate Headquarters, she created and managed an AT&T-wide employee opinion survey to assess employee opinions of their work context. After leading a consulting company for several years, Mary Carol served as Director of User Interface Systems at a medical device company that developed an implantable cardiac monitor for detecting and alerting patients to heart attacks.

Now retired, Mary Carol’s interests lie primarily in the intersections between science and spirituality and in the evolution and development of consciousness. Both are especially exciting areas of exploration at this point in time!

Joe Donahue was born in Queens, NY and attended St. John’s Prep in Brooklyn and St. John’s University in Jamaica, Queens. In 1971, he married his wife, Allison, and moved to Brick, NJ, where he currently resides. He has two sons, Ian and Matthew , who live in Howell and Toms River with their wives, Flora and Kathleen.

Joe commenced his career in education at St. Peter’s School in Pt. Pleasant where he taught social studies and reading and was the boy’s basketball coach. In 1976, he became a special education resource room teacher in Barnegat Township. He continued his career in Barnegat at the Lillian M. Dunfee School serving in the following capacities: special education classroom teacher, Supervisor of Instruction, Supervisor of the Child Study Team and Special Education and Principal. He concluded his career in Barnegat by serving as the Assistant Superintendent of Schools. During that time period, he earned an M.S. in Reading, a reading specialist certification, and an Ed.D. in Early and Middle Childhood.

Drawn to the importance of people of various beliefs coming together to change the world and foster the common good, Joe, at the age of 65, embraced the Unitarian Universalist faith. He is an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County serving on the Worship and Social Action Committees and deeply appreciates the fact that congregants’ particular way of understanding truth and meaning is appreciated and accepted by all. He is been a MCWRET Board member for the last 5 years advocating for gun control and immigrant rights legislation.

Balvinder is a Punjabi Sikh American, raised and schooled in England, who moved to the USA in 1984 to work at AT&T Bell Laboratories where she held various technical and commercial management positions involving international contract negotiations. While at AT&T she switched careers and is now a practicing Attorney and Mediator in NJ. Balvinder volunteers at her local Gurdhwara (Sikh place of worship) and loves gardening. Balvinder has recently joined MCWRET and is looking forward to being an active participant in furthering the organization’s goals.

Aridaman (Ari) Jain is a Statistician, Jain by birth, and born in India. He came to the US in 1963 and completed Ph.D. in Statistics and Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. He had a long career at Bell Labs, Bell Communications Research, Lucent Technologies, and New Jersey Institute of Technology. He has taught statistics courses at Monmouth University, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Motorola University. He is a Past President of the NJ Chapter of the Association of Indians in America and the NJ Chapter of the American Statistical Association. He is a Past Vice President of the Monmouth Center for Vocational Rehabilitation. Currently, he is a contributing faculty member at Walden University. He is on the board and Treasurer of the Monmouth Center for World Religions and Ethical Thought and Vice President of the Educare Foundation. He volunteers for teaching adult literacy and coaching clients at Lunch Break.

Sarbmeet Kanwal can best be characterized by two consuming but inter-related passions that make up the core of his life – an intense curiosity about how our physical world works and how it came to be; and a fervent desire to understand the essence of life and how it ought to be lived. The first led him to travel from India, his birth country, to USA to study with the best physicists at California Institute of Technology, from where he earned a PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics. His second passion drove him to study the fundamentals of the many different religions practiced on Earth and to understand the deeper and more spiritual aspects of their philosophies including Sikhism, the religion that he was born into and still practices.

After retiring from a long and rewarding career, doing research and engineering at Bell Labs, Sarbmeet now teaches Astronomy and Quantum Physics at Brookdale Community College. He actively promotes STEM education by mentoring students on their science projects, volunteering at science fairs and helping with after-school science programs. Sarbmeet regularly speaks to adult groups interested in learning about the latest developments in cosmology and quantum physics. His board membership at the Monmouth Center has allowed him to express his community activism through helping found MOSAIC, a very successful and award-winning program that helps build bridges between various faiths through mutual education and cooperative charity work. His latest interest is in starting a civil discourse project to heal the growing ideological divide in our country, for which he helped obtain a $6000 grant from a charitable institution called Islamic Relief USA.

Jennifer Lieberman, is a board member with the Monmouth Center, representing the Jewish faith. Although she draws comfort, inspiration and meaning from various faiths and religions, she was raised with a fairly strong Jewish upbringing and celebrated her Bat Mitzvah at age 13. Born and raised in Long Branch, New Jersey, she feels blessed to have lived near and attended school with people from diverse backgrounds and was raised to accept and embrace those differences.

One of her most treasured accomplishments was earning her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Rutgers University in 2015, becoming a Licensed Social Worker (LSW) the same year, and will soon be a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). Her strong belief in spirituality, as well as the belief that everyone deserves an equal chance at living life to their highest potential, is the foundation of both her career in the mental health field, and her personal vision for the world. Being part of the Monmouth Center is a perfect way to work towards that vision.

Esmat Mahmoud born and raised in Cairo Egypt where she did her undergraduate aeronautical engineering degree at Cairo University. She obtained her Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from Catholic University Of America, Washington DC.  Has had a long career in NJ starting with the computer company Electronic Associates (EAI), Bell Communication Research (Bellcore) and ATT. Currently works as Technical Project Manager with ATT in Middletown NJ.

Esmat taught Arabic and Islamic Studies for 15 years at the Saturday and Sunday Schools, Islamic Center of Central NJ (ISCJ),
Member of the Board of the Monmouth Center for World Religions and Ethical Thought (MCWRET).

She has one daughter Sally and one Granddaughter Sophia Samara.  Loves Gardening, Reading, Hiking, walking, the beach and playing with her grand daughter.  Lives in Lincroft NJ

I am a lifetime member of St. George Greek Orthodox Parish which is of the Orthodox Christian Faith and I live in West Long Branch.

I was born outside of Sparta, Greece, and came to this country in 1971 at eleven years old and lived in Asbury Park. Attended Asbury Park school system not being able to speak English but I was lovingly embraced by the predominantly black student population. For the past 34 years I have been married to Kasandra, whom I met as a high school freshman at the St. George Church Youth Group, and I have three daughters, Victoria, Nicole and Dana. I am a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University with a degree in Economics and Finance, and I also have earned a degree in engineering from Shepperton U. For the past 32 years my wife and I have owned and operated our own small business that specializes in commercial General Construction.

I have been on the St. George Church Parish Board of directors for the past 24 years and have served as President for three years and Building Chairman for the construction of our Ocean Twp. Church Complex. I am currently the Festival Chairman and for the past fifteen years I have also served as our Church Youth Director. All my service to our St. George Church is volunteer work. I am a lifetime soccer player and at one point ventured back to my homeland, Greece, to play professionally, but decided to come back and get married. I still love the game; I am still playing and have been the Head Coach of the Shore Regional Girls soccer team for the past ten years and also serve as Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) director at Shore Regional HS.

My life goal is to continually see our community grow in service to others and spreading the Good News of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Dr. Madhav Phadke is an internationally recognized expert in quality and productivity, and a published author of a seminal book on the topic. He has pioneered methods for designing products and processes with high quality at low cost and short time to market; and statistical test optimization. He founded and heads a consulting, training, and software company. He was born and brought up as a Hindu and has been a resident of Monmouth County for forty years. He and his wife have two grown children and four grandchildren. He volunteers for MCWRET and IEEE.

Joe Ritacco was born and bred in Brooklyn where he attended public schools and enjoyed exposure to a diverse religious and ethnic environment. He had a long career at AT&T Bell Labs as a computer scientist where he was active in promoting affirmative action and worked overseas in Iran for two years. Since his retirement he has focused his personal time on interfaith and intercultural dialogue and peace-building. Besides his role as Program Chairperson of the MCWRET, he is Co-Facilitator of the New Jersey Interfaith Coalition (NJIFC), a co-founder of the Garden State MOSAIC interfaith youth group. He was a founding member of the Monmouth (University) Dialogue Group. He is a Christian Presbyterian Elder and a member of the Monmouth Presbytery Mission Working Group. He views his life-long exposure to diversity as a blessing.

Dr. Robert Charles Smith is fascinated by silence. Investigating and practicing silence has been a lifelong quest. The son of a Methodist minister, he discovered Zen Buddhism in high school, studied with a Zen Master in Korea in 1971, and has continued the zazen meditation practice for over 40 years.

After receiving a Ph. D. in the field of human development from the University of Maryland, he was a tenured graduate school full professor and director of a large M. A. degree program in human development. At Kyung Hee University in Seoul, Korea he was a visiting professor and senior consultant in international leadership over many years. He collaborated with his wife, Dr. Stevi Lischin, in creating The Project for Intercultural Development and in conducting original work in intercultural relations with AT&T/Lucent/Bell Labs and other organizations with intercultural/international concerns. His work has included giving lectures on intercultural leadership at Cambridge University, England, as well as publications in the International Encyclopedia of Peace, US-Korea Review, and the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Dr. Smith is a founding Board Member of The Monmouth Center where he studies silence as deep interfaith common ground as well as practicing the process of listening and interfaith dialogue. His investigations can be found in  The Solitude Project on this website with new work to appear soon. Robert and Stevi live in a cliff-side cottage overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and the New York City skyline where he writes and seeks a balanced life of contemplative activism.

Georgette L. Thomas is a life-long resident of Middletown Township, living in the Hillside Park Section. Georgette attended the Middletown School System, graduating in 1977 as part of the 1st graduating class of Middletown H.S. South. Georgette went on to start a 31 year career in banking, first with the now Wells Fargo for 10 years followed by 21 years with UBS PaineWebber. Starting as an Operations File Clerk and ending as a Vice President of Operations, her growth in “Corporate America” was very challenging at times and also very rewarding.

Georgette’s next career choice was one of a great passion, having been a caterer at an early age, trained by her chef Father. Georgette left banking, attending Brookdale Community College to complete an A.A.S. in Culinary and become a chef.

Georgette has been a member of Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church since she was a little girl. She has held many positions including: Steward, Stewardess, Missionary, Youth Director, Christian Education Director, Choir Member, and Culinary Ministry.

Georgette’s faith has been very instrumental in her life’s journey always “Looking to the Hills whence cometh her help” Ps. 121:1

Rev. Dianne Watson-Kendall serves as a Ministerial Associate at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Red Bank. She provides Bible Study at the Jersey Shore Rescue Mission and is advisor and liaison to The Latino Community Church in Asbury Park. She has served as the minister of the Women’s Ministry for 5 1/2 years. Rev. Watson Kendall graduated with honors from New Brunswick Theological Seminary attaining a Master of Divinity Degree in 2006. She has traveled extensively as a witness for our Lord and has been afforded the opportunity to serve God’s people in English and Spanish in Costa Rica, South Africa, and the Holy Land of Israel. In 2015 Min. Dianne received the President’s Volunteer Service Award from President Barack Obama as requested by The New Jersey Orators. Rev. Dianne retired as a registered professional nurse after 35 years in NY and NJ. She is board certified in psychiatry. Her ministerial focus encompasses her scientific and scholarly knowledge while championing social justice issues. She believes that the blending of her identity as a nurse and a minister are consistently reflected in her response to her calling.

A New Jersey native, Patty was born in Orange and lived in East Orange until about the age of 4 when she moved to Middletown. She attended St. James Grammar School and Red Bank Catholic High School.

At the age of 19 she found and embraced the teachings of Baha’u’llah, Founder of the Baha’i Faith, which supports the divine origins of the world’s major religions and the essential oneness of humanity. Always attracted to social justice issues, Patty found a natural home in the Baha’i community. Shortly after joining the Baha’i Faith, Patty spent a year in Guatemala visiting and assisting Baha’i communities around the country and learning Spanish. The Baha’i Faith has no clergy; member serve on elected bodies or on their individual initiative. Patty has served on local Assemblies in Middletown, NJ, Brunswick, Maine and Fort Defiance AZ, where she and her family lived for a year on the Navajo Reservation.

Patty worked for 20 years in NJ, ME and AZ as a registered nurse. After returning to school, she worked another 20 years as a Certified Nurse-Midwife, assisting in the births of over 800 babies. Her nursing and midwifery work has been mostly with low-income and indigent women. Retired since March 2017, Patty serves on a committee with the Central Jersey Family Health Consortium.

She served on the Red Bank Human Relations Advisory Committee for about 8 years. She continues to work towards racial harmony by assisting a monthly program at the Red Bank Library, “Let’s Talk About Race” and the local Red Bank group, “Citizens for a Diverse and Open Society”. As part of her Baha’i service to the community, Patty offers twice monthly spiritual education classes for a small group of children in her neighborhood as well as monthly interfaith devotional gatherings in her home. She also recently helped organize a local event celebrating the historic 200th anniversary of the birth of Baha’u’llah.

She and her husband, Jim, recently celebrated 40 years of marriage. They have 3 children and two grandchildren.

The Rev. Elizabeth B. Congdon (Liz) has been involved in interfaith dialogue internationally as well as locally as a pastor and as Board member and then as Co-coordinator of the Monmouth Center for World Religions and Ethical Thought. She served tirelessly as Co-coordinator for at least 10 years until early 2021.

She helped create MOSAIC (Mobilizing Our Students for Action to build Interfaith Community), an interfaith education, leadership and service project currently working with dozens of youth from multiple faith traditions. www.GardenStateMOSAIC.org.

Liz was part of the first American Baptist Women’s Baptist-Muslim dialogue journey to the Republic of Georgia and was on the team again in 2016. She has also been part of mission teams to the Philippines, Haiti, Rwanda (three times), Egypt (twice), Lebanon, Thailand, Malaysia, as well as the Hopi and Navajo nations in the American Southwest.

Liz retired as the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Trenton, NJ, a diverse inner-city church with people from Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia, Haiti, Jamaica, China, Korea, Malaysia, Burma and Thailand as well as America. Prior to serving in Trenton she served as interim pastor at Hamilton Square Baptist Church and the First Baptist Church of South Plainfield. She served new churches for seventeen years; five of which were as Associate Regional Pastor for New Church Development on the Region Staff of the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey (ABCNJ). In 1998 she graduated from the ABCNJ’s Church Leadership Institute and was licensed as a lay pastor. She was ordained in 2005. She was the Mission and Service Coordinator for the American Baptist Women’s Ministries. Liz is the recipient of the 2003 Barbara North “Love in Action” award from Mobile Meals of Trenton for community service.

Other leadership roles included serving her local church as Trustee, Mission advocate and licensed lay pastor. She served on the ABCNJ Council, as Moderator for the Capital Association, and member of the Board for Riverview Estates, the Baptist Home of South Jersey where she chaired the Personnel Committee. Liz was Vice-President and then President, ABCNJ, 1997-1999.

Liz is a nurse with a diploma from St. Luke’s School of Nursing, NYC, Bachelor of Arts degree from Jersey City University, and Master of Arts degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She retired from public health after 25 years with the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. Prior to that Liz did clinical nursing in hospitals for 17 years. Liz delights in her four daughters, granddaughter and three grandsons.

2021

Past Board Member- Ellen was born in a log cabin on a farm in the Southwestern part of Virginia.  She grew up in Martinsville, VA and graduated from Radford College.  While at Radford, she met her husband, Roshan Chaddha from India.  They have been married for 57 years and after living in New Jersey for over 40 years, are back in Virginia.  Ellen grew up in a Southern Baptist Church, but after marriage, evolved into a Unitarian Universalist.

She has been an elementary school teacher, a hospital social worker, and secretary of the Unitarian Universalist church in Lincroft.  But her most satisfying work was being the mother of her two adopted children.  She has also enjoyed her absorption into Roshan’s family and the Indian community.

Dr. Roshan L. Chaddha grew up in a Hindu family in India. His life journey has been that of “crossing bridges” On Being Human. Through international travels and a quarter century of interfaith dialog, his life has been touched by many. He is a founding member of the Monmouth Center and its second coordinator. Currently, he facilitates a Science and Faiths Forum in Virginia.

Roshan thinks that only by reaching out to the ‘other’ can one truly practice the “Golden Rule” and live compassionately at all times. Life of wonder, awe and service unfolds only through such a practice. He is a past President and a life member of the UU Congregation of Monmouth County. Currently he is a member of the UU congregation of Sterling VA. He is a humanist in his orientation.

Since he has been in America, he helped revitalize the International Student Club at Virginia Tech. He was founding member and second President of the Association of (Asian) Indians in America with the primary goal of encouraging new immigrants to honor their heritage and participate fully in all walks of American life. The Association facilitated settlement of over 1000 Ugandan refugees in America during his presidency. He participated in the civil rights movement and women’s rights movement. He is a past co-chair of a Diversity and Inclusion Resource Group in the Virginia retirement community where he lives.

He was educated in India, England, and the United States in Mathematics and Statistics. After receiving his Ph. D. in statistics from Virginia Tech he began his professional life as a college professor and then joined the research staff of Bell Laboratories. His research included Demand Analysis, Affirmative Action Planning, and Quality and Reliability by design. He was the Founding Chair of the AAAS Communications Society‘s Quality Management Committee. He retired from Bell after 30 years of service as Executive Director of Quality and Reliability. He also taught the first batch of MBA students at the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmadabad).

Roshan’s early upbringing taught him that life is “one”; that selfless action is a noble goal; and that there are many paths to the same truth. Roshan is empiricist by nature and is interested in impact of science and religion on ethics.

Interfaith Arts Curator

Isabelle McFarland deeply understood the unique role of the arts in increasing interfaith/intercultural understanding. She was Curator of the Monmouth Center’s permanent exhibit of sacred art.

Isabelle conceived the ambitious Golden Rule Project. She convinced the religious schools of local Baha’i, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim and Unitarian Universalist faiths to participate in a common art project that conveyed how they expressed the “Golden Rule”. At the resulting exhibition people were awed by the power of seeing the Golden Rule in every religious tradition.

Isabelle often asked other Board Trustees “what inspires you”, and she would follow up by asking about our projects. She was a Master Gardener who followed diverse culinary pursuits. Born in Jersey City, NJ in 1932, Isabelle worked as a telephone operator and as a model before becoming a homemaker.

Tireless Advocate for Racial Justice

Milton Holmes was an energetic lifelong warrior for racial equality. He was one of the famed Tuskegee Airman during WW II and was later awarded the Medal of Honor and authored a book about this experience. He marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and brought to the Monmouth Center his lifetime of experience in the Civil Rights Movement. He worked to implement real change through his work as a Director of CORE and EEOC programs. He was designated by the courts to counsel many individuals of domestic violence.

Milton pastored at several African Methodist Episcopal churches. He developed a relationship between his congregation at Allen Chapel in Asbury Park, NJ and the Monmouth Center which continues today. This relationship is especially visible through the sharing of Allen Chapel’s music and dance ministry at the Monmouth Center’s annual United We Sing Programs. We remember Milton’s passionate and soaring sermons in the pulpit.

Professor of Religion and Social Activist

Tonie was a founding member of the Monmouth Center. She brought to the Monmouth Center a lifetime of direct experience in furthering social justice issues. Her work reflected a profound depth in ethics and her Roman Catholic tradition.
Tonie demonstrated the need for continuous work on the ground to help build a just society in the US and Haiti. Tonie was deeply committed to social justice in Haiti where she inaugurated a microcredit loan program, supported a health clinic, and developed programs in reforestation and education. She was an election observer in Nicaragua and was active in annual protests at the military School of the Americas.

Tonie peacefully vigiled for ten years at Fort Earle Naval Weapons station until the nuclear weapons were finally removed. She was active in abolishing the death penalty in NJ which was accomplished in 2017.

As a professor, Tonie shared her deep understanding of the Theology of Peace with her students and often took them to prisons and protests. She developed a program for the religious education of special needs children and published a book about her work.

Concurrent with her spirited activism, Tonie was also the mother of 9 children, 26 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. As her casket was carried out at the conclusion of her funeral, there was spontaneous applause and a standing ovation in honor of her lifetime of good works.

Teacher of the Torah

Milton Ziment was a much loved and dedicated Hebrew School Teacher who taught the Torah to Bar and Bat Mitzvah students at Temple Beth Miriam in Elberon, NJ for 41 years. His favorite teaching was the Yiddish Commandment, “Zi a Mensche.” (be a person). He inspired generations of students to be “full and decent human beings”.

Milton enriched the Monmouth Center with his deep grounding in the Torah as well as his good natured optimism and his insights from a long life committed to others. He was actively engaged in Monmouth Center activities until well into his 90s. In our dialogues, he could be counted on to provide meaningful wisdom and quotes from the scriptures.

Having grown up during the Depression, Milton had many first hand observations to share. During WW II, he was boarding a navy ship heading to invade Japan when the Emperor Hirohito surrendered. We all laughed when Milton joked that the Emperor, perhaps, surrendered because he heard that Milton was on his way.

Milton was married to Clara Gee Stamity Ziment and they both became Trustees of the Monmouth Center. Together they shared their lifelong practices in social justice, the arts and the experience in living the tradition of Judaism. He was a warm and welcoming person who was at peace with himself.