Board of Trustees

Tom Beaty

President

Tom is a local surfer and fisherman from Holgate, with a BS in Computer Science from Rutgers University. Tom is the Owner/Operator of the Wooden Jetty Surf Shop in Beach Haven. "I joined ALO in the late eighties, when as a lifeguard in Holgate, I saw syringes and other types of medical waste washing up on the beach. Initially, I was just a member. Then I started selling retail in the office store for ALO, and doing table sales at local events. I've been doing the format and layout of the ALO Newsletter since 1995, and I also help around the office doing the occasional computer related task." Tom recently assisted with the conversion of the Barnegat Bay Watch monitoring data into the EPA's STORET program on the Internet, and is now the current President of ALO.

Kellie Karolkiewicz

Vice President

Kellie graduated from Stockton State College with a BA in Business. She is currently a specialty sales representative with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceutical and also serves on their Sales Advisory Committee. Kellie grew up in the Brant Beach section of Long Beach Island, enjoying the beach and local waters all year long. Her love of the island and concern for the environment has prompted her to join ALO and dedicate her spare time and energy to a great organization.

Kelly Quinlan

Treasurer

Kelly has worked in the environmental, health and safety department of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development for 4 years. There she is an environmental engineer supporting research labs and writing environmental risk assessments for pharmaceutical applications. Her favorite part of her job is planning the annual Earth Day Awareness Fair for employees. She works on achieving J&J’s Healthy Planet 2010 Goals and maintaining the Environmental Management System.

Kelly graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Cook College, Rutgers University in 2006 and will complete a Master’s degree there also in environmental science this coming May, with a focus in pollution prevention and public health. Kelly’s thesis compares acute to chronic ecotoxicity ratios of J&J PRD’s pharmaceuticals. Before transferring to Rutgers her junior year, she studied to be a teacher and played soccer and basketball at Mary Washington College (now University of Mary Washington) in Fredericksburg, VA.

Kelly enjoys exercising, hunting for shells and seaglass, and planning her next vacation to a beach. Her latest challenge has been to learning to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Although she lives and works in central NJ during the week, LBI is her weekend home and where her heart is. Kelly is inspired to share her love of the ocean with others as well as how we can conserve and protect our shore so that we can continue to enjoy it for generations to come.

Genevieve "Gene" DiModica

Secretary

After earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Carnegie Mellon University, Gene moved to New York and worked in various aspects of quality assurance in the garment industry.  She first learned to love the Ocean and its creatures as a kid spending summers on the Connecticut beaches of Long Island Sound.  She always wished to live in "a house by the sea" but rarely got back to the shore until she bought her weekend home on LBI in 1989.  Once the Atlantic Ocean became her back yard, she developed an interest in birding.  In 2004 she made Beach Haven her home and started a new career as a Sales Associate at Stevens Real Estate in Brant Beach.  In order to share the LBI experience, Gene has launched a web site, www.BeachHavenCenter.com as a neighborhood networking site for the people who live (at least part of the year) or work on Long Beach Island.

Elizabeth Burke

Executive Director

Elizabeth Burke has been a member and volunteer at Alliance for a Living Ocean since she first heard of it two years ago. With the current President, Tom Beaty, she has helped save ALO from dissolving. She has helped revive the Board of Trustees active community involvement and she now is the Executive Director.

Upon graduating from Guilford College in North Carolina, she acted as Grants Administrator at the Hudson River Foundation in New York, NY and worked closely with many grass roots environmental organizations as well as the Natural Resource Defense Council.

With a strong background in business and marketing, she is an expert in the field of contemporary art. As the founder and owner Clementine Galley, NYC (est. 1996), she is one of Chelsea’s “pioneer” dealers. For 12 years, the gallery exhibited emerging and established artists. Through her gallery she launched and established over 20 artists careers both nationally and internationally. She has curated and produced well over 100 exhibitions.

She is on the graduate faculty at The School of Visual Arts, NYC. She lectures regularly at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the NYU Arts Administration graduate program, the New School University, Parsons School of Art graduate program and Hunter College’s MFA program. She also co-produced “ArtRock” on The Plaza at Rockefeller Center – an exhibition showcasing contemporary art to over 50,000 viewers per day.

Having grown up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina Elizabeth has a deep appreciation barrier

island living and is proud to call Long Beach Island ‘home’.

She is delighted to bring her professional experience and strength to the Alliance for a Living Ocean.

Larrell Brown

Lived on LBI since 1978, as a summer resident prior to that, her family had owned a house on LBI since 1952. Currently resides with her husband, Chris, in the Peahala Park section of Long Beach Island. Earned BA in Business from Temple. She has worked for the State of New Jersey Casino Control Commission for 17 years, and currently holds the position of Senior Accountant in the Financial Division. She also owns a small business "Seabreeze Crafts" on LBI. She holds a valid NJ Real Estate License and Alternate Route Teaching Certificate. Larrell served as ALO Treasurer in 1991, as ALO Secretary from 1993 thru 1999, as ALO Vice President 1999-2001, and as ALO President 2001 - 2004. She is a volunteer with Monmouth County Check Out Hunger Campaign and Board Member of Beach Wheels Inc. In addition to being a volunteer with the St. Francis Sunday School Program, she is the Chairperson of the Environmental Ministry at St. Francis. She is planning to live at the shore all of her life and is committed to keeping our New Jersey beaches and waters clean and safe for our generation and the ones to follow.

Lori Castle

Lori was first introduced to LBI in when her grandparents purchased a home in Barnegat in 1976.  Her sister-in-laws’ parents own a home in The Dunes section of Beach Haven, and thus, she is lucky enough to enjoy both the mainland and island experience of the area. She graduated with a degree in communications from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ and has spent her career as a writer, editor and publisher. Her uncle, newly retired, worked for the USFWS for 30 years and helped teach her to appreciate the delicate balance of nature, particularly that of the wildlife sanctuaries on and near LBI.

Mary Ensminger

My family has owned our house on LBI since 1982 and my husband and I moved here full time in June 2004, after he retired from teaching.  I then retired in April 2007, having worked for 30 years for AT&T and almost 10 years with NeuStar.  We have been members of ALO for many years and now that I have been "unemployed" for about 1 and 1/2 years, I would like to help with a meaningful activity.  While I worked for AT&T, I participated in our recycling effort.  It was a fairly new process in those years ( beginning in the mid-eighties), and my committee, REACT: (Recycling Education And ), worked very hard to "train" our employees about the environmental concerns associated with recycling, reducing and reusing paper, cardboard and other types of office waste.  I authored a newsletter that was published monthly that included tips about how to begin a recycling program at home, the results of our efforts at the office (reduced waste and associated lowered costs with our waste management company), the use of canvas bags for shopping, taking cardboard to local recycling centers, environmentally safe cleaning products and methods, etc.  It was a great success and our committee won an award from AT&T for our efforts.  I also helped my father in his chairmanship of the Citizens Council for a Clean Potomac and served as the secretary for a time.  This was (and, I believe, continues to be) a group dedicated to cleaning up the Potomac River and the CCCP was supported by the Council of Governments in the Washington, DC area, that included people from Washington, Maryland and Virginia.  My dad was a pioneer in this field and the results achieved by this Council have been remarkable.  Areas of pollution in the Potomac, as well as its tributaries, have been cleaned up and have stayed that way for years

Michael P. Gross

Mr. Gross is licensed in New Jersey as a Registered Municipal Accountant, Certified Public Accountant, Public School Accountant, and holds BS from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Mr. Gross is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Gross has 24 years of New Jersey Public School auditing experience as well as Municipal auditing, Non-Profit auditing and Tax Return Preparation experience. Mr. Gross lived, as a child growing up, in Beach Haven from 1964 to1967 when his family and he moved to Ship Bottom where he presently resides. Mr. Gross was a graduate of the Long Beach Island School District in 1974, Southern Regional High School in 1980, and as stated in the first paragraph a graduate of Richard Stockton State College in 1984. Mr. Gross is self employed and the principal in his own accounting practice of Gross & Company LLC. As part of his auditing work Mr. Gross has interacted with various local and state officials in regards to budgeting and financial aspects for governmental entities.

Jay Mann

Jay completed high school and attended Mauna Olu College in Maui, HI. He holds degrees in both English and Science, and attended graduate school in California and Mexico. He is now the managing editor for The SandPaper, The Beachcomber, The Tuckerton/Little Egg Township Leader, The Stafford Leader, and The Barnegat Leader. He also served on the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Tournament Committee. Jay has always enjoyed surfing and fishing New Jersey's coastal waters.

David L. Salvestrini

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and the University of New Haven, Connecticut, David is a retired college professor with over 30 years experience. He holds many professional awards, including Chef of the Year for Westchester and Lower Connecticut. He was also inducted into the American Academy of Chefs. David has owned a “shore house” since 1986 and has watched the water both in the bay and ocean get cleaner. An avid birder, David lives in a bay front home with his wife, Maureen. He has volunteered for ALO since ALO was in its Beach Haven location by manning tables at Stafford’s Founders Days, decoy shows, St. Francis Fairs, etc. However, David most enjoys talking about birds, fish, clean water and respecting the environment, whether it be on a “Beach Walk” or on one of the three hour “Ecotours of a Barrier Island” he and Maureen have been conducting for ALO for many years.

R. Maureen Salvestrini

Maureen graduated from Western Connecticut State University with BS and MS degrees in education. She holds elementary and secondary science certification and has just retired after teaching secondary science for 32 years and receiving many awards, including having her name read into the Congressional Record of the Congress of the United States for “outstanding efforts in the field of education” and being listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. Maureen began using flora and fauna found on and near the beaches in her classes after she and her husband, David, bought their first home here. She became involved with ALO because she fell in love with the bay and ocean and wanted to help. She covered the retail store next to the Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven at night. Later she got her husband to help with the ALO tables at local events. Maureen and David conduct the north end Eco-Tours of a Barrier Island as a team and she enjoys teaching about water chemistry, grasses, reproduction, surface tension, classification, etc.