RFB&D NJ Unit Staff Bios (text)

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Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
New Jersey Unit
69 Mapleton Road
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Phone 609-750-1830
Fax 609-750-9653

RFB&D NJ Unit Staff Bios

Stephanie Campbell, Executive Director
Stephanie was born in Newark New Jersey. She arrived at RFB&D in 2005 after working 14 years in public broadcasting. Previously, she was the Director of Development at WYBE public television in Philadelphia. Her experiences include strategic planning, community outreach, fundraising, and public relations. She holds a BA in Communications from William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ and a MBA from Eastern University in St. Davids, PA. In her free time, Stephanie enjoys belly dancing, doll collecting, and archery. Stephanie currently resides in Hamilton with her husband Ty, her Lop Eared bunny named Ivan, and a corn snake named Wraith.

Chris Ranaghan, Educational Outreach Director
Chris has been the Director of Educational Outreach for the NJ RFB&D unit since 1999, the year the position was first created. Prior to coming to RFB&D Chris worked in healthcare as a hospice provider. Her background has been in management, operations, customer relations and sales for the last 25 years. She is also a former elementary teacher. She is active in many organizations, one of them being the International Dyslexic Association (IDA). She is on the board of directors of the NJ IDA. In her time away from doing educational outreach she dabbles in mixed media art projects, gardens, likes garage sales and is an old movie buff. Chris enjoys each day no matter what it brings! She is grateful for family, friends and good health.

Grace Alparone, Development Director
Grace has worked as a professional fundraiser for 27 years. Her previous employers include the American Red Cross, CentraState Medical Center and hospitals in her hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. She is going to be working with the NJ Unit to build philanthropic partnerships with individuals, foundations and corporations. Grace believes that fundraising is all about the mission and finding ways to engage people in the mission. Grace resides in North Brunswick with her husband, Edmund, and several pets.

Michelle Ioselevich, Production Director
Michelle came to RFB&D in 2005 after graduating from William Paterson University with a BA in Communication, Audio Production. After almost two years of desperately searching for a job in the field of audio production, Michelle was thrilled to finally land at RFB&D. Former Production Director, Jessie Falcone met Michelle through a college friend and brought her on staff when a position finally opened. Michelle previously worked in public radio as a Marketing & Development Assistant for WBJB-FM and as an on-air personality and Promotions Assistant at her college radio station, WPSC-FM. In her time away from the studio you can find Michelle roaming around the streets of her new town of residence, Hoboken, at concerts in the City and traveling to visit family in Seattle and Northern California. Michelle's interests include reading, music, pigs, her Persian cat, Penny Lane and her lab, Seamus. Michelle also loves the Beatles and anything that's pumpkin flavored! :

Gretchen Orr, Unit Administrator
A self-proclaimed coffee addict, Gretchen grew up near Buffalo, New York and misses the snow! She graduated from Rider University with a BA in History and had attended The College of New Jersey when it was still called Trenton State College. A classically trained singer, Gretchen last performed before her daughter was born and says she doesn't miss the footlights a bit, but secretly thinks the fact that she can sing makes her sound more interesting! Gretchen had been a stay-at-home mom to her two kids, Connor and Chloe, before returning to college and reentering the work force. When she isn't at RFB&D you might see her at a baseball or soccer field, a Brownie meeting or at any local coffee shop. Gretchen is an avid and voracious reader, dreams of becoming a great writer and is in the market for a new car. She and her two kids live with a dog and a cat in West Trenton.

Debbie Passafuime, Educational Outreach Manager
Debbie joined RFB&D NJ Educational Outreach in May of 2001 as the Member Services Coordinator. She has three children, Danny, Jimmy and Teresa. She has one grandson, the apple of her eye, William, who will be 2 in May. She is also looking forward to a new arrival of her second grandchild in June. After hours at the Educational Outreach Center, Debbie enjoys quilting and embroidery.

Stacey Muschette, Senior State Regional Development Provider
Stacey is a recent graduate of Montclair State University with a BS in English. She joined RFB&D NJ Educational Outreach Center in October of 2006. She has a beautiful daughter, Sariyah and really enjoys joining in activities with her, especially Friday movie nights. Stacey likes to read all history novels and is a Shakespearian buff.

Paula Roberts-Hansel, Educational Outreach Coordinator
Paula Roberts-Hansel is a graduate of Rider University with a degree in Liberal Arts and Social Science. She will be pursuing her Master's degree in Education. Paula has been a dedicated volunteer with the Mini Police Station in Trenton, NJ for over 10 years serving low income and inner city families. In her spare time, she enjoys writing poetry, playing board games with her 3 year old and watching The Food Network and HGTV. Paula is married to a past employee of RFB&D, National Headquarters who now works for the Department of Law and Public Safety. The Hansel's have two children, 17 year old Shantoy and 3 year old Aniyah.

Sherry Deutsch, Project Membership Coordinator
Sherry became interested in RFB&D in 1999 after volunteering for a short time on the Educational Outreach Committee. She started as a part-time Outreach Coordinator for Trenton Public Schools in 2000. Sherry became the curriculum specialist for Educational Outreach because of the diverse curriculum needs of New Jersey's school districts in 2003. She assisted National Headquarters, Chris Ranaghan and Debbie Passafiume during 2004-2005 with a research study in an urban school district, grades 4-8, to evaluate the effectiveness of the RFB&D Learning Through Listening® program. After a short leave of absence to get her older daughter ready for college, she has returned as the Project Membership Coordinator working to create a new teacher instructional web-training program with Chris Ranaghan. This program will train volunteers to assist school staff with the implementation of Learning Through Listening in the classroom. Sherry graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA with a BS in education, served as a VISTA volunteer, achieved an International Montessori teaching certificate from the Montessori Institute in Atlanta, GA and has a Certificate in Health and Human Services Administration from Rider University's Graduate Program for Administrators. She celebrated her 20th anniversary to Len Epstein, who has volunteered with the unit on a number of special computer-oriented projects, and has 2 daughters. Lori is a freshman at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA and wants to become an archaeologist; Rachel is a sophomore at the YALE School - Cherry Hill campus. Sherry is an advocate for families with special needs children, and has testified before the Senate and Assembly Education Committees in favor of the Burden of Proof and Production legislation which places the burden of proof back on school districts in due process hearings. The bill was signed into law by Governor Corzine in January, 2008.

Celia Rechtman, Member Services Coordinator
Celia has lived in New Jersey her whole life. She grew up in Union County and currently resides in Mercer County with her teenage daughter and elderly mother-this is the true “sandwich generation.” Celia received her BA from Douglass College, majoring in both Sociology and Spanish. She received her MA in Anthropology from Montclair State College and her MSW (Masters of Social Work) from Rutgers University. She spent the majority of her professional life working in child welfare, and now, by working part-time for RFB&D, is continuing to contribute to the well being of children and individuals. When not at work, you can find Celia working to improve her home in Pennington, spending time enjoying her friends, engaging in artistic or photographic projects, loving her family, or getting “bear hugs” from her two extremely special dogs.

Tony Gruenewald, Assistant Production Director/Communications Coordinator
Tony has a BA in Journalism and Communications from Rutgers University and has worked in broadcast journalism, advertising and public relations. He started volunteering at RFB&D between jobs and found himself on the staff in late 1998. This job puts his audio production, public relations, desktop publishing and journalism skills to use for something more important than selling the public pointless plastic objects. Tony's poetry has been published in The New York Times, U.S. 1, Adbusters, The Aquarian and many other print and online journals. He is a member of the Delaware Valley Poets and is active with the Edison Arts Society and St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Edison.

Lauren Markley, Assistant Production Director
Lauren is originally from Kansas but spent close to ten years moving back and forth between Canada and Japan. She has worked as an archaeologist, translator, English teacher and, upon her return to the US in 2004, a legal assistant. Working at a non-profit such as RFB&D is particularly satisfying after that brief stint in the corporate world! Lauren also owns a small fair trade company called Fair Industry and lives with her husband, Levi, and cat, Frist. She finds writing about herself in the third person sort of strange!

Jeff Kaplan, Assistant Production Director
Jeff has lived in Plainsboro for over twenty years. After a career with Merrill Lynch in IT management, he stopped by RFB&D's headquarters in West Windsor to learn about volunteer opportunities. Six years later, after volunteering each weekday morning, he's happy to join the studio staff in a temporary position. Jeff keeps fit running and bicycling so that he can keep up with volunteers and their baked good deliveries. As a volunteer condo board member, his evenings are filled with interesting neighborhood stories.

Judy Wilson-Smith, Production Assistant
Judy hails from "The Windy City" (Chicago). That wind got to be a bit much some 16 years ago and she landed in New Jersey. She graduated from Worsham College of Mortuary Science and is a licensed funeral director. She also has a BS in Business Administration. Judy works full-time at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Mathematics-Natural Sciences Library and part-time at RFB&D. She loves to cook, and Milton (her better-half) and TP (their Pekingese dog) can attest to that! Judy has a mother, daughter, grandson and son-in-law that are still bracing themselves against that wind in Chicago.

Ginny Mayer, Production Assistant
Ginny was born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay. When she came to the United States as a teenager, learning English was her first priority. She worked at the United Nations in the South American Development Department and later she became Secretary to the Ambassador of Uruguay to the United Nations, Professor Enrique Rodriguez Fabregat. She first started as a volunteer at RFB&D in 1971, back when it was only RFB! She took a break from volunteering when she went to work at Rutgers University as an Administrative Assistant in the Department of Philosophy. Upon retiring in 2001 she came back to RFB&D until she was hired as a Production Assistant. Ginny is also a mother to 3 girls and an incredibly proud grandmother of 7!

Cathy Wheeler, Production Assistant
Cathy began as a regular RFB&D volunteer when she joined the Studio Production staff in February 2006. Her prior work experiences as a bartender, psychotherapist, and human resources consultant have proved invaluable. When she is not at the studio, Cathy can be found walking her dog, traveling, quilting, and creating photo art. She lives in Princeton with her companions Ginger and Shanti.

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