Garden State Equality’s Board of Directors includes an executive committee comprised of Chair and CEO Steven Goldstein and Vice Chairs Jeff Gardner, Rev. Robert Kriesat, Lucy O’Brien, Luanne Peterpaul, Robert S. Powell, Thomas H. Prol and Mary Theroux.
 
Also on the Board of Directors are Steve Alterman, Ronnie Billini, Denise Brunner, Sheila E. Carson, Kevin Costello, Jenny Crumiller, Doug Laverty, Rev. Bruce Davidson, Rev. L.L. DuBreuil, Leslie Farber, Marty Finkle, Rev. Alicia Heath-Toby, Andre Jackson, Veronica Hoff Kairos, Tom Laurita, Harriet Leyden, Felice Londa, Thomas Mannix, Jim Ringwood, Rev. Craig Ross, Steve Rother, Elder  Kevin E. Taylor and Saundra Toby-Heath.

Garden State Equality’s nine full-time staff members include:

Steven Goldstein, Chair and CEO. Steven founded Garden State Equality in 2004. For Steven’s biography, click here.  
 
Hannah Johnson, Field Director. This is Hannah's third statewide marriage equality campaign. She joined the movement in 2005 when her home state of Wisconsin was facing a constitutional amendment banning marriage for same-sex couples. Following her work in Wisconsin, Hannah moved to California for a year and was part of the campaign to defeat Proposition 8.  At the height of the NO on 8 Campaign, Hannah served as the Northern California Field Director. Hannah feels privileged to do this work every day, and to get the opportunity to talk to thousands of people one by one about the importance of marriage equality.  Hannah credits the rest of the field staff and the wonderful volunteers for all the work that has been accomplished in the last year, and is excited to win marriage equality in New Jersey soon.
 
Joey Falduti, Managing Director for Operations.  Joey is a lifelong resident of Nutley.  He received a B.Mus. from Montclair State University and an MM in Music Theatre from NYU.  His joining Garden State Equality came from his passion for politics and civil rights.  He began as a volunteer for the organization and then joined the staff.  He has taught as adjunct faculty at NYU and as a substitute teacher here in New Jersey.  He also worked for Liz Robbins Associates, which further fueled his interest in politics.  He is an avid Facebooker and believes in the power of Twitter and YouTube.  His favorite political commentator is Bill Maher and he is a major fan of CNN’s brilliant Candy Crowley.  Joey is excited for his home state to exert its tradition of being a leader in fairness and equality.
 
Dani Bernstein, North Jersey Field Manager.  Dani got her start as a community organizer in summer of 2006 when she began volunteering for Vote for Equality, a grassroots campaign to educate voters in her native Los Angeles about marriage equality. She graduated from Pomona College in California in May 2008 with a major in sociology and minors in gender studies and Spanish.  Upon graduating, Dani moved to Portland, Oregon and spent 10 weeks in an intensive organizing fellowship to increase youth voter participation and to support progressive candidates and causes. After completing the fellowship, she moved back to California, this time to San Francisco to serve as the Northern California phone bank manager for the No on 8 Campaign.
 
Leslie Green, South Jersey Field Manager.  Leslie attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in political economics. She grew up in San Francisco and has been volunteering for equality in her home state since the 2005 legislative campaign there.  She worked with the No on Prop 8 campaign, and was heartbroken by Californians’ decision to ban marriage for same-gender couples. Leslie moved to New Jersey in January and has become a devoted South Jerseyan. She also loves the Shore and the boardwalks, but still cannot navigate a jug handle to save her life and is always excited to see a left turn lane. Her message to one and all is, “Jersey ’09!”
 
Gaël Krajzman Johns, North Jersey Field Organizer.  Gaël has done much organizing around ending homelessness and around LGBTQ rights. In college, Gaël helped organize the first ever Walk for Homelessness and later went on to intern at an organization in NYC to help prevent low-income families from eviction. That same summer, Gaël began as a volunteer at the The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force doing voter ID phonebanks to stop an anti-transgender referendum in Montgomery, MD.  Gaël then moved to San Francisco to work on the No on Proposition 8 campaign as a field organizer.  Gaël is excited to win in New Jersey!
 
Jenn Harris, Central Jersey Field Organizer.  Jenn started her activism career at The College of New Jersey.  There she was a member of PRISM, where she served as publicity chair and then webmaster.  After getting her degree in music education in 2008, she was a substitute teacher in East Brunswick.  In March 2009, she went to a PRISM meeting and talked to Garden State Equality staff visiting the campus.  She started volunteering at phone banks.  She then became an intern in Garden State Equality’s newly opened Central Jersey office in Asbury Park, and became the first full-time field organizer in that office last summer.
 
Sara Beth Joren, Director of Special Projects.  Sara Beth graduated from Smith College with a degree in American Studies.  Her time at Smith was spent serving as the class Vice-President, hosting various music shows on the local radio station and gaining a strong passion for LGBT rights. Her summers have been spent interning for various Republican legislative offices and the Somerset County Republican office. She also worked for NJN as assistant assignments editor.  Sara Beth is lifetime resident of Watchung.  No matter what it might be – pizza, bagels or equal rights – she believes Jersey does it best!

Miriam Confer, Faith Organizer. Miriam worked for the American Cancer Society for 25 years, most recently recruiting faith communities for the Paterson Cancer Initiative.  She volunteers with the state organization of her church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, where she chairs the New Jersey Synod’s Justice and Peace Committee, and its ministry with the LGBT Persons Task Force Group.  Miriam, or “Mimi” as the Garden State Equality family calls her, lives in Hackensack with her civil union partner Gloria.  They are both looking forward to their civil union’s becoming a legally recognized marriage soon, thanks to all the supporters of Garden State Equality.  She earned her Bachelor of Science in human ecology from Rutgers University, where she learned how the systems we are part of influence our individual choices and actions.