Board of Trustees

  • Robert H. Hutchins, Chairman

    Mr. Hutchins’ professional experience includes audit, tax, advisory and financial planning for high-net-worth individuals and their family-owned businesses; as well as a tax and impact investment advisor to single family offices for their private equity and direct real estate investments. In addition, he has served as financial advisor in the private placement of securities and public offering of debt. He has served as an advisor for business acquisitions, turnarounds, sales and succession planning. Mr. Hutchins has been appointed by the courts as an expert in business valuation, economic damage measurement and receiver or mediator for business litigation matters

  • Sandra C. Grebel, MSW, LCSW, Vice Chair

    Sandra Grebel is the Vice President of Children and Family Services at Preferred Behavioral Health Group, which serves thousands of children each year in several programs that encompass traditional outpatient, intensive outpatient programs, prevention programs, school-based services, and Ocean County Children’s Mobile Response. Her diverse experience in the behavioral health care has spanned over 30 years. Sandra has served on the board of Ocean Housing Alliance for over 20 years and truly values her time on the board serving the residents at OHA.

  • Michael Noone, Treasurer

    With greater than 40 years' experience in Wealth Management, Michael believes strongly in the principle that the interests of his clients must come first. He is greatly invested in the community through his involvement with the American Cancer Society, New York Athletic Club, The Union League of Philadelphia, and the Knights of Columbus, to name a few.

  • George Smith, Secretary

    George Smith is the Owner of SIA Insurance Services a Property Casualty Insurance Agency as well as the Owner and Director of Wise Education, providing education services for the Insurance Industry. A resident of Ocean County since 1979 he is committed to serving and assisting his community in any way possible.

  • John Vierbuchen

    John Vierbuchen has been volunteering on the Board of Trustees since 1999 and has a family member who resides in Valentine House. John was a NJ State Trooper for 25 years, retiring as a Captain in 2011. He currently works as an EEO Investigator for the NJ Department of Health. John received his BA in Public Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2005 and his MA in Administrative Sciences in 2011 from FDU. John has also been a member of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, since 1999.

  • Lynne Merklin, Chief Financial Officer

    Lynne has been the Chief Financial Officer since December 2019. Lynne is a Certified Public Accountant working in Ocean County for the last 30 years specializing in Tax accounting. Lynne received her BS from Georgian Court University. She has been married to her husband John for 25 years and has two children living in Brick.

  • Frank P. Mascia III

    After a quarter century of service in non-for-profit healthcare, Frank joined the team at Georgian Court University as their Assistant Vice President for Development in 2019.

    Frank spent most of his career with the American Cancer Society in a myriad of leadership roles and proud service to the community. Frank has also served as the Vice President for Development for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

    Frank is a graduate of the City University of New York and received his master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from St. John’s University. He was named to the NJ Biz 40 Under 40 in 2004.

  • Greg Capoano

    Gregory Capoano is owner of Capoano Contractors Inc. focusing on framing and design throughout the state of New Jersey, which is now one of the largest scale framing companies for Residential, Commercial Developments through-out New Jersey as well as other states.

  • Doris McKee

  • Cheryl O'Brien

  • John Sarto

    John Sarto is an attorney at Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla, PC, in Red Bank, New Jersey, and the Chair of the firm’s Affordable Housing practice area and a member of the Land Use & Development practice. John represents clients in all phases of real estate development, redevelopment, and land use entitlements, including representation before municipal, county, and state agencies. He was selected by Super Lawyers as a New Jersey Rising Star in 2019 and 2020. He received his undergraduate degree in accounting from Villanova University and a law degree from Rutgers University.

  • Catherine Tier

  • Christopher Ferry

    Christopher Ferry is a partner and Vice President of Ellavoz Impact Capital located in Belmar NJ. Mr. Ferry has over thirty-five years experience in real estate development, management and marketing. He has founded or been an early investor in several companies in the areas of real estate, bioinformatics & technology.

    He received his B.A. from Monmouth University in Political Science and his M.A. in International Relations from Fairleigh Dickenson University. Mr. Ferry has been married to his wife Beth, for thirty years and has three children. They live in Allenwood, NJ.

  • Christine Elsner

    After graduating with a music degree from Bucknell University, Christine performed as a vocal artist for over 20 years. Her experience spans opera, oratorio, and musical comedy. Among the organizations she performed with as soloist are NJ State Orchestra, Massapequa Chorale, Monmouth Opera Society, Two Rivers Opera, Battleground Arts Center, Surflight Theatre, Red Oak Music Theatre, Dance Theatre Westchester, Covered Bridge and Clearbrook Concert Series, and Carson Opera Players.

    Chris continued performing for local organizations and community groups while working at Reunion Time, Inc, one of the largest high school reunion management companies, eventually becoming the Director of Research and Administration. Supervising customer service operations and staffing, training and managing the research department were some of her responsibilities.

    Other experience included working in the travel and tour industry where she ran customer service and charter bus departments, produced tour brochures, acted as office liaison with Atlantic City casino accounts, and served as assistant to the president of the firm.

    Christine has a family member living at Valentine House and she now devotes her time to volunteering for JVH as well as for Chhange (Center for Holocaust, Human Rights, and Genocide Education).

  • Alfred Crumlish

    Is a retired Senior National Bank Examiner at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, where over a career of 40 years was involved in all aspects of bank regulation and supervision. For the past several years he has volunteered for various organizations where he develops educational material and teaches financial literacy workshops to high school students and young adults.

  • Jack Milne

    Jack Milne, Financial Analyst at Ellavoz Impact Capital, brings a unique blend of financial acumen and social impact passion to the table. He is committed to investing with a purpose, as he started as an intern with Ellavoz in February 2023. Jack leverages his analytical skills to support responsible investments. He will graduate from Georgian Court as a magna cum laude with a degree in Finance in the Spring of 2024.

Administration

  • Diana Farrell, Executive Director

    Diana Farrell has been Executive Director since July, 2019. She began as a volunteer with Ocean Housing Alliance almost 20 years ago. Prior to becoming the Executive Director, she served on the Board of Trustees of Ocean Housing Alliance.

    Diana received a BA from Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland and an MA from Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey. She retired from the New Jersey State Parole Board where she served as an officer and a sergeant.

  • Kelley Smith, Administrator