Bios

Janice lives in Massapequa with her husband of 36 years and three children, ages 30, 28 and 22 who all have attended Massapequa School District. 

Janice has been born and raised on Long Island. She is an alumnus of the Hicksville School District. This is where her passion for giving back to community originated. In high school she worked with many other teenagers on a haunted house in Broadway mall to raise money for MS, which was sponsored by the Islander’s Hockey team and many of their players.

After high school Janice attended Nassau Community College, where she obtained an AA in Business & Marketing. She attended Hofstra University in 2007 to take classes in Finance.

Janice has always worked at giving back to the community, and helping those in need. She has a tremendous amount of experience in it; has done it wholeheartedly. She was a Girl Scout leader from 1994-2004, as well as a Boys Scout leader from 2001-2006.  Janice sat on the home/school association in Pennsylvania as Secretary and Vice President. She also served on the PTA of elementary school in NY as fundraiser coordinator.

Faith and education are very important to Janice and her family. She shared her combined passion of both by becoming a catechist for 16 years. She started it in Pennsylvania, and continued to serve for in New York.

Having worked in the financial field for 5 years has given Janice the marketing and business experience necessary to help build a strong organization to impact many communities.  Janice has learned the problems that face people of all ages and from all communities. Patience, understanding and experience in these fields are all something learned through day to day working with these clients so that you can help make their day to day living easier.

Janice founded Drug Free Long Island in 2009. She works with counseling centers, treatment centers and schools to educate parents and children to help save lives and make our community stronger. She coordinates educational programs, run fundraiser and events for the whole community.

Janice is a member of the following organizations: Leadership council for LICADD, Senator John Brooks Task Force, Prevention Resource Center, Community of Solutions, Long Island Youth Safety Coalition, Nassau County Heroin Prevention Task Force, Project Help Long Island, and S. Huntington Health & Wellness.

Janice has received Nassau County Woman of Distinction, Legislative Women of Distinction, NY Assembly woman of Distinction and was inducted into the Massapequa Hall Of Fame for her community service.

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Robert Thompson is a Senior Vice President with World Wide Specialty Programs. Now with 22 years of Staffing Industry experience, Bob started as a principal in a Marketing firm.  His firm focused on market research and analysis of the staffing industry with World Wide and American International Group as two of his many insurance clients. Bob sold his firm in 2007 and joined World Wide as a Vice President to run their New Business, Broker Development and Workers Compensation Divisions. He is an experienced manager who’s skills range from marketing, research, analysis, sales, customer/broker relations to underwriting and loss control, as well as, co-authoring a Staffing Industry Risk Management Manual. On a personal side, Bob has donated his time to organizations such as Farmingdale youth football, baseball and basketball along with coaching in various CYO leagues, he was on the board of YES counseling for many years, Past President of the Massapequa Chamber of Commerce  and was involved with the Massapequa Kiwanis. Bob lives in Massapequa, NY and has four grown children and two granddaughters.

Glenn Kearney first joined our organization as a member of the public sector board of Drug Free Massapequa and quickly rose to a position on the board of directors of Drug Free Long Island, Inc. He brings a wealth of knowledge from years of experience from a verity of Not-for-Profits. He is a Past President of the Massapequa Lions Club and currently serves as a Zone Chair on the district level and a member of the MD20 Alert Team. He is a Ham Radio Operator and a member of Nassau County CERT, the volunteer service of Nassau County Office of Emergency Management. He has been a member of the Nassau County Auxiliary Police since 1977 and is the President of the New York State Association of Auxiliary Police. He is a Lifetime member of the Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corps. and is the First Vice President of the Friends of Tackapausha, Inc. He volunteers for the Boy Scouts serving in the past as an Assistant Scoutmaster, Unit Commissioner, Merit Badge Counselor, and COR. He is a member of the Columbus Lodge, OSIA and the Massapequa Chamber of Commerce. 

He is retired from Public Service and currently works as an Event Security Supervisor. He lives in Massapequa with his wife and children. He has been honored with many Citations & Proclamations from all levels of government, including two US Presidents for his community service. The Massapequa Chamber of Commerce named him Law Enforcement Officer of the Year in 2009 and Grand Marshal at their Annual Street Fair in 2017.

Bio to come.

Joe and his wife Teresa are Massapequa Park residents with three sons (33-28) who have attended Massapequa School District. Joe has lived on Long Island since his birth. Joe attended Chaminade High School where the values of community outreach and care for others were a centerpiece of culture.

Joe is Co-Owner and Vice President of Business Development for East/West Industries, a family owned, small business located in Ronkonkoma, NY.  Founded in 1968 by parents Dom and Mary Spinosa, East/West is globally recognized as a trusted provider of choice for design and manufacturing excellence of aircraft seats and other critical safety components for the industry’s most innovative new aircraft.  Mr. Spinosa is ensuring his family’s legacy of continued success by providing fiscal, strategic and operational leadership at the rapidly growing company his parents founded 50 years ago. Together with his sister, they are continuing the legacy to ensure that “Saving Aircrew Lives is Our First Concern”.  

A graduate of Fordham University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Psychology, Mr. Spinosa has utilized his skills over 39 years’ experience in strategic and operational leadership, to create successful business relationships with major aerospace and defense contractors, including The Boeing Company, Sikorsky Aircraft, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, among others.

Mr. Spinosa recognizes that Long Island has a veteran population of 167,000, more than any other area in New York State, and is therefore committed to hiring our veterans as they transition back to civilian life.

Mr. Spinosa is a dedicated advocate for Long Island’s future and the aerospace industry, by providing his leadership and experience in a team environment as an officer, board member or executive advisor to various business and community-based organizations, such as: 

• ADDAPT, 

• The Boy Scouts of America, 

• Drug Free Long Island, 

• Ignite Long Island, 

• Nassau County REACT

• Nassau County Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association.  

• The SAFE Association, 

Joe has been recognized for his performance with Lifetime Membership in the SAFE Association and being identified by the Long Island Press as one of the Kings of Long Island for impact in both business and the community.

Carol A. Gordon is the Founder, CEO & curator of Unspoken History Treasures, a private collection of over 35 years of African American Artifacts. The Collection is inspired by her late uncle, Thomas Bramble, who knew that important historical artifacts not publicized at that time, but popular with collectors now, were rapidly being lost.  She teaches African American History using actual museum quality artifacts. Carol also has tours of African American Historical Places on Long Island, in her home and gives presentations to the community, giving a voice to the artifacts from our ancestors by telling of our rich history.  The collection teaches you that "You have to know where you came from in order to know where you are going".

Unspoken history Treasures has been featured on News 12 “Black History Month Series” and “Diversity Long Island”, on Verizon FIOS1 series “Hero’s On Long Island” in which this program received an award from the NYS Association of Black Journalist for education and many newspaper articles.

Carol was also a Patient Advocate and Mental Health Clinic Manager at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where she served our veterans for 25 years. In this role, Carol developed a strong commitment to the Veterans and initiated many sustainable support programs that the Department of Veterans Affairs wherein many awards were received based on programs she initiated.  In addition, she was also instrumental in obtaining a mammography machine, including championing an effort to have the first women veterans admitted to an all male unit. She was active on the Ethics, Family Council, Vietnam Veterans and various veterans committees. She also served as manager of the Federal Women’s Program for 22 Years, a Women’s Veterans Advisory Chairperson, a facilitator in many workshops for  Health, Sexual Harassment training and a series of self- esteem/ personal development seminars. Under her leadership, a Mentoring Program and a Toastmaster Club were initiated. She was also a founding member and served on the board of the Wee Luv’ Em Day Care.
Carol is currently the Vice President of Executive Board for Drug Free Long Island, Vice President of the Breezy Point Civic Association, a facilitator for Child Abuse Prevention Services (CAPS) where she conducts workshops for bullying prevention and sexual harassment for the schools; and appointed to co-chair of Town of Oyster Bay Diversity Committee. She is currently a member of the Breezy Point Yacht Club, a member of MOBB - Mothers of Black Boys, and is currently a member of numerous other community interest organizations. Past member of Advisory Board of Drug Free Long Island,  served as Acting Director of the Board of Directors of North Amityville Community Economic Council (NACEC), past 3rd Vice President of N.A.A.C.P. Central Long Island Chapter and the Chairperson of the mentoring and education committee for Urban Financial Services Coalition of Long Island, an organization that promotes financial literacy. She also served as Co-recreational Director at the United North Amityville Youth Organization (UNAYO), and is always assisting other organizations and committees in the area. In 2008, Carol became a member of the National Organization of Women. Carol has even opened her home to many organizations, including the Youth Center, Mercy First, Red Hats and the Greater Sisters of Long Island for fundraising and networking events. Carol is past board member of the Long Island Progressive Coalition (LIPC) and past member of Yes We Can Long Island. In 2010 Carol was chosen as a delegate for Witness for Peace for Roots of Migration in Oaxaca, Mexico. 

Carol is the recipient of many prestigious awards from the Department of Veteran Affairs, Veterans Organizations, community and in 2018 received the NAACP Islip Town Branch, Women of Distinction from the Supervisor Saladino, Town of Oyster Bay and Women of Distinction from Assemblywomen Pellegrino and another award in Albany in the Assembly chambers a Proclamation for Women of Distinction from Assemblywomen Pellegrino.

In 2007, Carol, a long-time resident of Massapequa, NY ran for Oyster Bay Town Council. Again in 2008 she announced her candidacy and ran against the Republican incumbent for the NYS Senate, 8th District for the first time and against all odds, garnered 40% of the vote.  Under extreme opposition, without any assistance from members of her own party and limited funds, Carol ran a second time for the 8th Senatorial District seat in 2010, she launched “The People’s Agenda”, a campaign promoting Empowerment, Education, Information and Activism that includes and addresses the issues of ALL people.  She again secured 40% of the vote.  Thus the Newsday coined her “populist Grandma” in 2010.  

Carol is the proud Mother of four children; one of them continues to live in her heart, thirteen grandchildren, another on the way and two great-grandchildren.

Stacey Roy-Christ grew up in, and continues to reside in, Massapequa with her husband Tom and 4 children.  She, as well as 3 of her children ages 27, 25 and 21, all attended the Massapequa School District. 

Upon graduating in 1993, Stacey attended Adelphi University where she completed her BA in Elementary Education. After teaching for several years she ran a private Day Care in order to be home with her children which was always top priority.  During that time of commitment to family, Stacey was involved in all aspects of her children’s lives and her community. She was a Daisy and subsequent Girl Scout leader, she taught Catechism classes for 7 years, helped coordinate and run the Birch Lane Elementary Holiday Fair, volunteered at numerous Book Fairs and was Class Mom virtually every year that her children were in elementary school.  

After a Traumatic Brain Injury in 2009, Stacey was confronted with her own physical and life challenges and began searching deeper within herself, emotionally as well as physically, to find the answers.  As a result of this 2 ½ year journey back to healing and wellness, she now conceptualizes the human experience from a comprehensive/holistic approach. After becoming a Reiki Master in 2012 and receiving her Masters in Integrative Energy Healing in 2013, Stacey founded Soulstar Energy Healing in June of 2013.  Seeing that her clients were deeply rooted in disempowering belief systems and seeing how greatly that impacted their process of healing, Stacey became a New York State Certified Consulting Hypnotist in 2015. This allowed her to facilitate bypassing the conscious/critical mind, thoughts and beliefs hindering her clients in order to assist them in finding balance and healing by overcoming psychological, emotional, mental, physical, energetic and spiritual challenges.  She founded Pathways to Transformation in October 2018 to incorporate ALL methods of treatments, tools and programs offering support and avenues for growth.  

As a life-long advocate of healthy eating and living, Stacey became a District Manager in Arbonne, the #1 global organization for healthy living inside and out, in 2017.  She runs seminars and helps people understand how toxins and products can impact physical and emotional health and well-being. This is an additional means for Stacey to be able to facilitate helping people understand and giving techniques necessary to make wellness a way of life-a life style designed to achieve their greatest potential for well-being.  

Stacey used her training as a teacher to begin to go into organizations, such as SAIL in Baldwin in 2013-2015, as well as presenting many times in Massapequa High School to a bereavement group of children who had lost parents, with her mindfulness approach to living a life rooted in choice-“We cannot choose the outside events but we have dominion over our thoughts and actions regarding the events.”

Stacey became involved in Drug Free Long Island in 2010 as another means of helping children and those in her community.  She is Treasurer of the organization and helps to coordinate and run the Drug Free Junior League activities, meetings and events.  She helps develop workshops and curriculum on Mindfulness, giving students, teachers and parents the tools and techniques necessary to living a life sans harmful outside coping strategies such as drugs and alcohol and subsequent addictions. She teaches how to empower oneself by going within and how to discern the “facts” of a situation from the “monkeymind” of stories that tend to rule us.  

Stacey is also Treasurer of Project Help Long Island and a member of the Nassau County Heroin Prevention Task Force.

Peggy O’Connell is a licensed clinical social worker and has been practicing since graduating from Adelphi University in 1982.  Since 2001 she has maintained a private practice in Massapequa, New York.

Ms. O’Connell is a lifetime resident of Massapequa and attended Raymond J. Lockhart Elementary School, Parkside Jr. High School, and Berner Highs School, graduating in 1974.

After graduating from Adelphi, Peggy worked with runaway and homeless youth, with a specialty working with sexually abused young men and women.  In 1984, she worked as the pediatric social worker at Nassau County Medical Center, before moving to Long Beach Reach in 1986.  Reach is a multi-service agency that provides clinical services to adolescents and adults struggled with issues of substance abuse.  The agency provides out-patient treatment and has an intensive out-patient program for people early in recovery. The agency also worked with youth involved in the criminal and juvenile justice system and has a crisis hotline.  At Reach, Ms. O’Connell began as the Project Director of the Sharing and Caring Program, a New York State funded program designed to address the needs of pregnant, parenting and at risk adolescents.  In 1992 Ms. O’Connell assumed the role as Associate Executive Director of Long Beach Reach and remained in that position until August 2015. 

In August 2015, Ms. O’Connell worked with the Massapequa Takes Action Coalition, a New York State funded coalition charged with developing a community based coalition to address the issues of heroin and prescription drugs in the Massapequa community. 

Since 2017 Ms. O’Connell has been pursuing her private practice full time and has immersed herself in volunteer activities.  She works with Drug Free Long Island, Last Hope Animal Shelter, and Maria Regina Roman Catholic Church.